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love thursday: an illicit affair
I love strawberries. And I know I’m not the only one.
Last week at the Friday market, I bought a case of them (I have no idea how much they actually weighed) for 5 euros, and believe me, it was a deal. Just two little containers of them can run you 2 whole euros, whereas the case holds 10 containers.
And if you’re unsure of my love of strawberries, let’s make this clear–P doesn’t eat them, so that entire case was for me, and was gone by Monday afternoon.
My strategy is to clean two containers at a time, stir in some sugar, and let them sit until they are in a gooey, teeth-curling sweet syrup. Don’t worry, I eat some sans sweetener along the way as well.
On Friday afternoon, when I was elbow-deep in strawberries, P rescued this one (yes, it’s just one) from the line of fire, providing me with a perfect Love Thursday photo:
I didn’t end up eating the entire 10 containers of strawberries myself, though, as I shared a few with neighbors. My Aussie friend and neighbor returned the favor by inviting me over Sunday morning for breakfast, and this was the main dish:
Strawberries with fresh ricotta cheese drizzled with honey.
The flavors mixed together amazingly, and since my friend is also a restaurant pro, she even threw in a sprig of basil once she saw I was pulling out the camera. And yet again, we have a dish with the colors of the Italian flag; anyone else, expats or otherwise, find it odd how often that happens? All we ever had in America was that Fourth of July blueberry and strawberry flag cake, I think, which for the record, I’ve never made or eaten.
I really do love strawberries, but I appreciate them even more because here we eat everything only when in season. Sure, maybe an odd strawberry would’ve been nice in January, but that’s not even an option, and I’m glad it’s not.
My body is adjusting to seasonal eating, and I like it–it starts knowing what it needs just about the time it’s coming into season. I found it this past year with artichokes, chicory, and, of course, my beloved strawberries, and it will soon happen with figs, peaches, cucumbers, and fresh, juicy tomatoes.
The mouth-watering anticipation makes everything I like just a little more special when I can finally have it. Or, absence apparently does make the heart grow fonder.
And so my illicit affair with strawberries will be in full force for a little while longer until all the 5 euro crates slowly disappear, and my obsession is put on hiatus once again.
Until next year.
Happy Love Thursday everyone!
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[tags]strawberries, ricotta, ricotta cheese, honey, love thursday[/tags]
wanting to kiss the telecom man is wrong
But that didn’t stop the desire.
I’m baaaack!
The rest of the village had service repaired about a week ago, but there was an additional, mysterious problem with my line. Yes, I made a nuisance of myself at Telecom headquarters (I had a phone operator in an uproar *with* me yesterday!), and it apparently worked because a repairman called this morning and asked for specific directions to my house; I told him if he made it up the mountain, I’d meet him in the piazza (with coffee/wine/beer, I wanted to say, but I didn’t want to freak him out).
He showed up fifteen minutes later just as he said he would, and within a half hour, I was checking up on PerezHilton.com.
I have priorities, you know.
Anyway, today is Liberation Day in Italy, or the day we celebrate the Allied troops’ freeing Italy from the wrath of Germany during World War II. It’s a “red” day here, which means the number of the day is literally in red on the calendar signifying that it’s a national holiday, so everything is closed–making it even more surprising that Telecom delivered on April 25th.
And the poetic justice of my being liberated to communicate with the outside world on this of all days is not lost on me.
Back to blogging business, I see on my Bloglines account that I have approximately 1300 posts of others to catch up on. Um, we’ll see how that goes. First I have a lot of work to do, sending things off and whatnot, and then, slowly but surely, I’ll be making my rounds. I’ll be responding to emails in due time as well, so please be patient. And again, thanks so much for all the concerned comments and messages; what a wonderful feeling to be missed!
Also, I realize today should be a What’s Cooking Wednesday, but you’ll forgive me if we get back to the recipes next week, won’t you? I’m just too giddy to cook (sorry P).
But here’s a photo of our first fig of the season, though, just because.
