Coconut Cherry Chia Pudding

If you follow food blogs and healthy vegetarian sites, you have undoubtably seen chia pudding recipes. It's no wonder it has become a healthy snack of choice because it is simple, fast and packed with nutrition. Chia seeds have come a long way from the spreadable paste to make fluffy green 'pets'. Today, chia seeds have earned the title of "superfood" for their high protein content, soothing affect on the digestive system and their cholesterol lowering omega-3 fatty acids. Plus, they make great pudding!

Spiced Vegan Rice Pudding

This vegan, refined-sugar free rice pudding is simple, fast, and one of my favourite treats. Made with creamy coconut (or almond) milk and warming spices like cinnamon and cardamom, it is sure to warm you up on a cool day. Sweetened only with bananas and dates, there is no added sugar, but it definitely doesn't lack in sweetness!

Persimmon Tart

Persimmons, or kaki, are very particular fruits. They have a sweet, delicate flavour, somewhat like browned sugar with a slight floral aftertaste. Their season is quite brief, starting in late autumn and finishing before the winter frost sinks its teeth in. If you don’t live in an area where they grow, they can be hard to come by. When ripe, the plump orange bulbs swell with a golden goo and the thin skin easily splits apart. For this reason, they don’t do well in grocery stores and certainly can’t be shipped across the globe like apples. 

Growing up in Northern California, I never saw persimmons, nor ever tasted one. If it hadn’t been for my father talking about them being his favourite fruit, I may never even have known of their existence. Fortunately, they are very common in Italy and the hills of the Cinque Terre are speckled with these bare trees, branches weighed down by heavy orange fruits. My first experience was in Sicily when we bought a flat of ‘cacchi’ from a guy in a parking lot. This if often where you’ll get the best produce in Sicily--from the back of a truck in a random parking lot.

How to freeze lemons to use year-round

It's the height lemon season right now, and if you have a tree of your own, you may have more lemons than you know what to do with. Well, not worry because one of the best things to do with all those lemons is also the simplest and most healthy.

Freezing your lemons is becoming popular now that research has shown it's the healthiest way to ingest the sour fruit. Lemon water is known to detoxify and alkalise the body, but beyond squeezing a wedge into the glass, the peel of the lemon is usually discarded. The problem with that is the peel is the most powerful part of the fruit!

Roasted Pumpkin Gnocchi

It's no secret that autumn is my favourite season. From the chestnuts, to the mushrooms; from pears and clementines to pomegranates and persimmons; Autumn brings us some of the most savoury and sweet produce. Pumpkin is a fantastic vegetable full of beta-carotene and fibre. By oven roasting the pumpkin (or butternut squash) first, it creates a drier base for using as a thick sauce or as a puree for desserts.

The base of this recipe is incredibly versatile, working well as a filling for homemade ravioli, mixing in for a sweet and savoury risotto, or just as a delicious side dish to a classic fall menu. But the quickest and simplest dish is to stir it with fresh gnocchi. But be careful, like risotto, gnocchi can be very filling and heavy, so I recommend a smaller portion than you may be accustomed to.

For the Artists

What does formal education mean? What does it signify? Does it mean you are smart if you have it and stupid if you don’t?

Whatever your answer to that question is, one thing is for sure—schooling shapes every person. Like cookie-cutter forms, the school system shapes everyone to think, do and behave in a similar way. There are many options of what to study, many paths to follow, but the process is always the same. The problem is, we are not all the same and we don’t all process information in the same way.

For a true artist, the school system can be the most soul-crushing, demoralizing experience. I know because I am an artist at heart. Fortunately, I was able to get through school by my insatiable curiosity and being an art major! Over time, I have been able to strike a balance of artistic and academic worlds by writing--and I am able to express my art through the written word. But not everyone is so lucky. So this post is dedicated to all you artists out there, struggling to make it in the “real world.”

Getting Validated

We all need to get validated in life, but this post is about getting a different kind of validation--train ticket validation!
  

When you travel in Italy, you will inevitably take a train, ESPECIALLY if you plan to visit Liguria. Purchasing your ticket can be done in many ways, whether online on Trenitalia's website, at the service window in any train station or at the many convenient Biglietto Veloce ticket machines. Please note, these machines only sell tickets, they do not validate them.
  

