The Flavors of Abruzzo

Water, Water everywhere and not a drop to drink

Oct 15th, 2010

I remember my Nana saying that, but I really don’t know why. I’m sure she was quoting something, but I never did learn what it was.

As for water, you can get used to anything I guess, but I was having a really difficult time getting used to the water situation here in Italy. You see, in the summertime the water is often turned off for hours at a time. The schedule is usually posted around town, but that doesn’t make things any easier.

It’s usually turned off over night, but three years ago when we were having a severe drought here and numerous fires were springing up because of how dry it was, the water was being turned on around 8 in the morning and off again at 11 am. It was then off until the following day at 8 am. I found it hard enough to deal with, but fortunately I work from home, so I had access to the water during that time. I couldn’t imagine those people who had to leave their houses before 8 and return later in the day. How did they do laundry, shower, wash dishes, etc.?

Most people here have water tanks in their houses and we were quick to install one. The tank fills up as soon as the water is turned back on and, depending on the size, holds enough water for at least a day. Ours will last as long as three days, provided we are circumspect with our water usage. The only thing is that we are often unaware of when the water is turned off since the tank just automatically takes over.

Those who don’t have tanks have to fill up large containers whenever the water is turned back on so that they can use it throughout the day. Until you’ve tried living like that, you can’t imagine how incredibly inconvenient it is.

I complain about that inconvenience, but it seems somewhat petty when you consider that there are people all over the world who have limited or no access to clean water. In fact, nearly one billion people today lack basic access to safe drinking water.

In July, the UN declared access to clean water and sanitation to be a basic human right. Seems like a no-brainer, but apparently it needed to be said and needs support.

Please take the time to sign the petition below to support the UN’s efforts.

Change.org|Start Petition

Posted in: Culture Shock, Miscellaneous.

Baby Loss Awareness Month

Oct 12th, 2010

by Mary.

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I just learned that October is Baby Loss Awareness month and that October 15^th is International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. It is a day of remembrance for all types of pregnancy loss and infant death including miscarriage, stillbirth, SIDS, etc.

I shared my feelings on my personal situation back in July, so I won’t go into it again. Let me just say that losing a baby at any stage is a heartbreaking and often very lonely experience.

The International Wave of Light is held on October 15^th during which participants around the world are invited to light a candle at 7:00 pm and leave it burning for at least an hour. The result is a chain of light that goes around the world in a 24 hour period in remembrance of babies who died during pregnancy or shortly after birth.

If you’d like more information, please see:

http://www.babyloss-awareness.org/

http://www.october15th.com/

Posted in: Miscellaneous, Motherhood over 40, Parenting.

Percocche

Sep 23rd, 2010

by Mary.

2 comments

One of the things I love about living here is hearing the various vendors go by hawking their wares. Well, ok, to be honest sometimes it can get annoying…especially the guy who sells chickens. But, most of the time I find it, dare I say, charming?

Over the past month there have been lots of fruit and vegie vendors going through, but there was one new item that I hadn’t heard being advertised before. New to me, that is. Percocche. (pronounced pear-cok-eh).

When I looked them up, I read that they were a cross between a pear and an apricot, but I really don’t think that’s accurate.

What they are is delicious and, believe it or not, some of them were almost as big as a softball.

Of course, I had to buy some to try and at 5 kilos for 4 euros, I couldn’t pass it up. So, I had my first taste of a percocche and was very pleased. Even though I saw people describing them as tasteless on the internet, the ones I tried were anything but. They were sweet and peachy without dripping juice all over your fingers, and that’s what I liked best about them. You could cut it up and eat it without making an absolute, sticky mess.

After some more research, I think they’re clingstone peaches. Whatever they are, they have now been added to my list of favorite fruits.

Posted in: Flavors.

Time to watch the waistline

Sep 20th, 2010

by Mary.

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“That can’t be right!” At least, I didn’t want to believe it was right. As much as I wanted to blame the scale though, I knew, by the uncomfortable waist of my pants, that it was pretty accurate.

I’ve always had problems with my weight. Well, not always. It really started right when I hit puberty and gained a ton of weight seemingly overnight. I still don’t know why that happened, but let me tell you, it couldn’t have come at a worse time. The early teenage years are bad enough as it is. Add some extra poundage in there and, as you may be able to imagine, they were a nightmare.

Struggle I did though, for years. I’ve been up and down the scale and thought I had myself finally settled in before I moved to Italy. Now, I’ve heard that a lot of people actually lost weight once they came here, but that wasn’t the case with me. Too many long meals and too much good food added a few unwanted inches to my waist. Then I became pregnant.

I actually did not gain a lot of weight during pregnancy, staying well within the suggested limit. My doctor even congratulated me at the end of my pregnancy for not gaining too much weight. Of course, I was hoping that breastfeeding would help take that weight and maybe a little more off but, it wasn’t to be. Other women start breastfeeding and drop weight left and right, but I reached a certain point and hung there. Then, with recent events, I put a little bit more on.

