The Red Ensign Standard XVI is up at The Phantom Observer, it's HUGE, and Victor did an awesome job!

We had traditional Italo-American sunday dinner today complete with baked ricotta and spinach-stuffed pasta shells, fresh-baked bread sticks, vino and good friends!

I underestimated the time it would take to prepare the meal, but our friends didn't seem too put out by the wait.

We got some fun pressies and when Boo thanked her friend Xander for them, she said: "Thank you for the colouring book and the Play-Doh Xander, that was very sweet of you." He looked at her funny.

Later on, Boo (3) tried to plant a smooch on her friend Xander (4) but, he swiftly recoiled and said:

"Don't kiss me, kiss your mommy!"

My daughter proceeded to avert her eyes and went back to nibbling on some grapes. I saw and felt her embarassment. When I asked her about it later, she seemed hurt, so I explained to her how boys are, and she said: "Thank you, Mama."

This is no ordinary PB&J:

I was in search of a little flavour kick and stumbled upon what I suspect can be quite habit forming.

2 slices white bread
your favourite peanut butter
red pepper jelly

The above combination is interesting to say the least.... I LOVE Thai food, so it definitely appeals to me. Then I thought:

"This sandwich, with some chicken cooked in garlic, fresh ginger and lime, topped with some crisp lettuce and bean sprouts.... PMS home remedy!"

What say you?

I've placed a new button on my sidebar under the header Girlie Things. It links to The NEW Dove Self-Esteem Fund TV Ad. Check it out if you haven't seen it already. I was tremendously moved by it. Makes me wonder: if there had been a campaign like this when I was twelve, would it have reached me?



I was happy to read their mission statement and am feeling very warmly towards them right now. If I didn't already use some Dove products, I would go out and buy some right now.



AND THEN

I forgot to mention that Dove has paired up with NEDIC A website that has been providing me with realistic information and comfort since 2001.

Yesterday I was truly inspired. I spent the whole day cooking and baking between taking care of the girls. I made my chocolate chip walnut banana bread. I double the recipe and bake it in a twelve-cup tube pan. I then made macaroni and cheese, from scratch, with real bechamel and grated extra old cheddar.

I then prepared all my components for Vietnamese-inpired stir-fried noodles, which I whipped up just before Ray got home. I wanted to use up the ingredients, while they were still fresh. They were a great accompaniment to the left over Thai chicken curried coconut soup I made on Sunday. What a taste sensation! It took a lot of practice, but I'm finally making dishes that taste like what we used to eat out. And, I have total control over the ingredients and therefore can scale down the fat with super results.

Well it's a good thing I did cook yesterday. I was up most of the night making sure the girls' temperatures stayed within reason by medicating and keeping them hydrated. Yes we too are sick. Today I feel worse than a spanked ass and am thankful for the baking dish of macaroni and cheese in the fridge, ready to be warmed up for dinner.


Chicken curried coconut soup was inspired by this recipe.

Macaroni and cheese inspired by this recipe.

The Italian Carnevale, from which the English word carnival is derived, refers to the period immediately prior to Lent. Throughout Italy, Carnevale is a festive time, but perhaps nowhere more so than in Venice.

The word comes from the Old Italian carnelevale, which in turn appears to be derived from the Latin carnem levare, meaning to put away meat. This, of course, refers to the former practice in the Roman Catholic Church of foregoing the eating of meat during Lent. The eve of Ash Wednesday would have been the time at which meat was to be put away or carnelevale (later, carnevale).

Matthew Spender, in Within Tuscany, cites an Italian expression, Carnevale, quando ogni scherzo vale (during Carnival, anything goes), in discussing the origin of Siena's famous Palio. The Palio is an anything-goes horse race around the Piazza del Campo in Siena. After a number of citizens were left dead in the streets from competitions held during Carnevale in 1291, Siena's municipal authorities substituted the Palio for the even wilder events that townspeople had been participating in previously.

---

Lent was always my favourite time of the year. Growing up in an Italian neighbourhood, it was the perfect answer to the question:

"Aren't you eating?"

I would just say that I gave up whatever I was being offered for Lent. In didn't take much convincing for my best friend to join me. "It's the perfect time of the year to get in shape for the spring!" She would say. She called me a genius. We could practically starve ourselves and were held up as 'good Catholic girls ' by her mom who so desperately wanted to believe it of her daughter, and of me.

Meanwhile we plotted and meted out revenge on those that had crossed us within the past year, while subsisting on coffee, cigarettes, lettuce, fruit. We walked everywhere, exercised twice daily, read cards, used her mom's wedding ring as a pendulum and cast spells. We really did Lent in a big way. Good times.


AND THEN:

Mardi Gras Dog Parade!

Where The Flintstone's meet Raging Bull.

WARNING! Language may not be safe for work.

My father's sister raised me and she often described how my paternal grandmother, and my aunt in Italy maintained the folk customs. My aunt would tell me all the details, but she herself did not maintain the practices she described. When I went to public school in Montreal that comprised of 95% Italian students, whose families were from all over Italy, I began to hear about other practices. I got most of my education from friends who were from the Benevento area and the Regions of Campania, and Sicily.

As a teenager I explored Santeria and VooDoo thanks to the public library and Caribbean market next door to the Italian grocery store I worked at. I've done the Neo-Pagan thing and the Wiccan thing but it never quite fit. It was easy to relate to the 'reverence of nature' aspect of paganism, but I couldn't wrap my head and heart around the hodge-podge of tenets borrowed from different, more ancient religions of the world and, mythic deities for prayer. It always fell flat and lacked the inner truth and magic of lets say... asking Saint Anthony to help me find a lost object or a parking space!

I am Catholic. I seamlessly blend folk magic (witchcraft), ecclesiastic teachings, my deep devotion to the cult of the saints and the Virgin Mary, and my love of nature. Like many Italians, I mix the sacred and the profane customs that are characteristic and traditional to my culture and identity.

"Candelora dell'inverno semo fora", ma se piove e tira vento, dell'inverno semo drento"

In our home growing up we celebrated San Biagio/Saint Blaise on February 3rd.

We didn't go to mass or anything. Due to the influence of a number of different ethnic groups in our own family, we celebrated Feb 2nd, the end of winter and the return of the light, La Candelora, by lighting candles and eating crêpes, because it was the French-Canadian custom, and "when in Rome", and because my aunt really liked them. The French agrarian tradition was to make an offering of crêpes to the fairies and nature spirits. San Biagio was mentioned in passing on the third, and my aunt would recount the story of the saint best known for "curing throat illnesses". She baked cookies and lit a candle to honour him and ward off throat illnesses.

What's amazing to me is I woke up with a swollen gland on my neck under my left ear. I've been fighting off a sore throat since last week. I placed my hand on the swelling while I read about San Biagio and felt the swelling shrink almost down to normal as I was typing this very blog entry.

I kid you not.




-from Wikipedia