Bleeding Espresso

I’ve waited to write July’s Monthly Musing until the very end of the month–hoping that I would develop more positive feelings about it as July marched on.

Unfortunately with each passing day, more and more of our gorgeous rolling hills have gone from green and brown to charred black, and there’s not much positive I can take from that.

You may have read about the fires throughout central and southern Italy (as well as Greece), and believe me, the stories are not exaggerated.

Some say that many of the fires have been set deliberately but to be honest with you, I don’t really buy into that. Sure people burn off their land here all the time, but they’re pretty good about controlling it, and not many are doing it in 120°F–most of that was done in June when temps were reasonable.

They say the motive is to clear the way for new hotels, villas, and pastures
but from where I’m sitting, it’s just a whole lot of beautiful olive trees that have been taking the hit around here–and if any hotels or villas sprout up on the hillside, I’ll let you know.

I’m sure that there *are* some pyromaniacs around, but I personally feel that blaming arsonists for the rash of fires is just another way for the powers-that-be to shake their heads in derision toward central and especially southern Italy and to draw attention away from the fact that they haven’t been very successful in managing the fires.

But maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, we have been lucky to escape any damage up until now, but the hill just across the road from us wasn’t so lucky; yesterday afternoon it went up in flames as I was down at the beach swimming near where a helicopter was dipping into the sea for water to take up there. A couple weeks ago, our neighboring village lost two houses, although no one was injured.

I posted here about the planes fighting the fires, but things have gotten so much worse since then. Tourists have been killed in Puglia and one of our pilots died in Abruzzo when his Canadair crashed into a mountain near L’Aquila.

Greece lost two of its own in a similar way.

And so I sit here on another scorcher, although it’s certainly cooler than it has been, waiting for the wind to pick up as it normally does at this time of day and then continues to increase until it reaches what feels like hurricane force.

And I’m sorry to say that I smell smoke.

Smoke, flames, blackened earth
July two-thousand seven
I’ll never forget.

On a different, more cheerful note, do check out my post entitled “What’s the Deal with Lycopene?: Health Benefits of Tomatoes” on TomatoCasual.com.

And let’s hope for a better August.

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Technorati Tags: july, fires, forest fires, italy, southern italy, calabria, haiku

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Go over to TomatoCasual.com and check out my post, The Tomato: A Relatively New Addition to the Dinner Table, and then click on the home page to see all the posts.

The site was just launched today, so be sure to bookmark it and/or subscribe so you can learn more about the tomato than you ever thought possible–its history, how to grow them, how to cook them, and much, much more.

On a personal note, I’ve spent all day today with some American friends in town (yeah for English!), and we’re having a blast. Just got back from the beach, so it’s time to shower off the sand and head to dinner.

Hope your Monday is/was just as lovely as mine!

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First I want to thank all of you who commented on yesterday’s post Weighty Issues; I love this sort of dialogue, and I hope we can do more of it around here. If you have any topics you’d like to throw out, I’m all ears–send me an email if you don’t want to leave it in comments.

I’m still catching up on all your contributions, so bear with me, but on that note:

Behold the Power of Schmooze!

Karina at Candid Karina and Meredith at Poppy Fields have both called me out as a blogger who manages to, and I quote:

effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello - all the while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship.

Well shucks, I sure am touched. Grazie mille!

**This just in: Jessica in Rome has bestowed this wonderful honor upon me as well. I’m *such* a winner today!**

I truly enjoy getting to know all of you through my blog, your blogs, your comments, and emails, and I do hope that you feel there is a community here you can come and visit–where, uh, everybody knows your name (at least your screen name). Or something like that.

For those of you who haven’t commented or emailed yet, I rather enjoy you too, and I hope you’ll consider chatting with us soon.

I’m going to pass this award along to some of my favorite Internet sparring partners, all fellow expats in Italy:

(1) Michelle of michellanea;

(2) KC of Niente di nuovo avviene sotto il sole;

(3) Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy;

(4) Shelley of At Home in Rome; and

(5) Cherrye at My Bella Vita.

