Friday, February 20, 2004

The First 10 Days of Food (by Doreen)

SIENA (#27)

It seems my kids are hitting many other high spots, so I’ll brag about my husband’s cooking. We haven’t eaten at a restaurant yet. Steve has been excited by the gas stove and varieties of food available...only twice, with others have we had take out pizza.

Day1 Thursday:
Laura made pasta and salad for cena “chaina”(dinner).

Day2:
breakfast stuff –cocoa, sugar, pane (bread), and brioche, pasta for lunch. We went out shopping and had sandwiches and lit candles.

Day 3: Saturday:
after grocery shopping (see Sarah’s COOP entry) Lunch/pranzo was at LaurAngelo’s – pre-cooked chicken, spinach, salad, cheese, salami and fruit. Dinner was take out pizza, here.

Day 4:
breakfast was fresh made Perugina cocoa for the kids and stovetop coffee for us with bread and butter and apricot preserves. We had also picked up some straciatella (chocolate chip) and coconut yogurt (which tasted more like ice cream than something good for you). For lunch, Steve had visited the Ducci’s and returned with some of Carla’s home-grown, home-made sauce and added it to some gnocchi. He had reconstituted some cecci and sautéed them with onions (in good oil) and served them with parsley added moments before serving.

Day 5 Monday:
Alex’s first day of school (see his story). The usual breakfast was followed by (after taking Alex to school and meeting the officials etc) pranzo (let the eating begin): tortellini in butter with fresh sage, followed by chicken sautéed in oil with rosemary, broccoli with sun dried tomatoes and salad. Dinner was less involved.

Day 6: Tuesday:
Pranzo: Steve made meatballs (polpetti) and snail-shaped pasta, salad and bread. We were stuffed.

Day 7:
Pasta e fagioli –aka pasta fazool, with beet greens on the side and salad---we were too full again for the apricot torte we bought yesterday before lunch. For supper/cena , we had pasta with polpetti and the kids developed a new favorite –grissini (breadsticks) with the thin salami or bresaole wrapped around them. Alex decided that would be his life’s work and that Sarah would be his salesperson. She would get the schools to buy them “just like Domino’s Pizza” at their school “only better for you.”

Day 8: Thursday, 2/12
Curly pasta with the leftover meatballs (polpette) Fagiolini (little white beans) in oil and vinegar, barbatole (sugar beet greens in garlic, oil and vinegar), cavalo (cabbage for cold slaw like salad), and salami with fennel in it, some more cheese and pane Pugliese (con sale - bread with salt vs. Tuscan bread, without).

Day 9: Friday
dinner/ciena: chicken, passing up the rooster with headpiece still intact, with baked potatoes, and salad –pasta first, of course.

Day 10:
pranzo risotto with porcini, sautéed cauliflower with fresh tomato, chicken meat, and salad. Cena: leftovers, salami, cheese, salad, fruit.



COMMENTS from the original blog

2004-03-02 23:59:01 Roz
Re: The First 10 Days of Food
Hi Doreen, I so appreciate your "reports." The permesso story is truly a cautionary tale. Ah, but the food diary--bellissimo! If you come back after six-months of that kind of fabulous dining and are still as slim as a reed, we'll have to re-evaluate our friendship!

P. S. All right with the Italian, girl!

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