Bleeding Espresso

Gemma in my lap and Gioia looking on. As some of you know, we had a miracle happen here two weeks ago. Two miracles actually, and their names are Gemma and Gioia. Our goat Pasqualina gave birth to these two lovelies, which you can read more about at Goat Berries; containing my excitement, happiness, and joy has been impossible ? as evidenced by my plethora of postings of photos and videos. I even gave the goaties names that showed just how wonderful I found their arrivals to be: Gemma...

Telephone by Esparta on Flickr (CC license) What's that' The phone ringing' The call that's going to change your life'! Eh. Probably not. Don't get me wrong: you may actually receive a life-changing phone call (or its symbolic equivalent), but I love what comedian and actor Jay Mohr had to say about when that phone call arrives on a recent Mohr Stories podcast. He said you don't want to be sitting there just waiting for that phone to ring – You want to have to reach behind you to answer...

Closed door waiting to be opened I'm a lawyer by training and a writer by nature. Being able to pinpoint the perfect word has been a talent of mine dating at least back to my high school creative writing days when my teacher praised my ?dime-sized portion' of shampoo I used to wash my dog and the squirrels ?scurrying' away from danger. And it's one I've worked hard on honing over the years. But then on the plane ride over the Atlantic, in just about eight or so hours, I lost all ability to...

My one-word theme for 2012 is UP, and upwards we go, indeed . . . right into a new position as the Co-Managing Editor of Gemelli Press, LLC – Calabria location (press release). Some of you may already know of Gemelli Press as I’ve reviewed a few of the company’s books (Beyond the Pasta, Pieces of Someday, and Impariamo l’Italiano con l’Aiuto della Mano), but in case you don’t, Gemelli Press is a boutique publishing company founded in Seattle in 2007 by Kari...

Pasta with cauliflower Way back when I started this blog, I posted recipes every week in a series called What’s Cooking Wednesday. I started out wanting to record the recipes I make all the time, many of which come from my family — my grandmother’s meatballs and Italian wedding soup, my mom’s chocolate cake and apple pie, and even our neighbor Louise’s banana cake. I expanded into including some of P’s mom’s recipes, true Calabrian treasures, like her...

Peperoncini & clothespins One of the most prevalent superstitions in southern Italy (and in a lot of Mediterranean cultures), is the Evil Eye. Here it's called ?malocchio? and its roots are in envy, i.e., someone feels envious of another person, even without a malicious intent behind it, thereby bringing bad luck upon the person being envied. I’ve previously written about the Italian-American equivalent of being overlooked. Malocchio can manifest itself in the victim physically via...

One of my favorite movie scenes of all time is the testing scene in Men in Black. To refresh your memory: For those who don’t want to watch the first two minutes and fifty or so seconds of the video, let me sum it up: Will Smith’s character (who later becomes Agent J) is in a room with other candidates so the Powers-That-Be can find “the best of the best of the best.” The candidates are all men from either military academies or the NYPD and squeezed into pod-like...

Up by gothick_matt on Flickr via CC license So here we are in 2012. As you may or may not know, I lost one of my beloved goats on December 19th. I’m still recovering, slowly but surely, trying to remember all the good times and not feel guilty for not being able to save my Pinters. There were also some other disappointments and delusioni toward the end of the year as well, and all together, they’ve put me in a rather down mood — exactly where I hate being around Christmas,...

“Peace be with you” is something Catholics say to one another during each and every Mass. “Peace on Earth and goodwill toward men” is what so many of us want year-round, but at Christmas in particular. So why has my Facebook feed been flooded with posts by friends and family stressed out about Christmas since November' * Before I moved to Italy, I imagined Christmas here to be spectacular. And it is, but not in a grand, overdone way — at least as I have seen it...

Apple pies almost ready for baking Last weekend it became clear I would not be receiving my package of cranberries and sweet potatoes in time to make an American Thanksgiving in Italy. For some, that may not seem a big deal, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and hands down the hardest day for me as an expat. Read: Homesick City. I love Thanksgiving because of its important components ? family, food, and giving thanks, and when I can't have my family nearby, well, the food I've been...