The Good Life | Valentina Expressions

I Was In A Comedy Dinner For Six | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

29 Oct 2012 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #FormalDining, #HowToDineProperly, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #TableCustoms, #TableEtiquette, #TableManners

It’s Friday evening. I am dressed to the teeth, ready to enjoy a formal elegant dinner in a private home. One of the women in the group won the ticket for a dinner for six at a private home at a charitable event and chose five people of her liking to appear in this charade dinner. I was one of them.
In the casual Californian atmosphere, I am already wondering how this formal dinner will be conceived, nobody organizes formal and sitting down dinners anymore, especially in California. For this occasion, the wife is the chef, the husband is the waiter dressed in total black with a white napkin neatly folded over his right arm, playing the part to the letter. They are travelers, I wonder if they learned that in Italy?

The dinner table is elegantly made in a 1930s style: crystal glasses, silver tableware, embroidered tablecloth, and fabric napkins. I counted the plates and there are six place sets, but we are eight counting the hosts. “There is something wrong with this picture” I am starting to ask myself. I didn’t know the people offering the dinner as an action item are not supposed to sit down with the guests.
The small cup style champagne glasses really caught my eyes, so dainty, well-etched, so different from today’s fluted glasses and so short. One sip and the champagne is gone… and so is the mind of some of the guests….
It took only a few bubbles to lose composure. Oh dear, non-senses are already spoken and we are only at the hors-d’oeuvres. What is it going to happen until the end of the dinner?

The hosts invite us to sit down. I didn’t know anyone in the group, except the lady who invited me and was excited to meet new people. Neither did the hosts know anyone. Apparently in this type of style dinner, the hosts cannot sit with the guests, only serve them.
I truly felt awkward being served by an older couple and not having the pleasure to converse with them at the table. In my native Italy, this will never happen.

Seven courses are waiting to be consumed. I glanced in the kitchen, the portions are very small, but some of the women felt intimidated when they heard about several courses coming and felt stuffed before even trying them.
In one of the many forums I belong, it was said that seven courses are too much to offer, considering that people don’t eat that much anymore. How do we explain so many overweight people in our society? Perhaps, the large portions eaten mindlessly are the fault. The women in the group were no small examples either.

Did I see a pair of shoes loose under the chair of the woman on my left? Oh my, this is really promising! The woman directly across from me, an artist, asked the hostess in which order to use the flatware. Clearly, she eats with plastics every day.
Then, like in a comedy film, I incredulously saw everyone turning the plates over to see the trademark and where the dishes came from. I tried to stop them by talking about the design on the front of the dishes. It seemed very much a John Sanderson’s design, neo-classic fretwork of the middle 1700s, perhaps a copy. Well, the two women on both sides of me, just came out with a simple “really?” and still looked at the backside of the dishes, the rest of the guests were in their own “cookie wonderland“. Hard to make conversation with shallow people, I thought.

(Pumpkin Photo: BHG)

A cute starter of small baked pumpkin filled with mozzarella cheese opens the banquet and libations. The woman next to my left, after the first course, unravels the layers of her clothes. She would have taken off her bra if she could have, she admitted.
I asked her what she does when she eats in restaurants, but I received no answer.
I am envisioning this dinner as the same version of the funny film Hollywood Party with Peter Seller. I don’t know if I am amused or disgusted. I cannot get up and leave. I am beyond being offended already, so I observed in silence, thinking of what other mishaps I am in for.

The highlight of the dinner is the changing of wines with each course. Strange as it sounds, I like this old fashion way of pairing wines with food. Those women, not being wine connoisseurs, can only flash heatwaves on their skin, with increasing bawdy attitude and loud talking. To think they started the conversation in a softly and lady-like manner. What happened to their initial gentleness?

In the next scene, one woman tips over the wine glass full of white wine over the embroidered tablecloth and another one pins her long hair up with a huge clip looking as she just came out of the shower. This disaster dinner is really getting good!
The palate cleanser arrived, a well-balanced peach sorbet. Oh yes, some of them thought we are having a dessert and questioned where did the rest of the courses go. They expected to see a 6-course dinner since this affair was won at an auction.

The conversation is boring, I am a spectator in pain and amused at the same time. Dinner was prepared in a simple way, even though seven courses sounded heavy and complicated, but it was not. It went on as the host planned it, I enjoyed every bite, appreciated the host’s culinary efforts and did not exclaim “no food for me for the next three days!” as some of the women did.

This comedy is winding down with the doggy bag shocker scene. You heard it right. A few of these “classy women” are asking for a doggy bag for their leftovers. Clearly, they have mistaken a private home for a restaurant. Once people learn bad habits, they repeat them to the nth power.
The women present at this dinner were not professional actresses, they just made their own funny and impromptu comedy. I would have liked to record it for my amusement later.

