The day started out normal, and I had my regular breakfast conssisting of toast and hot water with lemon. Now I never liked this so much but its nice and simple and I enjoy waking up making toast on the stove top, and havign a simple hot water with lemon while I chat with Nicla and watch Nonna at work making lunch.
So we were tlakign and nicla asked me if I liked gnocchi, adn you knwo me, I love gnocchi, but the recipes I've made arent very good, and therefore I dont make it but Jessica loves it. So I asked if I can watch or even help out making lunch GNOCCHI. So that is exactly what I did.
But first there was some things that needed tending to. Nicla wanted to make a vegetable garden right near the water system so she baught compost last night and today we had to spread it around and get the ground ready for planting the seeds. After that since the weather was bad today, rainy and all, so I went back to restoring the old house, which by the way, I wish I could live in, its that romantic. But I would want central heating, since it dose get cold here, not nearly as cold as canada i guess. But still cold none the less.
Anyways i finished some stuff upstairs so the upstairs is finished and almost the downstairs floor as well. I have to close up teh chimeny tomorrow making a vent for the wood burning oven. It wont be that difficult though I think. then its almost finished!! which will eb so exciting because then I can start decorating it and doing some interior design for it...thats fun.
However the highlite of my day was making Gnocchi. Yes I made gnocchi with niclas mother...Nonna... it was fun, She showed me how to know how much flour you need, (she uses very little and no eggs) and showed me how you have to be gentle with the dough. It was fun and yes I took pictures, they are on my facebook. We then ate them with a meat sauce and some chilli oil (olive oil and chillis from the farm that I work on...all home made) Anyways I really enjoyed myself and im looking forward to the next thing I will learn.
I will be staying here an extra week, then moving on to the next place. I will also be traveling to roma next week for two days, and I will stay at a hostel probably.
btw gary feels lonely to be the only person commenting on this blgo so if anyone wants to comment as well..feel free
Friday, February 5, 2010
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Fresh Market and restoring a house
I woke up early to go with Nicla to the market today, and of course we took lucky her dog. So when we got into town, we parked the van and walked towards the market. Nicla took me to her favorite vendor because they grow everything they sell, and the vegetables are really good.
Nicla and I were talking at dinner the other night about fresh fennel, and Nicla explained that there are male and female fennel, and the female ones are good for eating raw, and the male ones because they are bitter get cooked..Usually gets sent to north america. Maybe thats why no one likes fennel in Canada. Anyways another thing nicla taught me today was something interesting about artichokes. When preparing artichokes the instructions are to cut away the outer leaves and then take out the inner fuzzy choke. So when Nicla explained to me that, that only makes a difference as to when you harvest the artichokes because when they are young there is no fuzzy inner choke. So we had raw artichoke along with fennel, radishes, carrot adn celery for starters for lunch, and then we had a pumpkin and rice dish I have to ask her what its called, but it was delicious.
So as we walked around the market Nicla explained the diferences in the cheeses, and we bought a bit of different ones for me to test.
When we came back the waether wasnt so good so I went down to other side of the property to look at a house that needs restoring, that I am going to work on. I fixed the windows in the whole house and put up a new door frame and doors as well. Tomorrow I will probably paint the door frames, and build a box around the vent system, as well as hook up the wood oven for use. The house is almost ready for use as it is but it need soe final steps and decorating which I will help with as well as my other stuff I do here.
Otherwise thats about it!!
Ciao Yehuda
Nicla and I were talking at dinner the other night about fresh fennel, and Nicla explained that there are male and female fennel, and the female ones are good for eating raw, and the male ones because they are bitter get cooked..Usually gets sent to north america. Maybe thats why no one likes fennel in Canada. Anyways another thing nicla taught me today was something interesting about artichokes. When preparing artichokes the instructions are to cut away the outer leaves and then take out the inner fuzzy choke. So when Nicla explained to me that, that only makes a difference as to when you harvest the artichokes because when they are young there is no fuzzy inner choke. So we had raw artichoke along with fennel, radishes, carrot adn celery for starters for lunch, and then we had a pumpkin and rice dish I have to ask her what its called, but it was delicious.
So as we walked around the market Nicla explained the diferences in the cheeses, and we bought a bit of different ones for me to test.
When we came back the waether wasnt so good so I went down to other side of the property to look at a house that needs restoring, that I am going to work on. I fixed the windows in the whole house and put up a new door frame and doors as well. Tomorrow I will probably paint the door frames, and build a box around the vent system, as well as hook up the wood oven for use. The house is almost ready for use as it is but it need soe final steps and decorating which I will help with as well as my other stuff I do here.
