Delta Pi Delta celebrates Christmas at Imperial Golf Club

Members of Delta Pi Delta Alumnae Chapter met for a Christmas celebration at Imperial Golf Club in Naples, Florida, on December 13, 2014. Hostess Donna Porter provided a beautiful luncheon and included on the menu sticky buns, our perennial favorite at Imperial. As usual, they didn’t disappoint. As Christmas gifts, members brought women’s personal items and gift cards for women in shelters in Hendry, Lee and Collier Counties.

After our luncheon, Lydia’s Song, a vocal ensemble from North Naples United Methodist Church, performed uplifting Christmas music to infuse our day with the Christmas spirit. Music is an integral part of the ministry of The North Naples Church. Lydia’s Song performs frequently at church functions, and several members of the choir teach music classes at the Village School, affiliated with the North Naples Church. 

At Christmas time in 2012, there was a special event in honor of one of our younger members, who was about to get married. Tiffany and her fiancé Jim were serenaded with the Alpha Chi Sweetheart Song in anticipation of their forthcoming nuptials. At our Christmas luncheon in 2013, we celebrated the birth of Tiffany and Jim’s child, Genevieve Grace. This year Genevieve Grace attended our Christmas luncheon at Imperial, and we all feel blessed that Tiffany and Jim share with us the happiness of watching this beautiful little girl grow up.

Grounds approaching the club house

The porte-cochere of the club house up on a hill

Steps leading up to the club house from the parking lot

Carol and Kerry on the club house steps

Mary, Pat, Tiffany, Jim, Genevieve Grace and Nancy ready to enter the club house

Nancy and a Christmas Village

Christmas tree in the lobby of the club house

Christmas wreath and village

Jane in front of the tree

Phyllis and Ann in front of the Alpha Chi table

Jean, Teddy and Linda, ready with tickets for the fifty/fifty raffle

Betsy and Bobbi decked out in Christmas colors

Phyllis, Carol, Lynn, Denny’s sister, and Denny

Judith, Jean and Sue

Becky and Shirley

Kerry and Donna

Sheila, Jackie’s guest, Jackie and Ronda

New member-to-be Carol

Tiffany and Genevieve Grace

Tiffany, Genevieve Grace and Jim

Richard and Patricia

Sandy and Don

Pat and Carol

Amy and Susan

Valary

Mary Lou

Barbara and Rosemary

Nancy and Sally

Rosemary, Phyllis and Sandy

Phyllis, Esther and Ann

Zarie and Nancy

Lydia’s Song vocal ensemble

Lydia’s Song performing

The audience during the performance

Lydia’s Song performing

Lydia's Song performing

Lydia's Song

Our annual Delta Pi Delta Christmas photo
(Click on the pic to get the full effect)

Lunch with Chef Alberto

Members of Delta Pi Delta Alumnae Chapter met at “Alberto’s on Fifth” in Naples, Florida, on November 8, 2014, for a cooking demonstration by Chef Alberto Varetto, followed by lunch. Chef Alberto has had a long and distinguished culinary career, which began in Italy and continues at Alberto’s on Fifth, opened in 2012. Chef Alberto prides himself on presenting authentic Italian food and on making fresh pasta, sauces, sausage and breads every day.

For our cooking demonstration, Chef Alberto began with pasta preparation. We had  recipes in hand, and Alberto showed us how to prepare the dough for pasta and then how to make different pasta shapes, like fettuccine and spaghetti. He also demonstrated how to make ravioli. After the pasta demonstration, Alberto showed us how to prepare risotto and roasted pepper salad with sautéed shrimp. He doesn’t cut corners. Everything is prepared from scratch, and Alberto is an excellent teacher with a subtle sense of humor. We ended up inspired to go home and prepare these dishes ourselves.

The last dish that Chef Alberto prepared was Tiramisu. He added 3 Tbsp of sugar to 3 egg whites and mixed them until they were fluffy. He then added 16 oz of mascarpone cheese,  3 egg yolks and a few dashes of amaretto to the egg whites and whipped again. To assemble the dessert, he broke 2 lady fingers in two, dipped them in espresso coffee and placed them inside a ring. He then spread the mascarpone mixture over the lady fingers and repeated the layering. He put cocoa powder over the top and removed the ring.

After the food demo, we had lunch. Our first course included roasted pepper salad with sautéed  shrimp and greens. The main course was salmon on risotto, fettuccine and ravioli. For dessert we had Tiramisu. The food was wonderful, the service was excellent, and somehow it tasted better because we had seen the care with which it was prepared.

Alberto’s on Fifth has outdoor eating on a terrace in front of the restaurant.

Brenda, Phyllis and Sasha outside of Alberto’s

Bobbi, Barbara and Betsy sitting front and center at the demonstration table

Pat, Mary and Carol at the demo table

Carol, Carolyn, Mary Lou, Barbara and Rosemary ready to take their seats for the demo

Teddy and the hostess for this meeting, Jackie

Darlene, Judith, Nancy, Sue and Sandy

Phyllis and Sue have the blues.

Nancy and the store manager of a jewelry store next door to the restaurant

Shirley color-coordinates perfectly again. 

At Bonita Bay in February, the colors were different, but they were perfectly done as well.

Darlene and Scottie

Linda and Sally

Pat, Brenda and Kim

Tables for the demonstration were set up in a “U” shape.
Everything was laid out meticulously in preparation for the demo.

Behind the bar at the restaurant, all the bottles were wearing cone cups, and I wish I had asked why. 

Shirley and Jackie

Chef Alberto makes a well in the flour and slowly combines the eggs and flour to make pasta dough.

After the dough rests, Alberto feeds a portion through the pasta machine.

The chef continuously folds the pasta and feeds it through the machine until it is the right consistency.

The sheets of pasta should be 10 inches long and 5 inches wide.The thickness depends on which pasta you are preparing.

The chef makes fettuccine with a different attachment from the dough-making attachment.

Chef Alberto makes ravioli using a form with round indentations. After the first sheet of pasta is laid on the form and filled, the second one is pressed into place on top.

The form is flipped over and the dough is cut with a pasta cutter.

The chef adds some Pinot Grigio to his risotto. He uses aluminum pans for risotto because they distribute heat better than other pans do.

Alberto continually shows his students what is happening at various stages of preparation.

This is the proper consistency for risotto, which the chef insists cannot be made in less than 25 minutes of constant tending.

With leftover risotto, add an egg and bake.

Leftover risotto plated

Peppers for roasted pepper salad

Roast the peppers, preferably in the oven, but a bare flame will also do.

After the burned skins are removed, the peppers are sliced, seasoned and marinated for an hour.

Chef Alberto assembles the appetizer of summer roasted pepper salad with sautéed shrimp.

The appetizer plated

A close-up of the appetizer

The chef pipes the tiramisu filling on the lady fingers.

The tiramisu plated

The appetizer course of our lunch included shrimp on roasted peppers, prosciutto, a shaved slice of parmesan on greens and diced tomatoes on mozzarella.

Our entrée consisted of salmon on risotto, fettuccine with tomato sauce and ravioli.

Our dessert was tiramisu. This is the BEFORE shot of the tiramisu

This is Nancy and the AFTER shot of the tiramisu.