Since the earthquake in Emilia Romagna I have felt wordless. I am from San Francisco, but never been in a real earthquake where any damage was done. The quake in Emilia Romagna was horrible and has not stopped. They had two large quakes at 5.0 which have left many dead and thousands homeless. What is…
Keeping Kitchen- Pickled Onions and Fish
I am leaving for a week in Sicily ( I know, poor me) and leave the pantry full for my husband when I go away for any length of time. I had already made some pulled pork a week or so ago and found some lovely sweet red onions at the market and could’d resist…
Simply Divina- I Latini – San Gimignano
Where does a cook go when hungry? We are really lucky to have a great family restaurant near by, I Latini, on the road from Certaldo to San Gimignano. Chiara Latini runs this small hotel and restaurant, grand daughter of Narcisso Latini, who opened the original I Latini restaurant in Florence. Times change and families…
Tuscan Trattoria Potatoes- Comfort Food
For me, potatoes in almost any form are comfort food. I adore eating out when you eat like you are at someone’s mom’s house in Tuscany. Many small family trattorias I go to are like that. For making a lot of roasted potatoes quickly, they don’t have time or space to roast all the potatoes…
Home again – Tuscany
red tuscan poppies I left Tuscany with blossoms ready to bloom and came back to full-on spring in my own garden. Now to get back into the kitchen and start creating and preserving. borage blossoms, you can eat them and also the leaves flowering thyme first pea pods are starting to form We also just…
Farm to Table— creating a recipe with Saba
I was recently invited to participate in a blogger online event, using SABA, from the Azienda Mariotti and the Gusto Ferrara site, invited by my friend Rosella from Rome. Saba is the cooked down wine must, which concentrates all the flavors into a sweet syrup. I have a confession- I am a saba junkie! I…
Busy- Busy- Busy- Spring is Here!
The snow is gone. My pulled muscle or whatever it was is healed. The sun is shining and all is well in the world. Just when you think you can’t take winter anymore, spring sticks out it’s little head and gives you a kick in the pants. It is amazing what sunshine and longer days…
Berlingaccio and surviving the snow
When I first came to Italy, it was in September of 1984. That winter was one of the coldest and snowiest winters, which caused the olive trees to freeze and we lost thousands of trees which then sprouted back up from the trunks. This year may be worse than that winter of 1985. We were…