(upbeat music) - [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

- This episode of "Dapper Dad's Kitchen", we've got the grill lit.

We're gonna grill some hot dogs.

- No, no, no, no, no.

Tim, put your hot dog away.

We got sausages today.

- Oh, man.

All right.

Okay.

Yeah.

We've got some wonderful Italian sausages here, some hot and some sweet.

Let's get after it.

(upbeat music) Well, today we're gonna do some wonderful Italian sausages, give us that flair, that nostalgia of the old school summer Italian street fairs, where you can hear the music, the people are having fun.

- Oh, yeah.

- You went to those when you were a kid.

- Oh, yes.

You had to, right?

- Yeah, coming from New Jersey, we were always at the Italian festivals.

- I remember my first one, I was actually traveling for work.

I was in Chicago, and the thing I remember most about it was the smells when you just hit the street, hearing all the people having fun and just the community that was going around.

So we're gonna do that here today.

We've got some rolls, we've got some hot and some sweet Italian sausages and some peppers and some onions.

First off, what we're gonna do, we've got our grill set up, and we've got it in a two-zone over here.

We've got our hot coals on one side and no coals on the other.

So that's the side we're gonna cook our sausages on 'cause we don't want them to burst or anything like that.

But first, let me introduce my really good friend, Kim.

I grew up with her husband.

We've known each other since high school.

They're part of the reason I also moved to Charlotte after coming to visit.

We've known each other for going on almost 20 years now.

Well, tell us a little bit about you, your background with the street fairs in Jersey and everything and what do you like?

- Yeah, well, Italian heritage here, growing up in New Jersey, and when you said sausage, peppers and onions, I thought, "This is perfect."

This is what we love and what we cook at home.

And really excited to be here today.

- Back in the day before we had busy lives with kids and sports and all these extracurricular activities, if it was a Friday night and you were in the friend circle, you were at one of two places.

It was either her and Pat's place or me and Ashley's place.

But then life got a little busy.

We don't get to see each other as much as we used to, but we still get together whenever we can.

All right, you've got the onions, I've got the peppers here.

We'll go ahead and get these done.

- [Kim] How do you want these cut, Tim?

- I like, how do you like them?

I like mine just kind of thin slices.

We're gonna put them on there so they can caramelize.

And I'm gonna cut these in thin strips as well.

- [Kim] Let's do it.

- Now, Kim actually has a background in food service, so she is no stranger to the kitchen.

Plus she's a great cook at home as well.

Tell us a little bit about what it is that you do in the food service industry.

- Sure.

I'm actually vice president of culinary strategy and innovation for Eurest, which is a sector of Compass Group.

I manage our menus, promotions, our R&D.

I lead an amazing team, and we have a lot of fun while we're doing it, so.

- You guys definitely do.

I've been to some of the events that you guys have thrown on.

But they just, like, they find a theme for some of these events, and they just really get into it.

My favorite was the taco cart.

- Oh, yes.

Taco cart's a good one, for sure.

And you could do a lot of stuff on that.

Just like this, you could do this right on your taco cart.

(Tim laughs) - So now, growing up, you said you went to these.

Was this, like, an annual thing for you all or just a, you know, just a seasonal, I mean, is it, like, just, you know, oh, it's time for the Italian fair, the festival, we gotta, we gotta go check it out?

How was it?

- There was a lot of them growing up in New Jersey.

- I can imagine.

- Yeah, one of the most popular ones I think is Hoboken.

- Okay.

- There's also some great ones that happening just New York, Philadelphia.

Everybody has their little twist.

A lot of fun, lot of options when you live in New Jersey of stuff to do for the Italian American festivals, for sure.

- Now- - But like you said- - Ooh, sorry.

- the scent of sausage, peppers and onions, it brings me back to those great times.

- Well, just the foods and the spices and everything.

Now, I did a little bit of the research in there.

Some of the things that I learned was these Italian fairs and street festivals, they became really popular once everybody immigrated to America.

