Rome

Ok so the overnight train is definitely not my favorite way to travel. Jake says I was snoozing on the tray table (elegant!) and I know I wasn't sleeping much later on, fully clothed, on my bunk. Then we transferred trains in Milan at 5:45 am - ugh. When we finally got settled on the final leg of the trip the sunrise and countryside views from the train windows as we made our way to Rome were gorgeous, making up for the rest of the journey!
We cabbed from Roma Termini at about 9 am to Piazza Venezia to pick up Will (my good friend Cynthia's son, he's in for a few months finishing high school on line, living with her) so he can guide the cabbie to our condo. Cynthia has invited us to stay with her and Will but first her other guests have to leave (more on them later); therefore C's found us an adorable 2 day rental, just about 3 blocks from her apartment on the Piazza Venezia. We are in the heart of Rome! Trevi Fountain right around the corner! Our condo has a very modern bathroom, great shower and, bien sur, a bidet. Exposed beams in the lofted bedroom. We feel very lucky to be so well connected and, even tho I've never been to Rome I feel right at home.
We shower and Jake goes exploring - I have to do some work and take advantage of a decent internet connection. He reports back that there is no dearth of souvenir stands and tourists, but also plenty of restaurants and cafes - altho not as many as in Paris.
For dinner we are invited to dine at Cynthia's with Will and Tomas and Monica. Tomas is a Czech that did some carpentry in Shaker Hts at Cynthia's home here in the states. They have stayed in touch and he and Monica and her 2 daughters (none of the 3 speak English) are visiting Rome. Tomas is a real character and we all hit it off immediately. He's brought slovovitz - a Czech version of moonshine, and homemade pickles to share and, along with delicious appetizers of sliced sausage, cheese, olives, cherry tomatoes and peppers we begin to feast and communicate in broken English and sign language. Lots of laughs and lots of fun. C's prepared chicken pot pie for the main dish and we stuff ourselves on a home cooked meal! We toast, several times with Limoncello , having moved on from the moonshine. Ice cream with truffled honey for dessert. Have I mentioned how much I love this European lifestyle!!?? A long, slow, wonderful meal with old and new friends. And we can walk "home" to boot.
xxoo La

Chic Eating - How to Start

A yahoo group I've belonged to forever recently had some posts about clean pantries
and more frequent, but less acquisitive, stops at the market. We been thru this before on that group (french chic) and it's understandable as this is one of the cornerstones of a healthy, chic way of relating to food. Lean pantry, eat seasonally,
realistic portions, unprocessed foods - all building blocks of your personal chic culinary lifestyle, one that will satisfy your mouth and your soul. Wow, who knew. Anyway I also love that it is thriftier (yes,despite costlier organics etc) and just a superior way to conduct yourself (earth consciousness, the whole picture).
You've got to clean that refrigerator out. First timers must take every single item out, wipe the fridge clean, and sort and restock, wiping down the condiment bottles as before returning to their shelves. I try to do this a few times a year- seasonally seems right, and once you do it, and you keep a sparse, clean fridge, it's not too time consuming. First timers - for you it is tho, almost certainly. So worth the effort.
As you go make a list of what you need to eat asap and what you need to replace.
You can make some quick menus from these items. Today I had 1 1/2 lemons (squeezed them right into the existing, summer-fridge omnipresent pitcher of lemonade). One cooked chicken breast and 2 hard boiled eggs - made a quick bowl of chicken salad adding some celery and green grapes. Get the picture? "yes, we see".

Don't forget the freezer. And the dry pantry of course.

The pantry basics, well you can find lists everywhere and you will want to make it
'your own' anyway. The flavors of jelly, the particular spices, what sort of mustard you enjoy - this is what not only makes all sorts of delicious sustenance easy for you to prepare daily - it is your way of treating yourself to what you love! Pick what rocks your world! Experiment! What do YOU like? Indulge yourself here. Condiments are the accessories of your pantry and, as we chics know, accessories are essential, fun and can make or break it.

Off to pick some golden raspberries for the yogurt that needs to be eaten up. It was my first attempt in years to make homemade. And it is delicious, thick Greek style stuff. Maybe I'll post about that process...
La

Dandy salad

Yesterday I harvested the small dandelions growing in our yard. I didn't realize until I was working at it that the nice rain we had overnight was making it very easy to pry my screwdriver-like tool into the base of the plant and pull it out. I shook off the dirt and collected about a quart sized baggie of plants. Inside I cut the roots off and put the greens and any small unopened buds into the salad spinner with a teaspoon of vinegar (standard veggie washing procedure here) and swished thru,
picking out any grass etc. After rinsing and spinning I put the greens into the fridge to crisp up a bit. For dinner I had a bed of lightly dressed greens with a salmon filet on top. Very good! Pricey mesclun mix contains dandelion greens and so I had a 'gourmet' meal for a frugal cost. Bonus: the American side of me liked the fast that I "weeded" the yard while the Eurochic side enjoyed the foraging/frugal/healthy benefits!

