Smithtown Dish – small bites of foodie news

By Nancy Vallarella 

Vegging Out

Here is a great recipe from the folks from Meatless Monday.

Although it received mixed reviews in my household, it disappeared quickly. The biggest complaint was the texture of the crust which had only a hint of crispness. The cauliflower, egg and cheese mixture for the crust produces a thin frittata consistency. I recommend baking the crust on the back of a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

Modifications of convenience were made. All of the cheeses were replaced with Trader Joe’s Quattro Formaggio and Uncle Giuseppe’s Italian Seasoning was used in place of the green spices.  

My additional veggies of choice were asparagus, zucchini, and sliced fennel in addition to the sweet potato and kale. The fennel was the star addition. It came through slightly with a clean and bright finish. 

Get creative. Develop different veggie combinations. The folks at Elegant Eating turned the crust into toasts and topped with goat cheese and grapes.

• 1 small head of cauliflower, stems removed, leaving only the florets
• 1/2 cup (60g) mozzarella, split
• 1/4 cup (25g) parmesan
• 1/4 cup (60g) cheese of choice (I used cheddar)
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp parsley
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 egg

For the Toppings

• 1/2 cup (135g) sweet potato, peeled, and chopped into small pieces
• 1 cup kale (65g) in small pieces
• 1/2 cup (60g) vegetable 1 of your choice (such as summer squash)
• 1/2 cup (25g) vegetable 2 of your choice (such as mushrooms)

Preheat the oven to 400F (200C).

Put the cauliflower florets into a food processor. Blend until it becomes fine pieces (some say it looks like snow). Place the cauliflower in a microwaveable bowl, heat, covered, for 3 minutes to cook through. Place the cauliflower onto a tea towel/dish towel laid out flat. Allow to cool for a few minutes.

Twist up the dish towel around the cauliflower, and squeeze over a sink, as hard as you can, for a few minutes to remove as much liquid as possible. The more you remove, the crispier your pizza will be! Empty the cauliflower into a bowl (and throw that dish towel into the washing right away….it begins to smell pretty quickly!)

Add 1/4 cup mozzarella, Parmesan, basil, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper into the bowl. Stir well. Add the egg and stir until it is well distributed, and sticky.

Using your hands, combine the “crust” into a ball, it will be pretty wet. Place the ball onto a greased pizza stone (or back of a greased baking tray) and press down to even out to make a round circle crust. It should be a little thicker than a usual thin crust pizza.

Put aside for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, brush the sweet potato with oil and put on a baking tray. Place in the oven; remove after 10 minutes to move sweet potatoes around so the potato does not stick. Add the other vegetables with a little oil, and cook for another 10 minutes or until the potato is soft. Remove and give the vegetables a few minutes cool for you to be able to handle them.  At the same time the potatoes go back in, place the crust in the oven for 15 minutes, until the edges are beginning to brown.

Remove the pizza crust from the oven, use a spatula or pie server to gently go under the crust to ensure it has not stuck. Layer with 1/2 the remaining mozzarella and half the other cheese. Place the cooked vegetables on top, along with the kale, and cover with all the remaining cheese.

Place back in the oven for 10 minutes, before turning the oven to broil for the remaining 5 minutes until it the cheese begins to bubble and brown.

Cut into slices, and carefully lift onto plates! Enjoy!

Historic Appointment - Sandy Miranda - Smithtown's First Female Director Of Parks, Buildings And Grounds

By Maureen Rossi

Sandy MirandaA dozen yellow roses adorned the desk of Sandy Miranda on Friday when Smithtown Matters visited her. They were congratulatory in nature as  Ms. Miranda was recently appointed Director of Parks, Buildings and Grounds for the Town of Smithtown - a historic appointment as she is Smithtown’s first female Director of Parks, Buildings and Grounds.

Ms. Miranda was first employed by the Town in 1986 as a part time employee in the Planning Department. She transferred into the Parks Department around 1995 and has worked her way up from a clerical position to administrative assistant before being appointed director unaninimously by the Town Board on March 20.  The long-time town employee takes over leadership of Smithtown’s 2nd largest department. “I’m absolutely thrilled to death, I’m still in shock,” she explained. 

