briciole: Health

Health

May 09, 2017

roasted chicken, asparagus and avocado salad / insalata di pollo e asparagi arrosto con avocado

an ode to leftovers (avanzi) The current selection of our Cook the Books Club, the autobiography Life from Scratch by Sasha Martin1, got me thinking about writing about tragedy in one's life, about people that hurt you and about cliché. Sometimes I am told that a certain image or expression is cliché and I realize that my lack of awareness is due to the fact that I did not grow up in the US. On the other hand, I may consider a certain image or expression cliché because I read more than the average person, especially more about food. Beyond my... Read more →

Posted by Simona Carini on May 09, 2017 in Books, Everyday, Health, Meat Dish, Recipe, Salad, Vegetable Dish | Permalink | Comments (14)

March 23, 2017

roasted cauliflower with za'atar / cavolfiore arrosto con za'atar

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] it looks plain, it tastes deep When I walk or ride my bike around Berkeley, I stop at some of the Little Free Libraries on my way. In one of them I found The Cost of Living: Early and Uncollected Stories1 by Mavis Gallant2. I didn't know the author, but the blurb on the back cover made me curious, so I put the book in my backpack. The short stories have a common characteristic: tension, sometimes quite high, runs just under the surface and reveals itself in geysers of emotion. I enjoyed... Read more →

Posted by Simona Carini on March 23, 2017 in Books, Consigli, English / italiano, Everyday, Health, Novel Food, Recipe, Side Dish, Vegetable Dish | Permalink | Comments (6)

January 10, 2017

cabbage, roasted salmon and persimmon salad / insalata di cavolo cappuccio, salmone arrosto e cachi mela

the salad looks nice in a Limoges tureen (zuppiera)1 (tablecloth by La FABBRICA del LINO) During winter months, usually soup is on the table more often than salad. This year, however, I am having an intense relationship with raw cabbage. It's not that I discovered it, but I've been reminded how much I like a salad of finely shredded cabbage, and how much I enjoy playing with it, adding various ingredients and tasting the results. One such ingredient recently has been pan-roasted salmon, prepared according to the recipe2 in Jessica Fechtor's memoir Stir3, the current selection of our Cook the Books... Read more →

Posted by Simona Carini on January 10, 2017 in Books, Everyday, Fish Dish, Health, Recipe, Salad, Special Event, Vegetable Dish | Permalink | Comments (20)

November 28, 2016

Purgatory bean salad with tahini sauce and Asian pear / insalata di fagioli del Purgatorio con tahina e pera asiatica

Flavors from around the world Federico García Lorca1 is one of my favorite poets, so when I came across a novel whose protagonist's name was Lorca, I had to read it: I am glad I followed my impulse. Jessica Soffer's Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots2 is the current selection of our Cook the Books Club. The book brings together a group of people who all carry a heavy burden of pain: the pain of exile from homeland and from motherhood, the pain of an aloof mother and an absent father, the pain of loneliness, abandonment, inadequacy. Food is one way through... Read more →

Posted by Simona Carini on November 28, 2016 in Books, Everyday, Health, Legume Dish, My Legume Love Affair, Recipe, Special Event, Spice & Condiment | Permalink | Comments (14)

October 21, 2016

sweet peppers with onion and zucchini / peperoni dolci con cipolle e zucchine

a skillet of goodies (tablecloth by La FABBRICA del LINO) In the bookstore ostensibly to get a guidebook, I stumbled on Norwegian by Night by Derek. B. Miller1. Anything related to Norway (Norvegia) gets my attention. A quick look at the book jacket made me decide to purchase it. I started reading it and the story grabbed me right away. One one level it is a crime story, set in Oslo. On another level it is the story of an elderly man coming to terms with his life, in particular the death of his only son in the Vietnam War. And... Read more →

Posted by Simona Carini on October 21, 2016 in Books, Everyday, Health, Novel Food, Recipe, Side Dish, Vegetable Dish | Permalink | Comments (3)

