Seriously, when it’s sweltering hot: I hate elaborate cooking.
I mean this whole slaving over a hot stove and sweating through my shirt is not my idea of summer fun. In fact, it’s just not cool… (Pun intended. Oh dear. This heat is going to my head. My apologies.)
When it’s hot outside, ovens and complicated recipes are just not in my vocabulary.
But, chopping is.
Oh, yes. Chopping up ripe seasonal fruits and veggies is my hack for creating delicious, easy and elegant summer dishes. But that’s not all. You get the added benefit of washing your fruits and vegetables. If I close my eyes in that moment, I’m no longer in my hot kitchen but near a mountain spring being splashed by refreshing water that cools me down. Makeshift paradise.
Here’s what’s in this dream summer salad:
- Juicy, jammy cold peaches sliced paper thin
- Cool cucumbers to add some crunch
- Extra virgin olive oil and refreshing lemon juice
- Fresh herbs: oregano, lemon thyme and mint. Don’t forget the mint.
- Pepita and hemp seeds for color and vegetable protein.
- Parmigiano Reggiano shavings because life is just better with Parmigiano Reggiano. (Although if you want to make this Vegetarian or Vegan, just leave this off.)
What I love most about this salad is that you can prepare everything in advance so it’s easy peasy when guests arrives or you’re ready to serve your hungry family. Just put the peach and cucumber on individual plates with a squeeze of lemon juice and store in the fridge, create the herb vinaigrette and leave it at room temperature. Then when guests arrive just top with a few drizzles of the vinaigrette, pepita and hemp seeds and a few Parmigiano Reggiano shavings. It’s that simple. And, oh so good.
Skip down for this delicious recipe; otherwise read on about finding courage.
FINDING COURAGE TO IMPROVE EACH DAY
I’ve been thinking a lot about my ambitious 10 year goals :
- Raise curious, courageous and compassionate children.
- Build a successful business with Mr. Italicano that gives us a creative outlet, brings us personal satisfaction, keeps our minds challenged, helps our customers solve a problem, does well for the environment and give us monetary means to one day afford a small house and a boat on the lake surrounded by nature.
- Publish my novel and continue to write until I become a best selling author.
- Continue to learn and share with others all I have learned about the Mediterranean Diet Lifestyle by teaching cooking classes in Seattle, publishing regular content on Italicana Kitchen, writing for magazines, appearing on TV cooking shows and writing a cookbook.
Some days I feel as though I can conquer the world. I break out of my cocoon of comfort and throw myself into a challenge, dedicating myself completely towards creating something unique and exceptional. I know I have it in me to do great things and achieve the goals I’ve set for myself. I don’t let myself get in the way. I rise at dawn or work until the wee hours of the night, weekends don’t exist as I am consumed in creating something of value. For instance, a few months ago, I was sitting in my kitchen in Italy with one mission: develop the most incredible organic sprouted farro granola for my client. These granolas and granola bars would be branded under the company’s name and sold in supermarket stores all over Italy. What a satisfaction it would be to have my recipes on supermarket shelves! I rolled up my sleeves and dove in: the days were long and hot. I researched and shopped for the best ingredients then spent hour after hour in my kitchen developing recipes, baking, tastings and retesting.
I made over 40 batches tweaking each recipe, process and cooking time until I developed five delicious and unique flavors with just the right amount of sweetness, crunch, cluster consistency and fruit to granola ratio. Mr. Italicano and I then worked with a professional baker to understand how to replicate these recipes on a larger scale production.
The project was stimulating and fascinating. Each failed attempt was vital in the learning process. And, now these healthy granolas are on Italian supermarket shelves! I couldn’t be more proud. These are the days I feel like I am following my path, I am improving my skill sets, I am offering value to others and making a small helpful mark in the world.
I wish I was this courageous all the time. The truth is that there are many days where I can’t find the courage to act. Instead, I remain paralyzed by fear of failure instead of actually dedicating myself to the learning process where failed attempts are a vital part of growth. I get flustered and overwhelmed, already imagining how I will not succeed. For instance, food photography still secretly frightens me. I know. Really, after four years of food blogging I should be pretty comfortable with my DSLR camera. It’s frankly embarrassing. On one hand, I love food styling and finding the perfect dishware, linens and accessories to create a beautiful photographic set.
