So long, farewell 2010!

To a new chapter, new friends, new challenges, new adventures, peace, love and joy.

Have a fun and safe new year!

{photo credit}

{photo credit}

As the new year approaches, I've been spending a lot of time thinking and reflecting back on 2010. 

For me, 2010 started off to be one the best years of my life. In fact, it was my goal that 2010 would be filled with lots of love, happiness, new dreams and new adventures. That reality quickly changed, and life for me was put onto a new road, back home with nothing but two suitcases filled with clothes and a hope that I'd figure out what the hell just happened. But this isn't going to be a post about overwhelming obstacles that God brought into my life in 2010 but rather, the new found promise he gave me.  

The fact of the matter is, while this past year will be known as one of the darkest chapters in my life, it's ending with a light at the end of the tunnel. God has used this time with me to open my eyes, not only to myself, but to the people that are in my life. He has taught me about the selfishness of people, their actions, decisions and how they and I handle temptations and trials. From that, I've learned the true definition of what it is to love, to communicate, to stand by promises and to handle overwhelming trials in life. He has taught me not to be anxious for what lies ahead in my life, but to rejoice in the promise that he's in control (and not me)- to take each challenge that he brings me and look for the lesson that he's trying to teach me through it- to constantly learn and grow because I am loved.

I look forward to 2011 because I know that it won't be perfect. I know that there are a new set of challenges that await me (and not only those that I know about) but with each new challenge I'm bringing a new sense of optimism and confidence with me. Most times things don't have to go down the road the way they do, but in the end I have to give it back up to God and let him work in my life- he hasn't disappointed me yet. 

So 2011, all I have to say is bring it. I'm ready to go!

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

Holiday parties are great...and they're even better when you remember to take photos of everything you cooked. Needless to say, everyone left drunk on sauce, spritz's and affogato's and my counter part and I are already mapping out our next great dinner party, this time hiring a photographer instead of relying on each other for photos.  

For a complete run down, click over here! 

the chefs

I'll take any excuse to spend some quality time with papa p, and going to the Poinsettia bowl down at Qualcomm in San Diego was quite the highlight for me.

Dads are great for advice, a shoulder to cry on, big hugs, football & baseball games and if you know Jerry {papa p}, he's also good for crazy hats, singing holiday toys and being quite possibly the best father ever. 

It's these moments that are the textures that will be the fabric of my life. And having the Aztecs win.

Hope you had a wonderful holiday with lots of food, wine, love and celebration!

My life in cookie dough 

(credit-Christoph Niemann& New York Times blog)

What time is it?

It's cocktail hour! 

Ok I love that scene from Sex In The City and if you don't know, I'm sorry because even as I write this, I'm fighting the urge to snap my fingers.


This afternoon, I'm inspired for a little cocktail bar magic. I'm secretly tucking away ideas for different rooms in my one-day-I'll-afford-a-house file. And while a cocktail room might be overdoing it (just a tad), I do love vintage cocktail bars. For all those tom collin's and dirty martini's I'll be making while escaping poolside. For a  little vintage chic and a whole lot of fun, I bring you Ms. Boardman's bar photographed by Clairborne Swanson Frank for Vogue. 

C'est la vie indeed. 

Love is...

{photo credit}

This week I'm reflecting on the second part of the "love" reflection assignment that love does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.


I try not to get too personal here, but I've been fortunate enough to find an amazing family of friends here at home. Through them and my own family, I've seen some amazing marriages. Actions speak louder than words ever could. Marriage isn't perfect, it isn't meant to be and it isn't meant to be because we're human. But I've seen these couples go through some of life's hardest struggles, and in the end having each others backs. That the definition of commitment doesn't change with each challenging and blessed circumstance of life. Never leaving or forsaking each other but putting the other persons needs first. I see through them have a  love that does not envy, that does not boast and is not proud. A love that's complimentary. I see a sacrificial love for one another, a true commitment that they will be there for one another throughout anything and everything that God has in store for them. The husbands have shown me what and how a husband is to be called to love his wife and her gracious love in return.  


Through that, I've also seen how gracious God's love to them individually and as a couple. They've shown me already my reflection for next week's "love" assignment.  They don't dishonor each other, they're not self-seeking, not easily angered (ok, so we might all struggle with that one) and that they keep no record of wrongs. Forgiveness and grace are beautiful things that are more easy to obtain than most people think, and when we take "ouselves" out of the marriage is when we find the true blessing of it's intention. 

