luglio 27, 2011
Today is my birthday. Today I am 30 years old! I told you last year, and I’ll repeat it: my birthday is one of my favorite days throughout the year, along with Christmas. Those blessed five minutes I spent under the sheets before getting up are full of expectations, of a rarefied happiness that makes me feel slightly different and special all day long. Today is special for another reason, too.
When I turned 28, more than one person told me, with a worried yet enthusiastic look, that I was entering into the Saturn Return. Astrologers believe that when Saturn returns to the point where it was when you were born, you cross a major threshold and enter the next stage of your life.
Since Saturn is the planet that represents the time, the responsibility, the inner strength that helps you achieve your goals, those ranging from 28 to 30 are two years in which you cut dead branches and leave behind heavy burdens, but in the meantime you reconfirm the values you believe in and the important people in your life. These are the years when you have to make choices, and you finally realize that these choices, for the first time, depend only on you, not on your parents or on social conventions.
And so today I put ideally a full stop after two intense, sometimes tiring but always interesting and challenging years. From now on, I start a new journey, with a little more awareness of my goals, my dreams, who to consider a friend, who to rely on… and mostly who I am.
My birthday cake is affected by these changes as well. I sat at the kitchen table, with some trusted good books you know you can count on in the important moments, a squared notebook and a pencil, and I started thinking about what I wanted for my special day, because there is no doubt that my 30th birthday cake will be remembered for a long time. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Autumn, Baked Good, Cakes, Desserts, Summer 
17 Comments »
luglio 25, 2011
If you see me now, I have John Wayne’s femininity and charm. I walk with that cow-boy-like walk, staggering, holding my back with one hand and leaning on whatever support I find with the other one. The reason for this behaviour is a horse. And no, I wasn’t trampled by the horse, and I wasn’t neither unseated … I just had a wonderful ride around San Gimignano, one hour of walk, 3 minutes to trot. The result is this crooked walk. My athleticism is well-known, though, so no worries!
After the walk through the Tuscan vineyards and woods, made in the farm Il Vecchio Maneggio, we moved to the Fattoria Poggio Alloro.
The following photos were all taken in Poggio Alloro: at first I thought I would have brought my camera on the horseback as well, but after a careful consideration with Emiko about our respective riding abilities, we decided to leave it in the car. A wisest decision has never been taken before, I thought bouncing unseemly on the horse and holding on with all the hands that I had (I still have two hands, but if I had a third one, I would have used that as well!)
Fattoria Poggio Alloro is an enchanted place, a true and real farm, with real people working every day with passion and enthusiasm. It’s an organic farm, with quality products as wine, olive oil, cereals, saffron and honey. They have the Cinta Senese (a local swine breed well-known for the tasty meat, used for cured meat) and the majestic Chianina breed, the enormous white Tuscan cows.
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Posted in Summer, Travel 34 Comments »
luglio 23, 2011
Everytime a child says I don’t believe in fairies, there’s a a little fairy somewhere that falls down dead. Peter Pan.
When you stop believing in a dream, it happens the same thing. A fairy dies, a flower closes down, a star burns out, a smile fades away. That’s why you must keep on believing in your dreams, whatever happens, that’s why I keep on believing my dreams, no matter what.
I have many dreams, some are more realizable than others: likely I won’t end up on the stage of the Wembley stadium so that Robbie Williams could sing me a song, like, say… She’s the one, but there are other dreams that I feel here, close to me, so close that if I stretch out my hand I can almost graze them and tickle them.
And yet, there are days when even the more achievable dreams seem too far, wrapped in a thick cotton-like fog. Even though the dreams are made of intangible breaths, the best way to reconnect to them is getting active, doing something concrete.
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Posted in Desserts, Summer, Vegetarian Recipes 20 Comments »
luglio 20, 2011
There are many things that make me happy.
An evening spent in a cinema to watch a Hollywood movie, one of those you have been waiting for months and that gives you the shivers right from the opening credits, with a bag of caramel popcorn, your glasses to see clearly from the distance and not miss a shot, your best friend in the chair beside you and two hours to spend in the dark, comments in a low voice and giggles included.
A windy day with turquoise sky and white clouds running high, the trees talking to each other in an ancient language, the branches caressing each others and intertwining. All your heavy thoughts are swept away by the wind and the air becomes lighter.
An unexpected free afternoon at home, four gifted hours, a to-do list that gets thinner and thinner, the time to put in order a shelf or the lazy books that lie on the bedside table, to make a long-waited phone call or simply to pet Kira, now old but even sweeter, with her soulful and grateful eyes.
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Posted in Baked Good, Desserts, Pies and Tarts, Summer 39 Comments »
luglio 16, 2011
You can say whatever you want, you can say that turning on the oven in summer is a sacrilege, that this is the season of ice cream and cold drinks at sunset on a terrace by the sea, with golden sand on your feet. But just consider for a while the everyday life, the reality of those who still get up every day, leave an already scorching bed and go to the office.
Add that the office does not have air conditioning and that your faithful partner is a bottle of jasmine green tea, light and refreshing. You don’t have a problem in finding a car park, because it is everyday granted, though under a merciless sun in a desert and tree-less countryside square. Considered all the elements, do you want to deprive a poor girl of one of the few comforts left?
If I could, I would really choose a life of beach laziness, fresh linen shirts and salads made of tomatoes from the garden, but my holidays are still a bit far, although I can finally see them on the horizon. Therefore, undaunted, I carry on with my habits, and one of them is to turn on the oven and make the muffins for breakfast, to start a new day on a positive and healthy note.
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Posted in Autumn, Baked Good, Breakfast / Brunch, Desserts, Spring, Summer, Winter 28 Comments »
Tuscan summer. Zucchini with fresh garlic and oregano
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