🌊 Croatia & Heritage
Learn with Nonna: 60 Everyday Phrases in Italian and Croatian
Nonna Do speaks English, Italian and Croatian. Here are 60 everyday words and phrases from her kitchen, garden and heart, with easy pronunciation tips.
Benvenuti · Dobrodošli · Welcome
Nonna Do’s World of Orchids, Cooking & Family
This is the online home of Dorina Benvin — our mom, our Nonna, our heart. Born in the village of Belej on the Croatian island of Cres, she carried Italian and Croatian traditions to America and filled every room with orchids, every table with food, and every day with a smile.
🌸 Orchids🍝 Italian cooking🇭🇷 Croatian heritage🥖 Baking🌿 Gardening🧵 Tailoring🐚 Seashell art📮 Stamps🪙 Coins🎾 Family tennis🙏 Faith😊 Always a smile👨👩👧👦 Family first🌸 Orchids🍝 Italian cooking🇭🇷 Croatian heritage🥖 Baking🌿 Gardening🧵 Tailoring🐚 Seashell art📮 Stamps🪙 Coins🎾 Family tennis🙏 Faith😊 Always a smile👨👩👧👦 Family first
✨ Explore
Everything Nonna loves, in one place
Pick a door — each room of the site has its own color, just like each room of her house.
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Nonna Do’s Kitchen
Award-winning lasagna, pillowy gnocchi, Sunday sauce and Croatian coastal classics.
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115 Family Recipes
The whole family cookbook — searchable, printable and ready for your table.
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Orchid Resource Center
Dorina’s award-winning orchid wisdom: watering, repotting, reblooming and more.
Explore →🎨
Arts, Crafts & Collecting
Seashell frames, tailoring, stamps, coins and creative home design.
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Living Well Guides
Healthy aging, exercise for seniors, mindfulness, faith, languages and learning.
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Mali Lošinj & Cres
The island of vitality where Nonna’s story begins — sun, sea, pine and healing air.
Explore →📰 Fresh stories
Latest from the blog
Recipes, orchid care, crafts, healthy living and heritage.
🌊 Croatia & Heritage
Mali Lošinj: The Island of Vitality Where Nonna's Story Begins
Pine forests, healing air, dolphins and an ancient bronze athlete: discover Mali Lošinj and the island of Cres, where Nonna Do was born in the village of Belej.
🏡 Home & Design
Mediterranean Interior Design: Bringing the Adriatic Home
Sea blues, whitewashed walls, terracotta and old wood: Nonna Do's guide to Adriatic-inspired interiors, from color and materials to orchids, shells and light.
💚 Healthy Living
The Power of a Smile: Mindfulness, Faith and a Giving Heart
Nonna Do is always smiling. Here are the simple, everyday practices of gratitude, mindfulness, kindness and quiet reflection behind a giving heart.
🏡 Home & Design
The Nonna Method for an Organized, Joyful Home
A calm, room-by-room approach to home organization from Nonna Do: a working pantry, a tidy linen closet, happy craft supplies and a weekly rhythm that lasts.
💚 Healthy Living
The Mediterranean Secret to Looking and Feeling Younger
Olive oil, sea air, gardens and a full family table: the everyday Mediterranean habits that help Nonna Do and all of us look and feel our best.
🪙 Collecting
Stamps & Coins: A Beginner's Guide to the Joy of Collecting
Tongs, stock books, coin flips and a good loupe: Nonna Do's gentle guide to starting a stamp or coin collection, from choosing a theme to Croatia's euro coins.
A letter from the family
Dear Mom,
You taught us that the best flavors come from patience, fresh ingredients, and love. You showed us that a good meal doesn’t need to be complicated — just honest, heartfelt, and shared with people who matter.
We’ve watched your joy as you cook, the way you hum while stirring sauce, and the way the whole house fills with warmth when something is baking in the oven. You never just followed recipes — you crafted them, perfected them, and made them uniquely yours.
Your meals are memories, and now, they’ll live on forever. We love you beyond words.
— Your Family
🍋 From her cookbook
Nonna Do’s specialties
The dishes the family asks for again and again.
Pasta, Lasagna & SaucesClassic Lasagna (Nonna Do’s Lasagna)The signature family dish, layered with love.
Pasta, Lasagna & SaucesHomemade Potato GnocchiSoft, pillowy dumplings — a family treasure.
Pasta, Lasagna & SaucesPasta Bolognese (Ragù alla Bolognese)A slow-simmered meat sauce that feels like home.
Pasta, Lasagna & SaucesSpaghetti alla NonnaSimple tomato-basil perfection.
Pasta, Lasagna & SaucesPenne alla VodkaCreamy, pink, and irresistible.
Breads, Antipasti & Small BitesOlive Bread (Pane alle Olive)Crusty artisan-style bread studded with salty olives.
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Soups & StewsMinestrone della CasaA hearty, vegetable-packed soup passed down through generations.
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Desserts & Sweet TreatsHazelnut & Cream Roll Cake (Rolat)A Croatian-Italian favorite — light sponge rolled with hazelnut cream.
💬 Words to live by
Nonna’s wisdom
If the sauce sticks to the spoon, it’s ready.
— Nonna Do
Butter is good, olive oil is better.
— Nonna Do
Good things take time — especially soups.
— Nonna Do
Taste it before you serve it.
— Nonna Do
Food is love. And there’s always enough love for everyone.
— Nonna Do
The recipe is the guide — the flavor is your voice.
— Nonna Do
The Orchid Resource Center
“To grow an orchid is to grow a piece of your own soul.”
Orchids have followed Dorina through every chapter of her life — filling her home with color, calming her mind and rewarding her patience with award-winning blooms. Her Brassias, Dendrobiums, Cattleyas, Oncidiums and Phalaenopsis are all here, with her care secrets.
- Dorina’s 10 golden rules & watering method
- Types 101, light cheat sheet & feeding calendar
- Troubleshooting, videos, books & an orchid tracker
🎉 Just for fun
Play, plan & stay organized
🎮 Family arcade
Cooking, garden, beach and tennis games for grandkids of every age.
🗓️ Handy tools
Free, private tools that save right in your browser.
Where it all began
Belej, Cres & Mali Lošinj
Nonna was born in Belej, a small stone village on the island of Cres, within the Town of Mali Lošinj in Croatia’s Kvarner Gulf. It’s a land of olive groves, pine-scented air, crystal sea and dolphins — declared a climatic health resort back in 1892 for its healing air.
1892health resort
~2,600hours of sun a year
1,000+plant species
🐬resident dolphins
💬 Say ciao!
Follow Dorina
Leave a comment, share a memory, send Nonna some love.
Join the family newsletter
Nonna’s newest recipes, orchid tips of the month and craft ideas — a warm little note, never spam.