Lessons learned:

1. Never go out to dinner with unknown people, unless you make an effort to get to know them before the event, which is not always possible.

2. If you are hosting a sitting down dinner party, never serve more than four courses. Not a good idea to keep guests prisoners attached to the chairs, forced to listen to unpleasant shallow people.

3. Wines do not need to be paired with each course. Find one red wine for meat and one white wine for fish and vegetables, or find one that can be served interchangeably with all the food and stay only with those two choices.

4. Offer well tasted and liked recipes by previous guests in previous parties; offer food in the right quantity to avoid the “doggy bag” situation. No more than 1500 calories should be served all together through the entire dinner.

5. If you can, distract guests from turning over the plates, with a talk on the special dishes designs, or table setting decorations. Witty conversations are of great help in keeping the attention of guests and drive them to more proper behavior.

6. Make sure there is fresh air circulating through the dinnertime.

To me, breaking bread with people is an honor, having good manners at the table shows respect towards the hosts, the food so well prepared and the guests.

If I were a TV producer, I would have turned this dinner into a funny comedy, but I hope to have amused you for now. Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola has been a lifetime designer in fashion and interiors. Her extensive knowledge of colors and materials led her in both directions successfully. Vogue Italy magazine and many prominent publications in California featured her work. Among designing and remodeling homes, designing custom-made furniture and writing books, Valentina is now teaching etiquette, table manners, table setting, and lifestyle. Her new book Red-A Voyage Into Colors is about how colors affect us in life. Get your copy on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Roll In The Cheese | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

06 Oct 2012 3 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #CheeseGadgets, #CheeseSelection, #CheeseTools, #CheeseVariety, #DinnerItalianStyle, #DinnerWithCheeses, #HolidayFood, #HowToServeCheese, #ItalianDinnerCustoms

Hello everyone,
I am back after one month of vacation and preparation of the launch for my book #3 , just published last weekend.

(Find cheese utensils at: MyHabit.com)
(Find cheese markers at http://www.napastyle.com/home.jsp)

It is so vivid in my mind how many times I have eaten cheeses at the end of each lunch and dinner in this last trip back home to Europe.
Europeans eat cheese with ease because they walk a lot, thus burn those calorie day by day. Cheese is not seen as something to entertain with, but something to enjoy everyday with a glass of wine.
In Europe we serve it without any pretense, we take cheese out of the refrigerator while we are preparing dinner and we leave it on the counter at room temperature to bring out the full bloom of each taste. The same is valid when serving cheeses at parties.

(Find cheese pots and boards at: MyHabit.com)
Many serving utensils are part of the ritual of putting cheese on the table, from knives, cleavers, marker signs to fondue pots, raclette grill and cheese cart.
There is nothing sophisticated about serving plain cheese. It comes from the milk of an animal and often is kept in rustic stone cellars, or left to ferment for months.
I can’t wait to have a bunch of boisterous friends sitting around a fondue pot tasting the latest cheese I brought from Europe. I have a Canestrato Pugliese, aged in caves for a year, with a hard rind and dark yellow interior color. The mature version is savory and aromatic. Best paired with a red Primitivo from Manduria, a wine with a lot of round body.

The vessels needed to serve any cheese are slate stones, wooden boards, marble slabs, or clay platters, the rougher the better. It is good to mark each cheese with the proper marker fork to distinguish goat cheese from cow or sheep milk products and in the absence of these small markers, a hand-written tag placed near each specialty will suffice. The basic cutlery is simple: a cleaver and a semi-heart shaped knife will cut hard and semi-hard cheeses; a thin blade knife will cut a semi-soft cheeses and a round knife will be the spreader for soft cheeses; a shaver will help shaving the cheese, although this utensil is more used at the table to shave a hard cheese directly over the plate. If you want to get fancy and make a good presentation add grape scissors to all cheese cutleries.
One of my favorite cutters is the Swiss scraper “Girolle” used with “Tête de Moine” or Monk’s Head, a cheese from switzerland. The Girolle will shave the “Tête de Moine” cheese in small florettes, or ruffles. It is an expensive cheese, but it is worth it.

(Photo above found on: http://cookingguide101.blogspot.com/2010/12/tete-de-moine-cheese-real-gourmet-swiss.html)

I have seen cheese paired with jelly, grapes, edible flowers or other extravagant food. My favorite accompaniments are raw celery or fennel slivers, olives, nuts, or chicory heads to cut the sharp smell and balance the flavors. Don’t be afraid of serving smelly cheeses. The fermented cheeses at the end of a dinner are good to help the digestion. If you add truffle sliced paper-thin over any soft cheese, mamma mia, what a kick in flavor and in the presentation!

