For Grandma Guigli

On January 1, 2013 my uncle wrote these words in a blog he has started, "I will find a worthy passion and pursue it" I am not for sure Mike is the first one to think that thought or to even write it (who knows he might be) but it hit a nerve in me. It makes me want to really think about my/our goals for this new year and all its possibilities... I have not made any grand new years resolutions, yet, but ideas are being processed. In the mean time I decided that I needed to do something I have never done to start this new year. So let me tell you a little story.

It was November here in Florida and I was chatting on the phone with my grandma Guigli. We were discussing the plans for Christmas and how she was glad Dana, her daughter, was going to be hosting the Guigli holiday party because with all those people it can be a bit much for her to handle. Just so we are all on the same page with my mom included the Guigli's are a clan of 6 and from that we have grown to an outstanding number for when we all get together. So, needless to say Grandma was looking forward to sitting and enjoying the company of her rather large and loud family. During our discussion I realized the first week of December was fast approaching and that, by tradition, is the day of making of homemade tortellinis. This has been going on for years.. ladies getting together, sitting around a very specific tortellini board and making this tiny delicious tortellinis. Grandma makes probably 1000+ tortellinis every year.. like I said there are a lot of us to feed. I tried to type how to "fold" a tortellini but it didn't make sense, so you will just have to take my word that it is a learning process. In the handful of times I have participated,  I have probably eaten about as many as I have folded correctly.

Grandma Guigli making tortellinis at Dana's house. This image was taken by my cousin Erin :) 

The finished product.

So I casually ask Grandma if she is getting ready to make her tortellinis? She replies with a shocking "no" because she has enough in her freezer... I can not even believe my ears! So I give Grandma a little bit of a hard time regarding family traditions and next thing I know it is mid-December and I have received a package in the mail for Grandma. In the box are 5 ziplock baggies containing tortellinis that Grandma had made the first weekend in December and sent to me. I was so very excited (!) and then dread took over because besides making the tortellinis the next very specific item is the chicken broth. It may not sound hard- making broth - but my Grandma buys very specific hand fed farm raised chickens to get the right flavoring. Key West is not short on chickens - but there are not many farms to buy them from here and I am not about to hurt the KW mascot. I was at a loss.. and decided I would just buy a normal frozen chicken and make it. I grabbed the recipe out of the wooden recipe box from Grandma and Rick and I headed to the store. Grandma if you are reading this (mom make sure this happens) Here comes mistake number one... While at the store I decided to just use chicken breasts instead of buying the chicken. What was I thinking.. obviously the taste come from the whole chicken. I purchased the remaining items with out incident and we headed home to cook :)

As I was preparing the large pot I started to realize that I have come quite a long ways in my cooking. It wasn't that long ago, I think I was 20, and I was standing in my kitchen trying to prepare a dish that required me to chop an onion. What? I have never done this, ever and I called grandma Guigli. I believe she must have done a great job in describing the process of chopping an onion and she did it all without laughing. If you ask her about it now she laughs pretty hard.. but it was worth getting the expert advise:)

Okay back to the soup. I placed the chicken breasts into the pot.. and started the cooking. I then turned to my other ingredients and prepared them to enter the pot. Following all the directions I only made one more mistake.. I didn't do the garlic right. I forgot to peel it out of the little outer layer. This would come back to bite me later when I was taking out the ingredients because the garlic was to be smashed and placed back into the broth. The outer peel then was a nuisance. I allowed the broth to cool.

At dinner time I got the broth out and tasted it... YUCK. It was so bland and terrible. haha I was disappointed, so I cheated. I had some chicken bouillon granules and used them to flavor the broth. Not my best moment but it worked! Sorry grandma:(  After bringing the pot to a boil, and adding the frozen tortellinis the soup was amazing and tasted like home.

Thank you so much Grandma for the yummy tortellinis- love you!

 xoxo
Rick and McKenzie