Unfortunately, buying your ticket is not the only step required in a stress-free and fine-free train ride.

Kiwi Clementine Tart

Although the depths of winter can leave you feeling dark and depressed, nature livens up the season with some very cheerful, colourful and vitamin C rich foods. Citrus and kiwi are two such fruits that come onto season during the winter. Did you know that the kiwi is one of Italy's biggest exports? This may be one of the least-known facts about this country. This vibrant cure for dreary days all started with a bag a kiwis that a friend gave us. They have a vine in their yard and were up to their ears in kiwis. But there are only so many tart kiwis one can eat before one starts to think: "what in the world am I going to do with the rest of these things??"

Sometimes a little free time in the kitchen and a bunch of fruit can yield spectacular results! When I entered the kitchen that afternoon, I certainly didn't expect to wind up with this gorgeous fruit tart. But for me, inspiration comes when I least expect it. Now, I wish I could tell you that I'm an organised, methodical person of clear mind and I set out to make a grand fruit tart. But no such luck--I am an artist at heart and my accomplishments in life are made in a much more Bohemian sort of way--I need to feel inspired.

Leftover Panettone-Part 4

This is the fourth instalment in what I call: "Leftover Panettone". In Italy, panettone is sold during the Christmas season and is the classic gift you bring to someone's home when visiting during the holidays. If you have a lot of friends and family, that can add up to some serious numbers! So it isn't unusual to have more panettone than you know what to do with. If you find yourself in this particular Italian predicament, please also see part 1,  part 2  and part 3 for the other ideas.

Beauty-full

Beauty.
  

What is beauty?

Beauty is, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder--but it's so much more than that. I am always seeing the beauty in everything I see, whether it be something really beautiful or something that most people don't even notice. And it's the noticing that we need to do more of. Nature is the most awe inspiring motivation for me. Since I was little, my walks down the street were always interrupted by the beauty of a flower, a caterpillar hidden behind a leaf, the way a weed can grow in the tiniest crack in the cement, or the big solid feeling a tree gives below it's burly branches. Still to this day, I notice these little things and I notice the absolute beauty that surrounds me where I live. 

Brugnato in Fiore

Each year, the small Ligurian town of Brugnato [pronounced 'broon-yato'], transforms its streets into floral fan-fare. Many towns and villages across Italy will have such festivals and if you get the chance to see one, it is truly remarkable.

Elderflower Delights

Late May to Early June brings the bounty of elderflower blossoms. Here in Liguria, edler trees abound and a drive through the countryside will leave you with a landscape of these cream colored bursts of flowers.

  

Their aroma is nearly intoxicating and the mere sight of these delicate, adorable white blossoms, bunched together to create a perfumed umbrella is one of the loveliest sights of Spring.

The Italian Spring?

It’s no surprise why the Italian economy is in trouble. Like many of it’s European counterparts, Italy has been subject to credit rating downgrades, hyperinflation with the switch to the euro, excessively high unemployment rates, soaring public debt and a slew of austerity laws in the works to really put the squeeze on the people. Where Italy differs from the others, however, is the gross economic inequality between the working class and the ruling class.

Italians have the lowest salaries of Europe. The average salary for an Italian is 1,000 euros a month (if they’re lucky enough to have a job), from which they pay 22% percent sales tax; rent or mortgage and property tax; annual trash tax; Italian television tax (RAI); the highest rates on electricity, gas and petrol than any other European state and to top it all off, about 36-42% income tax. Could you pay all that and live on 12,000 euros a year?

“I’m tired of seeing people lose their jobs…lose their homes!”

-Beppe Grillo

In sharp contrast, the Italian parliament members make some of the highest salaries in Europe, ranging from 6,000-16,000 euros a month. With the addition of allowances and credits, their pay scheme is an enigma that a specially formed committee couldn't even figure out. Not to mention the end of term pay-outs they receive which can range from 30,000-83,000 euros in one fat check (this gets repeated with each term they complete). This is compounded by the fact that parliament is made of 315 senators and 630 deputy ministers. Let’s do a little math: 945 members of parliament x (I’ll just average) 11,000 euros salary = 10,395,000 euros drained each month from the pockets of the people (for more information on parliamentary salaries, click here). A funny side-note: I multiplied this by 13 for the annual cost, but my calculator gave me an error message that the amount was too large to display! But they contend that they work hard and deserve every penny...

