When ever I go anywhere, the first place I want to see is the city market. If it is a large town, there will be a market in a building. Smaller towns have weekly markets in the small squares once a week or more. We have monthly markets for organic food markets, flea markets and…
Taste Chianti- New APP
2016 has started off with a bang. Doors closing but new doors opening. I closed my teaching space to concentrate on my weeklong programs and offer “Divine Day Trips” Custom tours of the market, day trips into Chianti or lessons at your villa. I spent the past winter recreating my app, which Sutro had…
Change of Seasons- Fall
Returning from Sicily where the temperatures were still hot, Tuscany was a little cooler and fall is starting to show it’s colors. The wine harvest has started and the roads are full of trucks bringing grapes to be crushed. The roads are stained with grape juice and the fragrance fills the air. …
Lost Recipes – Sedano Rifatto
I am blessed to have married into a Florentine family. My husband’s mother was a fabulous, tough woman who outlived two husbands and raised two lovely men. Tina Barchielli, lost her first husband during WWll, he was taken prisoner and died. Her second husband, Arturo, was the father of her children, Cesare and my husband…
Sharing the Love- plans for 2015
This season has flown by, there has been no time for blogging. I am in the process of changing how I work and it is working well! I have been offering more week-long programs in Tuscany and in Sicily and this year I added Puglia to my list. I don’t write about it online much,…
Shake, Shake, Shake
Summer is the time when coffee lover’s go wild. Caffe’ Shakerato, the Italian way with iced coffee. Simply break out your cocktail shaker, fill with ice and pour a nice shot of expresso on top, maybe two. Sweeten with simple syrup. Shake until the ice melts. This creates the lovely foam you see here. Once…
San Giovanni- St. Jean
June 24 is St. John the Baptist’s day. Patron Saint of Florence. We make a sweet green walnut liquor, Nocino or Nocilllo, to celebrate. Walnuts picked now have not yet started to form their shells and you can cut through them to flavor the alcohol. In Gascony, they make a version which also has red wine,…
Tuscan Splendors
Another weeklong program done. There is nothing I love more than sharing my Tuscany…. unless it is sharing Sicily! Tuscany has been my home since 1984 and I never get tired of it. Most people don’t get beyond the big cities in one visit. Most of my students are addicted and cannot get enough and…