It started about two weeks ago when I first arrived to my home town and my neighbor stated that she was having a christening for one of her children and had no idea what to do for food. Ding, light went on… “We can help you!” “We”, as in my mother and I. Majority of my cooking techniques and recipes have been inspired by my mother and grandmother. So what did “we” decide on? Fresh Italian bread, home-made tomato sauce with Italian sausage, and huge calzone. We incorporated many traditional Italian items along with a snap shot of healthy foods such fresh salad and veggie plate. It was a hit!

After the neighbors heard of the event they got excited! I took on the responsibility to make some hors d’œuvres for the “wine and cheese night” as I like to call it, rather “ladies night” down the block. What did I do? Got inventive! I had to do a dessert with chocolate and of course something healthy. I went for chicken kabobs and dessert pizza topped with Nutella and Mascarpone. Amazing!

How did I do it?

1)      Made fresh Pizza dough, added a little bit of ground flax and olive oil for texture.

2)      Rolled out the dough onto my pizza pan. I like to put a bit of corn meal underneath the dough, helps it to bake evenly.

3)      I made a cheese mix of Mascarpone, cream cheese, sour cream and maybe a tablespoon of powdered sugar for sweetness.

4)     Evenly spread the mixture on the dough.

5)      The next layer of flavor was the Nutella. Very important that this is room temperature and easy to spread, you could even heat it up in a sauce pan prior to adding it to the pizza (do NOT microwave it, this causes separation of the Nutella).

6)      After that I sliced up some fresh strawberries and layered them on the pizza.

7)      Baking at a higher temperature, for less time may be optimal for this pizza, depending on the thickness of the dough. There is a high sugar content on the pizza, and the fact it has fresh fruit caramelizes very quickly, and dries out if it bakes for too long. Watch the pizza until it is crisp, cool and serve.

* I placed cards listing the ingredients next to the items I made. This is for individuals with food preference or food allergies.

So what next? After that little shenanigan one of the friends at the party asked if I would cater her son’s graduation party in June! Wow what a hit, I guess business really is about word of mouth. That’s it, I am starting a catering business with a nutritious twist. Ci vediamo!

World Pneumonia Day could have been more aptly called “Childhood Pneumonia Day.” While it’s uncommon for children in the US to die from pneumonia — a lung infection caused by any number of bacteria, viruses and fungi – the same can’t be said for other parts of the world.

So, the World Health Organization created World Pneumonia Day to increase awareness of the deadly respiratory infection.  

Pneumonia is the single greatest cause of death among children.  The worldwide numbers of fatalities for children under the age of 5 are in the millions each year.  Even when combined, the number of deaths from tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS still don’t match the devastatingly high numbers of the deadly childhood pneumonia.

The connection between pneumonia and young children, particularly children living in under developed countries, is smoky air from inefficient heat sources like indoor charcoal or wood stoves. World health officials have confidence that if these sources of heat could be replaced with more efficient heaters and cook stoves, childhood pneumonia would be brought under control.

One organization attempting to help bring about cleaner sources of heat in the developing world is The Global Alliance For Clean Cookstoves. The three-fold key to reducing the occurrence of childhood pneumonia, according to the World Health Organization, is to eliminate smoky indoor air, increase vaccinations among young children and improve pneumonia treatment options in under developed countries. Antibiotics is an effective treatment, but estimates are that only 30 percent of infected children receive the medicine.

Julia Roberts spokesperson for Global Alliance

Actress Julia Roberts is the “global ambassador” for the Alliance.

In a prepared statement for the organization, she said, “The deployment of clean cookstoves and fuels can significantly reduce worldwide childhood death from pneumonia.  Combined with our partners’ global efforts to encourage vaccinations and increase basic health and wellness education, the Alliance is playing an important role in reducing pneumonia and other preventable deaths among the world’s most vulnerable people.”

May:

• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (May 1) – Hugh Jackman
• Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (May 1) – Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner
• Star Trek (May 8)
• Little Ashes (May 8) – Robert Pattinson non Harry Potter, non Twilight film
• Angels and Demons (April 15) – the prequel to The DaVinici Code, Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor
• Terminator: Salvation (May 21) – not Arnold

June:

• Downloading Nancy (June 5) – Maria Bello
• Taking of Pelham 123 (June 12) – John Travolta and Denzel Washington
• The Proposal (June 19) – Sandra Bullock
• My Sister’s Keeper (June 26) – Cameron Diaz, based on amazing book
• Cheri (June 26) – Michelle Pfeiffer
• Fireflies in the Garden (June 26) – Julia Roberts

July:

• Public Enemies (July 1) – Johnny Depp
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (July 15)
• The Ugly Truth (July 24) – Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl

August:

• Julia and Julia (Aug 7) – Meryl Streep and Amy Adams
• The Time Traveler’s Wife (Aug 14) – based on the amazing book
• Inglorious Bastards (Aug 21) – Brad Pitt
• H2 (Aug 28) – sequel to Rob Zombie’s Halloween

There are many more to look for and sure to be some thing to satisfy everyone.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula
This one has been sitting on my shelf for years and I finally managed to sit down and watch it. After reading the book last year, it was good to watch the film as well. It’s pretty self explanatory. Francis Ford Coppola directed the 1992 film with Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder, about the infamous Count Dracula who seduces his visitor’s fiance and create chaos. It would be interesting to see how they would create Dracula now. Gary Oldman stars as Dracula and Anthony Hopkins also stars. It’s worth watching if only for the amazing cast and story.

Firehouse
A 1973 film I watched only because it was supposed to be one of Julia Robert’s first films … and yet I don’t even remember seeing her on screen. Unless you want to try and play Where’s Julia? I don’t think this film was really worth it.

Flashdance
Who doesn’t know about Flashdance, the female version of Footloose? And it’s taken me this long to actually watch it for the first time ever. Not a bad film. Tells the story of a girl who spends all her spare time dancing and dreams of doing it professionally one day but fears failure. Cute movie. I think everyone should at least try it once.

Mad Max
After much pushing and gasps from people who thought it was a tragedy I hadn’t watch the Mad Max series yet, I finally sat down to start. It was a very quick movie about a highway patrolman, Max, who comes across a group of reckless guys whose only goal is to kill or be killed .. and torture young women. Probably Mel Gibson’s first feature film that led to two sequels and become very popular with every male because of it’s  car chases and crashes.

Shark Tale
Jack Black, Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, Renee Zellweger and Robert DeNiro lend voices for this fun animated film for everyone about a fish who works at the whale wash when he happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time when the song of gangster shark is killed. When he takes the credit for killing the shark, Oscar (Smith) becomes the hero of all his friends … until his secret is out. Cute film. Lots of big names make for a good view.

Ant Bully
Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep all voice characters in this fun film about a young boy who turns his frustrations to an ant hill after a gang of bullies beat up on him. What he doesn’t know is this colony of ants has a secret potion that will make the boy see from a new perspective the dangers he has caused. It was a fun film to watch but not one of the best animated films I’ve ever seen.

Ratatouille
One of the most recent Pixar films about a rat who has incredible cooking skills and befriends a young apprentice chef who knows nothing about cooking. Together the two create the best chef in town until one secret threatens to ruin them both. This was actually quite good and fun and had enough twists and turns to make it excitable and not quite predictable. Also makes you very hungry.