Dinosaur Kale

If you frequent Pinterest or any healthy/Paleo food blogs, you are aware of the recent Kale Chip craze. Picture after picture of crunchy, curly kale looked so good to me and I wanted to try it. But that lush, curly kale just doesn't exist in Italy. I certainly haven't seen it, even after searching far and wide. What I did find, however, was a very dark veggie with long flat spears that look just like, well, spears. I discovered that this "cavolo nero" or black cabbage, is called Dinosaur kale in English. The flavor is very similar to curly kale, but it is a bit stronger and mostly stalk with very little tender leaf. I'm not sure how it compares to the curly variety nutrition wise, but eating it makes me feel very strong and healthy! I even suspect this is what was in Popeye's spinach cans!!

Bruschetta Party

This summer, a trip to Simon Boca Negra, an amazing foccaceria in Sarzana, inspired us to make an aperitivo of varied bruschette. This is a fun and easy dinner to throw together for yourself or for a party and the possibilities are limited only by your imagination!

Book Review: "Inter Rail"

Traveling by train in Europe is an incredibly unique experience. Inside these comfortable steel tubes speeding through the countryside, the outside world becomes vague and blurred as it rushes past the windows. Whether lost in a book, or in good conversation, time takes on a different form while on a train and journeys of several hours and hundreds of miles can pass by in matter of moments. Most often however, this small bubble in the time-space continuum is shared with a complete stranger. This forced intimacy can easily be ignored with the help of ipods, books, computers, etc. or it can be embraced as an opportunity to get to know a random stranger.

But what kind of relationships can be formed from the crossing paths of random strangers? Francesco, the main protagonist in the book “Inter Rail”, by Alessandro Gallenzi, discovers just this when he boldly buys himself a rail pass to travel Europe.

Ricotta & Red Onion Pasta

 
Today was our first day of storms and rain and it made me think of this warm, autumn pasta. It is a recipe from my mother-in-law and it quickly became one of my favorite pastas. After several continuous days of heavy red sauce, this light creamy pasta is a welcome change. It has a very delicate flavor and I like to add fresh thyme to round it out. If you like the sweet flavor of red onions, you will be sure to like this pasta.

Do You Spritz?

Aperitivo is an Italian tradition, a favorite past-time and a cultural necessity. There are many ways to enjoy this early evening social snack (it is the original Happy Hour, actually), whether it be wine or cocktails, but during the summertime, when the air is hot and your skin is tight from a day at the sea, the most popular drink is the Aperol Spritz. It is a very simple concoction, yet it is so refreshing, and the gorgeous, cheery orange color is enough to lift your spirits and put you in the mood to celebrate.

It's sunshine in a glass, really. "Un Spritz" is so easy to order anywhere in Italy that one can get quite accustomed to the consistency of always getting a good Spritz. Unfortunately, when you leave Italy, a Spritz seems to be a foreign concept and the mere mention can bring a confused look to even an experienced bartender. My friends that leave Italy experience a period of Spritz withdrawals when they realize that it is nearly impossible to have a fix outside the Italian border (which is similar to my experience of ordering a Monaco outside of France, but that's another story).

Spaghetti agli Scampi

Italian food is very seasonal and in the summertime, pasta with scampi is not to be missed. While my first memories of this dish were made in Vernazza's piazza Marconi so many years ago, I have discovered that this dish is surprisingly easy and much cheaper to make at home! There are a few versions of this pasta, the most common being made with a thick tomato sauce, but I find that a simple, simmered garlic and pomodorini, or grape tomatoes, is the best.

The Best in Vernazza

It's a known thing that to get good food, you go where the locals go. Trattoria da Sandro is no exception. Just down from the train station, the very first restaurant you come upon is Trattoria da Sandro and after being one of the hardest hit businesses in the raging landslide of October 25th, they are back in business and better than ever! (Look at that beautiful deck, my husband built that deck!)