Florentine Dinnerware

Oh boy!  Guess what was waiting for me when I got home from work today?!?  If you guessed "Hand made dinnerware from Florence" you win the Kewpie Doll!

What a thrill to see it all actually made and in our kitchen.  I am beyond psyched!  We weren't expecting it for another week or so - this was really a wonderful surprise.

The design is called Oranges and Grapes.  The piece above is the salad / pasta bowl.  I can see some noodles filling that thing.

The square dinner plate.  Very similar to the large salad / pasta  bowl above.  It's almost 12" across. Unbelievably awesome!

This is the pasta plate.  Same Orange and Grape design, but with a different layout.

The salad plate, again, has the Oranges and Grapes, but a different border.

And a square dessert plate.  How cool is that?  Same design, another border.

The soup bowl is simply awesome.  The design is painted up the side of the bowl and there's a painted band on the outside.

And, finally, the platter.

I am really, really pleased with everything, from the craftsmanship to the indestructible way they were packed and shipped.  There's a few more pieces I want.  Methinks I'm going to have to start saving my pennies, again.

Galleria Machiavelli di Maria Grazia Chelazzi

Via Por Santa Maria,39/r
50123 Firenze

 

 


Bruschetta Burgers

One thing I don't recall seeing on any menus in Italy was hamburgers.  Actually, ground beef of any sort.  I know it's there - they have beef, after all - but it wasn't something being featured on any menus I remember.

So here I was at home - pining for Italy and hoping our dinnerware gets here soon - when I decided a Bruschetta Burger was just what the dottore ordered.

We ate a lot of bruschetta in Italy.  The toppings were as varied as the places we ate them, although one we had a couple of times stands out - a chicken liver bruschetta that was out of this world good.  It actually had chicken livers and hearts in it.  Both were slightly different but had similar qualities.  I'm working on replicating it.

But that's in the future.  I needed tonight. I grabbed an eggplant and started work.

My thought process was a caponata of sorts topping a burger topped with asiago - all sitting on a thick slice of toasted Italian bread.

My thought process was right-on.

This was a wing-it recipe.  If you have a favorite caponata recipe, go for it.

Eggplant Caponata

  • 1 med eggplant, peeled and diced
  • 1 small red onion, diced
  • 3 ribs celery, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/3 cup red wine
  • 1 can diced tomatoes in juice
  • 1 can tomato paste
  • 1/2 cup chopped roasted red pepper
  • 1 tbsp capers
  • 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 10 basil leaves, minced
  • 6 mint leaves, minced
  • 1/2 cup Locatelli (pecorinio Romano) cheese, shredded
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Saute onion, celery, and garlic in a bit of olive oil.  When onion is translucent, add wine and cook down.

Add tomatoes, tomato paste, and 1 can water.

Add eggplant, roasted red peppers, capers and vinegar.

Bring to a boil, then lower heat, cover, and simmer about 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Stir in basil and mint.  Add cheese and then check for seasoning, adding S&P, as desired.

Serve as bruschetta topping, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, or just stand there and eat with a spoon right out of the pot.

This really was a fun spin on your basic cheeseburger. Thick slices of bread liberally doused with olive oil and grilled is a great start to anything.  Burgers topped with asiago is another great idea on its own.  But the two together with the caponata?!?  Total fun.

There is a lot of the caponata left over.  I see a pasta dish in our future...

 

 

 

 


Beef Ribs and Pasta Salad

I came home to a big batch of pasta salad sitting in the refrigerator.  It is just so nice to have a man around the house - who knows how to cook!

This was a fairly typical pasta salad around our house.  It's open the cupboards and refrigerator, see what's there, and make salad.  It's really simple.

This particular version had 2 types of pasta (I can't believe we're practically out of pasta.  I had pretty much cornered the market on it for a year or so.) And it had marinated artichoke hearts, tomatoes, cannellini beans, black olives, celery, garlic, carrots, bell peppers... A chianti vinegar and olive oil.  Very simple, very basic.

