Cucina di Becca

Wise Fool

"Say goodbye to your moms and dads!"

Luca turns to me as I bend down, and he says, "Goodbye, Mom" in a solemn voice, but his eyes lock with mine and he gives me a kiss on the lips. He turns around and follows his fellow 1st graders in.

Is that it? I want to follow him, help him find his desk...reassure him a little more.

But Coyote and Panther are with him.

I sat on his bed last night and asked him to pick a card from a deck of animal cards. First, he choose panther. I tell him that it says "Passion, follow your passion!" We  talk about what passion is, and this card is not resonating with him. So, I tell him to look a little more.

He picks Coyote, the Wise Fool. And I laugh. What is a wise fool? Someone who makes mistakes, but we all make mistakes, right? The Wise Fool learns from his mistakes.

Its energies are tied to simplicity and trust. It is the card for developing poise in the chaos of life.

Coyote is often portrayed as the wise fool, helping people see the truth in difficult situations. Coyote medicine is often strongly tied to learning to be adaptable, seeing the humor in even the worst situations, and being able to cope with even the toughest things that life can throw at you.

He seems satisfied with this card, but asks about passion again. He is such a passionate kid, but he hasn't found his passion at school. I can see that he wants to. He decides to take both cards, and he runs down to put them in his backpack. 

Adaptability -- that's the main reason for the success of the coyote. It can easily change its behavior to survive in a new place.

The perfect buddy for Luca at school...

Old Friends

 

 

These pictures inspired me to finally get back to blogging...just had to share them. Can you believe that I have a friend who moved BACK to Colorado? Who has a 6 year old son that Luca adores? It is still a bit of a dream. Mimi looks pretty happy too.

(boy does Luca pronate!)

Here are some other moments that I have been thinking about blogging about...

 

 

Kitchen re-model craziness...don't take away my sink AND stove... i get really grumpy.

 

 

 

Amazing amazing Mexico. So beautiful. So much delicious food. Cooked right in our condo overlooking the ocean. Mmmmm...waking up to the smell of bacon that I am not cooking...no children in my bed...nothing to do...it was a slice of heaven. And those Huevos Rancheros were the best that I have ever had. I am growing tomatillas this summer just in an effort to replicate this marvelous breakfast.

 

 

Lastly, our trip to New Mexico which thoroughly convinced me that kids should be living in community. Kids were happy, adults were happy...good times, as Bill would say. Yes, that is Bill managing to play with Mimi and get in a nap. For a while, he actually had the Snoopy sitting up and facing Mimi so that she could carry on full conversations between the dogs. Talented Dad. Oh -- and you can see Luca's black eye from his mysterious allergic reaction. That was frightening...

Sleeping Beauties

I know that it is cruel to take flash pictures while people are sleeping...but...

 

and..well, then there was...

 

and, after four days of being with the kids without my husband, they won me back over five minutes ago with this...

 

Well, my semester is almost officially over. Hallefuckin'lujah.  I was seriously put to the test this academic year. But things are slowly improving -- my students acknowledged me more than ever at the end, Bill kicked serious ass in his race today, Mimi has discovered peeing in the toilet, Luca has taken on the practice of hugging me when I get bitchy with him...

let the summer begin! Cooking, blogging, swimming, biking, partying in Mexico...I think I deserve it.

Marcella cucina

Finally, I finished reading Marcella Hazan's autobiography -- "Amarcord". She is the author of the only Italian cookbooks that you will find in my family's kitchens...or at least the only ones that we use.

She starts with :

    "You could describe the road my life has taken as a      series of unexpected and improbable turns."

Umm...yeah. She was trained to be a science professor. Sound familiar? Maybe a small hint from the universe...

She had many bold moments as she veered away from that career path. She grew up experiencing the horrors of World War II, and then married an Italian Jewish man who had grown up in New York. She ends up back in New York, with no knowledge of the language, no job  and no family or friends besides her in-laws. She does what I would have done....lots and lots of cooking.

She also learns to speak English in order to conduct cooking classes. My favorite example of botching the language was this:

"Somehow, one day, when we were discussing what I was going to teach the next day, I slipped into the language of the lesson. I said, at one point, 'I am going to show them how to screw the shrimp.'

'Say that again,' Victor said.

I repeated the words.

'And you have been saying it all the time?' he asked.

