San Diego Food Revolution Day

When you cook it should be an act of love. To put a frozen bag in the microwave for your child is an act of hate. -Raymond Blanc

How was the Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day in San Diego? A huge success! Suzie's Farm had hundreds of visitors picking strawberries, enjoying the live band, eating from the Green Truck and just hanging out being neighborly. I invited everyone I could, I tweeted, pinned, facebooked, talkled to anyone and everyone I could about it and boy did all of it pay off!

Fresh strawberry lemonade from the Green Truck

What was my ulterior motive for all this hoopla? I want families to realize how special it is to have access to farms and fresh foods. We are so lucky to live here where fresh food is grown throughout the year. Fresh foods can be really inexpensive and you don't have to cook most fresh foods -how easy is that?? In my little backyard patch I let seeds go wild and I encourage my budding foodies to taste, smell, and experiment with everything (yes, even the wild purslane).

So what has been my payoff from all this? I've gotten such a thrill from seeing children eat the organic strawberries freshly picked by their little chubby hands. I love knowing that my kids will know what to do with fresh vegetables and they won't be afraid to try even more varieties of vegetables (knock on wood because we all know that they ALL sometimes just say 'NO' to anything new). But, in the long run I think my kids will be healthier, happier and wiser with this type of foodie education.

So in that spirit I'll share with you one of the things we ate last night that the kids LOVED:

Leek & Zucchini (courgette) Frittata

1 leek
2 med size zucchini (or if your English or French courgette)
2 eggs (because I tend not to like it too eggy otherwise do 4)
1tbsp olive oil
5tbsp of herbed feta
salt & pepper to taste

Clean and thinly slice the whites of a leek (make sure you get the dirt and grit out from between the layers). Then saute it until translucent and then add in grated zucchini and let it cook down for 5 minutes on medium low heat -no need to stir. Meanwhile slightly beat teh eggs and feta making sure there are no large chunks of feta. Then add in the egg mixture and cover for 5 minutes under low heat. Now uncover and here is the tricky part: with a large plate over the fry pan flip the frittata onto the plate. Now I like to put it back by sliding it off the plate and back on to pan. You can just forgo all of this and put the fry pan under the broiler for 4 more minutes to finish it.

I served this with a basil & lemon orzo salad and there were no leftovers! :) What is your favorite fresh fast meal in the summer?

Peanut Butter My New Food Porn

Ok, so I'm not the biggest fan of peanut butter probably because I really didn't grow up with it. However, I think the tide is turning. My little neighborhood has a huge peanut butter secret -we've got our very own peanut butter super star! Yes, you heard me right.

The place is called Spread and yes it is that good and the culinary genius behind it has been recognized by making it on Oprah's best list. Check the link because it is Oprah's selection. I'm not sharing so you can order your own here. But, be warned this could be your new crack!

Starting from the Ground Up -Craftsman Style

So we bought a typical California Craftsman House here in San Diego and it has been an interesting education. Before landing here I really had no idea what a Craftsman House was and I most likely would have guessed that you were talking about a house built by a carpenter. I won't bore you with the details of what exactly a craftsman is, I'll leave you the wiki link above for that. What I will tell you is how this house and I are adjusting and or changing each other.

When I thought of wooden floors this is what would I think of:

But, this is what I got:
Plain light oak strips everywhere in no imaginative pattern. As you can tell from the photo I got some work done on them. The wood expert I hired did a great job of removing years of neglectful pet stains, water marks and other random stains. All that to have it stained to my whim of ebony meets red cherry. It turned out really well. As it happens one good person (the wood expert) knows another and before I knew it I had painters too.

Whilst here in the US it is very common for people to paint their own house I was very uncomfortable with the idea partly due to the fact that all the walls had been BADLY plastered or as they call it here "texturized." The texture was more akin to what you would find in a non-frost free refrigerator after a few years of neglect. So I had them try to undo all the "texture" which took a long time and was a dusty explosion of a mess (as you can see).
The photo below is the color I settled on for the living room (yellow) looking into the dinning room (red). The yellow is very cheery and reminds me of Italy. An interesting cultural footnote is that in Naples if your house is painted yellow then you've paid your dues to the mob so that you can be left alone or so they say.

As you can see I have rails on the walls for hanging paintings (at least that is what I think they are for). Would you trust these rails or just go ahead and use picture hanging nails?
In the photo below you see the entryway to the left is to the kitchen, which I had painted a more vibrant scarlet red and then to the right is the hallway to the bedrooms which is actually painted a sand color. As you can see the floors came out brilliantly (that is when there isn't dog hair on them).
Finally, the most essential room in my house: the kitchen. Here is where the cultural differences are great. First of all this is the first time in my life that I own or have a micowave. This is also the first time in over a decade that there is a non-human dishwasher in the kitchen. In Naples we could never find a rental that had one because they are very uncommon. Many Neapolitans would tell me that a machine could never do as good a job as a good hand washing (I beg to differ). The other difference here is that there is no clothes washer in the kitchen which in all candor is a convenient place for it.

What bothers me most about my new American kitchen? I don't have a scolapiatti in the cupboard. A scolapiatti is a dish drying rack that fits into the cupboard above the sink so that it is hidden away from sight. The water that comes from the dishes either pools in a pan that is the bottom of the cupboard or it just drains directly into the sink (your choice really). I have yet to see this great invention here. Instead I have this big rack on the countertop which drives me crazy when it drains onto the floor. How is it that the scolapiatti can't even be found here? (hint this is a million dollar idea for someone).
N.B. Speaking of kitchens and all things cooking - I have a new survey up on the site (hint hint all of you feed readers) and I would like to know if you want to hear more about food -click on the survey and let me know!

The View from my New Diggs

Holy Matilda, I've been busy! However, I must admit I've been able to keep up with some of my favorite blogs and everyone has been producing some great stuff. Big thank you to my friends and fans for sending me encouraging emails -I really appreciate it!

We finally did find a little house here in San Diego!! I've been hesitant on telling anyone about it because I didn't want to "jinx" it [like I did with Pinky the House]. Yes, I still have my Neapolitan superstition in tact, like they say,

'I don't believe in it -but it doesn't hurt to follow the rules of superstition.'

The house is very American. It came with kitchen cabinets, toilet seat, fans, air conditioning, low ceilings and no steel or wooden shutters (but it did come with plastic blinds). So I'm feeling a little exposed without those huge steel shutters. In Naples you'd be broken into in less time than it takes to boil pasta without shutters (or even with shutters). I also miss the privacy those heavy shutters give -plastic shutters just don't cut it. Speaking of which take a look at my front door (by the way -welcome to my house!):


Who makes doors with see through windows?! You can see right into my living room and dinning room and there is no foyer -NO FOYER! I've had to adjust my expectations when I was house hunting here and not very many houses have foyers. So my big question is where do people leave there muddy/dirty shoes or hang their coats, hats or check their appearance?

What I'm loving about San Diego

The local grocery store, Whole Foods*, has Hawaiian style leis in stock! They don't have the varieties that you can get in Hawaii but the fact that they carry them is amazing. I love it! Can you tell I'm flower child at heart? 

*What a curious name don't you think? So if you want cheaper food do you go to Half Foods or Not all Foods?