Granola

Good Granola!

1 lb. Oatmeal (not quick cooking) Can use more.
1 cup walnuts or pecans or both
5 oz. Almonds
3 or 4 oz. Pumpkin seeds (optional)
3 oz. Hazelnuts (Filberts)
3 oz. Dried cherries, cranberries & golden raisins
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 teaspoons Madagascar vanilla

Vary amounts as you like. Mix all together (big bowl) then lay out on cookie sheet and carefully pour butter to moisten slightly. Then pour vanilla carefully over all and then again smush, mush, and mix with your hands.

Bake 350 degrees for approximately 15-20 minutes, or until it smells delish!

Can probably mix everything in large bowl and then place evenly on cookie sheet. Vary any ingredient to your taste.

Great as a snack, on top of cereal, ice cream or in yogurt.

Bridle Path Press presents: Screw Iowa's new E-Book

Here's news of Lauren Small's Bridle Path Press, started last year, and also the new release of the Screw Iowa E-book, The End of the Book: Writing in a Changing World.

This is a book for writers everywhere to help sustain the writing life, improve craft, and achieve success. It's a collaboration, and can be downloaded now from Bridle Path Press. http://www.bridlepathpress.com/

The book will soon be available (beginning of November) on Screw Iowa's site: http://www.screwiowa.com/

Lauren Small started a new kind of press, one that is dedicated to serving the needs of writers and readers alike.

Below follows the mission statement. The book is only 149 pages, online 80 pages, and is a fast and wonderful read--a must for all writers, trying to live the writer's life in today's world. A free sample chapter is available for you perusal at: http://www.bridlepathpress.com/

Here's the info about it from the site and also the press's mission statement:

All too often nowadays publishing houses, forced to concentrate on sales and profits, turn down quality books because of a perceived lack of marketability. At the same time, lack of editorial control has made readers leery of self-published books.

Hence the creation of Bridle Path Press: a new kind of publishing venture, serving the needs of writers and readers alike.

All books published by Bridle Path Press are approved by the editorial board, ensuring works of the highest quality in both content and design. Writers who publish with Bridle Path invest in their own work and retain one hundred percent ownership of their books. Freed from monetary concerns, the press is able to make selections based on literary merit alone.

Our books compel and fascinate, teach and entertain. Whether in e-book format or hard copy, they are objects of beauty, a pleasure to peruse. We invite you to experience Bridle Path Press, where books are changing the lives of readers, writers. . .and the world.

In the works are the following books: Choke Creek, The End of the Book, and Blue Virgin, Marnette K.Graff's new cozy mystery book, coming soon followed by John Damon's poetry collection.

So that's the whole scoop on Bridle Path Press and Screw Iowa's new E-BOOK.
Thanks for reading.

A poetry discussion

A poetry discussion about the PBPF

Exciting things are happening in the world of poetry here is south Florida.

I will be Marie Howe's intern/assistant in January 2010 at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival.

Hey, folks--some scholarships are still available. APPLY NOW! Get in touch with Miles Coon, director, and Lauren McDermott, coordinator extraordinaire! (Laura@palmbeachpoetryfestival.org)

Check it out!

http://www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org/

This year, on November 1st in Delray Beach--place to be announced--the interns and staff of PBPF will read some of their favortite poems. The staff will read Florida poets.
The interns will read work written by workshop leaders (a great line-up this year), personal poems from the interns themselves, and reflective poems on the selection they choose to read from the body of work of their assigned poet. Pretty cool? I'll say.

Here's my personal poem, "The Hazel Nut," from my debut collection, Cooking Lessons, followed by Marie Howe's poem, "What the Living Do,"and then my poetic response to hers.

THE HAZEL NUT

round like me,
pointy at the top
like Clemente’s ideas
of other universes,
scattered here and there
on a dwarfed tree of fall bounty—
this one plunked in between persimmons.
I cull a nut, winnow and bounce another as a picker would, weighing fullness.
I crack the shell and crunch the core.
The sun-tongued firelight smokes and curlicues
acrid snakes above burning leaves.
It’s autumn now in Soriano nel Cimino.
Who climbs our rooted hazel tree
now that you, friend,
are gone and I am
left remembering?

Here's Marie Howe's poem about her brother's death.

WHAT the LIVING DO

Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days, some utensil
probably fell down there.
And the Drano won’t work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes
have piled up
waiting for the plumber I still haven’t called. This is thee
everyday we spoke of.…


But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of
myself in the window glass,
say the window of the corner video store, and I’m gripped by a
cherishing so deep
for my own blowing hair, chapped face and unbuttoned coat
that I’m speechless:
I am living. I remember you.


And here's my response to Marie Howe's poignant poem:


PIAZZA di SPAGNA

You’re on a lunch break, walking in Piazza di Spagna near Bernini’s sinking boat fountain, when it hits you among the stop and go of traffic lights,

the Carabiniere’s whistles and Charlie Chaplin arm waves, the bustle of passersby,
the honking horns, the sight of children holding hands, you are alone. And lonely.

You yearn for a past time and, seeing yourself reflected in shop windows,
at once your muscles weary and wilt onto sagging bones. Then the weight

of your years, the heft of your misery gives rise to blanket your spirit:
for wasted moments, for love gone awry, for the anger in sword-sharp words.

The sun peeps through a cloud, a bird takes flight from a smoky chimney,
a wistful guitar melody wends and wafts its way along concave red tiled

rooftops. You hum along with the old song, Scrivimi, Write to Me. And of a sudden your mood soars with the remembrance of a tiny word spelled: hope.

Spaghetti with mushrooms and peas/ Biscotti for those in the know

Spaghetti with mushroom and peas

Make a basic red sauce using garlic, onions and basil (hot pepper, if desired). Add thin-sliced mushrooms raw or cooked--whatever you have and whatever makes it easy. And peas--fresh or frozen--1'2 to 1 lb. Felipe loves peas so I use a lb. You may also add cubed pieces of ham to this, if desired. May also use fresh coarse ground pepper instead of hot red!

Cook spaghetti for 8 minutes and drain tightly. Add to the tomato sauce and sprinkle with grated parmigiano.

Milk Biscotti

1/2 kilo double zero (meaning fine and sifted) flour
3 ounces of margarine
150 gr of sifted sugar
50 gr. of powdered skim milk
100 gr. of 2% milk
1 spoon of honey
a pinch of salt
a pinch of vanilla (if you have the dry form,if not use 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon.
a package of yeast or baking powder--use the entire envelope, or a teaspoon of baking powder

Mix together all the ingredients until you obtain a dough that is compact and smooth. Knead with the heels of your hands. On a cutting board, roll out the dough with a rolling pin to bring it to a thickness of 2 mm, With a little rectangular form cut the biscotti, cutting them with a knife to make two commas in the central part, and brush the tops with fresh milk. Bake them in a moderately hot oven for about 8 minutes.

Obviously these recipes are for people who know how to cook and bake. This biscotti recipe is a direct translation from an old Italian recipe I had while I lived in Rome...19 years ago, folks!
Deal with it.

BAKED ROTINI /poem: "Mistress of Spices"

BAKED ROTINI (Springs or coils)

I was moving some spices from the newlywed's home (our son and his little wifey!) to our new condo, and thought of a poem which will follow this bake pasta recipe I made for my son's 30th birthday on October 9th.

I prepared a few tins of this Baked Rotini (curlicue pasta—like curly fries, only pasta) and along with this, I made cutlets parmigiana style. If anyone wants that recipe...write me and I'll post it.

For the baked pasta:
2 lbs of De Cecco (the absolute best pasta, if you can find it!) and this will serve from 10-12 people. Use rotini pasta (can use penne, if desired) cooked al dente (to the bite or a little under) in abundant, salted water. Use only 1 lb of pasta for 4-6 people (assuming there will be other food).

For the sauce: use plain whole plum tomatoes—passed thorough a sieve or crushed by hand. Use fresh or canned Italian plum tomatoes only (no skins!)

Sauté in olive oil: garlic, onions, hot pepper, and before turning a golden color, add a dash of white wine—when the alcohol evaporates, fling in the tomatoes, basil, and salt.

Chop abundant parsley and set aside.

For the sauce—if desired sauté’ pork loin cut into bite-sized pieces and add to the sauce. Low simmer for ½ to ¾ of an hour.

