Couple of years ago I read a fascinating book about litterally the "small pleasures in life". Small pleasures like those gestures, actions that we, consciously or not, encounter on a daily basis often without even realizing how important / fullfilling they actually are. "Whether it be a croissant in the street, the Tour de France, a potluck, shelling peas, a glass of port, the smell of apples, the mobile library, a garden in August, getting your espadrilles wet, or an autumn sweater".

Lately I have been often talking about the fact that, after years of profound struggling with food allergies / intollerances I tried my very last option to fix/solve these problems. I seriously couldn't handle anymore the fact of getting convulsion, badly sick, sometimes even fainting in restaurants even after telling the waiter(s) I couldnt eat certain stuff (but still finding them hidden somewhere on my plate!). After almost 8 years of trying every type of possible "medical solution", and after being told there was nothing I could do since it was, unfortunately a permanent state I should live with for the rest of my days, a friend of mine told me about an alternative cure (that apparently fixed all of his allergies/intollerances in a couple of months): Magnetic bioresonance. Well, I said, what the heck...one more try wouldn't hurt plus it was completely natural. It turns out another friend of mine had a studio of naturopathy right next to my office and...so I went, without having any expectations.
4 months have passed and my allergies/intollerances are gone, they disappeared!!!!

Why have I started this post with a book on small pleasures of life? Well, right now I'm in the phase of re-introducing all the food I haven't eaten in 8 years. All that food that contains lactose: yogurt, ham, sausages, butter (ohhhh yummy risotto!). Let me tell you...eating just bits of this stuff was like eating the best things ever for the first time ever! A milk shake at the bar on the boardwalk, a sausage at the barbecue with my friends, the famous risotto made by my mom (finally the real way...with butter not with olive oil!!). Well, exactly like those things Philippe Delerm was talking in his book "We Could Almost Eat Outside: An Appreciation of Life's Small Pleasures" (in italiano, en français) Photos by lilypenelope

Round and round and round and round and round.... Centre Pompidou, Paris.
Photo by lilypenelope

While finishing up to assemble all the cabinets I got at Ikea, I started, once again, thinking about the big blue box we all read as "swedish design at a low cost". Me and my collegue had to go there to buy cabinets for the office. What a surreal experience! As I talked about it before, Ikea is indeed a trip into your mind, a psychological tour into your own home. As we entered the big blue box I started wondering "I saw that kid here in the children space the last time I came here", and that was at least 6 months ago...some leave their children there while they cruise around the store...maybe some leave them there while cruising around life! As we start walking, following the arrows, you suddently realize you are not technically in switzerland anymore!! Words, style and advertisments no longer belong to your everyday. It feels like you are in a science fiction novel mixed with a document on natural species... ohhh those names...so, you find yourself between a "Trollsta" and a "Skruvsta" so interesting! Can you imagine at a dinner in your own home you welcome your guest speaking "Ikea-ish": "Hey guys, welcome! Please go and put your stuff in Pax, then feel free to go on the Tylosänd...I have to go in the kitchen to finish cooking some Köttbullar"! So, while searching for a cabinet I found myself filling up the yellow plastic bag with so many useful things: two sets of "Drömmar", I mean...not one, two sets of pastries cutter in the shape of swedish animals!! So nice looking...! I got a "Pröjs" just for the name...a desk pad...I hate desk pads but how could I resist to something named "Pröjs"?? A "Strila"...a damn citrus zester...why? But it will look good in my red kitchen! And the best, a jewel in the kitchen...a must...the complete set of "Plastis" ice cube trays...so happy I can now make icecube in the shape of a fish, a flower, a star and a heart! I totally forgot I have a full center fridge..!!Then, after buying everything I don't really need, we got to the cabinets/bookshelf section...awesome! Selfservice! Heavy like a dinosaur! We pay, put the stuff in the car and drive back...knowing that there were many floors ahead of us! We mounted everything in 2 hours! At night, I was sad. Not only becuase Brooke Shield broke my heart with her speech at the Micheal Jackson memorial, but because, while crying (damn Brooke) I suddently realize that this red "Expedit" insert with door was the last piece of the "swedish experience"! I knew I should have bought a "Bygga" , a "Mula", a "MÅLA" or a "Pyssla" so I could have kept going playing the swedish life...at a low cost!