AN ALDI PRIMER

To begin my little series on Aldi here is some background on the store. Primarily a grocery store, Aldi is a European company based in Germany. Aldi has been operating in Europe for some time, but is fairly new to the U.S. The same company owns Trader Joe's, and many in the U.S. are familiar with their wonderful (and thoughtful - no high fructose corn syrup!) assortment of foodstuffs. Aldi (like Trader Joe's) concentrates on food, and also sells cleaning products (laundry and dish detergent), paper products (plates, toilet tissue etc.) and personal items (shampoo, soap, body lotion, feminine hygiene etc.)but Aldi also has weekly specials that have run from slow cookers to men's work boots to 400 thread count sheets (at $35!!)in the 3 years I have been shopping there.
I am an informed consumer,a foodie, a label reader who eats well and I love this store. The prices are very low and this is not because of inferior product but the structure of the entire process. For example, at Aldi there is only one brand of saltine cracker. This is the Aldi brand and the crackers are of the highest quality (obviously outsourced from a major producer as Aldi is not a food manufacturer). Offering only the Aldi house brand means lower prices. I have done my grocery shopping almost exclusively at Aldi for years, have never been disappointed in the food and love the savings! Before Aldi I shopped at 2 markets that are considered very nice - and I don't miss them at all.
Be aware that you need a quarter to unlock a shopping cart, but you will be refunded when you return the cart to the corral. At Aldi you bag your own groceries($avings!) but here's my tip on that: grab a few banana boxes while shopping (they are sturdy and have handles built in) and keep them in the trunk of your vehicle. After checkout - which is super fast, they are timed on this - take your cart to your car and unload (no bags!) sorting as you go. When you get home it's sort of like an old movie: groceries delivered in a box AND the stuff is sorted for putting away. Go on try the fresh mozzarella, dark chocolate bars or the chibatta bread and tell me this is 'generic, inferior' food. I dare you.
Do not be afraid of Aldi.
Disclaimer: I am not employed by or paid by or anything by Aldi. I am just a foodie on a budget who is happy that they are in my heighborhood.
And now they have begun shelving their Lacura line of cosmetics - which I will review in this series.

Potager Prizes redux

Here is an old draft I forgot to post in August.

My garden bounty of zucchini and tomatoes has brought me much closer to these 2 vegetables. We've eaten much of the zucchini, picked very small, raw with hummus or sauteed in omelets.

Now we've graduated to large, diagonally sliced discs which I've dredged in salted and peppered flour and fried in canola or roasted with olive oil and coarse sea salt, maybe some onions in there too, or thinly sliced potato. All you need is a piece of good bread, maybe some cheese, a glass of wine and what a delicious meal. I've consumed the tomatoes raw in salsa tossed with roasted peppers and garlic and onion. Or roasted in oil and salt and slipped from their skins, what a joy. Of course chopped and mixed with creamy mozzarella, evoo and Italian spices. It's hard to even graduate to a pizza or a pasta recipe when you can create such heaven so easily, but of course we have.
Roasting is unbelievable in the way it concentrates flavors and sugars in the vegetables. I've roasted lots of these freshly picked jewels and, resting in the freezer, they wait their turn.

Potager Prizes

My petite jardin has been producing prolifically. First, the golden raspberries and now this selection of tomatoes, most of these fell from the vines and are ripening. Have been eating zucchini, green beans and cukes, picked daily. Some green peppers, picked relatively small, we just couldn't wait. The other day: homemade pizza dough topped with those peppers and chopped cherry tomatoes - freshest pizza ever.
bon appetit!

So very European.....

It seems to me a very Euro thing to do: make your own liqueur. And frugal to boot!
Here is a link to an interesting article with some recipes:
http://tinyurl.com/lkp6ag.
Marsi, I know you have made limoncello. Any tips?

Mealtime - Purse Palate and Portion

J'adore the concept of regular mealtimes. Three daily opportunities to sample whatever bits of succulance you desire. Truly eat whatever you want - notwithstanding the limits of purse and palate. And of course, portion. You know that small portions are the French woman's ultimate secret of slim.

Meals are meant to be eaten with people. Hopefully those in whose company you thrive. Persons you want to know more about. People who know all about you. Running down the duties of the day over coffee and toast. Perhaps a solitary(hey you're a person), but perfect, grilled cheese and tomato soup lunch. Eating in the company of good conversation - hard to beat. Long evenings over the tablecloth, opening more wine and wishing the wonderful comraderie was a permanent state. Debriefing and then refueling with those you love over a daily family dinner......

Regular mealtime, the romantic notion versus regular mealtime in a busy, modern household.

Breakfast, um sometimes I'm sleeping thru this during the school year, but I can and do hang out in the kitchen when my 3 teens are being somewhat supervised by Jake (Dad) as he makes
lunches (have I done a good thing? my kids refuse school lunch, categorically). And Jake runs the morning show chez nous.

Lunch: I'm generally alone.

Dinner is the real problem. Jake and I are self scheduled. When the kids were younger (up until the last yr and a half or so) we ate dinner en famille most nights. Now the teens activities make a "one -and- for- all" dinner really hard most days. Just having 3 kids with one extra curricular each makes it rough, or it has for me. So I'm trying to figure out the best solution for us.

The 'formula' of 6 hrs between breakfast and lunch, 6 hrs between lunch and dinner and 12 hrs between dinner and breakfast is one on which the Lepitin 'diet' works. I am not really familiar with anything else about Lepitin but this formula has really stuck with me. I feel ready to eat, with at least a mild hunger, when aware of this timing. No snacking! You most certainly can wait for your next meal - isn't it going to be a lovely selection of fresh, top quality foods that pique your appetite? Food and company worth waiting for?

If we eat dinner at 7pm then breakfast is right on time at 7am (during the school year at least) and that leaves lunch at 1pm. With a pause gourmand after school/work.....So with a renewed vigor, we shall dine at 7pm and take it from there. We'll still have to juggle and not everyone will be seated, together, at 7 every single night, but I think it's important to attempt to reinstitutionalize it.

I love dining al fresco and soon we'll be able to do so regularly. We do eat just about every meal on the deck when weather permits. I move my office out there too....
Can't wait for the roses.
La