The months in [...]]]> Dutch weather is among the most unpredictable things in the world. It gets annoying, really. Between the end of February and the middle of May you can never tell whether you’ll be needing warm mittens or skimpy dresses. There will likely even be days where you’ll need both.

The months in which you have no idea what to wear are the same months I need to start my seeds for my garden. After last year’s tomato debacle I haven’t given up. I actually got even more enthusiastic, buying a miniature windowsill greenhouse and lots of seeds. Instead of buying seedlings, I decided to grow them myself. I also decided to plan my garden differently and to diversify a bit. I started reading up on things and learned scary words like cotyledons.

It’s all for a good cause though. With a little bit of luck and a bit of assistance from the weather gods, we will likely hardly buy vegetables this summer. Everything should be obtained from either our own garden, or through trading with other people’s tiny urban gardens. My friends who grow lettuce will like zucchini, and I can definitely use some salad greens later on.

On March 12th I planted my first seeds. I filled the window box with three types of tomatoes, artichokes, 5 different colors of bell peppers, some chili peppers and eggplant seeds. A little bit of luck gave us some sunny days which made the tomatoes sprout quick enough. The artichokes soon followed and then I waited. Every day I looked at my box and saw the tomatoes getting bigger and bigger, the artichokes grew and besides that, nothing. I’ve never been a patient person, so I’m sure it went much faster than I thought, but really, it felt like the other veggies, the peppers and eggplant, just wouldn’t grow.

Eventually they grew. The eggplant unfortunately lost it’s battle between the repotting of everything else, followed by drying out and getting too wet. When that box isn’t completely full anymore the water balance gets really iffy, I tell you. However, I managed to save my peppers and they are thriving in various cups and bowls now.

Yes, I got a little over enthusiastic, resulting in a shortage of pots and a funny sight of plants in cups, mugs and bowls. It looks festive enough though, and as long as my veggies have more room to grow, I’m okay with washing dishes a little more often.

By now the second haul is well underway. My 4 species of squash are growing so well that the lid was pushed off (and now they live in yet another array of cups and mugs). The second try at eggplant is proving to give me much nicer looking seedlings. The artichokes have been planted in the garden, as well as a couple of the tomatoes (They have grass jars over them right now, to protect them from possible frost.) The other tomatoes are still hardening day by day and will be planted soon.

In the mean time I’m trying my best to find suitable homes for a lot of my seedlings. I only have room for 3 more tomato plants, while I still have 12 left to plant. I can only manage 4 or 5 squashes and I have a whooping 24 in total. If I still want to plant my chicory and rocket I can only handle 3 or 4 eggplants, 2 chilis and 5 or 6 bell peppers, and yes, there are more of those too. Having nursed them from seed, I don’t want to just throw them out.

I can’t wait until the weather evens out a bit. That crazy unpredictable weather should soon give up on the risk of frost and give in to my drive to grow my own food. Within a month or so I hope to be eating the first bites of home grown squash and herbs. And soon thereafter tomatoes and greens and peppers and maybe even artichokes. I honestly can’t wait!

We arrived in Milan early Friday afternoon. After taking a taxi to the apartment and drinking coffee, we walked to the grocery store across the square. I was amazed, this was a small, little grocery store, compared to American, or even Dutch stores. [...]]]> So in Milan we did a lot… of eating!

We arrived in Milan early Friday afternoon. After taking a taxi to the apartment and drinking coffee, we walked to the grocery store across the square. I was amazed, this was a small, little grocery store, compared to American, or even Dutch stores. The selection, however, was amazing. The deli counter had everything you’d possibly ever wanted.

I got francescani bread (actually not sure about the name anymore…), some porcetta, a piece of asiago cheese and a tomato. We went back to the apartment and ate a wonderful lunch.

After lunch we went to the Duomo, into the mall, I spun around on the bull’s balls for luck, we had a drink, we went into La Rinascente where I bought a chef’s hat! We then slowly started walking back towards our own area. It was about an hour’s walk, but it was really hot, so we kept taking breaks, sitting down in a park and such. When we got closer to home we still didn’t feel very hungry, probably due to the heat, but figured we had to start looking for a restaurant. We ended up at a little restaurant fairly close to home. We ordered a bottle of water and a half-bottle of white wine and received some fresh hot flatbread (pizza crust with olive oil, basically). We agreed on ordering a full meal instead of just a pizza (it was a ristorante/pizzeria so just pizza would’ve been acceptable). I couldn’t choose between the plain penne all’arrabiata and fussili alla carbonarita or carbonarina or something like that (I completely forgot the name, it wasn’t carbonara, but the first part of the name was completely alike.) We swiched plates halfway through our pasta course.

We followed the pasta course with the meat course. We had the tagliate (thin sliced beef) with pepe verde (green peppercorns) and rosemary. And monza with a grean pepper cream sauce. Both very very tasty and again swiched halfway through. Loved both! We ended out dinner with a cup of espresso, which led to the waiter telling us his whole proud story about the coffee and how good it was. It WAS good!

The next morning started out with coffee at home. We proceeded towards the castello and had our breakfast at a little cafe down there. We had cappuccino’s and cornetto’s (croissants). I then proceeded letting L eat mine and ordering a brioche with chocolate, as we got a croissant filled with marmalade, which I don’t eat. The chocolate brioche was wonderful!

After the castello and a lot of walking around we went home for lunch. I got the same breads as the previous day, though Saturday I bought some spianata calabra, some prosciutto di parma, a fresh mozzarella, some fresh pesto and more tomatoes. I got a lot, as the store would be closed on Sunday. We went home and ate and took a nap. It was too hot to do anything anymore anyway.

