If the accents, charming neighborhoods, and ease of transportation wasn’t already making me fall in love with London, The Borough Market finished it all for me. I would kill for a loft above or near this place. Like a giggling school girl, I was practically skipping around London after my encounter. Probably more than three …
I am pretty sure any weight I lost in Turkey was gained in the last 10 days in Vasto, especially after an epic meal at Monte Freddo. This agriturismo B&B located in Abruzzo, Italy, about 45 minutes to an hour from Vasto, is any Italian meat eater’s dream. Located between the Adriatic sea and the …
I have never cooked with a stone oven although I constantly dream about having one in my backyard. Once a year, Gulcan roasts a leg of lamb, usually in a oven, but the stone oven here at FCI is a new addition, so this was a first for her as well. Unfortunately I was not …
What a treat it has been to dine with such a grand cook. Gulcan’s home cooking is fantastic. The kitchen is a crazy place to be right before dinner, but in the end, the final product is totally worth it. I wish I had more, because there has been some other dishes that I LOVE, …
So far Cappadochia has been quite swell to me. I’ve been a bit lazy the past week, basically spending any solo free time out on the patio at FCI or skyping with some loved ones. Unal has been kind enough to take me out on a few excursions, which have been delightful. I hope to …
Back during the good old culinary art classes in highschool, I learned how to make ravioli. All I could remember was how tedious it was…but somehow I forgot just how tedius it was exactly. Plus I wanted to try a new technique I had learned from the pasta making class I stumbled upon. But fair …
Sangria festival – man they really have festivals for EVERYTHING around here. Giovanni and I randomly discovered there was a sangria festival not too far from us, so we wandered down for some drinks and dinner. Located in between Jesi and Osima…the small festival was held in a town called Casenouve. Along the way we …
Happy Birthday to Nonna Daniela! She was going to make her own cake and I thought that was just plain silly. Daniela is not big on cakes and described a cookie crust pudding like pie that she had that she really liked, so I decided to create the only cheesecake I’m willing to eat, thinking …
Il Gambero Rosso Translated ironically to Red Lobster. Luckily the restaurant isn’t as cheezy as The Red Lobster, unfortunately it is entirely way too overpriced. I might as well paid a little more and dined at the coveted Belforte…we ended up at Gambero Rosso by accident. I thought I was sitting down at Trattoria Gianni Franzi, …
Nestled in the beautiful valley of Acqualagna…Ristorante Osteria del Parco offers a tasty eat for a great value. Acqualagna is know for their truffles and truffles tend to be pricey. But somehow the 6 of us made it out of the restaurant for 130 euros total. This included wine, two appetizers, three different pastas, a HUGE …
A weekend of beach time, pizza, truffles, and gelato wasn’t enough for us. To top off the weekend, we stopped a couple cellars on the way back from Fano since it was the weekend of “Cantine Aperte” (Open Cellars). Basically most of the major wineries in Le Marche offer free tastings. You pay 5 euros …
BBQ and bonfires should always be together. They are one of my favorite entertaining activities because it involves, good people, good food, music and the outdoors. With enough luck in the Pacific Northwest your event can stretch from the afternoon until late at night. before I left for Italy I decided to cook up a …
I forgot to mention that Hillary left yesterday morning. It’s been a nice reprieve for me so far…after living by yourself for 2 years, having a roommate that you also work with was overwhelming for me. I sorted my belongings and finally really feel officially settled in my apartment. I’m also really excited to start focusing more …
Valeria’s friend Sandra came to visit for a couple days…she’s from Argentina so lucky for us she taught us how to make empanadas one afternoon. This is a rough recipe, as I was just observing and she was speaking Italian, so give or take some of this. It could probably be cut in half because …
Luisa, one of Valeria’s friends invited us to her home for brunch today. Luisa has a BEAUTIFUL Italian home. It seems I feel this way about all Italian homes, but hers really is gorgeous and something I can imagine living in. She is a retired artist and every square inch of her home is painted …
Wrapping up my first three weeks here and the work has been a mixture of working in teh garden and working in the vineyard. At first the rainy was pretty iffy so we spent much of our time boxing, but eventually we started some serious work on the vines. This included taking small plastic cones …
After spending the afternoon on the beach, we decided to venture into town more for some more exploration. Sennigallia is beautiful. I got carried away with the real estate windows, dreaming of buying an italian home. We stopped by a small museum that was built partially over streets where ancient romans lived. It was pretty …
This actually occurred last month, but because eat faster than I can write, I’m telling you about it now. Plus it fits with Thanksgiving just around the corner. My beautiful friend Lisa is vegan, and invited me to her lovely home for a vegan thanksgiving potluck! Now if you know me at all…I’ve always been …
Sorry this is not a restuarant or food discovery, but my friend Graham introduced me to a wonderful new site that I had to share with other foodies. It’s called theydrawandcook.com. Basically, people combine art and recipes. Instead of writing out a boring old recipe, they illustrate it in some creative form. The art that …
I apologize for not writing for so long. It’s been a crazy week. Our hours have been wonky and by the time I finish editing my photos I am too tired to write about anything…I’ll try to get some writing in tomorrow morning as it will be my last day here and all I am …
Closing day. We were all a bit tired. I slept pretty awful because I switched rooms and the music went all night and then the cleaning began and the garbage trucks and the beeping and then the band practice across the street and then the band playing in a parade…I gave up on trying to …
Giovanni’s friends from Milan came down so this day was really fun. It was nice to itneract with fresh new faces. Plus they were SO nice! They all had some understanding of english. Some spoke better english than others but they were all so sweet! Here we are on the porch in the morning. We …
My first morning in Daniela’s house was wonderful. Being an early riser, I was up and about around 8…I grabbed the guitar I saw in the rec room and brought it onto the patio. I haven’t played in weeks so it felt really good to find something to strum. I’m not very good, so it …
So here we go. After work, we packed a few things and “moved” to Daniela’s house for the weekend. We got there just in time for the opening ceremony, which included the mayor (who they call the “major”), talking and kids from the local schools presenting this year’s wine. After all that mumbo jumbo, the …
I finally felt like I was coming around when we started bottling today. We harvested, we pressed, we analyzed, we moved wine, we bottled, labeled, boxed, and shipped the wine out! The only thing I felt like I was missing was pruning the vines and weeding! But there’s always a chance I could come back …
