Category Archives: Daily Life

Tradition meets Instant Pot – Ragù alla Bolognese

Posted on by October 5, 2019

Living in Emilia–Romagna, I sure love a good Ragù! I don’t love waiting all day for it though! And while not all modern conveniences work well with traditional recipes, thankfully the modern versions of the pressure cooker, and the Instant Pot specifically, are often a wonderful choice for a faster meal that still brings the flavor, texture and consistency of the original day-long process. Ragù alla Bolognese seemed like a perfect candidate for an Instant Pot time slash, so I took it on!

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Things you find in old church records

Posted on by September 14, 2019

I’m back to scouring church records for insights on Zanrè information.  In doing so, I’ve stumbled on a rather interesting find.

My husband Joe has been friends with one Vinnie Baruffati for about 4 decades.  They had a few things in common in Scotland, one of which was they were both from Italian heritage.  They knew that both of their families were from the same general area of Italy, but never thought too much about it.

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Gocce d’Acqua

Posted on by September 14, 2019

Wow! My husband will have a photograph exhibited at the upcoming MIA PHOTO FAIR in Milano, March 22-25, 2019. Many of you know that Joe invented a camera trigger for capturing high speed events normally unseen by the human eye – you can see more about it at SnaperturePro.com. He’s spent the past couple of years concentrating on Water Drop photography, and it’s obviously paid off.

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Festa Testarolo Pride in Pontremoli

Posted on by September 14, 2019

Pesto is one of those sauces that brings back vivid memories for me. The first time I had pesto was on my first trip to Italy in 1978. As a foreign exchange student in Switzerland (German part), I ended up almost by accident in Vernazza near the end of my year, and the memories of pesto and focaccia stayed with me all my life. Many of my US friends had pesto for the very first time at my dining table (I do make a mean pesto if I say so myself). When I realized that I was to live in a location that is quite literally at the border of Emilia-Romagna (a foodie haven), Tuscany and Liguria, it was almost heaven.

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Pranzo di Ferragosto

Posted on by September 14, 2019

Today is Ferragosto. Ferragosto is a national holiday in Italy and many cities empty out to go to the beach, or the mountains. In days gone by, foreign tourists were faced with many closed stores and ghosts towns/cities for much of the month of August. These days you will still be confronted with much quieter tourist locations, but many locales will cater specifically to those natives who opted to avoid the crowds . . .

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