Not Your Average Tuscan Memoir

I just finished reading Phil Doran's, "The Reluctant Tuscan". I wasn't planning to read this book. I was at the Rancho Santa Margarita library (where they have a great used books store), and I found it in the travel section for $0.50!

I was expecting a non-descript, bland Tuscan memoir similar to the dozens of others that were published following the success of "Under the Tuscan Sun".

Instead, I found myself laughing outloud on several occasions, and not wanting to put this book down!

Phil spent many years in Hollywood as a writer for comedy shows such as "Sanford & Sons", "The Wonder Years", and "Who's The Boss". He's witty, funny, and very entertaining.

The story touches on his relationship with his wife and their journey as they restore a small home in the Tuscan countryside.

I'd definitely recommend this book if you're in the mood for an Italian memoir as well as a good laugh!

Gnocchi for Cheaters!

I'm re-posting this from our personal family blog, because it's been on my mind to make this again this week. And, because it's just so so yummy!

Do you have a favorite Gnocchi recipe? If so, feel free to comment! I'd be interested in making Gnocchi that's not for "cheaters"! :-)


Today I was reminiscing about our vacation back in 2007/08, and remembering the awesome gnocchi we ate in Rome's Campo de Fiori. I had fallen in love with Campo de Fiori when I studied in Italy back in college and talk about it all the time. The morning market was exactly how you picture life in Italy and how it should be. Flower vendors, fresh breads, cheese stalls and produce everywhere...Gosh it makes me depressed to compare this to my local Albertson's...

Anyway, I normally purchase our gnocchi at Trader Joe's, and it's...ok....But..

Tonight I decided to try this recipe. Oh my gosh, it is AMAZING! I swear, you cannot tell that you're cheating and using instant potato flakes! They were so light and fluffy and flavorful! I added some garlic powder and freshly chopped rosemary to the dough mixture to give it a little uumph. YUM. I'm not sure how advanced the author of the recipe is, but I'd say that a prep time of 10 minutes is very ambitious. I tripled the recipe (to have some leftovers for Tony's lunches), and it took me a good amount of time to roll out everything and cut them into shape.




Also for the first time tonight: I made pasta sauce from scratch! Yes, I realize many people do this frequently, but for me it was a big deal. And, I don't want to toot my own horn, but it was kind of awesome. (Except for the fact that I had to puree it for my baby, Ummm Hmmm, husband, who doesn't eat tomatoes in chunk form).


Here's the recipe:

*28 ounce can of diced tomatoes (yeah, I didn't use fresh tomatoes which would have been awesome, but alas, the rabbits ate them all from the plant in my garden)
*6 cloves of minced garlic
*1/4 c. of extra virgin olive oil
*A few dashes of red pepper flakes
*A few shakes of basil
*A few shakes of dried rosemary
*Salt
*Pepper
*A 1/2 c of Italian blended cheeses (Asiago, Parmesan, Mozzarella, Provolone, Fontina, & Romano)

Heat olive oil. Add minced garlic and simmer for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant. Add diced tomatoes and spices. Stir frequently. When heated through, add cheese and simmer. Puree if serving picky eaters.

I spooned this over the gnocchi and served it with this fabulous 2004 Rosso which we got in Umbria. Sigh.

"Our" tiny house

Well, it's not "ours" yet, but here is the floorplan of our little stone home.

You can see that the tiny bathroom is just under the stairs, and the sink is visible when you first enter the apartment.  That's the first thing on my agenda to update! I'm not sure how...I watch HGTV constantly, and always get inspired by all of the DIY projects. But, the reality is, I'm not very skilled in that area!

They Called!

The produce of my FAVORITE television show of all-time, House Hunters International called me this week and asked about appearing on an episode of their show!

I noticed I had a missed call, and the area code was 212. I remember from my days of living in New York that this was a Manhattan area code. I wasn't sure what it was about. One of O's gigs perhaps? And that's when I heard the message...A producer from House Hunters asking about our upcoming purchase in Italy and whether or not we'd be interested in appearing on the show.

My heart stopped. Then, I actually started jumping in our living room whilst simultaneously calling Tony, my mom, dad, brother, and two besties.

A minute after listening to the voicemail, I also received an email with more details about appearing. I immediately called the producer, and everything looked like it would fall into place when...she realized that this would be a summer/vacation home as opposed to moving our family permanently to Italy. They didn't want to feature someone buying a second home or vacation property. (Which, let me add is very odd since many House Hunters International are based on this exact premise)!

