Arrrgh!!!

I've been reading "Under the Tuscan Sun" this summer. I pick it up now and then and read a few chapters, then set it down to work a bit more. I keep coming back to it, and it's rare for me to read a book this way.

I've been delighted with Frances Mayes commentary on the rennovation of a house in Tuscany and how they came to adopt the Tuscan attitudes about food. Toward the end of the book she writes about the background of Tuscan cuisine. She suggests that la cucina provera (the poor kitchen) where leftovers were used up, and there was little extra in the way of ingredients, is the basis for much of the Tuscan cuisine in our more abundant times. The Tuscan cook makes use of what's at hand, grapes, olives, oil pressed from your own olives, beans, mushrooms, mint and salad burnet. The cuisine is hearty, generally peasant in heritage, and revolves around bread, and pasta. Now I know where bread salad must have been created.

If for nothing else, get this book and read the recipes she shares.

There was one other line that caught my attention. Mayes wrote that she had heard that our bodies have the same proportion of minerals that the earth has. Supposedly, the percentage of zinc and potassium in our bodies is the same as those found in the earth. This led her to wonder if we have an innate need to emulate the earth's push toward rebirth.

When I was younger, I would have said this was just coincidence, but now I believe that even the smallest details around us are part of a greater plan.

If you haven't read this book, do. Even if you go to see the movie, read the book. And, when you decide to try the recipes......call me! I'll bring the wine.