WORLD PASTA DAY

BUON APPETITO!

Photos https://www.facebook.com/TheFirstTouristOfficeinItaly

 

SUNDAY BREAKFAST

 Did you know that KEFIR is very good for you? It has many nutrients and it's a powerful PROBIOTIC.

Instead of the classic pancakes I made KEFIR PANCAKES, with banana and honey on top, as well as Maple Syrup. 

INTERNATONAL SPICES

There was a time when I couldn't find hard-to-find spices here in Sicily. Now however things have changed. We can get practically everything on Amazon or online. I had been looking for ALLSPICE for several years and finally here it is, on Amazon. The Indian spice ASAFOETIDA was also not available, but now it is. This spice is mostly used in South Indian recipes, such as Sambhar, a delicious lentil stew. Chinese 5 spice powder is now also easily available, as is the 4 Spices, Quatre Epices, What to make with this French combination I have no clue, but I will definitely find recipes...online.

The original Sicilian ANISETTE biscuits ----Biscotti all'anice

 My American friends probably know what I'm talking about when I say Anisette ....the delicious anice cookies made famous by STELLA D'ORO.  In New York I used to eat them every morning. My mom would make me tea and I would dip the Stella D'Oro cookies in the tea. The most delicious breakfast ever! After which I would hop on the bus and go to school.

Well, here in Sicily these are very popular cookies. Whenever I used to come to Sicily to visit my father he would take me to Castellammare del Golfo where at the time they made the best Anisette cookies, and buy me one kilogram for me to take back to Rome, where I lived in the 80s. 

Nowadays the best anice cookies are made by MEETCAFFE, a coffee shop where they make a great coffee and delicious sweets (cannolis etc). Here are the ANISETTE they made just for me. Don't they look inviting?

Food from the East

 If you haven't tried KIMCHI, a delicious dish from Korea, it's about time you did.  It is a fermented food, which as we all know is very healthy. It is rich in antioxidants and probiotics. It's good for the immune system, it helps inflammation and it is an anti-aging food. It's also a good source of Vit. A and Vit. C.

Here is how to make it. Get one Chinese Cabbage and wash each leaf carefully. Place the leaves in a bowl in layers, adding rock salt on each layer, let it stay for 2  days. Now wash off the salt, rinse the leaves and squeeze all the liquid from them. Chop the leaves, then add 3 Tablespoons red chili  pepper and 1 Tablespoon Cayenne pepper, Add 1 teaspoon salt (I use pink Himalayan salt), 1 Tablespoon sugar, 2 garlic cloves chopped, 1 piece of ginger also chopped. Mix everything together and put  the cabbage mixture in a glass container, add 1 cup water, close and keep for 5 days before eating.

Put a cover and weigh down with heavy cans.

Serve with rice. 

The Berry Benefits

 Did you know that blueberries are packed with anti-oxidants and phytoflavinoids? They also have a high amount of potassium and Vit. C and are anti-inflammatory, anti-aging and ..... great for the eyes! 

Blackberries are also full of vitamins, anti-oxidants are powerful anti-inflammatory, and have  anti-aging  properties. 

So start eating berries!

 

A different sort of Treat!

 When I told my friend Carolina that on my birthday, yesterday,  my daughter took me to my favorite place ....LIDL supermarket....she replied "well I suppose that's a different kind of treat".  Yes, in fact I don't think many people spend their birthday at a supermarket, and actually call it fun. 

Well, I had the most enjoyable time!. First of all because I hadn't been there for ages (due to the lockdown) and secondly because after that we went to Mc Donald's, which is right next door to LIDL.

Here are some birthday pictures taken yesterday.

The NEW YORK t-shirt was a gift from my daughter. 

Here is my birthday cake, made by me. It's a goofy kind of cake but it was just too hot to bake a regular cake. It's 36° C in the shade so I certainly wasn't in the mood to put the oven on for a long time. When I put the oven on, the whole apartment gets as hot as the oven. I am actually cooking a beef stew right now with my brand new CROCKPOT. If anyone knows how to use it I would appreciate knowing. The last time I used it the meat was raw ....after 8 hrs cooking! So I had to cook everything in a regular pan on the stove.

Quick, no cooking meals.

It is way too hot to cook or bake so we had breakfast at the cafè - coffee and croissant.

And for dinner we had an "apericena", happy hour, with rianata (Sicilian pizza), arancine (rice balls)  and mini sausage rolls.

 

Is there anything more tempting than DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE?

 For chocolate lovers, chocolate addicts and chocolate worshipers here is the world famous DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE!