#ItalianFood | Valentina Expressions

A Dinner Story | Valentina Cirasola | Designer and Author

15 Sep 2021 4 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #DinnerStories, #FishDinner, #FishFlatware, #ItalianFood, #TheArtOfDining

I was born on the sea, the Adriatic sea to be exact, on the limpid blue-green sea waters, salty, crispy waves, grottos, inlets, natural rock formations where crustaceous live and various blue fish are happy swimming in and out.
The food staple for people born on any sea is fish. On those parts, it is very common to be invited for dinner and be served many courses of fish.

Years later I moved to USA, a meat eating country, the search for fresh fish for my daily meal stopped abruptly. I go to grocery shops and I can smell the foul fish odor as soon as I enter the shop. I get closer to the fish counter and the smell gets stronger, the fish is covered with a ton of spices to camouflage the foul smell. I wonder who buys that fish!

I used to order fish plates in restaurants and after a few times returning the dish to the kitchen, I stopped ordering fish in restaurants. Fresh fish smells exactly like the sea, if it stinks has been dead for days or weeks! Just remember that.

Now, I know the reason why when I am invited to someone’s home, the main dish is meat, often chicken, boring, colorless, tasteless and tiring chicken….what’s so exciting about chicken! If I must brag about meat, only one time, in Texas, I was invited to a bison steak dinner and it was the best steak I had in my whole life!

One day, one of of my Californian friends wanted to organize a cooking class in her huge home for her girlfriends fit for a triathlon. She asked me to cook something special, good and healthy from my native Italian region. I told her that where I came from the staple food is fresh fish and she agreed to it. I went really out of my way to please her and her friends, drove for hours to the coast, where I knew one fisherman who could assure me the freshness of fish, and cook one blue fish for each, baked with some vegetable in a cartouche.
The reaction from the women was awful, when they open the cartouche on their plate, saw the fish head and screamed as I had put some kind of horrific thing in front of their eyes. Those women didn’t know anything about fish, how to source it, how to cook it and neither how to eat it.

They exclaimed the fish was dead, I asked them if they usually eat meat alive. They said it was cruel to the fish, I asked them if it is not cruel to kill animals, including chickens, and if it isn’t even more cruel to wear leather jackets or sit on a leather sofa. They were shocked to hear these comments. I am not in tune with people talking nonsenses, I have no patience for them and I tell it as it is. Humans have eaten meat and fish since the primordial time. If you don’t like it, don’t eat it but don’t push your beliefs on me.

I also knew my friend was not equipped with the right tools to eat fish with, thus I brought my silvers to her for that occasion and made her look good. Silly me! I should have made a chicken dish to leave everyone satisfied and convinced that they had not eaten a dead animal. Live and learn.

These are the fish knives needed to separate the flesh from the bones if any, also used to eat a fish fillet. Never a regular knife is used for fish. Only in high end restaurants, these knives appear on the table along with other interesting flatware.

If you invite people to your home for dinner, always ask the guests what they do not eat and if they are opposed to something you have in mind. My friend agree to a fish dinner because she had been to my native land, she knew how good and fresh fish is over there. Luckily, my dessert was a hit. Of course give people sugar and they will be super happy. Ciao.
Valentina
Amazon Author’s Page

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer/consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. She has conceived a few new books of various subjects to which she is working simultaneously. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel. Get a copy of her books on:
Amazon and Barnes&Noble

It Was This Way | Valentina Cirasola | Designer and Author

26 Nov 2020 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #Fireplace, #FireplaceCooking, #ItalianFood, #OutdoorCooking, #SlowCooking

How many times have I seen this in my youth? This bucolic view is about slow cooking, cooking the natural way on the fire with natural vessels made of clay or iron. The aroma of slow-burning wood filled the air inside and outside the home. We had to wait fairly a long time for the food to be cooked, we sat by the crackling fire, with a glass of wine, roasted chestnut,s and warm nuts to snack on, we talked about life matters or told jokes and waited. Nothing was rushed. The Autumn and Winter were like this. In the Summertime cooking took a different style, it was often in the open space, and grills were arranged on a stack of stones under a canopy surrounded by green cultivation.