While we’re on the subject, as I was preparing this post, I saw that Sara at Moving Right Along tagged me with the Thoughtful Blogger Award, created by Christy Z. at Writer’s Reviews, and it is:

[f]or those who answer blog comments, emails, and make their visitors feel at home on their blogs. For the people who take others’ feelings into consideration before speaking out and who are kind and courteous. Also for all of those bloggers who spend so much of their time helping others bloggers design, improve, and fix their sites. This award is for those generous bloggers who think of others.

Again, thank you so much for the honor!

As Sara wrote in her post accepting this award, there is definitely a place for blogs that aren’t so interactive, and I certainly don’t fault anyone who doesn’t respond to every single comment and/or email–these awards just serve to offer a little recognition for those that do, to say thanks, and to urge you to keep it up!

I am passing along this award to:

(1) somepinkflowers at somepinkflowers;

(2) Wanderlust Scarlett at from the shores of introspect and retrospect;

(3) Michelle at Smoochdog;

(4) Michelle at Scribbit; and

(5) Kimberly at Temporary? Insanity.

Also, I know that some of you don’t really “do” these bloggie award thingees, so please don’t feel obligated to pass along anything on my account. The honor is yours to do with as you wish!

Did anyone else notice, though, the prevalence of Michelles here? I’m one too, you know, so all I can say is…hmm….

Now just for some Friday fun, and in honor of my fellow Italian expat bloggers Shelley (At Home in Rome) and Sharon (Respiri di Vita) who have both won prizes through the Late Show with David Letterman Top Ten Contest, I thought I’d share:

The Top Ten Rejected Titles for this Post

10. I’m a Schmoozer Baby, So Why Don’t You Kill Me?
9. Blue Suede Schmooze
8. Schmoozy in the Sky with Diamonds
7. Schmoozin’ Ain’t Easy
6. If the Schmooze Fits!
5. Woo-ee Baby, Won’t You Let Me Take You on a Schmooze Cruise?
4. Schmooze ‘Em If You Got ‘Em
3. Fo’ Schmoozle My Boozle
2. All the Schmooze That’s Fit to Print
1. Lollapaschmooza 2007

Buon weekend! 

32 Comments »

I normally don’t discuss such things here, but I’m truly curious to hear your take on this.

I read an article on Msnbc.com called “With Friends Like These” about a study that found that obesity is contagious and that it spreads through social networks of friends even if those friends live thousands of miles apart.

Seriously.

Let me give you my take:

Until we start accepting responsibility for our actions, owning all of our experiences and choices (good and bad), and really, truly respecting and honoring our bodies through our choices of what we put in them and do to them, the obesity problem will continue–and I’m not just talking about the United States here as it’s becoming a problem in many countries around the world, including Italy.

Let’s leave aside drug and alcohol issues for the moment while we also recognize that there are absolutely similarities in all types of addictions that harm the body.

I share the following as background, so you can understand where I’m coming from on this one:

You can’t tell much from my little head shot up there, but I’m not skinny. I don’t think I ever was (doctors put me on a diet when I was less than a year old–how’s that for setting someone up for life?), and I don’t imagine I ever will be. And that’s fine with me because I feel good and healthy and know that I’m doing my best to be good to my body.

Over the last few years, I’ve been working on developing a better relationship with food, understanding nutrition, listening to what my body tells me it needs, and doing more physical exercise than I’ve ever done in my life. I’ve lost a good bit of weight, but the best thing about all this is that I feel like I’m taking better care of the only thing that’s really mine in the world.

And it feels wonderful.

And no, I’m not perfect–last night for dinner I had a big ole steak and french fries. And it was delicious. I’ll probably have a gelato later. And I’ll probably never lose the last 5-10 pounds I should, according to the Body Mass Index because of it. So be it. A lot of people are at so-called healthy weights but they aren’t healthy in the least (so many skinnies that I know smoke more than the Marlboro Man), so who’s really to say what’s best for me but me?

