I promise I’m going to venture out of Dorie Greenspan’s book soon. But seriously, everything I make from it turns out amazing. Like tonight, I made these Chocolate Chunkers and whoa. Whoa, are they good. Upon tasting them, my dad exclaimed them the best thing I ever made and the only cookie he ever wants to eat from now on.
And in the case of Mrs. D, my friends’ mom/our neighbor/my second mother, I made two cakes. Because that’s how I show my love. Her family threw her a surprise birthday party, and I volunteered to make the dessert. I decided on two cakes, a chocolate cake (courtesy of Smitten Kitchen) and a white/lemony/raspberry/vanilla cake (from Dorie Greenspan).
I love finding a song that completely captures the exact moment of my life in which I discover it.
I love when there’s no traffic driving home from the city and I can make it back in under 40 minutes.
I love picking out recipes.
I love making big birthday cakes.
I love crossing things off my to do list, even if it’s still ridiculously long.
I love beer. (In New Hampshire I went on a brewery tour and beer tasting that cost one dollar, which was pretty amazing considering I also got to keep my glass.)
I love wine too. (I don’t want it to feel left out here.)
I love America, but I hate that it has to be so gosh darned big and people have to live so far away.
I love celebrating friends’ successes and new jobs, but I hate goodbyes.
I love realizing that I should probably stop babbling on here and just go to bed.
I love you.
Filed under Beer and Vino
Autumn is approaching. You know what that means? No, I’m not talking about colorful foliage, or jacket and sweater weather (my favorite!), though those are great too. I’m talking about pie.
Who doesn’t love pie? Seriously. Even if someone’s not into the whole fruit pie thing, there’s still savory pies, or chocolate, or pumpkin. Oh man, pumpkin pie. That deserves its own post another time.
For now I’m all about apples. In pie form. Peeled, cored, sliced and pied. But first, I need to start from the beginning, in a lovely apple orchard in New Hampshire.
I would say I didn’t waste any time getting back into the kitchen, but that would be a lie. Lacking a routine upon my return home, I lost all motivation to be even remotely productive. The most interesting part of one day was watching a bunny in my backyard build her nest. In order to remember what it means to be a normal human being, I had to force myself to make something.
I turned to my new best friend, Dorie Greenspan. I borrowed her book from the library earlier this summer and fell in love. It wasn’t until I had to return it that I realized I never wanted to be without these recipes, so I promptly bought my own copy. Flipping through the pages, I came across a cardamom crumb cake that seemed the perfect compliment to a morning mug of coffee (which, I have to admit, I sorely missed in Italy).
During my last week in Castellina, Nana’s cousin Susan and her husband Dennis came to visit. While I remember them from when I was younger, I hadn’t seen them in years. Their son Johnathan and his friend Kevin also came for the weekend, and were almost immediately dubbed “the ragazzi” by Nana, “The guys”. On Sunday, the ragazzi and I planned to meet Nana, Tom, Susan and Dennis in Siena, but we took a few detours first.
Filed under Beer and Vino, Bread, Italian, Savory, Travel
On my second to last day in Castellina, I decided to wake up a little extra early (or late, compared to my previous schedule) to watch the sunrise.
The last of my days here have been quite emotional. I worked my last morning at the bakery on Saturday and it was so hard to leave. I am having trouble articulating how much this experience has meant to me, with all I have learned, I will never forget it. I am going to miss everything.
I’m going to miss Domenico and Nicola, who would start work earlier than anyone else. They were awesome and so fun to be around.
And the Porciatti family. I’m going to miss Giacomo, and how he would always talk so fast I could never understand him. Errico, who never said much but was so very kind. And Paola, who was so welcoming and fun to hang out with.
I am now convinced that wisdom teeth removal is a vast dental industry conspiracy in which they perform unnecessary surgery to take your money and prevent problems that might, one day, maybe occur. My reasoning stems from the fact that proceeding my own wisdom teeth extraction, I was not having any problems whatsover with my teeth. Maybe they moved a little as the wisdom teeth came in, but there was no infection, no issues at all. Since the surgery, I have had fairly continuous discomfort–except, ironically, the first day or two after the surgery. But then the pain kicked in, then I had a dry socket which really was a killer let me tell you. There’s also details I will spare you about the maintenance of the area from which the teeth were removed. And then, to top it all off, now, five weeks later, I have an infection.
Wait a minute, didn’t I get my teeth out in order to prevent infection? What is this?! Had I just never had the surgery, I would not have had to pump my body with tons of medications, wince every time I ate something at all hard or crunchy, or visit an Italian dentist like I did yesterday.
Monica took us out to lunch yesterday with Irene, who works at the hotel, and Sonia, who used to but is now retired.
We drove the windy roads through the hills until we came to Volpaia, a tiny town even compared to Castellina. Our restaurant, La Bottega, boasts to have been in existence for 300 years. Wow.
But with this view, it’s no wonder.
Filed under Beer and Vino, Italian, Savory, Travel
La Biga 