I started thinking about traditions under different aspects after reading a very interesting post named "Gone with the Wind". What are traditions and how do we/I perceive and live them? Beliefs, customs and practices, wanting it or not, affect our everyday. Festivals, food, sports, clothes, songs,and yes, even languages (as dialects) are part of us and of our (national) history. Our and the one we want to show to the world as a form of attraction, historical or merely touristic.
So, I started going with my mind in a journey through Swiss traditions. Let's set this thing straight right away: NO, we do not go around with bows and arrows and shoot apples on people's heads!
Switzerland is very fragmented. 26 states, 4 national languages, a miriad of different dialects, and many strange characters! Many traditions, some still alive, mostly culinary, others are kept alive by few, some are just alive and very weird, and believe me on this!!
One of the best is the winter food tradition. I guess every single swiss, during this period of the year enjoys eating either fondue or raclette. I adore them, especially the last one. It is almost a mandatory moment during the year. Winter isn't winter if you dont eat these cheese traditional dishes. I was so into this until I discovered I was allergic to diary. The swiss icon for excellence, the cow, became my enemy. The one that made me stop with a very important tradition. I seriously couldn't deal with this tragedy! So I discovered something new... my new friend...the goat (yes...0 lactose!!!)!

Now I understand whay Heidi hanged around with so many of them! Their cheeses are amazing!

That's when the new thought arrived: why not subjectivize traditions?? So, I started to participate to this dinners with my own cheese! Like those parties where you have to BYOD (Bring your own drinks) I had to BMOC (Bring my own cheese).

But this way this tradition is very alive in my life! So, if you can't fully adhere to a national tradition subjectivize it:
You can't participate to the traditional Unspunnenfest? Take your computer screen and throw it in your office! The screen is lighter and you can throw it further!
You can't play Hornussen? Take a fishing rod and attach a plate on the fish hook, and then place a tomato on your table...start turning like a psycho with your rod and it it...!!!
Traditions are a very good thing. Keep them alive!

Foam. Solid or void? Presence yet absence. Temporary yet permanent in its ephemeral state. Mental? Physical? Who can tell? Form and structure. And then, suddently de-formed and amorphed. Where are those 15 minutes Andy Warhol was talking about? Can they last more than that? Even for an entity such as foam? An hour, a week, a month or a lifetime? Foam and Fame. Susan Boyle and Ferran Adrià. One as the incarnation of the 15 minute of fame that are maybe lasting a little more. One as the creator of foamy sculptural artistic gastronomic foamy recipes. Your tv, your plate. Moments you sometimes wish were endless. Feelings, visual fullfillment, optical appreciation.

Not eternal. You wish you could contem-{plate}, admiring a creation that you ultimately destroy. By eating it. But you surely enjoy it. Even if it is for a fragment of time maybe even less than 15 minutes. Some things you wish would last more. But they are just foam.

What a wonderful weekend. Down by the lake, relaxing, reading, eating amazingly cooked (by me and my cousin) food and marvelous drinks. What can I say? It was simply a Super Duper Weekend! I shot some pictures (while taking a break from the couch (or from the terrasse!) to that, in a way, describe the emotional state of my mind during these 3 past days:

Very colorful indeed! And very humid!! It made me feel like after a session of color therapy!

Drinking Negroni watching the lake and some boats conquering liquid space was refreshing and filled me up with creative energy.

I now can't wait for the next weekend to come! Hopefully it will be SD!

Many other stuff were SD but one in particular is making me smile!!!

