agosto 1, 2011
It’s Monday, and I’m at home. I woke up slowly, very slowly, I had leftover dessert for breakfast, and I read once again with pleasure my birthday greeting cards. It’s Monday, but I’m on holidays for 4 weeks and yesterday I celebrated my birthday with a ’50s style garden party with a dear friend.
I’m happy for many reasons: first of all I eventually got my much needed holidays and this upcoming month is already full of expectations and comes at the right time. Secondly, thought at a second thought this should definitely be the first reason, yesterday I felt all day overwhelmed by a high tide of friendship. Never before I have been so clearly aware of how much I love all those people who were there and how makes me happy that they love me.
That said, time to tell you which are my plans for this holiday season! I had already planned a series of posts dedicated to a summer dinner in the garden to be published while I’ll be traveling around Europe (we’ll talk about this next time) but after my opening words about the ’50s party, I am now even more confident that I chose the right theme for this August … a midsummer night’s dinner in the garden with your best friends.
I like dining out, watching the sun that slowly disappears behind the hills and the stars that light up one by one in the summer sky.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Appetizers, Summer, Vegetarian Recipes 
6 Comments »
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
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.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Baked Good, Desserts, Pies and Tarts, Summer 39 Comments »
Summer RoundUp #3: Chicago and gardening, Diana from "Spain in Iowa"
content rss
Recent Comments