Archive for January, 2008
i know all there is to know about the writing game
My dear blogging buddy Jen of A2eatwrite has organized an amazing project called “The Writing Game.” You may have noticed the button over there on my sidebar? Well here’s what it’s all about:
Each person who wants to play sends Jen story ideas, character descriptions, and a conflict. Jen then randomly swaps these lists among the participants so that each person has a blogging buddy and writes something based on his or her buddy’s ideas.
I was matched up with one of my favorite bloggers who I can’t wait to meet in person when she moves to Rome and who gave me a fantastic set-up, characters, and conflict. Grazie mille NYC/Caribbean Ragazza!
Below is just a taste of my story entitled For Love or Garlic.
Go here to read the rest of my story on The Writing Game blog and see NYC/Caribbean Ragazza’s original ideas. And don’t forget to let me know what you think either here or there (or everywhere)!
Also, while you’re over at The Writing Game, take a look at the rest of the stories (each with different plots, themes, ideas) from this edition of The Game, and start thinking about your ideas to join up next time!
For Love or Garlic
I can’t believe it’s 2 a.m. and we’re stuck within nose-shot of the garlic capital of the world, thought John as leaned back against the front bumper of his Mercedes. He zippered up his new lightweight jacket, one that was never meant to weather any actual weather, and crossed his arms in front of him.
“It’s not my fault, you know,” Melinda yelled through the passenger side’s open window. They had been together for 10 years and she knew what John was thinking by the way he sighed as he looked toward the sign pointing the way to
She pulled her head back inside the car and wrapped her scarf a little tighter.
The studio head didn’t agree, though, and John had to endure finding cloves of garlic on his desk for many months after he suggested the idea. Of course those silly pranks were better than his eventual reward of a brand new although garlic-free desk at a different studio with a boss 15 years his junior.
With the young buck to compare himself to, John increasingly felt as if his own 45 years were speeding toward the half-century mark like a getaway car.
Getting away from what was the question he struggled to answer.
The mere sight of the
Besides, there was definitely something pungent in the air.
* * * * *
Be sure to click through to read the rest of my story For Love or Garlic.
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Technorati Tags: the writing game, fiction writing, writing, gilroy, garlic
Banana & Nutella Cake for World Nutella Day 2008
***IF IT’S NOW 2010 AND YOU’VE JUST LANDED HERE, be sure to check out World Nutella Day 2010 for this year’s festivities.***
Well you had to know that a What’s Cooking Wednesday recipe with Nutella was coming up . . . World Nutella Day 2008 is less than a week away!
Don’t forget to post your entry on your blog and send the link and photo to nutelladay [at] nutelladay [dot] com by February 4th to be included in the big round-up!
Yesterday my co-host of World Nutella Day 2008 Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy posted her experiment with Nutella and a variety of fruits. Go see Sara’s recommendations on which fruits “go” with Nutella and which are, ahem, better off as just friends.
Sara’s post got me thinking about my own World Nutella Day contribution from last year, which was a very understated slice of banana on a Nutella-coated cracker sprinkled with nutmeg.
I wanted to bake something this year but I still love that banana and Nutella combination, so I turned to my trusty Louise’s Banana Cake recipe that I posted a while back and kicked it up a notch. With Nutella, of course.
Banana & Nutella Cake
1 c mashed bananas (2 medium, overripe)
1 1/2 c sugar
1 c vegetable shortening
3 eggs
3 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 c sour milk (add 2 tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar to sour it)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 c chopped nuts (optional)
1 small jar of Nutella (drinking glass size!)
Mash bananas and set aside.
Mix together sugar and shortening, and then add eggs and beat until pale yellow.
Mix together the dry ingredients, and then add them to the sugar/shortening mixture, alternating with sour milk and vanilla. Batter will be thick.
Add bananas and the nuts if you’re using them, and beat until blended.
With this batter, I made a loaf cake and about 20 mini-cupcakes. First I filled half the loaf pan with batter and then spooned Nutella length-wise down the middle, swirling it with a toothpick as such:
Then I poured more batter on top until the pan was 3/4 full and repeated the Nutella swirling process again. FYI, this used up about half the jar of Nutella. If you like more Nutella in there, by all means, go right ahead and swirl away!
For the mini-cupcakes, I filled the cups 3/4 full and then put a dollop of Nutella on top and swirled it around così:
Bake at 325°F (162°C).
If baking a 13 x9 cake, it should take about 45 minutes; my loaf pan took about 45 minutes as well. The mini-cupcakes took about 20 minutes at this temperature, but always be sure to test–remove when the tops springs back from the touch and/or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Buon appetito and remember to send your World Nutella Day entries to nutelladay [at] nutelladay [dot] com by February 4th to be included in the round-up!
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Technorati Tags: nutella, nutella day, banana cake, recipes, baking, what’s cooking wednesday, bananas
voting from abroad (for democrats)
We’ve discussed what’s going on in the Italian political sphere, so it’s only fair that I also talk about my homeland, the United States, in this extremely important election year.
Some of you have asked whether I, as a dual Italian-American citizen, can vote in American elections as well as Italian–and the answer is yes. And up until this year, all I had to do was ask for my absentee ballots in time.
FYI, in order to get absentee ballots and vote the old-fashioned way, Americans living abroad can visit the Federal Voting Assistance Program or the Overseas Vote Foundation for specific state requirements.
But this year, there’s another option, at least for Democrats.
If you’re a Democrat, you can, for the first time ever, vote *online* in the Democrats Abroad Global Primary. If you’re in Italy, you can also vote in person in Rome, Florence, Milan, or Bologna. See DemocratsAbroad.org for more details.
If you’re a registered Republican, though, this option isn’t available to you just yet so you’ll have to go the absentee route.
Now, who should you vote for? Well if you’re still undecided, there are plenty of online quizzes that will match you up with the candidate whose views are closest to yours; my favorite is from Glassbooth.org.
You’re given 20 points to allot among a list of issues depending on how important they are to you, and then you answer a series of more specific questions.
Click! And you have the candidate whose views are most similar to yours.
How’d I do? Of the remaining candidates, Mike Gravel and I are apparently peas in a pod at 85%–who knew? I hadn’t even heard of him until I took this quiz. Quite depressing actually.
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and I meet at the 74% mark, while John Edwards and I agree 73% of the time.
I have to be honest. I’m not uber-excited about any of the candidates (I would’ve loved to have voted for Dennis Kucinich or Joe Biden . . . or Al Gore!), but I do know I’ll be voting Democrat in November. After all, I am pretty much what you’d call a Yellow Dog Democrat and proud:
That’s for you Cherrye!
No matter who you’re supporting, BE SURE TO VOTE!
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Technorati Tags: elections, presidential election, presidential primaries, voting overseas, voting abroad, glassbooth, democrats abroad, yellow dog democrat
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