I picked up the bowl in Rome as a surprise for Victor.  It's Sicilian from a company named La Giara.  I fell in love with the colors.  I've always liked Italian pottery and we've bought several pieces over the years, but after walking into so many shops and just being overwhelmed with the vast amounts and variations, I want to just thrrow everything out we have and start over.  Not exactly practical, so I won't.  But I'd love to.  After checking out La Giara's website, methinks I will be visiting the actual shop when we make it to Sicily.  There are a lot more pieces I can get. Late 2013 or early 2014 is my plan.

Back to food...

I can't remember the last time I had beef ribs.  Years (and years and years) ago when I worked at the old Hyatt House in Burlingame, we had "Just Bones" on the menu.  They were the bones cut from the prime ribs after roasting.  Liberally doused with BBQ sauce and onto the broiler for a moment, I think we sold them for $19.95 - in 1978 dollars.  I've had beef ribs since then, but not very often.  Pork ribs just seem to be everywhere.

I marinated these overnight in a bottle of beer and some molasses.  I baked them for a few hours in a low oven and then placed them on the grill with some BBQ sauce.

They came out real good.

Speaking of hotels...  the "Bayshore Diner Blue Plate Special" plates came from the Westin SFO - right up the road from the Hyatt Regency Burlingame that took the place of my old hotel.  I was given the plates as a going away present when I transferred to Indianapolis to open the Westin there.

The good ol' days...

 


Salads and Salsa

I've had a hankerin' for salsa all week.  And when our friends Lori and Ev were talking about making fresh homemade tamales yesterday, I knew that salsa had to be made today.

Fruit salsas are one of my most favorite summertime treats.  Stone fruits - peaches, apricots, plums, nectarines - along with strawberries and other berries, make for some really fine eating when mixed with onions and hot peppers.  A couple of minutes of dicing is all it takes.

I just wanted enough to top a pork tenderloin tonight, so I picked up two plums, two apricots, and two jalapeño peppers.  Jalapeños are notoriously wussie around here.

I diced up the fruit, a bit of red onion, a bit of cilantro, a squeeze of lime, and one pepper - seeds and all.  As I said, jalapeños are notoriously wussie around here.

Well wouldn't ya know...  I finally found a hot one!  A really hot one!  This one was just short of uncurling my eyelashes.  I had even taken a bite off the tip of the pepper and it didn't seem  hot at all.

I had some strawberries in the 'fridge so i chopped them up to add just a bit more sweetness and to dilute the heat a bit.

It worked.  The end result was hot - but a sweet, edible hot. And it all went perfectly onto a salad.

The salad was mixed greens with a diced zucchini and a really fresh and ripe tomato.   Victor made a creamy dressing with mayonnaise, sour cream, chili sauce, diced pickle, and grated garlic.  I grilled a pork tenderloin and set that on the greens and then added the salsa on top.

It was just spicy enough and the creamy dressing calmed everything down.

I saved the rest of the salsa for chips tomorrow.

Yum.


Bacon Cheese Burgers

It's down to 93° today - we're practically freezing.

I've been wanting to play Italian all week but the weather just hasn't cooperated.  I have serious motivation issues when the thermometer rises above 78°.  I just don't feel like spending time in the kitchen.  I'm going to have to wait until fall, I think.

In the meantime, we still have to eat, so bacon burgers on the barbie, it is.  Cooking bacon on the grill is a lot of fun.  I lay it out on the upper rack and let it slowly cook.  The grease usually flares up so I make sure to watch it, but it really comes out tasty.

Speaking of Italy, there's a dessert I've been wanting to make since first having it in Florence.  It was so good, I actually had it at two different restaurants.  It's thinly-sliced sponge cake drizzled with lemocello, and layered with pastry cream and then topped with meringue.

