Patate al forno

Really easy dish, potatoes with rosemary, salt and olive oil baked in the oven.  Peel and cut potatoes in pieces, arrange on a baking sheet (use foil for easy cleanup,) pour on olive oil liberally and add fresh sprigs of rosemary (dried is fine too.)  Bake for 30 minutes on 325 degrees F, take out add salt put back in oven for 40 minutes (or until slightly browned.)  Very delicious with fish.

Great, affordable olive oil, I use this for our everyday cooking.   It is from an area located exactly halfway between Florence and Sienna, right in the heart of the Chianti region. You can order this size on line from Sur la Table.  

Color glorious color

Jil Sander's 2011 spring collection has definitely caught my attention!  Beautiful, glorious color and lots of fabric even for the warmer months.

Images above are from the lookbook, below is the runway.....



The bag list

Goyard St.Louis tote

Louis Vuitton Neverfull tote



Chanel classic jumbo size


So I have been thinking about a bag wish list lately.  My first real handbag was given to me two years ago by my husband for Christmas, the Louis Vuitton classic 35 speedy.  It was the beginning of my now to date bag lust.  Pictured here are other bags I would love to eventually own and collect.  Not trendy, just bags that I can use always, (well with one exception, but it is a collectible!)

Louis Vuitton Stephen Sprouse edition speedy 30 in

Food will travel

Pictured above are a zucchini frittata and bell pepper tarte made by my mother in law, Bruna.  She cooked both items fresh in the morning and then wrapped them up to pack in our luggage for the flight back to the US that day!  I told my husband that at customs they would for sure seize the food, but in the end they made it.  Bruna really makes the best frittata I have ever had, at her house in Italy she makes a frittata and we eat on it for several days.  Which initially I thought was weird because it is eggs and I would think it would not taste good after the first day, but it actually tastes better when the flavors are left to mingle.  The bell pepper tarte is really good too, she uses no eggs in this just cooked fresh bell peppers and lot of olive oil and store bought "pasta sfoglia" or pastry dough.



 

Insadong spot

While in Korea if I have time to visit Seoul I will try to stop by a restaurant in Insadong called KaeSeong.  Now those who know me, know that Korean food is not my favorite, especially now that I do not eat beef or pork it is really just difficult to eat most items.  But this green onion pancake at KaeSeong is really excellent!  (The dumplings here are great too, but again, now I no longer eat them as I am pretty sure they use beef or pork in them.)

Kimchi...when one thinks of Korean food how can this item not  be on the table?  Alas, I still don't really dig it.



Praise for The Face Shop

With all my trips to Korea I have discovered the vast cosemtics market.  One of my favorite shops is The Face Shop.  I always stop there at the Seoul airport before going home.  (A lot of my Korean friends and colleagues say it is an inexpensive brand, but nontheless I still like it.)  Two of my all time favorite products from this store are pictured here.  One is a rice grain powder that you add a bit of water to make a paste and it acts as a scrub.  Not to harsh, but just enough to make my skin look bright.  The other is an eye patch.  You apply the patches to your under eye area and leave on for about 20 minutes.  When I take them off my under eye magically looks supple and smooth.  I used them everyday for 2 weeks prior to my wedding last summer and loved the result. 

I wish for Carrefour

A French international "hypermarket," Carrefour has stores in Europe, Asia, South America and North Africa.  The largest retail group in global revenue second to Wal-Mart.  Whenever my husband and I go to visit his family in Italy we go to the Carrefour store in Massa to shop for Italian products we cannot find in the US or simply purchase them for a much lower cost (even with the Euro conversion.)  What I really love about Carrefour is that they offer local products specific to the country and even locale.  I highly recommend if you are abroad and find a Carrefour in the country you are visting GO SHOP THERE!  You can tell a lot about different cultures just by researching their foods.  Depending on the product (no meat, fruits or veggies) you can bring spices, coffees, teas, etc. back for inexpensive souvenirs and gifts.  A lot of  the Italian products I will feature in my cooking have been purchased here.

Prepared pesto sauces purchased in Italy, (sooooo much better then Ragu.)

The pestos shown above pack a lot of flavor in small doses, so I can mix one jar with two poundsof pasta, well more then one meal for us.  As well as a rule Americans over sauce pasta, a little goes a long way, your pasta should never be "drowning" in sauce.