And, conversation over.

My little dream kind of died.

I spent the rest of the day sending all those people I had called prior text messages with the teary-eyed emoticon.

:-(

Maybe another day.

So Many Fresh Lemons...

I had a drawerful of beautiful yellow lemons, and since I've been obsessing over all things Italian, I decided to make Frances Mayes' lemon cake which was featured in the "winter recipes" section of Under the Tuscan Sun
.

It's yummy! I didn't actually have any buttermilk, and had just ran out of regular milk, so I used coconut milk, and it still tasted fab!

Ingredients
1 cup sweet butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
3 tbsp lemon juice
zest of one lemon
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
3 tbsp lemon juice


Directions
1. cream together 1 cup butter and sugar. beat in 3 eggs, one at a time. the mixture should be light.
2. mix together flour, baking powder, salt.
3. mix dry mix into butter/sugar mix alternating with buttermilk. begin and end with flour mixture.
4. add lemon juice and lemon zest.
5. bake in nonstick tube pan at 300 degrees for 50 minutes. test doneness with toothpick.
6. glaze with mixture of softened butter, powdered sugar and lemon juice. decorate with tiny curls of lemon rind.

One of Our Dreams May be Coming True!

For over 11 years, I've had a dream of moving to Italy. This was spurred on by a study abroad trip I made in January, 1999. Like most college students, we were based in Rome, but spent weekends traveling to Naples, Abruzzo National Park, Florence, Frascati, and several little villages in between. I fell in love with Italy at that time...

Books and movies like, "Under the Tuscan Sun" only reinforced my desire to one day buy a home there and move!

I took a couple of trips back to Italy and got to play tourist in the northwest regions as well as Venice. I was able to make my 4th trip there in 2007 when Tony and I spent Christmas week in a small apartment in the tiny hilltown of Trevi, in the region of Umbria. It was magical. There were no other tourists there, nothing was in English, and life felt like it hadn't changed much since the 13th century when the village was originally built. That's when Tony also got on board with this "dream"!

Fast forward to 2010. We're living in Orange County, and Tony is loving his job at an International non-profit while I'm enjoying staying home with our baby boy. We started talking about vacation 2011 (because, I'm obsessed with Tripadvisor and any form of vacation planning). We had planned to go to Cinque Terra since neither of us had ever been, and are desperate to go! Then, we started questioning if this would be the responsible thing to do... Mainly because the housing market is still quite volatile here in California, and we thought it might be smart to invest in another rental property nearby, sit on it a few years, and then sell when the market takes an upswing. Because of this, we decided that perhaps Cinque Terra would have to wait another year or two and we would take a cruise (cheap for Cali residents) or trek down to Latin America (also cheap), which we both love.

But then, a lightbulb went off. What about a home in which we could spend part of the summer and winter holidays that could also be used as a rental property IN ITALY? And, the rest is sort of just falling into place!!!

After hours and hours and hours of exhilarating research, we have found a small home in the tiny village of Palata on the South-Eastern coast of Italy, about 20 minutes from the Adriatic Sea and the city of Vasto.

I've been waking up each morning at 6am to Skype with the realtors, building technicians, lawyers, etc., at the real estate agency we're using. I'm beside myself with excitement. It's hard for me to think of anything else! This is pretty evident from glancing at the table near my reading chair!

The home isn't in need of any renovations a la Bramasole, but it does need some paint, cosmetic work, and updating in the kitchen, bathroom, etc. I should add now that we haven't even SEEN this property in person! We are moving forward with all the paperwork, sight unseen, but will be traveling there in early September to view the property and close the sale.

It's not as crazy as it sounds...The property is very very inexpensive because Molise and Abruzzo are not yet discovered and commercialized like the regions of Tuscany, Lazio or Umbria. The day I found the property was the same day I was having my parents and my brother over to have dinner with us. When they heard about the possibility, they were in! So, we're purchasing this home in a 3-way partnership with my parents and my brother. Each of us with a 33.3% stake in it, which definitely brings the risk factor to a minimum.

So, let the adventure begin! I'm hoping to use this blog to track our journey towards becoming home owners in Italy, feature Italian Recipes, discuss blogs and books related to Italy, and feature photographs of Bella Italia!

Welcome to "Living La Vida Luna Italiano style!"