food Archives - the right effort

Missing Italian Food!

April 14, 2024April 12, 2024Posted in blogging, Italy, Travel, Uncategorized, writingTagged food, travel, TucsonLeave a comment

It’s been a couple of months since my travel in Sicily and I miss eating real Italian food! Of course, when I was with my relatives in Rome, I was truly spoiled with absolutely delicious homemade Italian food! While back home in the southwest USA, I started looking for ricotta, buffalo mozzarella, eggplant parmigiana, and pasta made in Italy. Trader’s Joe has parmesan cheese and ricotta, neither of the quality one would find in Italy, but they will suffice. Costco, thanks to a friend pointing this out to me, does sell pasta products from Italy. (I cannot eat wheat products from the USA.) Buffalo mozzarella is available in various stores. But what I was really hoping for was a place to pick-up an Italian meal already made if they did not sell the individual items to make the meal on my own. So I went searching for Italian delicatessens and bakeries in my town, Tucson. Here are 2 places I stopped at and ate lunch:

Village Bakehouse: Great looking pastries, including various croissants. I ordered lunch: chicken caprese on ciabatta and an iced chai. Order at the register, pick up the drink at the other end of the counter, with food delivered to the table. I’m sitting outdoors in the cool shade. The sandwich was tasty, with mozzarella, tender chicken, tomato and pesto all toasted within the ciabatta. Half my drink was gone by the time my sandwich arrived. For a medium drink, lots of ice- no wonder it was half gone by my sandwich’s arrival. Next visit I’ll try a croissant!

Chicken, mozzarella, pesto on ciabatta… tasty!

Viro’s Real Italian Bakery: I actually was looking for green Italian olives. Not finding olives, I ordered and ate a delicious cheese and mushroom calzone! Many other people were here enjoying spaghetti, fish fry, piping hot soup and gelato! I have no room for gelato or any of the pastries today. While in Sicily, I saw their flag and here it was on the wall. Will have to keep this place in mind for future lunch stops.

No doubt I need to continue my search. These places have food I enjoyed eating and when I look for pastries they both had plenty of that to offer. I’m not usually a pastry-eater, but if timed with a good cup of coffee, well then, that can be another story!

Onward … avanti vado … forward I go!

Pastries at these places:

Sauerkraut & Memories of a Best Friend

April 7, 2024March 21, 2024Posted in blogging, writingTagged food, friendship2 Comments

It’s interesting what makes me think of my best friend who died almost a year ago. Recently I was enjoying bratwurst and sauerkraut, but still had half a jar of sauerkraut remaining. Then it struck me … a memory of a sandwich my friend made for me a few times during our 40 plus year friendship!

I never understood why I never thought of this sandwich on my own because I love Reubens! Maybe it was the fact that I always envisioned sauerkraut dripping all over the place. The trick was uncovered by my friend!

Sandwich laid out with provolone cheese and turkey breast:

Then in the fry pan, heat the sauerkraut so it becomes drier than what was in the jar.

When satisfied with the sauerkraut, put it on your sandwich. So easy…and a delicious sandwich!

Cibo delizioso in Italia

March 4, 2024February 29, 2024Posted in Italy, TravelTagged food, travel2 Comments

Delicious food in Italy with photos

Crab, small squid, eggplant, bruschetta, and in center, calamari … appetizer plate.

Ricotta is whey from goat, sheep or Italian water buffalo milk whey after the production of cheese; therefore, ricotta is not cheese, but whey. This is broken cannoli with ricotta and some pistachio.

Fava beans are grown in Modica area. This soup is made with no dairy.

Left, baked ricotta. On right,
tomato flan; I liked them both!

Little squid on stick. Pastry layered with tomato sauce.

Maritozzo al pistacchio- Delicious with creme inside the dough and pistachio creme on top!

Sfogliatella- 3 to choose from- lemon, chocolate or pistachio; this type has very crusty outer layer

On left, half a sfogliatella frolla with a cream inside and on right, Baba which has sweetened water with drop of rum in this pastry. We had these on our street food tour.

Frittatine- fried dough with macaroni, bechamel sauce and peas. Eat it while it’s hot! Finger food on the street!

Of course there are beers and wine, along with many varieties of pizza and pasta. So many places have finger food or take-away boxes with food. There are vendors providing options that are not Italian food too. Eating your way through Italy is a vacation option!

Best bagel was made by an owner at Beehive hostel in Rome. I ate this upon my arrival there…wow, perfect bagel!

