ragazzi

I got on the train the other day and was immediately greeted by a group of loud Italian teenagers. They were so undeniably Italian, in fact, that I froze up and was momentarily convinced that I had teleported back to Milan instead of boarding the R train as I had meant to do. To me, there is something so recognizable about Italian teens (at least the ones in Florence and Milan). I knew I would fail at describing it, so I took a secret picture instead.

bad vegan!

The transition from omnivore to vegan was pretty easy for me, mostly because I have never been a big dairy eater. I don't even like butter (except in baked goods). And I like eggs, but mainly in a scramble to hold together a mass amount of leftover vegetables. So giving them up was pretty much just like any other day.

This doesn't mean I don't love cooking with eggs and butter. In fact, I relish it. And now that my 19-year-old cousin is staying with us, I have an enthusiastic recipient of all things I decide to bake and cook him. I had to lure him out of bed with something the other day, so I decided to make him the mother of all breakfast sandwiches, with ham, pepperjack cheese, and a fried egg on sourdough bread, which had been grilled to delicious, melty perfection in vast amounts of butter.

Recipes for 2011

I got seven (7!!!) cookbooks for Christmas, and it reminded me that I really need to start making lists of recipes I want to try. These are a few of the ones that I've come across online recently that I really need to make*.

Green Olive Gnocchi
Roasted Eggplant Soup
Linguini with Tomato-Almond Pesto
Rustic Winter Stew with Polenta
Fig and Olive Tapenade
Farro Salad with Mushrooms
Farfalle with Golden Beets
Vegan Pot Pie

*Note: All of these recipes are either vegan or easily adaptable to a vegan diet, which is part of why I'm so excited to make them. Yay veggies!

wintry

EATALY

That's right. It happened. This is the closest to a pilgrimage I'll ever get, and it was wonderful. I get dizzy just thinking about it. Imagine fifty different kinds of olive oil, a gelato bar, a counter where you can buy fresh pasta by the kilogram, fifteen different kinds of prosciutto, a wine selection that makes your head spin, and Lidia Bastianich's son in Prada shoes (no really, he was there). Yes, I saw all of these things. And yes, it was glorious. I nearly had a heart attack doing it, but I made it out of there with a loaf of olive bread, some pasta, and a bottle of wine.

If you don't know what EATALY is, then here you go. Also - we are no longer friends.










making pasta

carciofi

weigh and price your own veggies - just like in Italia!

la piazza

All the tomatoes.

l'autunno

There are few things I like more than Autumn. And there are few things I like more than farmer's markets. So when you put the two together - watch out, I might explode from sheer joy.

radishes

regular, red, and yellow swiss chard

red, green, yellow tomatoes

pumpkins and kiddies

Téa eating a fall-themed vegan cupcake (I didn't tell her it was vegan. Muahahahaha)

hahahaha

Thanks you David Leibovitz