Hands down, one of my favorite herbs is basil, there is just something about it that adds a bit of zing or flavor that I never get tired of, and I am a firm believer that just about anything you add basil to is better as a result. Having only married into a family...
Read more »
I grew up eating spaghetti and macaroni and rigatoni, and well that’s about it. It was not until I started cooking for myself that I discovered that 1. those names were not the names of the dishes but the names of the noodles used in the dishes, and 2. those shapes were only the...
Read more »
I’ve had Italy on the brain lately, so much so that I’ve really struggled with finishing my other posts. So to work it out of my system, I decided this post must be written. My hubby and I relized we’d be celebrating our 10th anniversay this year, and it literally stopped us in...
Read more »
Growing up, a favorite treat for me was the beef jerky my parents made. I loved that delicious, salty snack, but after I moved away I questioned my memory of those meaty treats. My subsequent encounters, left me cold, they were not so much dried as desiccated, tough as nails, so stringy that I...
Read more »
This may be unfair, but I’ve come to the conclusion that you can tell a lot about a country by their sausage. For lunches, while traveling, my husband and I have developed a habit of securing some local wine, bread, cheese and sausage that we can nibble at our leisure. Since we’ve munched our...
Read more »
You know in the movies where the character comes upon a scene that is almost overwhelming for them, everything goes silent, action appears to come to a screeching halt as if its too much for all their senses to operate at the same time as they absorb their surroundings, and then slowly like dominos...
Read more »
I was tempted to title this post “Spaghetti Western” because of the strange connection that agretti has to the American west. You see agretti could be considered an edible tumbleweed. It’s more famous relative can been seen in its meandering migration across the western plains. Agretti’s botanical name is Salsola soda, and this familial naming...
Read more »
See for yourself… April Fools’ Day, or All Fool’s Day is celebrated in many countries on April 1 with practical jokes played family members, colleagues, and neighbors. The origin of April Fools’ Day is obscure. One likely theory is that the term referred to someone still adhering to the Julian Calendar, as opposed to adopting...
Read more »
The custom of eating pork on New Year’s is based on the notion that pigs symbolize progress or prosperity for many cultures – not a connection that may immediately come to mind. The animal pushes forward, rooting in the ground before moving, symbolizing progress. In Italy, the fatty meat also symbolizes the fattening of...
Read more »
On blustery, rainy days, much like today here in San Francisco, I imagine I am curled up under my favorite blanket engrossed in a book, sipping a liqueur and nibbling a biscotti and some chocolates. Actually indulging in this scenario does not happen often enough to my liking. Now the liqueurs I have in...
Read more »