Fry separately cut up small pieces of eggplant, sliced mushrooms, chopped onions, and if desired, use zucchini also—small pieces. These may be added to the sauce directly, if you want to use the lazy method. Either way, it'll be delish!

Layer the pasta into a large rectangular baking pan like this:.
First the sauce (without the veggies or meat), then pasta, then shredded or cut or sliced mozzarella, grated parmigiano cheese, and ricotta, if desired. (I don’t use ricotta when I make the pork sauce).

Then add a layer of the veggies and or meat—mixed together or separately and then more sauce, followed by more pasta, etc. to the top and finish the top layer with some sauce, some mozzarella and some basil and parsley. You really can't screw this up, folks.

Bake in a pre-heated oven (400-450 degrees for 45 minutes…if you like the top crisp, then 5 minutes or less on BROIL. (Don’t do this if you’re going to freeze it—do the crisping at the last minute.

This can be frozen beforehand for a party. When needed, defrost and bake, or if already frozen directly after baking (defrost and then warm over in a very hot oven).

Can you use peas with this dish? Absolutely. Other ingredients? Tiny meatballs, sliced sausage, snippets of prosciutto, etc.

Always reserve sauce for the top when you serve, parsley, and grated cheese...
Enjoy!

And here's the new poem inspired by moving my spices...


Mistress of Spices


Cleansed with rose waters of my bath, I don a loose gown of shimmering lime cotton shot through with cucumber and silver silk. I wrap my head in cashmere cloth, the colors

of saffron and turmeric, tucking under every long black strand beneath the turban; wash my hands with rainwater from a barrel outside the door. My feet are bare, browned

from the sun. Dangling on a golden chain, an anklet’s bells tinkle as I move across
the stone floor. My hand grazes bottles, jars, burlap pouches and tiny tins. I spin a teak

rack of flat, round wheels on a three-tiered stand. Powdered curry, ground cumin, green pods of cardamom, rose salt from a huge lake in Bolivia.

Sea salts: pearly-white, and dove gray from beaches in the Mediterranean. An urn of anise, a pot of bay, and a flagon of cassia, fenugreek’s pungent seeds swirl in a coffer;

uncorked ampoules of truffle oil permeate the air an aroma akin to moist loam and moss. I shake a carafe of garlicky wine vinegar, watch white cloves and pepper corns afloat

like pieces of a kaleidoscope. On a quartz shelf, sentinel treasures: a cachepot of lavender covered with cheesecloth, thin vanilla sticks in a crystal vial, coriander in a brown

earthen jug, paprika in a gourd, and poppy seeds spilling out a jute sack. I conjure spells, whirl magic into teas, tisanes, elixirs, potions; I prepare farsumagru, vindaloo, ćevapčići

with my spices, plus two more: love in all its aromatic scents and senses harvested in dawn mists, and the other whose name, never spoken, cannot be written.

Thanks Mel and Ruth for your critques.

Pistachio Cardamom Cookies

This summer I had the pleasure of meeting Amber Angelilli at the Main Street Sunday Market in Park City. Amber is a professional baker who works at Liberty Heights Fresh in Salt Lake City and she's married to Roberto (see archives for blogs on mushrooms) .

Here is her recipe for Pistachio Cardamom Cookies. She brought me some of these heavenly cookies when she and her husband came for dinner at our home last Monday evening with our friend Keith. (Dinner menu to follow recipe). Amber also brought me a basket of chanterelles mushrooms, which I made into a pie on Tuesday (Recipe below)

Pistachio Cardamom Cookies:

8 oz. unsalted butter, softened
1 c. granulated sugar + 2 T. for reserved
1/2 t. ground cardamom + 1/4 t. reserved
4 egg whites
1 t. rose water
1 c. all purpose flour
1/2 t. salt
1/4 c. finely chopped pistachios
preheat oven 350
line cookie sheets with parchment paper or *Silpat.
cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. add whites one at a time until fully incorporated. add rose water.
combine flour, cardamom, and salt. sift into butter/sugar mixture and mix until well blended.
Fill pastry bag with batter and pipe 2" by 1/2" "S"
shapes, spacing at least 1" apart. Combine reserved sugar, cardamon, and pistachios and sprinkle over cookies. Bake about 10 minutes or until golden brown around edges.
Any extra batter holds up well refrigerated for a couple of days.

*Note
For those of you who don't know what *Silpat is--it is a siliconized rubber sheet to bake cookies on. It should be hand washed immediately after use ( never put it in the dish-washer) and you should never cut on it as it will ruin the pad. You can purchase these cookie-sheet liners or baking mats online or in Sur La Table for under 15 and at Bed Bath and Beyond for about $20.

Our dinner menu consisted of:
Prosecco

Appetizers:

Caponatina
Tomato pie
Tortilla with potatoes and onions
Crackers
Bruschetta

Chianti
Spaghetti with clams with garlic scapes and a splash of tomato

Whole fillet of Coho salmon coated in a Dijon mustard sauce

Arugula salad with fresh onions and garden tomatoes

Fresh peaches drowned in Grand Marnier with vanilla bean ice cream

Grappa


Here's the recipe for the mushroom and spinach pie

1 cup of mozzarella
1 cup of ricotta
1/2 cup of cheddar
1/2 cup grated cheeses (any ones you like--I used 1/4 Parmigiano and 1/4 Romano)
1 cup of chopped cooked spinach (leftover works well)
1 egg
1 teaspoon of butter
1 sliced onion
2 garlic cloves minced
1/2 lb of chanterelles
salt, pepper to taste
1 deep dish pastry shell
a sprinkling of seasoned (including grated cheese) bread crumbs for the top

Directions:

Sauté the onions, sliced mushrooms and garlic in 1 teaspoon of butter
Mix all the other ingredients and then add the onions, mushrooms, and garlic mixture when cooled.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Pop the ingredients into the pie shell and top with the crumbs. Bake pie in the oven for about 35-40 minutes.

If you're in Salt Lake City some evening...try Caputo's

Congrats to TIPICA, a Caputo Dining Project!

Felipe and I had dinner in Caputo's and I must say it's an interesting project called Tipica...which means Typical in Italian. In the evening Caputo's Italian Market & Deli turns into a lovely little restaurant...prices are reasonable too! and so are the wines!

There are no second patters--that is to say, the menu consists of only pasta, risotti, insalate, contorni, zuppa and dolci! So who cares about meat and fish when you can do as Felipe and I did.

We split a saffron risotto (moderately priced at $17) with Rock Shrimp and Louisiana Lump Crab, and split a Piemontese beef and porcini ragout (also $17)--my comment on this was--don't bother using the porcini mushrooms--they get lost in the sauce. I'd use plain old champignon. Save the porcini to use (as they do in Italy!) by themselves with garlic, hot pepper, parsley and good olive oil! Or do them up in a light cream sauce.

The Deli has some very interesting cheeses, delicious sausages--I'm using some in the sauce tonight: Barolo, porcini, tradizionale, and Calabrese...which are a little hot), and all sorts of wonderful De Cecco pasta, and some fancy made artiginale...artisan! For instance if you're looking for a black ink (from squid) fettuccine...they have it. I've also bought some extravagant and wonderful salts there such as Fleur de sel, porcini salt and truffle salt...all under $20

They also have cooking classes: http://www.caputosdeli.com

Speaking of mushrooms and stuffed artichokes

This morning I spoke to Roberto Angelilli, my main mushroom man here in Utah, and here's what you can use if you want to make the old impress: BEECH MUSHROOMS.

Next time you have a dinner party, buy some beech mushrooms--brown or white. They are small clusters of white or brown mushrooms and look similar to Enoki. These are also in the oyster family but they are super-duper gourmet. So easy to prepare--either broil, grill or pan fry a small bunch of them wrapped in a thin strip of bacon. Simply cut of most of the root, but leave the mushrooms intact as a group. Serve hot for a delectable appetizer. No fuss or muss.

More about these mushrooms. they have a sweet yet mild nutty taste and keep well in the fridge for 2-3 weeks. Maybe longer. I always take all veggies out of plastic wraps and then put them in brown paper bags! Make sure the veggies are completely dry--not spritzed with the water the supermarkets use to keep them looking fresh.

Latin name: Hypsizygus marmoreus. Also known as Buna shimeji (brown) and Bunapi (white), and Hon Shimeji.