Sandy Miranda may be in shock but the people who appointed her are not. Sandy has a reputation as someone who is not only dedicated but very competant. Supervisor Patrick Vecchio has known Miranda for a long time and fully supported the appointment. “I am proud the Town Board elected to put a woman in a very important postion, in the 2nd largest department in the town”, said Vecchio. He is not alone, Councilman Creighton supported the appointment and said, “Sandy is a long time employee of the town who is well qualified to be the first woman in this position and I think it is an important step for the town and will work out very well.”

The Parks Department has a $7.2* million budget, sixty-five employees and is responsible for Smithtown’s eighteen parks, the Bluff, the Marina, Hoyt Farm and the beaches.  In addition to the maintenance of those outdoor facilities, the department maintains every building owned by the town of Smithtown including the Smithtown Municipal Country Club and Pool.  

The Department’s responsibilities also include the repair and maintenance of town vehicles and is charged with the cleaning and plowing all municipal parking lots in town including the three Long Island Rail Road stations. The Park’s Department also hires and supervises lifeguards, park attendants and issues permits for camping and picnicking at town facilities. She said her’s is a very visual department but they handle everything in and outside town buildings.   “The Bull, that’s us, toilet overflows, that’s us,” she laughed.   

“This is our busiest time, from now until Memorial Day we are in high gear,” Miranda reported.  “Right now we have a sand project going at Callahan’s and Short Beach,” she added.    

Miranda says she has been provided an outstanding Assistant Director, Richard Kazanecki.  The main focus for she and Kazanecki will be “beautification”, keeping all town properties and beaches pristine.

Miranda is extremely excited about her new position and enormously grateful for the opportunity to head the department.  “I’ve got a fantastic Assistant Director and I’ve got great supervisors to run my five different divisions, everyone has been very supportive”.   She said she has learned so much from the many outstanding directors she has worked for including Town Councilman Eddie Wehrheim.   She said Wehrheim was incredibly generous in imparting his vast knowledge while he was the Director and she looks forward to working with him in a different capacity now.  “I certainly look forward to working for the Town Board to keep Smithtown one of the best towns on Long Island,” said Miranda. 

Ms. Miranda has been residing in Smithtown since 1981 and is very proud of that. She reiterated over and over.  “I want everyone to feel that way”. She is mother to three girls who are all grown and grandmother to four grand-daughters.  Her granddaughters ages are 5, 4, 3  and the youngest 7 months old, and all live close by. Miranda’s elderly parents reside in her home and she says her 89 year old father is so very proud.  “Never in a million years did I expect this – I started as a clerk typist, every day I go home and my parents still can’t believe it,” she shared.    Miranda also thanked Supervisor Pat Vecchio for having given her an opportunity to work for the town she loves many many years ago.   “Everyone in the town has been so very good to me, they are all fantastic,” she ended.

 * correction was made original posting left out the decimal point. 

Theater Review - "The Music man"

“The Music Man” Produced by: The John W. Engeman Theater, Northport - Reviewed by Jeb Ladouceur

In the late fifties, after a decade of trying to find acceptance among show business producers, Iowa native Meredith Willson finally got the break he needed when playwright/screenwriter Franklin Lacey agreed to help him trim down his then-wordy libretto for “The Music Man.”

The first thing that had to be done, Lacey insisted, was to throw out a long stretch of dialogue in which con man Harold Hill explains why the parents of River City have “…got trouble.” Willson wasn’t about to part with the loquacious narrative entirely; he properly felt it was essential in illuminating the plot. So what the inventive Willson did was turn that rambling spoken sales pitch into a song. The piece, of course, became the signature number in “The Music Man.”

