Archive for the ‘life in calabria’ Category
no cooking today–
mom’s here!
If you’re looking for What’s Cooking Wednesday, tune in Friday when I’ll be hosting La Buona Cucina Americana . . . and making something American with my mom! She’s here! Woohoo!
But for now, can I interest you in seeing our very first homegrown artichoke? It’s a cross between a normal artichoke and the wild kind, thus the interesting spiky look.
Can you see an unwanted guest? Look closely!
Enjoy your Wednesday my peeps!
love thursday:
love at the beach
Visions of love from Catanzaro Lido:
Happy Love Thursday everyone!
And by the way, when is the last time *you* held someone’s hand?
thank heaven for great (italian) neighbors
I’ve been so lucky to have been blessed with great neighbors.
Growing up, Sylvia, the Italian woman next door with four kids of her own, used to bake me a birthday cake *every* year–fancy ones like with a Barbie standing in the middle and stuff.
Even now, she still finds time to send me cards for my birthday and Christmas despite having many, many grandchildren (I’ve lost count!).
Well my buona fortuna continued when I moved here.
I’ve told you about my neighbor Anna Maria before, but I really can’t express how lucky I am to have moved in near her. She is one of the kindest, most generous people I’ve ever known, always giving me something–literally just about every day it’s something new.
Other than the usuals like olive oil, vino, red wine vinegar, lemons, oranges, clementines, and Brasilena, she also supplies me with some special harbingers of the seasons like:
Berrylicious homegrown strawberries and blackberries!
Just look at these gorgeous fragole:
And she also brings me this:
Want a closer look?
Anyone know or care to guess what it is?
(I know some of you know!)
Also, if you have great neighbors you’d like to brag about, do share!
calabrian women’s summit 2008
Last weekend Cherrye of My Bella Vita, Dawn (blogless! scandalous!), and I met up at Il Cedro in Catanzaro for our 2nd annual Calabrian Women’s Summit. Remember how much fun we had last year?
As we now know of two other American women (two!) in Calabria, look for the event to grow and hopefully become more frequent as well!
We’re already planning to get together to see Sex and the City (in Italian–boo) next weekend . . . yes it opens here on May 30 just like for most of you. Are you going? I only started watching Carrie and the girls here a few months ago, but I’m just as addicted as everyone else who has been with the ladies for years.
Will she and Big *really* get married?!
Anyway, Cherrye gives a great rundown of this year’s Summit with photos here, so do head over and check it out. We had a blast! Woohoo!
For my part, I’m going to share some photos of Catanzaro Lido and get those of you in the States geared up for the long weekend with some beach shots:
The Lungomare:
Setting up for the summer:
Boys in the water (there was a cool breeze, but they didn’t feel it):
This little one retreated every time the water came near–water was cold to her!
Puppy in the grass appropriately acting out the theme song of the weekend, “It Wasn’t Me” by Shaggy–I *dare* you not to dance or sing along if you click on that link.
Read more about this lovely Bottlebrush (aka Feather duster to me) in the comment on Flickr here:
And a final shot of Catanzaro Lido:
Summer’s just about here!
Don’t forget check out Judy’s Over a Tuscan Stove for this week’s La Buona Cucina America recipe– Buffalo Wings!–and also my guest blog appearance over at Lucky Dorito!
Buon weekend!
what’s cooking wednesday: roasted rabbit & potatoes
We’re gonna have woast wabbit! We’re gonna have woast wabbit!
Yes, I say this every time we make this dish, and sadly, it’s completely lost on P. So you *must* appreciate it. You do, don’t you?
Today’s What’s Cooking Wednesday recipe is fresh off the “Bizarre Foods” discussion on Friday because yes, I do realize that eating rabbit may be out of the ordinary for some of you. It wasn’t the norm for me either before I came here, although my (Italian) great-grandfather apparently made a delicious rabbit ragù for the family in America.
P’s father used to raise rabbits for food, and now since P is continuing the tradition, it’s quite common to find rabbit on our dinner table.
If you’re curious, no, I have absolutely nothing to do with raising them–we’d likely end up with a lot of pet rabbits if that were the case. And the time P asked me to help, ahem, prepare the rabbit for cooking? He quickly let me off the hook when tears welled up in my eyes at the sight of the poor thing–no longer alive, but still difficult to see.
Yes, I know you may find that hypocritical, but that’s me. I have to say that I do admire P’s compassion and caring in bringing up the rabbits though. I know that sentiment may be nonsensical to vegans, vegetarians, and others, and quite honestly, it’s hard for me to really wrap my head around as well, but it’s true.
He is quite gentle and humane with them and even gives them names; he just grew up knowing them as food, and that’s what they are for us. We definitely save money on meat purchases and at least we know that these are organically raised and treated well.
Such is life in Calabria–full of contradictions and peculiarities but never, ever, boring.
Now on to the recipe, which is based on Coniglio (o pollo) al forno con patate–that “o pollo” means you can also use this recipe for chicken.
Roasted Rabbit & Potatoes
(serves 2 as main course, more as part of larger dinner)
- 3 pieces of rabbit (2 thighs and a shoulder will do)
- 4 large potatoes, cut into chunks
- 3 cloves of garlic, cut into chunks to be inserted into rabbit pieces
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- a few sprigs of rosemary
- thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- salt
- peperoncino
1. Turn on oven and set to 200°C (390°F).
2. In a small bowl, mix together olive oil, salt, peperoncino, and some rosemary. Let sit for about 10 minutes.
3. Wash the pieces of rabbits, and without drying, put them in baking dish.
4. Wash the potatoes, peel and cut them into chunks, and add them to baking dish; sprinkle them with salt and thyme.
5. Score rabbit so that you have places to insert garlic and some sprigs of rosemary. Brush oil mixture liberally onto rabbit pieces and then break up the bay leaves on top of the rabbit.
At this point, it should look something like this:
6. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil and place in oven.
7. Let cook for about a half hour. Remove from oven. Turn rabbit and toss potatoes. If the dish is dry on the bottom add some olive oil and/or water.
8. Cook for another 20 minutes or so, being sure that potatoes and rabbit are fully cooked before serving.
9. Let sit a few minutes before serving, but still serve hot.
Buon appetito!
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
Recipes
