The Tempest in a Teapot or Coffee Pot

 Guest Blogger: Chelsea Pullano

In Act 3 of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, some of the company’s weary travellers come upon a feast laid in the forest. It is the spirits of Prospero, fallen Duke of Milan, who laid this sumptuous meal to taunt his visitors, and while they are struck down by the sprit Ariel before consuming such speech, it can be imagined what delicacies would have been served at the table of the past Duke of Milan. The most important food items in Milan include milk, cream, butter, cheese. Unlike many other Italian cities, the cuisine of Milan features almost no tomato. Many of Milan’s dishes are based around cheeses, particularly mascarpone and ricotta. This can be seen not only in the city’s foods, but in the names of it’s towns, such as Crema and Cremona, which lend themselves to thoughts of cheeses and milks. Rice tends to be more popular than pasta in Milan, largely because rice absorbs cheeses and butters better than pasta does.

Another prominent character in The Tempest is the King of Naples. Naples draws its culinary trends from many different areas that have occupied it over the ages, including the Spanish, Greek, and French. The 18^th century is when Neapolitan cuisine first emerged as a distinct identity. Naples is the original home of the pizza, and since 2004 Neapolitan pizza ingredients have been regulated by law, requiring particular types of yeast and flour, natural mineral water, peeled tomatoes or fresh cherry tomatoes, marine salt and extra virgin olive oil. Spaghetti is another popular dish associated with Naples. Sweet dishes are a favorite of the city, including gelato and pastries such as zeppole, babà, and sfogliatelle. Neapolitan coffee is likewise widely acclaimed, and the cuccuma, or the Neapolitan flip coffee pot, was the inspiration for the espresso machine. 

And if you are able to catch  this production  at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival  or one of  Shakespeare's other masterpieces with super talented directors, producers, actors...

And for more food info, recipes, travel info, join 100,000 worldwide subscribers at www.marialiberati.com and The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati tm

Labor of Love

Guest Blogger: Chris Manganaro

Obsession is most often seen as something bad. Sometimes it is hard to completely understand someone else's obsession because we simply do not share it with them. It can be tough on everyone involved when obsession takes over.

In William Alexander's book 52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning, and a Perfect Crust, the reader is witness to the obsession of one man and one bread. William wants to try and replicate the perfect bread that he once tasted by baking a loaf of bread a week for one year, hence the title of 52 Loaves. Bread quickly becomes his obsession as he dedicates as much time as possible to this new pursuit.

Due to the author's wit, the book is able to keep from getting stale like day old bread. Broken down into weekly increments for chapters, he doesn't dwell on anything for too long and does his best to inject humor even into the more informative sections of the book. Some moments are more funny than others, but overall it is a humorous year in the life. It is likely that the reader would not have wanted to live with William, though.

As the reader finds with baking bread, it is the little things that are important. Small details really add to the charm of this book. At certain points he puts a little notation of his current weight as well as the weight of his bookshelf. This gives the reader a look into the changes which occur over the course of a year. Another wonderful idea which adds humor and more insight into the authors thought process is the use of footnotes. These often lead to laughter. William also gives you a lot to think about in this book. It is split up into sections that won't make sense to some readers until later in the book. It really comes together as a labor of love.

William does include some recipes and tips at the end of the book in order to help the home baker. Something to keep in mind; however, is that this does not make it a cookbook. You may find what he has listed to be useful in some way, though. Perhaps that little bit is just enough. It was for him. There is also an index of books that he suggests for those interested in bread making listed after the recipes. It seems likely that he wanted to give aspiring bakers something to nibble on.

Trying to understand another person's obsession may not always be possible and William's book may or may not convince all of its readers either. While many people can understand the importance of bread, the meanings and lessons he learns may not appeal to everyone. His adventure is unique just like each individual loaf he baked to find the perfect one. This book is worth reading for anyone who has ever enjoyed any kind of bread. Maybe it tells you more than you want to know and maybe it won't make you enjoy bread any more than you already do, but you will enjoy learning something new about your daily bread. 

For great recipes ,go to www.marialiberati.com.    .where food meets art ,travel and life! 