- Oh, yeah.

- Italy, they love a lot of seafood really in real life, you know?

It's a peninsula.

There's water everywhere.

Lots of seafood.

Lots of shellfish.

But when they came to America, there was this abundance of meat.

Red meat, porks, chickens and things like that.

So that's when it started really coming in with the veal and the sausage and everything like that.

And that's why a lot of, you see a lot of these Italian fests and everything, it revolves around a lot of meats.

- Right.

And I think too with sausage, it helps you use the whole animal, right?

You know, you're eating the whole thing, and it's a way that you could preserve that whole animal.

So I think it's something that's really great that was brought over from Italy.

- Well, that's one of the great things about, you know, being here in the States, is, like, it's such a melting pot.

We've got, you know- - Absolutely.

- people came from everywhere and brought these flavors and everything with them.

It's really wonderful.

Now, what I've got here, I've got a little grill basket.

I've got my handle right here.

Now, this comes in really handy when you're grilling vegetables and charring vegetables because they don't fall through the grill grates, and they don't catch on fire and get that, so this is gonna work out really well for that.

I also like using this when I'm using shrimp or other things like that, but it works really great for grilling vegetables.

You just put it right on top of there, and you don't have to worry about anything falling through the grates.

What do you do to your peppers and your, well, not to your peppers but to your sausage and onions.

What do you do?

- Well, the sausage, I keep it, keep it as is.

- Yeah.

- Little oil spray.

- It's got its own seasoning and everything.

- Yeah, because everything should be in there.

Got that good fennel taste in there.

For peppers and onions, I usually do what you got here, salt, pepper, a little Italian seasoning- - That's what I figured.

- garlic powder, olive oil.

And then sometimes I hit it with a little butter at the end too.

- Okay.

So we're gonna put just a little bit of ground black pepper, a little bit of salt in there.

Can you grab that oil?

- Sure.

- We'll go ahead and dump that all in there.

Get it around in there.

Okay.

- There you go.

- I like to use extra virgin olive oil.

It's just a, it's just a good all around olive oil.

It has a nice smoke point.

So now we're gonna go ahead and stir these up just a little bit, get the spices and everything, get them all very nicely and evenly coated.

- Nice bright colors too.

- And that's the thing I love about it.

Italian food, it just look, before you even take a bite into it, it just looks great.

It looks so appealing.

All right.

I think we've got that mixed up good.

We'll get all the oil we can in there.

Now, what we're gonna do is we're just gonna go ahead and toss these in here.

(birds chirping) And then I'm gonna put these directly over the hot coals.

So we're just gonna let those go right there.

Get them spread out.

We're going to get a, oops, see, some of them fell in there.

Get a nice good char on those.

Now, what we're gonna do with our sausages, we're gonna put our sausages on the other side of the grill right here, and then we're gonna cover it up, so let the heat and everything go in there.

Oh, you can hear those vegetables starting to sizzle already.

So I'm gonna put these on the far side, away from the coals.

- Way better than hot dogs already.

- Yeah.

- Now, which one are you gonna go for at the end?

You gonna go for hot or sweet?

- I like a hot sausage.

Nothing against the sweet sausage, but I like it hot.

We're gonna let this cook for, as far as time goes, guys, kind of goes just on site.

We're gonna see how they're coming along with the color and how firm they're getting so they get that nice snap when you bite into them.

(metal clanging) All right.

- Looks great.

- Now, I'm gonna go ahead and cover this up, get some of the heat to stay in there.

Now, I've got a wonderful treat for us.

This is a great thing I think with, any kid's gonna love it, but what's a good dessert that comes to mind when you're at an Italian street fair?

- Italian?

Cannolis.

- A cannoli.

Right.

So for the kids, we're gonna do a little something different.

We're gonna do a little deconstructed cannoli.

- I love it.

- And we're gonna have it to where it's a dip.