***
Now here's an old recipe from my Grandma: Sicilian stuffed artichokes, but first some comments on California artichokes.

They look gorgeous in the store, albeit expensive, but they aren't like the ones we get in Italy! They are tough--leaves especially and stem, if you're lucky enough to find one attached. They have a huge choke of hairlike projections in the heart. And most of the inner leaves have spines. I've tried my Italian recipes on these and they NEVER! come out the same way...at least not the whole ones cooked upside down alla Romana.

So deal with it or move to Italy.

I stuffed two of these beauties after I washed and then soaked them in water and lemon for a few hours.

Instructions:

Cut off all the VERY tough outside leaves and as many of the inner leaves with spiny projections.

Inside each row separate the leaves and pour in or push in mixed breadcrumbs. This should start to make them bulge.

For the mix:

breadcrumbs
grated cheese
salt
pepper
garlic granules or powder
oregano
parsley
paprika

Do it by eye and feel it, and if you must, taste it. No, I cannot even begin to give you measurements. Sorry. When I make this mixture, it's as natural to me as breathing. If you don't use it all, refrigerate.

Then irrigate the entire artichoke with olive oil and 1/2 squeezed lemon. Finish with a generous splash of white wine. I cooked these covered in about 1/2 inch of water and a little oil for two hours. They were STILL too HARD at the bottom of the leaves! So now I've decided the only way to make these decently is to cook in the pressure cooker. Peel the stem to its inner core and cut into 2 inch pieces and circle the artichoke with them.

Use at least an inch or two of water for the pressure cooker. I would place the artichoke on a rack. Probably 1/2 hr from the time the little doohickey thing on the top starts to dance...lower to lowest heat when it does and then begin to time. Let the cooker rest completely before removing the top, or you may run the cooker under cold water so that the valve lowers and it's safe to open.

Your kids will love eating with their hands! Let them pick the artichoke apart leaf by leaf and scrape and pull the inside of the leaf and stuffing off from top to bottom with their teeth. When you get to the choke cut it out with the knife tip in an fairly deep and rotate it till all the "hair" comes out and only the heart, like the deep well of a volcano, remians. Makes a great appetizer

Go for it.

Mare e Monte: Cockles and Enokitake mushrooms

Mare e monte ... literally means Sea and Mountains

Yesterday walking on Main Street in Park City and enjoying the open craft market, Felipe and I found and re-made our acquaintance with Robert Angellli--robertangelilli@netzero.com --the mushroom-seller we met at last year's summer market. His wife, Amber was with him. She's a professional baker who will have more free time early September when we will have them for dinner. I bought the mushrooms from him. Excellent quality, as always.

For this dish I used cockles (3-4 lbs.) from New Zealand
2 small bunches of fresh Enokitake mushrooms

Wash the cockles thoroughly in cold water...then let sit in a bath of cold water for at least an hour. Rinse again. Pop them in a large fry pan and let them open. Rinse again if you need to. Save the water and filter it. (I use a paper towel and small sieve.)

Clean pot and add:

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of butter
1/2 sweet onion minced
2 cloves of sliced garlic
4 slices of center cut lean bacon cut up as small as possible
Enokitake mushrooms, clean and separated
3 tablespoons of tomato sauce cooked with basil
chopped Italian parsley if desired
salt, pepper to taste

Cook the bacon, onions, garlic in olive oil and butter on medium-high for about 3 minutes

Cut off the base and separate the tiny mushrooms. Fling in the clean mushrooms, raise the flame to high and cook till mushrooms start to brown. salt and pepper to taste.

Add sauce, add 1/2 -1 cup of the clam broth and bring to a boil, lower to medium and add the cockles...you may discard half of the shells beforehand, if so desired.

Make a pound of spaghetti or linguine and drain it tight, add to the mare e monte...
Garnish with parsley and serve. (4-5 people)

Here's what I found on Wickipedia about these funghi, which when not cultivated are fatter, darker and more robust according to the pictures.

Enokitake (Chinese: 金針菇, Pinyin: jīnzhēngū;Japanese: えのき茸 enokitake; Korean: 팽이버섯, Revised Romanization: paengi beoseot) are long, thin white mushrooms used in Asian cuisines, particularly those of China, Japan and Korea. These mushrooms are cultivars of Flammulina velutipes also called golden needle mushroom. Wild forms differing in color, texture, and sliminess are called winter mushrooms, velvet foot, or velvet stem among other names.
Enoki, or Enokitake

Last night's dinner and the Willamette Valley IPNC

Our friend Maria Johnson stopped by last evening after work. Her family is all on vacation in OR and she's working--will leave on Tuesday. She's a top sales woman for Red Ledges in lovely Heber City. She's originally from Oregon and we've just come back from the International Pinot Noir celebration in McMinnville, OR in nestled in the Willamette Valley. So we happened to have on hand some lovely Pinot Gris (Maria prefers white over red...)

We invited Maria stay for dinner which consisted of: an appetizer of black olives, Delices de Dieux cheese and wheat crackers, a delightful dish of of beans, escarole and shrimp--olive oil, garlic and a splash of the wine we were drinking...of course. I served this with fresh brushetta, prepared by FR's sous chef's hands, followed by a crisp salad of cold scallops, butter lettuce, red onions, slivered almonds, and tomatoes drizzled with an aged apple must and my homemade Dom Perignon Champagne vinegar! The wine: two and 1/2 bottles of Willamette Valley Pinot Gris chill3ed to perfection.

A note about the Wine Celebration--in a word--fabulous. Felipe and I met interesting and personable wine-makers Michael Etzel from Beaux Frères, Luisa Ponzi from Ponzi, and Eric Hamacher from Hamacher. We also visited Domaine Serene. What lovely, dynamic people. And it was such a pleasure to see that they are using wonderful bio-dynamics and organic methods of grape-growing. Not only that the wine-makers of Oregon are not afraid to concur with each others and they speak openly of their successes and failures. A true feeling of fraternity and cooperation exists and I applaud it!

Our first elegant evening we had an intimate dinner at the Ponzi winery, hosted by Luisa Ponzi where we were served gourmet food with wonderful wine-pairings. During the festival weekend that followed, there were wine seminars, tastings and bountiful breakfasts--tables laden with apricots, peaches, blueberries, blackberries, Oregonian specialty Marion berries, raspberries, strawberries, black quarter-sized plump, meaty cherries, fresh yogurt and pastries. Two Italian espresso machines were set up and the barrista who served me every morning made an espresso that we call: "una creama di caffe!" Excellent!

Other elegant meals were the lunches served alfresco under huge pine trees on the Linden College campus, and a gala dinner with a dish of Cattail Creek Lamb that literally needed only a fork to cut it and melted in your mouth. So where is this outrageously scrumptious Oregon lamb? If you go to Costco in Florida or Utah, you'll find only lamb imported from Australia and New Zealand. What happened to America first???

And last but certainly not least to conclude the festival weekend we were given a memorable parting champagne and oyster Sunday brunch!

Speaking of which, today FR is taking me out for brunch! at the Stein Erickson Lodge in Deer Valley! Yeah!

Enjoy your Sunday!

Brett Zimmerman, Master Sommelier

This past weekend Felipe and I attended the Park City Wine Festival...and the best thing about it was Brett Zimmerman.

Please read my blog of July 10-11th on the Barolo Wine Tasting

Brett Zimmerman is Domaine Select Wine Estates Manager and a delightful presenter who knows his wines. It was a pleasure to attend last Friday's Barolo Wine Tasting Seminar and be able to speak with him, addressing such interesting things as location, types of soil, vines, and production of wine-making!

He also represented the Barolo wines he introduced from the tasting at the Saturday late afternoon Canyons Event--a fun three hour walk-around, with music and food from various Park City restaurants.

Zimmerman will soon be introducing my favorite Sicilian after dinner drink, Amaro Averna, to Utah! Yeah, Brett!

He is a Master Sommelier and holds a 2007 diploma to prove it. Allow me to say, there are less than one hundred Americans who have achieved this level of expertise and have passed the exam!

The headquarters of DSWE are located at 555 8th Ave. Suite 2302, NY, NY 10018
TEL: 1-212-279-0799 FAX:1-212-279-0499 http://www.domaineselect.com/

Or you can reach this knowledgeable and personable wine connoisseur through e-mail:
bzimmerman@domaineselect.com

Bannana Nut Bread for Travis

Travis--this recipe is for you!

