#ValentinaCirasolaAuthor | Valentina Expressions

No Woman Needs To Be Told How To Wear Black | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

11 Sep 2015 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #2015FallColors, #EarthToneColors, #PantoneFall2015, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor, #ValentinaFashionDesigner, #WarmPalette

Welcome to my Friday Fashion episode.
No woman needs to be told how to wear black….. it’s all the other colors that bring doubts, confusion and chaos. Colors define a unique point of view, define personality, define the attitude of each season, provoke, demand attention, express creative moods and show off your personal style. We are connected to colors, each of our chakras hosts one color that vibrates our life and yet there are many women out there who insist on wearing black.

The color palette of fall 2015 is very warm, emulates the earth, focuses on nature’s colors and both men and women will wear it. Some people believe it is a copy of the ‘70s colors, maybe, and there is nothing wrong with that, history repeats itself with a new meaning. We are seeing Bohemian, Hippy, Global Nomads, and Gipsy style again as much as geometric asymmetrical cuts all in the name of colors of food, spices, wines, sand, earth and leaves textures.

Green in its many tints and tones appears to be a very important color for Fall 2015. It will not be conceived as military-style only. Forest, Olive, Stormy Weather, Desert Sage and Dried Herb will go so well with Oak Buff, Cadmium Orange and especially Marsala. If you feel good combining Cadmium Orange with Marsala, do it, show off your style.

Here it is my combination of only four colors and the various solutions possible with them.

With all these colors available to us, we have no need to wear all that black anymore. It’s so ’90s and so “end of an era”. In this millennium we became more aware of our environment and we want to protect it. We got closer to earth and natural food, both essences for our well-being. In some ways, we are only expressing these new feelings with the colors nature offers to us.

Need a color consultation? I am always ready and prompt to answer any of your challenges. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, born in Italy in a family of artists. Style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. To better help people in the world, she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

One Day In October | Valentina Cirasola |Author and Designer

09 Sep 2015 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #BambooGarden, #JapaneseTemples, #JapanTravel, #Kyoto, #TeaCeremony, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor, #VisitingJapan

Listen to your life talking! In a warm October day, I was cooped up in my studio working away. The sun was shining low, the autumn warm and soft wind came in the window and yellowish light filled my studio. I could hear the birds singing in my orange tree. I looked up and thought: “What am I doing here?”.

I turned the page on my computer and went on a travel site looking for a reasonable ticket to Japan. As soon as I found it, I called my friend in Japan, not caring what time of the day could have been over there. It was daytime and she was at home. I only asked her if she was going to be at home from this day… to this day. She said yes and asked why? I just told her to wait for me, I was going to visit here. Click, I hung up the phone and as fast as I could count 1-2-3, I was on that plane to Japan.

In the Samurai village restaurant

In Kyoto

Tea Ceremony Garden

Fabric shop in Kyoto

Bamboo Forest – Kyoto

Temple in Kyoto

Train ride to Kyoto

Samurai village

Private home – Kyoto

I knew I had arrived in Osaka, when I looked at signs and nothing was written in English. What now? Leaving the plane I realized I had not confirmed the dates of my arrival with my friend, I didn’t have her phone number and neither her address with me. I should have panicked but I didn’t, there is always a solution to everything. I followed the crowd to the exit and there she was with her husband waiting for me with a beautiful bouquet of roses in her hands. How did she know? Her answer remained impressed in my mind: “When Valentina says she comes, Valentina comes”. In her simple English, it was her way of telling me I am a reliable person and I mean what I say. What a great salutation on my first moment in Japan!!!

All the other days evolved in a great fun, friendship, loving local food, discovering local customs, folklore, full immersion in their traditions, and celebrating every moment.

The highlight of my trip to Japan was Kyoto. I was catapulted in Medieval Japan. It is ancient, traditional, true to the culture, small artisan shops, a respectful silence permeated the town, no noisy modern commercial billboards and blinding city lights, people are on bicycles, kimono shops with amazing fabric designs, traditional food and romantic street red lanterns. It felt just right.
One of the guys friend of my friends made a bond with me. He ate off my bowl and apparently that gesture is done between two people who know each other very well. He did it with me, a stranger and a foreigner, it meant a lifetime friendship bonds us now. I like that.

