Another beautiful Sunday has come to an end, and it has been so special that I want to tell you all about it. I could not have imagined a better way to celebrate the arrival of September, and the wrapping up of such a glorious hot Summer than the one we are about to say goodbye to this year.

In my hometown, Lucca, every early September is held a Flower festival called Murabilia, the event takes place on the medieval city walls that surrounds the city center. Farmers, growers of all kinds, pottery artists, expose, and sell their creations. Here you can find the most amazing variety of flowers, plants, trees, and bushes; the most uncommon fruits, salves, unguents, and shamanic remedies, decorative flowers, as well as curative ones, hand-made candles, soaps, handcrafted cheese, enormous pumpkins of all shapes and colors, and the hardest to find spices.

Spices are essential for the preparation of most dishes, and they characterize the flavor and taste of any cuisine, they add spice, tangyness, depth to any food or drink. Spices are very important also for their health benefits, they not only improve the taste but they also make any food better for you. In these last few years, spices like turmeric and ginger, have been rediscovered and they are used heavily by health conscious people. When I think of ginger and turmeric I cannot help it but think of Golden Milk, an ancient Ayurvedic beverage with incredible health benefits.

Golden Milk 

Golden milk is a wonderful beverage to have in the evening and the benefits are extraordinary. The main ingredient in this exceptional milk recipe is turmeric, with its long list of health benefits, some of them include antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer properties, but the list goes on an on. This miraculous beverage is helpful for weight management, liver detoxifier, and to heal various skin conditions, among the many other things.

Step 1: Turmeric Paste

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of turmeric powder

1/2 tsp of ground pepper

1/2 cup of filtered water

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients in a small pan and mix well. Turn the heat to medium high and stir constantly until the mixture is a thick paste. Make sure the paste does not stick to the bottom of the pan, pay close attention, since it does not tak long. Let this mixture cool and then keep it in a small jar in the fridge.

Step 2: Golden Milk

Ingredients:

1 cup almond milk

1 tsp coconut oil

1/2 tsp grated ginger

1/4 tsp (more or less) of turmeric paste

Honey to taste

Directions: 

Combine all the ingredients, except honey in a saucepan. Turn the heat to medium. While heating stir constantly and do not allow the mixture to boil. Add honey to taste, do not heat the honey.

Walking among all these beauty, good smells, amazing colors and abundance of all sorts, fills you with joy. Wherever you look there are stunning images that capture your eyes, like this braided garlic I posted above. Garlic is another food with infinite healing powers and health benefits. It is, for instance, a rich source of phytochemicals, this plant chemicals are thought to ward off disease and help boost the immune system, lower the risk of many health conditions, including heart disease and certain kinds of cancer.

Roasted Garlic

Garlic is a favorite of many, its strong round flavor adds  deliciousness to any dish.

Garlic was known and abundantly used by ancient civilizations. The Egyptians would give generous portions of it to the workmen engaged in the building of the pyramids for strength and protection against diseases. Garlic is known to help with colds and to clear bronchitis.

Garlic, cayenne and ginger cooked in chicken broth is a wonderful food to prepare for someone who has a cold.

To prepare roasted garlic you’ll need a garlic roaster, which is a small terracotta container made up of a dish and a dome that goes over it. This is an article easy to find in kitchen stores, but in case you prefer, a small cast iron pan with a lid will also work.    

Roasted garlic is  easy to prepare, good for you, and exquisite!

1 Garlic head

olive oil         

Preheat the oven at 425. Take the garlic head and cut off the pointy top just a bit in order to cut the top of the cloves off. Set the garlic in the cooker and pour some olive oil over it, making sure that some oil dribbles amongst the cloves. Set the dome or lid over the garlic and bake for 20-25 minutes. Periodically check the garlic. It can be considered ready when garlic is soft, you can check poking one of the cloves with a knife.  Serve as a spread on some freshly baked bread sprinkled with smoked black pepper and  salt or with raw vegetables, or in any other way that might tickle your fancy! Add some hot if you wish for hot thrills!

Here are just a few ideas that I  have been inspired by during  my visit to Mirabilandia. This is just the beginning of a great week together full of great recipes to try out and to connect to our innate creative self! Enjoy!.

Hello world! Happy Saturday morning! August is coming to an end over here in Tuscany, the weather is still quite hot, although not as hot as in the past few weeks. The days are getting shorter an the sunset has become the usher for cooler temperatures during these end of Summer nights. The garden in looking good, although a little weary from so much heat and quite sunburnt. The basil peeps out from a jute tent, which protects it from the sun and desperately tries to hang on till the weather cools down. The tomatoes, instead, like lizards soak up as much sun as they can, and all happy, round, juicy, and red smile at us from the vine.

What is especially abundant in the garden these days is zucchini, and that is very exciting since there are an infinite possibilities of how to use zucchini in the kitchen, amazingly versatile, zucchini are great both savory and sweet. Here below I am going to share one of each recipes: Tuscan Fried zucchini and zucchini bread.

Tuscan Fried Zucchini

This recipe is a favorite for Italian children! I remember as my grandmother fried the zucchini on those warm early fall afternoons in our outdoors kitchen…the smell, I remember so vividly.

Anyway this is no doubt a pleaser for children and adults. They are best consumed fresh and warm. Usually they are all eaten up before they get the chance to cool. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

3 zucchini

3 beaten eggs

half a cup of white flour

1/2 cup olive oil

salt and pepper

Slice the zucchini lengthwise, dip the slices first in the flour and then in the beaten eggs.Move them gently around as you dip the slices so that you coat them nicely and then transfer them in warm oil on the skillet that you previously prepared. The heat should be on medium high at first, after five minutes turn it down to medium. Check periodically to see if the zucchini are getting golden, and when so turn to other side. To check for readiness, stick gently a fork in the zucchini slice, if tender, lift up from the skillet with a spatula and set on a prepared plate with  two paper towels on it. The paper towel will absorb the extra oil and leave the zucchini  nice and crispy.    

Another all time favorite is this Zucchini Bread recipe that I had from an old Finnish lady I met years ago in Minnesota. She has the most delightful yarn shop I have ever visited, and I can guarantee,  I have visited many. Her sweet little shop, all made of wood, had always the most beautifully colored yarn and a tea kettle whistling on her wood burning oven. The smell of the burning cider filled up that cozy little room together with the stories she told me every time I payed her a visit, during my long stays in Ely. Her shop’s name is Sisu, which if I remember correctly, in Finnish means courage. On one of these occasions she shared the recipe that I am about to share here below.

Zucchini Bread 

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

3 tsp ground cinnamon

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 1/4 cup brown sugar

3 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups grated zucchini

1 cup chopped walnuts

Mix together gradually all the ingredients, do not stir to much. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes on medium heat, let cool on a rack for 20 minutes. Serve. Enjoy!

With love.

P.s. In case you were looking for further zucchini inspiration check out this link https://bzfd.it/2gbhaww