The first thing to know about cooking and baking is, like war, you have to know you have allies to help you. Yours are your Mom, and brothers.

Here's a recipe for Banana Nut Bread

Your mom probably knows this one by heart, but just in case she's forgotten it, here it is:

Ingredients:

2 cups of sifted flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
a pinch to 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2 TBS. of cream, half and half or milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2-3 ripe medium bananas--mashed—just when those suckers start to turn dark!
1 cup of chopped nuts: walnuts, hazel nuts, or any nut except peanuts will do...

Directions:

Grease 2 loaf pans and dust them with flour--toss the extra flour down the drain!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the flour, baking soda, salt. Set apart.

Mix in another bowl the following: egg, sugar, vegetable oil. When combined well, add the flour mix to this and blend well with a big, wooden spoon. Add milk, or cream, and vanilla, smashed, mashed and mushed-up bananas and then mix well.

Fling in the nuts and stir. Save a few for the topping, if so desired. Then pour the batter into the buttered and floured tins.

Bake for 1 hour. Do a toothpick test...ask your Mom about that.

Cool on a rack and then turn over out onto a ceramic, porcelain or thick plastic dish. These may be frozen for later use.

Cool and serve with: ice cream. whipped cream, Macedonia fruit cocktail or with butter and jam.

Barolo Wine Tasting in Park City

July 10, 2009

( I was unable to post this blog yesterday! )

Barolo Wine Tasting Park City

Today Felipe and I tasted a Gavi villa Saparina which was extremely dry--probably would go nicely with fish.

Next we tasted: a red-fruited and aromatic wine
Barolo (Serradenardi) 2004
This would go well with wild mushroom risotto, pasta with truffles, venison, pheasant, or red meat

The 2004 Barolo Serralunga d'Alba was a nice wine, lighter in color and texture for my pallet.
this wine would sell for about $65.

Next we tasted a Barolo from Famiglia Anselmo 2003 and it was for me a wine of super tannins, also for about the same price as the Serralung d' Alba.
And last but certainly not least we tasted a 2001 Barolo Tenimenti (Vigna La Villa)

Fontana Fredda (Paiagallo) This wine sells for around $130 a bottle--if you can find it, and you can't here in Park city. Most likely places to locate it: New York and Florida.
It was a very earthy taste--a hint of mushrooms and truffles and less tannins than the Famiglia Anselmo.

Barolo is a small grape-growing and wine-producing area in the north of Italy and the wines are from the nebbiolo grape.

Here are some of my favorite red wines, most of which have body are robust: Dolcetto, which means sweet little thing , but isn't sweet at all, it's a lovely wine. Other favorites include: Nebbiolo, Barbaresco. Babera, Brunello, Gaja. I like all the expensive "aia's”: Solaia, Sassicaia, Lupicaia, Ornellaia, and less expensive but still great wines: Grattamaco, Tignanello, and the list goes on ... and on!

Sadly, after all those lovely reds, the last wine on the tasting menu was a 2006 Moscato (Moncucco) Fontana Fredda (Tenimenti), which Felipe and I didn't bother to try--I'd use that wine probably only for cooking veal! though some people like a sweet wine to accompany cakes and fruits after dinner...for me, you can keep them!

Drunk, Happy Halibut

Drunk and Happy Halibut

1 1/2 chunky white piece of halibut will serve 4 with a side dish of veggies and a lovely mixed green salad--I jazzed up the salad with tiny sweet and hot African red peppers the size of a fingernail and artichokes hearts in quarters, and a dressing of olive oil, anchovy paste and garlic!

Rinse the halibut well, and then pour over two cups of white wine and the juice of 1 lime.
Leave in the fridge for at least one day to "cook" and get loaded (marinated). I left it for two days, continuing to turn it from time to time.

Take out of fridge and let stand for at least an hour.

Season with : a smattering of olive oil, salt, cracked pepper, lots of paprika, garlic powder, seasoned bread crumbs and 1/2 onion flaked on top, add slivers of butter over the entire fish and bake in a hot over at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.

Perfectly boozed up, flaky and moist inside and with a crispy top--luscious with every bite!

Easy Summer Cooking...all in one pot: veal , sausage and peppers

I made this dish for a "literary salon" back in February, I believe, it was a mild and lovely Sunday. The party was at my friend and neighbor-artist, Marianne Haycook's beautiful digs in sunny south Florida.

We were graced with the presence of Lynne Barrett and Johnny Dufresne who read for us on the patio--check out the pics above. The group was totally mesmerized, hanging on every word. The writing was great and funny and poignant and the reading of it was just plain wonderful. They both read Memoir.

The platter above: Veal, Sausage, and Peppers: great for a party!

It's a snap...

Grill or fry the sausage--hot and/or sweet--5-7 lbs at least, yes you may also use Sicilian scivolata as well (these are skinny sausages made with fennel seed, grated cheese and parsley) or a combination of these

slice 3-5 lbs of veal into slivers

5-6 sliced (any old which way) potatoes of use the little red ones and quarter them

4-5 red pepper, sliced

3 yellow peppers, sliced

1 green pepper (just for color and the hell of it!), sliced

1 whole onion, sliced

4-5 garlic cloves sliced

1 1/2 lbs fresh tomatoes cut into wedges

1 cup of red or white wine

olive oil

parsley

3-4 yellow summer squash (optional)

3-4 zucchini (optional)

Cut the partially cooked and cooled sweet and hot grilled ( or fried) sausage on an angle..as thick or thin as you desire, and cut the hot sausage in fat rounds. the scivoata in inch pieces.

In a huge oven pan with high sides add the sausage, veal, peppers, onion, garlic, potatoes,tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste--easy on the pepper if you have a lot of hot sausage. (in this particular dish, I did add both types of squash after about 1/2 the cook time--it was a big crowd of good eaters!)

Irrigate with olive oil and wine, and say a prayer it'll turn out great. Place it in a hot oven and cook for an hour turning every so often.

Remember the my old Mafia cousin's adage: the more you put in, the more you find. May Gianni rest in peace!

Summer Picnic Pasta Salad

Summer Pasta Salad

1/2 lb cooked, drained and cooled creste di gallo--Cock's combs
1 can of Italian (Genova) tuna fish with oil
1 can of tuna packed under water--drain and toss the water!
1 /2 cup of diced sweet pepperoni--yours, or straight from the jar
1/2 cup chopped celery (optional)
1/4 of a red onion, sliced
2 Tbs. of tiny capers
1/2 cup of sweet gherkins sliced
1/2 cup of sliced black olives (I like the ones with Jalapeno)
1/4 cup of green olives stuffed with anchovies
1 Tbs of fresh parsley
1/2 lb cooked cannellini beans or pour straight form the can, cheater!
1 teaspoon of oregano
3 hard cooked eggs...quartered around the platter (optional)
3-4 small sweet tomatoes quartered and placed in between the egg pieces
1/2 lb. cooked cold, shrimp (optional)
Salt, coarse ground pepper
paprika (optional)
garlic powder (optional)
olive oil
champagne vinegar
a spritz of apple must!

Hint: do not add the tomatoes till the last minute. Or else serve each platter with the tom ates around and the salad plopped right smack dab in the center!

Today I made this without the celery, paprika or shrimp...it was super-duper YUM, FR said so, and he has a discerning, spoiled palate.

Serves 4-6, depending how generous you are dishing out the portions.

Osso Buco

Osso Buco
Literally translated as bone hole! It's the cut of meat that has the marrow in the center!

One summer night in San Felice Circeo I started to make this dish and halfway through the cooking of it--I ran out of PROPANE GAS! What did I do? I knocked on my neighbor's door, pot in hand and asked Licia if I could finish the cooking on her stove! That was the night the lights went out too, and we ate by candle light on the terrace overlooking the Maga Circe--a mountain profile of the the Circe who called to Ulysses.

It was the Feast of San Lorenzo--the day after the Feast of the Assumption (which is Ferragosto the 15th of August and one of the biggest holidays in Italy). Anyway, after dinner we sat with the lights out and an Amaro Averna in hand. Celebrating San Lorenzo is when you see the most amount of falling or shooting stars...that night we counted 16! And the magic of it made me feel I was just that age!