If your work allows it, free your time, take a vacation, even a small week, your soul and mind will appreciate it. Even the fastest racecar needs to stop at a pit stop. Listen to your life talking!
What surprise this coming October will reserve you? 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 trots the world and loves to write travel notes, from which she draws inspiration to design home interiors of her clients .
She is the author of her book on the subject of colors: ©Red-A Voyage Into Colors available on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Can’t Come In With Palazzo Pants | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

27 Jun 2015 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #PalazzoPants, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #SummerPants, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor, #ValentinaFashionDesigner

Welcome to my Friday Fashion episode.

They are colorful, fun and easy to wear, they flow as you walk and they have a cooling effect in the summer, they are the palazzo pants. Palazzo pants became a popular trend in the late 1960s and early 1970s, now back in fashion more than 50 years later. New ideas in fashion are never really new, they have lived somewhere in different times, in fact, Katharine Hepburn, Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich in the ‘30s and ‘40s were the first actresses to wear men style wide-legged cuffed trousers. However, even if in many ways pants have liberated women from cumbersome garments and made easier for women to climb on horses or go in and out of cars, there has been a time, only 50 years ago, when women could not enter an upscale restaurant dressed in trousers, they were considered inappropriate garment for the evening.

Palazzo pants came to solve that problem, as they flare out from the waist to the ankle and look very much like a long skirt when the woman is standing still.

(photo courtesy of Boston Proper.com)

Palazzo pants are perfect for the tall, slender woman. Due to the tube-like shape top and bottom, this kind of pants is becoming on a person with large hips, helping re-balancing the figure and putting it in proportions with the rest of the body. It is not perfect for the short and stocky woman, even if she is on high hills. The choice is yours. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, born in Italy in a family of artists. Style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. To better help people in the world she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

The Architectural White Shirt | Valentina Cirasola |Designer

21 Mar 2015 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #GianfrancoFerre', #GianfrancoFerre'WhiteShirt, #PratoTextileMuseum, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor, #WhiteShirt, #WhiteShirtMilanoExhibit

Welcome to a new episode of Friday Fashion.
A white shirt is as common as one makes it, or a piece of architectural work. A white shirt builds your figure to an elevated elegance or swallows your beauty. A white shirt must speak the language of beauty and not cover the body.

Italian designer Gianfranco Ferre’ considered the architect of fashion, designed striking white shirts, each with its own character and message. Gianfranco Ferre’ passed away in 2007 and now the Italian Textile Museum Foundation in Prato together with Gianfranco Ferré Foundation organized in Milano an exhibition in homage to the “architect” designer of the white shirt. “There are twenty-seven white shirts, a stunning sequence of sartorial masterpieces, bearing silent witness to twenty years of absolutely ingenious and peerless creativity.” – says the museum’s director. The exhibit runs from March 10 to April 1, 2015 and there are plans for the exhibit to travel to the U.S., to Phoenix and perhaps Los Angeles and Chicago.

(photo credits Museo Tessuto)

Gianfranco Ferre’ took inspiration from history, art, nature, poetry, architecture and built the white shirts on sensuality, curves and femininity. Watch his work here:

“Talking about my white shirts is all too easy. It’s all too easy to declare a love that covers the span of my creative path. A hallmark – perhaps the ultimate signature – of my style, which enfolds a constant pursuit of innovation and a no less unfailing love of tradition. Story in motion. Tradition in the form of the men’s shirt, ever-present and encoded element of the wardrobe. That tickled my fancy for invention, incited my propensity for rethinking the tenets of elegance and style in an interplay of pure fantasy and contemporary design. Read with sense of glamour and poetry, freedom and energy, the formal and quasi-immutable white shirt took on an infinity of identities, a multiplicity of inflections. To the point of becoming, I believe, a must of modern-day femininity… This process always entails a keen rethinking of shapes. The white blouse is never the same yet always unmistakable. It may be light and floaty, flawlessly severe (if a mannish cut remains), as sumptuously enveloping as a cloud, as skinny and snug as a bodysuit. Some parts, primarily collar and cuffs, can become emphatic; others expressly lose ‘force’ and may even disappear (back, shoulders, sleeves). The blouse comes with precious lace and embroidery; turns sexy thanks to the use of sheer fabrics; acquires ultra importance with gorgeous ruffles and ruches. It billows delicately with every motion, almost free of gravity. It frames the face like a fabulous corolla. It sculpts the body in a slick second-skin mode. It is the eclectic interpreter of all types of materials: sheer organza, crisp taffeta, glossy satin. Duchesse, poplin, chiffon, georgette, too…” Gianfranco Ferré, notes (quote credit given to the author)