So this will be something that's a lot easier to do around the house and everything.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna start off with, I've got some whole milk, ricotta.

- Perfect.

- Ricotta, ricotta.

All right.

Go ahead and put that in there.

If you wanna break that up a little bit.

- Sounds good.

All right.

- To that we're gonna add about three cups, three-quarters of a cup, sorry, not three cups, that's a lot of sugar, we're gonna add three-quarters of a cup of powdered sugar.

Put that in there.

And then we're gonna go ahead and beat that together.

You wanna take care of that?

- Yeah.

- All right.

- Give me the weapon.

- Now we're gonna go ahead and whip this till it's nice and creamy.

Man, I can smell this over here.

I know you're not supposed to look while you cook, but I've gotta take a quick peek.

Oh, yeah, that's coming along just nicely.

It should take about a minute, just make sure it's all nice and blended, kind of smooth like that.

I think that's good.

Now, what I'm gonna do is go ahead and add in the cream cheese as well, and then we're gonna continue on.

There's nothing low fat in this.

That was a good thing about food from the old country.

They weren't worried about calories and everything.

- Italians too.

- Nothing over processed.

It just all came on- - You ready for me?

- Yeah, let's break it up a little bit so we don't- - I don't wanna break your mixer.

- It's been through a lot.

Okay.

And I'm gonna add a little bit, couple drops of, about a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

This is something that the kids are gonna love 'cause they can make it and put it together.

It's sweet.

It's got chocolate in it and everything.

As well as it's gonna be like a dip.

So it's gonna be messy.

All right.

Now, that you've got that good to go, we're gonna go ahead and add in our mini chocolate chips.

(mixer whirring) - I mean, I think it's also gonna love this too, Tim.

- Yeah.

Okay.

I think that looks really good right there.

- It does look good.

- And it's, like, nice and blended through.

Oh, yeah, it looks good.

It looks just like that.

What we'll do is we'll go ahead and scoop that out into this bowl here.

- Perfect.

- Yep.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna sneak a little taste here.

I made this for the kids before.

It's something that they really love.

Like, once again, like I said, they can get nice and messy in it, but it's a good, sweet treat for them to have.

And it's a little different from the norm of just having a cake or having cupcakes at the cookout and everything like that.

So all right, we'll set this aside.

I'm gonna go ahead and put this in the refrigerator.

So we're gonna let that stay in the fridge.

And then the next thing we're gonna have to do is we are going to take these waffle cones.

- Oh, perfect.

- And we're gonna break them up.

- This is a great idea.

- This is a great idea.

And then this is what the kids can dip into.

- Perfect.

(upbeat music) I did a great job.

- You're good.

- Perfect.

- You did a very good job.

- Mm-hmm.

- All right.

So you grab those.

- Okay.

- I'll grab these.

Now, we don't wanna break them up too small.

You just wanna give them a quick little... - I could do that.

- Yeah.

- Oh, I could see my kids really enjoying this.

They'd probably leave the little cones like this and fill them up.

- Oh, yeah, that's a good idea.

I didn't think about that.

- So easy.

- Yeah.

(upbeat music) I think that's enough there 'cause what we'll do is, we'll put the bowl in the middle when we're done.

Okay.

Good deal.

All right.

I'm gonna set these aside, and we'll go ahead and start getting everything prepped up for when our sausages and everything get done in just a few more minutes here and everything.

So I've just picked up this just old school kettle-style Weber grill.

I'm really liking it.

It's just given me a lot of versatility to do a lot of smaller things without having to fire up the big heavy duty smokers that we've used in the smaller, the really small grills that we used on last season's episodes.

So we're gonna let those go.

Now, when it comes to the vegetables, I don't like them done, done.

I like a little bite to it.

- I agree.

- I don't like them soggy, right?

- Yeah, I like- - 'Cause we also- - a little crunch.

- don't wanna, yeah.

- Keep a little crunch in there, for sure.

