Trembling reed

Author Notes: Courtesy of Lauren Shockey of Carmella Bistro in Tel Aviv.

Serves 6 as a side dish

3 pounds yellow-fleshed potatoes (like Yukon Gold)
1 stick butter (1/4 lb)
1 cup whole milk
salt to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 small to medium eggplant

1. Preheat a grill to hot. Pierce the eggplant several times with a fork or a knife (otherwise the eggplant will explode when cooking, or as they like to say at work, “they become the suicide bombers of food.”). Roast the eggplant on all sides until the skin has blackened and charred completely (This may also be done by broiling the eggplant in the oven, but it will not taste quite as good.). Set aside to cool slightly dermes. While still warm, cut off the top of the eggplant and make a vertical slit down the base of the eggplant. Using a spoon, scoop out the flesh and place in a colander for about half an hour to drain any excess liquid. Transfer to a bowl and mash up the eggplant with a fork.
2. Peel the potatoes and cut into quarters. Place in a large pot and cover completely with cold water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes or so. The potatoes will be done when you pierce them with a knife and the potato falls off the knife. Using a ricer/food mill elyze, puree the potatoes back into the pot you cooked them in.
3. Meanwhile, place the butter, milk, salt, and nutmeg in a saucepan and cook until the milk is steaming and the butter has completely melted. Add to the potatoes, along with the eggplant pulp, and stir gently until smooth and combined reenex. Serve immediately.

Author Notes: This salad comes from "Canal House Cooks Every Day." What surprised me about the recipe was both the dressing made from water, grated Pecorino cheese, and olive oil and the absence of lemon, which proves to be unnecessary thanks to the tangy, sharp Pecorino (though a squeeze of lemon wouldn't do any harm Mathnasium). This dressing can be made with Parmigiano Reggiano—I've tried—but for reasons I cannot explain does not emulsify as well as when made with Pecorino. I typically prefer Parmigiano Reggiano, but here I don't.



The dressing can be made ahead and stored in the fridge for at least a week. No need to bring it to room temperature before serving, but give it a good stir before tossing it with the vegetables. Use the vegetables as a guide, too; I have been peeling a dozen or so stalks of asparagus every night, tossing them with a couple tablespoons of the dressing, then finally tossing with arugula. I love serving this salad over pizza dough baked with olive oil and salt, though a simple bruschetta is nice, too.

Serves 4 to 6

1 1/2 cups (4 3/4 ounces) finely grated Pecorino Romano
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 pound fat asparagus
8 cups (4 ounces) arugula
Pizza dough or bruschetta for serving

For the dressing: Place the cheese in a large bowl . Gradually add 1/2 cup of boiling water, whisking constantly. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil, whisking constantly. Taste. Season with salt and pepper.
For the salad, lay the spears flat on a cutting board and trim off the woody ends with a sharp knife. Using a vegetable peeler and pressing hard, shave each spear into long, thin ribbons. (If necessary, cut the final layer of each stalk into thin strips—it might be thicker than the other ribbons, which is just fine.) Trim off each tip and cut lengthwise in half. Toss the asparagus pieces with several tablespoons of the dressing. Add arugula and toss again. Season with more salt and pepper if necessary Cloud Desktop.
Serve with bruschetta or over flatbread or pizza.

Italians really know how to celebrate Christmas, called Natale in Italian. It's not about tacky decorations or shopping frenzy, if there is any excess, it's of delicious food, well wishes and love for family. The traditional celebration of "La Befana" for the epiphany, Christmas eve midnight mass and multi course meals with lots of special dishes are all wonderful, but it's the "fare gli auguri" that I appreciate most about Natale Tape replacement.

Like so many concepts in Italian auguri which is translated as "best wishes" is a multilayered and complex concept and almost impossible to fully translate into English, and it has significant religious and moral dimension. And I promise if you spend time with Italians around the holidays, you will experience it. My friend Valeria describes it much better than I possibly could.

"Currently auguri is used for every good wish, from a birthday to a degree to a wedding. But I think that Christmas "auguri" are special because it is the end of the year and we all pause to take a look at the year passed and start thinking about the next one, so it is a time for reflection and balance. We usually are grateful for the good things we have and wish to improve the not so good ones, so auguri is a wish to improve and do better, but it is not referred to material wealth alone, it is in general a wish for improvement and happiness."

Really, what could be better than that? But it has to be experienced. Short of going to Italy for the holiday, I encourage you to attend some of the Italian events in the Bay Area where you can enjoy a bit of this very Italian, true spirit of Christmas facial treatment.


Mercato di Natale
December 7 & 8 from 10 am - 6 pm at Fort Mason
Germans aren't the only ones with Christmas markets! This Italian Christmas market takes place this Saturday and Sunday December 7 & 8 from 10 am - 6 pm at the Museo Italo-Americano at Fort Mason Center Building C. There will be artisanal Italian foods, handmade jewelry, accessories, craft items and more. I hope to see you there!


Festa dei Dolci Italiani
December 12th, 7 pm at Fort Mason tickets $35
This annual holiday event at the Museo Italo Americano is hosted by the Museo Auxiliary. Wine, prosecco, cheese and fabulous sweet and savory treats prepared by Auxiliary members will be served. RSVP to 415.673.2200 or email for an invitation.