September 28, 2016

eggs nested in leafy green vegetables / uova in nidi di verdura

simple, rustic and richly good Restarting where I left off. In a recent post I shared the recipe for Cranberry Beans with Rhubarb1. Here I will talk about the leafy greens you saw in that post's photos. a deeply flavored dish, though maybe not photogenic (tablecloth by La FABBRICA del LINO) The current Cook the Books selection, The Secret Book of Frida Kahlo by F. G. Haghenbeck, made me think a lot about what we need/want to know about an artist's life. In this case it is actually two artists: Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. My encounter with the work of... Read more →

Posted by Simona Carini on September 28, 2016 in Books, Egg Dish, Everyday, Health, Novel Food, Recipe, Special Event, Vegetable Dish | Permalink | Comments (14)

September 14, 2016

slow-roasted heirloom tomato gazpacho / gazpacho di pomodori semisecchi al forno

bright colors and flavors (napkin by La FABBRICA del LINO) A soup lover like me1 was excited to get a copy of Soup Swap: Comforting Recipes to Make and Share2 the new cookbook by Kathy Gunst3, Resident Chef for NPR's "Here and Now." If the idea of hosting or attending a Soup Swap Party sounds appealing is because it is: the book provides suggestions and tips for a successful event. Rest assured, though: you don't need to be planning a party to enjoy the book. Its recipes are dedicated to soup lovers of all sizes and flavors: they include vegetarian, vegan,... Read more →

Posted by Simona Carini on September 14, 2016 in Appetizer, Books, Everyday, Health, Recipe, Soup, Traditional Dish | Permalink | Comments (9)

July 31, 2016

rhubarb and berbere cranberry beans / borlotti con rabarbaro e berbere

garden flavors (tablecloth by La FABBRICA del LINO) Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather start a catering company in Dublin, Ireland, and in so doing bring together the large cast of characters in Maeve Binchy's novel Scarlet Feather, the current selection of our Cook the Books Club. Such cast includes the protagonists' families, spouse and spouse's family (for Cathy), girlfriend (for Tom), friends, clients and more. While some characters have more elements on the negative plate of the scale than on the positive, all of them have something on both, and the story for me is about how even well-intentioned, generous, good... Read more →

Posted by Simona Carini on July 31, 2016 in Books, Everyday, Health, Legume Dish, Recipe, Special Event | Permalink | Comments (14)

June 14, 2016

celery omelette / omelette con sedano

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] celery omelette topped with some mashed avocado (tablecloth by La FABBRICA del LINO) Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson called out at me from a table at a library book sale and just like the country in which is it set, Norway, it grabbed me immediately. The sky, the woods, the water, everything is expansive in Norway, majestic, yet quiet. Petterson's prose is like that. Life's familiar themes—friendship, love, loss, betrayal, coming of age, aging—play a role in the story of Trond Sander, the 67-year-old protagonist. I imagined to be sitting in... Read more →

Posted by Simona Carini on June 14, 2016 in Books, Breakfast, Consigli, Egg Dish, English / italiano, Everyday, Health, Novel Food, Recipe | Permalink | Comments (6)

May 22, 2016

gluten-free seed crackers / cracker di semi (senza glutine)

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano] cheese, seed crackers and red walnuts1 (table runner by La FABBRICA del LINO) Please, have your cake or pie and eat my portion too. I am happy with the small plate in the photo. The cheeses are (from the left): Garroxta (goat milk, Catalonia), my homemade Gouda with pecans, Blu di Caravaggio (buffalo milk, Italy; my favorite blue cheese). And the crackers are a perfect accompaniment for all of them. sesame, pumpkin, sunflower, chia and hemp seeds (semi di sesamo, di zucca, di girasole, di chia e di canapa) The current selection... Read more →

Posted by Simona Carini on May 22, 2016 in Appetizer, Baking, Books, Consigli, English / italiano, Everyday, Health, Recipe, Special Event | Permalink | Comments (14)