- Now, what we're gonna do is we're gonna keep an eye on these sausages.

We're gonna go ahead and flip them around so they get a little even heat on each side.

But see, notice that they're not busting.

- Nope.

- They're getting there.

They're cooking.

Now, these sausages, they've got a lot of fat.

It's a sausage on the inside.

And when that starts to cook, it's gonna steam.

And then when it gets to steam, all the juices and everything there, it's going to expand.

And that's what you just wanna be careful and just slow cook them, so to speak, for, is to let them just do their thing and cook from the inside out.

And then right towards the end, we'll put them over on the hot side just to get a couple of grill marks on there.

One of the things that we like to do is, you notice I'm using tongs.

I'm not using grill forks.

We don't want to puncture holes- - Right.

- into the casing of the sausage.

We want it to just do its thing on its own.

So, okay.

- Yeah, once you puncture them, you lose all that delicious juice that we want in there.

- Yeah.

These vegetables are coming along just nicely.

I think they're gonna be done here in just a few more minutes.

And then what we'll do is once we move these, we'll move the sausages just a little bit closer to the heat.

But for right now, I'm gonna go ahead and put the lid on and keep the heat in there.

And let's you and I talk about what are some of the things that you love to cook for your kids and your family at home?

- Well, grilling's big for us at home.

- Okay.

- It's easy, and I think anytime you put something on the grill and you get that smell as you're cooking, you know, it really drives everybody's attention.

All the neighbors are saying, "What are they cooking over there?"

(Tim laughs) I'm sure you get that a lot over here.

- I always got my neighbors poking through the (indistinct) - Oh, yes.

For sure.

- like, "What you got going on over there, Tim?"

- And we've got this beautiful Carolina weather, so why not cook outside?

- No, that is a wonderful thing.

- Kids can swim, we can cook, and I'll enjoy a delicious family meal that's seasonal and delicious.

- Yeah.

We do take advantage of, you know, when we have beautiful weather here in the Carolinas, which we have a lot of.

Today's a great example of that.

It can get really hot sometimes, but usually in the evenings, it does cool down just enough to where you can enjoy a nice outdoor meal.

You can even sit outside and eat and everything with the family and stuff, so.

Now, going back to, like, we was talking about earlier, one of the earliest festivals I remember was Chicago.

And I don't remember what one it was.

I was up there for work, and they said, "Hey, there's this Italian fair going on.

You gotta go check it out."

- Yeah.

- So me and some of the guys from work, we went down there to check it out.

And it was just, you know, it was really wonderful because I think it's a great opportunity for the community to share.

It's not just- - Fair.

- for the Italian community.

They want everybody to come and enjoy some of the food, the flavors, the music and everything like that.

So I think those are really good things.

- Well, if you know anything about Italian families, that's what they're all about, right?

They wanna bring everybody together, and the best way they know how to do it is to eat, right?

So what better way to celebrate than with a food festival?

- Do we have an Italian food festival here in Charlotte?

- We do.

We actually do.

We had one at St.

Neri Phillips Church just a couple of months ago.

- That's great.

- It's definitely not as large as some of the ones you see (Tim laughs) on the East Coast, but it gets the job done.

- So we're gonna just let these sausages go for a little bit.

What I've got, 'cause I though this would be just perfect- - Yes.

- for Italian street food.

No fancy dishes here, but we got just some good, old-fashioned, some boats with the plates on there.

So what we're gonna do, actually, you know, we're just gonna set these aside for the moment and just have them on the ready, because once we pull the sausages, we're gonna go ahead and put the buns on there to get those slightly toasted.

All right, let's see how the sausages and everything are coming along.

I think that the vegetables might be able to go ahead and pull those.

What do you think?

Come around and take a look.

- I can take a look.

- They look good.

- They look great.

- We got a little bit of char on there, a little bit of flavor.

- Still got that crunch.

- Mm-hmm.

