#yummy – Delicious life

Foodie’s motto: Early to bed, early to rise

Barbara — Sun, 15 Oct 2017 22:40:11 +0000

Early to bed, early to rise, makes you happy, wealthy and wise, goes an old saying and I must say that I could not agree more. I haven’t been an early riser my whole life, on the contrary, I love to sleep and especially sleep in for long hours in the morning. Recently things have changed, I started taking my daughter to school every morning and that means that I am ready to roll from 8 a.m. Since I have become an early riser I have discovered a whole new taste to life. Waking early puts me in a better mood and makes me feel productive, plus I get some healthy solitude time all for myself while I exercise on my long fast walks. So many great things happen early in the morning, to mention just one: farmer’s markets. I have talked about my love affair with farmer’s markets in my previous posts and especially so, I adore everything about farmer’s markets in the Fall. The mood is always so cheerful. People get really excited about buying all that yummy, so-very-good-for-you-food. The colors are vibrant and the smells capturing. The farmers all smiley look so proud of their work and their produce. This morning I decided to come to my town’s local market and what I found was, as usual, a crowd of cheerful and busy early risers that moved gracefully around all that glorious fresh produce, cheese, eggs, and flowers. The abundance is everywhere and it makes me feel so grateful for the amazing planet we live on. How perfectly can humans and nature cooperate when there is respect, and gratitude, and love. Markets are so inspirational to me that when I leave I always feel like going home and cook for hour and hours. Here below I am going to share a recipe perfect for this time of the year. Crescents with cabbage and carrot filling. A hit anytime I proposed this dish. Easy to eat they make a lovely finger food for those crispy Autumn days, a delicious snack to eat perhaps after a day spent planting flower bulbs for the Spring, and cleaning the garden to get it ready for the long winter sleep. Mezzelune di Cavolo e Carote (Half-Moons with Cabbage and Carrot filling) Whenever I am invited to a brunch or to a party I often bring this dish and people love it. It is the perfect finger food: the savory cabbage filling enveloped in a mouth-watering squash bread crust. Making the dough: See recipe below for Squash Bread Making the filling: Half of a cabbage ¼ cup olive oil 1 yellow onion 3 carrots 2 tsp caraway seeds ½ cup white wine salt and pepper Dice the onion and place it into a dutch oven, add the olive oil and sautee for 10 minutes on low heat. Turn the heat up to medium high and add the wine and caraway seeds. Let evaporate for 3 minutes then turn heat down again to low. Dice the cabbage and the carrots and add to the rest along with ¾ of a cup of water. Place the lid on the pot and let it cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Making the Half-Moons: Let the dough rise twice and then with a rolling pin, roll out the dough. With a big glass or round cookie cutter cut out circles. Fill the middle of the circles with the cabbage and carrots. Fold the circle in half, wet your finger and take it along the inside edges of your half- moons, pressing with a fork seal the two edges together. Place half-moons on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Squash Bread This is a recipe from my dear friend Kellie, what lovely memories I have from the days we used to run a home-based daycare together. I remember her taking this bread out of the oven, infusing the house with the wonderful smell of fresh-baked bread. The children were filled with excitement and anticipation for that bread that they never seemed to have enough of. Tip: Squash can easily be a meal or snack on it’s own: try cutting it in half and roasting it with some water in the oven for 45 minutes (see recipe for Pan di Zucca). Once out of the oven pour half a cup of fresh apple cider on the squash along with a few curls of butter. Making the Sponge: 2 cups wrist-temperature water 1 Tbsp active dry yeast a drop of molasses 1 ½ cups white unbleached flour (preferably organic) 1 cup wheat flour (preferably organic) 2 ½ cups well mashed cooked squash 3 Tbsp molasses 4 Tbsp melted butter 1 Tbsp salt 3 cups wheat flour 4 cups white unbleached flour Place the water in a large bowl. Add yeast and molasses. Beat in the flour. Cover and let it rise for 30 to 45 minutes. Mix together the squash, molasses, melted butter, and salt. Mix together until well combined. Beat all the ingredients into risen sponge and add the wheat flour and the white flour. Add one cup of flour at the time. Knead the dough until it is not too sticky. Cover and let it rise until double in size (1 and ½ hours). Form into two loaves and set in two loaf pans. Let rise for 1 hour. Bake between 375- 425 for 40 minutes. Towards the end check the top, if too browned cover with aluminum foil. This dough is great for rolls as well! Form rolls with your hands and place them on a cookie sheet. Let them rise for 1 hour and bake for about 20 minutes. There are so many great reason to buy your fresh produce at farmer’s markets: they are hand-picked the day you...

