Easy Cannolis

I love Italian food! Charles and I were just discussing this over chicken parm and Gorgonzola risotto on Saturday. (We found what is to be my favorite Italian place in town). It always surprises me when people say they do not care for Italian food. Who does not love pasta, cheese and tomato sauce? I know there is a lot more to it than that, but so much of Italian food is some variation on those three things.

One of the best Italian desserts is cannolis. I have never attempted to make real homemade cannolis. I think my aunts on my Dad's side do. It would just be too much work, although probably well worth it. I saw a recipe on Pinterest (of course) for mini cannoli cups and it looked pretty easy so I gave it a shot.

They turned out to be just as easy as they looked and quite yummy. Visit Cooking with Sugar's blog for the directions: Mini Cannoli Cups. Here is the recipe again.

Ingredients
For cups
1 refrigerated pie crust (if you're smart you'll use Immaculate Bakery or Trader Joe's and not Pilsbury)
3 Tablespoons Turbinado sugar (I just used regular sugar because I didn't want to buy one more thing)
1 teaspoon cinnamon

For filling
1 15oz container of ricotta cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
mini chocolate chips or whatever else you want to sprinkle on top

To summarize the steps, you roll out the pie dough and sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar on top. Roll it in. Cut out circles and put into a mini cupcake tin. Bake. Then you mix the filling ingredients, except for chocolate chips. Pipe into cups and enjoy. For her steps, check out her blog. The end result is a simple and delicious Italian dessert!

Italian food

Being a quarter Italian makes it a requirement that I must love Italian food. Thankfully, I do so willingly. For our anniversary, I thought we would try a local Italian restaurant called Mama DiSalvo.

 

We made a reservation, per the recommendation of my co-workers. The restaurant is in a strip mall, but the inside is very Italian-esque.

We ordered fried mozzarella for an appetizer and the meal came with bread. Charles ordered vegetarian lasagne and I had my usual, chicken parm. The meal was good, but I've come to realize I've eaten at the best Italian restaurant and I compare all others to that one.

The best Italian restaurant I've ever eaten at was in Humble, TX (outside of Houston). The place is called Italiano's and is AMAZING! They served garlic knots that are dripping in buttery-garlic sauce. Everything I ever ate there was delicious! I think that was the only thing we really loved about living in Texas. I miss that place every time I'm craving really good Italian food.

Here's to finding your own Italiano's!