'Sure'.

'And no one has ever made a comment?'

'No, why, what's wrong with it?'

I never tried to use the word 'skewer' again."

That took me right back to my first day in liceo, Italian high school, when the teacher greeted me with "Ciao!" and I responded "Ciao!" and the whole class bust out laughing. Hmmm, that happened to be the only word that I knew in Italian at the time, and I was pretty sure how to use it. WRONG. One never greets an elder that one does not know in this way. "Salve" would have been the proper response.

I found this to be a slow read, but a really interesting one if you like cooking. One particularly sweet moment is when she describes a woman holding an infant at a book signing, explaining that they named their baby after her because of the enormous impact of her cookbooks on their family.

So, in Marcella's honor, I share my hands-down favorite recipe of hers because it is SO SIMPLE.

Lemon Chicken

Wash a whole chicken well, and sprinkle with salt and pepper, rubbing it into the skin with your fingers. Take one large lemon, or two small ones, and rub between your hand to soften it. Pierce it all over with a fork. Stick it inside the chicken.

Put the chicken in a roasting pan breast-side down, and cook for about 30 minutes at 350^o F. Turn the chicken gently, and then cook for about another 40 minutes. Raise the temperature to 400^oF and cook for

 another 40 minutes.

Serve, spooning the sauce created over the chicken.

Important caveat: do NOT check on the chicken. When I was in high school, I tried to make this chicken for a favorite math teacher and his wife. I was so nervous that I checked the chicken over and over. Dinner was delayed by about 1.5 hours, during which time my dad had to sit and talk with them. To put it mildly, they were NOT his favorite people. He finally forgave me during my college years....and then I started dating their son.

(no...it was not Bill...)

Sick of being sick...

Let's see - it started with Mimi's fever one week ago Friday. She had a fever for four out of the next five days, and developed a renching cough as well. On Wednesday, Luca developed a fever and was able to tell me that it was accompanied by a hellacious headache. Poor Mimi of little words never let me in on that... Then, I felt it coming Wednesday night. I spent most of Thursday in bed, except one trip to my new healer of all things, Jan the acupunturist. Unfortunately her strange method of reducing fever by scraping my back with the lid of a baby food jar did not cure my fever. It was nice to nap in her quiet office though. On Friday morning, my mom and Bill bid me farewell for the rest of the weekend.

Yes, I was with the kids, essentially quarantined since no one wanted this heinous sickness. A friend passed food through the door, and my babysitter took the kids to the park...but it was mostly me with a 102 fever and back-wrenching cough/headache. I don't remember EVER feeling this sick, but then again most sick people go to bed. It is really something else to be responsible for small children when you are sick.

Some great things did happen though...

• Luca made Stone Soup. Pictures and recipe to follow.
• Luca taught Mimi how to play Roundup. He even cheated to help them win.
• Luca did puzzles with Mimi!
• Mimi slept peacefully all weekend. I can't say that much for Luca though...
• I read Marcella Hazan's autobiography which I am excited to share!

I was actually amazed at how well the weekend went. I knew that I couldn't really get anything done, so I just played and played and watched lots of movies and read a lot. Thank the universe because Bill came home from his mountain trip.......sick.

Some food questions...

I am noticing that it is very difficult to eat these days. The more that I read, the more obsessive I get. Examples:

• Sugar is evil. Gotta feel guilty about any sweet thing that contains refined sugar.

 

• Processed foods are evil. Packing snacks for Luca to go to school is IMPOSSIBLE without guilt. No nuts, of course. He won't eat fruit. Even organic crackers and fruit strips cause feelings of guilt (but at least they get eaten...)

• Apparently, there are no good eggs in the supermarket. None. Must get eggs from a farm. Not even the $4.50 dozen come from well-treated hens.

• Umm... ditto for any chicken and pork. You can get grass-fed beef, but they might just plant a square of grass in front of the stall they are chained to.

• Berries are fabulous food. Also one of the worst for pesticide residue. Have you checked the price of organic berries lately?

• Oh yeah - and don't ever read about what they do to milk. Yet just as I find a way to get raw milk, my friend who grew up on a dairy farm informs me that my kids might hate it due to the strong flavor.

 So, there are a few things that I struggle with. There are more... but I am trying to hide just a little bit of my obsessiveness. Time to find a little balance, so that we can enjoy our food and not go broke.

