Carmela's Food Blog: Italian Style Brussel Sprouts

Brussel Sprouts with Polenta...Delish!

I was shopping at Stew Leonard's when I came across shaved Brussel sprouts. What a great idea I thought. So they came home with me and, while I was revisiting my leftovers in my fridge, I saw I had some polenta and decided to put something together with these shaved Brussel sprouts. Below is a picture of what you'll need. This is really so simple.

Here are the ingredients!

1 container of shaved Brussel sprouts; if you can't find them maybe you can ask your favorite deli person to slice them up for you.
5 cloves of garlic chopped
1 handful of chopped walnuts
1/8 cup seasoned breadcrumbs
Olive Oil - enough to coat your frying pan
3 strips of cooked bacon crumbled or diced

Directions:
Blanche the shaved Brussel sprouts in 1 inch of boiling water. Set aside.

Heat olive oil in pan, add garlic and lightly brown, then add the bacon.

Using a slotted spoon, spoon the Brussel sprouts from the water and add them directly into your frying pan.


Add the walnuts. Stir and then sprinkle in the breadcrumbs. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Saute the Brussel Sprouts

Next: Brown the polenta in a frying pan in oil. Turn once and sprinkle the polenta with grated cheese.

Brown the Polenta

Plate the polenta and add the Brussel sprout mixture on top (as shown above.) The walnuts add the perfect texture to this vegetable! Enjoy!

Written By: Carmela Corleone (on Twitter @Carmela Corleone)

Carmela's Food Blog: Chicken Marsala with Marcapone Cheese

My dad was the inventor of Marsala sauce. Well, not really, but I like to think so. He did many variations using Marsala wine, but when I saw it mixed with Marscapone cheese from Giada I thought well, let me give this a try. This dish is easy and only requires my cutting board of ingredients shown below. I like to measure everything out first because it makes the cooking process go smoothly.

You will need:
1 1/2 pounds of chicken breast cut into strips
Olive oil - enough to coat bottom of your saute pan nicely.
Butter - 3 tablespoons or so.
1 onion diced
1 package of sliced mushrooms
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 cup of Marsala wine
1 cup Marscapone cheese
8 ounces of cooked pasta, I used fettuccine noodles imported from Italy.

Salt & pepper your strips of chicken. Oil your frying pan and saute the strips of chicken on both sides- maybe 3 minutes each side. Take the chicken out and set in a plate.

Leave the oil in the pan and melt the butter. Add the onions, garlic and sliced mushrooms. Saute them for about 15 minutes. The water from the mushrooms will evaporate. Add the Marsala wine to de-glaze the pan and simmer for about 5 minutes. The wine will cook down to maybe half. Add in the Marscapone cheese and mix well by stirring it together so it's combined.  The Marscapone will fold in like silk. Add the chicken strips back in with whatever juices that  are on the plate. Simmer till chicken is cooked and sauce thickens. Maybe about 4 minutes. Serve over cooked fettuccine noodles.

I hope you enjoy this twist added to the traditional Chicken Marsala recipe.

Please follow me on twitter @carmelacorleone 

Carmela's Food Blog: Seared Scallops and Fresh Spinach

Seared Scallops!

Where has the time gone? I cannot believe we are on episode 12 of Mob Wives already. Time, it ticks away so quickly. I find myself trying to get back an hour or so at night to try to eat healthy without spending all night in the kitchen cooking and cleaning up.

So here you have it, a healthy dish with only a few ingredients. This took me all of 20 minutes total to make these Pan Seared Scallops with Fresh Spinach.

Here's what you'll need:

Sea Scallops-15
2 bags fresh spinach
4 cloves of garlic - chopped
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 lemon
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pan and 1 pot

Saute the Scallops

I only buy sea scallops, they are meatier and full of flavor. Salt and pepper your scallops. Heat olive oil in a pan. When hot, place the scallops in the pan and sear till golden brown.  When flipping the scallops onto  their 2nd side, sprinkle the them with breadcrumbs. Turn the scallops over 1 more time to brown the breadcrumbs. Squeeze the whole lemon over the scallops. Remove and put in serving plate. Scrape the browned breadcrumbs and place onto scallops. Do not wash frying pan yet......