Switzerland Discovered a week later than the rest of the world one thing everybody is talking about!! The existence of Susan Boyle!! SD meets SB!

It's spring! A total new landscape finally appears. New colors, new fragrance new sounds. You get used to these changes every seasons. Winter with its unpredictable silence, summer and the funny noises of people enjoying barbecues in their gardens, autumn and its colorful death and yes, spring, with the birds singing in chorus, with the smell of fresh nature, with the psychotic sudden changes in the everyday climate. And spring, the season where everybody feel the need to become a gardener, of soil, of souls of anything that can positively grow. It happens to me every year. The sudden need to plant stuff and take care of them all the way into their life process. This year I started with a little corner in my balcony with aromatic herbs! Hey, if Michelle (Obama) can do it why can't we? Cool...oregano, basil, sage, marjoram, mint... So I am ready for every occasion! Mojito? Need sage? go in the balcony!!! Lebanese dish? Need mint? Out in the balcony!! I am so proud of my work in the green world. Hopefully it will stay green for a long time!!

What happens when you realize a friend doesn't interest you anymore?? What if you can't stand him any longer? Well, you simply start to ignore him. You do not answer his phone calls or answer his text messages. Yet, the probability that you can meet him in the street is very high. You start telling one of those tested lies you always carry around such "Oh really? I didn't hear the phone!" or "sorry, I lost my phone while gardening, it is probably now 6 feet underground!" or anything interesting that you can pick from your "save-me-list"!
The "I don't like you story" proceeds very annoyingly when he starts buying you things. For special events such as Christmas, birthday, saint Mother Teresa or watherver. And you specifically told him not to buy anything, and on top of everything...not to show up ininvited at your door! Well, this is the story. The last one (hopefully). He shows up at Christmas with a Panettone. For God sake...I am allergic to lactose! Which part of it you do not get???? Panettone is a freakin universe of butter! But I feel bad throwing it away so, I simply start ignoring the caloric mountain and just leave it there. Never paying attention to it. Til yesterday. Oh geeeeeez...I almost totally forgot about it!! My friend keeps calling me and I ignore him but, his panettone doesn't really bother me at all! Then, I opened the box and...I almost got into a shock! Whatever was it before was no longer there. A new product was there. New colors, new smell (yack!!). It looked like a completely new landscape. Nature, colors, rocks and stones...it actually looks more interesting! If someone eats it though...death will come very quicly!!! You see my point??? There are certain things that, ignoring them, transform them into a better state. While some friends, even totally ignoring them...remain the same pain in the ass.

As I said in the previous post, on the day followning my birthday I was invited to a dinner-pseudo-symbolic-party that took place in Busto Arsizio (Italy). The event was called "La Giöbia" and it happens every year the last thursday of january. It is a tradition of the region, during that particular day, to burn an ugly puppet. The rite is symbolic and propitiatory: you burn the negativity of the winter and all the bad things that happened in the previous one, auspicating a good year, if the bonfire has a good flame. The point of us going to italy was also another one. My dad has founded a culinary group almost 15 years age. All of the participant just go and eat strange stuff! Women are only allowed to participate once a year. They met with other similar groups on that night. We were almost 200 attending the dinner. The night was actually strange! Strange were also the members of the italian culinary groups. Rotary Club meets food!

The italian members were dressed like they really were at a propitiatory rite!

It all had the feeling of being some centuries ago!

Last day of work! I've decided to change my plans for celebrating Christmas. I wanted to go party around the city the 23rd and the 24th and celebrate Christmas day with my family. But I partied a lot during the past weekend and I am very tired (of partying too much!!!). So...24th with my extended family (cousins, oncles, aunts, and the more you have the more put it!!!). And 25th huge lunch at my parents! I am getting old! I can't party like I am still 20 years old!!!!

I believe that non-fully-planned dinners are usually the best ones! We decided to plan one just a couple of hours before! Apéritif, chicken with mushroom cream, roasted potatoes and obviously couple of bottles of good wine! Fun, Fun, Fun!!!

