Waste not, want not

January 5, 2008 · Filed Under Italian Food · 1 Comment 

Yesterday I cooked up an improvised cacuicco, which, if you do not know, is an Italian fish soup. I’d had this soup several times, so I though I’d have a go at making it, in order to use up some seafood that had been left over from our New Year’s festivities.

I did not follow any particular recipe, although I had a quick look at one such recipe on the Internet, more or less to confirm how this soup is made. All I did was to pour a bottle of tomato pulp into a pan, add a little salt and pepper, a dash of garlic, a little chilli powder and then a glass of white wine. Then I just let the mix simmer for half an hour or so. Result? Very tasty, and even my Italian other half said it was ‘excellent’. Not bad for some improvisation.

Today, again in order to use up some of the left overs, my other half, following a recipe, created some salmon stuffed with cheese. It cooked in a jiffy, looked great, but, as I realised as soon as I put a piece into my mouth, the salmon had gone off. Just as well I managed to prevent other half from feeding our little one a nice chunk of rancid salmon.

Oh well, you win some, and you lose some. At least we tried to use up this goodies, without throwing them away.

And, this evening, I ran up some vin bruleè, which is the Italian version of mulled wine. I found an ‘Alpini’ vin bruleè recipe on the Internet (great source of genuine Italian recipes - especially if you can read Italian) , and had a go. Result? Highly drinkable, if a little sweet. Less demerara sugar would have made it more tangy, as would have a little more lemon. Still, it’s going down very well, and is just the thing to sort out my annoying little cold, I can tell you. At least that is what I’m telling myself….

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Naples is burning, again

January 4, 2008 · Filed Under Naples · 3 Comments 

Some time back, I wrote about the rubbish situation down in Naples. Well, it appears as though the trash story has flared up yet again. All the national news here is alight with images of huge piles of rubbish, and huge piles of rubbish alight.

I had heard that the Neapolitan trash thing had been resolved, but, it sounds as though the solution was of the ’sweep-it-under-the-carpet’ variety. Only, said rug has not proved to be big enough, and, ‘hey presto’, back to square one.

Naples’ fireman (sorry, should use the pc ‘firepeople’) apparently spent a most enjoyable New Year’s evening dashing around the city putting out burning rubbish. That’s when they were not dealing with the bomb sized fireworks so beloved of those down in the south. Sounds like they, the firepeople, had a pretty trashy time. Heh heh (I will not use ‘ho ho’, a) ‘coz Christmas is all but over, and b) ‘coz I don’t want to be accused of being non-politically correct.).

Anyway, talking of politicially correct, Prodi has been creating a certain amount of hot air over all the fire down in Naples, and all the other politico’s are, as usual, trying to put Prodi’s flame out, by, equally as usual, calling for his resignation.

Ho hum. New Year, but same old, same old, here in the Living Museum (I shall continue to use the expression ‘Living Museum, because I still believe there is some live here, even if others, slightly more jaded than myself, consider that the word ‘Museum’ is enough to sum up ‘modern’ day Italy).

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New Year, new photos

January 2, 2008 · Filed Under Digital photography · Comment 

I’ve just got back from having spent a very pleasant few hours wandering the streets near where I live in Milan. I whiled away these hours taking photos. Night photos, as you might expect.

It’s just about two in the morning here, so I won’t be firing up my pc and ‘processing’ any of my shots just yet.

On the screen of my EOS 400d, my efforts look OK, but I know from experience that the 2.5 inch screen does not always tell the whole story, and I know that the white balance will need to be tweaked. Still, I shot in raw, so this should not be a problem.

I’m quite pleased that I finally got round to getting out and about with my trusty dSLR. I had been meaning to take a few shots of the Christmas lights for quite some time. And I hope my efforts satisfy me.

I headed for Parco Sempione and my local Piazza Gramsci, armed with flash and tripod. I even managed to pop into a nice looking bar for a couple of Negrone Spagliatos - just to stave off the cold. But the look of the bar caught my eye, and after asking permission, I set up my Manfrotto and took a few shots.

A very nice way to spend the first day of the new year, I have to say.

I think too that my attempts at image capturing are improving. At least that is the impression I got from Di’s encouraging comments. Cheers Di! Di is an ace image creator, so a compliment from her is worth a lot in my book.

I shall try to post the odd image tomorrow, so you can judge for yourself if my efforts have proven fruitful. And, I have another photographer reading my ravings. You know who you are! And he too has created some interesting images, and likes atmospheric black and white work. Another source of inspiration for me.

I do love digitalt photography - it allows me to exploit my love of computers, and to get my teeth into something as technical as photography. And if you did not think photography was technical, think again. If you really want to develop your ability to take interesting pics, then you need to get into the technical stuff. Well, I think so, and I like it loads.

Time for bed - I got to the sack at around three last night, after having spent a wonderful night in the company of Claudio and Miriam. Best New Year for quite some time. Great fun.

Over and out. Good night.

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