If you are in Milano at this time, make an effort to visit the exhibit, it will be an inspiring experience, Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, working in the USA and Europe. Born in Italy in a family of artists, style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. To better help people in the world she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Living In The Womb Of The Earth | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

12 Mar 2015 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #CasaCava, #MateraCaveLiving, #MateraHotelSextantio, #MateraItaly, #MateraSassi, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor, #ValentinaExpressions

Last time I took a group of American travelers to Italy we visited Matera, a medium size town in the region of Basilicata, in southern Italy. Matera is the largest town in this region and has been the capital town of Basilicata since 1806. The town lies in a small canyon, which has been eroded in the course of years by a small stream of water and that Canyon is called the Gravina. Matera is also known as the Subterranean City, due to its infamous homes created in the caves inside of the rocks of that canyon.

However, a few years ago, Hollywood and Italian Cinecitta’ chose Matera as the set for filming in 1964 of the The Gospel According to St Matthew by Italian produce Pier Paolo Pasolini, and in 2004 for Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ. Presently, another film is in production, the remake of historic 1959 blockbuster film Ben Hur, in which are now starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Huston.
In 1993 UNESCO declared Matera a World Heritage Site and last year it was nominated the European Capital of Culture for 2019. Due to all the new interests in the area, many activities and cultural initiatives have sprung up, like the World Book Fair of women writers from all over the world.

What really makes this area so distinctively interesting is not the formal Italian architecture found in Italy, in fact the historic center of the town does not have examples of buildings or palazzi of particular value or refinement, the interests lies in the homes made for poor people inside of caves in the canyon (Gravina), or else known as Sassi. Those homes are examples of spontaneous architecture created out of necessity, where poor people were destined to live. Not having any place to go they excavated their homes inside of the womb of the earth. Visiting these ancient cave homes, one feels enveloped, embraced and a closed relationship with the womb of the earth. The original homes are made with local tufa stone, which is a particular calcareous limestone, malleable that gives out a feeling of warmth when is left exposed and not covered with other materials on top. Tufa stone gives out a feeling of authenticity and natural as nature created. It is not uncommon to find rock fossils of seashells in the tufa stones, which makes these homes so authentic.

As I said, poor people lived there, but during the ’60s and ‘70s the government offered them low-income housing arrangement with running water and electricity and little by little they vacated the caves for a better and more modern living in the town. Today, after Hollywood filming and Unesco recognition as World Heritage, local people are returning to cave living, making some big improvements with modern amenities. Now we see elegant hotels and restaurants being propped in there that are maintaining the characteristic of the caves.

If I were the designer remaking these cave homes, I would work with a warm palette that agrees with the warm tones of the tufa stone, using oxidized or etched copper as fixtures to recreate the patina of a corroding water stream. I would use opaque resins with oxides coating, type of Venetian style and for the floor, I would use the typical street pavement of the area called chianche, very beautiful stones or handmade ancient terracotta without cooked waked on top. For the furniture, I would choose the shabby chic style. Although in general I do not much like it, especially when it is very distressed, I believe it would be the most compatible with the type of environments we are confronted in the “Sassi”.

The air in the “SAssi” area is mystical, it is impossible not to feel a strong attraction and bewitched by the surroundings. The energy that comes up from the earth is truly magical, especially at night. Some of the visitors during my last trip to the area suggested that the Italian government should build a theatre in the canyon for aspiring actors from all over the world where they can practice their theatre plays. The mystical atmosphere is already there, they need to create the rest. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinaexpressions.com/trips-to-puglia-2/

Copyright © 2015 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

As a writer and cultural promoter of Puglia, my native land, it is my intention to let readers feel and experience a new ”wheel of emotions”. I want to encourage them to visit areas of Italy not beaten by massive tourism. Through stories of art, architecture, fashion, food-wines, shopping, I want them to create their special adventures and live it up in Puglia! Check out my books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Bohemian Wedding | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