Oh, they're still, like, translucent, they're a little shiny, and they've still got their form.

They're just not, you know, just like a wet noodle.

That's not what you want.

You want a little bit of the texture, at least I do, when I'm biting into it.

It's not like it's a salsa or a slaw.

It's more of just, it's part of the meal.

It's not just an accompaniment to the peppers.

It's a part of it.

So yeah.

- Can you get some great grill marks on there too?

- Yes.

- So that color looks beautiful.

- All right, yeah.

Yeah, the pan has done its job here.

Okay.

Well, I'm gonna go ahead and pull these.

- Let's do it.

- And then we'll move the peppers over.

And we can talk a little bit about choosing peppers and where to get good peppers and everything.

So this makes a cool little basket.

I'm just gonna put it right down on here.

Man, it looks great.

It's still sizzling.

Okay, so you see we've got our coals over here.

We're gonna move these just a little bit closer, turn them over, get them going right there.

Yeah, there's definitely some good heat over there.

When it comes to choosing sausages, you know, I always say, try to go check out your local butcher.

A lot of the grocery stores here in the Charlotte area have wonderful meat selections as well.

I picked these up.

These are in-house made at a grocery store here in Charlotte.

So that's not like you have to go to a super fancy butcher to get, you know, some good quality sausages at a good price.

What we talked about earlier is making sure that they don't burst.

This is what you want right here.

They're getting done.

They're getting shiny.

A little bit of the oils is coming out from the ends of the casings, which is okay, which is gonna happen, but nothing has burst quite yet.

You know you're getting there when they start to feel kind of firm.

These still need just a little bit more time.

- And so what you did is just move them over onto the heat a little bit- - Yeah, I'm gonna move them over there.

- to get some color- - Yeah, get a little bit- - and finish them up?

- of color and finish them up a little bit.

- [Kim] I think that's a great tip.

Keep them over on the cold side and let the grill do the work.

- I don't wanna keep flipping them too much here, but I'm gonna get them set here, and then we're gonna go ahead and close the lid, keep some of the heat in there.

All right.

There's plenty of options here in the Charlotte area to get good quality meats at a great price.

We've got wonderful grocery stores here.

You can go to, you know, your specialty butcher.

I'm sure they do a wonderful job with their house-made sausages as well.

But yeah, wherever you feel the most comfortable in picking out something that you like.

Like, you know, Kim likes the sweet sausage, I like the spicy sausage, but I'm not opposed to either one of them if there is a, if there's one or the other, but I though it would be a nice variety so we can see those.

And if you can see, there's definitely a color difference between the sweet and the spicy sausages.

The sweet, the red, the spicy sausages have a little more red from all the peppers and the spices in there.

And the sweet sausages, honestly, look more, I don't wanna say like a Brat because a Brat has a lot more lighter color, but they have a lot less red in them and everything.

- Very helpful when you're serving kids, to know which color's which.

- Yes.

You don't want the little kids with the spicy sausage, and then they're just, you know, screaming 'cause their mouth is on fire.

- Yeah.

- Although that has happened before with the little guy.

But he likes that.

Now, there is another integral part of the Italian sausage and pepper dog.

I don't know why I keep calling it a dog.

Well, is it just a sandwich?

I'm from the South, so it's a sausage dog, right?

- Yeah.

- But no.

But it's just, it's just sausage and peppers on a roll, right?

- Yeah.

- So I always think that's another integral part of it, is getting a good, hearty roll.

Now, we have two different rolls here.

We've got your typical Italian white roll, like right here.

And I've also, because, I'm not gonna lie, I'm gonna pick on my friend for minute.

Is that okay?

- Sure.

- My friend came here.

She can't do gluten.

I got her some gluten-free rolls.

But I'm gonna have to tell you, you need to talk to the the association because the best I could do was gluten-free hot dog rolls.

And I just wanted just a good, nice-sized roll, so.

But I was happy to do that for her.

