Archive for August, 2007
This has gone around quite a lot, so I had to search my bloglines listings to peer again at who is on the list and why they are on it. I recently cleaned house on bloglines, deleting people who made me yawn or whose preview panes almost never got me to click through. There were a couple I was a bit defensive about– I had the feeling I shouldn’t want to read them but was doing it anyway at least sometimes. Those are the self-consciously cute or seriously demented ones.
“This award goes to bloggers “who effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello - all the while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship.”
The people who nominated me are people I read every single post. Bleeding Espresso and Barb&Art Live in Italy both are never missed schmoozers, but they’re already on most people’s lists. That goes for Palma, as well. And Karenuccia of Niente di nuovo sotto il sole, who is now allowing us all to be pregnant with her. Whodathunk I could be pregnant again! Or almost anyone on the blog roll to your right. I have tried to send you to blogs you may not yet know.
Corey Amaro of Tongue In Cheek is one of the ones I always read and doesn’t come here. She’s funny and imaginative and shows great photos of French broccante with stories she makes up to go with them. She’s also honest. I really like her.
Mardel of Sew Distracted also gets my attention. I’m not sure why, but I like to follow her thinking.
Lucy’s Kitchen Notebook is always worth a look for the French food from Lyon– sort of the Bologna of France– and incredible photos.
Jessica of In Search of Dessert is a young woman living in Switzerland and growing up a writer. She’s also very honest and now that I know her I am even more a dedicated fan.
French Laundry at Home is not, as I originally thought, a tip sheet on doing your washing incredibly well, but Carol, of my old home town, cooking her way page by page through Thomas Keller’s cookbook. She is sometimes so funny I laugh out loud.
If you know I love you but you didn’t come up here, it’s because I was trying to make a list of people I haven’t seen on anyone else’s list. Have a look at those on mine. Leave a comment. You know, I never leave a comment that means nothing, but I try very hard to comment, especially on new bloggers, because it’s really important to know someone is reading! In the past week I have seen two of my friends announce that they are quitting. TWO people whose every post I read. TWO people that I actually contacted outside their blogs because the communication seemed worthwhile. What a loss! And yet, sometimes I know exactly how they feel. I find myself without idea or inspiration because I don’t know what people want to hear!
August 6th, 2007
Sognatrice wants me to complain. Most of my complaints are little ones, at least to me. I suppose other than people going “Whoo whoo” at Hillary Clinton’s cleavage, I haven’t had a good mad on for ages. But she and the instigator of this moan, The Freelance Critic, even have a list I am supposed to fill out. I could, as Sognatrice did, say why it is I don’t whinge a lot, but when I try it goes all Pollyannaish and I hate that. Just take it on trust that people who whine a lot are not my favorite or even occasional companions.
5 people who will be annoyed you tagged them
My Bella Vita — as if she didn’t have enough to do with a wedding to plan and a brand new B&B just opened!
Spaghetti Mommy — she doesn’t even know that I read her, she’s off on vacation… hahah!
Re-boot: a new life in Italy is also on vacation and hardly ever complains… maybe it’s time?
CaroleB at Alpine Settler has gone completely off the radar … wake up!
Art and Barb Live in Italy, well Barb knows how to launch a barb or two and Art can barbecue.
4 things that should go into room 101 and be removed from the face of the earth.
The present administration of the old country
Cheaters and abusers.
Tailgaters.
Maleducati of all descriptions.
3 things people do that make you want to shake them violently.
Repeat shameful gossip behind peoples backs.
Cut in front of me, in line, in traffic, hey there you! Get off!
Carry $3500 purses and shoot their crotches in public.
2 things you find yourself moaning about.
My tendinitis.
How much I hate dirt and equally hate doing something about it.
1 thing the above answers tell you about yourself.
You don’t know it, but it took me almost a month to come up with these moans!
RULES
* Link to the original meme at freelancecynic.com so people know what it’s all about!
* Be as honest as possible. This is about letting people get to know the real you!
* Try not to insult anyone - unless they really deserve it or are very, very ugly!
* Post these rules at the end of every meme!
There, I didn’t know I had it in me. Now I’m in a bad mood.
August 5th, 2007
WIN $2500!!!
Over at Ashwin’s blog, you will find one crazy blog owner!! You can win $2500!! To enter just copy this text and paste it in your blog!! But hurry, this competition will not last long! So get posting!
How can I resist? Who doesn’t need money? Go for it, and may the poorest, old, expat blogger in Italy win.
August 5th, 2007
Someone asked me recently if they could get all the cookery from here in a book. Right now, obviously, she can’t. But if I do the work, with modern technology I can make a book.
I’m very picky about indexing cookbooks, so I can see it would be quite a lot of work, but I’m considering it.
How about it? You can get most of it free here, but some think using the search box is too much trouble. Would you buy a book if it existed?
