What Fills My Plate

MANGIAMO!  That’s what we say in Italy for let’s eat!   The food is so good in Italy you never run out of new things to try.  Every region has its specialties.   One bite and you are hearing Luciano Pavarotti. One region uses more butter, another only olive oil, one region has smoked cheese another has wonderful parmigiano cheese.  It’s eating at every level. You never tire of sitting down to something new.  It’s always a challenge to read a menu for me.  After all, it’s not all pizza! The good thing about living here in the north of Italy is that we are near other countries, and so that makes life twice as good!  Croatia, Slovenia and Austria are within a few hours drive and so they make for a fun weekend.  Even though only a border separates these countries from Italy, the food there is quite different.    I am putting together a small cookbook of things I like to cook at home, things that I have discovered and the tricks to make them work.  Meanwhile I want to

I cannot resist a small step away from blogging “Italian” A few days ago we marked the passing of the last man who walked on the moon.  Gene Cernan was the commander of Apollo XVII was the last man to leave footprints on the moon’s surface.  That was back in 1972.   I was just past the legal drinking age, with a grandmother who knew real cowboys in Dodge City and another one who was in Cherokee Land Rush in Oklahoma.  It was an amazing time.  Progress reaching across time.   It was a great moment for mankind, something America can be proud of.     Now I am old, what happened?   Is it a question of money?  We certainly have enough to bomb 7 countries at the same time.  So many bombs that we run out of them!  Jets that release mini drones, illegal cluster bombs, and more.  We have an economy captured and ruled by the military industrial complex, and has great influence in the direction of NASA.  In these past years I have thought about NASA and the

Window In Shop in Venice I have been distracted by the holiday season and my mind has been far from What Fills My Plate.  It has been an interesting few weeks, with a steam train ride, a visit to the Christmas Markets in Nuremberg, Bamburg and Ljubljana, three trips to Venice, and the birth of a grandchild.  Time does not sit still and neither did we! IKEA What is the season to Italians?  I can only add a few insights in comparison to American perspective.  Using my mother as an example, she would have us diligently search at least three Christmas tree lots, with a final trip back to one of them to pick up the tree she thought was the best choice.  Italians do not have tree lots.  I have never seen one.  We have an imitation tree from IKEA of all places.  It actually looks pretty good, and I have been trained by the best, good ol' mom. Seasonal music in Italy is marginal in comparison.  Shoppers are blasted by Bing Crosby and the song White Christmas, Frosty the S