Cucina Povera, an Old World Workshop
Along with eleven others and four instructors, I recently attended a Plate 2 Page workshop in the small town of Pistoia, Italy. We indulged in food, wine, conversation, writing and photography. The following shares an afternoon experience. ——- Nestled in the Tuscan hills surrounded by olives and vines, colors changing from green to fall, we [...]
Chestnuts Roasting
Smoldering and cracking on the metal, they’d eventually open showing their cream colored flesh singed around the edges. He handed me a paper cone of roasted chestnuts. They smelled of barbeque without the sauce. I held and savored that cone, my freezing hands beginning to warm like the earth when the sun peaks over the [...]
Blueberry Goat Cheese Galette
Figs and goat cheese are two of my favorites. Add a glass of Sancerre and you’re in for a treat. I recently put my favorite fig aside and tried blueberries with creamy goat cheese layered in a pastry crust. This is my new choice for an anytime galette. Blueberries and goat cheese weren’t [...]
Padrón, The Frying Pepper
I first experienced Padrón peppers on a trip to Spain two years ago. Glancing at a just delivered plate that sizzled and glistened, our waiter asked what was next. “We’ll have that.” I said in my broken Spanish. I fell in love with the Padrón all over again on my recent trip. Named after Padrón, [...]
Cherry Tomato Jam with a Sicilian Twist
We got back from our month in Spain and low and behold, my cherry tomato plant was loaded! We ate lots of tomato items on this trip. A more savory style tomato jam popped up frequently on tapas, pinxtos, and the Spanish version of tostada, basically a toasted piece of bread or baguette with items [...]
Impromtu Prickly Pear Spotting
Chumberas, or higos chumbos are everywhere in the lower areas of Spain´s Sierra Nevada mountains. A chumbera is a prickly pear, the fruit of the cactus. People are picking and selling them in arid areas of Andalusia where they grow well. We ran into a man who made his own tool for picking. He kindly [...]
Hiking in Altea
Some people think about visiting Paris. I, on the other hand, think about things like eating at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, drinking a glass of Chateau Yquem, or hiking along the Spanish coastal mountains. I opted for pizza, vino tinto and breathtaking scenery earlier last week on the Costa Blanca. Altea is a coastal town [...]
Quest For a Meal in Granada
In our quest for appetizing authentic food, we avoid establishments with pictures of dishes pasted around the entrance or with plastic menus. We’ve come to understand authentic doesn’t necessarily mean worthy; it’s a catch phrase. Throw in reasonably priced and it can be a chore to find that meal. We did find a few gems [...]
Food and Memory- Marguerite´s
Maryellen Burns shares childhood food memories from Sacramento, California. Not being a native, it´s fascinating to hear about places that have since disappeared. Thanks Maryellen! For Marcel Proust it was a crumb of Madeline cake dipped in tea that awakened a whole chain of memories. For Ruth Reichel, it was the comfort of apples. For [...]
Newcastle Produce: Food Lover’s Paradise
You’ve been hearing a lot from Lynn lately, happily gallivanting about Spain for a month, but you haven’t heard much from me in a while. I founded Sacatomato five years ago with Jennifer Cliff and then welcomed Lynn as a co-blogger several years later. As fellow food fanatics, we’re always excited to talk about something [...]
