Thursday

January 29th, 2010 Kristi Leave a comment Go to comments

 

navy tee (Gap) -- black merino wool sweater (Casual Corner, thrifted) -- Levis -- black boots (Liz Claiborne, thrifted) -- silver hoops, silver necklace

Menu:
Breakfast: slice of homemade bread toasted with butter: cafe au lait

snack :( Oatmeal cookie. Pardon my tangent for a moment: I am trying to get back to my “no snacking” mindset. I snack every morning this winter. It is partly because I am working at home and sitting at the computer it is easy to go mindlessly grab a snack and partly winter doldrums. I need to get back to no snacking. Even though I’m not gaining weight from it. I still have a few extra pounds that make some of my clothes not fit as well and have made some not fit at all!

Lunch: leftover pasta from last night.*
Dinner: Chicken cutlets breaded in cornmeal and fried, frozen corn heated, green salad, wine

* I made penne pasta with asparagus in a creamy sauce. I basically cut up the asparagus in 1 inch spears, put it into the pasta water for the last 4 minutes then drained and mixed with 4 tbl butter, 1 cup heavy cream, a pinch of cinnamon and 1 cup fresh grated parm. had a green salad and wine with it

Movies/TV

Now that I’m done watching the Battlestar Galactica series on Netflix, I’ve begun watching an HBO series called Rome. My friend from Verona, Italy, recommended this about a year ago. I am on the third disc and it is just starting to get really interesting because Caesar just met Cleopatra. I used to be obssessed with Cleopatra and read everything I could about her, including fiction stories based on her life.

Also, I don’t admit this to many people I know, but I am a sucker for The Bachelor series and watch that every Monday. Other than that and watching moview, I don’t watch any TV. I’m too interested in reading all the good books near my nightstand. Oh, I do occasionally watch the BBC news in the mornings.

Categories: Mangia! Mangia!, Recipes, Style Tags:
  1. Tine
    January 29th, 2010 at 10:19 | #1
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    I know this is very strange, but every time I open up your site it the printer option pops up. Have you heard of this happening to anyone else?

  2. Kristi
    January 29th, 2010 at 11:36 | #2
    Reply | Quote

    Tine,
    No. Strange.

  3. Anne Marie
    January 29th, 2010 at 12:24 | #3
    Reply | Quote

    Hi – it did to me the other day – but not today??

  4. Kristi
    January 29th, 2010 at 14:58 | #4
    Reply | Quote

    Anne Marie and Tine,
    Thanks for bringing this to my attention, my super smart computer whiz brother just fixed it for me. Apparently, when I copied the Ask Men article on older women I copied some code that affected my site. Who knew?
    K

  5. Beth G
    January 29th, 2010 at 16:20 | #5
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    This is why I like it when you post your menus! I’m totally stealing your penne pasta with asparagus recipe, since I currently have most of the ingredients in the house and only need cream. And wine. But that goes without saying!

  6. Stephanie
    January 29th, 2010 at 21:06 | #6
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    Rome was a great series. You will love it. I wish it would come back.

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What is it about those Italian women? You know the ones I’m talking about: beautiful, sexy, dressed to the nines just to take the kids to the park. They have a certain something that is indefinable. It is in the way they dress, the way they prepare their meals, the way they spend their leisure time.

It is because they know the importance of la bella figura. Roughly translated from Italian, it means putting you best foot forward in everything you do. It means cutting a beautiful figura. The opposite of la bella figura is la brutta figura, which is what someone might say about the falling down drunken guy at the party or the super tackily dressed woman at church. It means ugly figure.

La bella figura is much more than your appearance. It goes much deeper than that. It is about how you act. It is about how you treat others. It is about how you care for yourself, your home and your family. Living a life in line with la bella figura doesn’t take money. In fact, it is more about how to have class without a lot of money.

Someone who exudes la bella figura will have clean, pressed clothes and be well groomed. They will not be rude or sloppy. Their fingernails will be impeccably groomed. Their hair shiny and clean and their shoes will be polished. They will not have stray threads hanging from their suit hems. They will not be driving a car in need of the car wash.

La bella figura means driving that 15 year old car and meticulously cleaning it and caring for it. It means keeping your belongings in good repair. It means taking time to clean your house and not cluttering it up with meaningless objects.

When you focus all your spare energy, time and money on the things that bring you the most amount of pleasure, then you are truly living a life in line with la bella figura. The best part about it is that you don’t have to be Italian to do so. You just have to think like an Italian.

Italian children are raised to present la bella figura in whatever they do. From the time they are small and are groomed perfectly to attend church or school, they know that appearances count. They count because it is the first thing people judge about you. That first impression does matter. Appearances are also important because when you take the time to look nice, you are showing that you care about yourself. When you care enough to look good, it shows you have good healthy self esteem. Nothing is more attractive than self confidence.

In addition, dressing nice also shows respect for others. If you invite people over for dinner and greet them in flip flops, baggy sweats and a stained shirt, it is really disrespectful to them. The same if you dress sloppy to go to church or even to the market. By dressing nicely and being well groomed, you show respect for everyone in your world.

Having la bella figura means presenting yourself in the best light possible in all your interactions.