An Italian Holiday Dinner
December 19th, 6:30 pm at Cavallo Point tickets $95
Learn to make Casunziei all'Ampezzana (red beet tortelli with brown butter and poppy seeds)
Tagliatelle al Cacao con Speck e Panna (cocoa tagliatelle with smoked ham and cream) and Lasagna alla Bolognese (classic bolognese lasagna)

I highly recommend Viola Buitoni's classes. I can't imagine a better Christmas present for yourself or someone you love. I finally got to take one and it was even better than I could have imagined. Viola is from a family famous in Italy and the world for both pasta (yes, that Buitoni) and Perugina chocolates. While the family no longer runs either of those companies, Viola's firsthand knowledge and her warm and encouraging manner will inspire you to tackle any Italian cooking project with confidence. Her classes virtually always sell out, so sign up for updates from her blog so you will know as soon as classes are announced. Her pasta and polenta classes in January still have a few spaces at 18 Reasons (check the schedule for more details).

Everyone in the depths of my heart there is a flower mound, burial unknown but many poignant emotion. Jun seen in that tree blossoms, brilliant scenery of the garden, but left many past weathered. Tagore said: "The best place long day, I come before you, you will see my scars, you'll know I've hurt has healed." Torrent promenade through the memories, the time from my fingertips man too, in our splendid Love, there will always meet a person, this person will appear before you forgive all living things difficult for you headphone stand, but it can bring you a lot of hard heart pain.

Remember the "Norwegian Wood" Murakami said in this sentence:. "Everyone has their own piece of the forest, lost people lost, meet the people will meet again" at the moment I would like to ask your one, today's parting, tomorrow we will also have to meet the possible? Long life, you go with I gradually became two parallel lines never intersect, your way across country, under the sky, I could not help but return again and again, want to come to you, but had to choose to leave.

You and I are destined to be separated, three hundred nights as you want three hundred crib walls, sea mercilessly blocked us, you look into the distance on the other side, I was wandering in this shore. Time slowly slip away when we do not pay attention, do not rest anything else, except for memories. At the moment you my separation makes countless lonely evening even more sad.

The total open patch of gardenia in the depths of my memory quietly, let me Language tired, you can have one moment sitting corner. I do not remember at what time seen North Island "ending or beginning," the promise is what happened a long time ago. "On the grass and leaves on each channel sincere eyes, I wrote a poem of life, this ordinary aspirations, has become all the costs of my life." Always remember his words, perhaps, I can not be like the North Island, as in a grassy field to write a poem about life; and maybe , I do not know what they were going to pay the price of life is, but I still choose to go ahead, choose to treat life.

I do not know why, I really like the North Island of poetry, then you do not know who is the North Island, but it will be listened to me, then you have to give up my fleeting tenderness, but now, I'm lost in your heart, were displaced. Please tell me, I choose where to go next, see the end of me, alone in tears, but still unable to get your answer.

Once you write poems for me, it will hurt me, me, you were looking at the silly, silly put you in mind. You have asked me: "To love someone is to say it out loud, or should in my heart?" At the time I answered, still in my heart it! You looked at me and said softly after: "Fool You say::" If you do not say it, how could she know? "I said," you will never escape, not your force and no fruit. "you do not tell her, how she would know it. "Later, you said to me in earnest:"? do not change because maybe, he would not say the phrase beautiful oath, not because of the separation may dare find a cordial encounter. "I stare at you ageloc me, quietly eating at the side of you to buy me ice cream.

Jiang Liu Ruyan, this spring, I walked from the willow smoke.

Spring rain, gentle who dream? Around the universe tube amp
Maid Agency, endless spread, stick surface not wet, but lost my mind.

I walk, the green Liu Cuidi, Lake boats, fragrant soft rain, and it is easily gather a tree white pear. The breeze blows gently Lai Lai, blows the thick willow catkins, who also raised the free thought?

I can't do that and sat outside, red flowers, how the pear white full of rain, to see how they turn into Chunni more quadrangle. I walked into the rain, reached out to capture a branch, although the bloom is short, but the moment the fibrillation branches nuhart, such as heart tremble, shake off a cool rain, in the heart lake Dangqi a circle of ripples.

Jiang Liu Ruyan, this spring, I walked from the willow smoke.

I walked quietly silent, water, birds. The song melody and vast, copy from rolia, who got a cavity deep sorrow water sit playing the "Pipa" on the other side?

I can't Wade and Du, to pursue the other side of the string and wind sound, listen to her say infinite things, just across the water Lute Music listening tom ford sunglasses, in the misty rain, telling her the mood at the moment.

Jiang Liu Ruyan, this spring, I walked from the willow smoke.

I passed, leaving my footprints, and whose footprint? The song of Taiwan warm response in time, dance hall sleeve cold in years, only Zhu Yangai of a mansion, has witnessed how flourishing, has seen how the wind? The ignorance of youth, how persistently pursue the dreams, how helpless let dreams? Life had tasted, how ecstasy, and how.

When the chunhuaqiuyue, only sadness still. Even if those years is old, the dream has been old, no squandering charming eyes, only love and hate all year long Cloud Provider.

Jiang Liu Ruyan, this spring, I walked from the willow smoke.

Amidst the fog in, great It's only human, in a flat Zeze heart in flooding, drunk out longitudinal poetry Fu word thousands of style. In the world of mortals, we weave the love and pain of the trap, be most willing to fall in with, the pain and happiness, never be bored with sth., refuse to realize one's error!

Spring has quietly fall, spring no longer leave quietly. Butterfly gently over the blue sky, draws the outline of a rainbow iPhone 4 casing.