Saute the wilted Spinach

Heat water in a pot 1/3 of the way full. Boil the water and place the bagged spinach into the water. Stir the spinach and it will wilt in about 6-8 minutes. Drain.

Scrape whatever is left in  the frying pan.  This does not need to be super clean. Add another 3 tablespoons of olive oil and put in the chopped garlic. Lightly brown. Toss in the drained spinach, salt & pepper, and saute.  Place on plate with scallops. Dinner that's healthy and fresh.

Enjoy!

Written By: Carmela Corleone

Carmela's Food Blog: Easter Shortbread Cookies

Finished Easter Shortbread Cookies!

Easter Sunday always brings us a holiday feast of cooked meats, desserts and chocolate. Every holiday I try to explore a different cake or cookie. I've tried a few shortbread cookie recipes, but this one caught my eye because I had plenty of thyme stored in the freezer. It's an easy, basic shortbread cookie with a zest of lemon thyme. I added a sprinkle of sugar at the end to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees 

What you will need:

2 1/2 cups of flour 

2/3 cup of superfine sugar 

1/4 teaspoon sea salt 

2 sticks of unsalted butter 

2 tablespoons of finely chopped lemon thyme 

2 tablespoons of sugar 

Sift the flour in a large bowl. Add the salt. Set aside.

Mix the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until its creamy. 

Add the flour mixture slowly into the butter. Add in the chopped thyme. Mix until combined.

Form it into a round ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 25 minutes. 

Take it out and form flat round circles. Place onto a lightly buttered cookie sheet. Cook at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, then open the oven and sprinkle sugar over the cookies. Bake again 5 minutes more. 

Add sugar and bake 5 more minutes

Makes approx 25 cookies. 

These are delicious served with coffee or espresso! Make them in advance! 

Enjoy! Please let me know how they came out if you tried them!

Follow me on twitter @carmelacorleone #mobchef 

Carmela's Food Blog: Mozzarella & Tomatoes in Love

A simple, but delicious Valentine's Appetizer!

I hope you have enjoyed that last 2 blogs I posted. I have one last idea that is simple and rather cute.

How about some tomatoes and mozzarella, but with a little love twist?

Arrange slices of tomatoes and mozzarella on plate. Salt both lightly. Cut a heart shape out of one of the mozzarella pieces and place on top. Garnish with basil. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I hope your special Valentine will be appreciative of this little love token of food.

 ♥ Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! ♥

Carmela Corleone
Please follow me on twitter @carmelacorleone

Can you add your own creative twist? I would love to see it and pictures welcomed!


P.S. Check out my other Valentine's Day Menu Recipes for a complete meal!

Pasta Entree: http://www.mobwives.blogspot.com/2013/02/carmelas-food-blog-lovers-pasta-for-two.html

Dessert: http://www.mobwives.blogspot.com/2013/02/carmelas-food-blog-zombies-valentine.html

Carmela's Food Blog: Lover's Pasta for Two... A Valentine's Entree

The finished dish, how do we get there?

Mob Wives brought a lot of love during episode 5. Karen was in love with the idea of the studio. Drita seems like she's in love with Lee, who is coming back into her life. Big Ang thought Neil wasn't stepping up to the plate, but as he played bouncer well, Big Ang just seem to fall in love all over again. Ramona is obviously in love, having kept secret her engagement to Joe from us! Congrats Ramona! Renee is dealing with her anger, but we all know deep down inside she is full of love, especially for AJ. So all you Mob Wives and lovers out there, how about a quick easy pasta for your Valentine?

Lovers Pasta for Two, Creamy Pasta, Peas & Pancetta

This is a very easy recipe for an impressive pasta dish to prepare for that Valentine in your life this week. All the ingredients you will need are shown right here:

INGREDIENTS

1 cup of heavy cream
1/2 cup of white wine - any
half of a small onion diced
2 garlic gloves diced
2 slices of pancetta diced
1 cup of peas - canned or frozen- I prefer frozen
salt & pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of olive oil
8 ounces of pasta-cooked

Step 1: cook 1/2 pound of pasta and set aside. I used Orecchiette, its one of my favorites.

