Attractively lively and animated, bubbling with enthusiasm and exuberance which flow effortlessly from an endless natural spring within the heart of the vivacious person, this is vivacità.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Australia's Favorite Cookie

Some years back Tom's and my friend, Cecily, who lives in Tasmania posted something about being tempted by a treat in her cupboard. The sweets, as I recall, were called Tim Tams. I asked her what they were and she courteously replied that they are a type of cookie.

I'd never heard of Tim Tams until then and what's worse, I've never seen them so couldn't taste them.

Until today.

Walking the aisles of our market this morning my head did a double-take when I saw a random display of Tim Tams. "Tom! It's Tim Tams! The cookies Cecily was talking about."

"Better get some," he replied.

We did.

After smuggling the cookies to our room, in a brown paper bag so the kids' dessert-radar wouldn't hone in, we carefully opened the package and sampled the crispy, gooey, caramel-infused, chocolate-covered wafers.




Now we know why the cookies in the cupboard were tempting Cecily that day so many years ago.



Mmmmm.....

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Bread Therapy



No yoga exercise, no meditation in a chapel filled with music will rid you of your blues better than the humble task of making your own bread. ~~ M.F.K. Fisher, The Art of Eating

Monday, April 4, 2011

Pasta

Simplicity. Pasta is simplicity.

Flour, eggs, salt, oil, water. A rolling pin and floured board. Deft fingers, a little energy expended. A sharp knife. No machines necessary.

Today it's egg noodles, this weekend ravioli.

Money saved, quality food enjoyed, contentment.

With grocery prices creeping ridiculously high, and with me being the sort of woman who doesn't just 'take it', there are solutions being found. Most of those solutions are in the form of learning to make the foods we love, as well as learning how to buy better food so that with each bite satisfaction results quickly and pleasurably. I've noticed that when eating non-foods, or what Michael Pollan calls food-like substances, my family and I remain hungry, even after eating large quantities. It's that satisfaction factor. I'm sure of it.

Somehow, making the pasta myself, exerting myself, pouring love into each roll and cut, watching the stuff dry, then cooking it and adding a fresh, homemade sauce results in a richer experience for my family and me. We eat with heightened awareness. Each bite is appreciated as we know the food's origin, and who took the time to learn to make it, and who put forth the effort, and why. Love. We reach satiation, leaving the table ready to undertake whatever is in our minds to do.
At home I serve the kind of food I know the story behind. ~~Michael Pollan
It's a beautiful thing.

Noi cuciniamo é mangiamo! We cook and eat!

Ciao!