So, now it’s time to get back in the swing of things. I’m going back to my favorite tool that I used years ago to lose weight. It’s a computer program called DietPower and it really helps a lot.

Regardless of all of the hype out there about super fat burning foods, special programs, etc., it all boils down to eating less calories than you burn. That’s where this program really helps. After entering your goal, you put in everything you eat during the day and any exercise you do. It calculates your metabolism on a daily basis based on the weight you put in. You can also track measurements as well.

That’s a pretty simplified explanation, but believe me, there’s more to it than that. You can monitor how many carbohydrates you’re eating, or various other nutrients and it will give you a daily grade on how you’re doing nutrition-wise.

One of the best features, since I like to cook, is the recipe book. There are some recipes in there, but you can input your own and it will figure out the calories, carbs, etc. based on the ingredient amounts. And, while there are already a ton of foods in there, you can also add your own – handy when you live in a different country – you just input the information from the label.

I’m so enthusiastic about this program that I signed on as a “dealer”. Yes, if you decide to buy the program, I get a small commission. But, you don’t have to just jump in, you can try it out for free first and see how you do. Give it a couple days though. The first day or two it seems tedious inputting everything, but once you get the hang of it, you can get it done very quickly.

If you’d like to try it out, click here to go to my dealer page where you can get some more information and download the free trial version. Then, if you decide to buy, put my name in the “authorized dealer” block and you’ll get $5 off your purchase. I think you’ll really like it. Just inputting the foods you eat helps you eat smarter.

There’s also a link over in the sidebar if you decide to try it at a later date, just come back here and click on the link and it will take you directly to the page.

Posted in: Diet.

Unidentified Object

Sep 8th, 2010

by Mary.

4 comments

I’m throwing this out there because I’m curious and haven’t been able to find an answer so far.

We ran across these “berries” when we were picking blackberries and I’ve been trying to determine what they are. O is no help because he only knows the name in dialect. They’re not sweet berries and, for all I know may be poisonous although I tasted one after O did and I’m still here.

You can’t really see from the picture, but they have thorns. Consequently, I looked up every “-thorn” I could think of, but didn’t come up with anything similar.

Here’s another picture to get an idea of size.

I was wondering if it might be blackthorn (sloe), however that’s also known as prunus spinosa which leads me to belive that the fruit would be much bigger, but maybe I’m reading too much into the name.

Anybody know?

Posted in: Uncategorized.

Being bilingual

Sep 6th, 2010

by Mary.

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Raising Luigi to be bilingual is interesting to say the least. Language acquisition is already a pretty fascinating thing to watch, but when you add another language into the mix it becomes even more remarkable.

The most widespread method for raising a bilingual child is the “one parent, one language” method which basically means that each parent speaks their language to the child. So, technically that would mean that I would speak only English to Luigi and O would speak only Italian with him. I don’t follow this method religiously though. Since O doesn’t speak English, I don’t like to speak English to Luigi when he’s at home. Consequently, I will speak English with Luigi when we’re alone and Italian whenever O is with us. Sometimes I’ll speak to him in both, saying something first in Italian then in English. I do have an ulterior motive here. I’m hoping O will learn some English at the same time. It seems to be working a bit.

Maybe that’s why Luigi will often say things in both languages. If he wants to play something one more time he says “again ancora”. But, he understands now that there are two different languages because now, if he says something in one language, I ask him what it is in the other and he responds correctly.

He is further ahead in English though because I talk to him more in that language than in Italian so in English he’s almost putting together full sentences. For example he’ll say “Luigi draw car pen”. He’s missing some words, but the concept is there. (Luigi is going to draw a car with the pen, in case you didn’t figure it out.) He doesn’t link words together like this in Italian yet.

The strange thing though is how he says some things. For some reason he has a southern accent when he says the word bell – saying it almost with two syllable “bay-ell”. He also has a southern accent when he names the letter “s”. When he first said it I thought he was cursing but I’ve never used that word in front of him and he was pointing to the letter “s”, so….. Where he got that accent from, I don’t know.

Posted in: Lost in Translation, Luigi, Parenting.

Berry picking

Sep 3rd, 2010

by Mary.

1 comment

When I was growing up, late summer was the time to go blueberry picking. We would head off into the woods armed with buckets and covered in insect repellent. Of course, we knew where the big bushes were that would give us the biggest yield. Returning home with buckets full of blueberries, we would then set about cleaning them. Some would get frozen and some would get used right away and some, of course, got eaten on the spot. Years later I would go to the blueberry farm and buy blueberries in bulk, but it just wasn’t the same.

Here in Abruzzo there are no wild blueberries, but we have the next best thing…blackberries. The difference is though that blackberries have thorns, so you have to be careful.

Now is peak blackberry time, so you often see people walking up and down the country roads armed with buckets and bags to collect the wild blackberries. They seem to grow very well along the roads, as a matter of fact.