Ron Arad and Starbucks's Vanilla Donut! Just a delirious / delicious similarity! Form and taste vs. form and space!

I am drinking coffe and eating some dries bananas and I am already stressing out!! Right now, some thoughts are in my mind: I need to eat less since Christmas is coming and you all know how much you eat during those type of holidays. I'm organizing a dinner/party at my home this coming friday and the only things I know for sure are those related with the drinking part: good coctails (Americano, Negroni, Mojitos), amazing wine for the dinner (I will post the funky list as soon as I have it all planned out!), and the Passito for dessert. Obviously lots of water, but I have no problem since I do not have to drive afterwards. Anyway, the problem is what am I going to cook? Tired of pasta. But maybe homemade gnocchi will be great...but I am lazy! Roatbeef? Lamb?

I still have to go to our friends awesome farm to buy homemade icecream (no additives, no milk, biologic, super healthy). I was thinking about many other things for dessert but good icecream will do it! I found these german cookies in a store yesterday. They reminded me of my childhood and Christmas. It's funny sometimes how food takes you back in time through fantastic memories! Elisen-Lebkuchen. Stupidly, I didn't read what was in them, damn me! 3 ingredients out of 4 made me so sick I will never eat them again! But my friends love them, especially at 3 am with some grappa! So many things still to plan. I will have to concentrate and plan the night!

Still wondering if the famous chestnut cheese I bought saturday was more about taste or aesthetic formality! I took it with me through my daily readings! Maybe it is true...it is good, really good, but it is indeed more amazing to take picture of it! Especially when wandering in the food section of this italian magazine! Unfortunately (for me) it is gone now. Today, the only thing left is the chesnut leaf!

Another weekend is over! I've never appreciated the lake house as much as this year. Maybe because this year was different. Many things have happened and knowing the fact that having a house where I can escape to makes it a lot easier! Yes! I guess escaping from my city is what I do! But only during weekends!

During these days I am constanly searching for good things to eat and good things to see. Sometimes it happens that those things are just one: good things to eat that look amazingly interesting. Artistic culinary creations!

Since winter is almost here mostly all swiss people are happy because it is the time when we all have big dinners with friends eating fondue and, my favorite, raclette! But, I was so "lucky" to become allergic to diary products and it is quite tragic that I can't eat these winterly recipes anymore! Thank god there are goats and sheeps! I can eat cheese made with their milk without passing out! Even fondue and raclette! And, to tell you the truth, they are even better! Saturday I went in a popular italian store on the lake boardwalk and discovered an amazing cheese! Goat cheese covered with chestnut leaves! Very good and very beautiful to look at. But are the leaves just to make it look good or do they actually put a particular fragrance into it?

Photo: Lily Penelope. Sony Digital

I had a very funny weekend! Instead of going, as usual, to the lake for relaxation, I decided to giva a hand to some friends of mine in a little store (sort of a newsstand but with food and other stuff) they just bought. The old owner, I've realized that getting on location, didn't know about order and left the place in such a bad condition that, as entering the place I asked myself why was I there, since I could have been doing so many other things in clean places. But I gave my word! So we had to clean it up, take out all the mess, repaint it, they got new furniture and, Ikea is so great in this occasions so we had to build all of them. On saturday night I realized that I am no longer 20 years old as I was completely broken up, tired and cranky.

But then the best part of it came on sunday! With the place that seemed coming out form a design magazine! And there they were!

I had to take my camera and just shoot anything that was around!

Suddently was like being a teenager again! Damn...I ate so many of this stuff that isn't even funny!I love the smell of chemical strawberrys! And the feeling when they get stucked in your teeth that sometimes you feel you need a drill to take them out from your mouth! And my favorite of all...Chupa Chups lollipops! I think only Lieutenant Kojac loved them more then I do!

It was a magical "candy-scape"...but then it was over... I still had to take a broom and help to clean up!