Semplicemente Famiglia (Simply Family)

Its not everyday we meet big families especially in this age when its more practical and convenient to be childless (as is the case for many Italians), or have just one child and work - OR stay single for a veerry long time and live with your parents while at it. Gone are the days of the stay-at-home mama hen, cooking something rustic and special for her army of children. Or perhaps not? In Cagliari, Sardegna we meet up with a mom of 5 children. During our short stay she talks to us about raising her kids, what its like and some of the challenges of trying to be more self-sustaining.

View the video here:

To learn more about their association Semplicemente Famiglia, look into their website here:

http://www.semplicementefamiglia.org/

It was such a pleasure meeting Daniela and her family.. As a new mom, meeting her was like seeing a beacon of hope - that I wasn't alone and that being bestowed the responsibility of a parent may be scary yet priceless. I'm so thankful for her and her family's openess and generosity. Hope to see them again when we come back ;)

Potato Cakes, Guacamole and Salsa

Its getting cold here. Got the sniffles already. Drinking lots of fresh juice, stocking up on this season's best fruit and veg, mmm.. Anyhoo here is a nice veg dinner for any kind of season.

Potato Cakes
Ingredients:

• 3 large potatos
• some extra virgin olive oil for frying
• 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
• 1/4 cup grated pecorino cheese or leave out and increase salt by a tsp
• 1 or 2 tablespoons of milk or leave out
• 1 egg whiskedù
• 1 tsp powdered garlic or omit
• handful of parsley chopped

Instructions:

1. peel and chop potatoes. boil in pot of water for about 20 minutes or until soft/mushy.
2. drain, transfer in a bowl and mash.
3. mix in milk, pecorino, salt, chopped parsley and whisked egg. mix well.
4. fry a spoonful of the mix (carefully flattening it out as you scoop it on) on a non-stick pan with some olive oil in medium heat. 
5. wait 2-4 minutes or until it browns a bit before flipping on the other side. pronto!

Guacamole
There are so many ways to make guacamole. Its super easy what I did here. OR check out an old guac experiment here.

1. Halve 2 medium avocados, remove seed
2. trace a grid with a knife and scoop out layer by layer on a bowl (so you get nice even cubes)
3. add juice of half a big lemon, grate some skin off the lemon (zest), salt to taste, dash of hot pepper powder, and some chopped fresh red onion. mix

Salsa
Another popular condiment and again, so many ways to make it. Here, my simple version

1. 8-10 of those ripe small salad tomatoes. chopped finely or pulsed in a blender/processor.
2. stick of celery minced
3. half a medium red onion minced
4. mix all together and serve

Plating the whole thing is easy with so much color and texture, its fun to see and even better to EAT. heeee
btw, used some of the free labels from PuglyPixel. ;)

Wrapping up summer / Fra turns 30

The cool winds have hit, summer is over. Yes folks, that was it. Time to dig out those sweaters from that dark forgettable spot in the cabinet seemingly not too long ago. Naturally melancholy kicks in, but not this instance. Summer 2011 marked a big change in our lives from the birth of Adamo, the realization that we have reached that "grown up" stage in our lives (marked also by Fra's 30th birthday today) and knowing all this is just a prelude of things to come.

Happy Birthday! featuring DIY French Toast "cake" with banana strawberry cream "frosting"

Thank you Fra. I/we never thought we'd be here celebrating this day with all that has changed/happened in  our lives. You've surprised me constantly with your big heart, patience and unique perspective - I'm so proud of you! Bravo amore, I look forward to more adventures with you. :)

Also Adamo says Ciao!

Segreti di Fiaba (Secrets of Fairytales)

It was a lucky chance for us to stop by Cagliari and meet Fra's friend Francesca Amat, here setting up her art for the biggest children's book festival in Italy. What a brilliant idea she came up with -- other than revealing the secrets behind some of the old fairytales of the world, she created these "books" with a hole cut in the middle, revealing part of the image inside - deceptively resembling something completely different from the image inside. I love it! I think kids will totally love it! and what a way to get kids to read a bit more eh? remember all those books back in gradeschool and the characters that would frequent your dreams? ahh good times..

the secret of the language of animals

the secret, the key and the prohibition of the dragon king

the secret of the birth of elves

the secret of the firebird

Francesca Amat

Medieval August

Its been a month (ok, way more than a month! damn time-space continuum) since the star-studded medieval parade in Fermo with SeanConnery, Helen Mirren, Juliet and a load of handsome knaves, capricious knights, peasants, cobblers, nobles, damsels, shepherds and the band/s! and such faces, oozing with medieval fervor. FERVOR. Over 450 locals garbed in authentic medieval fashion - in character, HECK what else can set you in the mood for some serious hot and crazy LARPING? No seriously, thats a lot of dressed-up people in a variety of age groups. and best of all, they really like it. Not just the knights with their gauntlets and chain mail, also the tax collector looked pretty happy. And just like real life, you have the unhappily married wife, the miser, the archnemesis, gay peasants?

