Ciambelline di Natale, Italian Wine Cookies

January 8, 2013January 9, 2013 Monica La Portaciambelline all'anice e vino, dairy-free wine cookies, italian wine cookies, no eggs cookies, wine and anise cookies4 Comments

Usually, I bake the Ciambelline di Natale at the same time I make the Tozzetti, because, as the Italian name aptly implies, they are meant to be eaten for Christmas. This time, I made the ciambelline for the Befana’s day. Still a holiday in Italy. As everything I do, I slightly altered the original recipe from Civitavecchia my mother in law gave me.

Ingredients:

half cup of red wine

quarter cup of anise seeds

half cup of sugar

half cup of extra virgin olive oil

1 cup of flour

1 cup of self-rising flour

a pinch of cinnamon (if you like it)

How to make the Ciambelline:

Soak the anise seeds in the red wine for at least half an hour. Then, mix together all the ingredients and work the dough until you obtain a smooth ball.

Meanwhile, reheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a cookie sheet with extra virgin olive oil. Prepare a bowl with enough white sugar to cover the bottom of it. Take small chunks of the dough and make the donut shaped cookies.

Carefully coat them with the sugar and then position them on the cookie sheet.

Once you’ve finished the dough, bake the Ciambelline for 20/25 minutes, they must look only slightly golden-brown along the edges. Enjoy them freshly baked from the oven, or preserve them in a cookie jar. Till the next year.

La Befana, an Italian Epiphany

January 7, 2013January 7, 2013 Monica La Portabefana garland, coals for gift on la befana's day, cold porcelain befana figurine, italian christmas tradition, la befana, sixth of January Italian tradition, the italian santa claus, the other santa claus1 Comment

On January the 6th, during the early and cold hours of the night, an old Italian lady flies on her broom over the Italian landscape and delivers goodies and the occasional piece of coal. The night before, kids write letters asking the Befana to bring them nice toys, and to ingratiate her they also leave cookies and milk by the empty stockings. Nowadays, she is getting mellow and doesn’t leave real coals anymore. I do remember the real deal. It was a nasty affair. My kids are older, but I still love to celebrate this Italian holiday with them. Filling the stockings with their favorite sweets— Duplo bars, Happy Hippo, and the classic Kinder bars—and the chocolate coins—we found the euros version—and small gifts brings me back to the time when I was on the receiving end of the Befana. I liked her way better than Santa Claus, because on the Epiphany everybody living in or nearby Rome went to Piazza Navona to see the Befana’s market. Hundreds of street vendors selling cheap toys and mouth-watering sweets. The aroma of cotton candy and roasted chestnuts still reminds me of the sixth of January. One day late, but Buona Befana, everybody!

* A small Befana garland I made before I moved to the States. One Christmas, I had lots of fun modeling Santa Clauses, Nativities, and Befane with cold porcelain. I even decorated the Christmas tree with cold porcelain decorations.

**An image I took from my first grade’s Italian reading book. It was called “Semi” (seeds) by Rossella Balzi Monti, Janus publishing house. Wherever you are, Miss Rossella, know that I loved your books and they have a special place in my heart.

Friday Snippet #27

January 4, 2013January 4, 2013 Monica La Porta#FridaySnippets, friday snippet, small excerpt from a YA dystopian novel, writing for fun, writing once a week6 Comments

After Nanowrimo, the trip to Italy, publishing my fairytale, and the Christmas holidays, I’m slowly getting my routine back. Journey to the City of Men is under revision and I should be done with it shortly. Then it will be placed in the capable hands of my trusted beta readers. Then, re-writing, editing, proofreading, formatting, copyrighting, publishing, marketing… head spinning, hiding under a rock, etc. Rinse and repeat.

Anyway, Allegra and Julius are still at his parents’ and she has a tête-à-tête with his father. From X:

“Care for a stroll outside?” Carolus took her arm under his in a paternal gesture. “In all of this… we’ve forgotten to enjoy the little things, haven’t we?”

Allegra didn’t answer since she didn’t know what ‘all of this’ meant and looked back at Julius who was several steps behind and engaged in conversation with his mother.

“Shall we?” Carolus gently tugged her and she followed his lead.

Nobody else did and she found herself with the Right Hand of the king all alone, without knowing what was the protocol with a person of his station.

“Allegra, may I call you Allegra?” He looked at her from his considerable height.

