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!