Polpettine di fagioli di soia

I don't remember if I already wrote it somewhere in this blog, but I'm becoming more nad more vegeterian.. so a few days ago I made these very good 'soybeanballs' :) - I found the recipe on the soy bean can!!
Polpettine di fagioli di soia / Edamame patties
Blend one can of soybeans with 1 cup bread crumbs, 2 tsp peanut butter, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp grated ginger, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 cup cilantro leaves. Warm up 3 tbsp olive oil in a pan. Make little patties with the paste you prepared and gently palce them in the hot olive oil. When brown on one side, turn them over and finish cooking them. It was supposed to be served with some gravy, whereas I served them with whole weat rice and a cabbage dish that I prepared by stir frying olive oil, onions, and pieces of cabbage, and adding yogurt and paprika 2 minutes before they were done.
Mmm.. :)

Zuppa di cavolfiore verde

I wanted to make a soup to eat with the wonderful zucchini bread :) - so I improvised this:

Zuppa di cavolfiore verde e yogurt di latte di capra/ Green cauliflower and goat milk yogurt soup
It's a thick cream made mostly with cauliflower and goat milk yogurt. I've had this yogurt in the fridge for a while. It's good but you cannot really have it for breakfast, it's like eating goat cheese.. so I already used it in some very good dips, curries, or in this soup. It gives a little bit of a taste of goat cheese without adding the fat of the cheese to the dishes you make.
So to make this soup, saute half an onion in olive oil, add the green cauliflower in pieces, sautee them, and then add enough yogurt to almost cover all the pieces. Close the lid and cook for ~10 minutes. At this point I added 4 anchovies, to add a little bit more flavor to the soup. Continue to cook for another 20 min. Blend all the pieces of cauliflower and onion, and add hot water to the desired consistency. Serve with some good bread (like the zucchini bread!!). It's very good, it has an unusual, refreshing and comforting taste.

Un nuovo pane!

My friend Romelia gave me four wonderful cookbooks when she was moving out.. she has a lot and she thought these were four too many.. but funnily enough, even though I love to cook, I don't have _that_ many cookbooks. I mostly improvise. But baking is an art that needs to be learnt well, before improvisation is allowed, I believe. So, I got four baking books: Breads, Pies and Pastries, Cookies and Crackers, and Cakes. Ah, they're so wonderful! So I decided I would start trying to make some type of bread different from my usual one. I already tested the oven of the Berkeley apartment with my typical biova, and it turned out wonderful. So I decided it was time for me to try something new.. also, as a side note, I've been trying to change my breakfast, from milk and cereals, to milk and bread. I find it very annoying to have to pay so much for a box of cereals that's nothing other than some dried bread and fruit, in the end. So.. here is my first experiment:

Pane con zucchini / Bread with zucchini !
To make it, coarsely blend 4 small zucchini, add salt to them, add 5 cups of flour and 2 tsp yeast dissolved with a little bit of warm water and sugar. Mix, and keep adding water until the dough becomes workable. Knead for 10 minutes, adding salt and flour if necessary. Let the dough rest until it doubles in volume, ~ 1h 30 min. Knead some more and give it a shape. Put it on a lightly greased baking pan. Let rest for another hour. Brush a little bit of olive oil on the surface so that the zucchini don't get burned. Heat up the oven at 425 F. Cook for ~50-60 minutes. Cool down on a rack.
The result is a delicious, dense, and moist bread with a hard crust. The taste is heavenly. The zucchini add a delicate flavor that can be tasted in the background. It's wonderful also toasted, since it remains moist anyway. For example, look at this slice, toasted and with a little butter on the right side.. wouldn't you like to try it?!?
I had this bread with many different toppings, ranging from apple sauce to tomato and cheese. Small note: the original recipe said to let the zucchini stand with the salt for 30 min and then remove the excess water. I didn't do it, I thought I'd just add less water in the dough. It was good anyway, in my opinion (and also in the opinion of everyone who tried..). :) Now the bread is almost finished.. mmm... what's going to be the next bread I make? :)

I put this bread as one of my entries for the next 'Waiter, that's something in my.. basket', which is going to be about bread!! After baking lots of breads, I decided this counts within the 'top three' of my recent production, together with : 'pane al formaggio' e 'pane integrale alle noci'.
The event is hosted by Spittoon extra, check out the link here.

