My brother is the kind of dad who goes out early on a Saturday morning to buy fresh blueberries for pancakes requested for breakfast by his four year old daughter. Or who bakes moon-sized chocolate chip cookies on his day off just for her, a prize for when she eats the kind of food a... Continue Reading →
Crime scene parmigiano
We think of Thanksgiving as a standard holiday, with a standard meal, and yet, there’s no standard way of celebrating Thanksgiving. Some like turkey. Some don’t. Some like a roasted turkey. Some like a deep fried turkey. Or an ice cream turkey. Some have a glazed ham or steaks or a pork roast or vegan... Continue Reading →
Taking advantage of the shoulder season in Orvieto
Amazing food with a side of culture. That sums up Italy, and in less than 140 characters. The side of culture comes in different flavors, staying with an Italian family, getting pickpocketed, or eating dinner over a labyrinth of tunnels dug out in 300 BC. Now, now you've got Orvieto in Umbria. It takes some... Continue Reading →
More than a pasta shop
Gelato, cioccolato and pasta. You can marinate yourself in history, culture, and art in Italy. And then there is gelato, cioccolato and pasta. Any bad day, even if you’ve been pickpocketed (unfortunately I know the feeling), can end in one of those shops and erase any negative feelings you have about what happened, or didn’t... Continue Reading →
The places we go
“Are you carrying a lot of money?” the customs officer asked at the airport in Bari, Italy. “Ummm, no,” I said, not sure how to answer that question out loud in front of strangers as I was about to board a local train, with luggage, to a city I didn’t know. I was on the... Continue Reading →
Making peace, one blueberry pancake at a time
The funnest person I get to talk to right now is my three-year old niece. Conversations are about eating, playing and sleeping. We don’t always agree, but she’s a grand diversion from the junk that comes out of the mouths of adults today who get paid millions to say it. When she speaks – she’s... Continue Reading →
Discovering the meaning of dim sum in Seattle
by Janice Nigro Being a nomad is great. Until you realize that your closest friends live nowhere close. So when the last minute opportunity came up a few weekends ago to travel to Seattle to see some friends from the USA who I met in Norway and now live in Tasmania, I took it (yes,... Continue Reading →
Easy Reader News 49th Anniversary contest: Counting Cronuts
A bit of luck with a story published in the Easy Reader Beach magazine this summer. Just an adventure in Los Angeles that really started somewhere else in the world. Great fun in seeing a piece in print. Enjoy! P.S. It's the last story in the link... https://easyreadernews.com/49th-anniversary-easy-reader-beach-writing-contest-winners-and-honorable-mentions-2019/
Home is where my pasta machine is
by Janice Nigro A plane is that modern vehicle of irony, speeding you through the air at times to areas of the Earth that might still be in the stone age. Or at least into another apparent universe where we don’t understand the language, we don’t look like anyone else, and we don't have the... Continue Reading →
The Christmas pasta
by Janice Nigro Families get together over the holidays. Exchanging gifts and watching movies. And eating. And well... eating. Growing up I would say Christmas food for me was a lot about the cookies. My grandmother made the best cookies on the planet. She always had cookies in a cookie box, a rectangular Tupperware number,... Continue Reading →