Thank you friends (you know who you are!), for being true examples of what marriage should be.  

Monday music!

Welcome back to another week!

I have to admit, I had one of those weekends that just makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside finally getting a chance to catch up with old friends, enjoying the warm weather (yay sunroof!) spending a night singing christmas carols under the stars and drink apple cider and bundled up like a good non-Italian that I am, with my scarf as to not catch colpa d'aria on my neck, even if there was a heat wave going on.

 An early Christmas gift, Asha Ali direct from Sweden to you.

Enjoy! 

 

Savoring life's simple pleasures

Problem solved...

I saw this in a restaurnat recently and loooved it all wooden- framed up in the kitchen. {god bless google}

{photo credit}

The mystery of life's happiness...solved.

now go have a great weekend!!!

dear good guys,

I'm sorry us good girls fall for the bad boys first.

They may have had our heart for a brief moment in life, but you my dears will have our hearts forever.

{photo credit}

love is patient, love is kind

Afternoon daydreaming never hurt anyone....right? 

 

{photo credit, Slim Aarons}

{photo credit, Slim Aarons}

I'm inspired by Slim Aarons, and this afternoon I want to escape poolside to sip a tom collins or a dirty martini, listen to some 1961 vinyls playing from inside our beach front bungalow and have only the worries of lazy summer afternoons. 

Tomorrow Slim, let's go Riveria poolside....

nom nom nom

Getting back into the Italian swing of things, I've been starting to cook like I did back in Italy. Slowly but surely, the recipes are coming back to me, and I'm trying to make everything (food-wise) just like I had back in Italy.  This last weekend I made the traditional Bolognese ragu for the family.

While you're supposed to eat with tagliatelle, I cheated and just used pasta on hand (bad non-italian)

Buon appetito!

Ingredients:
150 g of onions (half an onion)
70 g of carrots (one full carrot)
50 g of celery  (one full stalk of celery)
50 g of lard (I used olive oil- enough to cover the bottom of the pot and it worked beautifully.)
600 g of beef (1-2 packages)
1 or 2 glasses of red wine (2 in the sauce and 3 for me! the more the merrier)
1 bottle of tomato puree or tomato paste
salt as needed
pepper as needed

Mince all the vegetables and add to the lard (or olive oil) into a single mix. Brown the vegetables on a medium heat until they change their color ( a light hazel color) The rule for an authentice "Bolognese" sauce is "it must be prepared to the way it smells." Yep, no timers here- just your nose. The next step is ready when the you smell the carrot, the celery and the onions in one perfume.

Add in the meat to the vegetables and brown on a high heat. Once the meat is browned add in salt and pepper (to taste) and 1-2 glasses of red wine and keep stirring. Blend until you can't smell the wine and meat separately but together (it works) at that point add in one bottle of tomato puree, stir and let simmer for 2 hours- stirring occasionally.

I made this on a Sunday morning for lunch with the family. The house smelled...well, unbelievable and having the family around the table, wine flowing and spending that quality time with everyone...life couldn't have gotten much better.

goodbye to the normals

I've taken a fancy to this one... enjoy!

L'ho trovato!

I found it! 

We can look at this as part of the love is patient (ok it's a stretch...) but finding Pandoro here in California of all places, for me is like finding gold. I can't giveaway where I found it, it just wouldn't be fair- plus I don't think you'd believe me if I told you but it's worth the hunt.

Pandoro is a traditional Italian sweet bread that makes it's appearance around the holidays and has been my guilty holiday pleasure for the past few years.

 {photo from last Pandoro season}

If willing to spend a little extra money for this holiday treat, you can go to Bauli otherwise...

Good hunting!

Love is...

Love and honesty.

 simple, no? 

{photo credit}

This morning I had a meeting in which I was given an assignment...learn to love.

We think we know love, we think we know how to love... that love is this mystical emotion in relationships and marriage that either stays or goes, and a given among family members. Some think love never changes, their ideas and concepts of love can never change. But can it? 

I think I know how to love, and yet I thought I knew how to love. But in an effort to be honest with myself, be honest with those around me, I've decided to explore this idea of "love" further. 

