buon world nutella day!

It's finally here...World Nutella Day! For those of you who don't know, Sara at Ms Adventures in Italy and Shelley of At Home in Rome have taken matters into their own hands and created the first holiday celebrating the chocolate and hazelnut spread that has become a household staple.

Now, I'm not going to dishonor Nutella by exaggerating my love for this special Italian treat. I do like Nutella a lot, especially when it's inside a cornetto, but I'm not addicted by any means. I think this is probably because I'm not Italian-crazy about hazelnuts (a minor sin here), even though, don't get me wrong--I'm a nutty gal. No comments from the Peanut Gallery please.

That said, like any good Italian, I always have a little jar of it in the house; I love that you can reuse the containers as drinking glasses. Sure, sometimes, there are weird cartoon characters on them, but then there are the plain ones, which can actually look mildly classy--especially next to all the other stuff I have. And then there were the World Cup-themed ones.

So, um, yeah, we end up going through a good bit of Nutella.

In honor of Nutella Day, I am sharing with you one of my favorite ways to enjoy the chocolate/hazelnut mixture. It's nothing fancy like this, but when I need a little something in the morning, it does the trick:


There it is. Nutella spread on a cracker, topped with a slice of banana, and sprinkled with nutmeg. I usually eat this while drinking a big mug of tea, but feel free to play with the recipe.

I've also been known to add a rather American touch by putting a dollop of peanut butter (if I have any stashed away) and/or marshmallow/fluff in the mix. These are great for kids and for adults like me who sometimes like to eat like children.

Now go check out the Nutella Day Flickr pool for some more ideas.

Happy World Nutella Day everyone!