Panini

When we lived in italy the kids and I liked to go to the beach for the morning or afternoon we would stop at the local Alimentari (an old world C-store) and order a panini. It was a long narrow loaf of freshly baked Italian bread filled with ham, cheese and butter. Every little village had an Alimentari,you could buy several different kinds of fresh bread, fresh mozzarella, this was very,very fresh and other cheeses. Also assorted cookies, candies, bulk local wine, bottled water and small tanks of propane for our cooking stove. This was called a "bambala" and it would be delivered to our house in a small red wagon. This was my introduction to panini. Now in later years Panini's have become very popular. About 3 years ago I bought a very nice panini press, it was on sale for a good price, I didn't know if I would use it and was afraid it would end up in the kitchen gadget cupboard never to see daylight again. But I did buy it, brought it home and it didn't work! So my husband (the Count) took it apart and fixed it. I made grilled cheese sandwiches with it a few times, it worked really well and I loved the grooves on the sandwich. Gradually I started adding other ingredients and pretty soon I am making gigantic panini's that only Paul Bunyan could eat. I have learned a few things about making good panini's along the way. Start with a good bread, some options include a good dense Italian bread, sourdough bread and the best of all is homemade bread. I make bread in a bread machine adding bottled garlic and Italian seasoning to the batter. This makes the best panini. Also a good focaccia works well. I like to use a nice balance of strong and mild flavored foods for the panini. Some mild foods are turkey, gouda cheese, mozarella cheese, provolone cheese, swiss cheese, goat cheese. You can jazz up the goat cheesee with fresh basil, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper. You can make it as mild or as strong as you like. Some of the full flavor foods are cooked bacon, grilled or sauteed peppers, roasted red peppers, pesto mixed with mayo,and sharp cheddar. Fresh basil and mint leaves are a good combination. Any chip or cracker dip works well to zip up the flavor a notch. Fresh mozzarella and fresh basil leaves make a wonderful caprese panini. The sky is the limit. Happy Panini Cooking, thecountess

My Family of Origin

This is a small commentary on my family of origin. My Mother (maiden name Valek) came from a family of 11 children and so did my Dad. The Valek's moved to Hazelwood, Minnesota (I challenge you to find that on a map) in 1914 and the same year my Dad's family (Malecha) moved to Little Chicago (same challenge) about a mile away as the crow flies, These families were the only Czech people in the neighorhood so it was only natural they were drawn to each other. My parents, Tom and Mary, started all of this and to make a long story short my Dad's 2 brothers and 1 sister married 3 of my Mom's siblings. I have many "double" cousins but more about that later. All of them were farmers as
were most people in the area. In 1926 my parents bought an existing farmstead in Dakota County about 3 miles from Hazelwood. They had a barn raising and it was completed in one day. They kept cows, hogs, poultry, and field horses. Dad had a small sawmill and he was an expert on the new Rural Electric Association (REA), many of the local farms were "wired" by Dad and his brother Uncle Joe. Uncle Joe's wife Christina is my Mother's sister, they lived with my parents after they married until they were able to find their own farm. My parents farmed until about 1943, they had an auction, rented out the farm to Aunt Elizabeth and Jim Koktavy. We moved to town, Dad had gone to work for Commander Elevators earlier so he had a good job. Mom worked nights at the Riverside Cafe, it was located several doors down from the apartment we were living in. One of the things she loved was the fact she knew how to make a "Denver sandwich", throughout her life she never found a restaurant that knew how to make a proper Denver sandwich. Next we moved out to the Peterson farm across the road from where my nephew Mark Malecha lives now. We lived there for several years, my younger sister was born during this time. Our house burned down on the farm, my Dad and many relatives built a new house and in 1949 we moved back to the farm. We stayed on the farm until my brother came home from the Army, he bought the farm and we moved to town. By now I was in high school and I will sign off for now, more at a later time. The Countess

My Family

In future writings I will tell you about my family, husband, children, grandchildren, my family of origin, I guarantee you that will be fun, I have some funny and weired people in my family. Then we will go on to other things. The Countess of Cuisine.

Where I have been and where I'm going!!!!

I've been around for a long time, lived in a lot of places, some of them weird and some not. My first time overseas I traveled with 4 children from Oregon to Brindisi, Italy. This was in the early 70's, soldiers all over the airport in Rome, I wasn't expecting this and I was just a little bit SCARED. Italy was a great time for our whole family, we loved the Italians and the countryside, we lived a block from the Adriatic Sea. Before that we had lived in Minnesota, Arizona and Oregon, Italy opened up a whole new world. After three years we moved to Colorado Springs for 3 years, also a good place, then on to Pusan, Korea for 3 years, Washington D.C. for 2 years and on to Saudi Arabia for 3 years. We have been back to Minnesota for 20 years. We do live in Arizona in the winter time, it adds a little extra dimension to our lives. This is it for today, really a skeleton sketch of the last 35 years. As time goes on I will be writing more about some of our more unusual experiences along the way. Also I will go back to the land before time (more than 35 years ago).