Potatoes cooking in a clay pot – Photo by Domenico Cafarchia

Many of my friends, thinking I miss the life I had in the past in Europe, keep in touch through pictures of food they eat daily. They know when they send me these pictures the thread to my roots doesn’t break and I love it.

Potatoes cooked in a clay pot – Photo by Domenico Cafarchia

These in the photos are common potatoes cooked in a clay pot, covered with water and some spices to flavor the potatoes during the cooking. The spices can be rosemary, thyme, and sage. The lid goes on and the pot is placed in the hot fire pit, not directly on the fire. At the same time, other food can cook in various clay pots all together in the same fire pit.

This wasn’t really my daily life in Europe, I lived in bustling cities, the same hectic lives everywhere in the world, but I had plenty of people who had homes in the country, including my grandparents and some relatives. Visiting them was like stepping back 100 years, but it was familiar, so peaceful and restoring. I searched endlessly for that atmosphere once I moved away.
Today, I have a fireplace in my home, it’s not fitted for cooking, the city has so many rules and regulations, they even regulate how many bites we must eat 🙈. However, sometimes I go off track and I allow myself some of the ancient pleasure. Cooking potatoes in a clay pot full of water and spices is one of the few innocent things I can do. The kitchen smells heavenly.

This is a time to give thanks for everything we have and for our lives. Some people did not make it this year to see Thanksgiving. Let’s appreciate our family, friends, and supporters. Thanks to everyone around the globe who is a part of my community. I send you love and peace. If you are in the United States and celebrating, have a wonderful Thanksgiving. My table and food will be spectacular. Ciao,
Valentina
Amazon Author’s Page

Copyright © 2020 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. She has conceived a few new books of various subjects to which she is working simultaneously. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking, and travel. She never gives up trying new things and doesn’t fear failure. Some years ago, Valentina became a TV producer/host producing shows under her label: Valentina Design Universe. The goal of her shows is to entertain, inspire, and inform, while she is living her passion.
Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble

The Evening Of Seven Fish | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

26 Dec 2019 4 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ChristmasCelebration, #ChristmasEveDinner, #ChristmasFood, #ItalianChristmasTradition, #ItalianFood

It was a long shopping the day before Christmas eve, from one fish market to the other to find the freshest fish, and then it was the longest day cooking the seven fish dinner on Christmas eve. The search was about finding langoustine, mussels, clams with a red tongue, razor clams, sea urchin, sea truffles, octopus, baby cattle fish, any bluefish for grilling, lobster, oysters and any fauna the Mediterranean Sea produces.
The sitting down dinner started at 6:00 pm and lasted close to midnight when we finished with a champagne toast, then church at midnight.
That was such a long ago in Italy in my parents’ home and it was the same in most of the homes in Italy. The celebration on Christmas eve was an incredible custom, we ate until our hearts were content and welcome the new spiritual Christmas light in our homes.
As it happens in all families, at one point kids leave the nest, when my turn came, I moved as well to build my life and all of that ended. My new-found friends could never eat a large amount of food and never had the time to be sitting at the table for so many hours. The Christmas celebrations took a different turn.

Somehow I maintained my tradition on a smaller scale. On Christmas eve, I prepare a few fish specialties and Christmas day is about meat. On the eve, caviar opened the dinner experience, followed by shrimps with fregola and dandelion cooked in a clay pot, cod and potato cakes, blue crabs, Christmas cookies, coffee, and Belgium chocolate with sea salt.

