the good life

In the book i'm reading, a chapter is called, "All respects to heaven, I like it here." I read this and nodded my head slowly. I understand.

This chapter title rang true for me because the things I do with utmost casualness these days, with total nonchalance, are in actuality feats of supreme excellence that deserve their own parade. For example, my day in the kitchen the other day was fulfilling, eventful, busy. I could have gone home, read a book, gone to bed, and been quite content. But, upon returning home, a housemate decided to oh so casually take out a fantastic piece of cheese that she bought from the artisan cheese-maker we visited near the adriatic sea last week, and she took out some fresh green figs, and all of a sudden we were in the lap of luxury, eating a cheese that is both fantastic and utterly unique in this world with some of the most beautiful green figs i've ever seen.

And all of this made me think about the moment during my family's Passover celebration when we sing Dayenu. The word Dayenu literally means, "it would have sufficed." It's a song of thankfulness and humility, where great accomplishments are listed and after each accomplishment the whole table says, "dayenu!" And in my head i'm thinking, I get to go to cooking school - Dayenu. I have good friends and we feed each other using fresh local produce - Dayenu. We play soccer against the italian chefs, and even though we don't win, we play well and we don't lose by too much - Dayenu. And I could go on and on.

More examples - yesterday, after a long day of class, I ended up going out with friends for a quick snack of local Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and local red wine. Why not, right? Then, we had a soccer game to play. After the game, back at the house, food was being cooked in honor of the Greek world cup team (which lost, but who cares). A fellow cook of Greek heritage grilled kebabs and served them with flat bread, homemade yogurt sauce, and a lovely salad. And, because yesterday was a holiday (the festa di san giovanni, I will explain more in a moment) we ultimately ended up leaving the house and heading into the middle of our tiny town in the middle of the night, where a party was happening. Although the party was not very exciting, the moon was out, and riding my bike for a few minutes into town felt very good after eating all that kebab.

The festa di san giovanni is a holiday that get's celebrated by eating tortelli with ricotta and fresh herb filling. There's some religious reason why this holiday exists, but i'm not sure exactly what it is, something about six months before Jesus was born. In any event, literally every restaurant in town had signs advertising their tortelli, and we even made a batch in class as it's considered good luck to do so. apparently, every family has their own slightly different recipe, and there is always great debate about whose tortelli are the absolute best. secret ingredients for the filling may include some combination of nutmeg, marjoram, tarragon, parmesan, marscapone, and who knows what else. I actually didn't end up eating any tortelli on this day, but I made some and froze them, so hopefully that's good enough.