L'articolo Foodie’s motto: Early to bed, early to rise proviene da Delicious life.

Love versus Fear: cooking for the love of the world

Barbara — Mon, 09 Oct 2017 18:12:47 +0000

Love more, fear less. Love is. “I want to give as I have plenty, I want to love like I am not afraid”. This is the sentence by Chris Tomlin that caught my attention these last few days, I cannot remember where I saw it, but I am certain that if I read it, anywhere it might have been, it was for a reason. This last month has been a challenging one, as it is supposed to be, since it is a transitional month and period of the year. It is the transition from Summer to Fall, from hot to cold, from light to dark. These days, which say farewell to Summer and greet Fall hello, are the days during which, in the Waldorf tradition, we celebrate Michael and the legend of the slaying of the dragon. It is quite a strong image, and it is very symbolic. Michael represents the light, the good, the positive, the courage, and love while the dragon is the symbol of the darkness, the bad, the fear. The sword is the tool through which Michael, slaying the dragon, wins over him and the good, the light, and love win over the bad, the dark, and fear. Love your powerful self. We all have very busy lives and it is often hard to sit down for sometime, breathe out and shut down our rampant thoughts. But if we did or I shall say, when we do, we realize right away the benefits of it. How we feel restored, energized and more aligned with our real source of life, the Universe. Silence, peace, healthy solitude, and a nice cup of tea sipped while staring into nothingness often is what you need to re-gear, refocus and find yourself anew out of all the hustle and bustle of every day life. The thing that never fails to rejuvenate me and make resurface the Me that I love most is cooking, while sipping a nice glass of red wine and listening to some good background music. In these last days I’ve come home often weary with thoughts and in need of solutions to situations that no longer fit me, or belong to me, or even serve my purpose any longer. It is amazing how you can tell when a chapter is ending and a new one is starting, and at the same time realize how powerful we truly are to determine the direction we want to take our life. We just must learn to disregard fear. To shut the whispering voice in our ears telling us, we cannot do it, or we should not do it. Why? Because it is too late or too early or you don’t have time or it is not for you. All ideas and voices coming from outside sources trying to direct your existence in directions that ultimately will not serve you nor your needs. All of these help to create doubts and insecurity, which will result into fear. Love is courage. Overcome your fear. Fear is not only negative though, don’t get me wrong. Some degree of fear, in a form of caution, it is necessary for a person to conduct a prudent life. The problem starts when we let fear guide our life. We should establish and internal dialogue between ourselves and fear, which using Elizabeth Gilberts words, as she writes in her last book “Big Magic”, should sound something like this: Dear Fear “I recognize and respect that you are part of this family, and so I will never exclude you from our activities, but still-your suggestions will never be followed. You’re allowed to have a seat, and you are allowed to have a voice, but you are not allowed to have a vote. You’re not allowed to touch the road maps; you are not allowed to suggest detours; you are not allowed to fiddle with the temperature. Dude, you are not even allowed to touch the radio. But above all else, my dear old familiar friend you are absolutely forbidden to drive”. Love your intuition. This is how we shall react to fear, acknowledge its existence but never allow it to direct our life. In the back of my mind I always have Paulo Coelho’s words: “Fear is the worse enemy of your soul”, meaning that fear will always direct you away from your dreams, away from the fulfillment of your greatest self. This is why it is so important to understand our purpose and then start to transform fear into faith while we always keep in mind that the universe has our back, using Gabby Bernstein’s words, of her last book: “The Universe has your back”. “The fear comes from a belief that we are not good enough” How many of us grew up thinking and feeling that something was missing, that we were not up to snuff for those around us? Probably many, too many. Well, today’s news is that the story we chose to listen to was wrong, definitely wrong. Why? Because we are good enough and perfect just the way we are. Fear is the opposite of love, fear gives us the idea that power comes from outside sources, and we get used to listen to these sources, outside of ourselves, when we look for advice and direction. While this is a good thing, to listen to the advice of loved ones, we shall always remember that ultimately we know best. Because what we are deciding is our path, our life and we, only we, will respond for it and will take the consequences in the end, for the bad or for the good. We will, not anyone else. When I was a teenager I was madly in love with my first boyfriend, he was all I cared about, I remember my grandmother’s words one afternoon as we were sitting together in the garden. She told me that while it was wonderful that I found a person that I loved so much,...

L'articolo Love versus Fear: cooking for the love of the world proviene da Delicious life.