Stores are filling up with all kinds of food and table accessories. This is the right time to get some of these fun utensils and make your food look really good for the holidays.
Once they are in your kitchen repertoire, you will find that it is easier to treat yourself everyday, rather than waiting for the holiday to roll around to use them again.

Cheeses are a good source of calcium and protein. Don’t be afraid of having small bites everyday. Visit my Pinterest board for food inspiration – http://www.pinterest.com/vcvalentina/food-with-character
Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola has been a lifetime designer in fashion and interiors. Her extensive knowledge of colors and materials led her in both directions successfully. Besides her regular work, Valentina is now teaching etiquette, table manners, table setting and life-style. Her deep interest in food led her as an autodidact in the studies of food in history, natural remedies, nutrition and well-being, then finally she wrote two books on Italian regional cuisine and one book on the subject of colors. Find Valentina’s three books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Good Day Sisters! Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

11 Sep 2012 16 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #BenefitsOfSisterhood, #GirlfriendTime, #MindBodyConnection, #SelfHelp, #SelfImprovement, Friendship, Self-Improvement

Today I am going off topic from my usual design and style. I like to repost a piece from one of girlfriends and artist who wrote it after she attended a talk at Stanford University.

©Valentina Cirasola

Tiffany (left) Valentina (right) having fun at a restaurant.

“They Teach It at Stanford:
In an evening class at Stanford University the last lecture was on the mind-body connection – the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health is to nurture her relationships with girlfriends. At first everyone laughed, but the professor was serious.
Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this quality “girlfriend time” helps us to create more serotonin – a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well-being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. We share from our souls with our sisters/mothers, and evidently that is very GOOD for our health.

He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym. There’s a tendency to think that when we are “exercising” we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged? Not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking! So every time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health! We are indeed very, very lucky.

Let’s toast to our friendship with our girlfriends. Evidently it’s very good for our health”.

I am taking this opportunity to thank Jamie, my new-found friend here on WordPress
http://www.grandmothermusings.com for my nomination of “One Lovely Blog Award”. Jamie says that “Sharing little slices of life makes the journey more exciting!” I could not agree more.

Rules for the One Lovely Blog Award:
1. Give credit to the awesome person who nominated you and post the Award on your site.

2. Describe 7 things about yourself.

3. Nominate 15 other bloggers. I will tweak it a little.

7 Things about Home Designs Master
1. A few moons ago, I moved away from the Old World to only find myself doing things in the Old World style in the New World:

a. My laundry yard is where I hang my clean laundry to dry in the sun and wind. Will never own a clothes dryer.

b. Microwave cooking is not for me, it’s very bad to cook in it. Will never own a microwave either.

c. In my garden, I created an orchard, where I grow many types of food, Summer is harvest time. I preserve them for the winter, going through so much cooking, stuffing, canning and pickling, but my winter looks colorful, abundant and healthy.

d. If I am not using parts of my home at night, the lights stay off in those area; only keep lit the rooms I am using at certain given time of my evening.

e. For a good health of the home and the health of people living in it, I keep windows open to circulate fresh air all through the day. In the morning, when I get up, I open the windows and when I cook, the windows are open also. During remodeling process, I make sure to include plenty windows in clients’ kitchens and bathrooms. It is important these two spaces have egress for steam, vapors and odors.

e. I learned to make facial masks and skin, hair, or body treatments with food in my kitchen.

My way of living is in tune with my eco-friendly designs, which I offer to my clients, if they care to save money and live in a natural way.
The government didn’t have to tell me what to do to respect the Earth, I was born into a saving mentality.

Allow me to tweak the rules of the award and nominate the following 10 exceptional blogs for the One Lovely Blog Award. Many thanks to all of you for spending time with my writing and sharing your experiences and thoughts with me. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

*******

These are my nominees:

http://healthdemystified.wordpress.com/
http://zenandgenki.com/
http://openplatforms.wordpress.com/
http://myhomefoodthatsamore.wordpress.com/
http://cancerkillingrecipe.wordpress.com/
http://jeffsinonphotography.wordpress.com/
http://bluebutterfliesandme.wordpress.com/
http://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/
http://thebigbookofdating.wordpress.com/
http://thismansjourney.net/

