briciole

anno nuovo nei parchi / new year in the parks

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

Joshua Tree National Park

If the word "desert" (deserto) brings to your mind a desolate, waterless land covered with sand and devoid of vegetation, the deserts in Southern California will correct that notion. I chose to visit the deserts closest to us during this Holiday season, because I felt the need to be in a simple landscape for a while, to quiet down some internal turmoil and thoughts that seemed to always come in an avalanche, drowning my ability to analyze them and put them in some kind of order. We spent the days around New Year's Day (Capodanno) in some of the most amazing places on the face of the Earth. It was a great gift to ourselves.

We started with Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, went on to Joshua Tree National Park, then crossed the Mojave National Preserve to reach Death Valley National Park. I will write more about each place, as each deserves some carefully written thoughts. Here, I am sharing four images of intense emotion out of the hundreds I took. My passionate desire to capture some of the natural magic surrounding me mostly remained a wishful thinking (pio desiderio) as the majesty of the landscape eluded my limited skill as a photographer.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

On New Year's Day, we crossed the Mojave National Preserve and stopped at the visitor center in the restored Kelso Depot. While admiring the exhibit there, a feeling of gratefulness all but overwhelmed me: this 1.6 million acre park belongs to us, to the public. This land is our land.

I then thought about making a proposal for the New Year for briciole's readers. It is not meant to be a resolution, which feels like a burden we place on the new year before it is old enough to stand on its feet.

I was ready to write a post about my proposal, when I read a thoughtful post written by dear Patricia Volonakis Davis, titled A Better You Equals A Better World. I invite you to read the whole post, though I will be focusing on a portion of it.

As soon as I read the first point Patricia makes, I knew I had found the right name for my proposal. This is what she writes:

Instead of making resolutions, let this year be a year of "gratitutions." Gratitutions are statements of gratitude made along with any criticisms you have of yourself or changes you wish to make.

I like the word "gratitution," because it invites us to pause, think, give thanks and then act mindfully.

Mojave National Preserve

So, here is my proposal, rephrased in light of the new perspective as a gratitution. Let us be grateful for parks, for the land set aside at county, state and national level for conservation and for the public to enjoy. This land is beautiful, sometimes to the point of leaving us grasping for words.

Then, let us honor our parks by visiting them. If you've always wanted to visit a specific park (parco), near or far, let 2013 be the year you finally go. This does not require special trips: chances are, there is a county park where you live. Let that be the object of your attention. 

Death Valley National Park

Each park is a treasure (tesoro) and has treasures to give. We may think we are doing something for the parks by visiting them, but I can assure you, the parks do a lot more for us.

I am grateful for the visionary people who worked and work hard to ensure the legacy of our parks (in the case of Joshua Tree, it was a woman, Miverva Hamilton Hoyt). I am grateful for all the people who work to ensure that our visit to each park is informed, enjoyable and safe. I will continue to do all I can to support our county, state and national parks (including writing about them).

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

anno nuovo nei parchi

or launch the anno nuovo nei parchi audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

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Per i lettori italiani

Joshua Tree National Park

Se la parola "deserto" vi fa pensare ad una landa desolata, priva di acqua e vegetazione e coperta di sabbia, i deserti della California meridionale correggeranno tale idea. Ho scelto di visitare deserti durante le vacanze di Natale perché sentivo il bisogno di trovarmi per un po' in un paesaggio semplice. Sono dei luoghi incredibilmente affascinanti.

Abbiamo cominciato il viaggio con Anza-Borrego State Park, poi siamo andati al Joshua Tree National Park, abbiamo attraversato Mojave National Preserve e abbiamo concluso il giro a Death Valley National Park. Ho intenzione di scrivere qualcosa di più su ciascuno di questi luoghi. In questo post condivido quattro foto tra le molte che ho scattato. Il mio desiderio di catturare in qualche modo la magia dei paesaggi e rimasto più che altro un pio desiderio dati i miei limiti come fotografa.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

Il giorno di Capodanno abbiamo attraversato Mojave National Preserve e ci siamo fermati al centro informazioni nella stazione restaurata di Kelso. Mentre ammiravo la mostra didattica sono stata sopraffatta da un profondo senso di gratitudine: questo parco di oltre 6200 km² appartiene a tutti noi.

Allora ho pensato di fare una proposta per il Nuovo Anno, un invito ai lettori di briciole. Ero pronta a scrivere la mia proposta, quando ho letto un post bellissimo scritto dalla cara Patricia Volonakis Davis, intitolato A Better You Equals A Better World. Vi invito a leggere il post per intero (in inglese): io mi riferirò ad una parte di esso.

