3. carciofi alla romana. soooo good. my sister goes for the carciofi alla giudia...but the romana is my favorite. the ones they serve at edy, in rome, are the best!

2. i love the trees along the tiber. especially in fall. the tiber itself is beautiful to me. it isn't very clean looking and i probably wouldn't want to swim in it (!), but there is something mysterious and wonderful about it. i like to imagine what life was like, before those trees, and before the walls, when the people of rome would walk to the river to plant their gardens.
i love to walk that river, crunching the leaves beneath my shoes...and watching the changing light.

20 things i love about italy.
1. i love hearing the sounds of lunch (or dinner for that matter) being prepared. i love walking down a little street and hearing clinking glasses. the sounds of silverware and plates being collected. maybe a pot being banged around a bit.
it is such a comforting feeling.....that somewhere, someone is taking care, preparing a meal and sitting down with to share.
i won't even get into the smells........

i am finding this interesting. never thought she would get married in the church. she just reserved the church her dad and i were married in.....31 years ago. wasn't sure about the dress. then she picked a beautiful, lacy, old-fashioned one. and i got a bit misty.
she has taken to cooking lately. soups and roasts. salads. shopping, so they have good food around. going to the flea markets and stopping into her local goodwills. loving most every plate she sees.
i am now convinced they did indeed give me the RIGHT baby at the hospital.

soon he will have a real bathroom!

some inspiration for july.

• drink more rose. you know, rose-AY.
  
• make a perfect, mustardy vinaigrette.
• eat more omelets.

esperpento. good stuff.

of course i forgot my camera, so i'll have to settle for this "through the window" shot. coolest little eatery in murphys, california...very good food and an adorable patio to eat it in. mismatched vintage seating, old restaurant pitchers and all those other things i'm a sucker for.
i would go back just to sit around on the patio...and maybe nose around the interior a bit more.

she made it seem quite easy. pull out a chaise lounge and some mismatched chairs. throw a cloth over an old beat up table. put some wildflowers in a few chipped cups and set them around. set the baby chickens in a pen in the yard....throw some chicken (not the baby chicks, but some other, unknown ones) and asparagus on the grill. uncork the wine.
it was a perfect late spring afternoon.

this ripple business is my new favorite thing. i'm amazed that i can actually DO this.

a new direction.

after years (11 to be exact) of lovely green walls and a jumble of mismatched furniture, i'm ready for a clean start. first came the buttery white walls. then came banishing all the beat up furniture to the basement.
i'm loving the clean look so much i'm not even going to hang a picture in this little corner of the dining room.
next comes some new furniture and some colorful pillows. a new rug and lamp shades. all in due time.....

visited the coyote hills regional park today for the first time. it was wonderful. i want to live there.

the opposite of daffodils.

i have been a bit envious of many winter photos on flickr. a sloppy puddle of rain just does not compare with a pristine winter snow shot. so...a quick trip to tahoe gave me just what i needed before spring. some snow.
i wanted to jump out of the car every few feet to take a picture. snowfall weighing down a tree branch, the icicles hanging from roof tops. or just the way the sun hits pure powder.
so now i think i'm ready to let go.....and welcome spring.
and tomorrows forecast is??? a chance of showers.

so much rain this year. i'm not complaining. we need it. yesterday was a great day to sit on the couch and crochet while it rained and poured outside. thunder too!
i was just thinking that i've basically had the same two outfits on all winter. either my yoga pants or a pair of jeans. how very boring. i hope to shake things up come springtime, but then again i ALWAYS say that. maybe this year.
the sun looked so pretty shining on these little daffodils. a sign of things to come???

2:100 meals...a cup of gypsy cold care tea for breakfast. mild sniffles. a storm coming. it seems like a perfect day to stay inside.
i can sit here with my tea and watch the wrens starting to make a nest in a birdhouse right outside my kitchen window. the finches, robins and juncos are making their usual mess in the front...but these wrens only come once a year. to build a nest and hatch their eggs.
yes, a perfect day for tea.

