I picked this in the U-pick section of our CSA this week. I’ve never had them before and never heard of them before either! They are also called ground cherries. Inside that brown husk is a tiny fruit that is like a small cherry tomato. It’s almost like a cross between a cherry and a tomato in flavor. Some of them are quite sweet, while others are sour, which I find perplexing, because I’m not really able to tell which will be which!

We only have a small amount of these, so we’re eating them raw, but I think they would make a really nice quick sauce for pasta if you cooked a bunch of them down with some olive oil.

Have you tried husk cherries?

I picked this in the U-pick section of our CSA this week. I’ve never had them before and never heard of them before either! They are also called ground cherries. Inside that brown husk is a tiny fruit that is like a small cherry tomato. It’s almost like a cross between a cherry and a … Read more →

Check out my second guest post on My Itchy Travel Feet about buying unique and special mementos on your travels.

Check out my second guest post on My Itchy Travel Feet about buying unique and special mementos on your travels.

Spaghetti Frutti Mari

A huge part of our trip to Italy was the food. I have a friend who lived in Italy until he was 13 and who has returned many times. He told me the food is just fresher tasting there. I knew that Italian pizza is different than the corner pizzeria and I read up on local specialties of the areas we were going to visit. I was prepared (such a sacrifice) to eat several courses at dinner. I thought I knew what to expect. I had no idea how incredible the food was going to be.

Today I begin the highlights of our culinary journey. Today’s post is about Venice, the city I lost my heart to. It’s pedestrian only streets, glorious canals, romantic bridges, and cozy campos were the stuff of fantasy. Fortunately, so also was the food!

Our first meal in Venice was confusing. We were jetlagged and not used to the extreme

Our first Italian gnocchi

heat. We needed to eat and it didn’t matter where or what. We had sandwiches and salads a place in a campo near the Rialto. It was meant to merely be fuel. It instead was stunning. The salad was lettuce, tomato, and fresh corn (this was a constant in the salads we had all over Italy and it was always wonderful) with oil and vinegar dressing (the only kind in Italy). The salami sandwich was out of this world with delicious thin bread and flavorful salami. I knew right away that Italy was going to work out! Our first meal was next to the Grand Canal at the Ristorante Floridian. Spaghetti Fruitti Mari, gnocchi and caprese salad were all stunners. The seafood in the pasta was a wonderful mix of shellfish and fish and all of it was fresh. The gnocchi was tender and perfect. The caprese (first of many) was fresh and bright.

Tartuffo at Caffe Florian

On day two in Venice we had lunch at the Caffe Florian, the oldest cafe in Piazza San Marco, dating from 1720. I think the waiters might have been around then too (that’s an interesting point about Italy: the waiters are all older, distinguished Italian gentlemen for whom this is a respected career OR they are Asian or Indian immigrants). You sit at the chairs in the square and an orchestra (4 dudes, not really an orchestra) play music. The menu is ancient. We enjoyed some sandwiches (club sandwiches and a ham on croissant). We had to have dessert and worked our way through an amazing tartuffo, a lovely plate

Italian cookies at Caffe Florian

of cookies (where in the U.S. are cookies on the dessert menu? NOWHERE. WHY NOT?) and a dish of fruit and ice cream. Your food arrives on a tray which balances on a tiny table. It was an experience to sit in this beautiful, gigantic square, facing San Marco and eat. It was particularly interesting, because the summer before this we went to Vegas and had lunch in the pretend Piazza San Marco at the Venetian hotel, after a gondola ride on their pretend canal! Let me just say, the real thing is much better!

That night we dined at Ristorante Giorgione, next door to our hotel (this turned out to be their last night before closing for the summer holiday, so we got lucky). Some items that graced our table: baby scallops with polenta, farfalle with lamb ragu, sea

Baby scallops

bream, and sea bass. The seafood was all excellent. The baby scallops were delightful. Usually when you get them in the States, they have been frozen and overcooked, making them like little balls of gum. These were tender and sweet. The sea bream was light and moist and  a

Delightful sea bream

true joy.

