Friuli Venezia Giulia

I am trying to figure out the correct Italian word for downsized. Babblefish tells me it's "ridimensionato", eliminated is "elimninato", out of work is " fuori del lavoro", I am only at lesson two of my Italian so I am not too sure which one is correct. I was in Montreal mid week for a farewell party for our customer service department, that has been moved to US. It's hard to say goodbye to some really good people who are now out of work. Goodbye and Farewell translates as "addio" in Italian, au revoir translates as "ciao". Arrivederci on the other hand, has a totally different meaning, it is an "aknowledgement or expression of goodwill on parting", think about that the next time somebody says "ciao". Travelling with the boys P1 & P2 we made a quick stop off at the "Attwater Market" on the way out of town where I picked up some more liquid love in the form of aged balsamic vinegar from Modena. Outside the entrance I told them I had the cookbook from the Boulangerie Première Moisson, which was looming dramatically infront of us. P1, asked me how many cookbooks I had, " a lot" I replied. He asked me why, I replied I thought it made me a better cook, but he didn't seem convinced. I am supposed to be exploring my first area of Italy this week, "Fruili Venezia Giulia", and I will but last night It was the"Fine Cooking" magazine which had arrived while I was away. I adapted the recipe in the link above with pretty good results. I only had two leeks, so I supplemneted with a Fennel/Anise bulb, I fired both through the slicer on the Food Processor. I missed that it was in the "Big Buy" section for garlic, so I only had 4 cloves on hand. I debated whether to add add a splash of "Absenthe" to bring out the fennel, but I am supposed to be Italian now and not French. I think it would still be very good if you happen to have some about. I used Vegatable broth because I had it open instead of Chicken Broth and finally I used 3/4 creme fraiche and a 1/4 milk because I had no heavy cream. So I can't believe we didn't eat lunch at the Bakery in the Attwater, P2, a boy who always follows his stomach was practically licking the windows. "The Husband" was a bit puzzled by it as well when he found out. Adapting the needs of a group is not always the easiest way to go, adapting a recipe is, when you have read a lot of cookbooks. I am just about to toss my desk looking for a recipe that I copied out on my last visit to Italy, "Gnocco al Forno Calfeffi" or "Dumplings from the Caliph's Furnace." With this in mind I typed in "fired" or "licenziato"........but "fired up" is "sparato su" and I have no idea who Caliph is. Arrivederci.

Living the Italian Way

I haven't posted in over a year. Last Monday I celebrated my birthday, another milestone come and gone and for while now I feel as though my brain is shrinking. 1. I am getting older, undeniable fact. 2. My literary stimulus over the past few years has comprised of reading cookbooks , assorted chick-lit books and trying to navigate CAN/ULC ratings for my work with the Big F, not exactly mind expanding. 3. I haven't found the time to work on creative things, my paint brushes mock me from a workbench piled with 4 or 5 uncompleted projects........... intermittently mixed with work samples and migrating paperwork and oh, a few stray recipes. I have developed a plan to expand my brain, I have set goals, I will become Italian! 1. Learn to speak Italian, which may be tougher then I imagine but I am armed with "Rosetta Stone" to help me along the "via romana". 2. Select a reading list that will expand my Italian brain . 3. Be creative. Today is the first day of Italian Life.