New blog / nuovo blog

Just wanted to mention that I'm taking care of another blog, too. It's related to my 'spiritual meditations'. So far it's mostly in Italian, except for the introduction, and it's mostly on readings from the Old and New Testament, but if possible I'd like to add meditations on texts from non Christian traditions (not necessarily religious either). I guess it'll also depend on the feedback that I get.

Ho aperto un nuovo blog, con le mie meditazioni piu' spirituali (quasi quotidiane). Per ora e' quasi completamente in Italiano e ci sono solo riflessioni sulle letture del giorno (nuovo e antico Testamento). Vorrei ampliarlo a letture non cristiane (neppure necessariamente religiose, vedremo). Dipende anche da che tipo di feedback ricevo.

Risotto con cavolo e risotto con formaggio e noci

I'll post here the recipes for two risotti, i.e. rice italian style. The first recipe is taken from my Piemontese cookbook, whereas the second one is just an easy risotto that I made up.
Risotto con cavoli e brie (Ris e coj, in Piemontese dialect) / Cabbage and brie rice
Finely cut half a big Vidalia onion and saute in 2 tbsp olive oil. Finely cut half a big cabbage and add to the onions. Add salt. Cook for ~10 min. Add 1 lb rice (possibly arborio). Saute for ~2 min, add salt. Add enough warm water to cover the rice ~ 1 inch over the level of the rice, close the pot and cook for ~20 min. Take the lid off and check the status of the rice. If it's almost done, and the water is almost completley adsorbed, add 1/4 cup brie cut into pieces and stir, then let cook for another few minutes, turn off the heat and let rest ~5 min, covered, before serving. If the rice needs to cook longer, add a little bit of boiling water to it and cook with lid on a bit longer. If the rice is already done and you find out you put too much water, take lid off and turn heat on high, stirring, and try to evaporate the water.
Serve this rice with finely cut parseley.

Risotto con formaggio e noci / Cheese and pecan rice
The idea is the same as above. Instead of adding the cabbage, though, just saute the onion and then the rice. Add water and salt as described above. Towards the end add pieces of gorgonzola and provolone cheese, and pieces of pecan nuts. Stir in a little bit of hot milk to melt all the cheese and fluff the rice with it. When all the liquid is adsorbed, turn off the heat, let rest for five minutes and serve with pepper on top.

Ziti con pomodoro e pesto di ricotta

This is a variation on my grandma's sauce.
In a small pot, saute in ~1 tbsp olive oil 1 clove of garlic, finely cut. Add one small can of whole peeled tomatoes and a pinch of salt. Add a tsp sugar if acidic. Simmer for ~20 min and blend.
Blend 1 cup basil and 2 cloves garlic. Add salt and 1/4 cup olive oil. Add 1/2 lb ricotta cheese. This is going to be a very light pesto, with ricotta instead of pecorino, and no nuts.
Mix the tomato sauce with the ricotta pesto. Add to the ziti, cooked al dente (the sauce should be enough for ~1 lb ziti).

Verdure alla griglia

This is a very good and easy vegetable appetizer or side dish.
Grill the veggies you prefer (zucchini and eggplants, here). Sprinkle them with salt. Prepare a sauce with finely cut parseley, garlic and olive oil. Pour it on top. Let rest for a few hours before serving with some good bread.

La prima cena a Berkeley!!!

