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. 

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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.

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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

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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