With our parents in Italy for the summer we’ve been benefiting from their small, yet abundant, New Jersey garden and thus far have collected many early summer vegetables:  chard, arugula, zucchini, parsley, basil, mint, and zucchini flowers.  The chard and arugula make excellent fresh salads and we combine the zuchhini and zucchini flowers to make sublime frittelle di fiore di […]

(photo: simple chicken breast and pesto sauce) I generally like the Fall season and welcome the change in climate, but I always mourn the loss of my second favorite herb on the planet (parsley is number one in my book) come this time of the year; namely, basil. 

(photo: basil, parsley, and Japanese eggplant from our Italian garden in New Jersey) Back in August of last year we posted some photos of our Italian American garden and we thought we’d share an updated series of photos from our current garden.  We recently harvested Japanese eggplant, flat green beans, basil, parsley, arugula, and chili peppers.     With the basil […]

Growing Figs We recently put up a quick  survey on our Facebook fan page and asked readers if they own a fig tree and we had well over 30 readers respond positively!  The survey not only put a smile on my face but also re-assured me I wasn’t the only child who grew up with live Mediterranean fruit in their […]

I almost hugged our TV last night.  Well, I didn’t exactly get up off the couch to embrace our electronic box because I was under a fleece blanket and several layers of wool and cotton and getting up would have meant losing the precious body heat trapped in my vicinity.  What prompted the urge to hug our TV was the 4th […]

(photo: via iPhone, local persimmons) (photo: via iPhone: sage drying in NJ basement) I snapped these two photos with my iPhone earlier in the week and I really liked the deep Fall colors in the orange persimmon and green sage.  The persimmons are courtesy of my mother who can grow almost anything in her tiny New Jersey garden, including a […]

Zucchini Flower Blossom Fritters Our mother has been using the same Zucchini Flower Blossom Fritters recipe for nearly 30 years here in the United States, which includes grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and plenty of finely chopped parsley.  Our mother’s technique also includes “flattening” out the batter when it hits the hot oil so that thin frittelle are produced.  Note, you can also simply batter […]

Hello everyone!  Just a simple post today with some items from our New Jersey garden: (photos: close up of a red, mission, fig)   (photo: red, mission, fig cut in half)   (photo: the red fig)   (photo: cucumber) (photo: eggplant) (photo: basil)

Wild Food I remember walking through the Calabrian countryside with my grandfather as a boy when he suddenly feel to his knees and plucked a few pieces of what I thought was simple green grass from the ground. I, of course, thought he was just being his usual pazzo (crazy) nonno,but what he found were dandelion greens, prized for their earthy, minerally, and […]

Cheap Dinner: Wild Mackerel with Tomato Salad and Orzo with Zucchini and Parsley:  With the arrival of August, our household starts the summer tradition of consuming copious amounts of fresh tomatoes (at times for both lunch and dinner) – see my entries on tomato salad, canning tomatoes, and tomato sauce.  Ripe, garden grown, tomatoes represent the ideal food type for […]