The Leopard Tavern - What's Cookin'? Arancini anyone? Chefs - Any good arancini recipes?

In Malice Stalks the Leopard, we have Ysabella making arancini for everyone.  It's one of Amodeus's favorites.  What is arancini?  I'm asking any chefs to care to contribute their recipes or to explain their ingredients.  When I lived in Palermo and was doing archival research, I ate a lot of arancini.  Yummy!!!!

Tomatoes - Yes We Have no Tomatoes in 13th century Sicily

Many people might be surprised to know that tomatoes are a New World product.  The Spanish brought tomatoes back from Mexico.   Tannehill's Food in History states that two Jesuit priests brought the red tomato, now beloved in southern Italy and Sicily and which we associate with Italian cooking, back from America.

Quiz:  Is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

Book #2 of the Vespers Trilogy - Malice Stalks the Leopard

Malice Stalks the Leopard is out on Amazon as both an e-book and a paperback.  Feel free to go to Amazon.com and check out both Murder at the Leopard (Book #1) and Malice Stalks the Leopard (Book #2).  Book #3 is being written as we speak!

Don't hesitate either - if you've read either or both - to leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads!

Thanks Bobbie and Jim!!!!!

some favorite pictures - mosaics, architecture, medieval buildings

These are some of my favorite pictures of Sicily and Palermo

12th century art - Norman and Islamic architecture in Sicily

3  I found this on the Medieval Academy of America blog - there are so many beautiful pictures of medieval Sicily but I thought I'd start with this one -  I don't know who wrote it but here it is, it looks to me like Monreale, which is stunning - check it out online

Norman Architecture in Sicily

A very dear friend of mine has moved to Sicily for a spell. The pictures she has been sharing are phenomenal. Since I can't join her, I thought it a good excuse to rummage through my knowledge of Norman art and architecture in Sicily...which I know a surprising amount about, because my medieval professor in graduate school has published on the topic, and taught us an entire seminar's worth of 12th century architecture...
Part of what I find most fascinating about 12th century Norman art and architecture in Sicily is the mixture of Norman Romanesque, native Italian materials, and Islamic influences...see where you can spot them in this smattering of art from that period:

Cloister, Monreale Cathedral: view from the southwest, showing sculpted capitals of north side, ca. 1175-118. Monreale, Sicily

A Mediterranean diet - 13th century tavern food and munchies - did they get their veggies and greens?

Many people have this vision of a big, Henry VIII-type person gnawing on some roasted animal leg and flinging it behind him.  And that's their idea of medieval food.  Actually, he's almost 300 years later and if you want to think medieval Sicily - think something very familiar - Mediterranean! 

Murder at the Leopard talks about a lot of the food Ysabella and Larissa prepare - but the characters are always snacking on - guess what - olives, cheese, bread, fruit.  But also salads were very popular, with all the usual veggies - radishes, cukes, melons and squash, fruits of all kinds, lemons, oranges and lines, lettuces, onions, garlic, apricots, almonds, pomegranates figs, pears, apples and prunes.  Grapes of course both for themselves and for wine!  Nuts, legumes - the list is endless.

Daily Bread: Medieval and Italian

It's time to start talking about food.  Check out the food and recipe page on your right. 

My first recipe is Gingerbread Biscotti.  Easy and delisioso for many occasions!  Feel free to share and send me your Biscotti recipes.