Thanks, SV. I guess I should have googled it. I don't think I'll be trying it any time soon.

I have to honestly say that, IIRC, it really wasn't bad at all. A little sweet, and I remember the texture as being thicker than heavy cream, but not as heavy as oatmeal.

On Saturday my wife and I were contestants in a chili cook off at a local pub. I made a chili with beef and a little hot sausage that packed some heat. She made a white creamy chicken chili that she has made for years and is delicious and spicy. She took first place and I finished sixth.

There's no living with her now.

La cucina povera. Often translated as “the food of the poor,” the term seems unlikely to make mouths water or inspire serious foodies to blow their vacation budget on a cooking course.

But in and around the city of Lecce, deep in Italy’s heel, a crop of culinary schools and solo cooking teachers is encouraging travelers to embrace this traditionally marginalized food and to master the recipes of the extremely humble (and remarkably resourceful) local fare, which lies far at the other end of the culinary spectrum from haute cuisine.

Prepared with local produce, sundry leftovers and pastas, these unembellished peasant and working-class dishes are taking center stage.

“Over generations this human ingenuity began to take shape, so that really good things could be made from the humblest ingredients,” said Mr. Silvestori, an Italian-American from Michigan whose grandmother hailed from Lecce. “I’d liken ‘la cucina povera’ to ‘soul food,’ as the genesis for both was the profound necessity of the neglected and subjugated.”

I was out shopping and we stopped at Dunkin Donuts for coffee. I tried one of their pumpkin pie donuts. I was leery at first, and I rarely eat that stuff to begin with. I'd rather have a nice Italian cookie, like a biscotti or a pignoli cookie.

But I have to say, it was DELICIOUS. It's almost like a glazed donut without the hole, filled with cream and topped off with pumpkin pie crumbs. Next time you're in a Dunkin Donuts give it a try .

Oh my, I haven't had panettone French toast in a looong time.

Mark that's what we get for being Italian. We cannot say NO. I don't understand people who eat to live. I'm a FOODIE I live to eat. Now we are going to have to work out longer and harder but hey GOOD food is worth it.

I'm all out of panettone...bummer.

All I can hear is that Air Supply song; "I'm all out of Panettone, what am I without you?.."

so true that's how I feel plus NO GIANT game here so I'm a little bit pissed off

When you say you are always hungry. All I can hear are the old Italian ladies saying THAT Mark he sure is a GOOD eater. Such a WONDERFUL boy...

Double espresso, biscotti, a broadsheet newspaper, a gentle summer breeze and all the pretty girls walking by in their summer clothes.

Yeah and my grandma saying; "Eat something... you'll feel better!"