Lorna discovered this gem at the Mo Bay Grill, a Jamaican restaurant in Sebastian Florida. We were on a little one-week vacation during a lull in the Covid period, and we took the opportunity to visit her cousin Billy and his wife Judy.

I can find very little history about it. It's along the lines of a Bellini, fruity with sparkle, but it's pretty, refreshing, and not too alcoholic.

The restaurant menu description says strawberry juice but the online recipes say strawberry liqueur. Lorna's seemed to have strawberry juice, and I think that worked just fine. To be honest, I've never seen a strawberry liqueur worth drinking. I used strawberry juice in the recipe here; to make it, puree some strawberries and then squeeze them out through cheesecloth. You don't need a lot of it, and it's OK if it's a little pulpy.

These clove-studded Cipolle di Napoli made a great side dish for the Pork Roast in the Florentine Style. I expect they'd be good with any pork or poultry dish that's not too highly seasoned.

A funny thing happened: as the onions cooked and the water inside them expanded, the innermost part of the onions got squeezed out! You can see them in the photo, above the front left-hand onion like bunny ears and to the right of the front onion like a jaunty beret! The next time I make this, I will try cutting an X in the top of each onion to see if that helps.

This is a tasty summertime dish for hot weather. The scapece part of the name derives from the Spanish escaveiche and ceviche (raw fish marinated in vinegar) but the Neapolitans use it to describe many things dressed with vinegar.

This takes a long time, but it's not a time-consuming dish. You need to allow time for the cut zucchini to dry in the sun, and afterward more time for the vinegar to settle in and mellow. Drying the zucchini helps it to cook up crunchy rather than mushy, so it stands up better to the vinegar.

Note that this recipe is not an agrodolce; there is no sugar. 

Here's a delicious mushroom soup with Italian sensibilities applied to an Austrian ancestor, from Trentino-Alto Adige in the Italian Alps on the Austrian border.

Mushrooms are an important part of Alpine cooking and northern Italian cuisine in general. Note that this includes an opening saute in butter instead of olive oil seen further south.

This soup represented that alpine region in our Northern Italy all-star feast.

I'm not excited by this one. I wonder how something so simple got such a long name?

Well, Melanie Belshee did the research at her very good Alcohol Infusions blog and it seems to be named for a fellow with a deep connection to the bar where it was developed. 

The best I can say about this is that it's a fairly light summer refresher. I made it with an ordinary Highland Scotch and Martini & Rossi Dry Vermouth; a more robust Scotch or a less assertive vermouth might have had better results. 

This is a delicious cool-weather dish to accompany a rich meat dish, or just on its own. It's a classic accompaniment to roast goose, and it's fine with roast turkey, too, especially for a holiday table!

You can get perfectly good chestnuts in a jar, so there is no need to go through the tedious and finger-tearing process of peeling whole chestnuts. 

This Lombard classic is beef or veal shank slow-cooked until meltingly tender, and then served with a savory sauce and a contrasting zippy lemon gremolata. It is traditionally served with the beautiful golden Risotto Milanese.

Here's a flavorful treat for St Patrick's Day or any other day that you're feeling Irish!

In WWI, "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" was a popular song among Irish soldiers on the front lines far from home. The story is that a man walked into a bar one night, humming that tune. The patrons suggested that the bartender invent a cocktail to honor the tune and the men who sang it so long ago. 

What he came up with is definitely a mix of Irish Whiskey, Sweet Vermouth, and Green Chartreuse with bitters, but recipes vary. Chartreuse has a very strong, bittersweet flavor, and it can easily overpower the other components. The Mr. Boston Official Bartender's Guide has it as equal parts like a Negroni, but other sources vary the proportions. I have tried it the Mr. Boston way, and more like a Boulevardier with two parts Irish to one each of the others, but the one I like best is recorded here. This one is more like a Manhattan Cocktail, with the Chartreuse much diminished but still very present. 

This is a classic Florentine pork roast of Tuscany, Arista alla Fiorentina. Like much Tuscan food, it has few ingredients so they must be of top quality. 

In this case, it's just a pork loin roasted with rosemary, garlic, and black pepper, and a couple of whole cloves just to get wacky, in a Tuscan sense. 

This is a totally succulent and aromatic piece of meat that is wonderful fresh from the oven, but it is also good (and frequently) served cold in a picnic or other al fresco setting. I know that because I read it, but also because that's how I ate the leftovers with a little mostarda...there was no need to reheat them.

This is a simple vegetarian dish. According to the Accademia Italiana della Cucina, it's "typical of Caserta", a humdrum little town northeast of Naples with an immense and fabulous palace and gardens. I don't know why this simple dish has such specific roots, but there you have it. It's delicious in any event.

We visited Caserta in 2015 to see the royal palace of the Bourbon kings, and I recommend it! 

"Our trust is in God, and our Lady, and Rory O' More."

Rory O'More was an Irish nobleman of an ancient lineage ruined by the British Crown, and one of four leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1641. He was a dashing figure known for his wit, cleverness, and compassion, and he became wildly popular among the Irish laboring and dying under the British imperial yoke. A generation after the rebellion, Oliver Cromwell attempted to destroy the Irish people and killed (by some estimates) a third of them. Almost two centuries (and some more rebellions) later, the Great Hunger saw the loss of a third again. Then came hard-won independence... By the time of the Golden Age of the Cocktail, is it any wonder that the many Irish descendants in America would name a cocktail after this hero?

This is essentially a Manhattan Cocktail made with Irish Whiskey and orange bitters. I like it with Powers Gold and Dolin vermouth.

This Spezzatino di Coda di Manzo is a recipe from the northeastern Italian Alps. It includes typical mountain seasoning like juniper berries and bay leaves. This is not the iconic oxtail stew from the area of Rome/Lazio, called Coda alla Vaccinara, which has tomatoes and batons of celery in it. 

Oxtail has a lot of collagen, so slow cooking develops it into a rich, delicious stew full of umami goodness. Leftovers make a great sauce for pasta.