Book review coming...

Happy New Year!

 

We toasted 2009 by giving our children wine...feeling very Italian. We brought in the New Year with a little Ciancanelli feast by Marcella Hazan. She is an amazing Italian cook who will be my highlight for January.

 

This pork roast simmers gently in whole milk for hours, which might  be a kosher nightmare, but is incredibly tender and produces an amazing sauce. We ate it over quinoa with asparagus on the side. Then, we had ricotta cheese fritters for dessert. Wow, Typepad is unbelieveably slow. Might post this recipe later.

 

 

So yummy--like doughnuts with a creamy filling.This was Mimi's face, right after sopping up all the honey on her plate.

Buon Natale!

Auguri! I hope you are eating fabulous food today, getting cozy with your loved ones and relaxing!

We are passing by a very rainy day in Phoenix by doing all of the above, plus lots of toy assembly and watching Luca moter around his new "Amphibian" mobile. It is truly a testament to the power of waiting -- he has wanted a remote control vehicle for probably six months. I wish I had gotten a video of his reaction to this gift from Aunt Jen (I let her be the hero...). He told everyone how long he had been waiting.

Here is a classic Luca/Mom conversation:

"Mom, I want to take this car out to the swimming pool!"

"Well, don't let it get into the pool or it will stop working..."

"But this car goes on land AND water!"

"Yes, maybe you could drive it through some puddles...."

"But I want to take it into the swmming pool!"

"Luca, our car can go through water too, but we don't drive it into the swimming pool.."

"Well, that is just because it is too big."

True enough. Forget the logic. You just can't take that car into the swimming pool. I can't replace it quickly, since Jen got it on the internet. Here's how my husband helps me out during this conversation:

"It might float..."

I growl at him - "Shall we risk it, since we can't replace this car today?"

He shrugs. "Yeah, Luca, go drive it through the puddles."

And, as usual, with the word from Dad, he lets it go.

I am reading a book called "Real Food" which has inspired me to post on my blog again. It is a fabulous book along the lines of Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions, and it sets me out on my journey again for grass-fed beef, raw milk and cheese, and possibly even liver. I have come to my senses and dialed down my work load for next semester. So, hopefully I will be back to writing, cooking and learning more from Helen about food photography.

Off to enjoy Ciancanelli lasagna with homemade noodles and a glass of red wine! Buon Appetito!

Dreamin' about the good old days

At the risk of sounding like a whiner, I am sharing with you my thoughts as I walked across campus today.

I have a ten minute walk from my car to my class on Mondays and Wednesdays...and my first stop is Farrand Field where the marching band is playing. You may not know that I was a big band geek - playing the clarinet, saxophone, flute, drums and even trombone when I was in high school. When I hear the drum core playing, it gets me somewhere deep. So, instead of thinking about how I can hardly manage my life right now, I was thinking about the good old days...

Which took me back to playing the college orchestra at Scripps... a delightful two hours off the Harvey Mudd campus and away from all the science geeky dorm competitions... oh, and then I started reminiscing about playing doubles volleyball...yeah, I had this hot partner named Paul who was really unavailable...we were a really good team....man, the days when I just played volleyball all day and then drank and partied at night...hmmm...why did I grow up?

And now I have this life which moves too fast, and I can't keep all the balls in the air. I should quit my job so I can focus on the kids, especially now that Luca is homeschooling. But I can't quit my job because we need the money especially if he might end up in a private school...sigh...or maybe I was destined to be a homeschooling mom.

Adyashanti would say ... Breathe. Relax. It isn't all so significant as it seems.

Yellow pears...

They aren't green anymore...an explosion of yellow pear tomatoes. Given that we are full of raw cherry tomatoes, I had to find something to do with all the yellow guys. Bill loved it...

Pizza!

I had frozen extra pizza dough, but you can actually buy it at the grocery store now. I rolled it out very thin, spread on some olive oil and rubbed cut garlic gloves over the oil. Then, I sprinkled on chopped fresh tomatoes, fresh chopped basil leaves, some mozzarella cheese and some parmesan cheese.

It tasted so fresh, fresh, fresh. Yes, that word is all over this post, because there is something so FRESH about cooking straight from your garden.

Check out the boys growing up...both in Kindergarten now!

May 2004

August 2008