Ingredients:

5-6 veal shanks cut to about 2 1/2 to 3 inches thick...can use beef, but it takes longer to cook and sometimes remains a bit tough. I've done both--you just have to pay more attention to the beef.
1/4 cup of flour to dip the meat in (optional) I like this ingredient because it gives substance and texture to the gravy.
salt
black pepper
6-8 Tbs. of olive oil
2 carrots sliced
1 onion sliced
3 celery stalks sliced
4-6 plum tomatoes skinned
Now when I make this if I have a potato, a sweet potato or a zucchini, I use them as well. Not part of the true original recipe...but do you care if it's delicious?
2 cups of white wine
2 cups chicken or beef or vegetable broth
2 garlic cloves minced.

Directions:

Okay--this can be made in the oven...it takes 2-3 hours. It may be made on top of the stove and it takes the same 2-3 hours. Or you can brown the seasoned floured meat in 1/2 the oil and add all the broth and tomatoes and cook in the pressure cooker for about 1/2 hr. to 45 minutes and be sure your meat will be tender.

When the meat is cooked, pour the rest of the oil in a large Dutch over or iron heavy pot for stewing. Add oil, onion, garlic, carrots, celery and any other veggies mentioned above. Cook on high flame for about 5 to 7 minutes. Fling in the vino and let the alcohol steam off, and then add the meat and its broth and bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and let cook uncovered over a low to medium heat for 1/2 hr to 45 minutes--taste a potato for "doneness" if you added them. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Serve the sauce over fettuccine with some grated Romano cheese, and the meat as a second platter...

OR

Make it without tomatoes!

The men in my family go GAGA for this dish. I haven't a clue why, but Nico loves the midolo or bone marrow and Felipe just loves the whole thing!. This used to be a poor man’s dish due to the cheaper cut of the meat when my Aunt Jay, who just passed away a few years ago at 96, was growing up. Then one day she went to the Four Seasons in NYC and was shocked to find it on the menu and almost passed out when she read the right side and saw the price.

Fandango

Yesterday I bought a cookbook in a highly unlikely place to sell books: Coldwater Creek!

The book is titled: fandango, which caught my attention immediately because I fling that word around in stuff I write. The book was originally marked at $45, then reduced to half price and then marked down again and I got another 25% off, etc...

In the end a fabulous cookbook by Sandy Hill, with a FOREWORD by Martha Stewart, and with gorgeous pictures and 125 lovely recipes by Stephanie Valentine, cost me a whopping $7

There's a picture of the painting: The Fandango 1873 by Charles Christian Nahl (Crocker Art Museum, E. B. Crocker Collection) on page 63 of the cookbook. And the book is filled with history and romance! My kind of cookbook exactly!

Okay so what's this all about? INSPIRATION, pure and simple. I want to write a cookbook. I find a lovely example of one and it gets me thinking--that's what writers do--they think before they write.

I told my idea to Linda Bladholm, Miami food and cookbook author: see her page on amazon! ( http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Linda+bladholm ) She said this idea about me wanting to write a cookbook is not totally off the wall. I also told her that my recipes are scattered--that is to say, they're not just Italian--they're a whoop=di=do kind of potpourri-melange. So I figure I need a theme. Got one? Anyone who has read my blogs?

If so clue me and I'll be happy to post them and give you complete credit for them on this very bloggerino.

Shrimp with pearls and pearls

Happy 4th of July! (More on shrimp...)

This definition is from Wikipedia...

"A pearl is a hard, roundish object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of mollusks, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes of pearls (baroque pearls) occur. The finest quality natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries, and because of this, the word pearl became a metaphor for something very rare, very fine, very admirable and very valuable."

The recipe I'm about to write is for shrimps with pearl onions and "pearl pasta" (acini di peppe-- little beads. like tiny pearls).

Ingredients:

1/2 to 3/4 lb of acini di peppe
1 cup of sugar snap peas with strings removed , then halved--may use just a cup of English peas (green pearls) or broad beans cut 3-4 times on an angle, or French string beans...your choice
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 Tbs of olive oil
1/2 to 3/4 lb. of shrimp, peeled, deveined and tails off (medium size)
1/2 cup of white wine (whatever you're drinking always works)
2 -3 small fresh tomatoes, skinned and minced or you may use grape tomatoes, halved
1/2 Tbs. tarragon, if desired
1/2 TBS of mined parsley
1 scallion sliced thin, including the green tops
1 minced garlic clove (optional)
salt
pepper
(may also use couscous instead of pasta, same schemer)

Directions:

Cook the pasta for 9 minutes in enough water so you don't drain it.

At the 5 minute mark, add peas or beans--you may do both if you like veggies!

In the meantime while the pasta and veggies cook, put the butter and oil, garlic, sliced scallion, heat for few minutes and then add wine, cook down, and then add tomato, parsley and tarragon.

Raise heat to medium high and then simmer uncovered for about 5 more minutes.

Add the shrimp, salt and pepper to taste...I love fresh coarse ground black pepper! and toss until shrimp are pink--about 3-4 minutes.

Transfer the pasta to a warmed bowl and add shrimp and serve!

Serves 2-3 Obviously, if you want to serve more people, you add more good ingredients!

Spaghetti with Shrimp and Bay Scallops

July 3, 2009

Same day as the Frame Poem,but just a bit later.

Here's the recipe as promised. In fact here are two recipes since you waited to read this while I had an exciting excursion to Home Depot...No, they don't make mailbox keys, Ladies of Screw Iowa!

Recipe # 1
Spaghetti with Shrimp and Bay Scallops


1 lb of De Cecco spaghetti (linguine for the second recipe)
3 Tbs. olive oil
1 teaspoon of unsalted butter
2 minced garlic cloves
1 Tbs. of minced onion
½ teaspoon of saffron (if you can afford it!)
1 lb of peeled and deveined shrimp—may use the smaller ones, white or Key West pinks shrimp
½ lb of bay scallops
28 ounce can of any whole San Marzano peeled tomatoes—crush these yourself, or smash them as you will—of course you can use fresh, peeled tomatoes also, in which case, I doubt that you’ll find fresh San Marzano , so use Roma or any plum tomatoes
1 cup of fresh heavy or whipping cream
½ to 1 undernourished as in meager teaspoon of grated cheese (no more or you’ll kill the seafood taste)
hot pepper, if desired


In a large skillet over medium heat oil and butter and add garlic, hot pepper and onion. Before turning gold, add the juice of the tomatoes and then the hand crushed or tomatoes you’ve passed through a sieve. Yes, it’s the old fashioned way—do you want to do this well or not? Let the liquid cook down and then add the cream to thicken. Now for the tricky part—when you’re about to drain the pasta from the salted water, fling in the shrimp and scallops.

Pour some of this sauce into a warmed serving bowl, and then the drained pasta, more sauce and then the cheese.


AND Recipe # 2
Linguine with creamed shrimp: Crema di scampi.

Crema di scampi. Since you probably won’t find langostini or scampi—the ones that look like little lobsters—use a very sweet shrimp instead!

Here are the directions for this—you make it without the scallops and add more shrimp, say 1 ½ lbs. and grind them up and set aside.

In this case you will not crush the tomatoes but rather whip and whir them into liquid.

Also add ½ glass of wine to the cooked onion, garlic and hot pepper and when this cooks down, add the liquidy tomatoes.

Are you following me here, folks?

Let this simmer for about 20 minutes. If you add basil, take it out before you add the cream, and remove about ½ of this sauce to save it for something else.

Add the cream to thicken and then when the pasta is draining add the ground shrimp to the sauce and raise the flame to high—stir till completely drowned. Pour the tightly drained pasta (for this dish, I use linguine instead of spaghetti) into this mixture, and stir in the scanty teaspoon of grated cheese.

Serve from the pot. Garnish with minced parsley at the table.

P. S.
I have never made pasta this way—I will this weekend. I just thought it sounded like a good idea since Felipe told me this morning that shrimp with pasta is not one of his favorites when I mentioned that Lulu said the other day it’s not one of hers after suggesting it for our menu last Sunday!

So there you have it, chefs and chefesses, Necessity is once again a Mother of Invention.

Have faith, it'll turn out lip-smaking, delectably scrumtious. Ipso facto~

The Frame Poem

Here's an exercise in poetry I posted on Screw Iowa's blog this morning...and decided to steal for my own! Steal, being the operative word of the day it seems...

