Gnocchi the Italian Way

Last month I posted about Gnocchi for Cheaters, or, making gnocchi with instant mashed potatoes (gasp)!

This week, I read a blog entry on how to make proper gnocchi and I wanted to share it. This comes from Letizia of Madonna del Piatto - an Italian woman who runs a cooking school and B&B with her husband in Umbria. I've been a long-time fan of her blog!

I should add that I did just make the Gnocchi for Cheaters last week, and was exhausted after nearly 2 hours of work. The idea of adding the potatoes and mashing proper gnocchi doesn't excite me. However, I fully agree with her recommendation to drink red wine with gnocchi. And, in this case, the cook also needs it during the tedious task of forming each of those little pasta puffs!

We had a bottle of Luna Vineyards 2005 Sangiovese, and it was perfection.

Drive & Learn

We spent the entire weekend in Laguna Beach...Having lunch, walking in the sand, getting Starbucks, and generally just "chillaxing".

It's about a 20-minute drive from our home to the parking lot under the Montage. During that time, we practiced our Italian.

This CD set is kind of hilarious. I just got in on Friday, and today was our first time testing it out. You have to really be in a cheesy mood and willing to "sing along" in order to enjoy it.

It's a funny way to learn Italian in that you follow the day to day life of "Jon", and while you're memorizing the phrases, they throw several funny jingles.

But, after 20 minutes of driving there and back, we realized that we did indeed learn quite a few phrases!

Any recommendations for more intermediate Italian lessons? I'm thinking of signing up at the local college this fall...

How do you define a "bathroom"??

It appears we have a little set-back with the potential new home. Here is the message I received from our realtor this week:

One of our collaborators has been at the house with a client, we ask him to check the status of the bathroom. The washing machine is under the stairs place, it seems that it was a shower place where the wc and bidet is. Our technician informs that it is very easy to change the wc and install it in the place of the bidet, and there make a shower, as example, among other cheap possibilities.

Hmm...So it seems we gained a bidet and lost a shower. I'm perplexed.

Looking for tickets to Italy, and quickly. We've gotta get over there and see everything in person before we wire the $$$.