Mar

21

St. Patrick’s Day (all’italiana)

Food / Italian

This St. Patrick’s Day we had a big celebration. The plan was simple enough: invite a few friends and neighbors for Irish Coffee. Along the way I managed to spend half a day shopping and two days cooking. Not a single Irish dish, but almost everything was green or had some green in it, other than the apple Sharlotka and the orange-almond cake.

Among the various savory and sweet dishes, the green hummus was a big hit. Best in show, though, went to the homemade salame.

salame incartato

The half that didn't get consumed on St. Patrick's Day

a peak at the salame

When I brought it to the table, someone asked if I really made my own salame.

Looks like the real thing, doesn’t it? And it even has some green it it, courtesy of the pistacchi.

salame al cioccolato

Only after cutting a few slices it became clear that it was a vegetarian salame. :)

By the way, I’ve been thinking about those Italian lessons, but haven’t had any time to get started. Mostly it’s that I want to figure out a plan of attack and I am not sure how to proceed. In the meantime I leave you with a few Italian words:
• salame al cioccolato = chocolate salami
• pistacchi = pistachios
• all’italiana = Italian style

In Italian we say salame, not salami, when we talk about one item. Salami in Italy means more than one salame. Several Italian words that have made it into English have been modified and often Americans use the singular where Italians use the plural and viceversa.
We say lasagne (plural) and Americans say lasagna (singular). Just so you know.

Happy Spring!

Posted by | 8 comments
Mar

02

Piadina

Food / Language
Piadina romagnola

Piadina romagnola

Hey, thanks for the comments and emails. :)

While the knitting languishes in a dark corner, I am trying to figure out where to put my energies next, ’cause by the way my jeans don’t fit anymore it’s clear that I need to do at least something that does not involve food.

In January I tried 16 new recipes; in February 17. This can’t go on, though Ben is not complaining. YET. Maybe he will when his jeans stop fitting.

Piadina e coppa

Piadina e coppa

Someone suggested I revive an old idea that I explored briefly in my old food blog (tantarobina) — teaching a little bit of Italian. I remember that preparing those few posts took a lot of time and planning, but I did enjoy it. I am not sure if I would have an audience… are there really that many people trying to learn Italian? Most people I know are more interested in Spanish, but then this is California and that makes a lot of sense.

Piadina romagnola

Let's not count the calories, shall we?

I think my dough is ready to be rolled. Making my very first piadina today. We’ll see how that goes.
___

My piadina was not perfect, but definitely edible. In fact, we consumed most of it.

Buon appetito!

Posted by | 7 comments
Feb

16

Knitting woes

Knitting

It happened again: my hands and arms got worse and I had to stop knitting. After several weeks of physical therapy it’s clear that I won’t be able to resume knitting any time soon, and when I do it will have to be for very short intervals. I’ve been bummed, of course, and that’s part of why you haven’t seen any posts in two months.

To make up for the loss of knitting, I’ve been spending more time in the kitchen. Cooking and baking is not great for my hands but at least the movements involved are less repetitive than in knitting and it’s easier to be careful. These past two months I’ve been trying lots of new recipes and our dinners have been more experimentatal. Some things have come out well, others have been complete disasters.

No pictures of food because our kitchen is very dark and, between that and artificial light, my food photos are nothing to brag about. But I leave you with tonight’s main feature: Kelvin jumping on Ben’s shoulders at the end of dinner. This may turn out to be a good-bye post, and I know some of you are still fans of Kelvin. :)

Posted by | 10 comments
Dec

19

Bohus WIP

Knitting

Almost out the door for a quick trip up north to visit family. To keep me company during the long drive is my Wild Apple pullover in progress. The yoke is done, with some frogging and tinking along the way, and I started the short rows after much scouting of Ravelry’s forums for help with many questions.

Happy holidays to you all, wherever you are.

Wild Apple pullover yoke

Piper didn't seem impressed by the yoke. I don't think he can see all the colors.

Posted by | 6 comments
Dec

06

About power

Knitting

In the various conversations with neighbors and friends this past week the word electricity was never used. We all said “Is your power back?”, “We are still without power.” and so on. And truly we felt powerless after a windstorm with winds up to 100 mph fell trees and power lines causing major problems in the Glendale/Pasadena area. Our house was without power for three days and three nights, and I know that those of you on the east coast who went as long as a week a while back in much harsher weather conditions know something about it.

We were actually very lucky that our next-door neighbor, who is connected to a different grid and got his power back within eight hours, let us string a cable from his house to ours so we could hook up one thing at a time. Mostly we hooked up the computer so Ben could work and then a little space heater, but we still we had to throw out all the food in our fridge and freezer and it was cold (I know, I know… Southern California cold). All my pasteis de nata, all the croissants and baguettes, the shrimp… It was sad.

package from Sweden

My eagerly awaited package from Sweden

But in the middle of it all I received a special package form Sweden, my Christmas present to myself: a Wild Apple pullover kit. That’ll keep me busy for, uh, six months or so? There hasn’t been much knitting going on here in the past couple of months following yet another hand injury and distractions of various nature. Now I hope to get back to it. A Bohus kit is a thing of beauty and I find it especially appealing at Christmas time. A book, a fire, a kitty, and a Bohus project. What more can a girl want?

Wild Apple pullover kit

Wild Apple pullover kit

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