But when Mr. Italicano or my friends who are photographers start talking with me about technical features of the camera, my eyes glaze over and I tense up. I should know this stuff. I should be a pro. But, to be honest, each time I pick it up the camera instead of finding the courage to practice, fail, learn and improve, my mind tells me that: I’m not skilled enough, smart enough or creative enough to take great food photography because it’s too technical. I don’t do well with technical things. I’m terribly horrid at math, excel spreadsheets and anything really that requires precise measurements (that’s why you don’t see a lot of baking on this blog). So I’ve let this fear of the technical aspects of photography stop me from developing this skill. Instead I fall back on the 1 to 2 photography tricks I know to take ok photos. Sometimes they turn out even to be great photos, but I wouldn’t be able to explain to you how I got that shot. These are the moments I’m not proud of myself. I could be honing a craft to improve and instead I’m scared to try so my skills remain mediocre and I constantly feel insecure.
It’s funny, I look at my 8 month old daughter and she is doing everything right.
Each day Pepper is courageous. She wakes up in the morning, curious and determined to learn something new and doesn’t give up until she excels. Her mind is not deceiving her with doubts that she is too little to walk, or too small to make someone smile, or too uneducated to communicate. Oh, no. She is confident. She is persistent. She is consistent day in and out.
This daring little creature tried for a week to stand, falling time again as she tried to figure out how to coordinate her arms and legs and use her body to pull herself up. At times she would be frustrated, but she would never give up. She also didn’t care that I saw her try and fail. She had no insecurities about what I must have thought at her “failed attempts”. On the contrary, seeing her struggle, I immediately was rooting her on. It was inspiring to watch her tenacity, her resilience, her perseverance to succeed at the task at hand. And, just like that—with her continued dedication towards doing one thing well, she soon stood with ease and was off to learning her next “one big thing”.
She is growing exponentially because she constantly puts herself out there and doesn’t have fears, doubts and insecurities blocking her way.
What if I could go back to this learning mentality?
What if I could get out of my head long enough to take action towards doing one thing well each day on a consistent basis?
What if I could give myself permission to try and fail without thinking less of myself, but rather, knowing that it is just part of the process to mastering a skill?
Oh, Pepper, sweet little girl. You are a wise little one without even knowing it. When I need to find courage each day I will think of you.
Breathe.
Baby steps.
Daily steps.
Do one thing well each day.
- 1 ripe peach
- ¼ cucumber, thinly sliced
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Juice from ½ lemon
- 2 twigs fresh lemon thyme, stem discarded
- 5 twigs fresh oregano, stem discarded, roughly chopped
- 5 mint leaves, chopped
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
- 1 teaspoon hemp seeds
- 1 tablespoon, pepitas
- Parmigiano Reggiano shavings
- You can cut the peach in half, remove the pit and thinly slice half moons or, what I tend to do is to slice large circles off the whole peach working my way around the peach until I get to the pit then I discard. Divide the peaches on two plates and add the sliced cucumber. Next make the vinaigrette by whisking together the extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice. Evenly drizzle this mixture over the peaches and cucumber then top with fresh lemon thyme, oregano, mint, pepitas, hemp seeds and a few shavings of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Crack on top sea salt and black pepper.
- Make ahead: if you’d like to make in advance, just put the peach and cucumber on individual plates with a squeeze of lemon juice and store in the fridge, create the vinaigrette and leave it at room temperature. Then when guests arrive just top with a few drizzles of the vinaigrette, fresh herbs, pepita and hemp seeds and a few Parmigiano Reggiano shavings.
Hi, I was glad to receive this new recipe and sad that you are still in a US location that is still so far from New York. Maybe someday I can take your classes. Question, where does one get lemon thyme? I haven’t seen it in the stores here.
Pepper is absolutely beautiful and looks just like her parents. Your 10 year goals seem ambitious indeed. Ambitious but attainable. When I think of what you’ve accomplished thus far in your life, I have to give you a lot of credit. Living in another country, learning another language, the blog , the travel, the business of obtaining business from sponsors, finding supplies, the development of recipes, moving back to the States, continuing with the business and starting the cooking business in the US, WOW! Looking at all these things you will see that your daughter gets her tenacity from her parents. I am in awe of all you have done.