Scrumptious Granita

Ok...here it is! This morning (this ritual actually occurs often) a group of us met for our weekly granita at The Family Duck in Nicolosi. The granita pictured here (from left to right) is mezzo mandorla e mezzo ciccolato (half almond and half chocolate) and the other is mezzo mandorla e mezzo gelsi con panna (half almond and half mulberry with whipped cream). I don't know how to describe this because, for those of you in the states - granita is not shaved ice with syrup as so many people believe it to be. Here, in beautiful Sicily, it seems that they freeze fresh fruit with sugar and then scrape it as it freezes...so that it does not actually freeze solid...it comes out kind of between ice cream and snow cone...and is to die for! Granita and a brioche (warm bread - as seen in the background here) is a typical Sicilian breakfast in Sicily...at least on Sundays in the summer - after all...it is seasonal. Regardless, if you ever have an opportunity to have REAL Sicilian granita, don't pass it up. Flavors that I have had include:
Lemon, pistachio, almond, cafe, chocolate, strawberry, kiwi, mulberry, and mandarine...I have seen peach, but have not tried it because I really don't care for peaches (that's for you Pienta)...and someone told me they have had pineapple.

Summer Residency @ IU

I had an opportunity to meet my doctoral cohort face-to-face this summer at my residency at Indiana University - they're a great group of professionals with such a wide range of experiences. I can only hope to learn a lot from my interactions with them...that is provided I make it through my next set of classes - if this first class is an indicator of what lies ahead...well, let's just see...

Mmmmmm...

I have never seen such meaty tomatoes in my life. I have been giving my tomatoes to Lisa and Onorio because I have far more than I would ever eat...well, actually, this is the first tomato that I kept for myself - one slice became part of a toasted tomato sandwich. Very tasty. Anyway, I am giving Onorio 10 more on Sunday...he's making tomato sauce and canning it for the winter. Maybe I'll hit him up for one small jar to make pennette all' arrabiata - that would be penne pasta with tomato sauce, spicy salami, and pepperoncini (crushed red pepper). Mmmmm...

Just how spoiled is my dog???

See Cocoa happy with her new squeaky ball...

See Cocoa squeak her squeaky ball...

See Cocoa look on in amazement as her squeaky ball falls to the floor...

See Cocoa ask me to get her squeaky ball...

Look a little deeper...

When you look at a rosebud what do you see? Today, I see relationships. To get to the bud you have to negotiate the thorns, only to find that the bud is unfolding imperfectly. Does that make the flower any less desirable? I suppose it could. Then again, it reminds me that nothing in life is perfect, and anything worth having is usually work. So where does today's thought take me? I've been working through countless thorns in search of the perfect rosebud - for 15 years. And only now, after making my most recent blunder, am I realizing that no such thing exists. Good relationships are worth the work you put into them to win them...once you acquire the prize, it is worth even more work to keep. So what qualifies as good? Hmmm...well, let's consider the rosebud:

What do I have to have? A flower

What would I like to have? Some leaves

What can I live with? The thorns

What can I not tolerate? Bugs

So, if the rosebud I pick fits these guidelines...it could in fact be worth a little extra effort.

Really...I'm not spoiled

Here she is...my spoiled but not spoiled Cocoa. Cocoa has had a rough month. Her right ear had been very dirty for some time. The base vet gave me some ear cleaner and told me to clean her ear regularly; that for some reason she seemed to be producing a lot of wax. Well, let me tell you...she was producing wax because she had an infection. I found out the day before I left for Indiana when her eardrum burst and I had to spend the day at the vet and in search of an open farmacia to fill her prescription. I felt so incredibly horrible...so anyway, as much as I'd rather not have her on the furniture, I didn't have the heart to make her get down. Here she is sleeping on the couch with her bouncy ball and bone...in actuality she was inches from where I was working diligently on procrastinating a paper.

My wonderful Italian vet really likes Cocoa. He remembered her from a year ago when she was in to see him for a nearly fatal poisoning. Anyway, she has been pretty good about letting me give her the treatments and her ear is looking really great. Bad news is yesterday she started shaking her head a lot and scratching at her other ear...and whining while doing so -- the same actions as she had gone through in the week before the ruptured eardrum...so I took her in again today - more treatments and a we go back Monday...looks infected too -- I can only hope that we caught this one in time to help her.

Oh yeah...and she's fat! She weighs 76 pounds and could stand to lose about 8 pounds. I told the vet that I was feeding her what the bag said to feed her - 3 cups - (Science Diet) -- to which the response was "they're in the business to sell dog food" -- "cut her down to 2 cups". 2 CUPS!! That seems like nothing...but orders are orders...she's already on withdrawal from cheese, vegies, meat, toast, and whatever other crumb she could convince me to share with her.

In case you're wondering...no, she didn't even flinch when I took her picture -- she kept on sleeping...poor baby.

Sometimes I wish she could talk, then she could tell me when something was wrong...although she would also say other things...I imagine like when her ball goes under the couch..."could you get my ball? Please? Please, please, please, huh, could you....now...please." Kind of like a 3 year old...that would drive me up the wall - she does a good enough job without being able to speak...at least in an intelligible language...although I do understand her head tilts, whimpers, semi-barks, and such.