I’ve been reading lists all over the internet food world based on the best recipes of 2007, either their own trials or recipes they’ve picked up from this site or that one. I have never done a list like that for Think On It, so I thought I would instead farm the entire life of this blog and list what has been mentioned most often or eaten most often here casa mia.
Think On It, as a food blog, is in main dedicated to food prepared according to the basic tenets of Italian cookery, but simple enough for anyone to make. I mean anyone, and that includes you as well as the cook who has been turning out great meals for twenty years. I avoid piling up flavors and sauces, because that’s not Italian!
Toasted leeks and pecorino pasta is still Art’s favorite pasta. I am really proud of that, that living in Italy where pasta is tossed about like M&Ms Art still likes one of my original recipes the best! What would one do for reassurance without one’s friends?
The best carrots I know are still the best to me. I made this dish for a shared Christmas dinner this year and they disappeared like snow in Miami. I left out the thyme, too, because the real secret is the cumin, or comino. For a former carrot-avoider, this recipe has turned out to really have legs. Try them. (For some reason this link won’t work. Go to: http://www.judithgreenwood.com/thinkonit/the-best-carrots-i-know/
My vote for best one dish meal from the pages of Think On It, is Insalatona fra diavolo. I always freeze some pitted black cherries so that I can have this salad when cherries aren’t in season (and because you can’t buy bags of frozen plain cherries in my city.) When they are used up I have to wait until cherries come back in May and it makes me sad. The recipe actually makes two meals I love at once, and there can’t be anything wrong with that idea!
Antipasto is well represented here, but on another international food site Tiny Baked Potatoes has been the hands down winner, voted among the top one hundred appetizer recipes worldwide. I can only take credit for figuring out how you can make this Pugliese dish at home, if you, like I, can’t rush off to Puglia today. How I would love to.
My most often cooked non pasta first course, or primo, is surely Toasted Leek and Potato Soufflé, a dish I find beautiful and absolutely delicious. I know it looks difficult, but it isn’t at all, and you don’t have to use a soufflé dish to cook it, although if you have one, why not?
The vote for best vegetarian dish is split. The first one has to be Pasta e Fagioli which is a feel-good dish without equal. I can make a little for just me, or a lot for a crowd and it always is good. When the weather is awful, this makes up for it. Just leave out the ham and you can feed it to a Bhuddist.
The second one is la Bomba although it is not Italian other than that I developed it here in my Italian kitchen using ingredients I bought in Italy. My evenings in Paris are about food. Sad, isn’t it? Just leave out the ham, and you’ll never miss it. I love, love, love this way with lentils. Ahh, Paris, how you inspire me.
Best cucina alta, the Italian version of haute cuisine, dish is the veal stuffed with veal on that page. I’ve come up with one small improvement lately, which is the inclusion of finely minced prosciutto crudo, or parma ham in the stuffing. This is a dish that goes on giving, because if you don’t slurp the cooking broth down immediately, you can have it another day with some tiny stuffed pasta, like capelletti or tortellini, or you can freeze it and cook another meat in it another day. I consider that practical as all get out.
Okay, that’s nine choices, and everybody does ten. The tenth is waiting for you. Please comment and tell me about something you’ve cooked from here and how it came out for you. If it wasn’t a success, tell me, because I’m determined to make every recipe just right.
If you click on something and there’s no photo, it may be that it’s a Flickr feed that isn’t working. Flickr has become irregular in what they show and I can’t count on them any more. That’s a shame, ma è la vita, sì?
This is one. You may understand better what it’s like to be a perfectly ordinary woman in Città di Castello when you know that Monica Bellucci, who plays every one of the women in this ad, is from here.
She did not take all the beautiful girls with her when she left. I find myself wondering if it sold a lot of undies to men who think their mates are just like her, or could be? Whatever the answer is to that question, it sure doesn’t look like the ads for Best Buy in the good old USA.
Jackie sent me this photograph of our home, now hers, decorated with extraordinary good, New England taste. Old houses in Maine are just this way, restrained, white and unadorned other than their innate elegance of form. I have not seen that house at Christmas since 1961. Thank you, Jackie. I love what you’ve done.
That photograph was taken this winter in Maine. Maine was my home for the first part of my life until I went away to college. If someone were to send me home for the holidays, I guess they’d send me to Maine, although I have never lived there again since I went off to school. In some ways, it is and always will be home to me. If I see snapshots of snowbanks and frosted fir trees I am swamped with nostalgia. I have thousands of visual memories of Maine in winter, some gorgeous and some appalling.
That place is not my home, it’s an inn in Bethel, Maine. I never saw our home decorated outside for Christmas, although it may have happened long after I left, when decorating the outside of your house became something almost anybody might do. I don’t even know if it is decorated this year, because I haven’t asked nor have I seen a photo of my old home in the past few years.
