In Aosta
In Aosta for the weekend!!
June, 2008
Buddhist Teaching of the Day
“If the problem can be solved, why worry? If the problem cannot be solved, worrying will be of no help.”
(The 1st flowering zinnia planted at the beginning of February and now 1 yard tall!)
Surprise Zucchino!
It’s been raining for weeks. When I went out into the garden I found this huge zucchino. I just wasn’t expecting it. We promptly turned it into dinner.
Sensitivity Plant
I bought a sensitivity plant at the grocery store last week. It reminds me of my grandma (on my Mom’s side). When I was little and we went to visit, she used to take the plant down from the windowsill and let me touch it. After living together for a week now, I can say that this definitely rivals having a dog — in the sense that at least this is a plant that you can interact with a little.
See the sensitivity plant in action! (video loading below…)
Discovery of the Month
Ok folks, questa è senza dubio la scoperta del mese!! I’ve been clueless for so long, but this week I discovered Save-a-Lot Italia! And it’s right on my way home from work. Double score. I needed raisins for the Moroccan Chicken Couscous recipe I wanted to try and was not looking forward to the big grocery store experience during grocery rush hour.
So in the desperation of the moment, I pulled into the sketchy DICO parking lot, praying for raisins. Not only did they have raisins, but they had CHEAP raisins and cheap everything! You can only imagine my excitement – I got a loaf of bread, six 2-liter bottles of sparkling water, a bag of raisins, and a pair of tweezers –all for a grand total of €4.28!! Do you understand the savings?!
The Moroccan Chicken Couscous was quick, easy and really good! It was from the Parents.com newsletter. I enjoy the Parents.com weekly newsletter, even though I’m not a parent. I tried their Banana Ginger cookies the other night too. The flavor combination intruiged me and I had a blackening banana that was starting to make friends with the neighborhood fruit flies. The cookies weren’t bad, just kind of weird; creaming method without eggs. I made half the recipe, and put milk chocolate chunks in some of the cookies. The lemon glaze was really lemony thanks to our awesome lemons from our neighbors by the sea house. But I think I’ll make banana chocolate chip muffins the next time I have rotting bananas around.
Cravings
This month I crave. I crave The Rock. I crave Golden Grahams. I crave Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I crave being around people that know me. I crave having a conversation in English.
You may be wondering how I deal with these cravings. Well, I’ve been eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich for lunch everyday this month and making some seriously old-school recipes from the Alpha Bakery Cookbook, in particular Veggie Bites (try the recipe!) and Lemon Squares. The Veggie Bites, which I made to stuzzicare (munch on) before a dinner party, were a big hit, as always. Unfortunately (depending on your point of view), the Lemon Squares didn’t go over real big and I ended up eating the entire batch myself. I don’t know what’s with Italians and their lack of appreciation for American desserts. I feel they need to get used to spices and sugar. At least the ones that live with me!