February

Ah, at last January is closing again for another year! I am grateful because really for the record it sucked. 1. Cancer was diagnosed for my Mother,sort of ( more tests for certainty of where and which one came first) 2. Overcome halfway through the month with a strange staph virus in my skin that left me in bed for 3 days. Its always scary when the doctor looks at you scared and says any change for the worse go directly to emergency. 3. I ended my job, I always hate that. 4. "the husband" has become a confections maker Good things are: 1. Sunnybrook hospital is fabulous and I think my mother is in good hands. 2. I got to watch the inauguration while lying in bed, then dissected via email with the sib's. 3. I hated my job and got a better one back again! ( strange but true) 4. I made croissants from scratch with the "Fine Cooking" magazine sent as a Christmas presents from "Sister #1". A true 3 day weekend project, http://www.finecooking.com/. The other strange one is that I have lost my kitchen to "the husband", but he is only making candy and chocolate. Which means I am getting fat or fatter. Also, I still have to stock and track the pantry items, except now they are never in the same place twice. "The husband's" job finished up on Friday and he is quite enjoying his reborn creativity. He made the most mouth watering caramels yesterday. There is nothing like the real thing, sweet, preservative free and made with passion. His cooking is very calculated and precise, it brings out his inner engineer. Stay back and watch the melding of the "IE" with "The artist" and the outcome is fabulous. Before you ask, yes he still cleans up the mess. I ask you, does it get better then this? I will bear it like the cross it is. He will be taking "The Mother" and "Sister #2 next Tuesday for treatment. #2 wants him to bring samples, if he fears criticism fear not, this is not a highly particular crowd when it comes to caramels. Good candy and chocolate has always provided placebo Prozac for my family, it's really just for our nerves.

January

This I think will not be a great year. I already knew that some things will be changing, "the husband" will be out of work by the end of the month. But ever the optimist it started with great promise, an interview on the first Monday back to work. I knew as soon as I entered that it was not going to be the promised land. I had to fight the urge to run screaming. Wednesday my mother was diagnosed with some type of Lymphoma which will require more tests to determine a course of action. I took her to the hospital to get the test results, which along with stupid job interview questions, had enough comic material to provide me with a one woman stand up routine. Her reaction's were priceless. Her initial reaction was, " If I knew they were going to tell me this... I wouldn't have come." On the way home she told me she always thought she would have a heart attack and someone would just find her dead. ( humm.... me I think, thanks but not something I was looking forward too.) I am I admit, a bit shaken. I made that night an adapted version of Rosemary Cake from the Feb 09' Canadian House and home. 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1 tablespoon baking power 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt 4 eggs 3/4 scant cup of sugar 2/3 cup of olive oil 1 ish tablespoon of rosemary 1 teaspoon of dried lavender 1 teaspoon of lemon zest Preheat oven to 325, mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Whisk eggs and sugar until pale yellow and add olive oil and whisk again slightly, add dry ingredients to incorporate. Pour into a loaf pan and bake for 55 minutes. Cool and slice. It tastes better the next day the edges are slightly crispy, and even 3 days later sightly stale dipped into tea.

Treasure

I was off to seek treasure this weekend. "The husband" and I went off to the Christie Fall Antique show. I awoke to the rain pattering on the glass table outside my bedroom window at 5:30 in the morning and the debate began. Do we or don't we go, but we eventually did, fortified by Starbucks and protected by rain gear and the worlds biggest umbrella. Besides I needed a quest this weekend. "The brother" was town this weekend as well from points south of the 49th parallel for yet another high school class reunion. ("why don't I ever hear of one for your class", asks the husband as between "the brother" and "sister" 3 there is one every fall and we all went to the same high school? I really don't know and don't care, I hated high school) We walked among the tall wet grass and poked and perused what was mostly junk. I was looking for in order: An antique bed less then 39" for the Wii room ( aka the spare bedroom). We came up blank. 3 Griffiths white milk glass spice bottles to complete my collection. I came close but, it bothered the seller when she found out I actually USED THEM. I channel William Morris, have nothing in your house that is not either useful or beautiful. In 800 sq. ft it better be both. A soup tureen, most were so outrageously priced that they became impractical. I would have been afraid to use them. ( see note above ) And so, plan "B" went into action, vintage cookbooks. I picked up: Anne Pillsbury $200,000 prize winning cookbook from 1952 Aunt Jemima pamphlet from ... 1926 (It must be a reprint) Metropolitan Cookbook, 1941 from Metropolitan Life Ottawa Office, (It has the Tweedcake version recipe in it). I also picked up a 1939 party planning book, complete with games and songs to sing. "The brother" skimmed it and said he was glad he wouldn't be able to attend. Today I tweaked the $50,000 dollar "no knead water rising nut twists", for brunch at my mother .... um... okay, winner don't want to be messed with. Tonight we have on the menu, " Man-cooked meal"..... a totally 1950's casarole, Madman anyone?