Otherwise thats about it!!
Ciao Yehuda
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
forestry and french onion soup
Todays work was really a field trip.
We went to a friend of nicla (my host) about 40 minutes away from her farm. we took a nice drive and we stopped off at the butcher to get some chicken for dinner...We of course baught the whole chicken head and feet attached!! IT was so cool. I absolutely love it. Anyways we worked in the forrest cutting down some trees for firewood as well as to get the leaves from certain trees that they use for broom making. Col because its all natural stuff that literally grown in their back yard.
So we worked for about 4 hours or so and then went back for lunch and lunch was delicious. We had fresh Lasagna, then a tuscan fish dish (really good) adn polenta. Then we had for dessert some cakes, adn then afterwards fruits and nuts. \
Lunch took about 2 hours which was good lots of conversation...none of which I understood at all.
We came back and I started making dinner. French onion soup. By the way I took pictures of the chicken and all but my camera was kinda enough to delete all the pictures I took today..kinda pissed off about it since they were cool pictures. Anyways as the onions were browning Nicla took me on a tour of her property which is massive....she showed me some projects shes in middle of doing but cant do it all at once. So I will try to help out as best as I can, not just with food but with carpentry as well. Use whatever knowledge I have to help out.
Anyways I had my best day as chef today. And its not the food Im cooking. Its the fact that I got to pick herbs and stuff as fresh as possible. Right from the tree. For example, bay leaves are very expensive and nearly impossible to get in Canada, however they grow naturally and wildly here but the Italians dont use them! So I picked them right from the tree for my cooking! I dont think I have ever smiled so much as a chef as when I was picking bay leaves...YES IM A GEEK..I know.
It was awesome and now I got to go finish dinner as I will hopefully go to sleep early tonight since I am getting over a cold...which jessica thinks is my body really just clearing itself out from all teh smoke I inhaled in France..And I kinda agree with her..but one more day and I should be back to normal.
Tomorrow morning is fresh market time, so I have to be up early for that which will be fun...
ciao!!
We went to a friend of nicla (my host) about 40 minutes away from her farm. we took a nice drive and we stopped off at the butcher to get some chicken for dinner...We of course baught the whole chicken head and feet attached!! IT was so cool. I absolutely love it. Anyways we worked in the forrest cutting down some trees for firewood as well as to get the leaves from certain trees that they use for broom making. Col because its all natural stuff that literally grown in their back yard.
So we worked for about 4 hours or so and then went back for lunch and lunch was delicious. We had fresh Lasagna, then a tuscan fish dish (really good) adn polenta. Then we had for dessert some cakes, adn then afterwards fruits and nuts. \
Lunch took about 2 hours which was good lots of conversation...none of which I understood at all.
We came back and I started making dinner. French onion soup. By the way I took pictures of the chicken and all but my camera was kinda enough to delete all the pictures I took today..kinda pissed off about it since they were cool pictures. Anyways as the onions were browning Nicla took me on a tour of her property which is massive....she showed me some projects shes in middle of doing but cant do it all at once. So I will try to help out as best as I can, not just with food but with carpentry as well. Use whatever knowledge I have to help out.
Anyways I had my best day as chef today. And its not the food Im cooking. Its the fact that I got to pick herbs and stuff as fresh as possible. Right from the tree. For example, bay leaves are very expensive and nearly impossible to get in Canada, however they grow naturally and wildly here but the Italians dont use them! So I picked them right from the tree for my cooking! I dont think I have ever smiled so much as a chef as when I was picking bay leaves...YES IM A GEEK..I know.
It was awesome and now I got to go finish dinner as I will hopefully go to sleep early tonight since I am getting over a cold...which jessica thinks is my body really just clearing itself out from all teh smoke I inhaled in France..And I kinda agree with her..but one more day and I should be back to normal.
Tomorrow morning is fresh market time, so I have to be up early for that which will be fun...
ciao!!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
part 3?? no its a new day
Ok so first day is done.
I get to eat with my host but not with the family, because her uncle is old and sick and needs time to get used to people living in the house. so they have to teach him how to warm up to me.
