Practice, Pasta, and Protected Designation (April 28, 2025)

As is the case every day, I practiced—a lot.  My concert is a week from this coming Friday, and I want to be e sure I am completely ready, so I practiced both at my apartment on my keyboard, and also at Mr. Cosmo’s on his piano.

Today was part of another new adventure as well. Mr. Buono took me and my mother in his car to Maywood, New Jersey, to do some grocery shopping at Maywood’s Marketplace, which was wonderful!  Much of the food that is sold in the store comes from local farmers and suppliers, which means that is it very fresh, and they have everything: wonderful cheeses, excellent baked goods, and of course pasta!

The view along the Hudson River on the way there was wonderful, but when we crossed the bridge and entered the side of Mr. Cosmo’s hometown in New Jersey, the view was even more beautiful! The well-maintained gardens, the beautiful houses and trees were magnificent.

Maywood Market is really big and quite amazing, and I was glad we emptied our refrigerator before going there.  I sampled a lot of different kinds of cheeses, and also carefully examined their huge selection of pasta.  Everything was unbelievably fresh, and I bought oranges that still had the leaves on them!

In addition to buying fresh tomatoes we also bought San Marzano canned tomatoes. On the label it says “D.O.P.” and when I asked what that meant I found out that it stands for Denominazione d'Origine Protetta, or Protected Designation of Origin, which means that it is guaranteed that the tomatoes come from a specific region of Italy.  Mr. Cosmo says those tomatoes make the best pasta sauce, and I would agree.