 Is my idea of love so far from the truth? 

This is my journey- and it starts with this. We've all heard it time and time again, but have we really stopped to reflect what it means in our everyday life, our interaction with people? I can honestly say I haven't, till now.

1 Corinthians 13:4-13
 ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
 ⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
 ¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

This week I'm learning that Love is patient, and this I know will be one of my biggest challenges.

Merry Train Rides

There are many reasons to love New York (and even more reasons to love California) but MTA's Nostalglia Train Rides are a few of my favorite things this holiday season.

Enjoy!

le mie cupcakes

If you like cupcakes and Italy, click over to our  we:plan site to check out my dear Bologna friend Paola and her amazing version of American cupcakes! After translating the post for the ladies, my mouth was watering  for their version more than anything you find pre-made in a box here!

buon appetito!

 {photo take by Ms. Paola!}

Happy post t-day Monday music!

Vanished is the best.

ringraziamento

I have so much to be thankful for this year, and while I'm not celebrating like last years thanksgiving, I have one better- getting to be with my family this year. 

{photo credit}

As someone once wrote:

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who won't survive the week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 20 million people around the world. If you attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world. If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75 percent of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8 percent of the world's wealthy.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.
— Psalm 107:1

** and if you happen to be traveling to Bologna this Thanksgiving, you can stop by ristorante Farina- my Bolognese insiders have informed me that they're making our Thanksgiving dinner celebration their new yearly tradition for local Bolognese. I guess I did leave my mark in Bologna after all. **

Compleanni

The good news is, it feels like Friday...the bad news...it's only Thursday.

{photo credit}

If you can't tell, I'm excited for the weekend. Mainly because it's the first in a round of many 30th birthday celebrations. It's here... the big 3-0. I'm still on the fence of being happy and/or nervous, I mean at 30, aren't we supposed to have it all figured out? Aren't we supposed to be married, with 2.5 kids and living a life with a white picket fence? Only in the movies I suppose.

For me, I think overall I'm excited to turn 30. I'm excited to leave 29 behind me and never look back... or at least one day look back and hopefully laugh (is that possible?). For me, 30 is the start of a whole new decade in life...the new 20 but with more mature people running in the mix, people who hopefully not only understand challenges in life and relationships, but who have also probably overcome a lot and who understand that growing up and growing older are meant to be fun. Where life isn't about going to the bars night after night ending with a face plant in the toilet, or waking up next to a stranger (don't worry dad- I never did!). It's about growing, maturing, appreciating the quality time with family and friends. Sharing those life moments, the births and weddings and everything in between with the people you love. I'm glad to leave my 20's behind, happy to have a new sense of self, a new outlook, and thanks to Patty, a new list of "non-negotiables". 

Il cibo italiano...finalmente!

Growing up I loved the book Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel.  The concept of being able to feel emotions through food sounded so appealing to me. I never realized that the experience that I had in Italy was exactly that. Maybe it was learning a new food and a language with it, or maybe it was being able to cook for someone I loved but whenever I ate in Italy, it reminded me of that book, and feeling those emotions through the cooking.

Of course, life can't always be like that and I've definitely put cooking on the back burner since I've been home. So much so that I've completely stopped all together. It's been a process for me to open myself back up to Italian cusine, so many memories and experiences made those emotions... well...challenging to say the least. Needless to say, I've been slowly venturing back into the world of Italian cuisine. Creating new memories and sharing those experiences with the people that matter most to me, and everyone reading my blog!

One of the most memorable meals I had was out on the balcony of a dear cousin (not mine personally but family all the same). My sister, myself and our friend Whitney had just flown back to Bologna after spending a week in London and Paris. Guillermo and his girlfriend Fabiana cooked all of us dinner immediately after our return to Bologna. Fabiana made the most amazing salad that I'm sharing with you today. We spent the hot summer night out on their balcony overlooking the railroad tracks of Bologna Centrale, speaking Itanglish, drinking wine and giving Nicole and Whitney a truly authentic Italian experience. None of them had ever met before, but it seemed like all were long lost family regardless of any language barriers. These are some of the memories that I will forever treasure in my heart.

The salad is simple, and really that's what's so beautiful about it. All you need is: Arugala (Rucola); Sea Salt (sale del mare); Parmeggiano Cheese (no translation needed there) and Olive Oil (olio d'oliva) e basta!

buon appetito!!

