The Good Days Are Here: Let's EAT

Mangia bene, ridi spesso, ama molto.

There is something about cooking and food that just brings us together and makes us happy. I'm dedicating this post about making new friends over food and using what you have already to be creative in the kitchen. Even when you are not feeling it.

It took me about 1 month of being here before I met James Simonelli.

He's my friend and he's an amazing cook. James is a husband to his beautiful wife, Charlotte, a busy dad of adorable Kindergarten twins, Michael (who's in my daughter Mila's class) and Caroline and also an expat, like us. He moved here from New Jersey. Which made it the first reason I knew I was going to like him. Then, I learned that he was 100% Italian...from all "4 sides". At this point I knew this guy could probably work his way around la cucina.

Aside from keeping super busy co-managing the home-front with Charlotte, he apparently is now running half marathons and oh, also just started his own Italian / American / Fusion cooking courses which he leads from his home. Ask me what I did today? (I'm shrugging my shoulders)

Well, I signed up for three of his classes with 5-6 other people.

1) Fast, Fresh and Easy
2) Breads, Pizza and Pasta
3) Desserts

As it turns out, this guy does know his way around the kitchen and has a passion for food that is equal to how important it is to love your kids. To James, why wouldn't we care about what we put into our bodies? Why shouldn't it be fun? We all must source, create and feed. Make it fun and beautiful. It is a representation of who we are and what we stand for.

Here are a few reasons why I really dig his philosophy around cooking:

- It's personal.

- It's inspiring. I think it's always great to see what other people love and do well. It gives us inspiration and ideas to incorporate new things into our lives!

- He believes that if you invest your time / money / energy to buy only the best of ingredients, it's really difficult to mess it up.

- He learned from his family. I should mention that I met his Aunt Claudia recently. She visited the NL for a couple of weeks and I got to talk to her quite a bit on the playground. I kept thinking to myself that she reminds me of an aunt, a cousin, a teacher...someone that I know. She's a cool lady. Turns out, she's from the great state of Michigan. I knew she was great peeps. ; )

- He taught me how to really use my leftover stuff to make a great meal.

The last point made me think more about the way I always seem to cook. I am in a food rut. We all have a style, don't we? I love food and I do love to cook, but I realized that I would make a great list of a few things I wanted to make in a week. Maybe I got my inspiration from a blog, a friend, my mom, a magazine, one of my recipe books or it was one of my 10 stand-bys. I would turn up the music, feel all Giada, Ina, Martha, Nigella. I would pour a glass of vino, make my creation, eat with my family and feel all satisfied.

Then, the next day would be a sad mess in the fridge of what ended up being a bunch of left over chicken breasts, half-gingers, limes...maybe 1 red pepper. Anyway, I'm not proud of it, but I have always been horrible and looking within the fridge for leftover inspiration. Don't get me wrong, we eat leftovers ALL the time, but usually it's literal left overs. The exact.same.thing we ate last night, warmed up and served on a plate (usually with less music, Giada-ness and vino). It was passé, it was yesterday. Daaahhhling, it distracts from the NOW.

But seriously, all it took for me was this one Fast, Fresh and Easy class with James and it was such a wonderful reminder that I could throw some quinoa or rice with those lazy, last-meal chicken, lime, ginger ingredients in the fridge, splash on some soy sauce and I had a great, fresh and easy meal. Day 2.

It doesn't have to be all day cooking to be good. And friendships don't always have to be life long to be genuine.

Thanks James.

Now, look at these!