Meat Pies..Around ethe World

Guest Blogger :Chelsea Pullano

Mrs. Lovett, the character in Stephen Sondheim's  famed musical, Sweeney Todd  (recently appearing at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival)  is a woman well known for her meat pies (despite her gruesome manner of preparation). A meat pie is a pie with a filling of meat and other savory ingredients. Meat pies are not common in the United States, but are a regular meal in Britain, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. Greece, India, and Middle Eastern countries often make meat pies as well. It is important to note that there are many regional differences in the contents of meat pies. An Irish meat pie is the Steak and Guinness Pie, which consists of steak with Guinness Stout Beer, bacon, and onions. In both Australia and New Zealand, the meat pie is a common convenience food often found in gas stations and convenience stores. Greek meat pies are called kreatopita and contain ground beef, onions and feta cheese. Indian meat pies are called samosa and usually contain peas, spiced potatoes, coriander, lentils, or ground beef or chicken and are often served with chutney. Middle Eastern meat pies are called sfiha and contain ground beef, olive oil, plain yogurt, tahini, allspice, onion, tomatoes and pine nuts. Latin American countries often make a variation of the meat pie that is more portable, known as a meat empanada, and Nigerian meat pies are also closer to this design than the British meat pie represented in the play.

The earliest meat pies can be traced back to the ancient Egyptians in the Neolithic period. As early as 9500B.C. the Egyptians made pies from oat, wheat, rye, and barley, and filled with honey and baked over hot coals. With time, the Greeks adopted these pies, and it was in Greece that a pie pastry crust made from flour and water was first filled with meat. The Romans adopted the cuisine from the Greeks with very few changes. The crusaders brought these recipes back to Medieval Europe, where it became a dietary staple. Cooks used ingredients like lard and butter to mold the flour-water mixture into the upright pie we recognize today. From Europe, missionaries and explorers spread the meat pie worldwide, where it has developed the many varieties discussed above

Fleet Street, More Than a Barber Shop Locale

 Guest Blogger: Chelsea Pullano

 After Attending  a truly entertaining production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival .....decided to do some research on its' famed locale

Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd is based in the city of London, particularly on Fleet Street. Fleet Street is named after the River Fleet, the largest underground river in London. It was the origin of the British newspaper, and continued to be home to it up until the late 20th century. Reuters, the last major British news office to occupy Fleet Street, departed in 2005. However, to this day the name of Fleet Street is representative of the British press.

Fleet Street has retained its name for many hundreds of years. It was known as Fleet Bridge Street as early as the 1200s, and was known as simply Fleet Street by the following century. While the spelling has altered with the changing of the English language, the pronunciation has remained constant these many, many years. When it was first built, Fleet Street ran between the commercial city of London and Westminster, the political hub of the city. The East end of the street was marked by the River Fleet (which ran against the walls of the city), and the West end were the city limits of London (today marked by the Temple Bar). The size of the city prior to its expansion in the 14th century is marked today by the start and end of Fleet Street.
Fleet Street became a publishing center around the year 1500, when William Caxton's (the first to introduce a printing press t0 England, and the first English retailer of printed books) apprentice, Wynkyn de Worde, set up a print shop and Richard Pynson (one of the earliest publishers of English books) there. In March of 1702, The Daily Currant, London’s first newspaper, opened and began publishing from above an Inn on Fleet Street.
Besides its publishing business, Fleet Street was also noted for its taverns and coffee houses. Many notable men, such as Ben Jonson, John Milton, Izaak Walton, John Dryden, Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith and Charles Lamb, either lived on Fleet Street or frequented to taverns there.
Today Fleet Street is known for the law and its Inns of Court and barristers’ chambers. Many former offices of newspapers are now the offices of important financial or law companies. As recently as 2006, a few newspaper companies (most notably the Press Gazett) returned to Fleet Street or streets nearby. Besides Sweeney Todd, Fleet Street is also portrayed in a number of other fictional pieces, most notably Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities and Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop.

The Inadvertent Education of A Reluctant Chef

(Photo credits : www.ehow.com)

Guest Editor: Chris Manganaro

With food comes hunger. They are inseparable from one another, two sides of the same coin. On a daily basis it is likely that the word hungry crosses the lips or mind of every human being in the world at least once. We all think we know hunger, but it is a feeling which measures differently for everyone. Hunger is a word with more weight than we sometimes realize.