We had to join in the fun of course. But, we have blackberries on our land, so we didn’t have to go traipsing down any unfamiliar back roads. Of course, the idea was to collect some and freeze them, but we never got to that point.

Luigi quickly discovered that blackberries are very tasty and decided to join in the fun. He figured out by himself which ones he was supposed to pick.

None of the ones he picked ended up in the bucket though.

Posted in: Flavors, Luigi, Miscellaneous.

Cheese and Salami Savory Pie

Sep 1st, 2010

by Mary.

3 comments

Although the savory pie, or torta rustica, is a traditional Easter dish, it also lends itself well to summertime since it is served at room temperature. That means you can cook it ahead of time in the early morning when the temperatures are still relatively cool and keep it refrigerated until about an hour before you plan to eat it.

Since it’s a cook ahead dish, it’s also great for potlucks or buffets. A word of warning though; this particular pie has lots of calories since it’s loaded with cheese and salami. But, it’s yummy and just one small piece will fill you up.

I used a ready-made pie crust. You can either make your own or do like I did and cheat. You can also put a crust on the top if you’d like.

As you’ll notice, I do not have any salt added to the recipe. That’s because all of the cheese and salami contains enough salt. If you add any more it will be unpleasantly salty. In fact, you should check your salami and if it is overly salty, choose another type.

Ingredients

1 ready-made pie crust
8 ounces ricotta cheese
5 ounces mild provolone cheese, cubed
5 ounces scamorza (or mozzarella) cheese, cubed
4 ounces salami, cubed
4 eggs
1/3 cup grated parmigiano and pecorino romano cheese

Preheat oven to 320 degrees.
Separate the eggs and beat the whites until they make peaks.
Stir the egg yolks and ricotta together, then add the other cheeses and salami.
Fold in the egg whites.
Line a pie pan with the pie crust, then spoon the filling into the crust.
I like to give it a rustic look by just folding the edges of the crust over the filling.
Bake at 320 for about 45 minutes or until the top is brown. Cooking time may vary.
Allow to cool before serving.

Oh, and just because it’s round, don’t get hung up on cutting it in wedges.

Posted in: Recipes.

Gita Italiana

Aug 30th, 2010

by Mary.

No comments yet

Michelle at Bleeding Espresso has been hosting a virtual tour of Italy over on her blog and I was honored that she asked me to take part. Today it’s my turn to introduce you to Abruzzo. So, hop on over and check it out. And if you haven’t done so already, read about some of the other areas of Italy.

Posted in: Observations, Uncategorized.

Crispy Oven-Baked Zucchini

Aug 27th, 2010

by Mary.

8 comments

Several years ago, I worked as an IT Call Center Manager. Many of you may not realize it, but it’s actually a very stressful job or, at least, it was where I worked. Our calls ranged from the mundane to the critical where we had a store with all of the registers not working and customers lined up 10 or more deep. Not only that, but there were numerous expectations that needed to be met regarding how many calls were answered, how quickly they were answered and how many tickets each worker closed per day.

As you can probably imagine, one of the biggest parts of my job was finding a way to keep morale up. Over time I developed several methods and some of them were often kind of silly. One of those I came up with one night when I was searching for something on the internet and found out that every day is National *something* day. So, I printed up the list each month and let everyone on my teams know what day it was and, if it was something that we could celebrate in some crazy, goofy way, we did.

I remember laughing when I ran across “National Sneak Some Zucchini On Your Neighbor’s Porch Day”. Having grown zucchini in my garden, I knew why it deserved its own day. If you’ve grown your own, I can see you nodding your head too. Once you reach a certain point, you have a zucchini glut. That’s when all the recipes that you can find or dream up come into play – and you still end up with some left over.

Unfortunately, I missed it this year – the “official” day is August 8, but we still have lots of zucchini, so I’m still cooking my old faves and experimenting.

This recipe is a good one for those who love fried zucchini but are trying to find a way to make it healthy. Let’s admit it, fried zucchini is delicious, but it’s also laden with fat and calories. This oven fried zucchini is crispy and delicious, so I think you’ll add it to your repertoire as I have.

Crispy Oven-baked Zucchini

Ingredients

1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup grated parmigiano cheese
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chopped basil
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp chopped parsley
1 egg
1 medium zucchini
olive oil

Preheat oven to 425.

Mix the first 7 ingredients together in a rimmed plate. Feel free to experiment with the spices.

Beat the egg in a small bowl (I like to add a drop of milk to the egg as well although I didn’t include that in the ingredients).

Slice the zucchini into 1/4 inch rounds.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and either spray it with olive oil or put about a tablespoon on the sheet and spread it around.

Dip the zucchini in the egg and then coat with the flour mixture. Arrange them on the cookie sheet. If you have a spray bottle for your olive oil, go ahead and spray just a little bit on the top.

Bake for about 10 minutes per side until golden brown and enjoy.

Posted in: Flavors, Recipes.