Our little house is getting more and more nicely organized and we decided we were ready to have some guests over for dinner! Last weekend in San Francisco I basically forbid our friends to order tiramisu as dessert because I said I was going to make it for them, so we invited them last night for an all-Italian all-vegetarian dinner.
This is a picture of us!
\(Left to right: Lucas, Giancarlo, Giovanna, Vardha, Rosha, Yosuke, Elif).
And this was the menu. Click on the links for the recipes:
Appetizers
These were served with my typical home-made bread. I was very happy to find out that our oven in this new home works as well as the old one :)
Formaggi sott'olio (Cheese under oil) (described as 'tomini al verde' in this old post)
Melanzane e zucchine grigliate (Grilled eggplant and zucchini)
Piatto di formaggi (Cheese tray) nicely brought by Giovanna - you can see it here:
From the top left: Fontina d'Aosta (tasty cheese from the mountains typical of Valle d'Aosta, the region North of Piemonte), Pecorino sardo (it's a sheep-milk cheese with pepper grains), Robiola (another tasty and very soft cheese), and in the middle, Burrata (a wonderful mozzarella-like cheese filled with cream typical of Puglia, the 'heel of the boot' region in Italy).
Main courses:
Ziti con pomodoro e pesto di ricotta (Ziti with tomato sauce and ricotta pesto)
Risotto con gorgonzola, provolone e noci (Gorgonzola, provolone and pecan risotto)
Dessert:
Of course, Tiramisu
I also made a small variation on the theme with the little cream and cookies that I had left:
Tropical tiramisu - I soaked the ladyfingers in guava juice instead of coffee and added apple slices on top.. just for fun.
To finish this post, just one picture of Giancarlo fighting with Lucas's 'Whimmy Diddle Stick'.. If you don't know what this toy is, look here. Lucas tells a funny story about it, which I'm not going to spoil just in case you're reading this page and are going to be invited to one of our dinners :) - and then everyone tries to make the whimmy diddle rotate right or left.. as you can see from the picture, it's not that easy!!!

Zabaione

When Jorge was here last weekend, I decided to make zabaione as dessert for our welcome dinner. So I'll post a specific recipe for it here.. Also because I found a slight variation on the recipe that I mentioned earlier, and this was even better.
Zabaione
(For ~4 people)
In a small pot mix 5 egg yolks and 1 egg white, with 3 tbsp sugar and 1/4 to 1/2 cup marsala (up to you). Beat with a whisk or with electric beaters. Put on _very_ low heat and continue whipping until it becomes fluffy and dense. It shouldn't boil. Remove from heat and serve with fruit or cookies. 'Torcetti' would be the best cookies, but here I found these 'Ventagli' that went very well too :)
This version, with the egg white, was even more fluffy than the other recipe (although the other one is the really traditional one). This cream is an absolute delight, you must try it. Some people serve it cold, mixed with whipped cream. Warm is best in my humble opinion, though.

San Francisco!

I went to San Francisco both the past weekend and the weekend before. In the latter case, I was all by myself! It's been an extremely pleasant and different experience: I'm rarely by myself, especially when I visit places. So being alone for once was a nice change, to just stop wherever I felt like, and decide where to go.. of course, in some moments I would have liked to share the experience with someone else. I walked a lot (about 7 hours, not including the stops), and saw very many parts of San Francisco. I didn't have the digital camera, so I just took some regular pictures that I cannot post. Still, it was a wonderful day and the memories are still vivid in my mind. Two days ago, I went again, this time with 3 more people! Lucas, Jorge and Vardha (Lucas's group mate). It was again very nice! We walked on a path that included parts that I had already seen and parts that were new also for me.
Jorge came to visit us during the weekend and until today, so spending the day in San Francisco with him was really nice. I have some pictures of that trip, so.. here they are!
To begin with, our crew:
Jorge, Vardha and Lucas on top of Alta Plaza.
And this is me!! I really like this picture Lucas took of me.. and it's the first picture I'm posting of myself with short hair!!