Ingredients in the pan

Step 2: Put the 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan. Sauté the onions & panchetta till onions are translucent. Add the diced garlic and stir it in for about a minute. Add the white wine. After the wine reduces to half the amount, add the cream. Stir the cream constantly so it doesn't burn the bottom of the frying pan. After about 10 minutes, add in the peas.  The sauce will begin to thicken. Add the cooked pasta, and salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat. Serve in bowls and top with grated cheese. Easy & delicious pasta with cream sauce. Enjoy!

Please let me know if you make it! Pictures welcomed!

Follow me on Twitter @carmelacorleone

Carmela's Food Blog: "Zombies" Valentine Dessert

Finished Zombies! 

A marriage between chocolate chip cookies & brownies!

I came across a photo of these “Zombies” on a tweet posted by one of our bloggers, Jane Springfield. They are a marriage between a chocolate chip cookie and a brownie. I tested the proportions first and I came up with a fail safe way to make these easy and quickly. I don't know anyone who isn't a fan of brownies or chocolate chip cookies, so these are definitely a sure way to your lover’s heart. These cookie cups, that I have appropriately named Zombies, are sure to be a favorite. The name Zombies was taken from Jane and since I added nuts to the recipe, the name Zombies stuck well.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
This recipe will make exactly 2 muffin pans (24 Zombies)

Brownie portion:
Make any favorite brownie mix.  Spray your muffin pan generously with pam and divide the brownie batter equally into the 24 muffin spots.

Toasted Walnuts:
In frying pan (sprayed with pam)  or in a  toaster oven; add 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts and toast. Set aside.

Toasted walnuts

Chocolate Chip Cookie:
You can use any  pre-made chocolate cookie dough,  but I have an easy recipe for homemade cookies:
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of butter softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup of chocolate chips

Mix flour, baking soda and salt together. Set aside. In another bowl, beat together the soft butter, egg, both sugars and vanilla till combined and creamy.  Gradually add the flour mixture and beat together. Add in the chocolate chips and stir.

Form into flattened cookies covering 1 side of the cookies with the toasted nuts. Place the cookie - toasted nut side down -on top of the brownie mix in the muffin pan.

Cookie over brownie

Bake for 25 minutes @ 350 degrees. After cooled they will pop right out. Serve for Valentine's Day or make them for yourself to eat during Mob Wives. Mob Wives will air at it's new time tonight: 10PM ET/9C!

Follow me on Twitter @CarmelaCorleone and let me know how your Zombies came out!

Carmela’s Food Blog: Stuffed Mushroom Recipe

Finished Mushrooms, delicioso

Last weeks episode of Mob Wives showed us some of the casts’ colorful personalities. I, myself, am happy with Drita's new un-confrontational attitude. I am hoping Lee will become the father Drita is hoping he will be to their girls. She was very close to her father and wants her children to have a close relationship with Lee. On the flip side, some of our Mob Wives are slightly full of themselves. I mean like really stuffed over the top. So I couldn't help it, but I got inspired to make Stuffed Mushrooms. These take time, but they are really easy to accomplish, and well worth it. I hope you enjoy them!

Stuffed Mushrooms - with sausage- or without works too.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Approximately 50 mushrooms White cap or Baby Bella's

Rinse mushrooms and make sure they are free of all dirt and debris.
Cut off the stems and scoop out the middle and save.  Place on lightly oiled baking sheet. If you are counting calories- spray baking sheet with pam.

Clean the mushrooms

Stuffing:
Dice the stems of the mushrooms in very small pieces
1 onion diced
3/4 cups of bread crumbs
1/4 cup of grated cheese
8 ounces (1/2 pound) sausage without the casing - if you are watching calories- turkey sausage links work well
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 stick of melted butter

Cook your stuffing!

Prepare hot frying pan with olive oil on bottom. Throw in the diced mushroom stems and onion & chopped garlic. Sauté until onions are soft. Add the sausage- you want it to break up like chop meat. Brown the sausage. Add the breadcrumbs, the grated cheese and then the olive oil. Mix well all together. Remove from heat. When the stuffing isn't too hot for you to handle, stuff the mushroom caps.
Pour the melted butter over the caps.

Fill your tray and bake!

Place in oven and bake @ 400 degrees for approximately  45 minutes.

Flavorful and delicious!