Valentina Cirasola has been a lifetime designer in fashion and interiors. Her extensive knowledge of colors and materials led her in both directions successfully. “Vogue Italy” magazine featured Valentina as the guru of staging in the theatrical way. Among designing and remodeling homes, designing custom-made furniture and writing books, Valentina is now teaching etiquette, table manners, table setting and life style. Her new book on the subject of colors is almost ready to be published. Stay tuned for ©Red-A Voyage Into Colors.
Check out her books on

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Free Spirit | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

02 Sep 2012 12 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #CityStreetPerformances, #FreeSpirit, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #SanFranciscoStreetPerformance, #StreetTheathre, Mimics

San Francisco is a musical city, quaint, vibrant and modern to a point. The colorful Victorian houses, called ‘Painted Ladies’, recall the ‘Belle Époque’ and the gold rush of the 1800’s. The city distinguishes itself from the rest of the American cities in a sort of quirky way. Everything and anything goes on in San Francisco, from nudity, to impromptu art, from traditional cultural parades to extravagant theatre plays.

The fog rolls in at around 5:00pm, changing the free-spirit atmosphere into a cold and gloomy city. San Franciscans say is magical and feel the mysticism of this grey cotton enveloping the city. Perhaps because San Francisco forms one the points of the esoteric, magic triangle of the world: Turin in Italy, San Francisco in California and Sydney in Australia. I really don’t like the fog, it makes me really sad and damp in the bones.

I like the other face of the city, its colorful houses and colorful people with all their creative arts. One day on a Sunday, walking around the pears, I stumbled in a group of students from the California Film & TV Acting School, playing their mimics roles in the streets.

Their costumes, as you can see from the photographs, are not designed theatre costumes, but their own clothes put together haphazardly. They are colorful, show inventive and suit the actors in their free street roles. The students want to show to the public how cleverly they can stand in one pose without moving for at least 15 minutes, before changing to next pose. Mimicking is not an easy acting to do, but these kids were superb in their free spirit and didn’t care of the passerby. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian interior designer in business since 1990. She is passionate about colors and all expressive arts. She is a “colorist”. To her, selecting art means to bring out the best energy of her clients and nourish their soul. She is the forthcoming author of the book on colors: ©Red-A Voyage Into Colors, which will be released by the end of September 2012. Check out her books on

Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0

Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Transformation Of A Flower | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

24 Aug 2012 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ComeMiaNonnaReturnToSimplicity, #CookingWithZucchini, #italianCooking, #StuffedZucchiniFlowers, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor, #ZucchiniRecipes

The more I read about all secret ingredients hiding in food and less I want to get closer to supermarkets. Becoming an urban gardener for me has been more a choice for keeping my good health than a result of having a large yard to turn into something beautiful. I could have added a swimming pool, designed a patio with flowers in pots, or I could have cemented it all to have a clean space for BBQ, outdoor cabana bar, umbrellas and lounge chairs. Instead I opted to work the land, make it fertile, get closer to Mother Earth, which in turn will gift me with a bounty of natural food and a lot of piece in my heart.

During the summer months I harvest zucchini flowers every day, they grow on top of the zucchini stems from which the zucchini will form, but to make zucchini grow healthier it is better to pick the flowers. Early morning is the best time to pick them, as they are wide open and in full beauty; they will stay open for about three days if kept in the refrigerator. Their size is huge, at time I have flowers as wide as 8-9 inches and 7-8 inches tall; they lend themselves well to get stuffed.

In Europe, zucchini flowers are a delicacy and sell at the open market for a high price. We use them in our food raw or we stuff them with anything we fancy and then we either bake or eat them stuffed and raw. All the ingredients forming the stuffing need a binder, such as rice, potatoes, or eggs; you can choose to stuff them with meat, fish, tuna, vegetables, or cheese, all finely chopped.

I stuffed the flowers in my photo with the Amaryllis in the background with white rice, tuna, olives, capers, onions, ginger and spinach. I stuffed the flowers in the photo with the green leaf plate with brown rice, ground meat (I buy a piece of beef, pork, or lamb and ground it myself, this way I don’t get the nasty pink slime added to the meat), chicory, cheese and garlic. Other types of stuffing to consider are cheese and eggs, or all vegetables with couscous, grains, or quinoa.

I find it is better to sauté the ingredients to allow them to become softer, malleable and easier to handle for the stuffing process, especially if you decide to use fresh meat or fresh fish.

Lightly butter a baking pan, align each stuffed flower tight (tops facing each other), lightly drizzle olive oil all over, sprinkle Parmigiano cheese, or any cheese for grating, add breadcrumbs and bake at 400° F. for about 45-50 minutes. The tops will be crispy, golden and the inside soft and delicious. If you like to freeze stuffed flowers to keep them for the winter like I do, wait they cool down, then box them up and put a label on the lid describing what’s in it. Three months from now, or when you decide to eat them, you will not remember what kind of stuffing is in the flowers.

