When in Rome
Tourists shouldn’t be eating while sitting on the steps of monuments or churches. It’s not about decorum, as the article suggests. It’s about preserving both the monuments and the culture. During my last visit to Rome, I was disgusted by the amount of food litter everywhere. Beyond that, the old saying holds true. Italians don’t sit on the Spanish Steps and eat and tourist should respect those kinds of customs.
No more paninis on the piazza? Rome bars tourists from eating at historical sites – CSMonitor.com.
Kitchen Nano Garden
I love that there are no pesticides involved, but I’m not so sure about the lighting that’s being used. Maybe the unit could be kept near windows instead. But still, this is such a great product.
via Kitchen Nano Garden | Co.Design: business + innovation + design.
Congratulations to The Happiness Plunge!
A while back, my wonderful friend Adam decided that his life was not so wonderful . . . he’d finished his MBA in españa and got a “great” job in Norway. But he just wasn’t happy or satisfied. And it was making him physically sick. He knew that he had to make a change, but what to do?
After some serious reflection, he decided that he wanted to put that MBA to good use. He decided to travel the world, volunteer where he could, and write about it. He got down to business and set up his website, The Happiness Plunge. (I love the name.)
Travel, Write, Volunteer – Stories And Adventures Served Daily.
Today marks the 400th day of, as he put it, “being happy and homeless.” I don’t think that I’ve really ever known him to be happier, and that says so much because he’s spending so much of his time helping others, while traveling to great places and having wonderful new experiences.
Check out Adam’s website, find him on Facebook, and hit him up on Twitter. He’s everywhere else on the internet too, and he’s live, in person in The Philippines – if he hasn’t already made his way to Myanmar!
Felicidades Adam! Te echo de menos! Un abrazo muy fuerte!
Adam and I somewhere . . . (where??) I know that we were drinking sake because we held it responsible for the fuzzy picture.
- Adam and I on the beach in Spain. Great memories! Silly paddle games and the ifart app plus beer with lemon on a beautiful beach. It doesn’t get any better. Rally!
Torna a Surriento, Old and New
The incredibly beautiful, moving version by il maestro.
A new, funky version by Arianna and Pitbull, featured in the new Fiat commercials. I’d love to get my hands on the full length version of this.
July Foodie Penpal Reveal – A Box of Utah
Sometimes you can exchange a few words with a person and just instantly know that s/he is someone you’d like to get to know better. That’s exactly how I felt when I got an email from Lisa S., my July Foodie Penpal. When I read her email, I just knew that she was probably an interesting person because the tone of her email was really warm. She asked me a few questions about food allergies, and likes or dislikes, asked about my pets, and told me that she was from Salt Lake City, Utah. After I gushed about SLC, she decided that she was going to fill my box with local SLC goodies. Good choice!
Sometime in the middle of the month, I picked up my box at the post office. I should have known that something was up because as soon as I walked through the door with the box, my dogs were all over me, sniffing me and the box.
As soon as I opened the box, I saw a postcard from Lisa! I LOVE postcards. I just love that glimpse of somewhere else and a few well chosen words. There’s something really thoughtful about the fact that Lisa decided to include a postcard instead of the usual note. She explained that she’d gone to a local farmer’s market to pick up everything in the box (yay!).
Box of Utah from Lisa S.
Lisa kept her word and sure enough, everything that she sent was from the area, and all of it was delicious.
Nature’s Indulgence Granola
Lisa sent several packs of Nature’s Indulgence granola. Nature’s Indulgence is a family owned business in Ogden, Utah, and they make this granola in small, yummy batches. You can order their products online, and they have some free recipes on their website. As soon as I opened the bags, I could tell that each was really fresh. A few days later, I had the vanilla flavor over pancakes – fantastic. But I’m really looking forward to trying one of the recipes on the website, for Lentils a la Nutberry Maple. I love lentils, but I’ve never had them paired with a sweet flavor like this. I think that the textures of the lentils and the granola will go really well together.