- A for effort, Tim.

- A for effort.

A for effort.

That's one of the cool things, whenever we do have a party, I always put her in charge of the dessert.

She's like, "What can I bring?"

I'm like, "Bring dessert."

And I'm not going to lie, you've brought some of the best gluten-free, I'm not even best gluten-free, you've brought over some of the best desserts I've ever had, so.

Okay.

So what we're gonna do, we're gonna toast these up.

We're gonna open up a couple of these, and we're gonna check on our peppers.

Oh, yeah.

See, they're coming along nicely now.

They're getting on the, getting a little bit of heat, getting a couple grill marks on there.

- I gotta say, that smell's bringing me right back- - Yeah, it smells- - to a festival right now.

- Yeah.

And that's, like, you know, one of the cool things is, like, you know, just seeing the sausage cart.

The guy.

- Sure.

- Everybody's got their favorite.

They're like, "Oh, I hope so-and-so's gonna be here."

It's like Phillys in, Philly sandwiches in Phillies.

Like, you know, "That guy's got the best.

This lady does the best."

- Yep.

- And, you know, everybody's got their favorite.

And the cool thing about it is, nobody's wrong.

- Right.

Right.

(Tim laughs) - So, yeah, we got some nice color coming on these.

Gonna flip them around to even them out a little bit.

See, like, nope, notice none of them have burst yet.

I think what makes a good bread is just something that's got a little substance.

It's gotta hold.

It's gotta hold a sausage and all of these vegetables and everything here.

- Gluten helps.

- Gluten.

(Tim laughs) Well, I honestly, like, I didn't do it because I wanted to stay true, but I like a nice crusty bread.

- Okay.

- Almost like a baguette even for when I'm doing something like this.

For, like, whenever we're doing a beef roll or something like that, I like a nice crusty bread.

They got that thin, hard crust on the outside and the soft, but these are great.

These are your traditional just Italian hoagies.

So what we're gonna do, we're gonna put these, we're gonna put them over there.

Now, one thing I wanna caution everybody about, and I've learned this many a times, when you are using a grill or an open flame to toast your bread, you've gotta watch it.

You've gotta watch it.

It will go from toasted to burnt in a matter of minutes.

So that's why we're gonna let this go.

This is gonna be the absolute last thing we do 'cause we just wanna get a little bit of golden color on there.

And we're not gonna put any butter or anything on here.

There's plenty of oil and flavor- - Oh, yeah.

- In the peppers themselves and the oils coming off of the, off the sausages, so.

You know, for the last couple minutes, I'm gonna move them over the direct heat, and I'm gonna watch them very carefully.

I love how you can see some of the fennel in there.

- Oh, yeah.

- You can see the spices and everything in there, so.

We're gonna put these right over there.

So when your family, do you still, I know some of your family has moved down here because of the grandkids- - Yeah.

- the kids, but now they're grandkids and everything like that.

Do you still have a lot of family back up North?

- We do.

A lot of family still up in New Jersey, and some have moved to Connecticut, but they're still making sausage, peppers and onions (Tim laughs) and all their Italian favorites.

So my dad, when he goes to the festivals, he always wants a hard-cooked sausage.

He wants it burnt.

- Okay.

- So if my dad was here, he'd say, "Leave it on, Tim.

- Leave it on, leave it on for a little bit longer?

- Leave it on, Tim" - [Tim] Okay.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

- [Kim] Just gotta be careful.

You don't wanna burst it.

- Once again, you gotta be careful 'cause you see some of the oil's leaking out, and that's what's causing the smoke and the flames to come back up and lick at it.

And that's when you gotta start being careful 'cause that's what's gonna cause it to burst.

It is a very hands-on cooking, especially when it gets to the second half, where you're putting it over the direct flame.

And I just love this.

I mean, I love cooking.

One of the other things about these fairs is it is a community.

It brings together such a sense of community, which, I think, whenever we talk about community, especially on this show, it's always about food and community, right?

It's, you know, just everybody's, I feel like everybody's gotta eat, everybody's got something they could, you know, quote, unquote, "Bring to the table-" - Bring to the table.

- as far as, like, their flavors, their backgrounds.

We're getting a little smokey.

- [Kim] You gonna go right on the peppers and onions or you want me to get you a sheet tray?

- Yeah, I'm gonna put them right on the peppers and onions.

That way some of the flavor can get in there, and then we'll put the bread on there, and then we'll just pull them off and go ahead and get them toasted up.

- Cool.

- It's got that, you can see where it's, like, it's got that snap to it coming.

It's hot.

Yep, okay, I'm gonna go ahead and pull these.

That's not hot anymore.

Put some hot ones on this side.

- It's also great for tailgate season coming up and all of those outdoor activities that we love.

This is a great one for that.

- So I'm gonna clean it off just a little bit here just to get some of the, you know, the cooked-on char off of there.

We want the bread to toast.

I don't wanna pick up too much from the grill.

So once again, really carefully, you can see the coals are very hot.

A couple flames licking up.

We're gonna go ahead and put these on top here for not long at all.

We'll just do three to get it started.

Bread is one of the most important parts about it.

Don't go getting hot dog buns, or, you know, a potato bowl.

Get you a good hoagie.

That's what you need.

- Italian hoagie rolls.

For sure.

- It's got the substance to hold everything together there.

- Now, Tim, are you seeds or no seeds normally?

- Oh, see, look, that didn't take long at all.

- [Kim] Oh, look at that.

Perfect.

- Just be very careful with it 'cause you don't want the bread to split 'cause then it becomes more of a sandwich than an actual roll.

So, you know, just use a little bit of care.

And one thing, that's another thing with the toast and getting too much on there.

We'll go ahead and put that one on there.

And then the last one right there.

Okay.

- Perfect.

- We'll get that one.

All right.

So, a sweet sausage for the lady.

I like to put the sausage on first.

Oh, I did you, I did you wrong.

I did you dirty there.

Let's go ahead and put one of these in there.

And then just go ahead, and I pile these on top and around it.

- That's great.

- That's great.

If it's not spilling off of it, then it's not a good, it's not a good sausage and pepper dog.

Kim, once again, thank you so much for being on my show and telling me some of the secrets and, you know, just giving us a little bit of your history and everything with the Italian street fairs and all.

So let's go ahead and try these 'cause remember now, we still have dessert to try too, so.

- Oh, yeah.

- All right.

I'm gonna get a good hold of this one.

- This is great.

Cooked perfectly.

All the flavor, all the color.

- Yeah, that's delicious.

That's delicious.

All right.

And don't forget about, to finish it off.

You know, that's good.

The spicy pepper, a little cool-finished sweet treat here, just the deconstructed cannoli dip.

I think this is great because this is something, you set it on the table, the kids are gonna dig into it, everybody's gonna dig into it.

- For sure.

- And you know what?

- It's not too sweet either.

It's perfect.

- Well, you can have as much or as little as you want.

You're not stuck with the whole cannoli.

I think that's really cool.

It was really ingenious with the waffle cones and everything like that.

- Yeah, it's perfect.

- [Tim] It was really cool.

- Definitely a winner here.

I can see myself making this exact dessert with my kids.

- Yeah.

And it's really easy.

It took us a matter of minutes.

- Yep.

- It's just the ricotta, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and the chocolate chips.

- Perfect.

- That's gonna put a wrap on this episode.

Once again, thank you so much.

- Sure.

- Be sure to tune in again next week for more family fun, friendly recipes that are gonna be easy on your budget and everything.

We're gonna try some different stuff, so tune in next week to see what we've got.

Once again, thank you.

- Thank you for having me at the sausage party.

- Hey, it's not a party if you're not here.

- Love it.

(Tim laughs) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] A production of PBS Charlotte.