ORGANIC STROWBERRIES DELICIOUS FRUITS OF MY GARDEN

Surely all of you know and love strawberries jam. It's delightful on toast, bread, and the ideal ingredient for special tarts. From May till October I prepare it with strawberries and lemons collected in my organic garden. All my family appreciate it and also my guests like it for breakfast.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients
1kg fresh strawberries hulled and washed
the juice and peel of a fresh organic lemon
1kg granulated sugar


Cut strawberries into big pieces and put them in a large bowl along with the lemon juice and peel - cut in the small pieces - and the sugar. Cover and put in the fridge for 12 hours.
Put the mixture into a large heavy-bottomed saucepan, skimming from time to time. Increase heat to high and bring it to a full roiling boil while stirring constantly for quite 10 minutes. Reduce heat and continue to boil it for 10 minutes. To control if the jam has the right consistency
test it by pouring a couple of drops of it into one plate, if done the jam should thicken almost immediately.
Finally, pour the hot jam into sterilized jars and close and place them upside down until fully cool down.

OUR DOG CLEOPATRA AND ...CATS.

What about Cleopatra the curious Fortezza de’ Cortesi dachsund? So brave, amusing and affectinate with all humans, she’s terrible with our cats. The hunter insticts guide her short legs chasing the poor felines who take refuge on the property’s wood trees. She waits adamant barking for hours till exhausted she comes home with his tongue hanging out.

Sage, beautiful in the garden, good on the plate

Walking in my garden I admire the borders of sage and I pick a few leaves. Immediately an intense aroma is released into the air. Well, they will be perfect for seasoning ricotta and spinach Tuscan ravioli (gnudi) that I made this morning.

Ingredients:
4 ½ pounds spinach
16 oz ricotta
3 eggs
a little flour
4 oz butter
10 sage leaves
6 spoons of parmesancheese
nutmeg
salt

Wash and boil the spinach with a little water salting lightly. Drain, leave to cool and chop finely.
Put the trhee whole eggs into a bowl and mix them with the ricotta, a pinch of nutmeg and salt.
Add the parmesan cheese and the chopped spinach and blend well. With this mixture make little ovalshaped rissoles and flour them. Boil some lightly salted water and drop in a few the “gnudi” at a time. As soon as theyrise to the surface, take them out of the pan with a perforated spoon and put them on a wide serving dish. Season them with melted butter that had been previously heated to which were added the sage leaves and plenty of parmesan.

Poetry , our soul food….

Today is a tender spring sunny day. I’m in the mood for poetry. Here is one of my favorites.

The morns are meeker than they were-
The nuts are getting brown-
The berry's cheek is plumper-
The Rose is out of town.
The Maple wears a gayer scarf-
The field a scarlet gown-
Lest I should be old fashioned
I'll put a trinket on.

Emily Dickinson

Yes, me too I’ll put a little trinket on.