It was such fun that I thought I’d take the mood even one step further with photoshop. Maybe next year I can be a rogue archer?

PS. All photos from the event can be accessed here. Consider them stock material! If you find them useful, Id love to see what you do. Leave a message. :)

Anguria with Mint

This is it. The last of the melons, for now. I have to thank Stacey for the brilliant idea of adding in chopped mint. The combination defined a new kind of fresh - plus it tasted like a million bucks! Gourmet on a budget - bang for your buck, whatever you want to call it. This tops gelato - and I love gelato. ok, enough praise and worship. Just some few guidelines (you cant really call it recipe when theres only 2 ingredients involved without having to cook anything right?).

1.) Good fresh ingredients. Get the good juicy ripe red, not the greyish pinkish dull melon that tastes like some kind of bitterish eh. Fresh mint plucked straight from the plant if you can or place a stalk of leaves on a glass of water to keep it fresh for a day or two. If you can't, melon alone is a winner.

2.) Chop your melon whichever shape or form you like. I find that bite-sized chunks work best - keeps those tiny air globules intact for that slight crunch. But if you like it slushy, slash and slush away. Or bite straight into it like a wild man-woman she-wolf. er

3.) Chill. Chillllll in the fridge... It makes all the difference on a hot sweaty day. Cocomero means watermelon in Italy, so does Anguria but I think Anguria fits better. It sounds a bit erotic and having a good helping of this stuff is almost too pleasurable, even more eating it with your bare hands. ;)

g'mornin!

Cycle of Almonds

I've grown increasingly fond of eating and experimenting with raw food that I've recently invested in a dehydrator to broaden the possibilities. I decided to do a whole cycle of almonds starting with almond nut mylk, an easy enough to do project. Just soak 1-2 cups of almond nuts in water overnight. Next morning, drain soak water and rinse nuts (they'll double in size).

Put in blender. Add water a bit above the level of almonds (or more if you want the mylk to be less dense).

Blend and then squeeze mylk through a sieve or cheesecloth or nut milk bag. Store in the fridge or enjoy it straight away with some honey. I made "chocolate milkshake" by blending some mylk with banana, some carob, maca, lucuma and a dash of cinnamon.

The pulp left from the bag I then used to make dehydrated cookies! (even Fra got excited)

The recipe for this was based on raw nut bread but I omitted and added different things (raisins, dried grated coconut, flax seeds, etc) and didnt even bother to write anything down so I'll just have to try it again next time and then repost the recipe. :) Anyway, I made 2 kinds: one huge monster cookie and a batch of smaller regular cookies. The bigger denser one was more chewy. =D And boy was it a full breakfast!

Adamo is born

Towards the last week of June, I've been having contractions by the day. Fra had several exams to complete in University then and was asking baby to wait until after the 1st week of July. I told baby to come when he pleased. July 1st, around 6:30am, I woke up with contractions. Fra wasn't convinced it was the real thing (or maybe he was in denial. hehe) so I waited for several minutes to see if it would reoccur - well, it did and it kept going up until we birthed Adamo around 4:45pm.

It was a long process. In the beginning I was at the birthing tub hoping I'd have a relaxed, ecstatic birth. It turned out to be too relaxing while contractions were getting stronger, longer and the hours just passed by like there was no tomorrow. I tried other positions: standing, squatting, on my back, and finally on a chair - which, towards the end, worked perfectly well. The birthing didn't turn out as relaxed/ecstatic as I wished but it was most definitely cathartic - no tears were shed, not a single drop (up until seeing baby's face, that is) but I did give out the most ferocious sound (primal scream?) that it made Fra say, "you can do it Tausug tribe woman!", referring to part of my father's blood line.

The name Adamo came up at the last minute. It was one of the names Fra suggested months ago - among many others. How it came up at the last moment and how it felt so right, ah well it just did. Adamo, the italian version of Adam, the first man. AD/ad, in latin means to or towards. Amo, in italian means love. Fra's mother Pina, whos also big with esoteric stuff, looked it up further and found out it also means earth. More here. I like looking at situations as if they somehow connect to other things, like the fact that he chose to be born on the first day of July while I was born on the last. Another good friend Patricia, a vedic astrologer, told me that a partial solar eclipse occured on his birthday and at the moment he was born, the eclipse was just about over. She says hes definitely going to be strange (ookk.. hehe), sensitive, and... well, we shall see. :)



Not too long after his big arrival, we were informed that an infection and a health complication came up. This meant staying for a loong 9 days in the hospital. Without communication, I imagined I was having a retreat. Hes all well now and thats all that matters.

The story continues. More pictures here.