Our starting point: Union Square. In the middle of the district full of skyscrapers, it's such a nice place to take a break, in the sun.
China Town - one of the characteristic lights
Some of the skyscrapers, going on one of the many hills
The bay from Coit Tower
From the top of the hill where that nice view was, we went all the way down to the port and the Fisherman's Wharf.. here is the famous bakery 'Boudin', where they make really good sourdough, and they play around with cute shapes:
(For lunch, I had a clam chowder soup served in one of their famous sourdough bowls.. basically a shape of sourdough excavated, and with the soup in it... very good!).
After lunch we went to see the sea lions! Apparently they all stay on some benches in the fisherman's wharf. I was really surprised to see them, I didn't know they lived there! They stink terribly and they seem extremely lazy. They seem almost dead, because they barely move, except to start fights!
A nice view of Alcatraz:
After the marina, we climbed again on Fort Mason Park. I remembered there was a really nice view of the Golden Gate from there last time I walked there by myself. It was quite a surprise to see this view, this time:
The bridge disappeared in the fog!
Down and up some more hills, we arrived on Alta Plaza, at Pacific Heights. Lots of wonderful houses can be seen in this neighborhood, these are just some examples:
We wanted to document how steep the streets are. It's unbelievable the cars don't roll down!
Towards the end of our tour, the weather was getting more and more dark and threatening.. here is the Bay bridge still visible among the clouds:
But luckily it was time for us to meet our friends for dinner. Ellif (Lucas's group mate) knew an Italian restaurant that she wanted us to try. It's called 'L'osteria del forno', and it's on Columbus Ave. It's actually very good! Not everything is really like you would get in Italy, but it's always very close.
This was our dessert:
It's salame di cioccolato ('chocolate salame'). It was very good, although drier and harder than the real Italian one. Still, it was probably one of the best Italian restaurants I've been in the US. If you're not vegeterian, I'd recommend to try the carpaccio (thin slices of raw meat with lemon and oil) as appetizer. It's one of their best dishes.

Tiramisu

So many people have asked me for the recipe for Tiramisu and I realized in fact that I had posted here specifically only about a modification of mine to the traditional recipe (see here for summertime strawberry tiramisu). So I decided it's time to fix this terrible lack.

(Almost) Traditional Tiramisu
Ingredients
1 lb soft ricotta cheese (N.B. this is my light version of Tiramisu. In the original version, this is mascarpone, and not ricotta. A lot of people I know seem to prefer my light version, also because it's more fluffy than with mascarpone - and, last but not least, mascarpone costs like gold in the US, for some weird reason).
15 ladyfinger cookies
2 eggs
~1/2 cup sugar (or more if you like sweet desserts)
2 espresso coffees diluted with ~1 cup water (or ~1 cup american coffee) - cold or warm, not hot
2 tbsp rum
unsweetened cocoa powder
Procedure
With a hand mixer, beat the egg yolks with the sugar. Add the ricotta cheese in it, mixing by hand. In another bowl, whip egg whites with a dash of salt in them, till firm. Mix the eggwhites to the other mixture. Mix the coffee and the rum. One at a time, quickly soak half of the ladyfinger cookies in the coffee/rum mixture, and place them on the bottom of the serving bowl. Add half of the cream on top of them, and repeat these two layers once more. Put in the fridge and leave there for at least two hours (usually I prepare the dessert the night before). Sprinkle the top with cocoa powder before serving.

Cavolfiori al gratin

I have access to the camera again!! So I decided I'd take a picture of one of the first dishes I cooked in the new kitchen, just to start: 'cavolfiori al gratin', or 'gratin cauliflower'. Being in Berkeley, I'm turning more and more into a vegetarian. Not sure if it's because of the Yoga classes or because veggies look so good here, or because I've been reading some about how less sustainable it is to be a meat eater than vegetarian.. anyway, no worries for whoever invites me for dinner, so far: I'm not strict on it at all, I'm just decreasing the (already small) amounts of meat I tend to eat.
Anyway, the first weekend I arrived, Lucas brought me to the Berkeley Bowl, a grocery store well-known for the humongous section of vegetables and fruit. They have both really exotic and more common things, but even in the more common section, there are so many choices.. anyway, I saw this cauliflower there and I thought I may make something good out of it.