It will take some time to stuff flowers, they are delicate, you can’t rush this process, therefore plan a good hour of your day to create this masterpiece. In my day there is always space for cooking and caring for myself. Find the recipe in full details in my book:
©Come Mia Nonna – A Return To Simplicity, on Amazon: http://goo.gl/T0eL36
Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer with a passion for kitchens and cooking. She operates in the USA and Europe. She loves to remodel homes and loves to turn unattractive spaces into castles, but especially loves to design kitchens and wine grottos, outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms, great rooms and entertainment rooms.
Author of two regional Italian cuisine books available on this site on the Books page and on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Ice Cream Party | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

13 Aug 2012 6 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #IcecreamMachine, #IceCreamParty, #ItalianGelato, #ItalianLifeStyle, #PartyDesign, #VintageThemeParty

I tasted the most delicious truffle limoncello ice cram yesterday at an Italian restaurant in San Francisco. The day before, at my house, I prepared gelato affogato as an after dinner for some foreign friends vacationing in California. After two consecutive days of ice cream, which is something I don’t do often, I am now in the mood of organizing an ice cream party for adults and kids, before the autumn falls. Among all the parties, ice cream party is one of the least pretentious and inexpensive parties we might be involved with. It takes very little planning, very few ingredients and backyards are just perfect.

(Photo above: http://www.foodspotting.com/places/207933-baroncini-ristorante-italiano-iowa-city/items/625423-gelato-affogato-con-espresso-e-il-biscotto-toscano)

Set the mood and decide on a particular era into which to set the scene of the ice cream party. Ask your guests to come dressed up in costume of the era designated and choose the music to go with the theme. I would suggest to discard the present time, we are already living in today’s time and we know how this reality is, but setting up an ice cream party in a nostalgic era, will give us a chance to live, relive or fantasize it our way, without the challenges that came with any given era.
(Photo above: Zaharako ice cream parlor and museum. 329 Washington St. – Columbus, Indiana 47201)

Do you like the party to be set in the ‘20s or ‘30s? You will find plenty inspiration in the roaring age, flapper girls’ fashion and Charleston music. You might like the more modern ‘50s and ‘60s era, in which also you will find a lot to play with the sophistication of the ‘50s and the rock and roll of the ‘60s. Perhaps, you like to experiment or relive the ‘70s and the concept of the hippies’ era, bohemian style and flowers kids.

In the history of costume, there is a lot to chose from and I think it’s always the right time to dress up in style for any theme party and not just for Halloween.

Decorations and invitations should follow the theme of your party. Hand written personal invitation cards reflecting the theme of the party will make an impression. Your guests will know to have been invited to a real “scoop” of something tasty.

(Photo Source: BH&G)

For an ice cream party we don’t need much, only a great attitude towards food and a few ingredients. Don’t worry about diets, just go to the party and enjoy the moment, tomorrow is a different day. We need first an ice cream machine to help making all the ice cream, gelato and sorbet we need in a quick time. The machine in my photo is sold at Neiman Marcus for less than $200.00. Furthermore, we need a fruit variety for making both sorbet and ice cream, many varieties of toppings such as nuts, chocolate chips, edible flowers, paper or waffle cones, ice cream glasses, spoons and saucers.

Designate areas for toppings, fruits, garnishes, cones, all the ingredients for making various type of ice cream; then designate a different area for all utensils and one more area for all the drinks. This way, the traffic will flow harmoniously and your guests will not be on top of each other preparing their own ice cream.

(Photo Source: BH&G)

I suggest some fun drinks for the adults: sparkling wines mixed with any kind of fruit juice, strawberry, oranges, cranberry, blueberry, pear, pineapple, apple, peach juices, or anything else you like. Decorate each drink with a berry or a slice of the fruit used as a mixer. Pink champagne is especially good as palate cleanser between ice cream tasting or right after, but don’t spend lot of money on the most expensive champagne, the fruit and the champagne must compliment each other and not fighting.

I know the kids will like to drink all kinds of sodas and bounce from wall to wall for all the excess sugar, but it will be better to serve them something simpler and healthier: mineral water mixed with any fruit juice of their liking. They will have the impression of drinking champagne like the adults.