Caviar and prosecco

Shrimps with Fregola and Dandelion cooked in a play pot

Cod Potato Cakes

Blue Crabs

Christmas Cookies

This was sufficient for Christmas eve, Christmas day was a different experience, oh my! Everything was delicious and even though I feel like a blimp today, I am very happy. 😀
The end of the year requires courage, the Italian rule is to have 13 courses dinner, one for each month of the year and one extra to honor the new year 😱. This one is no longer my habit.
I hope your Christmas was good and serene. Ciao,
Valentina

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion designer, author of 5 published books so far, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. She has conceived a few new books of various subjects to which she is working simultaneously. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking, and travel. She never gives up trying new things and doesn’t fear failure. Three years ago, Valentina became a TV producer/host and she produces shows under her label: Valentina Design Universe. The goal of her shows is to entertain, inspire and inform, while she is living her passion.
Get a copy of her books here:
Amazon and Barnes&Nobles

It’s Easy Being Green | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

27 Mar 2017 4 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: # https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/it-is-easy-being-green/, #ItalianFood, #Pesto, #SpecialityPastaDish, #SpinachPesto, #WordPressWeeklyChallengeGreen

It’s easy being green in my kitchen. Vegetables abound even though no one in my family is vegetarian or vegan. Every meal is composed of various food, complemented with vegetables prepared in all possible ways. We eat everything, nothing goes to waste. There are no enemies at my table the “infamous calories”, we don’t believe in counting calories. We enjoy our food. Simple as that.

People who have eaten in my house, ask me why my food is simple and full of flavor. The answer is equally simple: I don’t need to produce complicated food every day, but I want to eat savory food, with layers of flavor easy recognizable one by one, inside of which every spice comes through vibrantly fresh. The secret is the freshness of every ingredient. In my kitchen, there is nothing pre-packaged, pre-made, nor pre-organized by the food industry. I go to market to get fresh food and I return every two-three days. My vegetable and spice garden produces a small quantity of food, if the season goes well, and I take full advantage of that too. (Click on the photo to view it larger).

What was green on my table today? Fusilli pasta with spinach pesto. When basil is not available, use spinach, arugula, or parsley.
It takes almost 15 minutes to make it, all the ingredients are raw except for the cooked pasta.
Before starting the preparation, very briefly toast a hand full of pine nuts in an iron skillet over the stove, or in the oven for 5 minutes. Be careful, they burn easily.
Now, wash all the spinach. Drain the water, but leave them a bit wet.
In the food processor, put all the spinach, 3-4 cloves of garlic and grated Parmigiano cheese (I used pecorino for a stronger flavor).
Turn on the machine and from the top hole, add olive oil a little at a time, until spinach have become a cream.
Drop the green mixture in a skillet, add pine nuts, season with salt and pepper to your liking.
Cook pasta al dente for no longer than 8 minutes. Drain the water, add it to the skillet with the pesto mixture.
Toss and turn, let it marry well. Serve this delicious green pasta with more cheese to add at the table.

This is a green dish to cook and eat at once, good for summer or winter. It will surprise you how easy it is being green and to eat green food.

Oops, I goofed, I should have used a yellow plate with this green dish. Food photography should be equally appetizing. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is the designer who cooks. She has a deep interest in food that led her as an autodidact in the studies of food in history, natural remedies, nutrition, well-being and learning food of the world. She wrote two books on Italian regional cuisine and one book on color theory, in which she included one recipe for each color. Robert Taitano, a friend and business associate of http://www.wine-fi.com says: “Valentina – an International Professional Interior Designer is now giving you an opportunity to redesign your palate”. Get your copy of Valentina’s books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Rice Possibilities | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

10 Jan 2017 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ItalianFood, #RiceSpecialities, #Risotto, #RisottoMuffins, #SaffronRisotto, #VegetarianFood

(Click on each photo to view it larger).

“Rice borns in water and dies in wine”. I wrote in my first book: ©Come Mia Nonna – A Return To Simplicity. Let’s start the year with something delicious: Saffron Risotto.

Risotto is a staple food for most of us Italians. It is not a fancy specialty as it might be in foreign countries. Arborio or Cannaroli type of rice, stubby, high starch content, is the type of rice needed to get the right creaminess in a risotto. Toast it in olive oil and a dollop of butter, softens with white wine, add all the ingredients and cook it slowly by adding a few ladles of warm broth at a time until juices are consumed, and rice is cooked to a perfect cream. Some people make it sound so difficult, instead it is the easiest food to prepare in 20 minutes or less. I like to add saffron to get a wonderful a yellow color.