1:100 meals.... tea at julies.
well...there was more wine consumed than tea...but you get the point. beet and spinach salad, freshly baked bread with butter, salt and radishes. and wonderful, wonderful desserts.
talk of photography, travel and food. i always fill up with more than food when i visit with julie. i come home filled with ideas and inspiration...let's re-arrange some furniture, slap on some paint somewhere and bake a cake.
thank you funny friend....for a lovely friday afternoon.

when my mother-in-law cleans out her cupboards, i get the coolest things. blue willow china, old black and white photographs of san francisco, vintage silverware. good stuff. my latest gifts are these old cookbooks. they are great fun to browse through. i'm currently reading (not pictured) "bohemian san francisco". it's almost 100 years old and quite the hoot. it's about restaurant life in san francisco pre and post the 1906 earthquake.
so far i've learned that mexicans are dirty and can not make good soup. who knew? and it was quite fashionable in restaurants serving southern food to have "darkeys" playing music during dinner service. different times, indeed.
i've been thinking it would be fun to check out the addresses of these old restaurants, book in hand, and see what is going on there now.

i've finally decided on my subject for my "100 photos" flickr project. 100 meals. because i need more flowers and candlelight in my life.

i am slowly cooking my way through this one. the italian country table-home cooking from italy's farmhouse kitchens. good stuff.
it's funny how all these "cool" things on menus today...bruschetta, crostini, pappa al pomodori...are just ways nonna came up with to use stale bread! nothing fancy. left-over bread stretched the meat in the polpetti. and thickened the ribollito.
smart people, those italians.

rain. hail. thunder and lightening. there is some weather going on in california. we've been like a couple of old folks...reading our books by the fire. soup on the stove. if i wasn't feeling so lazy i'd bake some bread.
tonight we'll settle in with our bowls full and be thankful for all we have. i've been so unsettled by the news of the world...that i've decided to do a "news fast". i've been easing into it since the new year when i gave up a couple of my favorite news sources. it's just too much. especially the comments on some sites. really, am i better off knowing the opinion of some asshole i don't even know?? i think not. it didn't used to be this way, but i'm done.
i'm going for the positive this year. where ever i can find it.
so right now i'm happy for the rain we so need here. and the soup on my stove.

aren't they amazing? my photographs from the wildly gifted julie. these are so meaningful to me...food and all! i'm so pleased that she asked me to pose. "no chins, please".
i have some really talented friends and family and i always appreciate the encouragement they give to me. to try new things. see the everyday in a new light.
aren't they amazing???

the days went by oh so slowly when i was on the master cleanse. oh. so. slowly. it dawned on me that a large portion of my day revolves around food. and when you take that food away?? well, what do you do?
i ironed. linens and napkins for two and a half days. normally i hate to iron, but i quite enjoyed this. i dug out everything and washed and ironed away. all the while thinking about what i'm going to cook next. and which linens to serve it on.

some thoughts on the master cleanse: please be over soon. not that it tastes bad. it's quite pleasant actually. my skin looks wonderful, my eyes are so very white and bright. i even think "the gut" has gone down quite a bit.
however...i really can't wait to cook again! i have discovered that i spent A LOT of time thinking about food, reading about food, shopping for food, cooking food. really a lot because they only thing i can think to do this week is iron. really. i hate to iron...but have been ironing my linens for two days now! next will be stain removal and maybe dying that boring white tablecloth purple. oh, and i cleaned out the pantry and cupboards. and rearranged my plates and platters.
so.......i'm looking forward to saturday when i can make a heaping pot full of vegetable soup...and eat again!

little box of salad greens. it's amazing how they wait around through the rain and a bit of frost. no attention paid to them. i've also got some chard, chicory and carrots. and there are still peppers left over from summer. such beautiful colors and great crunch...hanging out in the california
winter sunshine, waiting to be my lunch.
however, i am doing the master cleanse this week. i've done a two day ease-in, day one fruits and vegetables and day two fruit and vegetable juice. next is five days of the lemon drink and then a three day ease-out. i hope to be de-toxified for the new year.
so my crunchy greens will just have to hang out in the garden a bit more. because i'm pretty sure i will gobble them all up come the week-end.