But that’s not the end of the fortuitous story involving playwrights Willson and Lacey, and their decision to alter the original libretto for what became the 46^th longest running musical in Broadway’s storied history. Director Morton DaCosta and his producers decided that “Ya’ Got Trouble” was the most difficult number in the show to handle, thus they used it when screening hopefuls for the part of Harold Hill. Singers by the dozens tackled the tongue-twisting composition, but bigwigs Kermit Bloomgarden and others were unimpressed … until actor Robert Preston (whose singing range was limited at best) took the stage.

Preston’s career had included thirty-five movies and half a dozen stage shows at that time, many of the productions casting him in fast-talking roles, and “Ya’ Got Trouble” was right up his alley. Bloomgarden, DaCosta and company signed their Music Man on the spot.

Had things turned out differently, Meredith Willson might never have found the perfect fit for the lead in his Midwestern gem of a show, and local theatergoers could have been ultimately deprived of one of the finest musical productions ever presented on a Long Island stage—that’s how good “The Music Man” was at Saturday’s Engeman Theater press opening in Northport.

In the hands of prize-winning Director Igor Goldin, Rob Gallagher turns in a spectacular performance as the slick salesman Harold Hill. His acting/ singing range is incredible as he delivers numbers like the lively “Seventy-Six Trombones” to provocative “The Sadder-But-Wiser Girl” and Willson’s tender ballad “Till There Was You” with equal aplomb. I was privileged to review the original “Music Man” for my college newspaper at its debut on Broadway in 1957, and I can assure you that Gallagher is every bit as good as the iconic Robert Preston was that opening night.

Much the same can be said for Kim Carson as straight-laced librarian Marian Paroo, Ray Demattis as River City’s tongue-tied Mayor Shinn, and the remarkable Patti Mariano who plays Marian’s sometimes profane Irish mother perfectly. Perhaps it goes without saying that 2013 Encore Award Winners Jennifer Collester Tully (Mayor Shinn’s robust wife Eulalie) and Katie Dolce (their perky daughter Gracie) are ideally cast in their featured roles, and both perform flawlessly. Those two ladies wrote the book on stage presence.

Ten-year-old Jeffrey S. Kishinevskiy as the lisping Winthrop Paroo is simply adorable. The play’s plot resolution revolves around him…quite a responsibility for one so young! But like everyone else in this beautifully staged musical, especially the impeccable barbershop quartet (Richard Costa, Kenny Francoeur, Kevin Necciai, and Kilty Reidy), Jeffrey’s more than equal to the demanding task.

And any critic would be remiss if failing to acknowledge Heidi Friese (as the endearing teen Zaneeta Shinn) and her three actress/dancer partners who’ve been molded into a colorfully clad, precisely coordinated foursome under choreographer Antoinette DiPietropolo. Her charges don’t muff a jump or pirouette, and the orchestra doesn’t miss a single note in two hours.

This show runs through May 18…and I’d be surprised if every performance between now and then isn’t sold out, as Saturday’s was. I know I’m going back—and soon—if I can get in.

Award-winning Smithtown writer Jeb Ladouceur is the author of eight novels, and his theater reviews appear in several major L.I. publications. In Ladouceur’s next thriller, “Harvest” due in late summer, an American doctor is forced to perform illegal surgeries for a gang of vital organ traffickers in The Balkans.

St. James Resident Nicole Barattini Nominated For Presidential Award For Excellence In Math & Science

By Maureen Rossi

Nicole BarattiniSt. James resident Nicole Barattini was recently nominated for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science. Her proud father Tony Giordano, who is active in Smithtown and Suffolk County politics, gave a sweet shout out to his little lady on his Facebook post a few days back.

The Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) is the highest recognition that a kindergarten through 12th-grade mathematics or science (including computer science) teacher may receive for outstanding teaching in the United States. According to PAEMST Awardees serve as models for their colleagues, inspiration to their communities, and are leaders in the improvement of mathematics and science education.  “I was thrilled when I found out a parent of one of my current students nominated me,” said the soft spoken educator. Barattini said she was incredibly touched by the honor.

