Archive for 2009
What’s Cooking Wednesday: Calabrian Scrambled Eggs
This week’s What’s Cooking Wednesday is an old *and* new family favorite. My grandmother used to make it all the time, and now P and I make it quite often as well.
Calabrian Scrambled Eggs are definitely one of my all-time fast and filling dishes–and it can also be great for using up leftovers. This is a fab dish for singletons as well as you can easily make just enough for one person.
Now you may be asking yourself: Self, what exactly makes these scrambled eggs Calabrian?
It’s the supressata*, silly:
You can, of course, substitute with any kind of meat you like from sausage to ham to mortadella (bologna), and it will be just as tasty. Only a bit less Calabrian is all.
And in case you don’t already, I hope you think of scrambled eggs in the same way as you would an omelet…anything goes. That is, if you like it and think it will go nicely with eggs, have at it!
Calabrian Scrambled Eggs
Uova strapazzate alla Calabrese
(serves two)
- Two tablespoons olive oil
- One small onion, sliced
- About a handful of cubed supressata (probably about 100 g)
- 4 eggs
- Splash of milk
- Two pinches of salt
- One slice of meltable cheese (Sottilette in Italy)
1. Heat oil over medium in a nonstick pan and add onion and supressata. Let them fry for a few minutes until the onions soften and the meat starts to release its juices.
2. In the meantime, break eggs into a bowl, add milk and salt, and beat together well.
3. Pour egg mixture into pan and add cheese in small pieces.
4. Move eggs around as they cook to get that patented scrambled look; they’re ready when they’ve set and are no longer runny.
5. Serve hot, and if you’re like us, with crusty Italian bread and a nice tomato salad. Yum!
Buon appetito!
*Alternatively known as sopressata, soppressata, suppressata, and “soupies” back in the Anthracite Coal Region.
Head Over to Cherrye’s “My Bella Vita”
I know that many of you also read Cherrye‘s My Bella Vita (especially since quite a few of you so sweetly emailed me to check on her while she was away), so I wanted to make sure everyone knows Cherrye is back blogging.
As many of you probably know, Cherrye’s father passed away while she was gone, but not before she made it back to Texas to see him–there’s no doubt in my mind that he waited for her and Peppe to arrive.
Please head over to Cherrye’s and check out her wonderful tribute to her daddy:
The Life and Legacy of Buddy Moore
And be sure to click on the links; lots of great Buddy Moore stuff there too.
Un abbraccio forte, Cherrye.
The Meaning of (Calabrian) Life
In my recent call for questions, Jen of A2eatwrite asked:
Okay… from a Calabrian viewpoint – what is the meaning of life? And yes, I’m being serious. I’m not looking for the “ultimate” answer, just what you think the local answer would be.
This is a fabulous question, and first let me preface my answer by saying I certainly don’t presume to speak for all Calabrians, who are a rather varied group despite the basic, deep Calabrese pride that runs throughout the toe of the boot.
Calabrians work in all industries from agriculture to technology from Cosenza to Milano and beyond (even in the CIA!), so let me begin by painting the picture of the small group of old-fashioned Calabrians I’ll be drawing from in formulating my answer:
I live in a hilltop village of about 350 people, most of whom are probably over the age of 65. The houses are built on top of one another, more or less, as space used to be limited; the village used to hold as many as 12,000 people.
On the sides of the hill leading up the village, there are many plots of land, most of which are still used as garden spaces or places to keep animals.
So for many of these traditional Calabrians, those who still get up at sunrise to feed the hens, pick olives, or till the soil for a new planting of tomatoes, I’d say the meaning of life is rather simple—to wake up relatively healthy each day, strong enough to have the opportunity to take care of whatever needs to be taken care of, whether it be the land, the house, or the family.
And when they have a little left over, well it’s time to go off to the neighbor’s house and share.
I think that’s what the Calabrians I know are best at doing and what they strive to do each and every day—they do what needs to be done for themselves and their loved ones, and then go one step further and help out friends and neighbors when bounty allows.
It seems to me, for many here, immense satisfaction comes from simply knowing they do what they have to do and if they are able to share beyond that, all the better. This allows them to sleep well at night even if their beds creak with every slight movement and are held up by frames tied together by old rags.