And also LATER I'll write a recipe for spaghetti with shrimp and bay scallops (after the poetry exercise you owe it to yourself to make a delish supper dish!)

Take a chance: write poetry, enrich your inner being!

The prompt: In front of me on my desk is The New Yorker—please take hold of any magazine you wish… open to a random page. I opened to the July 6 & 13 2009 issue

Lucky me, I found on pages 56-57 a poem entitled “Twin Cities” by Carol Muske Dukes…plus two pages worth of words from an article: The Kill Company by Raffi Khatchdourian.

What you’re about to write is called a frame poem or an exercise of words that will frame a poem. Basically you steal words or phrases from the magazine pages and write your own poem.

As my dear friend and mentor John Dufresne always said, and he might have been quoting someone else, “Good writers imitate, great writers ‘steal.’” (I believe the quote is a rip off from something Picasso said: “Good artists imitate, great artists steal.” But then again, it could be from something T. S. Eliot said…whatever the case may be, it’s a terrific great idea to consider. Remember it. House it in the room of your brain that speaks to your writing!

Okay, give me a second here to "read" and skim … meantime go find a copy of Newsweek, Time, Sports Illustrated, People, or whatever. You can highlight the words, or make a list.

These words are from the poem:

Skate across
Raft
Snake
Dakota
Cliffs Caves
River
Mills
Winter ice
Brittle mirage

These are from the article:

The presence of women
Conflicting memories
Squad disbanded
Cleaned up the remains
The men I killed
Squatted
Deaths
Soldiers
Shot while escaping
Massacre
Charlie company
Blindfolded bodies
miscommunication
Law of War
Capacity for moral discrimination
the sound of gunfire


So what’s going on in my brain here? Strong words or images popped out at me.As I was picking out words, apparently my brain started doing associations and did some first drafting homework for me by connecting possible words in order to group together later to write a poem that could make sense.


I might title this:

In the Presence of Women

Some of the Dakota tried to escape
skating the partially frozen river
or snake across it at its shallow, lower parts
in zigzag formation
to reach the hills, cliffs
and caves on the other side.

Some of the horses had travois,
raft-like attachments made of tree limbs
covered with pelts
but the brittle mirage of thawing winter ice
could not hold them
and many women and children drowned.

The Calvary’s disbanded squads
chased and hunted down others,
some shot while escaping.
The remaining men of Charlie Company
blindfolded the renegade Indians
and killed them Army style, lined up
in an execution with a firing squad.

When it was over, it was revealed
these natives weren’t hostile at all,
but peace-lovers, which made this a massacre.

“Miscommunication,” a Sergeant said,
“The Law of War,” said a Lieutenant,
his brass buttons shining in sun
glinting from the General’s office window

The General said to the officers,
“At ease, Gentlemen. What’s needed, perhaps,
is a greater capacity for moral discrimination.”

It took me all of twenty minutes to write this draft, not half-bad for a first draft, but it can made into a really good poem with some time, effort, and revision. Try one! Your brain will make associations you never dreamed about when you formed your list. You can change and invert the words or phrases, and of course, add some of your own to give the vrerse some sense. Have fun!

NY Style Cheese Cake a la Nina and write me a poem

NEW YORK STYLE CHEESE CAKE

I've been working with this recipe for close to 40 years! Yes, I started in the cradle...

So here's the adapted recipe from my friend Joni Di Giovanni's original one given to me when we were young girls together in bella Roma! At the time I lived there from 1970-1990 there wasn't a pasticceria (bakery)that sold this cake--so if you wanted it, you baked it! Just like cherry, blackberry, peach, blueberry, pear, and any other kind of American pie. I've always cooked, but I learned to bake from Expatriate American women. Viva!

A little note on living and baking overseas...
My dear friend, Angela Ragusa, may she rest in peace, was one of them, who taught me to bake bread, make croissant, and other goodies. Nelsa Montagna taught me the art of baking Italian sweets like crostata and mimosa. There were countless others. One southern chick, Priscilla Diaz, taught me to make "Tea Time Tassies" (one to these days, I'll write the recipe for that...if I can find it.)

And I in turn taught Nico's preschool class to bake chocolate chip cookies and muffins! No small feat, I can assure you, especially when the Italian Mammas were asked to leave me their children and pick them up 3 hours later! I had 1/2 the class on Friday afternoon, and the other 1/2 on Saturday morning...yes, I had a huge kitchen. And no, they didn't even know how to crack an egg--at first try, the egg, complete with shell, went into the mix. Start over: each child tasted every raw ingredient, and learned how to crack and egg, and gently drop the actual egg, sans shell, into the raw dough.

There were other chef/teachers along my path: Italian women who shared their recipes for tiramisu--God bless Margherita Melle--we even made it on our boat the Lady Drifter going to Sardegna! And Anna, a cleaning girl who taught me Neapolitan wonders! Not to mention la mia car'amica Pina Pintucci, who taught me mouth-watering savories, among others!

Back to Cheese Cake...

Blend the ingredients any way you want--food processor, in a bowl of a standing mixer, or by a small hand mixer--max nix--you can't go wrong. I've used all three methods. them all

Ingredients:

1 cup of heavy cream
2 large packages of soft cream cheese at room temperature--that's about 1 lb.
2 tablespoons of sifted flour
1 generous teaspoon (that is to say a little overflowing!) of vanilla
pinch of salt
3/4 cup of sugar
4 eggs.

Bake for 1 hour at 350" stick a toothpick in to see if it's done.

Okay, okay--for you enthusiasts...you may use a spring pan, and yes you may make a Graham cracker crust if you think this is a MUST!

For the crust:

4 to 5 oz. broken up Graham crackers: process these to crumbs (about 1 etto or 110 gr.)
4 Tbs. of very soft butter (1/2 etto)
1 Tbs. of sugar (10-12 gr. )

With the soft butter--butter the pan, then melt the rest and fling it into the crumbs mixed with the sugar. Mix well. Place this mixture into the bottom of a spring pan. Press and flatten this all around--bottom and sides--you can use the bottom of a 1 cup stainless steel measuring cup, or be inventive, choose your own method.

In a heated oven, bake the crust for about 10 minutes at 325 degrees. (In the mountains, bake for 12-13 minutes using convection baking!) While this is baking, mix all the cheesy ingredients adding them one at a time, and then pour this into the spring pan with readied crust.

Now bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees, or until the internal temp registers 150 F.
While baking --do NOT open oven door. Let cool for at least 15-20 minutes on a rack and then slide a knife around the cake edge a few times. Then pop it into the fridge. Sever cold with blueberry, strawberry or cherry glaze, sauce, or just plain old jam.


Write me a Poem:
Don't say you can't, or never tried. Do not tell me that you never wanted to, have no ideas or imagination. there's a little poet in every one of us, and poetry enriches our lives! so sit down with a pencil and piece of paper and do this...

LESSON # 1. THINK

LESSON # 2. WRITE SOME COLLOQUIALISMS HAVING TO DO WITH ONE SUBJECT

LESSON # 3. LINK THEM

Here's my example--straight on this blog--no cheating--no pre-writing.


DEATH

Kick the bucket
Cashed in all his pennies
Dropped dead
Passed-on
Terminated
Deceased
Bit the dust
Died
Expired
Left this world
Went on to Heaven
Melting ice cubes in Hell
Wrote a will but never got to read it
Last breath
Dying in peace
His precious last
Received Extreme Unction
Expiry
Bought the farm
The End

Okay--next job is to link these, but since I have to go pick out some rocks for the garden--your on your own! Try! (Of course, you may want to pick a happier subject...but this is where my thoughts jumped to after cheese cake! Go figure.)

Fifteen Satisfying Things of Late:

July 1, 2009

Fifteen Satisfying things of late:

1. I'm blogging on Screw Iowa

2. And I'm blogging more on http://ninsthewriter.blogspot.com/ from my website http://www.ninaromano.com/

3. Nico and Katie are home from their Quito and the Galapagos honeymoon and called me yesterday and today

4. Nico’s lively, yellow-eyed weimaraner Otto got nipped in the ear in the Canine Cottage, where he was being boarded during his owner’s absence--but it wasn't bad

5. I'm going to make rolled stuffed Dover sole tonight

6. The house is clean and I've done 7 washloads since Saturday

7. I'm reading a decent book: The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein

8. I heard from Rosalie and she'll give me her critique of my novel next weekend.

9. Reading Melissa Westemeier and Marni Graff’s blog

10. Saw the movie Code last night and Nothing But the Truth the night before—and when the Screw Iowa workshop was here for a week, we watched movies in the “bat cave” AKA media room, almost every night—mostly para chiquitas bonitas, and International (watch the beginning carefully!) with Clive Owen, who in my mind is growing as a n actor, much in the way Leonardo di Caprio’s career performances have soared. I love movies!