Organizing theme parties is fun. Perhaps, next time I will elaborate on a champagne party, or omelet party. The holidays are just around the corner. Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer since 1990 and a former Fashion Designer.
She blends fashion with interior and colors the world of her clients with designing, teaching style and table manners, party organizing and public speaking.
She has been described as “the colorist” and loves to create the unusual.
She translates colors into excitement. Valentina’s new book on colors will be in the market soon: RED-A Voyage Into Colors.
Check out Valentina’s books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Happy Birthday America | Valentina Author and Designer

04 Jul 2012 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #4thOfJuly, #AmericanFood, #AmericanHolidays, #ApricotSalsa, #PatriotticAmericanFood, #PatriotticSangria

Every year celebrating this historic birthday event is my way of showing my gratitude to this country, which adopted me so kindly a few moons ago. I came as tourist and ended up staying for work, leaving behind family, friends and my roots. I must admit it hasn’t always been easy, but I worked hard and took all the opportunities offered to me. One of my business coaches once said that when people walk on gold, it becomes pavement and they don’t see it anymore. He referred to the local people who often don’t see the beauty, the generosity, the abundance and the open doors this country offers, because they have been used to have it all and at their convenience, whereas emigrants coming from hardship and difficult lives somewhere else in the world, do see opportunities in this country with a different eyes and embrace them with open heart. They do what it takes to succeed and I am one of them. I have a beautiful design business, very nice clients and my books soon to be three on the market are doing well.

Today, I deserve to celebrate my hard work with good food and good friends. I made roasted zucchini, simply sliced and flavored with a mixture of olive oil, mint, garlic, a very small amount of sharp cheese and breadcrumbs. Salt & pepper to taste and in the oven for about 20 minutes. This simple dish can be prepared in advance and served at room temperature. I don’t ever serve food cold, unless is an ice cream, a cake that needs to be refrigerated or a chilled wine. Food kept in the refrigerator for a long time change the molecular structure and the taste suffers a little.

My pièce de resistance is the apricot salsa with grilled salmon. I have three apricot threes overloaded with fruit I can’t even eat. Every year, I make a large amount of apricot marmalade, pies and tartlets to store for the winter, I eat apricots even when I sleep, give a lot away, the wild birds visiting my garden eat them too and still have so much left falling on the ground. This time I tried my apricot salsa version to pair with grilled salmon caught wild around the coast of Alaska. I must say I well succeeded.

Apricot Salsa

All the measurements are to your liking, but if you like one ingredient to come forward, use more of it.

Apricots diced small
Jalapeño pepper diced
Garlic and ginger minced
A hand full of basil leaves
Spring onions
Lemon juice
Extra-virgin olive oil
Add salt to taste and a small pinch of sugar.

Mix well and let it macerate until the salmon is ready.

So many good food and various ideas are showing up on my Pinterest boards. I will make a patriotic Sangria according to punchbowl.com recipe.

Sangria
Strawberries, sliced
Blueberries
Pineapple, cut into star shapes
2 bottles dry white wine
1 cup Triple Sec
1/2 Cup berry-flavored vodka
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup simple syrup

Combine the ingredients in a large pitcher and stir. Chill in the refrigerator for at least four hours. My way will be only with dry white wine, no other type of alcohol.

I don’t know what my friends are bringing, I am sure it will be a tasty surprise.
Celebrate beautiful America and have a very Happy 4^th of July. Thank you America for all you have made possible for me. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

Robert Taitano, a Valentina’s friend and business associate says: “Valentina – an International Professional Interior Designer is now giving you an opportunity to redesign your palate”.
Check out her books in this site on the Books page and on

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Give Me A Mountain Of Gelato | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

25 Jun 2012 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #FlorenceIceCreamFestival, #GelatoGlasses, #HistoryOfGelato, #IceCream, #IceCreamParty, #ItalianGelato, Gelato

(Above- https://www.florenceacademyofart.com/index.php/en/faa-locations/faa-location-florence)

Last month the Italian city of Florence hosted again the Gelato Festival from May 23^rd to 27^th offering five full days of nothing but pleasure and sweetness. With the gelato fair along come the conventions and business events, but artisanal gelato display and taste each specialty is the center of attraction and is all about having fun in a festive atmosphere.

This is the opportunity to taste every artisan’s new gelato combinations, new flavors, classic flavors, strange flavors or various ingredients mixed with the gelato. Colors of the rainbow will be on display in each gelateria. I loved the logo used to publicize the event. One of my favorite place to visit was the “Gelateria Perche’ No” for a large fragrant cone of gelato combination made of pistachio, dark chocolate and espresso. They know how to do it, they have done it since 1939.
(Above – http://www.notizie.it/firenze-gelato-festival-2)

(Above- http://localidifirenze.blogspot.com/2011)

Italians are a population of inventors, lovers, poets and navigators. It was an Italian who invented the gelato in the Renaissance, the time when all the arts went through a revival and an awakening after the Dark Ages. It was the right time to reinvent food and entertainment around the table. The new dessert called “crema fredda” or iced cream was made with a base of milk, egg yolks, a bit of wine, flavored with lemons, oranges or bergamot.