Cavolfiori al gratin / gratin cauliflower
Boil the cauliflower cut into pieces for ~10 min, in water with salt. I read somewhere that if you add a piece of bread soaked in vinegar, you won't have the typical smell of boiled cauliflower spreading everywhere in your home. I was pretty skeptical, but I tried, and I must say that it seems to work! If you do try, let me know if I was just deluding myself or not. :)
While it cooks, prepare besciamella sauce (see here, or anyway, dissolve ~2 tbsp flour in ~2 cups of milk, heat, add salt, 1 tsp nutmeg and 1 tbsp butter, bring to boil and let it thicken, adjusting with the amount of milk/time of heating in order to get to a dense consistency). Once the cauliflower is done, take it out, place the pieces in a baking pan, cover with besciamella, add small pieces of a cheese that can melt (I had some fresh provolone), and pieces of nuts. Broil for a few minutes until golden on the top. I served it with steamed whole grain rice.

Frittata di pasta

I've been wanting to publish a post about this very simple dish in a while, and today I finally remembered after seeing Susan's post about Spanish Tortilla de Patatas (Frittata di pasta reminds me a lot of that dish, except for the fact that I use just the amount of oil strictly necessary for preventing the frittata from sticking to the pan). Frittata di pasta is a very easy and tasty way to use pasta leftovers. Frittata means 'omelette' in italian, although usually Italian frittate are thicker than French omelettes. Anyway, you can in principle put anything in a frittata, including pasta leftovers. It turns out really well and it usually impresses Americans who never had anything like that. You can eat it hot or cold, and is thus perfect either as main dish, or as appetizer, or as party finger food.
Frittata di pasta / Pasta omelette
Ingredients:
6 eggs (you can use more or less eggs depending on your taste. The more eggs you add, the easier it is to have it stick together)
~2 cup pasta leftover (whatever sauce you had is fine)
Cheese (either 2 tbsp parmigiano or 1/2 cup any other cheese that will melt, diced into small pieces)
Salt, pepper
Olive oil (2 tbsp)
Procedure:
Beat the eggs with 2 tsp salt. Mix with the leftover pasta. Add black pepper to taste, and the cheese. Heat up 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan, till quite hot (it should become less viscous than when it's cold). Spread on the bottom of the pan, then pour the pasta/egg/cheese mixture. The pan should be of a size such that the egg/pasta mixture fills it completely. Cover with a lid, and cook on medium heat for at least 7 minutes. Check, and if there's almost no more liquid egg left you're ready to flip it, otherwise let cook covered for a bit longer. If you're ready to flip, first make sure the frittata is not stuck to the bottom of the pan by passing a plastic spatula between the border of the frittata and the bottom of the pan. Then, while wearing a glove that protects your left hand from the heat, hold the lid upside down in your left hand, and with your right hand slide the frittata from the pan onto the lid, so that the uncooked side is still face up. Flip the pan and place upside down on top of the frittata. Now flip the whole pan with lid, and place back on the stove. So now you should have the uncooked side being cooked. Let cook on Med-low heat for another 5 minutes and serve hot (for example with some tomato sauce, or chutney, like in the picture below), or cold, sliced into small pieces to serve at a party (like in the picture on top).

Weekend Cookbook Challenge: Roundup #14 and announcement #15

Tami from Running with Tweezers just posted the roundup for WCC #14! I was really impressed by the number of amazing salads that were produced..... mmmmmm... they all look so delicious! I will definitely try a few of them.

And.. I'm going to be the host for the new Cookbook Challenge! As Tami kindly mentioned, the theme is going to be 'Easter / springtime food'. I am really interested in seeing what people from different traditions have as typical Easter food. In Italy there are a lot of things, either savory or sweet. I thought I would extend it also to 'springtime food' because I realized not everyone celebrates Easter, of course.. so, Easter, springtime.. let's say, food for natural and spiritual rebirth!!!
I'm looking forward to all the posts.. I can't wait!