21 Feb 2015 Leave a comment

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #BeachWedding, #BohemianStyle, #BohemianWedding, #BohemianWeddingDress, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor

Welcome to my usual Friday Fashion, this blog will be about a wedding.
It all started when this woman, we will call her Possum, started to frequent my home. She could not pinpoint what was about my style that she liked so much, until one day I told her it was a Bohemian Valentina’s style, not just any hippy Bohemian from the ‘60s. In my décor there is modern Italian with country French, Venetian 1700s style with American classics, found pieces mixed with hand-painted pieces, travel memorabilia and personal memories. All and all is a style which suits my personality and it feels just comfortable for me.

Fast forward a few years later Possum found the right man she wants to marry. Influenced by my style, she started redecorating her home in the Bohemian style and now she wants to marry in the same style.

Preparations have begun with a delicious brunch prepared by him (a chef) for us the girls of the wedding including myself. I will be officiating the ceremony for the very first time in my life, the other girls will be the bride’s maids.

Nothing in this wedding will be ordinary, nor conventional. Possum decided to get married on the beach bare feet somewhere on California coast. She will hire a party bus to take us to the beach, then to the reception place and back to her home at night.

(Possum will wear these anklets – Source: https://www.ebay.com/p/swarovski-foot-jewelry-beach-wedding-anklet-destination-bridal-bridesmaids-gift/1177730856)

Our brunch was full of ideas and full of flavors, her man cooked delicious food for us. Possum started with a Bohemian tablecloth and two seahorses as table centerpieces. You might have imagined already, the theme of the wedding is the beach with its beautiful calming colors.

At the end of the brunch, she gave us a surprise: champagne color bracelets for us to wear at the wedding, shells, a small glitzy jewelry box and chocolates to remember how we started it. It was presented to us as a treasure chest as if she found it floating at the shore. Guess who in the photo is wearing the blue polish with a large shell ring?

I designed her Bohemian dress already. The day we were going to the seamstress to share our idea, Possum almost fainted when she saw my drawing, could not believe it was exactly how she had imagined. The seamstress will make her ensemble, which we will not call a wedding dress. The look, the colors, and the design do not scream wedding, this is a dress for a day on the beach with loved friends, free of conventions made for a free spirit like Possum and if she wants to wear each piece separately later with the jeans she can.

My inspiration is complete and all together, my ideas are clear, from some of my beach photos I will extrapolate the colors for the reception decorations and for the bride ensemble. The bride’s maids will wear whatever they want, hopefully, they will choose wisely and not black. I will have something bluish-turquoise-aqua to match my eyes. The wedding will be the first week of June. Time is of the essence. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, working in the USA and Europe. Born in Italy in a family of artists, style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. To better help people in the world she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/qNxXrB
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Sagging To The Knees | Valentina Cirasola | Designer

06 Feb 2015 2 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #Codpiece #Flappers #1800'sCorsets, #CulDeCrin, #HistoryOfFashion, #MaryQuant, #RedVoyageIntoColors, #SaggyFashion, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor

Welcome to a new episode of my Friday Fashion!
It is so amazing to see how through centuries fashion shifts its attention to various parts of a human body and attributes a sexy role to those parts to keep us interested. In the Renaissance, for instance, a woman forehead was considered very sexy only if it was exposed really high. To achieve that look, women shaved the front hairline and then gathered all the hair in the back of the neck like a skein of wool enclosed in an elegant net.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the attention shifted on the woman’s breast. Tight corsets pushed up the breasts to enormous proportions, reducing the woman’s torso into a funnel look with a tiny waist and bulging boobs, making breathing very difficult.

Piero del Pollaiolo – Portrait of girl 1467-70

Tight Lacing, or Fashion Before Ease, John Collet, 1770-1775

In the 1800s through the era of La Belle Époque, the “Cul De Crin” came into fashion to emphasize the woman’s derrière. It was a puffy cushion made of horsehair tied in the waist, laid on the derrière and worn under the skirt. Older women carried a larger and stuffier cul de crin. It threw the woman’s figure onward as if she walked on tiptoes.