The third day was our last in Venice and we dined well! We had lunch on the island of Murano, at Al Vetrai, along the main street of glass shops. Again, I had a salad (Insalata Mediterranea), and again it was stupendous. When you think of a good salad here at home, it generally means one that is filled with lots of things like meat, cheese, olives, croutons, garbanzo beans. In Italy, the salads are simpler and come out as an explosion of color and all of the vegetables taste like they came right out of the fields. There was no brown or wilted lettuce and there were definitely no unripe tomatoes. This salad had shrimp and mozzarella on it. Dressing was a bottle of olive oil and one of balsamic vinegar. Perfect. Other dishes at the table for that lunch included a fish lasagna, traditional lasagna, and a fried

Insalata Mediterranean

seafood plate. The seafood plate was so full it was falling off the plate and was far more than one person could eat.  The lasagnas were much like lasagna here at home, with spinach in them, a rich sauce and a deeply browned top. Each piece was about the size of an index card and about three inches thick.

Later that day we enjoyed macarons at a shop near San Marco. This little shop had a whole case of macarons, as well as candy

Huge fried seafood platter

and gelato. The macarons were light and airy and a perfect little pick-me-up for the afternoon. This was also our first experience with the granita, essentially a slushy. They’re sold all over Italy, sometimes in really fun flavors, like melon. My son had many of these throughout the trip and they were perfect when you needed something cold (which we did just about every day!) but didn’t want the richness of gelato. Mostly, these were sweet but once in a while you would get one that was on the sour side, so it was a bit unexpected. The lemon ones were almost always sour.

Our dinner that night was one of the most memorable. A La Veccia Cavanna was in the same general area as our hotel, essentially right behind it. We walked in

Granita

and knew this was the real deal. The restaurant had awards and signed photos all over the walls. It is a family-owned place that appeared to have been in business more than 50 years. The walls were simply covered with proclamations and art

Macarons in the afternoon

that seemed to have been created by an owner or family member.  There were autographs from Italian celebs. The lighting was dim. The tables were big. The waiter was clearly a family member (they all showed the family resemblance in the photos, so we knew!). There was an amazing first course buffet we could have had (with a huge ham hock of prosciutto), but didn’t. The food was stupendous. Everyone got a free bellini and everyone sipped it. My husband and I just do not care for alcohol, but enjoyed a few sips of this lovely fizzy peach beverage (our 20 year old

Tortelloni

daughter was kind enough to finish them off for us!). Even the 14-year-old thought they were pretty good.

Dinner included: big ravioli (called tortolloni), tagliolini with lobster, beef carpaccio, beef tenderloin with wild mushrooms, sole menuiere, and spaghetti with clams.  The ravioli were very thin and delicate. The tagliolini with lobster was one of our top dishes in all of Italy. At the time I announced it was the best thing I had ever eaten (I think I said this about once a day). The beef tenderloin had a completely different texture than the beef here

Spaghetti with clams

at home. We must talk about the potatoes that came with it.

Beef tenderloin with the world’s best potatoes

This was our first experience with Italian potatoes and they are on my “must learn how to make list.” At almost every meal, we had a dish that came with potatoes. They are cubed and roasted, but they are superbly soft and tender on the inside and crazily crispy on the outside. I’ve got to experiment with roasting them at high temps to see if I can replicate it. I’ve simply never had potatoes that good.

The sole was deboned at the table and was very lemony and

5 Star Tagliolini

delicate. We also had dessert at this wonderful restaurant: tiramisu (invented in Venice, so it was a must!), lemon torte with chocolate chips, and a cream filled cake. A complementary plate of cookies also arrived (we might not have ordered so many desserts had we known). We overate that night and didn’t regret it for a second. We felt welcomed and

cared for in this homey and warm restaurant that truly did make you feel like “when you’re here, you’re family” (now I know why Olive Garden commercials say that!). I didn’t want to leave.

Venetian tiramisu

I have one more food experience to share with you from Venice: the stores. We drooled at many a window and went into a grocery store. Now, keep in mind that there are no cars in Venice. If you live there, you carry your groceries on foot or by vaporetto. I saw many Italian women with little wheeled bags with their groceries in them. The pasta aisle was the biggest thing in the small grocery store. In a shop with about 6 aisles, it was one entire aisle. Clearly there was a need to fill there!

Venice was a food lover’s dream and I particularly loved that there was magnificent seafood and equally terrific pasta everywhere. I could eat in Venice every day of my life I think.

More dining posts to come. What did we eat in Florence, Rome, and Sorrento? How much weight did we gain? What was the stellar dish of the trip? Were we convinced to try more alcohol? Stay tuned to find out!