Improvising many other dishes with leftover food from the simple risotto, it’s easy and the possibilities are endless: muffins, rice frittata, rice ramekins, rice torte, just to name a few. They are ideal for parties, make them fresh, don’t serve leftover food to your guests..

Risotto with mushroom: Cook the rice as mentioned above. In a skillet cook the mushroom. At high heat and 1/2 glass of water cook mushrooms only to let water out, then discard it, it would be bitter if you use that liquid. Add garlic and ginger in olive oil, bring the mushroom to the skillet, let them saute’ and marry together about 10 minutes, season with salt, pepper and parsley. Serve with the risotto mixed in or as two separate entity as in my photo (above).

Risotto muffins with asparagus. Cook the rice as mentioned above, or if you like to take short cuts use the Mahatma Yellow Rice. It’s not the same thing as making your own risotto, but it saves time, 10 minutes and it is ready. While this is going, prepare asparagus as you like. I brush them with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper, then grill them. After the rice is done, cut the asparagus in small pieces, mix in the rice, add one egg and Parmigiano cheese, fill a non-stick muffin pan with this mixture, sprinkle Parmigiano cheese on top and bake at 375ᴼF until golden brown. Serve on a bed of mixed greens as in my photo (below).

Risotto Muffins with veggie and meat. Mix in the risotto some leftover veggie, ground meat, one egg, spices, season to your liking, fill paper cup cakes, drop them in the muffin pan and get a new taste. Bake at 375ᴼF until golden brown. (Photo below).

Risotto Squash Ramekins (single portions). In the oven, roast a butternut squash seasoned with salt, pepper, thyme, sage and olive oil. When done, scrape the pulp off the squash shell and mix it with the risotto. Butter and fill ramekins with the mixture, sprinkle Parmigiano cheese and breadcrumbs. Bake at 375ᴼF until golden at the top. (Photo below).

Remember, all the ingredients are already cooked, it is only matter of marrying them together the second time when you have leftovers. Give a leftover an intriguing new taste. This is very easy, promise! Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Beneath My Feet | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

14 Aug 2015 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #BreadTomato, #Bruschetta, #https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/beneath-your-feet/, #ItalianFood, #ItalianHomeCooking, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #WordPressPhotChallengeUnderYourFeet

Beneath my feet usually there is a beautiful floor. I am one of those designers proposing clients stone flooring instead of wall-to-wall carpet. I tell them about the versatility of stones, the easy care and low maintenance stone require, how easy it is to live with stones and how much more hygienic stones are versus carpet.

In my home I have a warm, beautiful terracotta tiles floor, but when I go out to my garden, I walk on grass, gravel, weeds, stepping-stones and around all of that there is the food I grow. I cultivate many vegetables, fruit and a variety of tomatoes, which are as sweet as candy. Some years my tomatoes come in a great abundance and I make a ton of sauce for the winter, turn them in sun-dried tomatoes, I use them for salads, or eat them off the vines like fruit. In fact tomato is a fruit and not a vegetable.

One of the foods I have eating since my early days of life and keep on eating to these days is bread and tomatoes. Some people call it bruschetta, but the type I eat is really bread and tomato. Bruschetta is a toasted or grilled sliced bread, with a garlic spread and a lot of toppings. For my bread and tomato, I only need a fresh crusty bread, type of ciabatta or Pugliese style, basil leaves, olive oil, sea salt, fresh chili pepper and of course tomatoes. I open the bread roughly, not even with a knife, split open the tomatoes on top of the bread allowing all the juices to penetrate the bread. I season it with salt, chili pepper, basil leaves and a generous swirl of extra virgin olive oil. Done! I eat it open face and not as a sandwich. Next to it, a piece of Italian Gorgonzola cheese is always welcomed. This is often my breakfast or lunch.

Sometimes, I spend hours creating gourmet food that have appearance and taste of a five-star dish and guess what? To me nothing will ever compare to bread and tomato.