By the time Nicole was a 10th grader living in Smithtown she knew she wanted to be an educator. Nicole attended St. Joseph’s College and majored in mathematics education 7-12th. She remains today at her first teaching job at St. Mary’s School in East Islip. “Initially I thought I wanted to be a high school teacher when I got this middle school job I loved it so much and changed my mind,” she explained.

“I found out in an e-mail from the organization that I was nominated,” she added. Teaching for four years she says she knows she has made the right career choice.

When it comes to the controversial Common Core curriculum, Nicole says she likes the curriculum. “It’s somewhat more challenging for teachers to implement but the children are responding and comprehending mathematics better,” she explained. She says it’s helping her students to understand the principles, the essentials behind the subject matter. “It teaches the fundamentals and how and why things are done instead of just memorization,” she added.

However, Nicole does not deny that the new Common Core in it’s entirety is more challenging. She shared that St. Mary’s implemented the new curriculum last year.  “I’m more concerned with how they (students) are able to use the skills, than the test results” she chimed in. Her students do take the state test, but she says at St. Mary’s “it’s not the be all and end all”.

Nicole attended Holy Family Regional School in Commack before attending St. John the Baptist High School in West Islip. Active in high school she played soccer and was a cheerleader. Today she coaches the soccer team and the volleyball team at St. Mary’s. “It’s amazing to see my students in a different capacity – you learn a lot more about them than you do in the classroom,” she laughed.

Nicole recalls her childhood days when her mother was a school nurse in Half Hollow Hills. “She always spoke so highly of working in a school; she told me it was going to be rewarding,” she shared. The dedicated educator said her mother’s advice was great advice.

Nicole has been married for four years to Kevin Barattini. Kevin a Kings Park native is known for his very popular D.J. business and his philanthropic work. Between their careers, her coaching and their volunteer work they are a very busy couple. Nicole says her life is really great, she’s very happy.

“I enjoy going to work every day,” she said. Nicole has a Master’s in Special Education and is optimistic that it will come in handy one day. She reflected on that comment and changed her mind; she said it’s helping her already – the young nominee of one of the nation’s most prestigious education awards says it’s helping her every day to relate to students with different abilities. Nicole credits her success to her close-knit family. She says she owes a lot to her parents and her brothers James and TJ and her husband Kevin. James is a member of law enforcement in Colorado and brother TJ is a Veteran of War; he served our country overseas in Afghanistan.

Nicole looks forward to coaching and teaching, she says every day is exciting.

Young And Old Going Bald In Kings Park To Fight Childhood Cancer

US Funding Only Covers 4% of Children’s Cancer Research

Kings Park Kids Trying to Change That

By Maureen Rossi

After Richard Mangogna: Age 11Richard Mangogna: Age 11 - BeforeLast Sunday The Park Lounge in Kings Park was bustling with hundreds of men, women and children ready to celebrate and participate in their annual St. Baldrick’s event.  Collectively they raised approximately one hundred thousand dollars.  That’s an incredibly impressive number considering it’s only the 6th year that the 25A pub has hosted the event.   Every year more and more people flock to the popular eatery owned by Kings Park native, former professional hockey player Jim Pavese.  Local hair dressers volunteer their services to shave head after head.

Equally impressive as the amount raised is the amount of young boys who showed up this year to partake in the event.  Being a tween or teen in a 24/7 technological world means all eyes are on them all the time.  It’s hardly a time in life that most kids try to stand out or be different.   That didn’t stop Kings Park kids Max, Daniel, Joey or Conner.   All the boys had their heads shaved for the St. Baldrick’s’ festivities s on Sunday.    

The genesis of St. Baldricks was in a New York City bar in 2000.  Not named after an Irish saint or any saint for that matter St. Baldrick’s is a play on words; a combination of Bald and St. Patrick’s.  The name and concept of raising money to fund cancer research for childhood cancers began with three friends over a dare at Jim Brady’s Bar and Restaurant.  In just fourteen short years, well over one hundred million dollars has been raised and those funds have been distributed to over 230 institutions in the Children’s Oncology Group.  The money funds research and treatment for children with cancer. 