Temptation everywhere

Delectable sweets in windows

More types of canned fish than you can imagine

Pasta aisle

A huge part of our trip to Italy was the food. I have a friend who lived in Italy until he was 13 and who has returned many times. He told me the food is just fresher tasting there. I knew that Italian pizza is different than the corner pizzeria and I read up on … Read more →

I am sure my readers in large cities will find this to be old hat, but here in Buffalo, Ethiopian food is news. We actually now have three Ethiopian restaurants in town, so we decided to try one. The place we visited is called Lucy’s (they have no web site) and it is a tiny little storefront with 10 tables. We waited a while for a table and then threw ourselves on the mercy of our server, explaining we had never had Ethiopian food and some of us could not eat spicy food and some of us could not eat peppers of any kind.

He made some suggestions and we ordered. The food comes out on a giant tray (the size of trays servers in restaurants usually carry). On the bottom of the tray is a huge crepe, that is very light and airy, called injera. Injera is traditionally made from tef (a type of grass) flour. I don’t know what ours was made of, but it seemed to resemble buckwheat in color, if not in flavor. The food is placed in piles on top of the injera. You are given no silverware. The idea is to rip off a piece of injera and use it to pick up pieces of food. We had a beef stew, some pieces of lamb, a lamb shank, tomatoes, collard greens, carrots with cabbage, carrots with green beans, potato with carrot, cheese, and a cumin sauce. Everything was excellent. The lamb shank was spicy however. The beef stew was very tender. The lamb pieces were cooked perfectly and very tender as well. All the vegetables were tasty and the cumin sauce was a nice accompaniment to everything.

It’s a fun way to eat, and fortunately there was a big pile of napkins. Even my 14-year-old son enjoyed it and he can be picky. If there is an Ethiopian restaurant near you, I suggest you give it a try.

I am sure my readers in large cities will find this to be old hat, but here in Buffalo, Ethiopian food is news. We actually now have three Ethiopian restaurants in town, so we decided to try one. The place we visited is called Lucy’s (they have no web site) and it is a tiny … Read more →

I’m giving away a copy of Handwritten Recipes: A Bookseller’s Collection of Curious and Wonderful Recipes Forgotten Between the Pages by Michael Popek, published by Perigee. This is a really fun book. A used bookseller collected recipes he found stuck in the pages of used books in his shop.  For each recipe, he includes a photo of the actual handwritten recipe that he found, the book it was found in, as well as a typeset version of the recipe for easy use. Some of the recipes include photos of the results. It’s a fun and quirky collection and one I enjoyed, kind of like poking through someone’s personal recipe collection.

The book was sent to me for review by the publisher without any expectations or requirements.

To enter, leave a comment on this post. You must enter by midnight ET on Thursday October 4, 2012. I’ll randomly and blindly select the winner by random number drawing (numbers assigned in order of comments here). Sorry, offer limited to U.S. addresses only and entrants age 18 and up only. One entry per person. Winners notified by email given when entering; not responsible for email transmission problems or postal delivery problems or failures. You are responsible for notifying me of your correct mailing address if you are selected as a winner. Contest closes at midnight Eastern time on 10/4/12. Prize is nontransferable and may not be redeemed for cash. I reserve the right to announce the name of the winner on the blog.

I’m giving away a copy of Handwritten Recipes: A Bookseller’s Collection of Curious and Wonderful Recipes Forgotten Between the Pages by Michael Popek, published by Perigee. This is a really fun book. A used bookseller collected recipes he found stuck in the pages of used books in his shop.  For each recipe, he includes a … Read more →

I’m starting to think about fall food as the weather is beginning to change. This recipe was really easy to put together, but packed a lot of flavor. It cooks in under an hour, so it works even on a weeknight.

Pork with Sweet Potatoes and Apples

1 pork tenderloin

2 large apples, quartered

2 sweet potatoes, cut into 2-inch slices or chunks

2 large garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

1 small onion, peeled and thinly sliced

10 fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped

1 tbsp fresh thyme

salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup apple cider

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 400. Spray a roasting pan or glass baking pan (about 13×8) and place the pork tenderloin in it. Arrange the apples and sweet potatoes around the pork. Sprinkle the garlic, onions, sage, thyme, and salt and pepper over everything. Pour cider and vinegar into pan. Bake uncovered for about 45-50 minutes, until the pork is 140 degrees.

If you want to make gravy, remove pork and veggies from the pan and place the pan on a burner. Add 1 cup chicken broth and enough Wondra flour to thicken to your tastes (I like my gravy thick!) and cook over high, stirring or whisking constantly until it thickens.