Pozole fatto da Luisa

A long time ago, when Lucas came to visit me in Raleigh, Luisa invited us for dinner in order to let us try this delicious Mexican soup, called Pozole. I have time only now to post a picture and the recipe Luisa gave me for it! Thanks Luisa!!!!!!!!! It's really delicious.

Pozole
Ingredients
3 pounds of Pork meat with bones (I use the Spine/back)
4 garlic cloves
1 white onion
1 can of crushed tomatoes (or 4-5 fresh red tomatoes)
1 medium size can of hominy (lime cooked corn kernels)
3 huajillo peppers (dried)
3 ancho o pasilla peppers (dried)
black pepper
salt
dried oregano
roman lettuce
red radishes
limes

The meat/broth:
In a pan, bring 3-4 liters of water to boil. Add Salt, 2 garlic cloves, half of the onion, black pepper and the pork, a dash of oregano. Cook the meat until is soft.
In another pot, boil the chilies (peppers) until they soften, then remove seeds and “pedicels” from peppers. Grind in blender with some of the meat broth, tomatoes, 2 garlic cloves and half the onion. And this salsa to the broth, keep boiling. Also add the hominy. Let it boil for 30 minutes.
I do the next separated, this way is easier to remove the bones, but in my home town we actually serve bones and meat together. Once the meat is cooked, remove it and transfer to another pot, add 1 liter water, add salt, and boil for another 30 minutes, until it separates from the bones. Remove bones and smash the meat. Remove the bone if you like…

To serve, serve the red broth with hominy, add meat. Add slices of lettuce and radishes, sprinkle some oregano and with onion cut in little squares. Also you may add some lime juice. Serve with the tostadas. In Guanajuato state, they also put some sour cream on the tostadas.
Buen provecho!

Focaccia con formaggio e cipolla, pizza con capperi (e acciughe), e focaccia con patate dolci e brie

Here are the recipes for the three different pizzas that I prepared for my goodbye parties.

Basic dough
I found out that letting the dough rest longer makes nicer pizzas/focaccias.
Mix 2 tsp yeast in ~2 cup warm water. Add 1 tsp sugar, and mix until yeast is dissolved and bubbles. Start adding flour to the mixture, until the dough becomes workable (it should be a total of about 2 lbs, but I really go by eye!!). At this point, kneed the dough on a floured surface, and add salt during this operation. Add little by little, while kneeding. In the end you probably have added 3 tbsp salt. I usually taste the dough to see how salty it is. Keep working the dough and add flour if necessary, for about 10 minutes. Then cover and let it rest for at least two hours (the longer the better especially for focaccia). Then, deflate the dough, and flatten with a rolling pin. There should be enough for ~ 3 pizzas/focaccias. Spread olive oil on your baking pans and put the dough on it. Let the dough rest while you prepare all the ingredients (another 30 min at least), then add the ingredients, and cook at 400 F for ~10 minutes, depending on where in the oven the pizzas are and how much topping you have.


Focaccia con cipolle rosse e formaggio / Red onion and cheese focaccia
Sautee 1 red onion finely cut in a little bit of olive oil, add salt to it. Spread on the focaccia and add small pieces of cheese (ricotta and brie in this case). Do not overdo with the cheese. The same focaccia can be transformed into a pizza by adding tomato sauce to the onions. Cook at 400 F for ~10 min.

Focaccia con patate dolci, brie e rosmarino / Sweet potato, brie and rosemary focaccia
Finely slice two small sweet potatoes and place slices on the dough. Pour some olive oil on top, and sprinkle with salt (better if you have salt in large grains). Add pieces of brie cheese and in the end rosemary. Cook at 400 F for ~15 min.
Note: focaccia with potatoes is a very typical Italian thing. Why not try sweet potatoes, I wondered? And it was a good try :)

Pizza con capperi e acciughe / Capers and anchovie pizza
(there are no anchovies in this picture, sorry). Prepare a tomato sauce by sauteeing 2 cloves of garlic, finely cut, in olive oil, and adding diced canned tomatoes and salt. Cook for ~20 min and blend to eliminate pieces. Spread the sauce on the pizza. Add pieces of cheese (cheddar in this case), capers and anchovies. Cook at 400 F for ~10 min. It's delicious. It's called 'Napoletana', in Italy.