Labour Day Weekend

In about 1 hour planes will start to screech over my back garden and I will feel strong bonds with residents of the serene Gaza Strip and beautiful downtown Kabul. With the earth moving under my feet and the foundations of the house shaking, I am feeling the need to cook. The cooking things that stood out this week are: The arguement over no knead bread on SOUNDS LIKE CANADA, on the CBC with Shelagh Rodgers, Liz Driver and Bonnie Stern. I might have to try the bread out this weekend and pressure cookers are beginning to sound intriuqing. 'The husband' hates the CBC and thinks me and a pressure cooker could be a very bad mix. In the Bread agruement Liz Driver states that pioneers used yeast usually gotten from the local brewery. http://www.cbc.ca/soundslikecanada/foodanddrink.html or http://www.sullivanstreetbakery.com/recipes/noknead.html Maybe thats what influenced my second discovery: The Grand River Brewing Company where I met and chatted with the knowledgeable Brewer Rob Creighton. Really who could resist "Bumbleberry Beer" on a road sign. He tells me that one of the beers I purchased was best drunk from a chalice. Great website with recipes with beer. http://www.grandriverbrewing.com/index.php And last but not least I also bought myself a John Deere..... cast iron frying pan.... who knew. I visited one of my favourite stores, The TSC http://www.tscstores.com/. They have the neatest stuff you ever didn't know you actually needed, but sadly no chalices. I need to season my John Deere today and drink my beer, I have no idea what's on the menu yet but I feel the need for earthiness and harvest, maybe I am just lacking iron... my new pan has added fringe benefits in that department. Now if I only had found the 'holy grail' literally, I would have a perfect chalice for my beer while I crane my neck looking for those F18's.

"til Burnham wood comes to Dunsinaine"

I may have spelt that wrong, I believe it was Duncan's line in Macbeth. I do know it was from Macbeth as it was continually quoted during my childhood. We lived on Burnhamthorpe Road, but I digress.

I was channeling Lady Macbeth this weekend, by cooking beets. If you have ever contemplated murder, peel a few beets and you might just get it out of your system. Its the closest most of us will ever come to oozing sanguine out of a living thing , other then CSI I suppose, and really that's a good thing.

Beets are something you either love or hate. I happen to love them either roasted or pickled, red or golden, canned or fresh. In France you can buy them in fours pre-roasted and peeled in a shrink wrapped package. Take them home and slice them up into almost anything. I particularly love them cold, in salads and turning everything around them a delightful shade of pink.

One of our very first dinners with "the husband" as new house owners was a beet dressing on Boston lettuce from Martha Stewart. I processed it in a too small mini chopper and it went everywhere in the the kitchen and on me. Undaunted and slightly pinker I poured this magenta sauce over the bright chartreuse leaves of lettuce and it looked like something off a Disney set. Our guests came running to see the what the "oh my goodness that's a bit strange looking" thing was in the kitchen. It tasted good though.

Here is my Garlicky Pink Salad.

I bunch of beets. (3-6 depending on the size)

salt and pepper

3/4 cup of walnut halves

Juice of 1/2 lemon

roughly the same amount of Walnut oil ( or Olive Oil if you have not)

1 garlic clove

3/4 cup of Balkan yogurt (optional)

Place the beets in a baking dish with a lid, lightly season with salt and pepper. Pour enough water in the bottom to cover the bottom by about 1cm. Put the lid on and roast for about 1 hour at 400' or until tender. Remove from the oven and let cool. Toast the walnut halves for about 8 minutes until fragrant, remove from oven and let cool.

Combine, lemon juice and oil and grate the clove of the garlic into it.

Peel the beets and roughly chop, crumble the walnut meats in your hands into the beets and the juice and lemon and carefully combine. Season with salt and pepper. Gently but firmly stir in the yogurt and let the flavours mingle for about an hour in fridge if its wildly hot or at room temp if not so.

