We were hit with more rain and cold weather again! BASTA! Finally Summer has arrived. It felt like we were going to have a long wet summer with all the rain we have had. The cold which hit earlier in the year but so much agriculture at risk. I will be walking down the hill…
Corona Kitchen – Liberation
Monday May 18th, Italy moved on to the next stage in the Pandemia. We are allowed to leave our homes without a permission slip (papers we had to fill out and keep with us). We can also leave our towns and go to nearby towns in the region. In my village, our weekly market opened…
Frangipane for the Befana
After all the food orgies for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve if you can make it to January 6th, the sort of official end of the holiday feasting, you win! I am celebrating with an Italian-French Frangipane cake. The Epiphany is the religious holiday, celebrating the arrival of the three Magi with…
Eat Your Wine- Mangia Bevi
September is Wine month. There have been festivals all month long. I don’t go to them all, but have been to them all. The harvest is starting, first the white wine grapes for white wine. They also harvest the grapes to be hung and dried to make the dessert wine Vin Santo. Then the red…
Festival Foods: Catania- Sant’Agata February 5
I love festivals. Italy really knows how to party. Huge parades, lots of lights, often fireworks and costumes, but mostly FOOD. I was in Catania February 5th, Saint Agatha’s day. She is the patron saint of Catania. It was HUGE. They celebrate for three days. It coincides with the Candelora, which is the festival of…
Tuscan Fried Baby Artichokes | Carciofi Fritti
Certain recipes bring me back in time, to cooking in Andrea’s mom’s kitchen. Tina was great. She was a simple but fabulous cook and I learned a lot from her and her sister Vivetta who owned a restaurant at the sea. I do several of her recipes often and the Tuscan fried baby artichokes are…
FAT TUESDAY- Martedi Grasso- Mardi Gras- Shrove Tuesday
Let the good times roll! inside our cab in NOLA!!!Florence also uses the Fleur du Lys Easter comes early this year, which means carnival is already here. Most people think of the fabulous costumes in Venice and the parties in palazzi, but it is also a festival of the people. Streets are filled with families…
Virtual Cookie Swap
I love Cookies! So when I saw this Sugar High Friday on Domestic Goddess I saw a woman after my own heart! She and Alberto of Il forno are having a virtual cookie swap! Perfect timing for the holidays. When they post all the cookies they are having a contest, Vote for your favorite three…