I think I am a perpetual student. I adore studying, hate tests, but love learning new things. For the past 7 years, I have been helping my friend Pam with her Ecole Chocolat Italian program for graduates from her online-chocolate school. We have been doing the Tuscan chocolate valley with visits and workshops with the…
The Italian Way – Crostata con Pecorino e Pere
Italians have a way with recipes. I was trained as a pastry chef, but since I learned to make the Pasta Frolla pie crust, it is the only crust I use. Now that I have moved my teaching space to Colle Val D’Elsa, I have new inspirations. While shopping for bread at the local forno,…
First Snow- First Tuscan Hot Chocolate
The first snow has covered the hills where I live and blocked me in my house. To me. that is a sign it is time to make myself a cup of Tuscan hot chocolate. Those of you that have had cioccolato caldo here know it is really more like a pudding and thick enough to…
Italian Amaretti Apricots- Summer Food Fest- Stone Fruits
As peaches, plums and apricots hit the markets; both my husband and I risk stomach aches daily from eating too much fruit. But how can one resist when buying right from the farmers, still warm from the tree. With a simple white peach, pureed and served with Prosecco, Italy celebrates summer with the Bellini cocktail-…
Simple Summer Recipe- Affogato
Hot time- summer in the city— and all I can think about are ways to cool off! After lunch yesterday I could not resist getting one of my favorite desserts hot or cold- Gelato Affogato- a drowned ice cream. Nothing could be easier. Gelato Affogato Let your ice cream soften some before scooping, Italian gelato is not…
Cookies for Lent
Don’t ask me how cookies can be for Lent, but takes an Italian cook to create something sweet, even when one is supposed to be giving things up. The story goes that these dry cookies were supposed to help you while fasting during lent. Carnevale– is taken from levare carne– or to take away meat….
FAT TUESDAY- Martedi Grasso- Mardi Gras- Shrove Tuesday
Let the good times roll! inside our cab in NOLA!!!Florence also uses the Fleur du Lys Easter comes early this year, which means carnival is already here. Most people think of the fabulous costumes in Venice and the parties in palazzi, but it is also a festival of the people. Streets are filled with families…
Hot Italian Kisses | Truffles
Probably one of Italy’s most famous chocolate candies is called Baci, meaning kisses. When I toured the Perugina factory in Perugia, they said that the original name was actually going to be cazzotti- meaning little fists or punches. Baci is a much nicer name for something so sweet. Italy has a history of adding hazelnuts…