But today I learned how to make polenta a different way, and to be honest it actually tasted better than the way most people make it. Ok so most people make polenta by heating 1.5 times the amount of polenta in milk then stir in the polenta until its cooks about 7 - 8 minutes and then take it off the stove. But my hosts mother fills up a pot with water until the handles and fills it with polenta afterwards and cooks it for one hour. stirring it constantly and the polenta is smoother, and tastier not like the chunky kind when its cooked with milk. Now maybe I would cook it with chicken stock so it would have a little more flavour but otherwise it would be the same concept...and the reason why they use water instead of milk?? because they dont have animals in Tuscany until recently!! only in the norht of Italy did they have cows so they had milk, how interesting is that? So they used water. Anyways today I learned pruning! no thats not how to grow prunes, but trimming the fruit trees just right so they give off great delicious fruits the next season so this year my host is attacking the plum orchard...its big and its on the hillside. So since I dont know how to prune while her and her friend cut the trees I organized the wood into salvagable piles of wood and wood that got turned into fertalizer for the trees. And funny while they cut trees with electric saws I used a hatchet from the 50's it was actually kinda cool I felt like tarzan....hahaha. But it was a long day of work...sorta, not difficult but long labour about 7 hours i guess.
And tomorrow we are going to go to another farm to help out since they have like a community here of people helping eachother out trying to be self sufficient, and they help each other out. which is amazing.
My host also liked french onion soup but doesnt know how to. Luck y for me she doesnt like veal, just like Jessica and I can use the recipe I made for jessica...using real cheese not soy cheese. So that will be fun. And she also asked me what I am doing after two weeks and if id consider staying a bit longer. Not sure yet but I would consider it.
Thursday morning shes going to take me to the market in a near by town that she likes to go to, which will be really cool.
And thats about it for now!
ciao
I get to eat with my host but not with the family, because her uncle is old and sick and needs time to get used to people living in the house. so they have to teach him how to warm up to me.
But today I learned how to make polenta a different way, and to be honest it actually tasted better than the way most people make it. Ok so most people make polenta by heating 1.5 times the amount of polenta in milk then stir in the polenta until its cooks about 7 - 8 minutes and then take it off the stove. But my hosts mother fills up a pot with water until the handles and fills it with polenta afterwards and cooks it for one hour. stirring it constantly and the polenta is smoother, and tastier not like the chunky kind when its cooked with milk. Now maybe I would cook it with chicken stock so it would have a little more flavour but otherwise it would be the same concept...and the reason why they use water instead of milk?? because they dont have animals in Tuscany until recently!! only in the norht of Italy did they have cows so they had milk, how interesting is that? So they used water. Anyways today I learned pruning! no thats not how to grow prunes, but trimming the fruit trees just right so they give off great delicious fruits the next season so this year my host is attacking the plum orchard...its big and its on the hillside. So since I dont know how to prune while her and her friend cut the trees I organized the wood into salvagable piles of wood and wood that got turned into fertalizer for the trees. And funny while they cut trees with electric saws I used a hatchet from the 50's it was actually kinda cool I felt like tarzan....hahaha. But it was a long day of work...sorta, not difficult but long labour about 7 hours i guess.
And tomorrow we are going to go to another farm to help out since they have like a community here of people helping eachother out trying to be self sufficient, and they help each other out. which is amazing.
My host also liked french onion soup but doesnt know how to. Luck y for me she doesnt like veal, just like Jessica and I can use the recipe I made for jessica...using real cheese not soy cheese. So that will be fun. And she also asked me what I am doing after two weeks and if id consider staying a bit longer. Not sure yet but I would consider it.
Thursday morning shes going to take me to the market in a near by town that she likes to go to, which will be really cool.
And thats about it for now!
ciao
part 2 of tuncasno italy
So I took the train through Bologna and to Fireneze where I was supposed to transfer trains to the regional tracks but the things is they dont put a time on your ticket because you can take whatever you want whenever you want. It was hell just trying to find someone that spoke english that can help me find my train. And since they dont post all the stops like they do in france you have to know the final stop that you are going to.
Lucky for me I remember my host saying that I can take a train to Chiusi and then transfer trains to go to montepulciano. So that is what I did. Lucky for me I was right and caught the trains at the right time. Going through the country side here is magnificant, with the hillsides lined with vine yards, olive groves etc. Absolutely beautiful!
So I pulled into Chiusi and waited to board the next train. The train left the station on time and arrived on time as well. I called my host but the girl who answered doesnt speak english very well, so she didnt get my host to pick me up so I waited about 45 minutes. I bought a calling card in the meantime, and went to the bank to take out some money.