I always wonder why such a simple type of food with so few poor ingredients taste so divine and it is so filling? The answer is in the land, the sun and singing to the vines. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

This is my participation to WordPress photo challenge. https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/beneath-your-feet/

Bread In Style | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

27 May 2014 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ItalianBreadShop, #ItalianFashion, #ItalianFood, #KitchenApron, #PatriziaPerroneBreadShop, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor

You would think that if you go to a bread shop is to buy bread and a few other treats available in the shop, but in Italy people want to find style and colors with bread. The shop must be packed with flavors, aromas, inviting atmosphere and fashion. “L’occhio vuole la sua parte” as we say in Italian, basically we eat with the eyes first and if the owner of the shop is well dressed with harmonious clothes and appearance is well put together, the bread products sell even better. This is the case of Patrizia Perrone, owner of Panificio Perrone – Forno di Gennaro, in Matera, Italy. Her newly remodeled shop designed by Italian architect Antonio Di Benedetto at KA Lab is modern and very stylish with a back room for casual eating looking to an open view in the production, because there is nothing to hide when products are made with naturals ingredients.

Patrizia Perrone in her bread shop Oven of Gennaro

Patrizia Perrone with her bread stamp

Patrizia Perrone apron front side

Patrizia Perrone apron back side

Night production of sweets

La Pannarella

All her products sit on shelves with a suffuse lighting and the bread behind the counter is displayed in an appetizing way. The apron Patrizia wore intrigued me and pushed me to interview her. She started by saying that her company logo is a bread shaped as a woman representing the women running her company. In ancient time only women made breads, but since home stove had not been invented yet, the women took their bread dough to a public oven to have it cooked. A wood stamp with the initial of the head of each family distinguished one bread from another. Artisans carved those wood stamps for breads and in Matera there are still a few artisans continuing the tradition. In Patrizia’s case her breads are stamped with the letter “P” after her first and last name: Patrizia Perrone. The production in the back of the store is highly organized with modern machines programmed to produce breads, focaccia, biscotti and other sweets with ancient formulas everyone is still demanding.

Her apron is not a common kitchen apron, it is asymmetrical cut at the bottom right; in the back three stripes, one on the right shoulder, one in diagonal on the left shoulder and one in the waist hold the apron together. The white scarf on her head is an old tradition, a form of respect for food, she told me. Before women attempted to work on the dough for bread, cookies or pasta, they closed the hair in a scarf to keep food making hygienically clean. Her natural, earth tones make up is in tune with her natural products and emphasizes her open, glowing beautiful face, framed with a pair of earrings I am sure heritage of her grandmother, a sign that everything here is a tradition and well tied to the territory.

In an Italian bread shop, a visitor notices many things: bread is stylishly shaped, because we eat it everyday, thus must look good on our table; the bread shop must be stylish, otherwise people don’t feel invited to walk in, food sold in the store must be stylishly packaged and fashion…..well in Italy is a must even when selling bread. Italian style is about feeling good, look good and give pleasure to others. Patrizia by keeping alive the traditions of our land gave me a great pleasure when I saw the Pannarella my grandmother made sold in her store. The description next to the product says Pannarella is like a canvas to color. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinaexpressions.com/trips-to-puglia-2

I am writing a travel diary of my last trip to Puglia with an American group and sharing with all of you my notes of feelings, observations, food-wine tasting and experiences that have changed the life of people traveling with me. The trips I organize are made for people who want to live it up in Puglia! Find Valentina’s books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Things I Miss | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

15 Dec 2013 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ItalianCafe', #ItalianEatingCustomes, #ItalianFood, #ItalianLifeStyle, #ItalianRestaurants, #RedVoyageIntoColors

This video has circulated in a group of Italian women I belong. The video is all about the best most common Italian food. Many women in the group commented that the video made them cry. I know, we the expatriates, miss our mother land, we get very emotional and like them I miss it too, but Italy is not all about food.
Thanks to the proliferation of food lovers, importers have made possible for us expatriates to find all kinds of Italian food even here in the USA making the distance from home more digestible. Prices for imported real Italian food are outrageous, but they know we bend to their wishes and our tables are always a bounty of food from home that manage to astound our friends and silence our pain.