Caterina de’ Medici took the inventor of crema fredda with her to France to work in her court and delight the guests at her royal table. The de’ Medici lordship always competing with powerful Spaniard rulers were renowned for twisting favors out the Spaniards by corrupting them with new artwork, or extravagant food. Crema fredda was one the food that marveled the Spaniards, who in turn took it to the court of Spain as the Italian speciality of the moment. If de’ Medici ate it, the Spaniards had to have it too on their royal tables.

Bernardo Buontalenti, a Florentine born, was the inventor of ice cream and the strange machine in the shape of a closed box which made it. The box was made with an insulated area and a cylinder in the center containing various cold ingredients, which coagulated with the constant movement of spatulas maneuvered by an external level. The ingredients of the new-born ice cream would be mostly snow, salt (for a physical law it lowers the temperature), lemons, sugar, egg whites and milk.
(Photo left – http://www.buontalenti.org)

Today a person like Bernardo Buontalenti would be called a Jack-of-all-trades, but in the Renaissance he was a master in all of his inventions and designs.
He was a multi-faceted person of many passions: painter, sculptor, architect, set designer, stager, royal party organizers, inventor and manufacturer of weapons.

Thanks to him, today we can enjoy gelato in all colors and flavors. In order to have a complete Italian experience, you need the right Italian gelato glass. I found a colorful set at Joss & Main designed by Rocco Bormioli. At least I can pretend of being in Piazza Pitti tasting my gelato.

The difference between ice cream and gelato is a simply a fat factor.
Ice cream has more cream and fat, gelato contains milk and the fat is lower between 5-7%. The flavoring is often made with natural products (berries, vanilla, lemon peel, liqueurs) in place of artificial flavorings and colorings.

Italian products are synonymous of quality and special ingredients, but they are also perceived as products able to re-create a wheel of emotions and a superior lifestyle. Gelato is tasty, healthy and improves the quality of life, because after a gelato, a feeling of satisfying and refreshed contentment follows. Enjoy the summer! Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer with a passion for kitchens and cooking. She especially loves to design all those rooms with a “make me feel good” tag attached, such as kitchens and wine grottos, outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms, great rooms and entertainment rooms.
She is a public speaker and a mentor. She is also the author of two Italian regional cuisine books, available here in this site on the Books page and on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Loving Escargot | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

13 Jun 2012 4 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #Escargot, #EscargotRecipes, #EscargotTongAndFork, #EscargotUtensils, #KitchenGadgets, #MediterraneanDiet, #PugliaFood, #UtensilsForEscargot

Escargot

To kill them or to eat them! That is my question, my garden is so full of escargot.
If I ought to call them snails, slimy little creatures that destroy my plants and food crops, then I feel to kill them, but if I think of them as escargot, suddenly they become expensive and precious morsels.

Ancient Greeks and Romans appreciated escargot as a fine and delicate dish. Before cooking them, they purified their little stomach by leaving them to soak in milk bath for a few days until the snails got totally bloated and couldn’t get in their shells anymore. Purify them meant to eliminate any bitter grass or poisonous fungi (to humans) the snails had possibly eaten. The same practice goes on today.

The annals tell us that in 49 B.C. a certain Fulvio Lippino was the importer of snails from the islands of Sardinia, Sicily, Capri, from Spain, France and North Africa and supplied the large demand of the rich Romans.
Through the Middle Ages a plate of snails was well-regarded as a lean speciality. In fact, 3.5 oz. of snail meat without shells has only 0.4 protein and 0.05 fat, which means that calories are less than 65 per 3.5 oz. It is highly digestible, the meat contains water, salt and the shell transfers calcium and phosphorus to the meat. Snails are good food to protect against bacteria.

I thought that snails were one of the few poor food farmers could afford to eat. With rustic bread, a piece of cheese and a robust red wine their meal was complete, but at the beginning of 1800’s French chefs revived this little crawlers with the famous Escargot à la Bourguignonne, raising the price to a new height.

As I said earlier, before tackling the cooking it’s important to purify the snails from their saliva and impurities in their bellies. One way is to close them in a box with a lid well aerated on the bottom and leave them to dry for a few days; another way is to feed them corn meal until they are really fat (just like keeping them in milk) and can’t get back into their shells. Some people scald them in hot water. Whatever method you will choose, this process it’s important to eliminate the bitter taste and impurities.