I’m starting to think about fall food as the weather is beginning to change. This recipe was really easy to put together, but packed a lot of flavor. It cooks in under an hour, so it works even on a weeknight. Pork with Sweet Potatoes and Apples 1 pork tenderloin 2 large apples, quartered 2 … Read more →

I bought these polka dot mugs in Italy and they make my mornings so happy! I have a thing for polka dots; I have a whole board on Pinterest with polka dot items.  Polka dots make me so happy. They are round and bubbly and cheerful. I once had a white t-shirt that had tiny little polka dots around the bottom hem. I slaved over that t-shirt, to keep it clean and white looking so I could wear it over and over again!

I usually like to buy things while traveling that are unique to that region or that depict or bring to mind the area. This time though, I bought these mugs just because I HAD to have them. I passed them in a shop window near our hotel every day in Sorrento. On our last day, I decided I needed them. The shop was closed! I almost cried. Fortunately it was just closed for the afternoon and was open again that evening when we walked by.

I bought these polka dot mugs in Italy and they make my mornings so happy! I have a thing for polka dots; I have a whole board on Pinterest with polka dot items.  Polka dots make me so happy. They are round and bubbly and cheerful. I once had a white t-shirt that had tiny … Read more →

I got my final batch of tomatoes from the CSA, so I’m going to be officially done with tomatoes as soon as they are gone. Here’s an incredibly simple end-of-summer side dish to use up your last batch!

Pan-Fried Tomatoes with Feta and Basil

Slice your tomato into slices that are between 1/4 inch and a 1/2 inch thick. Mix one egg with a dash of water. Dip each slice in the egg wash, then in breadcrumbs. Place in a pan that has been coated with olive oil. Fry over medium high heat until browned, then flip. On the top of the tomatoes, place one basil leaf and a sprinkling of feta. When the tomato is brown on the bottom, serve.

How do you like to use up those last tomatoes of the season?

I got my final batch of tomatoes from the CSA, so I’m going to be officially done with tomatoes as soon as they are gone. Here’s an incredibly simple end-of-summer side dish to use up your last batch! Pan-Fried Tomatoes with Feta and Basil Slice your tomato into slices that are between 1/4 inch and … Read more →

I’ve recently realized that I’ve unintentionally taken the last year and really worked to take care of myself. I’ve spent years focusing on taking care of everyone else: grandparents, parents, children, husband, dogs, clients. etc. Like most women, I was at the bottom of my own list. Things have changed as I’ve gotten older (ok, I’m not THAT old) and I have retooled my priorities a bit and it has made a huge difference in my life.

Exercise

A year ago, I started going to a weekly yoga and a weekly Pilates class with my daughter. Honestly, both almost killed me in the beginning. I couldn’t walk without pain and I hurt in places I didn’t know I could hurt. Slowly though, I realized the classes made me feel strong, energized, and in control of my own body. I am by no means athletic, and there are still many things I can barely do in those classes, but I keep going. Some weeks I hate it, but I never regret that I went. Even when my daughter is unable to go, I still go, but having her go in the beginning was a great incentive to me.

I started swimming in a lap pool last winter and plan to do it again this winter. I love swimming as exercise, but have to be careful to go not more than once a week because I get a rash from the chemicals in the water.

I’ve walked for years and I continue to do that. In the summer, I also add kayaking to my list of exercise. What has really helped me get daily exercise is learning to think of it not as exercise, but as something fun I like to do. Then I am motivated to keep going.

Personal Care

I am not someone who is big on lotions, potions, creams, gels, makeup, etc. Daily moisturizer with sunscreen in it and some eyeliner and I’m out the door. Lately though, I’ve been trying to add a night cream to my regimen because my face just feels better when I do. And I think that I deserve to have skin that feels nice.

Electric Toothbrush

I finally, finally bought an electric toothbrush for myself (everyone else in the house has had them for years) because I was willing to do anything to reduce the problems I have had with my teeth. And I switched from the 90 year old dentist I had gone to all my life to a new dentist that has TVs, blankets and warm wet cloths to wipe your face.

Dumping Bad Doctors

Why am I going to see someone I can’t understand, is nasty to me, or is unpleasant? I shouldn’t be and because of this, I overhauled my doctors and got new ones to replace the bad ones. I don’t dread those appointments anymore and that has made me feel happier.