My family members in Rome took me out for dinner and I ordered Margherita pizza with mushrooms and eggplant. Delicious! I ate half and took rest as take-away.

Okay, I think I have made my point about the delicious food in Italy. Of course, I shopped for tangerines and tomatoes to add to my diet, otherwise I felt I was on a constant carbo-loading of pizza and pastries! Overall, I loved the olives, salami, lasagna, pizza and pastries. An espresso was only in early morning or more often a cappuccino. I loved the paninis with ham and cheese for breakfast or lunch. The majority of time, while on my own, I ate late large lunch and no dinner. The wine was good, but also the beer. Do not visit Italy without delving into all the food! Mangiare!

PS. I need to find an Italian bakery where I live!!

Are More Plant-based Meals In My Future?

February 1, 2024December 31, 2023Posted in blogging, environment, writingTagged environment, food, the futureLeave a comment

Plant-based foods are nutritious and can be tasty if you take time to plan your meals. I admit, my partner is most conscious of planning meals away from animal products. But watching “Nature” and “Planet Earth” television programs, I understand simple changes to my diet I could help the planet. Actually it may be more about my helping future populations of people hoping to continue their life on this planet.

You may not agree that climate change affects our planet, but many plants and animals are extinct because the environment does not allow them to thrive. You could think about that also in terms of the human population. More and more people are leaving their home because it is no longer survivable where they hoped to live. We are fortunate in the USA to not witness this major human migration yet.

Recently I learned 75% of all the agricultural land on earth is to grow livestock feed for cows, pigs and chickens. As I mentioned above, there are people in climate-changed environments leaving their homes. Drought in their area and thus no ability to grow the food they need to eat. Yet across the planet, we are using many acres of agricultural lands, drawing tons of water to grow livestock feed, allowing fertilizers to run-off into local streams, and feeding livestock in huge feedlots. If we ate fewer cows, sheep, bison and goats there would also be less methane in the air. Cows belch one-third of the global methane emissions. As a result, innovative systems are giving cows methane-reducing feed supplements, but all pales with what is needed to reduce climate-warming gases.

I admit it, I love cheese! Yes I know it comes from goats and cows. Again recently, I learned this is actually worse than eating some meats! Cheese-making unfortunately produces two times more gases warming the planet than processing the same amount of poultry. Who knew? And now that I know I need to add it to everything else I am learning. What would be a productive transition for me to a more plant-based diet? There are vegan cheese options available for me to try in the future. I could reduce my meat consumption further during the week. There is no plant-based meat alternative I like, at this time. The large meat companies do try to encourage us to eat their meat alternative. The companies are getting push-back from environmentally-conscious buyers who do not want to buy and consume meat.

My goal is not to be vegetarian or vegan. It is however to eat real food and skip food alternatives made in a chemistry lab. Buying local beans, nuts, seasonal fruits and vegetables would be a big step in the right direction for me for a more plant-based diet. It may seem like a huge ask; however, being mindful of my food choices is my actual goal. With every reduction of my carbon footprint I hope people have a better climate in the future; that’s important to me.

Next, to think about transportation.

Connected With Technology Again!

November 12, 2023October 18, 2023Posted in blogging, writingTagged food, PizzaLeave a comment

Technology …. While on the road I often spend hours downloading photos and my daily eBird checklist. However, when home the time on technology seems to ramp up. There’s good and not so good to this. I’m pretty good limiting my cyber time, but to zoom with friends and wine club activities … that’s a “yes”!

It’s time to enjoy an apertivo, wine and to make a margherita pizza. All this to happen at home connected with our wineries and Truffle Shuffle by zoom! Ah yes, the world of technology! The apertivo included Romano cheese, Marcona almonds (just recently introduced to me by my Idaho friends … Marcona almonds are sold at Trader Joes) and marinated olives. I swallow a bite of cheese, almonds and olives with some wine. Yes, I realize this is not camp food; I am home!

Our homework for this activity: watch a YouTube presentation and make the pizza dough the day before the activity. Of course we did that, thanks again to the world of technology, YouTube. (Remember it was YouTube presentations where I learned how to make sliding draws in my van, and other things.) Anyway, while enjoying our apertivo, we punched down the pizza dough again and were ready to make our pizza!

The wineries: Benziger Family Winery and Imagery Estate Winery are in Glen Ellen, California. We first visited Benziger’s certified biodynamic estate years ago for a tour and wine-tasting. Then drove across the road to Imagery for a wine-tasting there. Their wine bottle labels are quite interesting because as many as 35 artists create possible future Imagery wine labels. The only requirement is to have the winery’s signature: a likeness of the Parthenon replica found on the Benziger Estate. Finding the Parthenon in the artwork is a challenge on some labels, but it is there!

