Makes Me Nostalgic

One of my favorite memories growing up was learning how to cook with my grandparents. I was really fortunate to have two sets of grandparents who lived relatively close to my family and were super involved with us growing up. 

I was also super fortunate that they were all amazing cooks. Like amazing. No wonder I love to cook because between the grandparents and my parents, I definitely saw the power of fresh food and creativity in the kitchen. 

Now if your family is anything like mine, you know that the special foods are all busted out near the holidays. For us, that means some serious Italian food for Christmas. Which means this cookie that my family calls Wanda (but we pronounced Wan-see) but you might know it as Frappe or Chiacchiere. Pretty much it’s fried dough with powdered sugar on top that I can eat by the bucket load. It’s that good. Simple and light but super delicious especially with coffee. 

That was always our dessert on Christmas and I LOVED it. I was obsessed with it. So I asked my grandparents how to make it. 

My grandpa had this HUGE circular cutting board and a specific pastry cutter AND rolling pin for this adventure. I’m not even kidding. Now they’re mine. 

Let’s talk about how excited he and my grandma were for this opportunity to teach a grandkid how to make really a part of our heritage. I must’ve been like 8 years old but I still can feel how excited they were to share this part of our family with me. 

Side note: my grandpa, God love him was umm let’s say particular about certain things. Especially when cooking. Like he had his way and not to say your way was wrong BUT his way was better. Oh and if all of your cookies weren’t the same size (this went for meatballs too), the whole batch got tossed and you had to start from scratch. I’m not kidding. But I loved that kind of attention to detail he had. 

Anyways, fast forward to the special trip my grandparents made just to see me and teach me how to make this cookie. 

I’m standing there in my parents kitchen, circular cutting board and all, sandwiched between them, listening to them bicker OVER my head about who made it better. It didn’t stop there. Then it was them telling me why each of them had a better method and why I shouldn’t listen to the other one. 

I loved it. I couldn’t stop laughing, they were just so serious about the whole thing and I kept thinking “it’s just a cookie”.

But it’s so much more than that and now every time I cook anything of Italian fare, I’m flooded with all those memories of times I won’t get back but I’m happy to have with me. 

This recipe is my way to do Italian without losing the simple things that make it delicious, while keeping it healthy. 

Give it a shot. Let me know what you think.