Archive for the ‘family’ Category
Calabrian Peas Fresh from the Garden
Remember when I shared Judy Witts Francini’s recipe for Piselli alla Fiorentina from her wonderful cookbook Secrets from My Tuscan Kitchen? I had to use frozen peas for that dish because ours weren’t ready yet . . . but then they got ready. And man do I love fresh peas from the garden.
Peas are even gorgeous as plants, aren’t they? Such pretty flowers!
I know the goats agree, and although I’m sure they’d love to munch on the peas at any stage of growth, they usually just get the pods once we’ve removed the peas.
And they love ’em!
If you’ve been following along at Goat Berries, you know that these photos are from a few weeks ago as we no longer have the goats pictured above. *sigh*
But we still have Pasqualina and Pinta, and they both love the pea pods too (and fava pods if you got ’em) . . . as I also wrote on Goat Berries, we now even get gift bags of pea and fava pods left in front of our door just for the girls!
I don’t have to tell them twice to eat their veggies!
Come back Wednesday for another great fresh pea recipe — this time with pasta!
What’s growing in your garden right now?
Buon Compleanno Papà!
Tanti auguri a te…
Tanti auguri a te…
Tanti auguri a Babbo…
Tanti auguri a te!
Ti voglio tanto bene Papà!
An American Expat in Italy Goes “Home”
As many of you know, I was back in the US from mid-November to late December. This was my first trip “home” since February 2004.
Yes I write it in quotes; as much fun as I had there, you see, I was also extremely excited and happy to get back to P, the pooches,
and the three kids (who, incidentally, we believe may all be pregnant!).
Stateside, I spent lots of time with family and friends, visited Philadelphia, New York City (where I met two online friends for the first time and met up with an old college friend–none of whom are shown in the photo below!)
and Washington DC,
helped my mom make cookies (which she sells for Christmas),
and shopped. A lot. The Christmastime prices in American malls? Worth the price of the airline ticket, quite frankly.
For instance, P was amazed that I could get him a pair of Levi’s for $30 (€21) when they cost, oh five times that here. My other spectacular purchases for myself include a new iPod Touch (to make it easier to read English language books, mainly) and a new external hard drive.
NB: Anything technological/electronic costs *way* less in America than it does in Italy.
My biggest culture shock actually came very early on in the trip when I couldn’t. stop. speaking. Italian. It was the weirdest thing! On the plane over, no matter what language the person addressing me was speaking, I would answer in Italian…and only sometimes catch that I had done it–once purely by the blank look on a fellow passenger’s face.
The two hardest things to stop saying were “Ciao!,” “Grazie!,” and “Sì!” So I imagine I just looked like a really pretentious American for at least the first few days of the trip. Oh well.
The other thing that was hard to get used to? Things being open in the afternoon. So strange to be able to go shopping or *gasp* get something to eat between one and four! Lovely.
I still have lots of photos to go through and post on Flickr (and possibly here), and probably a lot of mental processing of the whole experience. Soon I’ll be publishing my Top 10 Realizations After Being “Home” for the First Time in Nearly Six Years so please check back!
Holy Mackerel! Look at Those Altocumulus Clouds!
Yesterday while walking the dogs, I looked up and saw this:
My mom’s friend Kitty (she of the unique tea strainer and adorable heart bracelet) once told my mom these were “mackerel clouds” because they resembled the fish’s scales. Of course we both thought this was an old wives’ tales, and maybe it is, but it also made Wikipedia, so there.
They’re actually called “altocumulus” clouds (thus the title of the post), just in case you didn’t remember from elementary school science class.
So I smiled as I photographed the sky, thinking it was rather fitting that these clouds would be over me this week. Kitty’s 87th birthday would have been on Saturday the 17th–a day before mine–but she passed away two years ago.
The mackerel clouds, however, will always live on–and always make me think of our Kitty.
Had you ever heard of mackerel clouds?
Do you have strange things that remind you someone special?
Shout Out to the Daddies of the World
Just wanted to wish a Happy Father’s Day to all the dads, especially mine!
And to my grandfather, Pap Pap, wherever he may be:
To my mom’s father, also wherever he may be (sadly no photo here with me).
And to all the rest of my grandfathers back into family history–especially to:
(1) My great-grandfather Aniello D’Isabella, who I never got to meet but whose lack of desire to get American citizenship after leaving his southern Italian village allowed me to reclaim his Italian citizenship many years later and live here happily ever after without bureaucratic hassle; and
(2) My great-great-grandfather Giuseppe Bressi whose village I now call home.
Auguri to all you daddies out there!
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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