This is such a simple recipe, I learned it before the quarantine started when friends could still stop by and whip up an informal lunch together. My friends Davide and Giulia came by and wanted to prepare lunch for us. We stopped by the little local market before heading home, Giulia perused the pasta isle carefully, looking for the perfect pasta.
You can’t visit Italy’s seaside without stopping into a waterfront restaurant and ordering a plate of Fried Calamari to be enjoyed with a squeeze of lemon and a view.
What can be better than Apple Pie? Not much, ….but maybe Apple Crisp! If my husband is going to request a dessert, it’s going to be Apple Pie, but then sometimes he hesitates and changes it to Apple Crisp. I’m always happy to make Apple Crisp instead of Apple Pie because it’s so much easier! No crust to roll out and form, just oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, butter and flour tossed together and dumped on top of sliced apples and baked. I actually agree that it is better than Apple Pie, I mean, all of that brown sugar goodness mingled with fragrant cinnamon and crunchy oats! So delicious with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, it’s even better the next day for breakfast! Ice cream and all!
Crepes have been a favorite breakfast for me for many years. It’s so delicious and decadent! My favorite is chocolate strawberry banana crepes! I love them so much it was the breakfast I had with my Bridesmaids the morning of my wedding!
Despite the Coronavirus induced “quarantine”, this has been the best Spring we have had in Italy! The two previous years it was very rainy and cool. I remember “arctic blasts” coming from Russia two years ago in March and “Dirty” rain from Africa in April! The “dirty” rain seemed to continue day after day as it doused our car and laundry on the line with red mud.
The other day I saw a post from a friend, she was eating an Éclair, and I thought, “Wow! It’s been a long time since I have made Cream Puffs….” of course Éclairs and Cream Puffs are made of the same Choux Pastry but did you know that Mexican Churros and British Yorkshire Pudding are also creations made from Choux pastry? All of these pastries sound quite exotic, foreign and difficult but actually they are not hard to make at all.
As the world outside struggles to come to terms with the global pandemic, I also must come to terms with staying at home. I have always been a girl that likes to “get up and go” but as you know, I am “The Homestead Traveler”, so a part of me also loves to stay home to garden, cook and create.
Continuing on the theme of “Things we have time for while in quarantine”, I would like to share with you my experience of making homemade tortillas. This has also always alluded me, it seemed like something only those with a Mexican birthright could do. I always just bought flour tortillas and left the making of them up to the professionals.
Our biggest complaint used to be “I never have enough time”. Now, during this global pandemic, we all have nothing but time and absolutely no where to go, while in quarantine. It’s time to do all of the things we always wanted to do, things we always wanted to master but didn’t have the time.
This tour is for the Rome as the Apostle Paul would have seen it during his travels to Rome during his first and second missionary tours. This was considered the Classical Period of Rome. At Acts 25:6-12 Paul appeals to Ceasar when the Jews try to kill him. “Then Festus, after speaking with the assembly of counselors, replied: “To Caesar you have appealed; to Caesar you will go.”