I haven't found a recipe for the dish and searching the web I keep coming up with variations on Zuppa Iglesse.  I saw it made in a large, deep casserole dish - making many servings.  Most of the one's I'm seeing are actual cakes but the ingredients are right.  I think my dish may just be a variation on it.  We're heading to Point Pleasant for my birthday, so I think I may bring a batch to share with everyone.

In the meantime, rumor has it it's only going to be high 80's tomorrow.  Time to break out the winter coats.

 

 


July 4th Feast

Happy Independence Day.

It's close to a hundred degrees outside.  Definitely grilling weather.

And salad weather.  I've been making salads the past few days in anticipation of today.  Fruit salad, farro salad, bean salad, and today, I made a salad from my youth - Herman's Delicatessen Potato Salad.  Herman's was on Geary Blvd in San Francisco around 7th Avenue.  Naturally, it is long gone - as are all of my favorite food haunts of my youth - but the recipe lives on...

Herman's was right up the street from both Star of the Sea and French Hospital.  All the girls I knew went to Star.  My brother and one sister were born at French.  French is also where my sister-n-law worked as a pharmacist until it was acquired by Kaiser.

But I digress...

It was a busy neighborhood and the deli was busy.

Since I lived on the other side of the park, I really didn't get over to Herman's all that often, but every now and again there'd be a reason to stop.  Growing up, there was Edgewater Delicatessen right up the street from us at 46th & Taraval, and Herb's at 32nd & Taraval.  (A Herby Burpy was made on a full loaf of sourdough french bread!)   Frank & Grace owned Edgewater and would give us salami ends to gnaw on when we were little tykes... Later, there was Dean's on 46th & Noriega... and others, but these stick out, right now.

They all had their own style and specialties, but what sticks out most for me is the potato salad at Herman's.  It was unique at the time because the potatoes were sliced - as for scalloped potatoes - instead of chunked or cubed like most other delis I remember.  And it was more of a sour cream base as opposed to mayonnaise.  And no eggs, pickles, or chopped celery.

**Update April 13, 2017 - I received this recipe from a friend quite a while ago. I originally thought it was the Herman's recipe, but it appears to be an approximation that quite possibly came from another food blog - Canapes and Chocolate. When I emailed this to my friend, today, she said she thought she had gotten it from the newspaper, or someone had given it to her but she really wasn't sure - she was only sure that it wasn't her recipe!!. So... apologies to Claire at Canapes and Chocolate. No slight intended!

Herman's Potato Salad

  • 2 pounds white potatoes
  • 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
  • 1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
  • 1 carrot, shredded
  • 6 radishes, grated
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1/3 cup Mayonnaise
  • 1/8 tsp celery seed
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • salt & pepper, to taste

Peel potatoes, slice into 1/8" thick or so rounds and place in a pot of cold salted water.  Bring to a boil and then simmer until slightly firm but cooked through.

Drain potatoes and spread out on platter – let them cool for about 5 minutes.  While warm, drizzle the vinegar over the potatoes.   Let vinegar soak in for about 10 minutes and then refrigerate until cold.

Combine the sour cream, mayonnaise, and remaining ingredients. When potatoes are cold, gently mix in dressing, being careful not to break up potatoes.

Check for seasoning and add S&P as desired.

Really simple, yet really good.  The shredded radishes really give it a unique flavor and the slight drizzle of vinegar while the potatoes are warm  adds a great back-flavor.  I do have to admit that I still like mine better, but this is a really good deli-style potato salad and made a nice change.

Onto the baked beans...

These are the only baked beans I make, anymore.  They are the best.  My sister made them for their housewarming many moons ago and I've made them ever since.  At one point, chipotles in adobo were so difficult to find here in white-bread-suburbia, that I'd bring a half-dozen cans back with me every time we flew home.  Fortunately, they're becoming less exotic and can now be found in several local supermarkets.