You’ll perhaps notice I didn’t mention elaborate several course family dinners, which are certainly a big part of southern Italian life. I can’t possibly overstate the importance of fresh, homemade food and wine to the average Calabrian, and of course that’s what a lot of that hard work accomplishes.
But I also didn’t talk about sitting back and relaxing with a nice glass of homemade wine while gazing at the sea. Yes, some of that goes on down here, but more by the younger generations; the older generations hardly have time for such frivolous things with all the work they’re always busy doing.
Jen, thank you for pushing me to verbalize exactly why I love living here so much.
I am so very blessed to live among such wonderful, hard-working, kind people who provide, along with a never-ending supply of figs, lemons, and oranges, constant inspiration to be a better person in ways that truly matter.
Guest bloggers: Lisa Steinke and Liz Fenton
Facebook is awesome.
Not only is it great for keeping up with old friends, it’s also fabulous for meeting friends of friends and creating new friendships. I stumbled upon ChickLitisNotDead.com in just that way and ended up “meeting” Lisa Steinke and Liz Fenton, authors of I’ll Have Who She’s Having.
I visited their blog and read a blurb about their book and immediately asked if they’d be interested in guest posting here. I can’t wait to read the book (it’s currently in Customs of all places…one book! Come on Dogana!), but for now, here is Lisa:
Liz and I have been friends for *gulp* 22 years. And we’ve been through everything, together. We’ve sported unibrows, mustaches and Lee press on nails. We’ve worn mom jeans, balloon pants and stir ups. There was even a brown braided belt phase I’m not particularly proud of.
It was in college that we first started talking about writing a book. And then we graduated, began our careers, Liz got married, I continued my search for Mr. Right, Liz had a baby and then finally, it all came together. I was in yet another serious relationship with a commitment-phobe that I thought was going to be “the one” and Liz was preggers with baby #2 and we went for it. We wrote the book!
And we’re incredibly proud of the fact that during the writing process, we only tried to kill each other once!
I’ll Have Who She’s Having is the story of a man who comes between a desperately single and a very married sister. Liz wrote the character, Kelly, who is questioning her marriage and her entire life after becoming a stay at home mom. I wrote the character of Kate, the single sister, who after getting dumped on her bootie yet again, continues to look for love in all the wrong places. The book is told from the alternating points of view of Kate and Kelly and is full of laugh out loud moments as the sisters struggle to figure out who is going to make them happy.
We are proud to call I’ll Have Who She’s Having a Chick Lit book. Our belief that the genre isn’t buried six feet under–like many in the publishing world claim– inspired our blog ChickLitIsNotDead.com. Our tag line is “two girls who believe that books with high fashion and happy endings never go out of style.”
We know that there are tons of women (and even men- we don’t discriminate) who want to read a new and campy version of the classic story of boy meets girl, sweeps her off her feet and they live happily ever after. We like to say that our sassy spin and crass sense of humor make our book entertaining. You’ll read about everything from a GP (golden pu**y) to a dremail (drunken email) to a karaoke contest gone way bad.
But at the end of the day, despite the crazy, slapstick antics our characters go through, we believe Kate and Kelly are relatable. We feel we brought a realistic vulnerability to the characters through our own life experiences (although we are not Kate & Kelly, we assure you!) So, whether you’re single or married or somewhere in between, we hope you’ll be able to connect with one or even both of the sisters.
Xoxo, Lisa & Liz
Do you read Chick Lit? What’s your favorite Chick Lit book?
Buon weekend!
Love Thursday: Paving the Way with Love
For various reasons, P and I have been in “house limbo” for quite a while. I won’t get into details, but I just knew that things were taking a turn for the better when, a couple months ago, I noticed this hole in the pavement in front of P’s family house, the one we have been trying to get into for all this time:
Just as I suspected, the housing wheels have *finally* begun turning, and we’ve been able to work on putting in a new bathroom and kitchen (and giving the whole thing a fresh coat of paint) before we move in, which will hopefully be within the next month or so.
Right now, we’re about halfway there with the new bathroom, and after that, the kitchen, and the paint, we’ll do other work on the place little by little–as is the southern Italian way.
P.S. Carol, I hope this answers your question about the new house, remodeling, and when we’ll be in. And to Saretta and others who wanted to know, P will be doing all the painting because he is, by trade, a house painter.
Happy Love Thursday everyone!
May all your paths be paved with love.
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
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