Come ho letto il primo punto che Patricia elenca, ho capito di aver trovato il nome giusto per la mia proposta. Ecco che cosa scrive:

Instead of making resolutions, let this year be a year of "gratitutions." Gratitutions are statements of gratitude made along with any criticisms you have of yourself or changes you wish to make.

Invece di fare buoni propositi, facciamo buone gratitudini. Buone gratitudini sono affermazioni di gratitudine unite ad autocritica e a progetti di cambiamento che vogliamo realizzare. (traduzione mia)

Patricia ci invita a fermarci, pensare un attimo, essere grati e poi agire con attenzione.

Mojave National Preserve

La mia proposta, riscritta in termini di buona gratitudine, è questa. La gratitudine è per i parchi, per i territori messi da parte a livello regionale o nazionale per la conservazione e per l'uso del pubblico. Queste aree sono bellissime, a volte talmente tanto da lasciarci senza parole.

La parte attiva della buona gratitudine è quella di rendere omaggio ai nostri parchi visitandoli. Se avete da tempo in mente di visitare un certo parco, vicino o lontano, che il 2013 sia l'anno in cui lo fate. Non c'è bisogno di fare viaggi: è possibile che ci sia un parco vicino a dove abitate e potete sceglierlo come oggetto della vostra attenzione.

Death Valley National Park

Ogni parco è una ricchezza e ha ricchezze da elargire. Quando visitiamo un parco pensiamo di fare qualcosa per esso, ma in realtà è il parco a fare molto di più per noi.

Sono grata a coloro che si sono dati e si danno da fare per stabilire parchi e a tutti coloro che lavorano per fare in modo che la nostra visita sia istruttiva e gradevole.

♥ i parchi

briciole su Sale&Pepe / briciole on Sale&Pepe magazine

from the November issue of the Italian magazine Sale&Pepe

Good news: briciole is one of the blogs featured on the Foodblogger page of the November issue of the esteemed Italian food magazine Sale&Pepe (which earlier this year celebrated 25 years of publication).

The issue includes an article (with recipes) dedicated to handmade pasta from Apulia, hence the choice of bloggers passionate about fresh pasta.

And speaking of pasta, a reminder that this week I am hosting Presto Pasta Nigths. I am preparing a post on another adventure in fresh pasta making. Stay tuned!

risveglio / waking up

THE VIEW FROM THE BED

I have been away from home for a week, away from my kitchen. I am in a beautiful place, surrounded by beautiful people. More on the trip in a future post.

eventi e notizia

events...

There is a lot going on here at briciole this week and the next one, and you are all invited to participate:

• Presto Pasta Nigths #269 — deadline: Thursday, June 21
• Weekend Herb Blogging #339 (English and Italian edition) — deadline: Sunday, June 24
• Novel Food #16 — deadline: Sunday, July 1
• Abbecedario Culinario d'Italia: M come Matera (in Italian) — deadline: Sunday, July 1

Follow the link to learn the details of each event then join us for the ones that appeal to you.

and news

I recently started to contribute to Ganzo, a neat online magazine on Italian taste, style, happenings and people. My posts so far have focused on beloved kitchen tools and their usage:

• great courses demand grated cheese
• cutting board and mezzaluna
• pastry board and rolling pin

You can always access the list by clicking on the  link under In Other News on the right panel.

sette link

seven links

Paola of An Italian Cooking in the Midwest and Brii of briggishome have invited me to the seven link challenge (here and here): albeit with some delay (for which I apologize), I am hereby taking it up.

It is a difficult challenge to answer, because it asks me to choose a post with specific characteristics and since I have about 500 posts, it is not easy to keep all of them in mind. So, my choices come with the disclaimer that they represent my current thought and are subject to my memory. In a month, I may have a different set of answers. But maybe I am taking this a bit too seriously (I am known to do so) and should just relax and have fun.

1. The most beautiful post

It takes me time and effort to write a post, so they are all beautiful to me.

2. The most popular post

homemade mascarpone

Measured by number of page hits according to google analytics (which I started using a bit more than a year after I started the blog), it is the post on making mascarpone at home. If you have not tried the recipe, I recommend you do it: the mascarpone you get is vastly superior to anything you can buy in the US. (The post has also the Italian version.)

3. The most controversial post

Being controversial is not my style. Probably the most controversial statement I made is in my second post. Nobody knew me at that time, so I didn't get any reactions.

