I could keep sharing with you non stop, but should probably schedule a couple of days of the week, and a time during those days, when I will publish my new posts, so that you can come and visit. It has been suggested that I publish on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, eastern time.

There is so much I want to share. I should start with giving you an idea of where I come from, and how recollections of my childhood have partially inspired me to write for children, about children.

Growing up in Italy, I had the fortune of spending long summers in the country side. To escape the torrid heat of the city, our mother would take us to visit grandmother; from Florence, we would move to the much cooler, small village in Tuscany where our nonna resided.

It is in the country side that I learned that a delicious snack doesn’t have to cost much at all, or be tremendously complicated to make. During those beautifully carefree summers, I witnessed the making of some of the most mouthwatering food I have ever tasted! Everything was made from scratch, with the natural ingredients provided by nonna’s garden, orchard, hen-house, sheepfold or pigpen.

Some of the most humble, rustic dishes, over the years and with many influences from our shrinking world, have become more sophisticated, and quite costly in Italian restaurants around the planet. The original, ancient versions, teach us that a snack or meal, does not need any added frills to be delicious, healthy, and cheap!

Today I will recall the festive gatherings we enjoyed every year for the ‘fett’unta’, a mouthwatering treat made with the deliciously tasty oil from the olives’ first pressing.

In the fall, olives are harvested, then brought to the mill, were a big stone wheel grinds them. The olives’ first squeeze is cause for celebration at the mill; farmers and their neighbors gather around big rustic tables to taste, for the first time, the thick, spicy, green liquid; one of the many nature’s bounties for which Tuscany is famous.

Thick slices of country bread are grilled over embers. Cloves of garlic are then rubbed over the warm bread, where the new oil is poured and spread, for the delight of all participants to the feast!

It is still possible to enjoy a delicious fett’unta, even if not at an old mill in the Tuscan country side!

What we need is:

good bread, best if it is country style

pealed garlic cloves

virgin olive oil, tastier if it is cold pressed

salt to taste

What to do:

Cut the bread in slices of about three eights of an inch

Grill (best) or toast the bread

Rub the garlic, pour and spread the oil over the slices, add salt as you wish

ENJOY one of nature’s simplest, most delicious gifts.