How Much is Quanto Basta? (Mar 20, 2011)

2011 U.S.Tour, U.S. Cooking2 Comments

“Q.b.” for quanto basta (“as much as you need”) is the most common annotation in Italian cookbooks. It’s a secret I like to share at the start of each cooking class, whether here in our Assisi area farmhouse or at U.S. cooking classes each winter. Paulette and Jim’s group really took the quanto basta to heart when we cooked together in Ft. Washington, Maryland, at their home in mid-March, 2011. When anyone asked me about the right amount of olive oil or wine or salt or vinegar needed in the recipes, my most frequent response was “q.b.”…
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Sing for Your Supper? This Class Could Have…! (Mar 19, 2011)

2011 U.S.Tour, U.S. CookingLeave a comment

No one would want to hear me “sing for my supper” but many at a delightful cooking class in Rockville, Maryland certainly could have done so! Starting with hosts, Dick and Mary – and their co-host, Lyn (who opened her home to us, along with husband Larry): last September, Dick, Mary and Lyn reveled in the Berkshire Choral Fest week of Umbrian hilltown touring (how great to guide this wonderful group!) and singing (voice study in the afternoons, with their conductor)…
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Revered Rural Rite: La Veglia

Folklore, Rural Friends, Rural LifeLeave a comment

For Roosevelt, a “fireside chat” denoted intimate dialogue with the people. The fireside chat – called “veglia” (“vigil”) – was always an intimate moment of life in central Italy’s rural culture. I miss those years of the “andare alla veglia” (“going to keep the vigil”) at our neighbors’ farmhouses on winter evenings, where so much rural lore and rural wisdom was passionately shared by our farm friends around the fireplace.
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Houston Cooking Class Escapes the Evil Eye (Mar 1, 2011)

2011 U.S.Tour, U.S. CookingLeave a comment

Never put a loaf of bread on the table upside down: porta male (“brings bad luck”). Everyone will jump up to turn it over, making the corna sign (“horns”) against the mal’occhio (“evil eye”). Bread is sacred. Never throw out leftover bread. Porta male. Countless Italian dishes with breadcrumbs as well as bruschetta and panzanella (old-bread-cold-salad) solve the challenge of what to do with stale bread.
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