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[tags]telecom italia, figs, liberation day, giorno della liberazione, bloglines[/tags]
a few stolen moments
I’ve been away from the blogosphere for an entire week, and believe me, it’s not by choice. Even now, I am typing from a work computer where I’m supposed to be doing some translation, but, well, there was a working Internet connection, and that’s all the window I needed.
Let me assure everyone that I am fine, P is fine, Luna is fine–the only thing that’s not fine is our damn phoneline (and accordingly, my Internet connection), which has been down since last Friday. It’s been rough, but I’ve learned several things through the experience, and I’m going to do a Friday Five, taking a page out of Stefanie‘s book.
You can’t imagine how long it just took me to link to Stefanie on this ancient computer that won’t even accept my memory stick, which would’ve meant that I could’ve just copied and pasted what I had already written last night.
Five Things I’ve Learned in a Week Without the Internet
1. I hate Telecom (the phone company). Yeah, I knew that one, but now I hate them even more. Most of my town is without phone service, but they don’t even have an estimate on when we might get it back. Ain’t that cute?
2. I can carry on a decent conversation in Italian over the phone with a utility company. Information I’d rather not know, but whatever. I’m most proud of the fact that I haven’t (yet) yelled or cursed in either language.
3. I spend a lot of time on the Internet. I knew this one too, but it wasn’t completely obvious until I was faced with considerably more free time this past week. I’d be lying to say it wasn’t nice to get other things accomplished too, so I think I can take this is a warning sign to re-balance things around here. See, it’s not all bad!
4. Murphy’s Law of the Blogging World: You may get writer’s block on a frequent basis while you have the full ability to post, but once you can’t, the ideas will abound. That said, rest assured, this last week was not completely wasted, blog-wise. I have at least a week’s worth of posts ready to pull out when I most need them. Again, trying to look on the positive side here.
5. And finally, the best of all–I have made a lot of wonderful blog/Internet friends. I’ve gotten emails from people who had never even commented on the blog wondering if I was OK. Wow. That is just awesome, and I thank you all for your concern. I promise I’ll get back to everyone just as soon as I’m up and running from home. It’s hard to even borrow computers to use around here, but perhaps I’ll splurge and hit the Internet café one of these days (but hopefully I won’t need to…come on Telecom!).
I, too, miss being a part of your daily lives, and I can’t wait to catch up on all that has happened in my absence. I wish I had a time frame for when I’d be back to the regularly-scheduled program, but, you know, since Telecom doesn’t know, I don’t know either. You’ll come back, though, right? I miss you!
P.S. I’m not sure how this post will look as this computer doesn’t even have the font I normally use. Bear with me, and say a little prayer, would you?
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[tags]telecom italia, life in italy[/tags]
love thursday: too many flowers are never enough
It’s spring, and flowers are most definitely in bloom in the blogosphere.
Cherrye and Christina recently posted lovely photos of flowers they received; Alexandra shared a photo of gorgeous tulips that were waiting for her when she arrived in Holland. I’m sure there are many more floating around out there that I’m neglecting to link to–if you know of some, do share them in the comments. I love flower photos!
Turns out that not even my doggie is left out. You remember Helen, the flower-giving girl I’ve written about before?
Here’s Helen giving Luna a wonderful bouquet:
FYI, because Helen is so dedicated to her flower delivery, it took her 15 minutes to scour the piazza to find all different colors of flowers.
As always, click to enlarge the photos for a better view.
Happy Love Thursday everyone!
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[tags]love thursday, flowers, dogs[/tags]
What’s Cooking Wednesday Recipe: Calabrian Cuzzupa for Easter/Pasqua
OK, I know Easter has come and gone, but I promised a cuzzupa recipe about a week ago, and a cuzzupa recipe you shall have.
So this week’s What’s Cooking Wednesday is a recipe out of my friend Mary Amabile Palmer’s cookbook, Cucina di Calabria: Treasured Recipes and Family Traditions from Southern Italy. This is a wonderful collection of authentic Calabrese recipes interspersed with essays about the history and culture of this region as well as family memories.
Check out the book on Amazon, but if you’d like to buy it, please let me know as I can get you both a discount and a signed copy.
