How to Picnic with Strawberries, Coffee and Your Pup

Happy Memorial Day with My first Watermelon of the Season

A Happy Memorial Day weekend.. Does this mean summer is finally here? It must be summer, I got to purchase my first baby watermelon yesterday and plan on eating the whole thing  myself!!
I can’t  think of a more refreshing way to spend a warm summer style day..besides it reminds me of my summers spent in the mountains of Abruzzo..eating lunch on the terrazzo and reveling in the beautiful Italian sun and peaceful quiet while being cooled down by  munching on a  slice of   sweet watermelon..

Fresh Strawberry Dessert
But for those of you that don’t  want to eat a whole watermelon or would appreciate another type of fruit..try my second favorite summer time dessert fresh strawberries with lemon.
Fragole con Limone
1 pound of fresh strawberries
1 fresh lemon
1/4 cup sugar
handful of fresh mint leaves
Wash and quarter strawberries. Squeeze juice of one lemon on top, sprinkle sugar and toss gently. let marinade in refrigerator for 2 hours. Serve  chilled garnished with fresh mint leaves.
Enjoy!

A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy? Albert Einstein

A Thank You for this Month and More to Come…

A THANK YOU and COOL COFFEE BOOK too!

As a small gift to THANK YOU for being a HUGE part of what I do, like and or share the episodes from the month of May #THEMARIALIBERATISHOW on social media and you will be entered in a giveaway to win the book The Basic Art of Coffee

Picnics and Memorial Day just around the corner…time for a cool coffee drink from The Basic Art of …Coffee.

***make this drink..share and like it #TheMariaLiberatiShow to be netered in this month;s giveaway of the book The Basic Art of..Coffee

2 cups strong espresso coffee
4 teaspoons of sugar
2 cups chopped ice
1 tsp of anisette or amaretto liqueur
1/2 cup milk
 
Blend all ingredients in a blender and divide into 2 tall chilled glasses.

Memorial Day Risotto for your Pup

SO..my precious rescue pup and I are spending our Memorial Day together… Sweetie Bear (the name came from my 6 yr old  niece, Sofia Liberati, who said that the pup looks like a tiny black bear)..she is a welcome guest to our family picnic and of course she deserves something special cooked for her so here is a recipe I created for Sweetie Bear..a special risotto that can be served chilled. iYou can easily place in a container to take with you on a picnic. However, you can also mix this with a high quality dry food.
Sweetie Bear’s Risotto with Chicken
1/4 pound cooked chopped chicken meat (Boil the meat, then chop into small pieces)
1 fresh zucchini  cut in small pieces, boiled till soft
1/2 cup rice cooked till tender
Cut chicken meat into small pieces. Drain zucchini and in small bowl mix  chicken with cooked rice and zucchini. Let cool and serve. This makes more than one serving depending on the size/age  of your dog.
This recipe is meant for dogs and if they are used to dry kibble… serve it alongside the kibble or with it, depending on how your pup likes it. My fur baby is a real foodie and has sets her own preferences. She likes her dry kibble served on its own separate plate, but each pup. just like people has their own preference.

Words Can Not Express How Grateful I am to have you as a subscriber/reader/follower..Thanks for being here!

In conclusion.. I hope you get to check out the other books in my award winning book series The Basic Art of Italian Cooking..this one is my favorite but let me know which recipes. stories you can relate to, everyone has a favorite and every recipes tells a story!

 See you at my next segment of The Maria Liberati Show Podcast at https://anchor.fm/marialiberati and anywhere podcasts are heard!