Phoebe’s Baked Beans

  • 1/2  cup minced shallots
  • 1  tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1  tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1/2  cup tomato puree (I use tomato paste – I never have puree in the house!)
  • 1  tablespoon canola oil
  • 1/4  cup honey
  • 1/4  cup cider vinegar
  • 2  tablespoons molasses
  • 1  tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4  teaspoon salt
  • 2  chipotle chiles, canned in adobo sauce, seeded and chopped
  • 2  (28-ounce) cans baked beans

Preheat oven to 300°.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add shallots; sauté 4 minutes or until golden. Add cumin and garlic; sauté for 1 minute. Add tomato puree and oil, and cook for 2 minutes or until thick, stirring constantly. Add remaining ingredients (except beans.). Reduce heat; simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Combine beans and shallot mixture in a 2-quart baking dish. Bake at 300° for 1 hour or until thick and bubbly.

And then we have the ribs...

These were seasoned with chipotle powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  I slow-baked them and then placed them on the grill with BBQ sauce.  Spicy-good!

And then we had the Farro Salad from last night...

The Bean Salad from the night before...

And a fruit salad that I didn't photograph.  It was good, too.

We have lots of leftovers so there's plenty of good eats and no more cooking while the weather continues to soar.

And to top it all off...  Victor made a banana cake and there's not one, not two, not even three, but four different kinds of ice cream in the freezer!

It's good to be prepared for heat waves...


Burgers and Farro Salad

I'm lovin' me some farro!  I tend to like it better as a cold salad, although I've been known to make a mean risotto with it.   Versatile.  that's what I like.

Tonight, it was a simple salad.  This could be made with lentils, beans, rice, pasta, or any combination of the above.  It's just adding chopped vegetables to the grain and adding a bit of oil and vinegar.  Have some fresh herbs?!?  Chop them up and add them.  It's a clean-out-the-refrigerator salad.  Anything will work.

Trust me.

And we had burgers and fruit salad along with it...

The burger was an open-faced concoction sitting on toasted Italian bread with sliced tomatoes, pecorino toscano cheese, and bacon.  Yumlicious.

Tomorrow is going to be even more salads - and ribs.

Can't wait.


Bean Salad

Time to start cooking, again.  Except when it's this hot...  who wants to cook?

That's where canned beans come in handy.  A can of cannellini beans, a can of pink beans, chopped red onion, chopped celery, some frozen peas, herbs from the garden - oregano, basil, and lots of parsley - and a splash of red wine vinegar and olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Five minutes to prepare and enough for several meals.

The new plate is one of our Italy treasures.  We bought a couple of small platters and a nice-sized bowl for pasta or salads - not counting the dinnerware that's being made.  When in Rome...

Food pictures are going to get a lot more colorful...


Reflections on Food...

We’re back.

It was a long, long travel day – but not as long as Phoebe and Nancy and the girls.  When we parted at Philadelphia, they still had a six-hour flight to Oregon.  That would have sent me right over the edge…

It was a bit of a rush to the train station in Florence.  We had a 7am train, but our landlord had to check us out.  Our fabulous 4br/2ba view apartment had a €600,00 deposit we needed back.  I don’t blame him for the deposit.  The apartment is beautiful and he wanted it to remain that way.  Fortunately, he understood our predicament and was there right at 6am, and after a quick check, returned our full deposit and called taxis for us to get us to the train.

With a bit of time to spare, we had our last cornetti e crema.  Those wonderfully-light croissant-like pastries filled with pastry cream.  We had dolce for breakfast every day just like the locals.  At only €1 or less, each, they were a deal.  And delicious.  Of course, that’s the price for take-away or standing at the counter.  There is often a service fee for sitting at a table.  Buying these was a bit of a lesson in and of itself.  Folks are standing, talking, eating right at the counter.  one needs to wiggle themselves in to get the attendants attention.  And please don't spend all day trying to make up your mind.  Others are waiting.

The morning dolce may be the most difficult thing to try and replicate.  I think am going to need to find some real Italian flour – or the closest US flour to it.  It seems like a very delicate cake flour.  I should have tried to pick up a few bags at the local grocery store but didn’t think about it at the time.  There’s probably a rule about carrying it in to the US, anyway…

But the food, the food…

It was truly stellar on every level.  From simple tomatoes to the mozzarella to the various pasta dishes we had – or made – to simple meats and cheeses.  It was spectacular.

