Sharing my life call and an Italian tarte

Some time ago my dear friend Sumaya of Pukka Paki asked me to write an introductory piece for her other food-platform Food Niche Collective. What came out is quite an explanatory piece about my newly-found life call that I would like to share with you all.
Let's all jump to the Food Niche Collective blog then.

A gingery beef stir-fry and the lovely Sciacca

This time a new month means also a new year. I am still on holiday mode and probably not ready yet to commit the year past to paper. Quite frequently my thoughts need a noticeable amount of time to crystallize into a concrete expression of words and metaphoric images. It will come the time when my ode to 2012 will be ready for publishing but for the moment it is Secret Recipe Club time (not without a brief account of my holidays so far)!

The past two weeks have been quite unusual for me and my family; spending the holidays far from home but still in a home with a family, a large family not yet formally ours, have made these festivities something to remember.

Comforting Italian Trifle

Comfort.

What is comfort to our eyes? The feeling of home? A completely relaxed body? Or conversely a hyperactive session of our favorite sport? A visit to a museum can be comforting to many, but just because we stand still for hours in front of a magnificent piece of art it doesn't mean that our mind isn't going 100 miles an hour.

Generally we tend to associate the word comfort with something soft, fluffy, enveloping and translating this abstract and deep feeling into food is quite an interesting endeavor.
Certain ingredients can, by themselves, elicit such an emotional response so much so that we may find ourselves savoring luscious sour cream by the spoonful directly from the tub in these deep moments of need. The texture of fatty rich food makes us melt into expressions of pure enjoyment, probably an instinctual response to the fact that we are well provided for the cold season.

My Magic Wintery Gazpacho Chez Fahad's

It has been quite some time since I had guest posted for a friend and this time I am very happy to be hosted at Fahad's land of delicious treats SimplyFahad-istic.

When he approached me asking to guest post, he mentioned that it would be for his "Liquid Friday" series. As the title says, this series concentrates on drinks and this is a first for me. My original idea was that of using the Vitamix blender I had won at "Food Blogger Connect" back in September and create something around almonds. One of my culinary dream project is that of perfecting home-made almond milk and the Vitamix seemed like the most perfect kitchen appliance to help me; but what do you know, I still haven't received my blender....

Destiny wants that, for one of my sessions at FBC12, I had created a Wintery Gazpacho to show a special technique of clarification. Normally gazpacho is a soup item but thanks to this technique it can be now promoted to the category of drinks (and cocktails) furthermore I bet it would be a great addition to your Thanksgiving table!

Without further ado, let's head to Fahad's to fetch a cup of my Wintery Gazpacho.