11. Today, July 1st is the anniversary of my father's death, and I still feel so loved from afar! I danced with him in a dream last week. Giovanni Archangelo Salvatore De Simone, AJKA John, you are the sweetest man who ever lived!

12. An excerpt from my novel, The Summer Palace, is published on http://www.southernwromensreview.com/ along with another Screw Iowa gal, Marni Graff's nonfiction piece is right up there with Kat Meads.

13. Reading Dennis Lehane's book review on "The Secret Speech" in the NY times Book Review, and remembering that John Dufresne had us write a practice book review in one of his MFA fiction classes for when we make it as writers—well, Dennis, you’ve made it and congrats!

14. Knowing I have a dear friend in Wisconsin who has a busy life, and keeps on trucking with her writing despite it all! Mel, you're an inspiration to us all.

15. I’m thinking about writing a cookbook: sequestering ideas and cloistering myself several hours a day in order to bring this project to fruition!

Zucchini parmigiana with eggplant (Mousaka)

I washed and dried 3 lbs of very large zucchini. I halved and sliced them and fried them in corn oil. I set these aside. Next I trimmed and sliced 3 very large eggplants and fried these in the remaining oil. I had to add some more. The reason you fry the zucchini first is they absorb less oil than the eggplants, who are apparently thirsty suckers.

I had made a sauce beforehand. when all the frying is done, I layered the large-sized baking pan (with high sides) seen in the picture above with sauce, eggplant, sauce, shredded mozzarella, a generous sprinkling of grated parmigiano, zucchini.

Keep doing this till you reach the top. Be magnanimous with your cheese, your guests and family will appreciate it with each mouthful.

I baked this for close to an hour--on high--first 15 minutes at 400 degrees in a pre-heated oven, and then 40-50 minutes on 375 degrees. If you don't want this crusty at about the 1/2 hour mark cover with a tent of aluminum foil.

Let cool and refrigerate. I don't know why but this is always better and tastier the next day after it "reposes."

Things to do while frying: you can talk to a friend, write mental notes for a new blog, listen to music, dance a few steps in between the frying, answer the phone, dash down a phrase or image for a new poem, or cook something else on the back burner. If you have a TV nearby you can even watch some part of a movie you already saw so many times you memorized the script.

Multi-tasking is part of a woman's DNA...of course you can do these things, how do I know?

I do them.

To make moussaka, you can do as above and also add layers of chopped beef (I mix in some tomatoe sauce), potatoes, and besciamelle.

NOTE:

Roux is the base of besciamelle. La besciamella isn't anything more than a mixture of milk and butter that is thickened...some use a smattering of flour or corn starch, but it's not necessary. This "white sauce" is aromatized with nutmeg. Almost always when working with with a white sauce, nutmeg is used for fragrance.

Fried sweet and sour calamari

Okay, okay, so I'm not a great photogrpaher, and the tablecloth was a bit flowery and fruity. These pictures are a dish of fried calamari with a wonderful hot sweet and sour sauce. Great for a a quick luncheon. The guys drank Corona (a wedge of lime in the bottle), the gals had a glass of crisp Pinot Grigio.

The dish was accompanied by a cool, refreshing mixed green salad and a fresh loaf of Italian bread.

Basically I dipped the cut calamari pieces in seasoned flour and fried them...placed them on paper towels to remove any excess oil and then I added a sweet and sour scauce--you can use one stright for the bottle or else this one.

Ingredients:

Into some of the remaining oil add:

2 crushed garlic cloves

2 dried hot peppers

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 tablespoons of concentrated tomato (straight from the tube!)

some fresh ginger--1/2 teaspoon, or else cheat--use ground ginger--1/4 teaspoon

a splash of balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon of sugar (May use Splenda instead! It works fine.)

stir rapidly and bring to a quick boil

plop back in the friend calamari--serve immediately

Announcing: Screw Iowa's Blog and Southern Womens Review

Hear ye, hear ye!

http://www.screwiowa.com has added a new blog and has revamped the website. Check it out.

Poet of the Week is Marie Lovas, and Preston Allen is our current Master and we're looking forward to posting Lynne Barrett next.

I'm happy to announce that two of Screw Iowa's Members' work will appear in the premier issue of the Southern Womens Review: http://www.southernwomensreview.com/ after entering the site, click on the cover of the issue at the right to download and happy reading!

Marni Graff''s nonfiction piece, Mr. Schadel, and my first chapter, The Summer Palace, excerpted from my novel, The Secret Language of Women. It is a pleasure to be included in this debut issue along with Kat Meads, award-winning fiction writer and playwright.

To celebrate this July 1st opening and while reading the first issue, pop open a bottle of Segura Viudas Brut Reserva--a delightful sparkling Spanish wine--and nibble on some crostini.

Just toast up thin-cut pieces of Tuscan bread, or something comparable and top with prosciutto, or drizzle with olive oil and top with mozzarella, tomato and basil, or use anchovies and olive paste (tapanade), or roasted sliced red pepper and a dollop of whipped tuna.

Enjoy nibbling on good, healthy tidbits, sipping great wine, while spending a leisurely hour reading a delightful mix of writing and authors!

Live dangerously--avoid work and read!

Hot scallop dinner and cold leftover scallop salad

Hot scallop dinner and cold leftover scallop salad

Hot scallop dinner and cold leftover scallop salad I made scallops one night for dinner (2 lbs. of the fat ones, if you can get the pink, that's twhat I sued and they are sooooootasty!) and a luncheon salad two days later with 1 lb of the leftovers

Instructions:

Dip the large scallops in a seasoned mix of flour.
Sauté rapidly until golden in big, heavy skillet in very hot oil. Make sure to turn once gingerly!
I used a little butter and corn oil
½ of these scallops I served with a homemade tartar sauce vegetable medly;
the others I conserved.

To conserve the scallops:

When cooll wrap them in paper towels and pop then in a sealed baggie to refrigerate

For the Tartar Sauce:

1 cup of mayonnaise
1 teaspoon sof lemon
2 tablespoon of sweet pickle relish,
or instead may use tiny chopped gherkins
1 tablespoons of tiny capers if large, chop them

For the salad--use individual salad bowls:

mixed field greens, arugula (for a more tangy salad) or sweet butter lettuce
½ small sliced red onion or 3 scallions
3 thinly sliced radishes
½ cup of dried cherries
¼ cup sliced almonds
2 Campari tomatoes quartered, circling the salad
1 tablespoon of chopped cilantro leaves only, no stems (optional)

Season the salad with extra Virgin Olive Oil, salt and crushed black pepper (if desired garlic powder) toss the middle part, but leave the tomatoes arrange the plump cold scallops on top drizzle Saba apple must on top of the scallops and tomatoes

If serving more than 4, gently slice cold scallops and place on top of the salad, golden side up.

Bring the salad to the table and enjoy a healthy, interesting and zesty salad.

I love Saba Must (usually sells for between $38 if you purchase it in St. Louis' The Hill and $56 a bottle in Caputo's in Salt Lake City, but it's worth every centavo. And don't be stingy with it--be generous! As Felipe's Tia Zoila always said, The food you eat is the only thing you take with you when you leave this Earth to cross over to the Other Side!

Enjoy!

3 Coleslaw Recipes

It’s almost summertime!

Three Coleslaw recipes because I love it!


Recipe # 1
Sweet Coleslaw

1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon of sugar or substitute Splenda
½ cup mayonnaise (I love Hellman’s)
6-7 cups of thin cut or shredded cabbage
1 cup of thin cut or shredded red cabbage
2 scallions thinly sliced, or may use or ½ small sweet Vidalia onion…about ¼ cup
a sprinkling of parsley
a dash of Salt sense (1/3 less sodium)
a dash of black pepper

Mix and serve cold!


