In honor of Mother Nature at Her Finest, I give you:

Il Mare (eel mah-reh)— The Sea/ The Beach
Conchiglia (la kon- keel- e- ah) – Shell
Sabbia (sah- be- ah)– Sand

Now that we know what types of eating establishments exist In Italia, we should now learn the names of mealtimes and what kinds of food you can expect to find during those meals.
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This week is restaurant week, so in the spirit of that we will be talking about restaurants in Italian. Namely, how to get to one when you
Ha fame (ah fah-meh) — Are Hungry….
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Since we are talking about food this week, I think it is important to know the basics when it comes to place settings in Italian. So here we have it:

Il Piatto (eel pee-ah-to)— The Plate
La Forchetta (la four-ket-ta)—The Fork
Il Cotello (eel kohl-tello) – The Knife
Il Cucchiaio (eel kook-kee-eye-oh)—The Spoon
Il Tovagliolo (eel toh-vahl-yoh-loh) –The Napkin

Now if only we could all eat our meals here, that would just be the icing on the cake as they say!

Buona Pasqua! (Bwona Pas-kwa)

Happy Easter!

Buon Compleanno! (Bwan coomp-lay-ano)—–Happy Birthday!
We celebrated Roberto’s birthday this weekend with a huge family bash!
That meant I was in the kitchen – A LOT. This also meant I was in my glory.
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Il Pomeriggio (eel pom-air-rejo)–Afternoon

The way I remembered this word was by thinking about Parmigiano cheese. I can always remember things that are associated with food! Read the rest of this entry »

Il Caffe’ (eel caf-eh)—Coffee
I don’t know if you guys like coffee, but I sure do. I like to grind my own beans for the best flavor, but that by no means qualifies me as a junkie. I have a friend in Vermont who we call the Coffee Queen. She not only knows everything about coffee, but she roasts her own beans in her house, makes the best lattes and even has won coffee art contests (you know where they make the fancy designs out of the coffee foam – the picture included in this post is one of her design from this morning’s latte). Man, I really miss her lattes and beans!
But the good news is, she has started selling them from her own blog! Read the rest of this entry »

Il Gatto (eel gah-toh)—Cat

Cats are the best things in the world. If I was an animal, I would want to be a cat, not just any cat, but OUR cat. She eats the best food, has lots of snuggly places to sleep and gets all the affection she could need. I am so totally in love with her! Read the rest of this entry »

Gelato (gel-ah-toh)—— Ice Cream

(And some freebies)

Nocciola (no-cho-la)—–Hazelnut
Sorbetto (sor-bet-to)—–Sorbet
Gelateria (gel-ah-tour-ia)—Gelato parlor

Gelato has got to be one of the best things to come out of Italy. For me, that is saying a lot as I am a big fan of most things that come out of Italy. To call gelato, ice cream, is almost not fair. In my mind, being a fan of both, they are altogether different. Read the rest of this entry »