The third challenge for the Project Food Blog is a luxury dinner for four.It does not have to be expensive— but special. Main ingredient- 4 friendsand me as their Italian life coach in the kitchen Living in Tuscany, we are truly blessed with ingredients. To me, that is the secret of any great meal. Then…
Project Food Blog – Challenge # 2- Cooking out of the Comfort Zone
Thanks so much for those of you that voted for me and helped me make the cut.Today’s challenge is to create a dish out of our personal comfort zone and cannot be Italian or French. In choosing a recipe for this week’s challenge, I had to face one of the problems of being an expat….
Tito’s Oven-Roasted Tuscan Beans
It is that time of year- fresh beans are appearing in my markets and what I really love is when I find them already shelled. Florentines are called Mangia-fagioli, bean-eaters. Not sure if it is supposed to be offensive, but I adore beans and eaten with rice or grains become a perfect protein and one…
Project Food Blog – Challenge # 1- Ready, Set, Blog
I love a challenge, so when FoodBuzz sent out their Food Blog Challenge I jumped in.Follow a fabulous group of food-bloggers as we set out on this adventure.The FoodBuzz team is giving us a weekly subject and YOU get to vote! This week is: why we blog and why we should be the next food blog…
Pleasures of the Season
When you live in Tuscany- there are many reasons to be grateful- today we went to an old favorite a tiny trattoria in a tiny village on a crest near our home. When the owner came to take our order, she was thrilled to tell us that the first white truffles of the season were…
First Signs of Fall
The vedemmia, harvest, of the wine grapes is sign that summer is over and fall is on it’s way. This year the harvest is a little late this year as summer was not that hot here. Work has been done in the vineyards, smaller bunches of grapes cut off and thrown away to allow the…
Summer Gold
field corn We have been rather blessed this year with a mild summer, except for an unbearable bit in July. The hills and fields stayed green for quite a long time, and no horrible fires which usually cause extreme damages. The lack of heat has caused the grape harvest to be put off until later…
SummerFood Fest -Tomatoes the Italian Way
When one thinks of Italian food, usually it evokes a image of food floating in tomato sauce, huge bowls of spaghetti and meatballs, sauce everywhere! Pots of sauce cooking for hours over low heat, bubbling away like molten lava. There is even a word for it in Italian ” pippare”, that slow, low heat cooking…