Altre cene d'addio

I had many other goodbye dinners, which I really enjoyed. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of all of them, but I want to remember here about the dinner with Rich and Diana at 'Five star' Chinese restaurant in Raleigh, a wonderful chinese restaurant with a nice atmosphere, which I was really happy to get to know, especially with such good company.. and the few goodbye dinners hosted by Crissy, with Jennifer and YanLi..
(Crissy and Jennifer are shown here). These were wonderfully informal and friendly dinners, just a few girls, cooking for each other :).
And at last, our goodbye dinner at our favorite 'Sushi-Thai' in Raleigh, which hosted our meetings so many other times :)
This restaurant was one of our favorites. The atmosphere is extremely pleasant, and both the Thai and the Japanese food are very good. The sushi is really cheap and delicious!! Try it, if you live there :)

Goodbye party n.3: con tutti gli altri amici

The last goodbye party I threw at my place was with all my other friends. I was pretty upset with myself because I forgot to take pictures of the people!! I was so tired..
But I really want a memory of this wonderful party and of my friends, so I'll put a picture of the food that was there and that I didn't prepare myself..(I'll put the recipes for the food I prepared in later posts). I know it seems stupid, but making food is an act of love, so these foods remind me of how much I've been loved.
Pollo con patate al forno (baked chicken with potatoes), made by Maia.
And an Asian salad brought by Joanna.
This was really one of the nicest parties, we talked altogether for a long time, and I think everyone had a good time. I was so happy.

Goodbye party n.2: con i miei amici di lavoro

I threw two goodbye parties at my place, one with my friends from work, and one with my other friends (I thought we wouldn't fit all together).
The party with my work friends was a potluck. It was really nice, lots of good food and good company. Here is LiNa with her beef ribs, and in front, Rich's delicious shepherd's pie:
and here is Crissy - her Mexican dip is on the left front side of the table.
Here are Dazhong and wonderful Crystal!
They and YanLi brought Chinese Dumplings, since it was close to the Chinese New Year, and dumplings are a must for this holiday.
I don't have pictures of all the guests, unfortunately, but I cannot miss a portrait of the cutest one :)

Goodbye party n.1: cena di donne Italiane da Giovanna

I said I had a lot of things to post about, from the past two weeks. In fact, I spent most of my lunches and dinners out with friends, and enjoying goodbye parties! One of the first ones was thrown for me by Giovanna and my other Italian women friends. It was our February dinner, and it was again a potluck dinner, like the January dinner that I hosted at my place and I described here. Evidently, the idea of a dinner at a friend's house was appreciated, and it was the occasion for my goodbye. I felt very honored for it :) The food was absolutely amazing, both for the amount and for the quality. Here is a picture of us..

From top, left: first row: Danila, Angelita, Antonella. Second row: Loredana, Elisabetta, Angelita, Mina, Laura. Front row: Donnaliz, Giovanna and Marta.
If you read more, there are pictures of a few of the dishes.

Food made by our wonderful host, Giovanna:
Deviled eggs
Focaccia. This was amazing, it was exactly like the focaccia you can buy in Italy. I'm going to ask her for the exact recipe for it.
Guacamole
I made three diffent pizzas:
Pizza with red onions and cheddar cheese
Pizza with sweet potatoes and brie cheese and a pizza with anchovies and capers, which I don't have the picture of. I'm going to post the recipes for these pizzas soon. They were all really good, I was very happy with them.
Donnaliz made these delicious grilled eggplants:
And at last Danila made her delicious Spaghetti alla carbonara:
We had a huge amount of desserts, too:
Cannoli prepared by our friend Mina.
Two types of chocolate cakes (Antonella's is shown here), brownies, and dulce de tres leches.. and to digest, some home made limoncello (a strong lemony liquor) :)

Wow, we were stuffed and happy in the end :)