Witch's brew and blackberry crumble

Halloween is right around the corner and tonight we will be carving our pumpkin...

The celebration of Halloween is pretty recent here in Italy and the commercial aspect is preponderant as this tradition really has no ties with the Catholic tradition except for its proximity to All Souls Day on November 2nd and the name (Halloween comes from All Hollows Eve - the evening before Hallowmas, all hallows mass, better known as All Saints Day. The name however possible also derives from the pre-Christian-era saying all allows even - the eve when all is permitted).  Originally, after its establishment in 610 A.D., All Saints was celebrated in May but it was then moved to November 1 in 1048 A.D. to try to overshadow the pagan Celtic celebration of Samhain, the end of summer. During this celebration, people left food out for the dead and it was believed that fairies and elfs played tricks on humans, which is where the trick-or-treat tradition comes from.

As a child, growing up in Italy, Halloween was our private celebration. My mother used to bring over decoration from NY and we we got dressed up and were allowed to invite our best friends for dinner. I remember Venetian children of the end Seventies being quite puzzled as to why they had to come to dinner wearing a costume, when clearly Carnival is in February, but kids will be kids and any opportunity to get dressed up and tell ghost stories is a good one. I also remember my nanny taking a boat and a bus out of Venice on a quest to find a pumpkin only to come back after half a day with a yellow, warty pumpkin no larger than a tennis ball that a distant cousin of hers had grown in his garden. These days, I no longer have that problem. Supermarkets are full of plastic gadgets and fresh orange pumpkins and some even sell pumpkin or ghost shaped cookies but the more traditional aspect hasn't really caught on, creating a bizzare jumble of practices. Clubs and bars have Halloween-themed parties making it more of a fun evening for students than children.

Oatmeal, chocolate chip & sour cherry cookies

I still have a large amount of rolled oats sitting in my cabinet left over from the fudge oatmeal bar recipe.

I like them, I really do, but whenever I buy them they end up shoved into the back of the cupboard, forgotten and abandoned after my initial enthusiasm. I didn't want that to happen this time. I didn't want to be that girl again. You know, the fickle one, the kind you meet at a party and you have a really fun time with, who makes you feel special by laughing at your jokes and hanging out with you for a while. The kind who really means it when they say "I'll call you" and then gets distracted by a newer, more interesting arrival. I betrayed my oat friends many a time. I fell for their simplicity and versatility, got all exicted about all the things we could create together: cookies, crumbles, hearty soups...why, even meatloaf! Only to forget about them when my eye caught something a little more exciting like a warmly scented, unknown spice from a far away country or a new glossy vegetable showing up at the market.

This time I am keeping my promise. I will not forsake you, my friends.

Trilogy: ragù, bechamel sauce and lasagne

The week end started pretty badly.

Our little one brought home some nasty germs from day care on Wednesday and by Friday the whole family was hit by the dreaded stomach flu. I woke up early feeling pretty awful only to remember that F was leaving on a business trip and staying away a day and a night.

I had two choices: give in to my feeling of impending doom and nausea or pretend it wasn't happening and go to work. I opted for the second in a moment of relative well-being only to regret it soon after. I had to get some urgent things done at work and decided I would rush home once everyone had left the house and lie in bed feeling sorry for myself. Until the call came: our older one revisited her breakfast just as they were walking out the door. Several calls ensued to organize a baby sitter and let husband leave during the craziest part of my work day (before the stock market opens at 9:00am). This, while feeling like worshipping the Porcelain God myself and dreading the 36 hours stretching in front of me alone with the kids. All I really wanted to do was curl up in fetal position under my desk and cry.*

Gnocchi di zucca - pumpkin gnocchi

I am sure you all know what gnocchi are, those soft potato dumplings that are divine with any sauce, from the simplest tomato and basil sauce to a lovely fresh pesto or any fancy combination you can come up with. Gnocchi are Italian comfort food, like most of their cousins all over the world.

Unfortunately, I have boarding school memories of heavy, sticky, hard-to-swallow ones that kept me at a distance for many years. I never really became a convert until I tasted my first gnocchi di zucca.

If you love pumpkin at its simplest, these are for you. Its orange, delicate autumn flavor is the star. They are quick and easy to make. All you need is five ingredients, a pot of boiling water and two spoons and you will make the softest pillows of buttery, cheesy sweetness you could ever imagine. 

Try these and make your family and friends an unexpected pumpkin dish for Halloween or Thanksgiving.

The ultimate oatmeal fudge bars

                                       

On my daily blog crawl yesterday I noticed an oatmeal frenzy has hit the globe, from the States to Europe to New Zealand. I must have been hit without noticing, because on Friday I was on a quest to find rolled oats, not as easy a task as I though it would be. After searching a couple of neighborhood supermarkets, I finally came across them at our small local Asian store, of all places.

Once again, I was inspired by a recipe posted by a fellow food blogger, Ellen from Like Mothers Like Daughters.

WARNING: this dessert, like my brownie recipe, must be made ONLY for get-togethers, picnics, parties, brunches & BBQs, in other words for large congregations, so that you are sure you will not be taking home leftovers. It is so calorie-laden yet delicious, you absolutely DO NOT want it lying around your kitchen for hours days tempting you at every turn.

Stock up on ample amounts of sugar, chocolate, butter and condensed milk and get to work!

Tershi, a Libyan pumpkin dip

Thanks to another food blog I enjoy reading, Jasmine and Manuel's Labna (they mainly write in Italian but some of their posts are in English too), I discovered a great new African recipe. Hop onto a time machine with me and let's travel to the Libya of many centuries ago to discover a delicious dip made by the Jewish community of Tripoli.

It is called tershi or cershi and it is perfect to make this time of year, its main ingredient being pumpkin.

It is sweet, sour, spicy and aromatic. It is not for vampires or first dates as you should not go lightly on the garlic. I made it as an appetizer to eat with thick, crusty pieces of bread but I am sure there are a million other ways to eat it (couscous, meat, cheese, soups are just some of the things I would like to try with this new found love).

Hurry up and try it, you may discover a great new dish to surprise and impress your guests with at Halloween and Thanksgiving! And last but not least, if you have an overload of pumpkin in the house these days, Jasmine informs us that you can preserve it for later use.

T.G. I. F. gratin

Thank God It's Friday. It has been a long, busy week at work and I really am thankful for the week end stretching in front of me: I am looking forward to little feet pattering into our room in the morning, small warm bodies trampling piling on top of us, breakfast together and two whole days to spend with my family.

My Friday recipe is fish-based.

Wait, all this talk of being thankful to God and fish on Friday...no, we are not strict Catholics, we are not churchgoers at all really. Our family is a mix of religions and cultures, not as common here as it is in other places. My family tree includes German protestants, Polish Catholics and New York Jews (of German descent). My husband's family is Sicilian Catholic and I too was brought up in Catholic Italy. So there is a reason why my parents and my husband&I decided to let our children choose their creed growing up. We do teach our children about God and values that are important to us but we try to do it with a broader scope, encompassing things we agree with in many religions. We want our children to grow up respecting and knowing more about other possibilities. I know many may disagree strongly and I realize broaching the subject of religion on  a food blog is perhaps inappropriate. I apologize if I am offending anyone in any way. The reason I am writing about this is because I believe strongly that food and the pleasure of sitting at a table with family and friends is something all cultures and thus all religions share and as a consequence I firmly believe that eating together and feeling the same enjoyment really is a way for people of different beliefs to grow closer and understand each other better. Isn't it true that we are what we eat, in all senses, and that teaching others the recipes we grew up eating is a way of teaching them to understand where we come from, our history and our heritage?