Pizza creating time: we received all the ingredients to make this pizza. Flour, yeast and warm water did their magic 24 hours before! Dough was set on a pan while we added Nonna’s Truffle tomato sauce, sliced heirloom tomatoes, mozzarella and parmesan cheese. We learned how to chiffonade basil. Simply lay basil leaves individually on top of each other, roll them like a burrito, slice at an angle. Then sprinkle Balinese Truffle Salt on top. This salt is from Bali, blended with French truffles and a touch of mushroom powder. The pizza goes into a pre-heated oven for 25 minutes.

“Little ribbons” of basil; we did chiffonade our basil!

Time for more technology … 65 zoom participants interacted with the family/staff of the 2 wineries, who explained the different wines in this meal. The Truffle Shuffle chef explained how to prepare the pizza and answered other cooking questions. When the pizza was done, the chiffonade of basil and more Balinese Truffle salt were added to the pizza. “Mangia”, time to eat! And drink some wine! Technology brought this experience to us. With a delivery of fresh delicious ingredients and wine, we produced and eventually consumed one heck of a good meal! Grazie to all!

Photo taken before we ate any more of the pizza…it was delicious!

Use This in the Kitchen?

May 19, 2020May 14, 2020Posted in blogging, writingTagged create, food, jibberjabber1 Comment

A couple of years ago I was given, let’s call it an egg cooker, this gift from one of my younger sisters. I do not remember any special reason for the gift, except for maybe she was not making use of hers! Actually I now have two of these “egg cookers”. The funny thing about it all … I always think of her when I use it, plus it is one of my quick go-to ways to make breakfast. I now know what to do with this egg cooker! This is my creation.

Here goes.

Line up your ingredients: raw egg, cheese and mushrooms if you wish, roll or bread if you wish, egg cooker, fork, knife, salt, pepper, salsa if you wish. Crack the egg into the white side of the egg cooker and beat the egg with the fork. Toss in sliced mushroom and some cheese, my first choices, but you can add in what you want. Be sure the egg covers all the added items. Close the clear lid over and cook in microwave for 90 seconds.

Left, toss then cook. Right, all cooked.

Finally, out of the microwave and removed from the egg cooker into a roll or onto bread. Maybe add some salt, pepper or salsa and your breakfast is ready to eat in no time flat! Enjoy!

Things I learned from using the egg cooker:

Do not throw in beans or tomatoes or any foods that when they heat will explode in the microwave. You do not want to spend time cleaning the microwave later. I learned the hard way and only once!
I can create a breakfast meal in the same amount of time it takes my coffee to brew.
Salsa is the best to add once out of the microwave; adds so much flavor to it all!
The egg cooker is easy to clean: wipe it out with paper towel and put it on the top rack of the dishwasher.
I think of my sister every time I use this egg cooker, and I like that! So glad I now have two! Thanks sis!

Educate Me About Saladitos, Please.

February 3, 2016January 27, 2016Posted in UncategorizedTagged blogging101, food, plums, saladitos3 Comments

You know how we joke about never seeing a particular red car and then all of a sudden you begin to see it everywhere? Well that is how I am feeling about saladitos?

I had no idea what they are, and actually I still have little idea. I had seen them at the supermarket and then at the drugstore. They hang in small and large plastic bags simply stating they are dried salted plums. Hmm…here in the southwest maybe it is an easy way to keep some salt in my diet, especially after a sweaty bike ride or tennis match. So I decide to actually purchase a bag.

Well, someone really needs to educate me about this food. Here’s what happened. I popped one dried salted plum into my mouth. They are salty! Very, very salty!! I think I took in enough salt to last me at least 2 days. Then I was looking for the plum….yes, it is dried …so much so, I had a difficult time getting any sense of a fleshy something. The pit seemed larger than anything so I rolled that around in my mouth. All of this activity lasted about one minute or less because the salt was just overwhelming!

I have a whole bag of these saladitos! What to do. I researched it on the web. Some people love these things! Some wrote about the fleshiness of them. What? Am I eating the same snack as these people? I see no recipe so I decide I will soak one dried salted plum in some water for a day. Okay, now I truly see no fleshiness to this item and it is no better in my mouth.

So please someone educate me about saladitos before I toss the bag! Thanks!