Happy Italian Father's Day!

Buona Festa del Papa'! Click here for cards you can print out and color to celebrate your father today.

March 19th is Saint Joseph's Day in the Catholic tradition. Saint Joseph was the Virgin Mary's husband and Jesus' step-father.

One of the traditions is to eat the delicious St. Joseph's zeppole. Try your hand at preparing your own with this Barilla recipe. Photographer Melabee Miller shares pictures of the cream filled, fried pastry on her blog today.

Tuscany in Photographs: Photographer Melabee Miller's new book, "Tuscany June 2011"

Congratulations to my mother, photographer Melabee Miller, on her new book Tuscany June 2011!

This book is a collection of what she saw through her camera’s lens this summer in Tuscany. She took a watercolor class in the countryside and traveled around the region.  In total, she documents four towns: Radda in Chianti, San Gimignano, Siena and Florence. (Yes, I'm as jealous as you are.)

Preview the book to see a sample of the pages. There are classic images, like those of the Florentine duomo’s dome, and more intimate, original views that you’ve likely never seen before, such as  carved, architectural details.

This book is the next best thing to traveling to Tuscany yourself. That is, traveling with a curious guide who reveals beauty even in the texture of the cobblestones.

Purchase the book here. 

Italian Grilled Cheese Panino

Forget American cheese melted between two slices of white bread. My mother makes the best grilled cheese sandwich.

First, she grills the slices of Italian bread in olive oil right on the stovetop in a cast iron pan. Once the bread is toasted on one side, she turns one slice over, piles on the toppings (mozzarella, prosciutto, and anything else she has on hand, like tomatoes, lettuce and salami), covers it with the other half and grills the whole panino. She usually turns it over at least once. With a fork and spatula, you can (mostly) keep the insides from falling out. The cheese melts into the bread, the crust is crunchy from the olive oil and the salty meats nicely compliment the fresh mozzarella. It is delicious!

My mom recently revealed to me that when I was growing up, she would use butter instead of olive oil. With that in mind, this is a low-fat version, right? If you are looking to make this dish healthy, I wouldn’t recommend low-fat mozzarella since it won’t melt quite right. In fact, I’m not sure that there should be a (really) low-fat version. I would even recommend adding just a pinch of salt to the olive oil to help bring out the flavor in the bread.