What I miss about Italy is not the food. What I miss is a life of subtle emotions.
A. I don’t see the swallow birds and their sweet chirping announcing the coming of Spring. Instead, I see black, scary and ominous crows. Their sound reminds me of Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s film “The Birds”.
B. I don’t hear the church bells ringing at midday marking Italian lunch time break. How sweet to go home and eat with the family.
C. I miss my neighbor knocking on my door to ask for a cup of sugar, a lemon or a hand full of parsley, which often is an excuse to get a cup of coffee together.
D. I miss my girlfriends calling at 11:00 at night just to shoot the breeze and tell me about the happenings of their day. In the US nobody calls anymore but everybody text. Texting takes more time to write word by word than to say the same thing verbally. Voice travels faster than typing and the voice doesn’t betray emotions. Through voice we can detect if a person is sick, sad, happy or lying. Texting is cold, calculate and abbreviated.
E. I miss the salty water smell of my Adriatic Sea and the transparent waters of Gargano and Salento. Just taking a simple walk around the Lungomare (along the sea) in the downtown area of Bari my hometown is invigorating, healthy and relaxing.
F. The grocer in my hometown, when he received a new product, a new wine or something he knew I would appreciate, always put it aside for me, or called me to tell me about it and if I didn’t show up in the store for 3-4 days, he would send someone at my home to check that everything was fine and didn’t need any help. In the American grocery shops I am one of the millions shoppers without a face or name.
G. I miss taking long walk with friends, talking, laughing and watching shops’ windows without buying anything.
H. I miss going to restaurants and café for fun, leisure, pleasure, not for conducting business as people do in the States. It gives me indigestion to sit in front of food at all hours of the day and talk business with people I might not see again. I eat breakfast in the early morning, lunch under the sun rays and dinner under the moon rays. I don’t miss any meal because of work and I don’t eat and drink at all hours of the day either. Having a glass of wine at 3:00 in the afternoon, just to share some business ideas, doesn’t cut it for me and end up either changing the appointment to a more convenient time for me or turn it down all together. In Italy we have apéritif after 6:00 pm, when the day is over and we can enjoy friends, colleagues, or business associates as people.
I. I miss my neighbors sticking their nose in my business. There was time I thought they were such a nuisance, but if I got sick, they always came around with soups and cooked food. Now in the States, I live in a very private neighborhood, it’s so private that if I leave for month, no one knows I was gone and if I am sick nobody brings me anything, because nobody knows I am even sick.

Perhaps some of my northern friends in my Italian group will disagree with me. Perhaps the North of Italy is very much like the US, but I come from the South of Italy, where each one of us has a weight in somebody else’s life, friendship is real, family ties are strong, promises are promises and contracts are still done with a handshake. “I see you later”, really means later in the same day, or “I call you later”, really means that person will call again in a few hours. You have no idea how many times I waited for someone to call or to come, when I first arrived in the States and didn’t know any better.

One of the comments of my group of women said we must be in peace with ourself and accept the new place as it is. There is no one living in a foreign country more in peace as I am. I made a great living in a foreign land without anyone’s support and without a family. I am very thankful to have experienced a new life and new customs, but the things I miss, I will always miss and if I think harder the list could be longer. Pardon my lament, it’s so uncharacteristic of me to write a post like this one, it must be the corny Christmas time. Wishing you all great holiday seasons. Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola, is the principal designer and owner of Valentina Interiors & Designs. She is a trained designer and has been in business since 1990. She works all over the world via Skype line and in the traditional in home consultations producing concepts for remodeling, restoration of historical dwelling, upgrading, décor restyling and home fashion. Vogue magazine and many prominent publications in California featured Valentina’s work. She has made four appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15 and interviewed on various Blog Talk Radios. Author of three books all-available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Italian Christmas Market | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

04 Dec 2013 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ItalianChristmasMarket, #ItalianFashion, #ItalianFood, #ItalianMarketSanFrancisco, #SFMuseoItaloAmericano, #ValentinaExpressions, #ValentinaExpressionsEtsy

Italian Christmas Market

©RED - A Voyage Into Colors- Author Valentina Cirasola

The first of its kind, inspired by markets all over Italy and Europe, this Italian Christmas Market makes its first début on Dec. 7 and 8, 2013.
A group of Italian women called D.I.V.E., expatriate from Italy living abroad organized the market.