There was lots of pizza – thin-crusted, lightly-topped, circles of magic – but, surprisingly, there were always other things that caught my eye.

There were gelato stores everywhere – all made in the store.  And stores selling pastries or sandwiches – often doubling as bars.  The pane, the various Panini – sandwiches – were unbelievably good.  Fast food was fast – and fresh.  It wasn’t made-in-a-factory-somewhere-and-trucked-in.  Made in advance, yes, but on-premise by the people in front of you.  And those people were not ignorant high school kids.  They were adults with a profession.  It’s amazing that one could get a sandwich quickly from an adult for a mere €3 and the store still seemed to make money.

Even out in the country-side away from the tourist centers, the food was locally prepared – inexpensively.

And then there were the grocery stores.  We lucked out.  We had grocery stores within feet of our apartments in Rome and in Florence.  Both were Conad stores - Consorzio Nazionale Dettaglianti – that are part of a national cooperative of entrepreneurs. Stores are independently owned and operated, distribution centers are cooperatives…

The stores are remarkably different than in the US.  First off, the cashier is just that – a cashier.  The customer places the items on the counter – and then bags their purchases.  If you do not have a bag, you buy a bag.  There are no freebies.  We brought a couple with us and got big smiles from the cashiers we dealt with.  On the other hand, not a lot of cashiers were remotely friendly.  I understand there was a language issue, but, a good percentage really didn’t seem to care whether we bought anything or not.

I did have a fun conversation with one young woman in Florence.  I had seen her a couple of times and asked if she spoke English.  She replied a little, and I told her I did her job in the US.  She was amazed that the cashier would have to empty carts, ring things up – and bag into free bags.  Your groceries, your job.

Another thing is produce.  The customer does NOT touch produce with their bare hands.  There are plastic gloves available for handling produce.  It is also weighed and priced at weighing stations – by the customer.  If you bring something up to the cashier without a tag, it is simply set aside.  They do not call out for a price check or look up the price for you.  They are not going to inconvenience the people in line because you did not follow the rules.

And the produce tasted so good.  OMG!  It tasted good. It wasn’t crap that was genetically modified for mechanical factory-farms.  It was real food that was picked at its peak and had a few days shelf-life.  Buy it fresh and eat it today.

Grocery carts were linked together and it took a €2 coin to get one.  You received your coin back when you returned the cart.  Most people used baskets that could either be carried or used on wheels like a small piece of luggage.  People didn’t do shopping with overflowing carts.  They picked up what they needed for the day.  Kids weren’t running amok around the stores.

It was really refreshing to experience. I just kept marveling at how well the system worked.

My two favorite shopping experiences were at the Mercato Centrale in Florence.  A huge food hall filled to bursting with every sort of meat, poultry, seafood, cheese, produce, jam, jelly, and baked product, imaginable.  It was gastronomic heaven.  And I hardly bought anything.  I was just in awe.  It’s the place I want next door to me.

The other was the Antica Caciara in Rome.

Everywhere I looked, I kept seeing how food is honored and respected in Italy – and in Europe.  Coca Cola is made with sugar – and tastes like the wonderful Coke of my youth.  I didn’t see HFCS in ANY product – and I looked.  The reality is, unlike Americans, Italians simply wouldn’t buy it.  Other American-brand products were the same.  Better ingredients for the European market because people in Europe care about what they eat.

Over the years we have gotten better about what we eat, but this trip firmly implanted my resolve to just eat fresher, healthier all of the time.  I’ll spend the extra time to cook because American Convenience is just going to kill me.

And now…  time to start planning the next trip.  I’m thinking about flying into Milan, seeing an opera at La Scalla, and then heading to Sicily and a palazzo overlooking the sea for a couple of weeks.

Time to start saving, again.