Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.
Margaret D. Nadauld
My beloved Big Man is Italian. Growing up, he had Sunday dinner at his grandmothers, with the cousins and extended family. Every so often, he waxes nostalgic, and feels bad that we live 1300 miles away from the Little Man's cousins and we only see them sporadically.
When this happens, I bust out the Dean Martin and tie on the apron. I go into full on Italian housewife mode.
I start with an antipasti platter. This one has fresh mozzarella ( it comes in a ball and us in the cheese section of the supermarket), prosciutto, capricola and salami. I added a variety of olives too.
For dinner, I made lasagna. Many years ago (like 20!), I knew the Big Man & I were serious when he had me spend an afternoon with his grandmother and learn how to cook family recipes. My lasagna isn't one of them, but I often think back to that day when I'm making lasagna.
You need:
Lasagna noodles ( I use the no boil to save time)
2 cans sauce
Garlic, minced
Ricotta cheese (16 oz)
1 egg
Basil
Dash nutmeg
2 tbsp red pepper flakes
1/2 c shredded mozzarella
Preheat oven to 375. Mix ricotta, egg, garlic, basil, red pepper & nutmeg together. Layer noodles with ricotta mixture, mozzarella and sauce (noodle-ricotta-noodle-mozzarella/sauce, etc) ending with mozzarella & sauce.
The first half of the movie is a whimsical, romantic, somewhat slapstick comedy set in the years before World War II.
Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni), a young Italian Jew, arrives in Arezzo, where he plans to set up a bookstore, taking a job as a waiter at his uncle's hotel.Guido is both funny and charismatic, especially when he romances a local school teacher, Dora, saying she is beautiful like the morning sunrise (portrayed by Benigni's actual wife Nicoletta Braschi). Dora, however, comes from a wealthy, aristocratic, non-Jewish Italian family.
Dora's mother wants her to marry a well-to-do civil servant, but Dora falls instead for Guido where he ends up stealing her away at her engagement party from her aristocratic and arrogant fiancé.Several years pass in which Guido and Dora marry and have a son, Giosuè (Giorgio Cantarini).
Dora and her mother (Marisa Paredes) are estranged due to the unequal marriage. Later on, a reconciliation takes place just prior to Giosuè's fourth birthday.In the second half of the film, World War II has already begun. Guido, Uncle Eliseo and Giosuè are forced onto a train and taken to a concentration camp on Giosuè's birthday. Despite being a non-Jew, Dora demands to be on the same train to join her family and is permitted to do so.In the camp, Guido hides his son from the Nazi guards, sneaks him food and tries to humor him. In an attempt to keep up Giosuè's spirits, Guido convinces him that the camp is just a game, in which the first person to get 1,000 points wins a tank.
He tells him that if he cries, complains that he wants his mother or says that he is hungry, he will lose points, while quiet boys who hide from the camp guards earn points.Guido convinces Giosuè that the camp guards are mean because they want the tank for themselves and that all the other children are hiding in order to win the game. He puts off Giosuè's requests to end the game and return home by convincing him that they are in the lead for the tank.
Despite being surrounded by rampant misery, sickness and death, Giosuè does not question this fiction because of his father's convincing performance and his own innocence.Guido maintains this story right until the end when, in the chaos caused by the American advance, he tells his son to stay in a sweatbox until everybody has left, this being the final test before the tank is his. After trying to find Dora, Guido is caught, taken away and shot dead by a Nazi guard, but not before making his son laugh one last time by imitating the Nazi guard as if the two of them are marching around the camp together.
Giosuè manages to survive and thinks he has won the game when an American tank arrives to liberate the camp. He is reunited with his mother, not knowing that his father has been killed. Years later, he realizes the sacrifice his father made for him, and that it was because of that sacrifice that he is still alive today. In the film, Giosuè is four and a half years old; however, both the beginning and ending of the film are narrated by an older Giosuè recalling his father's story of sacrifice for his family
One of my all time favorite desserts is tiramisu. There is something about the cakey goodness, the ooey gooey cheesy layer and of course, anything with COFFEE has to be nectar from the gods.
A lot of people are intimidated by tiramisu recipes; with good reason. Here is mine, to demystify the dessert.
1 8x8 cake baked and cooled
2 c coffee or espresso, cooled
1 pkg silken tofu, beaten
2 c cool whip defrosted, seperated
Powdered cocoa for dusting
Cut cake into strips
Mix coffee with tofu and 1 c cool whip. Layer cake and coffee/cool whip/tofu mixture. Top with remaining cool whip, dust with cocoa.
I have a bit of a knack for languages.
If I wasn’t so worried about making a living after college, I probably would have majored in languages, either French or Italian.
I actually have studied all of the Romance languages at one point in time in my life, and I think that Italian really is my favorite.
There is something so romantic about hearing it spoken.
You could be telling someone to scrub the floor and it just sounds so beautiful.
Saute garlic in olive oil until translucent. Pour in sauce and water. Heat until boiling, reduce heat. Add seasonings & sugar, let simmer 20 minutes. Serve over pasta. You can also add cooked ground beef/turkey or sausage or meat balls to it as it simmers.