When I got picked up we drove back, and pulled up to what I thought must be a dream. The house is perched on the hilltop overlooking the groves adn orchards going all down the side of the mountain into the valley where it meets the neighbors vineyards. I took some pictures and they are on my facebook page.
Im pretty much in like my own hotel, where I have my own room adn shower and kitchenette as well. REally nice and cool, temperature as well. Its funny though that when I arrived they must have thought I was some city boy who just wants an experience. But I spoke to my host some more and I think shes ok now.
So I was taken into town which is 3 km away and its a medeivel city with its own arched entrance, really cool. I went to the tourism office to get a map but they charge for it..ridiculous but hey, nothing you can do. I didnt buy one though. I walked around the city a bit and took some pictures and bought an english italian dictionary.
When we got back my host turned off the outside lights and looking up at the sky its a sight to see as the stars adn full moon shine in full beauty. We had dinner and had some wine and then I went upstairs to make phone calls and email.
This morning it was cold outside, but the chickens were fed already, so I just hung out until about 10ish adn then we started makign our way down to the grove to do pruning of the trees for the next season. and thats what we were doing until we had lunch so now I will probably head back out to continue for a few more hours, then continue to blog later
ciao
Lucky for me I remember my host saying that I can take a train to Chiusi and then transfer trains to go to montepulciano. So that is what I did. Lucky for me I was right and caught the trains at the right time. Going through the country side here is magnificant, with the hillsides lined with vine yards, olive groves etc. Absolutely beautiful!
So I pulled into Chiusi and waited to board the next train. The train left the station on time and arrived on time as well. I called my host but the girl who answered doesnt speak english very well, so she didnt get my host to pick me up so I waited about 45 minutes. I bought a calling card in the meantime, and went to the bank to take out some money.
When I got picked up we drove back, and pulled up to what I thought must be a dream. The house is perched on the hilltop overlooking the groves adn orchards going all down the side of the mountain into the valley where it meets the neighbors vineyards. I took some pictures and they are on my facebook page.
Im pretty much in like my own hotel, where I have my own room adn shower and kitchenette as well. REally nice and cool, temperature as well. Its funny though that when I arrived they must have thought I was some city boy who just wants an experience. But I spoke to my host some more and I think shes ok now.
So I was taken into town which is 3 km away and its a medeivel city with its own arched entrance, really cool. I went to the tourism office to get a map but they charge for it..ridiculous but hey, nothing you can do. I didnt buy one though. I walked around the city a bit and took some pictures and bought an english italian dictionary.
When we got back my host turned off the outside lights and looking up at the sky its a sight to see as the stars adn full moon shine in full beauty. We had dinner and had some wine and then I went upstairs to make phone calls and email.
This morning it was cold outside, but the chickens were fed already, so I just hung out until about 10ish adn then we started makign our way down to the grove to do pruning of the trees for the next season. and thats what we were doing until we had lunch so now I will probably head back out to continue for a few more hours, then continue to blog later
ciao
Monday, February 1, 2010
two looong days of travel
On the train yesterday leaving france for Milano Italy, I typed up a blog for yesterday that I was going to copy and paste when i got to the rodals but I didnt have internet and I couldnt find it this morning so I have to retype everything so this might be very long adn two days worth...but ill try to remember everything.
I woke up early and packed my tooth brush and tooth paste, packed my stuff up and wrote a thank you letter to my roommate. I grabeed my luggage and went to the pastry shop down the block to buy a baguette and a raising pastry that they make so well.. I was clinging onto france I guess. I walked to the metro and went to the train station. My luck and the escalator was broken and I had to shlep my luggage up two flights of stairs. Let me just remind everyone how heavy my luggage is, that when I flew out of pearson my luggage was 40 kg and I had to split it up into two in order to take it on the plane. Anyways I made it to the station and waited for my train. I got on and the train was actually two trains, one half going to seperate from teh other at a small town half way to Geneva. But all they said was whoever is goin got Geneva make sure to sit in the front two cars. Which I did! Yes Gary I am not that scatter brained!!..hahah. Anyways it was funny to see when I got to geneva that there were only two cars left of a much larger train that started out in Lyon.
The train ride was peacefull and nice as well to Geneva and when I got there I had my baguette for lunch and of course a beer. Why a beer? Because I had so much left over that I am too jewish to leave it for my roommate so I packed it with me.
I got on the train headed for Italy and it looked like you were sitting in a airplace since there were screens and little movies and it had google maps showing you exactly where you were in the country and a camera on the front of the train showing you what was in front of you. Really cool. There was even the secret police came on board and check out a small group of asians that I guess where acting suspicious.