What makes a chef depends very much upon life experience. Memoirs like Gabrielle Hamilton’s Blood, Bones, & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef are not uncommon as they reveal much about their authors through interactions with food which brought them into their current career path. Hamilton’s story is a bit different than others, of course. One of the reasons she believes in her ability to be a chef is due to her experiences with hunger.

Her trip through Europe with only so much to her name is where she reflects on this, though we see points of hunger before this, even in her childhood. Unlike many chefs, who have formed palettes from refinement, we see Hamilton experience quite a bit of the opposite in her early life. After her parent’s divorce, she even has to fend for herself. Hunger has played quite a part in her life. It culminates and hits her in that time in Europe when a simple meal unlocks such thoughts of how specific hunger is and how it can make the mind fully form the flavors of craved cuisine.

It is through these times of hunger in which Hamilton is also taught hospitality. By being generously offered food when at the lowest points in life, she learns the true essence of what food can offer people and is able to transfer that experience to owning a restaurant.

While her understanding of hunger is not necessarily the whole picture, it makes a great deal of sense that a true chef should have some idea about hunger as well as the way it works alongside hospitality. We cannot separate hunger from food. There is an obvious reason for that. They go hand in hand.

For more recipes, dishes go to The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati tm BLOG at www.marialiberati.com

What Are Green Wines?

Wine has some great health benefits if drunk in moderation. But did you also know that wine can be produced in a way that keeps the environment healthy also? Green wines are great for you ,great for the environment! Using what mother nature provides us, not abusing what she provides us, to produce great wines and therefore creating a self sustaining winery is an amazing concept that is finally being used by many vineyards.

Wedding Decorations

One of the ways to make your wedding unique is the choice of wedding decorations. You can theme the decorations to showcase you and your partner's style and hobbies. Or what about having a certain theme to your wedding and making your wedding decorations reflect that theme.
Of course there are so many choices and you should always make sure you make that choice with someone who is an expert in wedding decorations. Find someone that has a knack for drawing out that special part of you and highlighting e very last detail.



Of course this is your special day and you want to be sure to select someone that is just as special to make those wedding decorations an invaluable part of your wedding day!

A Family Winery

Editor: Elizabeth Wieck

copuright 2012  Art of Living, PrimaMedia,Inc

Situated in northern California’s beautiful Sonoma Valley area resides a unique one-of-a-kind vineyard called the Benziger Family Winery. Aptly named due to the more than twenty family members that run the enterprise, the winery employs green Biodynamic technology to create a distinctive atmosphere to the compound and a matchless flavor to their wines.

When Mike Benziger and his wife Mary laid eyes on the 85-acre land in the 1970s, they knew it would be the perfect place to cultivate grapes and run a winery. With much persuasion to the old doctor who at the time had owned the land, and apparently enjoyed consuming wine more than producing it, they finally obtained the property that now houses Benziger Family Winery. Not long after Mike and Mary made their purchase, siblings Chris, Joe, Bob, Jerry, and Patsy joined the venture along with their parents. Since then, their work ethic and values have been centered on family, great wine, and healthy vineyards.

They initially farmed and cared for their vineyards in the same manner as everyone else. They used the same pesticides and other chemicals to tend to the growing grapes and other aspects for creating their wines. Eventually they found that these harsh chemicals were taking a toll on their soil, and that it was not as rich as it had once been. The family began to research Biodynamic and organic farming, and decided to make the big switch in the mid 1990s.

Becoming Biodynamic certified is a very arduous process, as it takes time, research, and a lot of effort. The Benzigers eliminated all artificial and chemical products and changed to a more natural way of wine production. With the aid of an entomologist, they created orchards with certain plants that attracted bugs to keep the pest population under control. They began to employ water-recycling techniques and now recycle two million gallons of water each year. Birds, owls, cows, and chickens were brought to live on the property to add a more holistic feel and to use manure as fertilizer. A unique feature of the vineyard is the underground wine cave were the fermenting barrels are stored. Because of its situation under the cool California hillside, the cave does not require refrigeration, furthering green economical values. Their conversion to an organic way of viticulture began in 1996 and was complete in 2000, making them the first Biodynamic certified winemaker in the Napa and Sonoma valleys.

Once the estate was in order, the Benzigers and customers discovered a distinct flavor in the wines. Because the compound is situated in a fertile volcanic bowl, there is a diverse spectrum of soil types, which creates the concept of farming for flavors. One of their chief ideas in the winemaking process is that the personality of the vineyard is preserved, creating wines that have “character and conscience.”