But enough about me. I’m interested in what you think about the study.

Was it worth studying? Do friends make somebody fat? Family? How much influence do your family and friends have over what you do?

Obviously certain medical disorders cause weight gain, but aside from such causes, what are the real reasons for obesity? Who or what really is to blame? How can we stop this epidemic?

Do you care? Should the government care? If so, how should it go about caring, so to speak?

I’d love to hear some of your experiences and opinions on this issue.

This is a touchy subject, so I do ask that you be as kind as possible if you decide to share your thoughts. I look forward to reading them.

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Technorati Tags: weight, losing weight, gaining weight

65 Comments »

Today’s What’s Cooking Wednesday has us playing with some flowers.

Those of the lovely zucchini, or courgettes to some of you:

Don’t they just look good enough to eat?

Fiori di zucchine come in two varieties, male and female, and they’re both edible. You can tell the females by the fact that they are attached to the zucchini whereas the males have stems like regular flowers. The ones pictured above, then, are males.

Plus, of course, the females have pistils and the males have stamens (you remember biology class, right?). They say you can leave these in when you prepare the flowers to be eaten, but I always remove them with a quick twist. Ouch!

There are a lot of very basic, very delicious recipes for fried zucchini flowers out there–just whip up a tempura batter with flour, egg, milk, and salt (slightly more exact measurements below), and fry ‘em up.

And that’s what I did with about half of the flowers, the smaller ones.

With the rest, though, I wanted to try a little something more adventurous. So I spiced up my ricotta and spinach cannelloni filling with some prosciutto crudo. I loved the results, the way the saltiness of the prosciutto picked up the sweetness of the flowers and how the spinach brought it all back down with its earthy flavor.

All measurements are approximate, so feel free to play.

Zucchini Flowers Stuffed with Ricotta, Spinach, & Prosciutto Crudo
(Fiori di Zucchine Ripiene con Ricotta, Spinaci e Prosciutto Crudo)

Approximately 25-30 large zucchini flowers

Filling:
1 egg yolk
One small container ricotta cheese (fresh if you can find it)
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped spinach
prosciutto crudo, torn into bits or diced
grated parmigiano reggiano cheese
dash nutmeg
salt to taste

Batter:
(Note: I used this for all the flowers,
so this was enough for about 60 in all)
3 eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt (to taste)

Vegetable oil for frying

Prepare the batter and set aside; it shouldn’t be too thick for this recipe, although here they definitely make this batter quite thick and you end up with almost a fritter–tasty too, but not what we’re going for here.

One note: do remember that you’re dealing with flowers, so be gentle.

To prepare the zucchini flowers, remove the stamens and stems and then wash the flowers carefully and put them on paper towels to dry. Note that you can also leave the stems on for presentation purposes, but I usually take them off.

Prepare the filling by combining all the ingredients above and gently stuff the zucchini flowers up until the point where the petals start to open. I used a makeshift pastry bag (Ziploc with the corner cut off). You can twist the petals a bit to close in the stuffing.

If you aren’t going to fry them right away, you can store the stuffed flowers this way in the fridge for a few hours, although I wouldn’t wait too long because the ricotta can get watery.

When you’re ready to fry, heat the vegetable oil in a medium to large pan.

One by one, dip the stuffed flowers in the batter (you’re going to have to use your hands here) and let excess batter drip off. Then drop the flower in oil and allow all sides to brown before you lift out and put on paper towels to drain.

I’d recommend only frying two flowers at a time otherwise they become difficult to keep track of increasing burning possibilities.

Although they require a bit of prep work, these make tasty, impressive-looking appetizers, but you need to serve them warm. If you won’t be serving right away, use an oven to keep them heated until you’re ready to serve.

Buon appetito!

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Technorati Tags: zucchini flowers, zucchini, fiori di zucchine, courgettes, stuffed zucchini flowers, recipes, prosciutto crudo, spinach, ricotta cheese, cooking, what’s cooking wednesday, flowers

51 Comments »