Easy Baked Brie 

Easy Baked Brie 





How I Miss Thanksgiving!

Living abroad in Italy is exciting and exhilarating. I met Mr. Italicano here. I have made extraordinary friends here. I started my business while living here. I love the challenges and adventure that each new day brings while living in il bel paese.  I am grateful and I am thankful each day, yet…I miss Thanksgiving!

I miss the smells from the kitchen mingling with the sweet candles burning. I miss the chaotic sounds that fill the house: the clinking and clanking in the kitchen, kids laughter in the play room and lively shouts coming from the living room after a touchdown.

Easy Baked Brie Recipe One of my favorite Thanksgiving Day foods of all time is this CONTINUE READING

Bruschetta with Whipped Feta, Tomato, Basil & Lemon Zest

Bruschetta with Whipped Feta, Tomato, Basil & Lemon Zest

Our garden is overflowing with plump vine-ripened tomatoes :: pomodori! 

Bruschetta-with-Whipped-Feta,-Tomato,-Basil-and-Lemon-Zest-4I’ve been cooking up a storm making millet stuffed tomatoes, basil and tomato sauce and these delightful bruschetta with whipped feta, tomato, basil and lemon zest. 

On a side note, for all you Italian language learners out there, my title should really be “bruschette” because you change the “a” to an “e” to make it plural, yet I never know if it’s better to use the real word or the Americanized term so people get what I am talking about. Bruschetta=1, bruschette=more than one. Final note, the real way to pronounce  bruschetta is like this: “brew—sket—ta”. Here’s a trick to remembering this pronunciation: “you are drinking a brew, when out jumps a skeleton from the closet who yells ta-da!” brew-sket-ta. Random, I know, but these little tricks help with remembering languages at the beginning, at least for me. 🙂

Bruschetta-with-Whipped-Feta,-Tomato,-Basil-and-Lemon-Zest-5Back to those lovely little tomatoes I was telling you about.  Italians are experts at growing and conserving tomatoes for the entire year. Some of the most popular ways to conserve tomatoes are CONTINUE READING

Baked Brie with Persimmon Sauce, Honey and Walnuts

Baked Brie with Persimmon Sauce, Honey and Walnuts

One of my favorite appetizers is baked brie. It’s simple to throw together, mouthwatering delicious and it’s always a hit at dinner parties.

Baked-Brie-with-Persimmon-Puree-and-WalnutsIt’s a classic recipe that can be adapted in many ways. Some of my favorite combinations include:

-Brown sugar and pecans-

Blueberry compote-

-Cranberry jam and toasted almond slivers- 

-Now adding to this list of favorites is pureed persimmons with Acacia honey and walnuts-

Baked-Brie-with-Persimmon-Puree-and-WalnutsI have a love hate relationship with persimmons: I love the flavor, but I hate the texture. It’s soft, squishy and the occasional “slurp” slips out when you eat a persimmon with a spoon. I despise that noise; for me it’s worse than nails on a chalkboard. How to get around this problem? READ MORE

Parmesan Crisps and Lollipops

Parmesan Crisps and Lollipops

Parmigiano-Reggiano-Crisps-and-LollipopsSimplicity lies in gathering with gratitude the scents and flavors that the ingredient gives us in its natural form. I think about this phrase when I develop my recipes. I try to create simple dishes that allows you to savor the single ingredients in their purity, letting their flavors guide your memory to the past and to their place of origin.

Sometimes I forget that I live in Italy, a country with such incredible origins. How much history is in every grain of dirt as I walk across the lawn towards the vegetable garden? How many words were spoken throughout the centuries under the archways where I walk to get a café macchiato with my girlfriends?

Parmigiano-Reggiano-Crisps-and-Lollipops-2In Italy, everything has a history…especially food. Throughout these seven years that I have lived here, I have learned just how much good food is rooted in the minds of Italians, as daily nourishment and as a cure for illness. For instance, often times the first baby food for Italian children has grated Parmigiano Reggiano mixed into it. And, here in the region of Emilia where I live, when someone is sick they eat “risotto in bianco”, or “white rice” with Parmigiano Reggiano and extra virgin olive oil.

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