1800’s Dress with a concealed cul de crin

Cul de Crin – circa 1820 – Found on: http://www.abitiantichi.it/collezione/biancheria/crinolina12.html

In traditional Japanese culture, the nape of a woman’s neck held a strong attraction for many Japanese men. Face, hands and nape were the only parts of the body left uncovered.

Gaisha-Bitai – the willowy – Found on http://kienthuc.net.vn/phong-thuy/huyen-bi-nghe-thuat-lam-dep-cua-geisha-266620.html

Flapper Dresses- 1920-30’s – Found on http://www.cafepress.co.uk/+paris+postcards

Mary Quant ‘s Mini Skirt

During the ’20s and ’30s legs came into full attention, women got rid of corsets, shorten the dress and exposed the legs for the first time. Mary Quant, British designer conquered the world in the 60’s with her new invention: the Mini Skirts. Legs are now in plain view from top to bottom, often starting as high as the crotch.

I could go on and on with these examples on how fashion extrapolate parts of the human body and turns them into the subject of sex from era to era.
Don’t think for a minute that men are not subjected to the ferocious scrutiny and volubility of fashion. Men have had their fair share through times, although men’s dress style has not changed much in the last 100 years.

Going to the Renaissance Fair last Autumn I was reminded of the “Codpiece” worn during the 15th and 16th centuries. It was a time of economic and territorial expansion, a period in which the display of virility exaggerating the masculine attributes in any form of public life played a major part in a competitive culture. A codpiece (braguette in French) is a covering flap or pouch attached to the front of the crotch of men’s trousers to accentuate the genital area. Men enlarged the codpiece with padding, it served as a protection of men’s precious jewels and as an accent of their best points. Basically, they advertised what nature gave them.

Henry VIII in codpiece

Giovanni Battista Moroni – Portrait of Antonio Navagero 1565

Lanzichenecchi Soldier

The men’s jewelry is still in great attention, just the wrong attention, now we have the sagging pants. The sights of young lads wearing sagging pants down to their knees, showing their boxers in plain view overwhelm us. When are they going to understand this dressing style is not sexy and their walk resembles more the walk of troglodyte cave men. The worse part of this trend is to see women showing their undies through a low-cut jeans.

Girls if you think to be sexy looking like that, think again! The art of showing and not showing, to see and not to see, the art of making yourself mysterious is sexy, revealing everything you have is cheap. Make the mirror your best friend.

Guys, when you go to a job interview with your undies showing and your pants sagging to your knees, do you really think you will get a job? Kings and nobles did not need a job, with their power they did what they pleased and if that meant wearing a large stuffed up codpiece to magnify their virility, they did so and set the trends for others. You are not in the same power! Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services#fashion-services

Valentina Cirasola is a trained Fashion and Interior Designer, working in the USA and Europe. Born in Italy in a family of artists, style surrounded her since the beginning of her life. Her many years of experience led her to offer consultations in both specializations and now she can remodel homes as well as personal images. To better help people in the world, she offers consultations online. She is the author of three books. Get your copy of Valentina’s book on colors: ©RED-A Voyage Into Colors on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Serenity | Valentina Cirasola |Author and Designer

20 Jan 2015 Leave a comment

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #RedVoyageIntoColors, #Serenity, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor, #WPPhotoChallengeSerenity, https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/serenity/

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/serenity/

What is Serenity to me?
Getting up and have a sense of direction.
Closing a colorful working day knowing that night will fall, but everything around me will still be colorful and illuminated.
Going to my garden/orchard to pick up oranges, fruit and vegetable that have not been sprayed with pesticides.
Looking a new life blooming in January under cold and grey days. My white paper lilies are very happy.
Growing an avocado tree from the pits of avocadoes I ate. If it worked with the pits of apricots, apples and vegetables seeds, it will work with and avocado, I thought.
Experimenting with plants I don’t know anything about. This summer Canna Lilies plants will be tall and bright orange.