Infinite are the ways to cook snails. My favorite way is with a light tomato sauce, easy and simple.
The only ingredients needed are:

Snails
Extra-virgin olive oil
Chopped garlic
Sun dried tomatoes (a few)
Chopped fresh tomatoes
1 Glass of white wine
A hand full of fresh basil leaves
Salt and hot chili pepper to taste

Sauté in olive oil snails with the shells, garlic and sun-dried tomatoes. Flavor with 1 glass of white wine and let it evaporate.
Add chopped fresh tomatoes. Season it with salt and chili peppers to your taste and cook for about 15-18 minutes.
Before serving, give it a sprinkle of fresh basil leaves.

This is the way my grandmother made them and has remained my favorite of all snail recipes from Puglia.

How To Eat Escargot

Snail tongs and a slender two-pronged snail fork are always at to the right of the plate.
Use the tongs to grip and hold the snail-shell in place.
Use the snail fork to pull out the meat from the shell.
Savor the escargot, then the sauce. Tear off a small piece of bread (usually a rustic type). Using the snail fork, dip the bread into the sauce. Enjoy the dish until the bread is gone. Trying not clean the plate completely it’s hard to do, but in a restaurant is not a good manner.
Bon appétit. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

“The discovery of a new dish confers more happiness on humanity, than the discovery of a new star.” ~ Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer with a passion for kitchens and cooking. She operates in the USA and Europe.
She loves to remodel homes and loves to turn unattractive spaces into castles, but especially loves to design kitchens and wine grottos, outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms, great rooms and entertainment rooms.
Check her two Italian regional cuisine books in this site on the Books page and on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Are We Losing Manners? | Valentina Cirasola | Interior Designer

12 Jun 2012 4 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ArtOfDining, #ArtOfEntertainment, #BonTon, #DecoratingDiningTable, #EatingUtensils, #HowToEatProperly, #TableManners, Etiquette

The rules of Conduct, or Etiquette of everyday life have always distinguished the humans from the animals. The rules of conduct have had a great value in the evolution of man, an intelligent way to regulate his own life and the life of others.

However, the revolution of the ‘60s brought into society a refusal of conventions and restrictions, resulting in a new thinking and new set of non-rules. The proper manners of the Victorian Era considered as being too fussy, too constricted and not very expressive of human freedom, were thrown out the window completely, giving way to casual behavior, casual language, casual dressing and casual eating.

(Photo: The Oyster Lunch. Painting by: Jean-François de Troy – 1734)

Most people consider Etiquette a set of behavioral rules, but in reality Etiquette is a value system that helps us understand how not to offend others while harmonizing our own daily life.

Good manners and good customs are not the same thing and therefore it is not easy to distinguish one from the other. Good manners become in time the customs of the society’s next generation. The generation of the ‘60s not only rejected Etiquette and the value of good manners, but also refused to teach them to the generation they created. It just so happened that in the course of 50 some years we have become accustomed to see bad manners and often we feel numb around people displaying bad manners.

(Photo: Elegant Marrymaking. Painting by: Peter Angellis. Date unknown).

Having good manners is not for “dandies”, it symbolizes self-control and reliability, but it also translates in owing one’s emotions. Having good manners makes a good impression in business, on people with hiring power, on new friends and allow us to open doors. It has been said: “kindness will give us friends”.
Who on earth wants to be around disrespectful and badly mannered people?

In the last few years, etiquette schools and forums are now springing up like mushrooms, as society wants to evolve and return to the respect for others, politeness and even dressing up for our own self-respect, or eating with proper manners.
I find the non-existence of table manners one of the many prevalent faux pas in today’s society. Let’s start by learning table manners.

Using the proper eating utensils will not only show we are knowledgeable in food and we know the sequence or function of each utensils. It also will automatically bring a certain elegant behavior. Our gestures and posture will take a special attitude. Click on my link below to see many eating utensils for proper eating. Some of them have been forgotten, but not in my house. I own them all and I use all of them, impressing my guests every time.

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Being an interior designer does not mean my work stops in building comfortable homes and creating attractive home décor. My work continues in styling other aspects of life. As one of my associates says:
“Valentina will style your home first and then your palate”.
I shall be ready and prompt when you need help in styling your life. Ciao,
Valentina
www.Valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola transforms and creates spaces realizing people’s dreams in homes, offices, interiors and exteriors. She infuses your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away a comfortable living.  As an interior designer with a passion for kitchens and cooking she loves to remodel homes and loves to turn unattractive spaces into castles, but especially loves to design kitchens and wine grottos.
©RED-A Voyage Into Colors, her new book on the subject of colors is due to be released very soon. Check out her books on