About love affairs, Asian-style chicken salad and guilt-free potato chips

Dear F,

I don't know how to tell you this, but I have fallen in love. It happened by accident, we met in a little old store on my way home from the office. I saw him and looked the other way, feigned interest for something on display. I promise you, I tried to leave and not turn back. But I couldn't help it, I could not control my urges. I turned and he was still there. Sleek and sharp looking...I couldn't resist...I left the store with him. We hit it off immediately. I did things with him I had never dreamed of doing before, I suddenly became adventurous, I wanted to try more. I couldn't help myself. Forgive me F, I have fallen for Kyocera, my new Japanese love.

Fifteen-minute cold, rice-stuffed tomatoes

These days my cooking solely involves opening and closing the fridge door and a lot of chopping. I barely glance towards my old friend the oven and even the stove has seen better days. I love you both dearly, I do, but I just can't get myself to add heat to heat. And so yes, I present you with yet another summer dish, with the promise of many roasts, soups and pies to come.

This is a 15-minute recipe because that is how long it takes the rice to cook. I did the prepping, chopping and mixing while feeding the baby, checking up every couple of minutes on my pre-schooler in the tub and setting the table. So it is extremely quick and easy, which is what I like and what this blog is all about. Ideas for dinner on a crazy week day.

Whole grain couscous tabouleh style and roast duck breast

In one of my first posts I mentioned a whole grain cous cous I had just discovered and promised to let you know the outcome once I had tried it. Well, I did and I recommend it. It has a more complex, slightly nuttier flavor that will make any dish more interesting.

I made this a couple of weeks ago, at the height of the heat wave, in my quest for refreshing, refrigerated foods.

A taste of Valtellina: Pizzoccheri and Polenta taragna o concia. Mountain food not to be taken lightly.



Bresaola, the local cured specialty



We just got back from a week end in the mountains and after a fortnight of scortchingly hot weather it was a relief to have to wear fleeces and socks for two days and still be cold. It also required lots of hearty food and wine, so who's complaining?

The minute we approached C and R's, they started cooking up a feast and the marathon eating began. A real butter, pork and cheese fest, I'm telling you.

Vitello tonnato, summer pot luck and other digressions

Remember how a few weeks ago I mentioned in one of my posts that tuna salad is not a staple summer dish here? In Italy, whose Mediterranean waters are renown for tuna fishing? Come on, I kept thinking, there has to be a summer dish with tuna in it...

That got me thinking about summer recipes in general and how they often differ from country to country. The concept of eating foods according to the seasons has never disappeared here (it is obvious why prosciutto&melon/figs and tomato & mozzarella are eaten in the summer). But a close Brazilian friend of mine and I are amused that there are some dishes Italians only eat certain times of the year, and God forbid you order them, make them or serve them at any other time!

YM's green beans in cream

Yesterday I came home to a pretty empty fridge. So I did what I rarely do (unless I am making a pasta dish): I cooked an entirely vegetarian meal inspired by some recipes I had seen on the web and that I just happened to have the ingedients for. Yummy Mummy posted an interesting piece yesterday about recipe ownership and she mentioned an old recipe from her childhood, yellow beans and cream. I just happened to have a bunch of green beans in my fridge and decided to try out this unusual combination. I also made this chickpea recipe I had been thinking about for days to eat along with or in this soupy vegetable dish.

Chickpeas to die for

The minute I read this recipe on Veggie Num Num's blog I knew I had to try them.

I love nibbling, I love salty, I love spicy, who doesn't? I could go through a bag of potato chips as fast as you can read up to here but I only allow myself to do so on rare occasions. So when I saw this healthy and flavorful alternative, I pulled out my mortar and went straight to work.