August 4th, 2007
Notice! Important correction to the ingredients
If you’ve already had all you want, move along, there’s nothing here to see. But I have just started making this year’s mostarda and after some further study I’ve slightly altered the recipe and taken some photos. Clicking on the photos should take you to a full-sized version.
Why post it again? Because this is turning out to be the most requested recipe of all so far. I haven’t served it to anyone who hasn’t just loved it.
This is what it looks like ready to cook. The peaches have been peeled by dunking them into boiling water for 30 seconds and then into a bowl of cold water, after which the skins slip right off. I then remove any imperfection revealed.
Here’s the new recipe:
1.3 kilos (46 ounces) of ripe peaches, which when peeled and stoned will be close to 1 kilo of fruit– cut into chunks
.5 kilo sugar (1 pound)
5 dried red chili peppers (peperoncini) broken in two
1/3 to 1/2 cup of cider vinegar (80-120 ml aceto di mele)
pinch of salt
1 packet of pectin for making jams
Clean and boil at least five sealable canning jars and lids as well as a ladle, tongs and a funnel if you have one. I finally found a wide mouthed funnel, and it’s copper! Lovely. I had always had to make a jury-rigged funnel out of aluminum foil.
Put all the ingredients except the vinegar into a heavy cooking pot with plenty of extra space for boiling, and it will look like the photo above. Stir in the vinegar until it tastes the way you would like it to. I find it depends on the peaches. Very sweet ones need more.
Bring the mixture, stirring all the time, to a boil that is so vigorous that you can’t flatten it by stirring it. Reduce the heat to keep it just at that boiling point, and stir once in a while, for five minutes.
This is the mostarda cooking and just ready to start boiling.
Arrange a clean kitchen towel on a nearby work counter and one by one, remove a sterile jar, drain it, fill it using the funnel and making sure to include a chili, wipe the jar rim with a damp paper towel, and screw the lid on until just closed. When they’re all filled, remove any extra jars from the sterilizing pot and using tongs, put the filled jars into the pot. Boil them for five minutes. Using tongs again, remove the filled jars and with two pot holders, screw the lids down as tight as you can, then leave the jars upside down to cool for a few minutes. Up-right the jars and let them cool completely. You should hear “pop-pop-pop” sounds as the lids seal and form a vacuum. Any that don’t should be refrigerated until use.
Let them sit at least 2 weeks to get the proper flavor and then you can open one, spoon into a dish and drizzle balsamic vinegar over it. Eat with a good aged cheese– aged pecorino is what we like here, but I can’t imagine that any mature cheese wouldn’t be good. It’s eaten with a fork and knife without bread or crackers.
August 3rd, 2007
Here you will find the latest article on street fashion in Italy.
August 3rd, 2007
I am an American citizen living in Italy and I am also older than Hillary Clinton. I am also not a Clinton adherent. This entire media flurry over seeing the top 1/2″ of Ms Clinton’s mid-chest region makes me angry to a point that I plan to write about it on my own international blog.
That amount of cleavage could just be the result of tugging down a top to keep it from bulging under the jacket, after all. It doesn’t have to be a choice, but really, if it is a choice what can it mean?
The inanities that are today’s US celebrities flash their unpantied crotches at news photogs. People who are 30 pounds overweight deck themselves in Spandex. It’s almost impossible to buy a midrange pair of tailored trousers or jeans in which the waist isn’t barely over the pubis. Those are worn with shrunken tops that bare the rest of the belly.
Is Ms Clinton supposed to wear a habit decades after the nuns have stopped wearing them? Is she supposed to dress as if she is in Norway when she is in hot and sweaty DC under thousands of hot watts of light? Is she supposed to keep from our minds that she is female? Ms Clinton has often seemed fashion challenged, but aren’t we to appreciate that she has her mind on health care and education instead?
US citizens have twice elected someone who is wrecking the country and making us look like the veriest idiots. When I read what some ordinary citizens have to say as they comment on international issues I cringe. The ignorance displayed by graduates of our educational system is appalling. The schizophrenic demonstration of way too much interest in body parts, way too much judgment about people’s sexual proclivities and an exaggerated campaign on family values, all the while destroying any possible move toward real family values, is disturbing when seen from outside. Families spend time together, eating, talking, working, not driving to play dates and soccer matches and keeping separate plates of Hamburger Helper for whenever the various members get in to eat it. The culture of working sixty to eighty hour weeks to gain respect is the same culture that requires you to be married to have sex. The culture that wants girls to marry as virgins also blinks at violence and even violent sexual assaults.
How can I resolve the issue of a culture that allows children to see Lara Croft as a heroine with a Barbie shape and a killing instinct and then shows disgust at a middle-aged senator with part of her chest showing? Which woman really is the hero?
Could it be that the pandering of the media to a public easily seduced by scandal and gossip is both unethical and irresponsible? I believe it is.
The above image is a still from a C-span video as published in the Washington Post.
August 1st, 2007
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