Unique Experiences

Item Description

An experience and a meal to treasure! Treat yourself and your three favorite companions to lunch and conversation with local author and expert on Italian cuisine Carmela Tursi Hobbins at Edina's newest hot spot Mozza Mia Pizza Pie and Mozzarella Bar.

Carmela Tursi Hobbins developed a love of cooking as a child in Des Moines, IA, watching her Italian grandmothers produce the pasta, sauces, breads, and desserts that the family enjoyed daily. That love eventually became a lifetime passion, as Carmela turned her burgeoning gifts as a chef and hostess into a catering business and a teaching enterprise. In her first cookbook, Carmela’s Cucina, she shared favorites among the recipes she inherited from her family and improved over the years. In her new book, Celebrations with Carmela’s Cucina, Carmela offers fully elaborated menus for important holidays throughout the year, from Christmas Eve to Father’s Day, from Easter to Thanksgiving.

Readers will find the menu suggestions useful, and the family reminiscences that accompany them admirably convey the human warmth of cooking and eating in the company of family and friends. Among the many special delights are polenta with goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes, leg of lamb stuffed with spinach and mushrooms, crab salad martini, cool cucumber mint soup, and angel hair pasta in amogio sauce.

Her chapter on “Dinner al Fresco at the Lake” will strike a chord with Minnesotans heading north for a family rendezvous. And the Carnivale section may be just the thing to spice up a pre-Lenten extravaganza. The recipes in Celebrations with Carmela’s Cucina are further enhanced by the dazzling food photography of Erica Loeks. And the astute wine advice of her husband, Bob Hobbins, will be appreciated by readers who want to find exactly the right pairing for that chicken spiedini or orange-brined smoked turkey.

Minnesota Monthly food writer Sue Zelickson says: “The photos are beautiful, the recipe details precise, and the wine pairings offered by Carmela’s husband, Bob, are an added attraction. The book is a joy to read; it makes you want to get right to the kitchen and start cooking, so you can share her celebrations with your own family.”

Italian food importer Frances Graziano remarks: “I believe with each generation a modern twist is adapted into traditional family customs. Carmela does just that. She successfully embellishes traditional holiday feasts with her own creative dishes, which complement one another with style. The end result…new and delicious traditions are born!”

Carmela Hobbins teaches cooking classes in many Twin Cities area cooking schools and  hosts annual culinary tours of Tuscany and Liguria and Southern Italy.

Item Special Note

The date and time of the lunch will be coordinated with Carmela, the winning bidder and Mozza Mia.

The price includes the cost of meal, beverage and gratuity.

Expires October 31, 2013.