Cuzzupe di Pasqua*
4 tbsp butter/margarine (softened)
1/2 c sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1/2 c milk
1 tsp lemon extract
1 3/4 c all-purpose or unbleached flour
1 tsp baking powder
Preheat oven to 375°F.In a large mixing bowl, add butter, sugar, and salt. Cream until well blended. Gradually add egg, milk, and lemon extract. Mix well. Stir in the flour and baking powder and mix until smooth.
Shape dough into cakes as shown in the above picture, and brush with melted butter; you can also sprinkle some sugar on top as well.
Place cakes on lightly greased cookie sheet and bake until a light golden brown (about 15 minutes).
Note that you can make the icing as seen in last week’s photo by mixing 1/2 cup of confectioner’s sugar with 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of water. Rainbow sprinkles are a common addition once the glaze in on the cakes.
*I left out the instructions on making the ring or basket which holds hard-boiled, colored eggs as that’s not what’s made where I am; for more instructions, looks like you’ll just have to get a copy of the book!
Buon appetito!
And now, as a special bonus this Wednesday, a cooking meme that Shannon (the founder of WCW) tagged me with a while back:
1. Can you cook? If yes do you like to cook?
Why yes and yes again.
2. When does your whole family come together to eat?
Suppose it depends on how you define “whole family.” P and I eat together twice a day usually. With the rest of his family, we haven’t had a meal yet with everyone (he has 2 brothers and 4 sisters spread around Italy and France), but the closest we came was last summer when there were 2 sisters, 1 brother, and their kids in one tiny room. With my family, well, P hasn’t even met them yet.
3. What do you have for breakfast?
On colder days, something warm to drink (coffee, cappuccino), but in the summer iced coffee. Sometimes I have toast, other times a cornetto, sometimes a banana. Depends on my mood.
4. When, where and how do you eat through the week?
Breakfast either at home or at the bar any time between 6:30 and 9:30 a.m. Lunch at home at 12:30 on weekdays, later on the weekends. Dinner at home anytime between 7:30 and 10:00 p.m.
5. How often do you eat out?
Not very often, although more frequently in the summer. Food’s better at home!
6. How often do you order in or get take out?
Not a common occurrence, but P will sometimes go and pick up pizza on Saturday nights.
7. Re: 5 & 6 – if money were no object would like to do it more often?
Nah. We’d just buy a lot of really good ingredients–and probably eat a lot more seafood.
8. Are there any standards that make a regular appearance at your table?
Um, you could say pasta is a frequent visitor.
9. Have you ever tried a recipe from another blog?
Not yet, but that’s mostly because I can’t find the ingredients I need to make the things that look so yummy. I’m storing them away, though, for when I go to the States.
10. Are there any quarrels because of food?
Not anymore. P likes to cook, but he basically likes to do it alone (no problem there!). Once I understood that, I just learned to make myself otherwise useful when he’s cooking. When I’m cooking, I’m much more relaxed in the kitchen, so I’m easy to get along with when I cook.
11. Are you a vegetarian or could you imagine living as a vegetarian?
I’m not a vegetarian, but I could imagine doing so–the biggest stress would be going to people’s houses for dinner and finding something to eat. I already have problems with that if all they’ve made is frittole (boiled pig parts)….
12. What would you like to try out that you haven’t dared yet?
I’d try sushi just to see what all the fuss is about, but that won’t be happening in southern Italy anytime soon.
13. Would you rather cook or bake?
Hmm…probably bake because I’d probably rather eat baked goods than real food. Sad but true.
14. What was the most terrible mess you’ve ever made in the kitchen?
Thanksgiving last year. That was something.
15. What do your kids like to eat best? What would your kids never eat?
N/A, but I can almost guarantee any kids I have will like pasta. Or at least will be forcefed it.
16. What do you dislike most?
Wow, those boiled pig parts come to mind again. Then there’s “suzzu” (spelling?) which is (again) pig parts mixed with gelatin so that it’s a pudding. And then there’s ghiro (dormouse). I’m gagging just thinking of these things.
I won’t tag anyone, but you foodies out there should feel free to play along!
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.
Calabria Guidebook
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