febbraio 24, 2011
There is a moment of my working day that I particularly like. I realized it in these days when I traveled to Rimini, when this moment expanded itself from a few minutes to several hours: I’m talking about the road trip – whether to or back – I’m doing almost every day with my colleague and friend, Romina. We meet at the usual place at the usual time, then we do the transfer from one car to the other in a state of trance, choosing on day mine and one day her car. Car sharing is the new black!
Romina gets off the car with a smooth, continuous movement, grabs her bags, locks her car and with the same agility she sits next to me. Time required: 5 seconds. I’m clumsy even in getting off the car: usually I stumble in my scarf (I like long scarves which you wrap a thousand times around your neck, not my fault…), I open and close the door several times before I have taken everything – from my bag to my lunch box. I check the radio, the keys and finally sit beside her, buried under more bags than those ladies sitting on the bus with only their nose peeping out from their shopping bags. Time required: one minute…
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Posted in Main Course, Meat, Quick Recipes, Spring, Summer 
18 Comments »
febbraio 16, 2011
A quick breakfast - yet a hearty and delicious breakfast, as it is the most important meal of the day – and we’re ready! For a little while, my first and real life will get the upper hand over my second life! I’ll be in Rimini for Sapore. If you happen to pop to say hi, I’ll be the one running up and down like a black and white movie star in a silent movie from the first years of the previous century!
In the meantime, I’m proud to introduce you an exclusive video realized by H-art for the Consorzio di Tutela del Grana Padano, to explain in a simple and effective way the various stages of Grana Padano production – milk, curdling, brine, seasoning. Isn’t it perfect and immediate? From now on, every time I’ll Grana Padano, I’ll be aware of this little miracle and the quality process required to have one of the most renowned Italian cheeses. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in About me 1 Comment »
febbraio 14, 2011
Today I’m loving myself. A lot, indeed! I’ve carefully combed my hair – despite the fact that I look like Marge Simpson as soon as I wake up -, I’ve put on a little make up, a touch of mascara and lip gloss, I’ve chose the clothes that I usually save for my special occasions. I didn’t want to talk about Valentine’s Day today, I admit it. Why? um, because I feared to resemble a sad martyr (anybody loves me, I won’t find anybody to share my life with, I will be found three weeks later half-eaten by Alsatians*…) or, on the opposite side, I was afraid to sound false speaking of love when love is not here.
Wait! Wait! a bell rang, or rather it was a gong! Of course love is here! I love myself, I really love this little Juls who decided to live her life following the LOVE! Which love? Whatever! Love for what she does, love for her family, love for her friends.. isn’t it just another shape of love? It’s so nice to be in love with love!
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Posted in Autumn, Desserts, Spring, Summer, Winter 22 Comments »
febbraio 7, 2011
Does it happen to you? As you walk down the street, do you cast an eye to the shop window and catch a reflection, a glimpse with undefined contours? What do you see? or rather, who would you like to see in that reflection? Sometime I hope with all my heart to see a slender girl, with an innate elegance just as Audrey Hepburn, with finely combed hair, a peculiar but not too eccentric style, a bright smile and a golden aura around her. Needless to say, when I look up and focus on that reflection, there is no trace of Audrey and her little black dress.
If I got off on the wrong foot, surely I’ll see a girl with Mafalda‘s hair, far from being a style icon, circled eyes and grey-sh to puddle green complexion, clumsy as a rhinoceros in a china shop, a girl who never knows how to bring her bag, as it tends to slide down from whatever position it is, giving me that precarious and awkward aspect I cannot shake myself free of.
But there are also good days – the most of them, fortunately – and in that moments I see not the most elegant, refined and confident woman in the world, but a country girl I like, someone with flaws that make her human, someone with a calm self-irony, a tool to get over circled eyes and a living bag always falling from her shoulder! So I smile at her with affection, I rearrange my bag on my shoulder, precariously, and I step to the next shop window.
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Posted in Autumn, Baked Good, Chocolate, Desserts, Muffins and cupcakes, Spring, Summer, Winter 15 Comments »
febbraio 3, 2011
Tuesday the 1st of February was Juls’ Kitchen second blogiversary.
In these two years I discovered how essential is to blog for me – I would say almost vital – although I had never written a diary before, except for brief moments while I was suffering from a mild form of graphomania.
I discovered that, along sophisticated recipes made with unusual ingredients and preparations, I wanted to find my culinary roots in Tuscany and Lucania, with the help of my family.
I found out that I like photography, as well as cooking: time to confess a deep fondness for colourful paper napkins and white dishes and bowls, along with a primitive, almost pagan, reverence for light.
I discovered that I love writing more than I remembered, both in Italian and in English: it is my favourite manner to to fix not only recipes, but also moments, thoughts, stories and memories, myself into words.
I discovered that through these pages you can make true and very important friendships, because a shared passion gets people together and deletes distance (and RyanAir helps, too!)
I discovered that my favourite thing to make, being it early morning in a kitchen softened by the first daylight or a slow drowsy afternoon, is fresh pasta. Grandma taught me the basics, the movements and the patience. Grandma lent me indefinitely the pasta maker to roll out pasta, the very same pasta maker that my grandad gave her more than twenty years ago. Now, grandma looks at me proudly when I roll out the fresh pasta and says: you’re very good in making fresh pasta, dear! but now it’s time for you to learn how to make cream puffs as well. You’re not yet good enough in baking them!
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Posted in Autumn, First course, Fresh Pasta, Spring, Summer, Winter 23 Comments »
Guest post for Diana from A little bit of Spain in Iowa: tuna loaf
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