August 2004

Moghul Shredded Chicken Curry

August 31, 2004

^ These are all Indian cookbooks that I own and use. To make the chicken broth for the scripelle, Enrico had boiled two chicken thighs. Which meant I had lots of cooked chicken, plus leftover white rice from several previous meals (I always manage to overestimate how much rice everyone will eat).   So Saturday night [...]

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The Greeks

August 30, 2004

A few months ago we watched The Greeks, a PBS (American public television) series which I bought on DVD because Ross was studying ancient Greek history. From this account, it appears that the Athenians invented not only democracy, but also politics as we know it today. The way PBS tells the tale, Themistocles, an Athenian [...]

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Customs – Clearing Personal Freight into Italy

August 30, 2004

When Enrico and I left the US, we had been living a grad student life (he was the grad student, I was just poor), and didn’t have all that much to move. Lots of books, my memorabilia, clothing, that was about it. It worked out to 30 boxes and a couple of trunks, which we [...]

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Side Effects

August 30, 2004

I have for a couple of years been under treatment for glaucoma – just eyedrops, but the first ones that I tried for 6 months didn’t work, so now I’m using a new kind. This is a beta blocker which, the doctor mentioned, could adversely affect my athletic performance – not a big problem! Another [...]

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Italian Recipes: Scrippelle

August 29, 2004

Saturday night we had scrippelle, a traditional treat from Abruzzo. You can think of them as crepes made without milk, or very, very thin omelettes. These had been home-made for us by family friends, Enrico brought them back carefully wrapped in layers of plastic with a wet dishtowel, storing them in fridges when he stopped [...]

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Italian Recipes: Panzanella

August 27, 2004

Today’s lunch was panzanella, another good thing to eat while tomatoes are in season. I more or less follow the recipe from The New Basics Cookbook, except that I didn’t have any of the herbs. Basically, you make home-made croutons by frying chunks of dry, old bread. …which is a great way to use up [...]

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Making Chutney

August 27, 2004

I had been saying all summer that I was going to make tomato chutney during this season, while the tomatoes are at their best – and, in Italy, that is very good indeed! My favorite fruttivendolo was selling pomodori ramati – tomatoes on the vine – at 3 euros for 3 kilos, so I bought [...]

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The Family That Eats (and Drinks, and Talks) Together

August 25, 2004

News sources reported recently on a survey of American teens which shows scary correlations between the habits of the people kids spend time with, and the likelihood that they themselves will do various things (drugs, alcohol, sex). It seems that hanging out with the proverbial “wrong crowd” really can lead to trouble. The New York Times [...]

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Winetasting – Valtellina Reds

August 24, 2004

Back in February, we were invited (as Slow Food members) to attend a presentation of Valtellina wines in nearby Erba. Since we moved to Lecco, we’ve missed out on all the Milan Slow Food events, and there haven’t been many here in our area, so we were happy to go to this one even though [...]

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Macelleria Falorni: A Longstanding Tradition in Greve del Chianti

August 23, 2004

In late July, we took a brief trip through the Chianti area, visiting our friends Rita and Lino. They live near Greve, so we visited that charming town (touristy, but tastefully so) and the famous Macelleria (butcher)Falorni. Falorni make their own insaccati (preserved meats), such as the prosciutto (ham) and Il Ghianda (something I’d never [...]

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Birthday Lunch at Lanterna Verde

August 21, 2004

Last Saturday we went to La Lanterna Verde, one of our favorite restaurants in the world, for the now-traditional celebration of Ross’ and Alice’s birthdays. Last year there were 11 of us, this year 10. The owners have become fond of us, though they’d like to see us more often! Most of us had set [...]

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Italian Recipes: Pasta with Red Bell Peppers

August 21, 2004

I love to cook, but I hate having to decide what to cook, so I usually make meals based on whatever I happen to have around that needs to be used, or whatever looks good at the fruttivendolo (greengrocer), butcher, supermarket, etc. that day. Last night I hadn’t done much shopping, but had on hand: one sweet [...]

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Summer Storm Over Lake Como

August 20, 2004

55 secs There was a beautiful storm last night, off in the distance to the north. I recorded for about 40 minutes, then edited it down – I only worked through the first ten minutes or so before I got very bored of looking for the lightning in all that darkness!

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Dressing for Italy: Revised

August 18, 2004

I may have to eat my words about Italians not wearing shorts. I’m seeing more and more of them doing exactly that. And men in baggy capri-length pants, with big clunky sneakers, yet! What is Italy coming to? Fabrizio said something to me years ago that always stuck in my mind (though it took me [...]

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On the Road to Siena

August 18, 2004

We were en route from Chianti to Abruzzo and decided to visit Siena, for the first time in years. This little sequence is the approach to the old walls of the city, and parking. It shows a bit of scenery, but mostly I just thought the contrast between the view and the soundtrack was amusing. [...]

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The Lake Como Car Ferry

August 14, 2004

In the evening, we took the car ferry back from Cadenabbia (on the west bank of the lake) to Varenna, on our own side. This saved us the drive north around the tip of the lake and all the way down the eastern shore. map: Gestione Navigazione Laghi The Ferry Arrives The ferry came across [...]

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The Italian Way of Death

August 11, 2004

My father-in-law, Mauro, died last week. Although he was 78 years old and unwell in several ways, his death was very sudden and unexpected, and may have been due to medical malpractice. As you can imagine, this possibility makes the event all the more horrifying. Naturally, this is a time of pain and mourning for [...]

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