The expositors all expatriate Italian women as well, gifted with unusual talents will present their custom-made creations for the first time. The market is a showcase of “Made In Italy By The Bay”, all items strictly made by artisans to promote Italian creativity. We can enumerate a variety of:

• artisanal Italian gourmet foods
• handmade jewelry
• Italian fashion accessories, luxury bags
• Italian language books
• several unique craft items all made by Italian Artisans
• travel (villa rentals, customized travel and weddings)

• I am one of the D.I.V.E. and will be there showcasing my three books, custom-made crocheted fashion items and personalized trips to the southern region of Puglia, Italy.

The Italian Christmas Market will take place at the Italo-Americano Museum, Fort Mason in San Francisco, CA. Dec. 7-8, 2013. Time: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm.

If you are closer to San Francisco, please join us for two days of fun. There will be a storyteller to entertain the kids, while parents shop. If nothing else, being among an Italian community of highly spirited women will put you in a cheerful state of mind. Ciao,
Valentina

http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, working in USA and Europe. Born in Italy and in a family of artists, style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her decades of experience led her to offer consultations in both fashion and interior. “Vogue” magazine and many prominent publications in California featured Valentina’s work. She also has made four appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15. She is the author of three books, all available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Infinite | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

14 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ColumbusDay, #ItalianFood, #ValentinaInteriorsDesigns, #VenetianCostumes, #VenetianDécor, #VenetianFashion, http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/photo-challenge-infinite

This week photo challenge on WordPress is Infinite. http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/photo-challenge-infinite/

At Columbus Day celebration in the city of San Francisco, I had plenty infinite inspiration. Coming in the city, an infinite number of Art Deco buildings and modern skyscrapers line the horizon. An infinite number of palm trees, street lights and street sculptures filled The Embarcadero, a long promenade stretching for a few miles overlooking the water.

Trolley buses revamped to their original charm come by with antique coquetry and their infinite electric wires share the air space with street lights, palm trees and buildings. Weekends in the city are devoted to street markets. Infinite number of white-tented kiosks occupy empty plazas on the Embarcadero, where San Franciscans and tourists shop for arts and crafts, novelties, custom-made pieces and organic food. Music colors the air making a pleasant city to walk in. San Francisco is definitively one of the best cities in America.

Entering San Francisco

Embarcadero

Remodeled Trolley bus

Ship building

Following the Embarcadero, I reached the parade for Columbus Day celebration. The parade was nice, happy people, infinite candies thrown from moving vehicles making kids really happy.
I was more interested in seeing signs of Italian heritage, it was Columbus Day after all.
Other than a few stereotypes, tarantella, Perry Como and Dean Martin songs, things modern Italians don’t relate to, I found my infinite interest in a group of people dressed in colorful Venetians costumes.
The flag didn’t belong with the costumes, Tuscan people made an art of throwing flags, but not Venetians. OK, I understand, this is a make-believe Italy of the past, the Italy tourists like.

Among infinite marching bands from different cultures, Italian products and socialites in their convertible cars, I chose this group of people as they seemed the most authentic, true to the colors and opulence of historic Venice. Their gestures conveyed well the flirting mannerism of La Serenissima (ancient name of Venice) and the frivolity of the era.

I heard on the news today that someone is thinking of changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Day. Really? Did this person fall off the bed? Should we change the entire history of United States as well to suit every ethnicity? Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Italian Interior Designer in business since 1990. Being Italian born and raised, Classicism, stylish and timeless designs have influenced Valentina’s design work. She will create your everyday living with a certain luxury without taking away your comfort. She loves to restore old homes, historic dwellings and she focuses on remodeling. Author of three books all available on
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