Recipe # 2
Bar-B-Q

1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar or champagne vinegar
1 teaspoon of sugar of substitute Splenda
¼ cup of mayo (you know my favorite!)
5-6 shredded white cabbage
1 cup of shredded red cabbage
½ cup of scrapped carrots
¼ cup thin-sliced red onions
¼ cup of your favorite Bar-B-Q sauce
a sprinkling of sea salt

Mix and serve cold!


Recipe # 3
Fruit Coleslaw

1 tablespoon of white vinegar
1 tablespoon of apple must (may use grape must or thick Balsamic)
1 cup of whole milk yogurt
½ cup of mayo
1 diced sweet red apple, leave the skin on
1 cup of freshly diced pineapple (may leave this out)
6 cups of shredded white cabbage
¼ cup of shredded carrots
¼ cup of raisins
a sprinkling of salt

Mix and serve cold!

The Kentucky Wedding Summary

Here it is: Nico and Katie's Wedding Weekend!

The weekend began on Thursday afternoon, May 21, 2009, when our guests started arriving in Kentucky, home of the famous blue grass and rolling hills, but only after we had finished dashing around Louisville finishing off Katie's "to-do" list.

This list was as long as pony's tail and included many more than these things, but here’s a sampling. The flower shop; the cleaners; Starbucks; Enterprise Car Rentals to pick up a 15 passenger van for Felipe to drive all over town in; Katie writing directions to the airport and back to the hotel. For these, she used a yellow pad of legal paper. Then we were off to visit Katie’s mother Lera’s house to check on Otto and Izzy and let them romp around in the garden--the dogs declined the wedding invitation. No comment. Lastly we visited Debbie Folley's ranch to see the new baby ponies, some only a month old, nursing from mothers situated all over undulating stretches of hills, slopes and fields. We toured the stables and watched Debbie train a two year old, who’d never been ridden. Somewhere in-between we grabbed a bite to eat.

Katie and Nico left us and went off to complete other errands while Felipe and I made umpteen trips to the airport. FR chauffeured the van, picked up and dropped off people at the hotel on the grounds of the Seminary on Alta Vista, all the while I rode shotgun along for company!

In the evening we went to Bourbon’s for dinner—4 huge tables filled with people laughing, conversing, eating and drinking. The food was well prepared and the service was extremely good for this lively crew. The five Johnson’s and Maria’s mother June arrived from Utah and joined right in—the soiree was a complete delight.

Friday morning there was a scrumptious bridal breakfast for Katie…her Aunt Judy was our lovely hostess. Thanks again.

At about 1 pm the van, affectionately dubbed “wedding mobile,” departed for Churchill Downs and a sumptuous banquet day at the races. The Fourth Race was named in honor of the bride and groom: “Katie and Nico Race to the Altar,” after which they presented a beautiful trophy to the winner. I bet the wrong horse but it was fun being in the paddock and living the high life of a make-believe horse woman with savvy about jockeys! No, I did not wear a hat!

Saturday, May 23, 2009 was the wedding and exchange of vows, held in the beautiful Cathedral of Louisville, celebrated with an 11 o’clock Mass, beautiful organ music and a glorious choir. We all lit a Unity candle—Felipe and I walked down the aisle to my mother’s favorite hymn, the Ave Maria, followed by Lera escorted by her dear friend Patti’s son Greg. The groomsmen were all spiffy in their dark suits and somber ties, while the bridesmaids were dressed in chic bronzy-chocolate taffeta with plunging necklines, carrying bouquets of pink flowers.

When Nico, standing at the altar in his Armani tux, saw Katie walk down the aisle on her mother’s arm, his eyes glistened with love and pride and we all started to cry from the highly emotional charged moment.

Katie made a gorgeous bride, slender and lithe, sheathed in a beaded strapless gown and her mother’s veil trailing down her back, falling to her tiny waist line. They make a striking couple, despite the difference in height—he’s 6’ 3” and she’s all of 5 feet nothing! During the exchange of “Peace be with you” we gave and received kisses from the stunning couple and handshakes and kisses from everyone in close proximity.

I never take Communion from a layperson—only a priest—but my brother stood next to the priest with a raised chalice, and when I reached the altar, I received the host from my brother’s hands. The moment was sealed with our mutual tears of joy, understanding of our blessings and love for family. A Kodak moment for sure!

After the bridal party left the altar, Felipe escorted Lera and me down the aisle … a nice hunk of ham between two slices of read! Congratulations! Kisses all around! Nobody throws rice anymore, which may save the lives of birds, but I missed the rain of grain for happiness, longevity, prosperity and fertility!

The married couple had a Bently waiting and after the wedding ceremony we all headed back for a fabulous reception held on the Seminary grounds that housed the hotel where the out-of-state guests stayed.

At the reception: excellent food, divine, sparkling Prosecco, luscious wines, a salsa band, wedding cake and confetti! Katie chose hot pink and lilac hydrangea plants for the table decorations, so that they could be planted afterward, and wedding favors—known as bombonieri—wine glasses stamped in gold with a jockey-mounted horse, filled with the requisite five white confetti. She also had placed pictures on the mantelpieces of precious moments in the lives of both families, including grandparents—a sweet, thoughtful and touching gesture from a precious daughter.

And believe it or not, after the reception ... another party in the hotel lobby with more wine flowing than the waters of Trevi Fountain. It’s not over yet! This was followed by yet another party at Brendan’s for a light repast and, yes, dear Bacchus, more to drink! The wedding party continued, after most of us “more mature folks” left, smoking cigars, sharing jokes and not surprisingly, drinking till way past 2 am.

Not a sour puss in the joint! Not an unhappy moment for an entire weekend! Only tears of joy!
My sister-in-law Donna overheard the photographer say, “What a great, happy wedding—wish they are all like this one.”

Some guests departed, but others stayed for a tour of Marker’s Mark on Sunday followed by another luncheon of delicious pulled pork soused and doused in Kentucky Bourbon Bar-B-Q sauce.

Needless to say, the kids had a great weekend send-off!

Cent’anni e figli maschi!

The Kentucky Wedding Week Bash!

WOW!

A weekend of whirlwind, wonderful activities. More on Churchill Downs, the Cathedral wedding and reception of Katie and Nico Romano, and a tour of Maker's Mark.

Please check out some gorgeous wedding pictures here: http://www.nicoandkatie.com/

Salmon fillet stuffed with lobster

May 16th. The wedding countdown including today is: 8 days.

Last night's dinner...

I love wild salmon and bought a whole sockeye fillet and had the skin taken off.
I usually save the skin to cook for Otto, but forgot to ask for it. So I bought the dog fresh chopped beef and put it in a bowl of pasta. We ran out of dog food, but he doesn't seem to mind! His breakfast yesterday was 1 raw egg, 2 slices of wheat bread toasted very dark, and ½ cup of non-fat vanilla yogurt. The dog eats like a king!

Back to the fish.

Ingredients:

1& 1/2 lbs whole sockeye fillet, skinned
2 leeks sliced up to the green part, washed and drained
1/2 onion
1 garlic clove minced
1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
1 tablespoon of olive oil
¼ cup of sweet cream butter
2 small cooked (boiled) lobster tails, sliced
a splash of white wine
a drizzle of balsamic vinegar—aged
salt, pepper to taste
paprika
hot pepper (only if desired--if you’re married to Felipe, this is a MUST!)


Directions:

In a huge heavy skillet that can fit the large fillet, pour in oil with butter and heat till the butter melts.

Add onions, garlic, and leeks, wilt, but do not brown.

Add the fish, which has been salted, peppered, and sprinkled with paprika.

Bring heat up high and cover.

When edges start to cook and turn lighter in color, uncover, lower heat. Bless the fish with the wine on the fish and a little on the sides. Then drizzle the vinegar only on the fish. The veggies should be golden now.

Swathe the fish with the sliced lobster, and the wilted leeks, onion, garlic and parsley. Cover again and finish the cooking on a medium heat. Uncover for the last 2-3 minutes.

Serves 4 generous portions. You may serve this with rice or couscous, and/or a side of sautéed spinach and garlic. Or a salad. I actually had made eggplant parmigiana--the young ones ate it, I saved it for lunch today.

If this doesn’t turn out to your liking or the way you want it, go to a restaurant and order it, pretending you invented this dish and never read this recipe on my blog.

Like writers, good cooks imitate, great cooks steal!