Eat local, think global, trust Nature!

Barbara — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 15:05:10 +0000

Eat your food. It is not even 8 o’clock in the morning and my oven is already turned on. Yesterday we got a huge basketful of apples from our neighbor’s tree, big round faulty apples, which will need some work to recuperate the good parts, and discard the faulty, brown parts. It will surely take longer, but it’s certainly going to be worth it since these are all natural, fresh, local apples with no pesticides and also because they represent life: in good there is always a little bit of bad and in bad there is always a little bit of good, sort of like the Tao. Eat local. In my previous post, I talked about grapes, so common, juicy and exquisite in Tuscany during this time of the year. This is the time of Harvest, of giving thanks to Mother Earth for presenting us with so much beauty and plenitude. The least we can do to facilitate such perfection is to honor the process and honor our precious planet. When I was a child, here in Tuscany ,we got accustomed to the rhythm of the year from our early on in our lives, and Autumn was always a time of celebration, preparing the food from the garden to be stored and preserved for the cold months of Winter. One of the things I remember most fondly is the “Vendemmia” which is the celebration of the grapes and its transformation into wine. All of us, children of the neighborhood, would help haul the big, round grapes from the vines to huge barrels where the men would throw all of them in, and then, us children, would take our shoes off, wash our feet with the hose and jump right inside the bucket and start stomping on the grapes to help it release its juice. The tangy smell of the grapes, the sound of laughter and the feeling of that joyful freedom will be forever stuck in my mind. Eat well, and savor the wisdom. Certainly, back in the days when I was a child, eating local was the way they did it, nowadays many things have changed, with progress, with the radical change of the economical system, just to mention two things, and even though very often it doesn’t seem so, I am convinced that humanity is always going forward to improve its living conditions. Therefore, I am a strong believer that the best thing we can do, as post-modern humans, is to learn from the past, keeping the best of it, but also look forward and apply all the new that has been discovered. Looking back for the wisdom, while looking forward with a new consciousness. Eat local. Think global. Food is a very important topic, since it is the way that allows us to be nourished and be healthy and consequently, be and feel at our best. Choosing wisely what we eat has become more and more a priority among certain circles and choosing foods that are free from poisons and pesticides has become more and more popular. Eating organic is not only better for you but it is also better for the planet. I invite anyone to shop at local farmer’s markets to support local farmers and local artists, this is hopefully the future, a time in which people will more and more start to eat locally and think globally. We are in this all together, all children of the same amazing planet. It is our honor and responsibility to take care of it. Fall is the perfect time to realize how truly amazing it is and how blessed we are to be surrounded by such plenitude. Going to the grocery shop or better yet to a market is a feast of colors tastes and smells. How could anyone consider it a chore or a drudgery? Let’s take any chance we get to celebrate our blessings and show gratitude. We get so accustomed to take things for granted that we forget how lucky we truly are in our every day life. Living conscientiously is a way to show respect and gratitude. Trying to observe the wheel of the year and try to live by it is a sign of understanding of our real necessities. Eat in season. Feel better. What are the many reasons to eat food that is organic and in season? Seasonal food is mostly fresh and not processed. It encourages creativity and home cooking, Seasonal food is not only more affordable, it is also grown locally and it does not spoil as fast. It does not lose its nutrients. When you eat seasonally you have a very wide variety of foods since each season has its own typical produce. Seasonal produce supports seasonal needs: in Winter, for instance, citrus fruits are just what the body needs for the prevention of the flu and colds. Winter vegetables are suitable for stews. Summer fruits provide extra beta-carotenes and other carotenoids that protect us against sun damage. I am going to write up a quick list to help us recognize what is in season during the different times of the year. When the season slides from the hot Summer months toward a cooler weather look for more warming, Autumn harvest foods, including carrots, onions, radishes, and garlic. Also, emphasize the more warming spices and seasonings including ginger, peppercorns, and mustard seeds. In Winter, turn even more exclusively toward warming foods. Remember the principle that foods taking longer to grow are generally more warming than foods that grow quickly. All the animal foods fall into the warming category including fish, chicken, beef, and lamb. So do most of the root vegetables, including carrots, potatoes, onions, and garlic. Eggs also fit in here, as do corn and nuts. In Summer, during the hottest months, stick with light cooling foods in the light of traditional Chinese medicine. These foods include fruits like plums, peaches, apricots, and vegetables like beets, peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, and spices and seasonings...

L'articolo Eat local, think global, trust Nature! proviene da Delicious life.