Music Monday

Appropriate for today- Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros - Home (JVTP)

I {heart} New York

My whirlwind of a week has finished, and I'm back in sunny southern california.

The week flew by, just as I had expected it to- filled with meetings, press showings, meeting up with friends, networking, living up the reputation of the "city that never sleeps" because I never did.

I'll be honest, I was worried about heading back to New York. Worried that I wouldn't want to leave, that I would completely fall to pieces. Why God is so great, he didn't let that happen to me. He didn't let me break down, but rather just the opposite. I wasn't sad over what I lost but sensed a great strength and was grateful that I had a job that allows me to work in such an amazing city, for the experiences that I shared in that city, that I was able to see the people that we're in part the motivation for wanting to move back and at the end of the day, I still got to come home to my family. New York will always have a piece of my heart, and I guess that's the blessing & curse wrapped into one, that my heart will forever be split into three equal parts for California, New York and Italy.

Getting on the plane back to California, I had a sense of peace, a feeling that I've been longing for for months. I have God to thank for that.

Next challenge, eventually making it back to Europe.

life meet art

I recently stumbled upon Jenny Holzer, a conceptual artist from America, and her light projects on public buildings. 

Her sharing of intimate moments of love and desire for the world, around the world, makes me stop and reflect back on my own memories of love and life in those particular spots. 

Rome

San Diego 

New York

Paris 

Florence

{photo credit}

Call it ironic, call it fate, call it God's sense of humor when it comes to me, but after a failed attempt to move back to NYC this past summer, I'm going back east in a few days for work. Nothing short of a challenge on so many levels, I'm excited yet nervous to face the city that I've loved and lost. To see old friends, while making new ones.

Going back reminds me, that God laughs at our plans but in a way-his way- he makes them better than we (I) could have ever mapped out for ourselves.

here we go magic

Today's Monday (morning) music is brought to you by here we go magic which I'm going to go check out this weekend at the Belly Up in Solana Beach! 

Tunnelvision. Anything is possible when you're chasing the useless people in the street

I {heart}

The duel of two of my favorite cities. 


I {heart} the poster series by French graphic designer Vahram Muratyan Paris vs. New York a tale of two cities

Some of my favorites:

le réalisateur

la créature

le pain

le métro

le café

vous aimez!?

I have a new favorite spot.

It's close to work, and the sunsets are perfectly timed with my commute home. It's my little spot where I've been stopping  to think and reflect on and appreciate everything that I'm grateful for. The little things that sometimes slip through the cracks of hectic life.

This week, I have so much to be thankful for, but here are few things:

*First and foremost, my sister (more later)

*My virtues and values. I've realized that no matter what or who life brings me, or what challenges I've faced and will have to face, I have a set of virtues and values that will always be a solid part of my foundation and always abiding by them is what makes a good and honest person. Why is it so easy to forget "to treat others the way you want to be treated?"

*Santa Ana's- enjoying the warm weather hitting my face in the middle of October...pure joy.

*My job. First, that I'm fortunate to have one, but that I truly love it. There is no doubt in my mind that it's a blessing from God, and for that I'm utterly thankful.

Happy Halloween!

Have a fun and safe Halloween!

I'll be taking it easy this year enjoying passing out candy to all the neighborhood trick or treaters!

Brazilian Girls - Good Time

Enjoy!

Pumpkins!

I truly couldn't tell you the last time that I went to a pumpkin patch. It's definitely a fun little treat that you miss living aboard for a few years, but seeing all the children running around with giant smiles on their faces in anticipation of finding the biggest pumpkin to carve, and possibly due to a candy corn sugar high, filled me with the same joy and excitement for Halloween and slight craving for candy corn.

To see more photos, head over to Nicole's blog here 

Evening out

Part two of my weekend with the Angels took me to the Boys and Girls Club Gala celebrating the Anaheim Angeles. Being able to participate in helping the children of Orange County was a warming experience, and I hope in the future to be able to do more... if only for the little Boys and Girls Club rockstar of the night, Gubino!

Can you guess...

what I did this weekend?

warm

warmer....

Hot!

A BIG thanks to my amazing sister for letting me and my camera wander around the stadium, and even venture into the clubhouse locker room. I'm counting down to the next trip!