La Dolce Vinnie

We're going to miss Vinnie when we finally drive him back to UW Madison tomorrow. But even more than the young man himself, we're going to miss his cooking.
Both disciplined and inventive, Vinnie whipped up a wide variety of food and drinks during his month-long break from school.
His specialty hot drink kept us warm, his signature salad kept us healthy and his wide variety of potato dishes kept us full.
Just this week he made me a wrap stuffed with chicken salad (chicken, celery, grapes and mayonnaise with bacon, lettuce and tomato) and he grilled Molly a cheese quesadilla.
And, though his father and I initially weren't sure what to make of the bartender school he attended last week, we benefited from the skills he learned there as well.
The following pictures will give you some idea of both the various looks he sported and the dishes he served:



These are Vinnie's potatoes just before
he roasted them. They were delicious!

First step in his chai tea recipe. Steep the tea bags in hot water.

These are the spices he used. He doesn't always use french vanilla
tea. In fact, most often he uses black. The spices are: ginger,
cardamon, cinnamon, whole cloves and allspice.

Remove the tea bags when the tea is nice and black. For me,
this is definitely a morning drink.

Vinnie adds brown sugar.

And milk. Here he is using 1% milk.

As I mentioned, for me this is a morning drink and for him
this is a morning shadow.

Strain the tea before you serve.

And now we're on to the salad. Chop romaine lettuce
and slice a small onion thinly.

He uses classic stir fry sauce in his dressing.

Olive oil, red wine vinegar, classic stir fry sauce
and a little juice from the mandarin oranges.

Add mandarin orange slices to chopped lettuce
and slice onion and toss with dressing.

Here is the chef with his lovely Aunt Elaine.
We're going to miss that smile.