When I married and had a child, I said to my husband that our house would be home at the holidays, and only once during those years were we anywhere else, but that time was not in Maine, but in Nebraska, his home. I was really serious about that statement, because we were a military family and I felt it would be only too easy for our child not to have a feeling of home and of roots. Wherever we were, whoever we knew, I felt very sure that we needed to make that ensemble be home for her. She had a lot of homes over those years. She never saw Maine at Christmas, either. I’m sorry about that.
This photograph was taken by my sister Jackie. Jackie is our baby sister, and I used to say she was the nicest among us, but now I think the better term is the most reasonable human being among us. She’s smart, talented and capable, but even more important to me, she’s kind. We all have some of those qualities among my family, but getting them all rolled up in one I don’t think has happened in any of the rest of us. Maybe because she came so long after the rest of us we all focused on her without competition or judgment, maybe she got more love because of that, or maybe she was just born to be more reasonable and more humane.
What’s all this got to do with your Christmas? Not a blessed thing, unless you too are living far from home and the people you love, unless you too think about Christmas past, and unless you too don’t make enough opportunities to tell your loved ones that you love them. In specific terms that apply only to that one person, not just, “Love you!” as you get off the phone, but “how do I love you, let me count the ways,” which is what the post is about.
That was my home, this is my sister, these are my memories, this is my love. I love her still just as I loved her when she was three years old and peeped through my windows like an elf. I love her dimples, her strong hands, her intelligence and her responsible take on life. She never stops learning or giving. Her life is full of troubles that one rarely hears about. You can count on Jackie.
Best of all, I can just say what I think, because of course you know I have another even closer young lady in my life, but that one has a highly developed sense of privacy which prevents me from posting about her. That one gets, “Love you!” and she knows that I do. If I had my way, there’d be a page with her portrait and all the lists of how do I love you, because when it comes right down to it, if home is where your heart is, home is wherever she is.
Merry Christmas to you all, and I hope you are with the ones you love.
That’s how much was raised by Menu for Hope. I want to thank every one of you who bought a ticket and even more those who bought as many as they could manage.
If you read Pim’s pages on the target for giving, you’ll know that this money will make a big difference to Lesotho, where most live on $1 a day. The food goes to schoolchildren and will be bought from Lesotho farmers, not bought in a rich country and shipped there.
Now all I have to do is wait until my winner gets in touch and on January 9th I’ll see if I lucked out, too.
Turns out they’ve extended bidding through the weekend. You’ve still a few hours to get what you want and need for your food experience next year.
Olivia Olsen belts out a great holiday wish, from “Love, Actually.” I’ve been known to replay this scene from the DVD several times.
It’s not very nice Italian, but the English wasn’t very good English, either!
I don’t want a lot for Christmas
There is just one thing I need
I don’t care about the presents
Underneath the Christmas tree
I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true oh
All I want for Christmas is you
Non voglio tanto a Natale
C’è l’unica cosa che mi serve
Non m’importano i regali
Sotto l’albero di Natale.
Ti voglio per mi stessa.
Di più che quanto puoi immaginare.
Far’ reallizzare il mio desiderio, ooo,
Tutto che voglio a Natale sei tu.
I don’t want a lot for Christmas
There is just one thing I need
Don’t care about the presents
Underneath the Christmas tree
I don’t need to hang my stocking
There upon the fireplace
Santa Claus won’t make me happy
With a toy on Christmas day
Non voglio tanto a Natale
C’è l’unica cosa che mi serve
Non m’importano I regali
Sotto l’albero do Natale.
Non mi serve dipendere le mie calze
Qua sul focolare.
Non mi fa felice San Niccolò
Con un giocattolo sul giorno do Natale.
I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true
All I want for Christmas is you
Ti proprio voglio per mi stessa
Di più che quanto che puoi conoscere.
Far’ realizzare il mio desiderio;
Tutto che voglio a Natale sei tu.
Ohh, Baby …
Oooo bébé …
I won’t ask for much this Christmas
I won’t even wish for snow
I’m just gonna keep on waiting
Underneath the mistletoe
Non chiederò tanto questo Natale
Neanche chiederò che nevica
Starò aspettando in continuo
Sotto il mistletoe.
I won’t make a list and send it
To the North Pole for Saint Nick
I won’t even stay awake
To hear those magic reindeer click
Non farò e metterò una lista
Al polo nord e San Niccolò
Non starò sveglia
Per ascoltare I cervi cliccano
‘Cuz I just want you here tonight
Holding on to me so tight
What more can I do, baby
all I want for Christmas is you
Perchè proprio ti voglio qui stasera
Mi stringendo stretta
Che cosa può fare di più?
Tutto che voglio a Natale sei tu.
All the lights are shining
So brightly everywhere
And the sound of children’s laughter fills the air
And everyone is singing
Tutti le luci splendono
Tanto brilliante dappertutto
Il rumore dei bambini ridendo ripiena l’aria
E tutti cantano.
I hear those sleigh bells ringing
Santa won’t you bring me
The one I really need
Won’t you please bring my baby to me quickly
Sento che le campane suonano.