Then I pulled this out of the box, and had a really good laugh.
Ha!
I instantly had a visual of poor Lisa at the post office, being forced to wrap and re-wrap this container until the clerk was satisfied that it wouldn’t explode in the box. Turns out that it was worth the wrap.
Cornaby’s Raspberry Spreadable Fruit
Yum. I love sweet things. I love jelly, jam, spreadable fruit, whatever you want to call it – sugary fruit plus sugar. This spreadable fruit from Cornaby’s is delicious. Lisa later told me that she’d sampled several flavors and like this one the best. I dug into this with a spoon right after I took the pictures.
Cox Honeyland Creamy Honey
Along the lines of sweet . . . I love honey. I know some people who have a jar of honey in the pantry and there it remains until it crystallizes. Not me. I use honey for cooking, in my tea, and especially for dessert with ricotta cheese. This one is really creamy and flavorful. A++ Made by Cox Honeyland in Logan, Utah. The Cox family has been beekeeping in Utah for over 100 years. I might have to order this honey sampler!
Oh, the chocolate. Lisa included a bar of dark chocolate with orange peel from Chocolove. I love citrus, especially oranges and lemons. And of course, I love chocolate. I finally opened this bad boy up on Saturday. This is another fantastic product from Utah, but honestly, as soon as I tasted it, it made me think of Italy. The combination of orange and chocolate is so classically Italian and tasting this chocolate bar reminded me of buying chocolate covered candied orange peel at Christmas markets in Italy, like the one in the Piazza Navona, Rome or the Oh Bej! Oh Bej! in Milano. Bonus: the chocolate is wrapped in a sonnet!
Chocolove Dark Chocolate and Orange Peel
Nice, shiny dark chocolate.
Orange Peel in Chocolate
Poetry in Chocolate
Just as I was thinking about how thoughtful Lisa is, I found two dog treats in the box. And of course, there were two little faces looking up a me.
Dina with a Treat
Matteo with his treat
Thank you, Lisa, for such a wonderful, thoughtful box of goodies. I really enjoyed everything, and I know that my dogs did as well.
Foodie Penpals is a fun program started by Lesley over at The Lean Green Bean blog. Lesley pairs foodie lovers all over with a differently match each month to receive a box of goodies! More about the program here.
Expositions – Gill Wilson
In Madrid? Planning to visit? Stop by Bar Pepa Tencha and check out the visually stunning work of Gill Wilson.
My personal favorite – 
June Foodie Penpal Reveal Plus a Recipe for Lebanese Cous Cous
I recently signed up for Foodie Penpals, a fun program started by Lesley over at The Lean Green Bean blog. Lesley pairs foodie lovers all over with a differently match each month to receive a box of goodies! More about the program here.
This month, Lesley paired me with Leila at Spinach and Skittles. Leila sent me an email at the beginning of the month, introduced herself and her awesome blog, and asked me a few questions about the kinds of food that I like, whether I have any food allergies, etc. Then around the 15th of the month, I visited the post office to pick up my box! I had my nephew with me, and told him that we were getting a gift in the mail that would have something yummy for us to eat–and I wasn’t wrong.
Amir and I took the box home and he helped me open it. I had some great pictures of my goodie box, and of Amir sampling some of the snacks. Unfortunately, my phone fell to the bottom of a pool last week. I tried the bag of rice trick (4 days) but I wasn’t able to recover the phone or the pictures. But we’ll work around it.
Leila sent a cute note, and plenty of goodies for me to share with Amir. We dove in and found a bag of Sahale Snacks Almonds with sea salt and cranberries. I love, love, love salty and sweet combinations, and so does Amir. We opened these first and they didn’t last long.
She also sent a bag of dry roasted wasabi edamame, which was delicious. Amir is really enjoying the vanilla/hazelnut spread–when I babysit him, he has this on bread for his before bed snack. Leila also sent some salted caramel hot chocolate that looks incredible. I might have to hide that from Amir, I haven’t decided yet. Last but not least, she sent some tri-colored cous cous.
