Why Aren't I Italian?

My favorite kind of cuisine is Italian.  I could eat something from that country every day at every meal.  If I could, I would own a second home in Italy where my family could spend the summers learning Italian, drinking wine, and eating lots and lots of amazing food.

A neat picture showing some regional specialties.

In the summer of 2007, Garrett and I went to Italy for three glorious weeks.  We had a fantastic time and can't wait to go back.  While in Italy, my love for the country and its cuisine surpased love and grew into me wishing I could change my heritage.  I keep asking myself, "why can't I be Italian!?"  I desperately wish that I had a big Italian family begging me to come visit them in <Fill in the blank with some amazing Italian location>, Italy.  To which I would calmly say, "I'll try; hopefully we can soon," but really I'm thinking, "YES, YES, YES! Please pay for my ticket, so that I can spend all my money on gelato, espresso, wine, and multi-course Italian meals."  Is it too much to ask?!

I desperately want a giant farm table under a grove of olive trees where I'll serve my best homemade Italian dishes that include fresh everything.  Have you ever read Under the Tuscan Sun?  If you love Italy and want to read a yummy book (and I mean yummy because of the food she talks about making) I suggest it.  The movie is nothing like the book, so that doesn't count if you've seen the movie.

When Garrett and I went to Italy, we jumped around between a few areas: Aosta, Finale Ligure, and Como.  One of our favorite things to do no matter where we happened to be was visit the local grocery store and pick up a light lunch of cheese, bread, salami, and olives. (Do you ever notice how simple foods taste so much better in wonderful places?)   

This shot shows my favorite cheese of the trip.
Mmmmmm Fontalpe

Here's a glimpse of the best juice on earth, Santal Ananas e Lime (Pineapple and Lime), 
and a wonderful go-to red wine, Lambrusco.

My favorite, favorite thing we did while in Italy was go to this hole-in-the-wall, in the middle of no-where restaurant, the Ca D'alice.  Getting to this place was an adventure in itself (remind me to tell you that story some time), but the food, oh the food! The meal was several courses, I honestly lost count.  I wish I could "I Dream of Jeannie" myself there right now.  They made their own everything!  The meal started with the best onion focaccia and house wine you have ever had.  Everything went up from there.  So good....sigh.

This is me with some house wine that the Ca D'alice sent home with us.
They were so flattered that we had come all the way to their little place
from America that they gave it to us! They make the wine there on their farm. 

And finally, another Italy picture for you to be jealous of.

This is Final Borgo, an old, walled town outside of Finale Ligure.  So beautiful.

Trader Joe's

We have a Trader Joe's here in Boulder and apparently it's the place to go.  I didn't completely understand what the big deal was until I tried some of their products.  The quality is super good and the prices aren't too bad.  It's a kin to a typical specialty foods store like Whole Foods or Fresh Market.

Our Trader Joe's isn't very big; I assume there are different size stores like there are with Target and Walmart.  I got some advice on things to try and several of the suggestions our store didn't carry, bummer.  The items we did buy were fantastic though.  We got several of their frozen Indian dishes, like samosas and butter chicken; we would buy them again.  They also had frozen gnocchi!!  If you know me, you know I LOVE Italian food, so I was super excited to try the gnocchi.  We ate our first gnocchi dish last night; it was very tasty and leaves me wanting more.  

To save the best for last, our favorite item purchased was the famous cookie butter.  I would have never bought it if it hadn't been recommended; it just sounded strange and I was thinking it was a peanut butter product that was supposed to taste like a baked cookie.  Oh no, my friends, it's amazing.  It must be tried to be understood.  My son asks for it by the spoonful; I discovered him one day with the jar in his lap and a spoon in his hand (I quickly took it away, but let me tell you, he was in heaven). 

We had to try the cocoa swirl after realizing how amazing the original was.
It's good, but the original is where it's at.

If you have a Trader Joe's near by, go.  Go and get the cookie butter.  Try other things, blah blah blah.  Get the cookie butter.