She nodded, taken by surprise.

“Good. Allegra, I heard you didn’t find your family…”

She nodded again.

“I wish I could tell you what happened to them, but the truth is I know little.”

There was only one thing Allegra wanted to know. “Are they alive?”

Carolus didn’t answer right away. “If they escaped soon enough, they might be.”

“What do you know, sir?” Little knowledge was preferable to not knowing at all.

“The Malady is something that affects our brains—” Carolus caressed his chin with his free hand. “It makes people see things.”

“What kind of things?” The image of the terrorized boy they had met outside her house came back to her.

“Haunting things. Worse than nightmares.” Carolus’s voice wavered. “People commit suicides to stop seeing those things.”

“What is it?” The boy’s eyes were vacant, but Julius had seen through him and she had felt the horror he had experienced. “How are people infected?”

“We don’t know. That’s why cities are walled and exed. We’re trying everything in our power to stop the Malady from spreading.”

“Why wasn’t Cartaghena walled?”

Winter Soup

January 3, 2013January 3, 2013 Monica La Portalow calories chicken soup, pearled barley soup, spelt soup, sweet potato chicken soup, winter soup2 Comments

Today, it was sunny but extremely cold, and I was in the mood for a hearty soup. I took a look at what I had in the house and came up with this easy recipe. My daughter asked me to write it down, because, given my highly-scientific approach to cooking, I don’t seem to be able to replicate anything otherwise.

What I had in my pantry

1lb of chicken breasts

1 sweet potato

100 gr pearled barley

100gr precooked farro (spelt)

100 gr green split peas

100 gr fresh spinach

How I prepared the soup:

I filled my pressure cooker pot (which I don’t think I’ve ever used as such—too scared it’s going to explode. I’ve heard stories…) with water, cranked the stove to high and dunked the chicken inside. Waited until it boiled, then lowered to the lowest setting and added the sweet potato cut in big chunks, the split peas, and the pearled barley. I let it cook for almost two hours, added the precooked farro ten minutes to the end, turned off the heat and added the spinach. I served it as is for my daughter and myself, but cooked 50 gr of mini-farfalle pasta to incorporate in my son’s bowl, which was also finished with some extra-virgin olive oil and parmesan cheese.

I didl. Do you didl?

January 2, 2013January 2, 2013 Monica La Portacool drawing app, didlr, didlr app for iPad, didlr app for surface, didlr app for windows 8, didlr app for windows phone2 Comments

If you don’t, you should. My husband showed me this fun app, didlr, a few days ago and I got hooked right away. Didlr is easy to use and it has a social aspect to it that makes it even more fun. I’ve been playing with it on several devices and the one I prefer to work with is my Windows Phone. Although didlr on Windows Phone has less functions than on the Surface and iPad, I’ve created several didls on it and I’m quite happy with the results. Didlr’s palette is bright and there’s this functionality to make the colors see-through which adds a lot to the experience. Once you publish your freshly-made didl, it goes on the didl stream where didlers can vote for it if they so fancy. You can also follow and be followed by other didlr’s enthusiasts, and even answer to their didls with one of yours. Just one glance at the didl stream and you’ll be amazed by the sheer talent out there. And lastly, probably the cooler feature is that didlr replays step by step all the actions you took to create your priceless work of art. Below are some of my didls. One of them cost me a peach cobbler. I was having too much fun drawing and the cobbler suffered irremediable damages. Nobody ate it, but I showed the friends who had invited us for dinner—and who were expecting the cobbler—my masterpiece. Rhapsody in White (which I created on my Surface and I realize now, I also misspelled) received mixed reviews. The Muse is a cruel mistress… By the way, I didl as momilp. See you there!

Tozzetti Tricolori

December 25, 2012December 25, 2012 Monica La Portapistachio white chocolate cranberry biscotti, tipical italian christmas biscotti, tozzetti al cioccolato bianco e pistacchi, traditional italian biscotti with a twist, tricolor italian biscotti2 Comments

Every year, my husband and I bake tozzetti for Christmas. It wouldn’t be Christmas without the aroma of chocolate and cinnamon wafting from the oven. We normally follow the recipe my mother in law gave us when we left. It is a traditional recipe from Civitavecchia; one of those Italian recipes passed down for generations and that were originally meant for very large families. This year, I used the basic recipe and substituted some of the ingredients to create a tricolor effect resembling the color of the Italian flag, also known as Tricolore.