Acupuncture

I started going to acupuncture about 4 months ago when I felt overwhelmed by an undiagnosed health problem. I also had a laundry list of small health things that were nothing huge, but together added up. I was very skeptical about acupuncture and in the beginning did not enjoy it. However, four months later, I can say that it has changed my life. Not only did it reduce pain, help me heal, and overcome some health problems, but it makes me feel fantastic. I feel rested and energized from it.

Aside from the actual acupuncture process itself, I’ve gotten two other big benefits. My acupuncturist is a professor of Oriental medicine and a diplomat in the field. I trust her implicitly and she has suggested herbal and nutritional remedies that have helped me tremendously. Because this is one of those areas where you never quite know if you can believe what you read online, I like having someone with knowledge in this field that I can talk to. She also is skilled in medical massage and has fixed a pulled neck muscle and a sore hip.

The other benefit is more personal. My acupuncture appointment is the one hour a week that is only about me. It is an hour devoted to healing, restoring, and energizing me. It is also a time when I can think and talk holistically about my health and my body. It is all connected and talking to my acupuncturist each week about what is happening in my body has made me feel so much more tuned in to what my body is telling me and how it is reacting to what I put in it. I also find it very important to take the time and have someone focus on ME. Husband, friends, family all love me and care for me, but it is not the same as having someone focus all their energies on your needs in a concentrated way once a week. The entire process feeling healing and uplifting to me.

Nutritionist

My acupuncturist referred me to a holistic nutritionist who helped pinpoint some nutritional and mineral deficiencies in my diet and also made some recommendations about foods to cut out. I’ve recently added in some supplements and removed some foods based on those recommendations but it is too early to report if they have helped me.

Picky Eating

This year I also decided that I will no longer eat things I don’t like. So this means that if I don’t like the pie at a dinner party, I will not eat it. If I don’t want to eat the crust on my sandwich, I do not. I’m not required to clean my plate or eat to make other people happy and that has been a very freeing decision for me.

Saying No

I have really been working on saying no. I turned down a book contract because I just wasn’t comfortable with the angle they wanted me to take. I said no to a speaking engagement that I just didn’t want to do. My friend, the brilliant Alisa Bowman, recently told me that I have to stop “should”-ing myself and she’s right, so I’ve really been making an effort to stop doing things I feel I “should” do, but don’t really want to.

As part of my just say no campaign, I’ve made an effort to simply not engage with people who are negative. I don’t want to waste my time or energy dealing with that kind of energy, so I simply do not. This can be hard when some of those people are family members, but I am working at it. I absolutely will not deal with it online in any way.

Saying Yes

I’ve started to think “if not now, when?” about a lot of things. We hope to have many years to travel and do the things we enjoy, but the fact is, life is finite. My parents expected to have years after retirement to do these things and my father is now about to undergo a second back surgery after more than a year of having very little mobility. They aren’t even in their 70s. While it is important to plan and save for the future, it is also important that we find joy today, right now, and do the things we enjoy because who knows how long we will have to do them? Because of this, my husband and I are working hard to make room in our lives for fun. We’re saying yes to things we might not have a few years ago, and we are feeling as though we enjoy life much more now.

Many of these changes are things I simply could not have done 10 years ago. There is no way I could have found 3 hours a week for yoga, Pilates, and acupuncture when I had a child in preschool. We also could not have afforded it. I do think that if I could have added even one of these a week to my life back then, it would have helped. But I wasn’t at a place in my life where I was able to focus on caring for myself. I really believe that is something that comes as your life changes and your kids get older. There is simply more time to focus on yourself and you also start to realize that you have the right to make your life into what you want it to be. I’m still learning, but the changes I’ve made in the past year have been so helpful to me.

What do you do for yourself?

I’ve recently realized that I’ve unintentionally taken the last year and really worked to take care of myself. I’ve spent years focusing on taking care of everyone else: grandparents, parents, children, husband, dogs, clients. etc. Like most women, I was at the bottom of my own list. Things have changed as I’ve gotten older (ok, … Read more →

I’ve got a guest post up on Donna Hull’s amazing travel site, My Itchy Travel Feet with advice and tips about how to find unique souvenirs on your travels that will make excellent mementos. I hope you will check it out!

I’ve got a guest post up on Donna Hull’s amazing travel site, My Itchy Travel Feet with advice and tips about how to find unique souvenirs on your travels that will make excellent mementos. I hope you will check it out!