You could stop finish the salad before the yogurt bit but you would miss the lovely pinkness of it all or crumble feta cheese instead.

Blast some 'Pink' on the ipod and get this party started, just for the heck of it.

Murder Most Foul

It's been ages since I posted, so long in fact that I forgot how to sign in and my profile is gone. Oh well adds to the sense of mystery I suppose. Who got murdered your asking yourself I bet. I grew up as the youngest of a family of five children. We never had "pets", although my mother grew up in a house full of them. Whenever we would ask for a dog or cat, we got the standard answers. Your my little pet. It wouldn't be fair to the animal When you grow up with your own house, you can do whatever you want then. 3 out the the five of us have pets. I and my sister both don't.... until yesterday that is....... I bought 5 goldfish for my pond. Picture now the scene of the crime, back garden pond. Yesterday at 4pm, 5 fish..... this morning at 9am.....Gone. Fishnapping is now a serious crime in our area of Toronto! Or perhaps it was murder by those masked bandits, Rocky Raccoon and gang. Either way they are gone and I am devastated. Anyway I should plan the wake.... and I am thinking fish for dinner......grim reality

Rainy Saturday in June

Oh, it is June already. I didn't realize until today that April and May had flown by with seemingly record speed. April started with a wonderful trip to Paris, and then two weeks of recovery. May besides work, was full of the business of the garden, cleaning, moving and planning. And then finally the process of planting. I actually do very little of the cleaning, moving and planting stuff, it is the almost exclusive domain of 'the husband'. I do the planning or at least try too, it is sort of a mad romp through the garden centre to buy this years 'must have'. I say mad romp because 'the husband' and I are competing for the garden space! We actually both sneak plants home, Thursday two rose bushes and 2 lilies just appeared on the patio! 'The husband' also laid a new brick boarder for the path and I replaced 4 dianthus along its sides. He also confiscated my rock garden which I planted last year and revamped it. Its been busy. Last weekend was our anniversary and a nothing too fabulous meal (Okay it was truffled roast chicken) ..... But this weekend will include the 'Lucy Waverman' menu from the Globe and Mail today. Shrimp Cakes, and Roasted Asian chicken with rice stuffing. I found a new fabulous store for fresh vegetables and fancy food stuffs, so I off to do the shopping, oh did I mention it is also a Garden Centre...something might just have to follow me home for the garden, we actually do need some more geraniums. Really! http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060603.WAVERMAN03/TPStory/?query=lucy+waverman

Love at First Sight

I am in love, truly, madly, deeply............. I went to the 'Interior Design Show' yesterday. A very nice gentleman from 'Maison la Cornue' introduced me to my new object of desire. She is sleek, shiny and with just the of sparkling metal accent (like most French women she wears the perfect amount of jewelry) I fell madly in love. Her name is CornueFe. She comes with five burners and two ovens and is solid as a rock, I have turned my back on 'Aga' and added this to the dream list. The two ovens open by swinging out sideways like cabinet doors, one could be conventional electric and one either gas with salamander or convection oven. 'Yippee!' The salesman offered me a glossy expensive looking catalogue and price list in a sexy little colour coordinated bag. He then said 'CornueFe' was much more affordable for a modest budget, 'Youpe' (French for Yippee). Without skipping a breath he said, in the $9000 dollar range, I must have fooled him with my 'Longchamp' purse. Yup, as the smile slid away from my face, I thanked him and 'modestly' added 'CornueFe' to my dream list................ I told 'the husband' I would sacrifice the Hermes 'Kelly Bag" off the list for this little baby................ Sadly, he was unmoved by my unselfishness. I did move one step closer to the reality of having one of these lovely creatures in my kitchen, I pasted the picture into the inside of my pantry door. It doesn't cost anything to dream, 'the husband' chuckled, nervously. I told him the one I really wanted starts at $31,000 US prior to taxes and shipping.