Sixth grader Max Tanzi was on hand Sunday where he shaved his head for the sixth year in a row.  “At first I started doing it because my Dad did it,” he explained.  However, the somewhat shy tween says he likes the thought of helping kids.  The oldest of the young Tanzi brood, he says his favorite subject in school is lunch.  His younger brother and two younger sisters laughed when he shared that information in the busy hallway of Kings Park high school Tuesday night. His mother had he and his siblings at the Kings Park Board of Education meeting to watch his sister receive a special award.  He says he loves to play lacrosse and enjoys playing the guitar.   His tone then got more serious.  “My grandfather passed away about a year and half ago,” he shared.  His mom Kathy’s Dad  was a big part of Max’s and his siblings’ lives.  He was a beloved grandfather.  Max said he shaves his head now in memory of his grandfather.    Max hopes to be a cop someday, preferably a canine cop.  

Max’s brother Daniel is a 5^th grader and shared a comical side in between his short interview.  He says he loves baseball and has been shaving his head for St. Baldrick’s for four years.   “I felt happy to do it so that kids can get better,” he said.   Along with the rest of Long Island, Daniel awoke to frigid temperatures on Monday morning less than one day after shaving his small head.  “I have been wearing a hat, it’s been real cold,” he reported.  He says he hasn’t really decided yet what he wants to be when he grows up.  Daniel’s Dad, Tony Tanzi, is one of the people who helps to organize the annual Kings Park event.  Tony is an active member of the Kings Park and Smithtown community at large.  He’s the President of the KP Chamber and a member of the Historical Society and sits on the Zoning Board.  He said he is very proud of his sons for participating and caring about kids with cancer.

Joey Saccente and his best friend Conner Maher were amongst the throngs of people and children shaving their heads at Sunday’s festive event.   Joey is 11 but shared that he will be 12 on April 11^th.  “I did it last year too, but I didn’t really have much of a reason last year as I did this year,” he said.   Last year he and his dad were just driving past The Park Lounge the day of the event and they decided to do it spontaneously.  He said they just wanted to help.  

“This year I had a reason, my aunt back in November or October, she was diagnosed with cancer and also in 2011 my mom’s best friend died,” he explained.  He said he did it this year in honor of them but also wanted to help kids.  “I know it’s really difficult for kids with cancer; it’s very difficult for their families too knowing they will be sick for a while,” he suspected.   The William T. Rogers student has an older sister Dannie and he likes to play basketball and soccer and also enjoys running.  Joey says he lives on a block with lots of kids so says he said it’s a ton of fun to go outside with his friends and play all kinds of games or go to the park.  The chatty seventh grader said no one made fun of him at school.  Like Max and Daniel, he said lots of kids in their school did it this year.  “I really hope someone - anybody finds a cure then there will a lot less pain in the world,” he lamented.  Joey said he would love to play soccer professionally but shared a more realistic goal would be a fireman.  “My dad is a fireman I’d like to be a fireman too like him,” he ended.  He was proud of the fact that he raised $1,055 for the Foundation this year.  

Connor is Joey’s best friend and classmate.   “I was kind of nervous – since I knew it was for a good cause I felt good about,” he explained.  Also twelve like his best friend, he has two sisters, one older and one younger.  Conner raised an impressive $2,400 and says he likes to play basketball and baseball and also run track.   He said because of the cold weather he’s been sporting a St. Baldrick’s Day hat that he got at The Park Lounge.  “I like computers so when I grow up I want to be someone who builds computers and makes a lot of money so I can donate a lot of money to charity,” he shared.   Conner said when a really good family friend was diagnosed with cancer it inspired him to participate.  “It feels really good to do it you are helping a lot of people,” he ended.   You can still donate to the Park Lounge event.  Call 269-1351.

In totality; all types of childhood cancers only receive four percent of the cancer research funding in the United States.   The St. Baldrick’s Foundation and Max, Daniel, Joey and Conner are trying to change that number.   The brave young boys all said they hope to see a cure for childhood cancer.