If you make them please send me your pictures or comments!

Follow me on twitter @carmelacorleone aka  #mobchef

Carmela's Food Blog: Italian Wedding Soup

The finished pot of Italian Wedding Soup!

I couldn't help but wonder if Mob Wives Season 3, Episode 4, will bring any talk about wedding bells for Joe and Raquel. I am totally guessing here, but they certainly make a great couple and it made me think of a recipe my father taught me. I think this week Italian Wedding Soup would be a great thing to serve for Sunday dinner while we wait for Mob Wives to air at 10 pm. At least this Sunday I can make my soup and not throw my family out right after dinner so I can watch Mob Wives.

Italian Wedding Soup...

When my dad cooked, it was not at home. I watched and learned inside a restaurant kitchen. He had  big pots on every burner constantly at a simmer. So when he made something he always took a little of this and a little of that from each pot. The downfall is he never measured anything so neither did I. It wasn't until now, since I began putting recipes on paper, that I found myself in my kitchen with a pen in hand. My dad always had a pot with a whole chicken in it that he used as his chicken stock, and another one with various cuts of beef and bones for beef stock. Nowadays I rely on College Inn broth, a tip that I learned from my aunts. I am going to give you the traditional recipe. We rarely ate spinach back in the day, and escarole was usually always on hand as it easily doubled for making escarole and beans in a pinch.

Mini-meatballs ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef
1 egg-beaten
2 gloves of garlic chopped
2 slices of stale white bread grated (you can use store breadcrumbs 1/2 cup)
3 tablespoons of milk
1/4 cup grated cheese
2 tablespoons chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
2 pinches of salt, 1 of pepper

Add 1/3 cup of water to the breadcrumbs and set aside. Mix together the ground beef, egg, chopped garlic, milk, grated cheese, parsley, salt and pepper. Add the breadcrumb mixture, mix well and form into mini-meatballs. Drop into hot olive oil in frying pan and brown the meatballs on all sides cooking them 3/4 of the way thru. Shut off heat on pan  and don't throw away the oil.

Pasta: Prepare 8 ounces of cooked pasta your choice: orzo, tubettini or ditalini. Set aside.

Diced Veggies

Soup Ingredients:

10 cups of chicken broth or stock
1 onion diced
3 carrots diced
4  cloves of garlic chopped
2 celery stalks, not the bottom part, the rib part-diced
1 head of escarole chopped (or substitute a bag of spinach)
1/2 cup of white wine - any
1 can diced red plum tomatoes

Generously coat bottom of pot with olive oil and sauté the onions, carrots, garlic & celery together till onions are transparent and everything else is soft. Add the 1/2 cup of white wine and stir.  Add 4 cups of the chicken broth and chopped escarole and cook until escarole is wilted. Then add the rest of the chicken broth and the can of tomatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste.  Add the mini meatballs and go ahead, add the olive oil left in the pan. This will add some great flavor.  Cover and cook 20 minutes. Add the cooked pasta to the pot, stir well and serve with grated cheese sprinkled on top.

I hope you enjoy this soup. If you make it please leave your comments below and let me know how it was!!

Please follow me on twitter @carmelacorleone

Carmela’s Food Blog: ADDICK-TING Stuffed Peppers

We all say hello to a new year and promise to make new choices. I always start off by weighing myself at Weight Watchers and end up becoming the queen of the point system. I don't know what happens, but I slip off come spring. This year the lovely Jennifer Hudson has me inspired. So, in between my mozzarella making and restaurant visits, I am trying to keep the healthy eating up. I made this recipe up myself and find it satisfying and very low in points and calories. When I run out of time to make dinner I just heat one of these up!

Hope you like them!

What you will need:

8 peppers (any color-your choice) try to find ones that have a flat bottom so they can stand up in a pan by themselves without falling over

1 lb ground turkey (be careful of the calories and fat, read the label)

1 can Manwich original sloppy joe mix

1 can of peas drained (frozen ok too)

1 small onion

1 cup cooked brown rice (I ordered a container from my local Chinese take-out) I like it better than the packaged ones.

Directions:

To make the stuffing: Spray a frying pan with pam spray. Dice the onions and sauté till onions are transparent. Add the ground turkey. When turkey is 75% cooked add the can of Manwich. Add the peas. Then the cooked brown rice. Mix well. Turn off heat.