Ingredients (using one egg and everything else in proportion)

1 egg

120g sugar

50g cranberries

50g pistachios

100g butter

200g flour

100g white chocolate drops

Let the butter soft at room temperature and then mix together all the ingredients, working the dough with your hands. Make two logs and carefully flatten them on the cookie tray previously greased with butter. Bake at 350F for 20/25 minutes (depending on your oven.) Let them cool before cutting the logs or they’ll crumble. Merry Christmas!

Buon Natale, Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad!

December 24, 2012December 24, 2012 Monica La Portacold porcelain christmas project, cold porcelain nativity, cold porcelain nativity inside a panettone, panettone nativity, panettone presepeLeave a comment

In Italy, for Christmas, it is customary to display nativities around houses, stores, offices, pretty much everywhere. Thanks to Francesca, who sent me a picture of a Panettone Nativity, this is my last minute project with some leftover cold porcelain.

How I made my Panettone Nativity:

I modeled the figurines—nothing more than cones and spheres put together—and let them dry for a day. I used the same dough I originally made for the wedding cakes bouquets. It was very hard to work with, and I was worried it was going to crack while drying, but the figurines turned out fine.

I painted the figurines with acrylic colors—it took forever to paint the eyes because I didn’t like how they came out the first ten times—and let them dry for one hour. Meanwhile, I cut a small chamber inside the panettone. I positioned the figurines inside the grotto and finally sprinkled powdered sugar on top.

Must Post Something Today!

December 21, 2012 Monica La Porta#FridaySnippets, small excerpt from a YA dystopian novel, writing a novel once a week, writing every fridays, writing just for fun, writing on December 21 20124 Comments

How apropos, it is a Friday. Last week, after writing a lengthy snippet, I didn’t publish it. Not sure why. X is now 11k and I’m still having fun with it. Maybe it will be my first serial? Stay tuned.

From X. Allegra has just met Julius’s family and they’re now having a moment of playful respite with his two brothers and sister:

“Can I change the scenery?” Clarissa had her hands on a remote control and was already pushing buttons before one of the brothers could reply. The luminosity in the room changed and the placid sound of waves washing over pebbles came seemingly out of nowhere. “Much better.”

Allegra looked at the ceiling where lazy clouds were floating over a cerulean sky. She could have sworn a marine breeze had carried to her nostrils a tangy flavor. As if to answer her question, a seagull’s cry echoed in the distance.

“I prefer the sound of rain and a moodier setting.” Julius was looking at her.

Allegra knew because Andres who still held his brother was staring at her. She felt a strange satisfaction in the knowledge Julius was truly looking at her. It was new. And then she realized what he had just said and wished they were alone. The memory of a picnic came back to her. It had happened only a few days before the whole madness of the Malady started. The world was a different place then. Boring, always the same, never exciting. It was the end of the quarter, all the finals done, and the weather was terrible. The sun had shone through the whole time they were confined inside to study, and now was freezing and incessantly raining. Allegra felt caged and her mood was affecting both of them. After a few days of listening to her complaints, Julius had enough and organized an outing of sort. He said he wanted to go for a walk and led her to the Winter Garden. If Allegra closed her eyes, she could still hear the sound of the rain hitting the glass walls of the conservatory enclosing the Winter Garden. They had spent the whole afternoon lying on the floor on a plush carpet, their eyes to the ceiling, talking of the silliest things. To this day, the aroma of tangerines was connected to that afternoon. “Me too.”

Greetings From Italy

December 17, 2012 Monica La Portaacrylics on walls, drawings inspired by the italian countryside, lemon garland, murals, olive tree drawing, painting of an upupa bird, umbria landscape4 Comments

Wednesday, at a very unhappy hour, my father will drive me back to the airport. Two weeks just passed in a blink. Here are some of the murals I painted a few years ago while visiting my parents and my sister.

The Prince’s Day Out

December 12, 2012 Monica La Portabedtime stories, children's book, illustrated fairytale, whimsical illustrationsLeave a comment

After several months of having fun with my Wacom tablet, my first illustrated fairytale has been released into the Amazon wild today. Funny anecdote, although my husband and I coordinated the whole publishing endeavor—on either sides of the ocean and nine hours apart—and submitted the story on 12/12/12 at 12:12 am, the fairytale results published on 12/11/12. Well, we tried.