I managed to pull together the remnants of the box (we’ve already opened so much of it) and take another picture on an old phone this morning.
Thanks again Leila!
I plan to make this cous cous Lebanese style, which is really different from the North African cous cous dishes that most Americans know. Lebanese cous cous, called moghrabieh, is actually a larger than the cous cous used in North Africa, and is served with the flavors of the Levant instead of the more spicy flavors of North Africa. If you’ve ever had Lebanese chicken and rice (riz bi djaj), this is made in a similar fashion, using cous cous and chick peas instead of rice. You don’t have to use the large Lebanese cous cous to make this dish. I’ve made it with regular cous cous and it tastes great just the same.
Lebanese Style Cous Cous
Ingredients:
For the sauce:
- Either one small whole chicken or 5 chicken breasts
- 3 Tablespoons of butter
- Olive oil to drizzle over chicken
- 1 Pound of ground lamb
- 1 Small onion, diced
- 3 Cloves of garlic, minced
- Spices (see below for specifics)
- Water
- 1 Teaspoon concentrated chicken stock or 1 cup of chicken stock
- 1 Can of chickpeas
- Handful of toasted nuts (see below)
- About a cup of either fresh parsley or fresh cilantro (not both)
For the cous cous:
- 1 Pound of cous cous
- 1 Teaspoon of olive oil
- Boiling water to cover the cous cous plus an extra inch
Preheat the oven to 400°. Wash the chicken and pat dry, season the cavity. Then brown the outside in a heavy sauce pan with the melted butter and place the chicken in a casserole dish, a baking pan, or a dutch oven. Season the outside with salt and pepper and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil. Add a few cups of water, and roast the chicken in the oven. As it cooks, be sure to baste it so that it stays moist. The cooking time will depend on the size of the chicken, but check it with a thermometer to make sure that it’s cooked thoroughly. If it’s a 5 pound chicken, I would say that it will take about an hour to cook. Instead of using a whole chicken, you could use 4 or 5 chicken breasts (they will cook faster).
As the chicken is cooking, brown the lamb in the same butter. Add the onions and garlic to the lamb. Add the spices and adjust them to suit your taste.
*A note on the spices: generally, the spices used are about a teaspoon of cumin, a teaspoon of ground allspice, a pinch of cinnamon, and a pinch of ground cloves. But really, adjust them to suit your taste. Some people like a lot of cinnamon, so add more. Some people hate it, so drop it altogether.
Add a few cups of water, a teaspoon of concentrated chicken stock, and the chickpeas. Stir together and cook for about 2o minutes. If you don’t have concentrated chicken stock paste, just add a cup of chicken stock and reduce the amount of water that you use. You want this end up being the consistency of sauce or stew, so it’s better to add water if you need it, instead of adding too much water at the start.
Put the cous cous into a bowl and mix well with the olive oil. Add boiling water to cover the cous cous plus an inch extra, and cover with a lid or with tightly wrapped foil. Follow the directions on the cous cous with regard to time because most cous cous sold in the states has been precooked then dried.
Once the chicken cooks, let it cool until you can safely touch it (but still warm), discard the skin, and pull the meat off in large pieces. Cover the chicken pieces so they stay warm.
To serve this family style, fluff the cous cous and mound it on a platter. Arrange the chicken pieces over top. Pour over the lamb-chickpea sauce, and top with toasted nuts and either some fresh cilantro or fresh parsley. Sahtain!
*If you try this recipe, or have another version of this dish, please comment or get in touch because I’d love to hear about it.
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Foodie Penpals
I joined Foodie Penpals this month and really had a great time meeting new people and sharing goodies. If you’re interested in participating, here are the details. Go and sign up!
From The Lean Green Bean:
-On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you can choose to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
– Foodie Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & UK residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!
***If you’re in the UK, please contact Carol Anne from This Is Rock Salt at rocksalt@thisisrocksalt.com to get involved!