The Benzigers offer about twenty different wines per year, with current releases including cabernet and Bordeaux blends, pinot noir, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, merlot, zinfandel, and port. Their bottles are moderately priced, with the cheapest being around twenty dollars.

For more on wines and cooking with wine or pairing with wines visit http://marialiberati.com and join 100,000 worldwide subscribers at The Basic Art of Italian Cooking by Maria Liberati tm

Never Trust a Thin Cook...

Guest Blogger: Chris Manganaro

Every place in the World is known for something. This seems especially true when it comes to places like Italy, where the origins of foods are often aggressively debated between neighbors. What people would call the culinary capital of Italy would depend on their own experiences and preferences.

Modena is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. This is where author Eric Dregni decides to settle down in Italy as the place he considers having “the best food in the world.” To him, Modena is the culinary capital of Italy. This is why Dregni’s book is titled Never Trust a Thin Cook: and Other Lessons from Italy’s Culinary Capital.

According to Dregni, Modena was the answer to his quest and so the book describes his time in this paradise. Of course, Dregni does not overly romanticize Modena, but rather gives the facts about his time there. While he does seem to genuinely love the city, he is sure to talk about all sorts of things that make it real, such as how politics work, bike thieves and the dangers of demanding little old Italian women. Using his view as an outsider, he gives us a relatable point of view with which to look at his stories without forcing the picture into a frame.

Dregni even includes a dictionary in the back of the book to help the reader. While this is rather unnecessary as most words are explained in the story, it is a nice enough addition to help absorb the reader more into Italian culture. Language is a big part of the book, especially when one considers Dregni and his girlfriend, Katy, both try their hands at teaching English to Italians. This makes the dictionary feel like a clever addition. Whether or not one learns any language from the book is up to them.

Despite the fact that Dregni’s quest is supposedly centered on food, the actual book is not all about it. There are plenty of delicious foods mentioned and more than enough questionable pig dishes to keep the culinary reader satiated, but it is not the sole focus of the book. Dregni approaches many topics throughout his narrative in order to give the reader a taste of Modena and Italian culture. Due to his widespread focus, we are given only a taste of each topic, as most stories only go on for a few pages at most. They are anecdotal in nature and so some are more humorous and interesting than others. There is even some history thrown in throughout the stories, yet none of them are ever really boring. In fact, since they are only a small bite, they make one crave for more.

This book is one that can easily be recommended to anyone. It is not too technical in its descriptions of food or history or anything in particular and, as such, it should not scare anyone away. It is a set of humorous tales told through the eyes of an American living in Italy. Because of the way Dregni writes, it is enjoyable and easy to pick up and read. If you feel like taking a trip to Italy, why not try going to Modena?

How Italian Food Conquered the World

 Guest Blogger: Chris Manganaro

There are many different names that are dropped in How Italian Food Conquered the World by John F. Mariani and most of them are celebrities in one way or another. Whether it is a name from the world of cooking or the world of Hollywood, it is most likely familiar to many.

One name that came off as both a surprise and a delight in Mariani’s book was Ernest Hemingway. While the fact that a place from one of Hemingway’s stories exists is not in itself all that hard to believe, it is interesting to find that the place itself is one which is important to the history of Italian food.

In the book, Mariani points out that Harry’s Bar in Venice, Italy was a favorite of Ernest Hemingway and was even used in his book, Across the River and Into the Trees. In Mariani’s book, this is just one of the many celebrities who are mentioned, yet it is something that sticks out because Hemingway then mentions it in his own book. This way of referencing back and forth through history is fascinating and shows just how interconnected all things are. It also stands out a bit more than others because Hemingway is one of the few authors mentioned.

Interestingly enough, one can find a recording of Ernest Hemingway called “In Harry’s Bar in Venice.” This recording is curious because Ernest Hemingway was not great at reading aloud and yet it is related to Harry’s Bar. There are not many recordings of Hemingway reading and what there are, are not in terribly good condition. They are like pieces of history. Literary history with an Italian twist.

The history of the world is all connected. It is a giant web that covers the entirety of time. Harry’s Bar was not only important to the history of Italian food, but also to the history of literature in a sense. This is something that is hard not to appreciate. Italian food conquered the world in more than just one sense. It even got to the literary world.