That evening we went to the Brera district. We had a gelato (I had nocciola, hazelnut and amaretto flavors. Yumm! We went on to a terrace for a drink, then started walking around until we found a not-so-touristy restaurant. It really was just a neighborhood dive, which was just what I hoped for!

I ordered spaghetti alla carbonara, the real deal, no cream, and then a grilled steak which had a name on the menu which L didn’t even recognize. I figured I was adventurous and would go for it. It was just a perfectly grilled bone-in piece of meat, served with a piece of lemon to squeeze over. I also ordered a side salad. L had spaghetti with pesto and scallopina alla marsala, which was awesome as well (I demanded a bite!). We had white wine yet again, as it was nice to drink something chilled in the hot weather, and ended with another nice cup of espresso. I don’t usually drink caffeine that late at night, but you can’t not drink espresso in Italy, right?

Sunday morning. Yet again coffee at home, then outside and cappuccino’s and cornetto’s at a coffee place around the corner. We wanted to go to an antique market, but it apparently wasn’t there anymore. We proceeded on to the cemetery to walk around then home for lunch, the rest of the previous day’s food.
Another nap and cooling off in the apartment and outside for dinner. Back into the center, a little walking, an aperitivo at a cafe in the Duomo area. I didn’t really want to eat there though, as it was all way too touristy. Now it’s impossible to find bad food in Milan, I’m convinced, but still, didn’t want the touristy stuff. So we went and walked again, then took the subway more towards our own area (though not quite) and ended up in a tiny little restaurant. They specialized mostly in fish, but they had meat dishes too. I started off with gnocchetti alla taleggio and then had another tagliate with rosemary and green pepper. It was wonderful yet again. L had a steak with a mustard sauce, which was absolutely amazing. (We make a point of not ordering the same dishes, so we can taste each others, or so we don’t look like the stupid couples who want the same of everything. We didn’t want to take the Fiorentine, as that was just tooooo big and the 4th and last meat dish was sold out, which explain my re-run of tagliate). Sunday evening was the first time we ordered dessert, I wanted a piece of tiramisu and L was willing to help me eat it. Coffee to end all with again.

Mondaymorning meant shopping for me, but not before our usual cappuccino and cornetto. I bought a couple of dresses and a pair of pants and then we walked on down the corso buenos aires. Halfway through we were ready for cold air and lunch, so we went into a restaurant that had air conditioning. I had a wonderful panino with breaded chicken, tomato and lettuce. Once cooled off we walked on for a little bit and then proceeded home to cool of, shower and rest. Around 8-ish we walked over to L’s cousin’s across the street, where we’d been invited for dinner.
At L’s cousin, we started off with aperitivo and pleasant conversation. It was hard, and not that well-performed, but I did practice my Italian more that I’d had the rest of the week. We had spaghetti with fresh made pesto (the basil was cut from the garden about 5 minutes before dinner) and cotoletta alla Milanese with melanzane (eggplant) and zucchine. I skipped the after-dinner fruit, but did enjoy a limoncello before my coffee. It was absolutely wonderful.

Monday marked our last day. After the usual cappuccino and cornetto and 2 new pairs of shoes we got our usual bread and meat lunch (Salami Milanese and Parmacotto) and finished off the last of the tomatoes and pesto. We cleaned up the apartment and left for the airport. Then we bought a giant hunk of parmigiano cheese to take home and left Milan.

It was a wonderful, lovely and very very tasty vacation!!!!

The problem [...]]]> At least in this house we do! Especially when made with awesome home-made bread and the last of the awesome tomatoes I got last Friday. Seriously, I LOVE these tomatoes. I’ve said it before, but they actually smell and taste like tomato, something that’s hard to come by these days.

The problem with tomatoes is that they’re actually a summer product. They need a lot of sun to ripen, get red and fragrant and tasty. Nowadays however, people (including myself) want tomatoes all year ’round. So they’re being grown in greenhouses with fake light and in the worst case, sent to ‘riperies’ (I kid you not, they exist) where they’re sent in green, and come out fully red. All thanks to the invention of chemicals that can do that. It’s amazing that we even expect things to taste the same, when they haven’t had the chance to grown on their own, to sit in the sun, to soak up taste from their roots, from the soil. Let nature do what it’s good at.

It seems like ‘man’ needs to and wants to control everything (which isn’t strange to me, being somewhat of a control-freak myself) but aren’t we taking it overboard? That’s what I realized when I got my tomato-tasting-tomatoes. They’re organic and I have no idea where they got them from (some part of the globe that has sun year-round??). Yes, they were insanely expensive, but oh the taste! So worth it!

I wish I actually had the courage to start eating and cooking seasonally. Wouldn’t that be awesome? There are several programs that sell you veggies straight from the farm, you tell them for how many people and you get a package of seasonal vegetables each week. It’s not even that much more expensive than buying your produce at the store. I don’t know if I can do that though. Sometimes I just want lettuce and tomatoes. I like spinach and pumpkin any time of year. I don’t think I’m quite hippie enough to just deal and wait 6 to 8 months before I can have my favorite foods again.

So back to today. Daylight savings in Europe kicked in today, so by the time we woke up it wasn’t really breakfast time anymore. Closer to lunch than brunch to be precise. All the more reason to make a big, nice sandwich. The fresh made bread, juicy tasty tomatoes, organic basil and a medium-ripe farm cheese were seasoned with a little salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.

Sometime it really is that simple. Sometimes you really don’t need to get fancy or creative. Just compose a couple of tasty, high quality items (which is the absolute base of Italian cuisine by the way) and it balances out to a perfect dish . Or sandwich in this case! (Added bonus is L being able to play around taking pictures with natural light. Life is good on a sunday morning/afternoon)