For most of the trip I had the seat next to me empty which was good because that meant I had my bags right next to me, but the last stop in Switzerland before Italy the train really filled up, and the seat next to mine got snatched up. Anyways my new neighbor was a girl I guess in university in Milano or in switzerland, and she was rehearsing a speech of some sorts then she plugged in her phone and started singing to her music..which was kinda funny so I plugged in my computer and played freecell and listened to my music.
Anyways I got to milano and headed for the buses and found my way after going in circles for a few minutes trying to find someone who spoke english. I found it and got on the bus. The bus driver didnt speak english and I didnt understand what he was saying for me. Lucky for me there was a girl in the back of the bus that heard what I was asking for and understood what the driver said, and she translated and there were some old ladies who knew the stop so they said to come to the back of the bus and they would tell me when it was my stop..I said fine.. anyways half way through the girl says to me I shoul dturn my knapsack around since there are pickpocketers everywhere...I tol dher if someone was going ot break my lock to get into my knapsack they will find smarties adn my pjs and if they wanted it so badly they can have them..I wouldnt even put up a fight...hahah
Anywyas I go tto the rodals had left over chicken from shabbos and headed otu to my meeting with the caterer regarding pesach. It went well, and I dont want to talk about it now since I have lots to discuss with jessica before I divulge any more.
Anyways I got to the train station this morning and you can literally pick out of the crowd the pickpocketers...it really is funny. I bought my train tickets and headed to my final destination...I will write more tomorrow about this since I am tired.
yehuda
I woke up early and packed my tooth brush and tooth paste, packed my stuff up and wrote a thank you letter to my roommate. I grabeed my luggage and went to the pastry shop down the block to buy a baguette and a raising pastry that they make so well.. I was clinging onto france I guess. I walked to the metro and went to the train station. My luck and the escalator was broken and I had to shlep my luggage up two flights of stairs. Let me just remind everyone how heavy my luggage is, that when I flew out of pearson my luggage was 40 kg and I had to split it up into two in order to take it on the plane. Anyways I made it to the station and waited for my train. I got on and the train was actually two trains, one half going to seperate from teh other at a small town half way to Geneva. But all they said was whoever is goin got Geneva make sure to sit in the front two cars. Which I did! Yes Gary I am not that scatter brained!!..hahah. Anyways it was funny to see when I got to geneva that there were only two cars left of a much larger train that started out in Lyon.
The train ride was peacefull and nice as well to Geneva and when I got there I had my baguette for lunch and of course a beer. Why a beer? Because I had so much left over that I am too jewish to leave it for my roommate so I packed it with me.
I got on the train headed for Italy and it looked like you were sitting in a airplace since there were screens and little movies and it had google maps showing you exactly where you were in the country and a camera on the front of the train showing you what was in front of you. Really cool. There was even the secret police came on board and check out a small group of asians that I guess where acting suspicious.
For most of the trip I had the seat next to me empty which was good because that meant I had my bags right next to me, but the last stop in Switzerland before Italy the train really filled up, and the seat next to mine got snatched up. Anyways my new neighbor was a girl I guess in university in Milano or in switzerland, and she was rehearsing a speech of some sorts then she plugged in her phone and started singing to her music..which was kinda funny so I plugged in my computer and played freecell and listened to my music.
Anyways I got to milano and headed for the buses and found my way after going in circles for a few minutes trying to find someone who spoke english. I found it and got on the bus. The bus driver didnt speak english and I didnt understand what he was saying for me. Lucky for me there was a girl in the back of the bus that heard what I was asking for and understood what the driver said, and she translated and there were some old ladies who knew the stop so they said to come to the back of the bus and they would tell me when it was my stop..I said fine.. anyways half way through the girl says to me I shoul dturn my knapsack around since there are pickpocketers everywhere...I tol dher if someone was going ot break my lock to get into my knapsack they will find smarties adn my pjs and if they wanted it so badly they can have them..I wouldnt even put up a fight...hahah
Anywyas I go tto the rodals had left over chicken from shabbos and headed otu to my meeting with the caterer regarding pesach. It went well, and I dont want to talk about it now since I have lots to discuss with jessica before I divulge any more.
Anyways I got to the train station this morning and you can literally pick out of the crowd the pickpocketers...it really is funny. I bought my train tickets and headed to my final destination...I will write more tomorrow about this since I am tired.
yehuda
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