Prepare the peppers: Pour a 1/2 inch of water in the bottom of your roasting/baking pan.

Cut the top of the peppers off and take out the membranes and seeds. Spoon the mixture in the peppers. Fill to top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Check halfway through to make sure the water has not evaporated. If so, just add more to the bottom of the pan. Serve.

If you are counting points I estimate it at 4. If you are counting calories, I estimate they are approximately 200 calories each.

Enjoy!

Follow me on twitter @carmelacorleone

P.S. If you make them please let me know how you liked them!!!

Carmela’s Food Blog: The Sear House in Closter, NJ

The Sear House

We've obviously recovered after the red meat scare back in the 90's. I think it went out when we learned that carbs are much worse for you and everyone jumped on protein diets. Since then Steak Houses have been making a comeback and becoming very popular. Really, how can anyone live without a good steak? My father dry-aged his steaks back in the 70's, he was before his time. He had no idea what the method was at that time. He purchased shells of beef, hung them and aged them in a walk-in that was just above freezing. To this day my brother and I argue over my dad’s method. When it was time for us to eat, we usually got the meat left on the ends, which was aged the longest, and had a very unique flavor. That’s when I learned to appreciate a good, aged steak. Due to the aging method, a lot of meat is lost during the process and these steaks end up being more costly. Most of the time these steaks are dry aged elsewhere.  But I'm learning a lot of restaurants are now aging them on the premises. Recently I have heard a lot about The Sear House in Closter, NJ. which is aging their own steaks. So I paid them a visit and wrote up my experience.

The Sear House
411 Piermont Road
Closter, New Jersey
201-292-4612

First of all a little history about the two owners, Gino and Kenny, who are no strangers to the restaurant business. Gino's past experience includes owning The  Dolphin in NYC, The Giraffe and then Dimora's of NJ. He teamed up with Kenny, who worked at Coco Pazzo of NYC and Grisson's in Englewood, NJ. They have united to give us The Sear House. The decor and overall atmosphere shows there was big money splurged on this restaurant. The bar is made of onyx and is lit with lights that change color. The dining room is  ultra-modern with a crisp clean feel. There is a water spring in the dining room that gives off a Zen feeling.

The Bar

The Bar lit up

The waiter was knowledgeable of all the menu items and offered to help us in the decision making process. He kept a cool professional style. He was experienced, but did not hang around to shoot the breeze.

We ordered the house cabernet, which was his suggestion. It was William Hill priced at $11.00 a glass. It came in a beautiful tall stem glass and the pour was a good one. I enjoyed the wine so much so that I looked for it the next time I was selecting one in a store. The bread came warm and sliced, served with butter on the side. There were three of us dining and we opted to order the Dry-Aged Porterhouse for Two, a 48 ounce steak priced at $84.95. The steak came out on an extremely hot plate and was sliced. It was cooked a bit too rare and they brought it back to the kitchen. After its second visit to the table it was done perfectly.  I must say it was one of the better dry aged steaks I've tasted. It was grilled and generously brushed with butter. Very generously. We ordered  two sides with the steak. One was the sautéed onions priced at $5.95, small but enough for two. The other side dish was the asparagus. This was priced at $8.95. A petite size order would be best to describe it.

The Dining Room

We ordered  tea, which was from the Stash collection. I think they could use a better tea provider and maybe invest in a fancier teapot. If you want to recover the costs put in you need to up your ante in the small things. Presentation really counts. They served complimentary mini biscotti with the tea. We ordered a raspberry sorbet, which was good. Overall, I had a good dining experience and suggest if you are in the NJ area, and a fan of aged steaks, give The Sear House a try. But remember to bring your wallet because all the extras add up very quickly.

Overall I found The Sear House to be a fine restaurant and I give it 8 stars. If you go, please let me know what you think!

