Once we figured out where to give our heirloom pumpkin a good rinse, we feasted on it for many different meals. Today I'm posting over at the co-op on our One pumpkin fits all vegetable.
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November 2009
Autumn lanterns
At the crossroads where our little lane begins is a tree that is totally unnoticeable most of the year. Until the fall, when among the neighboring olive trees, with their evergreen leaves, it turns orange and gold.
Amidst the autumn foliage are its plump, round fruits, waiting for the day that the tree will display them in their full glory.
The day has arrived: the last of the leaves have fallen, and on the bare branches, against the pastel-colored fall sky, the bright red-orange fruits are a welcoming and cheerful landmark on our way home.
The persimmons are not quite ripe yet, but the wind brought down a few last night, which I gathered eagerly, and sliced one in half to see the magic surprise - the same one that Lecia found.
This is where we live in the autumn: at the crossroads marked by the bare tree, whose red-orange lanterns hide a magic star.
Corner View ~ Menu al Dia
Lacking the option of a local restaurant, my grandmother's cookbook is where I sometimes turn for inspiration for our menu al dia.
Although my grandmother used it extensively for her own menu al dia, mostly I just sit down and leaf through the old and crumbly pages, reading her handwritten notes and enjoying the humorous and interesting comments on Italian cooking and culture that Pellegrino Artusi wrote in the 19th century, in his book Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.
Like meat? Did you know that your predilection used to be considered gender-related?
Roast-beef
This English term spread throughout Italy in the form of the popular name rosbiffe, which means roasted beef. A good rosbiffe is a dish of great satisfaction, in a meal where the masculine element predominates, which isn't fulfilled by the little morsels that women eat, and wants to sink its teeth into something solid and substantial.
Curious to learn how some people used to feel about boiled vegetables in parts of central Italy?
Ravioli ~ bolognese style
People from Romagna region, because they live in a climate that requires very substantial meals, and perhaps also because of a time-honored taste for rich foods, are as fond of cooked vegetables as they are of smoke in their eyes. As a result, I've sometimes happened to hear people in restaurants say, "Waiter, bring some meat, but mind that you don't bring any vegetables"; or "These (pointing to the vegetables) you can use to make a hot compress for your behind."
And so I sit and read through my grandmother's cookbook, until it's the right time of day to start preparing our menu al dia.
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For more Corner Views on menu al dia, see Jane.
I do it
Faccio io, I do it, has become Rebecca's most frequently uttered sentence, and it starts first thing in the morning, at the breakfast table, where she's developed and perfected her own spreading technique.
She'll dig into the olive paste jar, then spread it with her right hand first, and have a go with her left - she still hasn't decided whether she's right or left handed, which leads to endless discussions among the boys, as Jeremy is right-handed and Nicholas is left-handed and they'd both like to have her join their team. And then, invariably ...
... she'll have a little taste before proceeding to do more spreading.
"life-changing" tools
Recently I upgraded our frugal lifestyle with a couple of tools that really have made a difference. Two of them are so simple and so effective that I wonder why I didn't use them before.
These simple bellows totally changed my life ... in wintertime, at least! For the last ten years, since moving here, I've spent countless hours blowing on uncooperative embers. Many winter days, in fact, felt like I'd almost spent the whole time huffing and puffing on the fire. With this simple and ingenious air blowing device I can easily keep a good fire going on those days when nothing seems to go right in the ignition department.
I probably would have invested in them years ago, except that bellows don't seem to exist in this part of the world. I bought mine on holiday this summer in a grocery store in Switzerland: no matter that we were traveling light, no matter that it was hot outside, no matter that it was priced in Swiss Francs! I bought bellows in the middle of summer, and I'm so very grateful to the Swiss for carrying such an invaluable and simple tool in their stores in July!
Then I also made my life in the kitchen a whole lot easier with a simple sharpening stone. Actually, I've been using a sharpening stone for years on my sickle, which needs to be sharpened constantly when I use it to cut the grass. But I'd never thought of using it to sharpen my knives, until the day I noticed they were so dull that I couldn't slice a mushroom. Chopping, cutting, slicing, it's all so much easier when your knives are sharp!
These simple tools have made such an improvement in my life that they've made me wonder: what other "life-changing" tools am I missing out on? What simple and invaluable tools do you use?
Indoor inspiration
We're spending more time indoors. More time all together in the warmest room in the house where our fireplace is. More time engaged in quieter activities (quieter - really! - but I think that's more due to the weekly 13 hour tennis-training program the boys pleaded to join, than the cold season). And in all the coziness around me, I was taken by the desire to do some embroidery.
I didn't go very far for inspiration: I found it right in my kitchen, among the objects I use every day.
And I didn't go very far to embroider either: it did it on our sofa, next to my kids and ... our technically "outdoor only" cat - she's also liking staying indoors these days, curled up by the fireplace.
Then I crocheted a couple of edgings, and stitched together an embroidered a turquoise & red dish towel.
And an embroidered green dish towel.
They're both available in my shop.
Morning magic
These days I wake up before dawn, when the house is asleep, dark and cold, and the owls are still hooting outside. I go to the kitchen and start a moka pot of espresso coffee. While I wait for it to be ready, I build a fire.
And then my day begins: a hot cup of espresso in my hand, the fire crackling tentatively in the fireplace, I look out the window and watch the light change, as the morning comes. 
In the still gray sky, over the sleepy dark mountains, the first ray of sunlight touches the tip of a birch tree, where a sparrow always likes to watch the everyday morning magic.
Then it reaches the hydrangea bush, making its now wilted flowers glow.
Everyday I watch the magic of fall sunlight wake up our world, as I wait for the fire to grow and warm up our house.
Corner view ~ cell phone madness
psst, a clue to my (wordless) madness story today: I can't get photos from in there onto my computer ... sorry!
Ninja is the real telephotony artist, and for more madness:
Avoiding the dishes
I was tired last night, very tired. Too tired to make dinner, and too tired to wash dishes (especially, too tired to wash dishes). And so when dinner time came, I dressed Rebecca again - she was already bathed and in her pj's - piled the kids in the car, and down we drove to the pizza place at the foot of the hill. 
Sometimes it's just so nice to sit down, and have someone else bring you food you didn't have to prepare (particularly if it's pizza baked in a wood oven). And then eat it with kids who've been goofing around while waiting, because they're so thrilled to be eating out. And there is a kind of bliss in saying goodbye, and leaving the dirty dishes behind, and returning home to your nice clean kitchen.
Olive oil
Do you use olive oil? We do, in countless ways! In fact, it's one of the indispensable ingredients in our pantry. We use it on salads, we use it for cooking, we drizzle it on main dishes and vegetables, and we use it for dipping...
The silvery green of the leaves of olive trees is part of our landscape, and the oil pressed from the olives this time of year is a huge part of our culinary tradition. If you'd like to learn more about olive oil, I'm posting on Extra-virgin olive oil: Why pay more at the co-op today.
Family life at the edge of an ancient rural community near the Mediterranean
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