4. The most helpful post

This is really difficult to answer, because the perspective can be that of the writer or that of the reader. I certainly don't know which of my posts is considered the most helpful by readers, though I have received nice testimony to that effect for a number of posts (like this one on Swiss chard).

In general, I consider writing my posts always helpful for myself for a number of reasons:

• writing forces me to make myself clear
  
• in the case of a recipe, writing makes me being precise
• questions from readers may point to areas that need clarification
• writing a post is part of the big conversation that having a blog entails
• in a number of cases, I have used material from a post to write a longer article

I have added clarifying notes to my post on making mascarpone at home a few times in response to comments or references to my post. The post helped me realize that differences across the world pertain not only measurements, but the name of ingredients, in this case whipping cream.

5. The most surprisingly successful post

ingredients to make spaghetti al burro e parmigiano

I did not expect that my post on pasta al burro e parmigiano would become popular and be referenced by a number of esteemed bloggers. This and pasta with ricotta were my favorite pasta options as a kid.

tagliatelle con la ricotta

6. The post that did not get the attention it deserved

Answering this makes me a bit uncomfortable, as it is a veiled criticism of readers for not paying attention. In each of my posts, I try to convey a bit about me and a bit about my cultural background, besides whatever dish or other topic I am discussing. Publishing means that you offer what you have to the public, but you also have to accept that not everybody may share your interest or feel like expressing their appreciation (or otherwise) publicly.

In the fall of 2007, Lisa of Champaign Taste and I started Novel Food, an event that brings together literature and food. In the four years we have been co-hosting it (most recently, I have hosted it by myself, as Lisa is taking time off blogging), we have had a group of devoted participants. It is an event very dear to my heart and I will continue hosting it. I am taking advantage of this venue to bring it to people's attention: I believe it deserves it. It is a bit more challanging than other events, but it is quite rewarding. (The next edition will be announced some time in February.)

7. The post I am most proud of

The very first one. Short as it is (the original was shorter than the current one, since the second sentence was added afer I published the post it references), clicking on the Publish button to send it out there took some courage and I am proud of that.

Looking at my first post also gives me a sense of how far I have traveled, in terms of my writing, my photos and my circle of friends in the blogosphere. Thank you all for being there!

---

Pola of An Italian Cooking in the Midwest also kindly presented me with the Cannolo Award, which I have been proudly displaying on my sidebar ever since.

I would like to pass the award to two bloggers:

Ann of La Buona Cucina pays homage to her Italian heritage in the kitchen of her home in South Carolina, where she lives with her beautiful family. Besides cooking for her family, she teaches cooking classes.

Kathy of Food Lover's Odyssey knows a lot about Italy and its culinary traditions and her blog is a rich source of information. I am particularly grateful to her for her weekly review Italy on a Plate: The Week in Italian Food, an always interesting collection of carefully selected blog posts, news and events (here is the most recent edition).

botte

barrel, cask

The first botti I came to know as a child had lived their file as wine containers and were located in the cave my father and her sister had in their native village. I know this sounds strange, but that is how it was: not far from the house in Poggio Catino, inside the village, a massive door opened to reveal a high-ceilinged, dark and cool corridor carved into the rock. For many years that was our refrigerator and also our long-term storage area for staples like fruit, wine and olive oil, and also for the wood my aunt used during the winter to fuel her stove and fireplace. I was afraid of going there by myself, but loved visiting it with one of the adults, because of the earthy smell and the cool temperature.

Botti smell good: of wood, wine and work. One of my uncles was a bottaio, a maker of botti.

I have always been small, short if you wish: I am 5'1" and usually have no problems with it. Have you ever seen a Fiat 500 car? One of the advantages of being small is that I could fit in that car. From third through fifth grade I had a teacher who was a tall man. He was the first one to tell me that nelle botti piccole sta il vino buono (literally, good wine is found in small barrels, meaning: good things come in small packages).

There are other sayings involving botti. The first one of this selection is quite funny:

• volere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca (to want to have your cake and eat it too; I know, the English saying is slightly different: I adjusted it to the Italian construction, which literally means to want to have the barrel full and the wife drunk¹);
• dare un colpo al cerchio e uno alla botte (to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds, which is a British expression and means to try to be on good terms with both sides in a conflict or a dispute; in Italian is also used to describe trying to answer conflicting needs);
• essere in una botte di ferro (to be on sure ground, literally, to be in an iron barrel).

¹I realized I had omitted the literal translation of the Italian expression: apologies to the early readers.

Hear me pronounce the words and expressions on the botte audio file [mp3] or go to the botte audio page for more listening options.