Babbo Natale non mi porta
Quello che proprio ho bisogno?
Non mi porta mio bébé velocemente?
I don’t want a lot for Christmas
This is all I’m asking for
I just wanna see my baby
Standing right outside my door
Non voglio tanto a Natale
É questo che sto chiedendo:
Voglio a vedere il mio amore
A piede proprio fuori la porta
I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true
Baby all I want for Christmas is you
Ti voglio per mi stesso
Di più che quanto puoi conoscere.
Far’ il mio desiderio davvero.
Bèbé, tutto che voglio a Natale sei tu.
One of the things one takes on when donating a prize to Menu for Hope is making your prize attractive. My prize is me, and it’s really hard to think how to do that. I am at heart a somewhat earnest person and that can come off as not fun. But people do have lots of fun in my classes. I promise you, they are fun! What I am serious about is food, and not much else. You’d want to learn Italian cookery from someone who takes food seriously, right? Because Italians do take food seriously and they take eating with a great deal of joy. I like to extend the joy to cooking as well.
What I try to do here is present food approached in the manner smiled upon by Italian tradition, but show you how easy it can be. What I do in classes is get you acquainted with the basic philosophy of Italian cookery, which I have repeated here many times, and what that means in planning a meal, shopping for the meal and making the meal. I can help you with basic techniques if you’re just starting out, or elaborations if you are an experienced cook. I’ll help you use all your senses to understand how things should be — how they should feel, smell, what color they should be, because food isn’t all about taste, is it? I’ll show you how to organize the work of producing five courses so that it becomes a seamless effort that you can enjoy and not a chore.
We’ll discuss balancing an Italian meal so that everything isn’t a star and therefore your menu overloaded with quarreling flavors, and so that diners aren’t slogging from one heavy course into another. You might learn the joys of great olive oil. You may become acquainted with splendid cheeses you didn’t know before. You, too, can become dismissive of dessert!
Most of all, I hope, you’ll leave with a confidence in your hands, your eyes, your tools and your critical abilities for deciding what’s really good and what’s not worth it. You should not only be able to make the dishes we’ve made, but plan and make hundreds of other meals that evolve from what you’ve learned. It’s a short step from homemade tagliatelle to homemade ravioli or tortellini.
Serge has very kindly written up my cooking class prize on his blog. Now a concierge is supposed to be a knowledgeable person who directs you to the right choice. Who am I to question a concierge? He alludes that I am a good choice, so it must be true.
* Bronte Pistachio Cream (sweet) [Sicily]
* Crema di Mandorla (sweet Almond cream) [Sicily]
* Aceto Balsamico (Balsamic Vinegar) from Modena [Emilia-Romagna]
* White Truffle Oil [Abruzzo]
* Fillets of white tuna under oil [Campania]
* 3 bars fair trade Modica chocolate - orange, cinnamon and hot pepper [Sicily]
* Zibbibo jelly (sweet wine from Sicily) for cheese [Sicily]
* Fichi d’India jelly (cactus fruit) [Sicily]
* Nduja “pepperoncino & salame” spread from Catanzaro [Calabria]
* 5 packs “Cioccolata densa” Hot Chocolate mix [Lombardia]
* 1 half liter (1/2l.) bottle of extra virgin olive oil from our family friend in Gargano [Puglia]
* 1 “Spaghettata” dry herb pasta mix [Calabria]
* 1 tin “Amarelli liquirizia” pure licorice [Calabria]
* Pastiglie Leone in a collector’s tin [Piemonte]
This is an absolutely wonderful selection of Italian foodstuffs that even an Italian would want to win. Run to Ms Adventures in Italy and see what Sara has to say about it. EU27 and still for only a $10 donation to Menu for Hope.
This cassole symbolizes the power of our food blogging community coming together. This well-loved and experienced ‘cacola’ will be your French guardian angel perched on a kitchen shelf; a link to the French Kitchens of the past; a cradle for your culinary hopes of the future.
And just to make sure you have the spirit of Camp Cassoulet (see multiple posts in the archive here and at David L’ site and Lucy Vanel’s), I will include a copy of the new Camp Cassoulet Authentic Workbook & Recipe Primer.
I’ll even throw in the beans! A kilo of Haricots Tarbais and the shipping by international post chez vous!
Kate Hill teaches French cooking in France. Maybe you’ll go to her to learn to make cassoulet, but just in case you don’t, why not buy a raffle ticket that will win you this wonderful cassole and the beans and the instruction book? She will ship internationally!
One of the things one takes on when donating a prize to Menu for Hope is making your prize attractive. My prize is me, and it’s really hard to think how to do that. I am at heart a somewhat earnest person and that can come off as not fun. But people do have lots of fun in my classes. I promise you, they are fun! What I am serious about is food, and not much else. You’d want to learn Italian cookery from someone who takes food seriously, right? Because Italians do take food seriously and they take eating with a great deal of joy. I like to extend the joy to cooking as well. 