My garden at night

My orange tree

My white paper lilies

My first avocado tree

My first canna lilies

Get inspired and create a great day Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola is an Italian Interior Designer working in the USA and Europe since 1990, specializing in kitchen, bath, wine cellar, and outdoor kitchen designs. Often people describe her as “the colorist” as she loves to color her clients’ world and loves to create the unusual. “Vogue” magazine and many prominent publications in California featured Valentina’s work. She also has made four appearances on T.V. Comcast Channel 15. Author of three published books, the latest ©RED – A Voyage Into Colors is on the subject of colors.
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

Mini And Cute | Valentina Cirasola | Author and Designer

20 Jan 2015 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #ItalianVegetables, #MiniBellPeppers #ItalianFood, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor, #ValentinaCirasolaOnPinterest

It’s grey outside and on my table, there is always something colorful whatever the season. Today I played in the kitchen with stuffed peppers, and cabbage stuffed with chicken breasts. These are food that requires a few hours of execution. Once completed I put them away in the freezer for those busy times when I can’t cook elaborate food, and I still want to eat well. I chose to feature Stuffed Mini Peppers as the easiest of the two specialties I prepared today.

Stuffed Mini Bell Peppers

Ingredients for 4 people
Mini bell peppers to fill a baking pan
Garlic, ginger and fresh chili peppers to your liking
Cherry tomatoes split in half
2-3 teaspoons of lemon juice
A hand-full of capers and fresh basil leaves
Parmigiano and salt to your liking
Breadcrumbs
Extra-virgin olive oil

Development
Cut the mini bell peppers in half and align them in a baking sheet.
In a bowl prepare a mixture with all the ingredients mentioned above.
Fill each bell pepper half with the mixture.
Sprinkle breadcrumbs over and a generous swirl of extra-virgin olive oil.
Bake at 400° F until golden brown.

This is an easy vegetable dish full of colors, and flavor. Pair it with meat or fish for a complete meal, or make it as an appetizer and serve it with a Prosecco.
The smallest things are always the cutest! 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. Get your copy of Valentina’s books on
Amazon: http://goo.gl/xUZfk0
Barnes&Nobles: http://goo.gl/q7dQ3w

The Easiest Soup You Will Ever Make | Valentina Cirasola |Author and Designer

08 Sep 2014 2 Comments

by Valentina in The Good Life Tags: #FallSoupRecipes, #HowToCookZucchini, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor, #ZucchiniSalad, #ZucchiniSoup

I am feeling the Autumn coming, even though in my part of the world is still warm and sunny. I want to ease in the new season by trying soothing, comforting and easy to make food. I made a delicious zucchini soup and I want you to try it.

Ingredients for two:
(for more people increase all doses as you like)
3 zucchini
2 celery stalks
2 carrots
1 small onion
1 or 2 tomatoes
olive oil
Parmigiano cheese
4 cups of water or vegetable stalk
Salt, pepper or chili pepper to taste

Wash and chop celery, carrots and onion in small pieces. Briefly sauté in olive oil. Chop the tomatoes in small dices as well and add them to the first three ingredients. Let them become translucent. Fill the pot with 4 cups of organic vegetable stock or the best ingredient WATER. Season the broth to your liking with salt, pepper or chili peppers. Cover the pot, let the broth come to a boil and simmer slowly for about 10-15 minutes.

Chili peppers have many properties, I will just name a few: boost metabolism, provide vitamin C, prevent getting a cold in the winter, or help getting rid of it and lower blood pressure. If your stomach can take a little heat, please add chili peppers to your food daily.

While the broth is simmering, put the zucchini in the food processor with a grinder (finely chop) setting. They will come out like you see them in my photo, resembling chopped spaghetti. Transfer to a bowl, mix in grated Parmigiano cheese in the amount you like and set aside.

With a hand blender mash to a cream all the ingredients in the pot and if it is too creamy for you, add a cup of water or vegetable stock. Simmer for a few more minutes, then add the chopped zucchini to the soup. Turn the fire off and the soup is done. Zucchini chopped so finely will cook immediately in the hot soup and will be still crispy.

Oh, by the way: chopped raw zucchini are also good to eat just like that with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, or added to a salad. Keep your food simple.
Buon appetito! Ciao,
Valentina
http://www.valentinadesigns.com

Valentina Cirasola has been in business as an interior designer since 1990 improving people’s life by changing their spaces. Most often she designs kitchens and wine grottos; outdoor kitchens and outdoor rooms; great rooms and entertainment rooms. Her deep interest in food led her as an autodidact in the studies of food in history, natural remedies, nutrition and well-being. Finally she wrote two books on Italian regional cuisine and one book on color theory, in which she included one recipe for each color. Get your copy of Valentina’s books on
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