Warm colors, fresh flavors: flower bruschetta, and blackberry cheesecake

Barbara — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 01:45:31 +0000

September this year, has brought with itself the new season. In this last week as August left its place to September, the sky has changed, the air has changed, the feeling in the air, also has changed. Summer is fading away, slowly gently to greet the new season with its fresh cool breeze, the chilly nights and brisk mornings. The glittering morning dew sits on the grass early in the morning to announce the new day, a new beginning full of opportunities, just like the mist embraces the fields at night like a blanket to lull the world to sleep. As I opened the window this morning I could see by the color of the sky that we could expect rain, and so it was. As the rain started pouring, letting out that earthy smell so typical of stormy end of summer days, I opened the window wide and enjoyed the rain in the relaxing silence of the early morning. The whole field in front of our house turned to a more brilliant green, and the flowers lifted their beautifully colored heads, relieved to receive a good shower after months of drought. I patiently waited by the window, sipping a warm cup of tea, while reading a good book until the rain stopped. As soon as the weather allowed it, I pulled up my rain boots and walked to the garden to harvest the goodies for lunch. I must confess that the rain had been a great muse this morning and inspired me to some really yummy lunch ideas, which I decided to turn into a meal and actually make them: zucchini flower crostini, and, since the blackberries are still hanging in copious quantity on the vine, I decided to make a blackberry, lemon cheesecake. After my abundant harvest I proudly got to work, pulled my hair up, put on my apron, and started getting the veggies ready for my creative new bruschetta: the ingredients needed are some bread, olive oil, tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, zucchini flowers, and salt and pepper. I love it when inspirations hits me, I just look at something and that triggers something, and there the spark goes, it’s done, a new idea was born. This is what happened with this new recipe that I am about to share: Zucchini Flower Bruschetta. Zucchini Flower Bruschetta Ingredients for five bruschettas 5 slices of home-made bread 5 Zucchini flowers 1/2 garlic clove (optional) 1 ball of mozzarella cheese 2 tomatoes 5 leaves of basil Pecorino cheese shavings (sheep cheese) olive oil Salt and pepper Slice the bread in 5 rather thin slices, when I think of bread I think of sourdough bread, it is my absolute favorite, in taste and consistency. I am a baker and love making my own home-made bread, soon I’ll share my “secret” recipe with you all. After you prepared and cut up all the ingredients, turn on the oven to medium high heat and let it warm up. In the meantime, If you wish, you can take the half garlic clove and rub it lightly on each bread slice, just so that the bread delicately takes up the flavor. Sprinkle with some olive oil. After you cut up the tomatoes set the slices on the bread, and layer up with a slice of the cup up mozzarella; Set a basil leaf on top and cover it with the zucchini flower. To clean the flowers, remove the pistil, and rinse it off. Sprinkle the flowers with some more olive oil, add salt and pepper to taste. Decorate with the pecorino cheese shavings. Place the layered bread slices on a pan and put them in the oven, let them bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the cheese is half melted on top. Take the crostini out of the oven and serve while still warm. This is quite a yummy dish which will impress your guests, since it looks and tastes quite fabulous! I usually serve it with some sliced avocado and cucumber and a slice of prosciutto on bread as I show in photo below. Once your palate is satisfied with the savory taste of the crostini you are ready to switch to a sweeter flavor. This blackberry cheesecake I am about to share will be the perfect way to end a quick and simple lunch. Two fairly simple and quick recipes that will make you feel very proud and happy of yourself as a cook. I can guarantee that you will receive endless compliments from your guests and family! Blackberry Lemon Cake Ingredients: 1¼ cups sweet biscuit crumbs 80g butter, melted 500g PHILADELPHIA Block Light Cream Cheese, softened 1/2 cup sugar 200g organic lemon yoghurt 1 tablespoon gelatine dissolved in ¼ cup boiling water Blackberries, for decorating, COMBINE the biscuit crumbs and butter then press into the base of a greased and lined 20cm round springform pan. Chill. BEAT the PHILLY and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the yoghurt and gelatine and mix until smooth. Add some lemon juice if you like. POUR the filling over the prepared base. Refrigerate for 3 hours or until set. Decorate with the blackberries, slice and serve. What a perfect way to spend a gloomy day! Cooking is the kind of thing that makes the sun come back to shine no matter what the weather looks like outside the window! Stay tuned for more yummy, and creative dishes to savor! Enjoy. With Love.

L'articolo Warm colors, fresh flavors: flower bruschetta, and blackberry cheesecake proviene da Delicious life.