Written By: Carmela Corleone

Picture Credit: Carmela Corleone

Please follow me on twitter @carmelacorleone

Carmela’s Food Blog: Valentino’s in Park Ridge, NJ

Valentino's

A little background of my history with food. I have been in the food business nearly my whole life. Since I was 4 yrs old my father owned a restaurant. Before that my grandfather owned a restaurant in the Bronx, New York during the 40's. When my father passed in the 80's, I took on a regular 9-5 job. It wasn’t until 2000 that my brother decided to re-enter the restaurant business. He ran a very successful restaurant for 11 years. He took the family old Italian traditions and blended it with the new trendy food flavors of today. The restaurant business is second nature to me.  The variety of food today, with blended cultural influences, have become more popular. They call this “fusion,” where a chef creates dishes from a combination of regions. The new food dishes are proved to be very creative and sometimes, if you are lucky enough to seek out a great chef, you can experience this new cuisine.

At  first I thought that I would never write a negative food review. If I was unhappy at a restaurant I would  never return. Then the more I thought about it the more I realized that the establishment may benefit from a poor review if they took my opinion or criticism to improve on what was inadequate during my dining. I know when we owned our restaurant I would run into customer in town and sometimes they would tell me about an experience. I always thanked them for letting me know and discussed it with my brother and resolved the issue. So I will write from my own opinion.  I'm simply a person who grew up with food, loves food, thinks about food and now will write about it. I will give the establishment a combined star rating based on service, food, plating and price. I hope you enjoy my blogs. My first blog, which follows, is a review of Valentino's restaurant.

The Dining Room

Valentino's

103 Spring Valley Road

Park Ridge, NJ 07656

201-391-2230

Valentino’s is located in Park Ridge, New Jersey and was one of my favorite restaurants back in the 90's. Unfortunately, I think they have stopped the clock and are stuck right there. The decor is old style Italian. I felt it needed a little TLC to make it more mod-Mediterranean. We visited on a Tuesday night. There was only one other table in the restaurant seated which was way too far away. We were greeted by an elderly waiter. Now, please I do NOT have anything against the elderly working, but his age got in the way of his waiting. He seated us without menus to start. We ordered two glasses of house Cabernet  He was not sure of the brand when asked, but he advised it was very good. The wine was served to us dripping with water, obviously from just rinsed glasses. Not sure why he didn’t dry them off. This was surprising. Also, the glass was a very small and outdated. I think my father use to have them back in the 70's when people drank Mateus, you know, the wine with the basket on the bottom part of the bottle that I dripped candles all over and gave as Christmas gifts. Oh, those were the days. Okay, so back to the meal. We ordered the buffalo mozzarella as an appetizer. When it was served we had to ask for bread. Nothing to brag about in this basket, just some small dinner rolls. The buffalo mozzarella was creamy and served chilled. This was priced at $12.00. I enjoyed this and can clearly tell it was homemade. For the main course I ordered the Gamberi alla Ribelli. It was 5 jumbo shrimp served over spinach with melted mozzarella cheese. The sauce was very light and had shallots and champagne. The shrimp were cooked well and the spinach was fresh. The plate was decorated with some cherry tomatoes. This was priced at $26.00. My guest ordered the Linguini Con Vongole.  The linguini was al dente and the clams were served in their shell, which I prefer and they were plentiful. This dish was $21.00. Unfortunately, it took us a while to locate the waiter to ask for some grated cheese. Finally, he brought it and we forgot to ask for another glass of wine so we had to do without. We did not stay for coffee or dessert as we had somewhere to go, and the slowness of the service made our stay a lot longer than anticipated. When we got the check, the small glass of wine was priced at $12.00. Wow! Certainly overpriced. If you want to charge that for a glass of house wine I suggest they invest in some very nice stemmed wine glasses. No, it wont change the taste or the price of the wine, but sometimes presentation does matter. All in all, we had no interaction with the waiter, have no idea of his name and I don’t think he will ever remember waiting on us. That's too bad because when I was a server customers booked their reservations requesting me. I liked to interact and make a customer’s evening one they would enjoy and remember. The food was good, but overall considering the service, plating and price I give Valentino's a 6 star rating out of 10 stars. I pushed an extra star in there for the old time memories I have had there.

I am sorry about not having photos of these dishes, I didn’t know if Mob Mistress would think a food blog appropriate to share, so I thought the visit would only stay in my memory. Please add your comments below, I’d love to know what you think!

Written By: Carmela Corleone

Picture Credit: Valentino's