Monthly Archives: June 2017

Corn – part 2

I took a quick drive up to my friend (and corn partner) Angela’s house to see the corn we planted for the first time. As you may recall, I was not at all sure it was going to grow at all, given the earth was not tilled very deeply, but it has come up and looks OK. We can only wait and see if any of it produces ears of corn.

Here is a picture.
corn

On the way to Angela’s house. Olive grove. It was a brilliant day!
olive_trees

And here is an update on my terrace corn. It is doing quite well and I think we will get some corn from these plants.
terace_corn2

Mozzarella and Burrata

Hot, hot weather now. Big heat wave covering most of Europe. Here in Italy this front is called Guida, or Judas for obvious reasons. It blows across the Mediterranean from the Sahara and is HOT.

So, hoping to beat the heat, today I descended the stairs to visit the weekly market aiming for cool things, like salads. The wonderful tomatoes are in now and we are loving them. I aimed to buy some and some mozzarella and burrata. There is a man with a small truck who is here every week with the best. It’s sent up from Paestum (mozarella) and the Burrata comes from Puglia.  When the burrata is sliced open, a spurt of thickened cream flows out. The cheese has a rich, buttery flavor and retains its fresh milkiness. It is best when eaten within 24 hours and is considered past its prime after 48 hours. I you’ve not had it, it is a literally a bag tied up and inside are the creamy leavings from Mozzarella making. It is a useful way of using up the ritagli (“scraps” or “rags”) of mozzarella. But it is oh so much better than that!

Behold, burrata fresh from Puglia!buratta

Sliced open to reveal the creamy inside.
sliced_bag

Trying to divide it is difficult. I wanted some for lunch and the rest for dinner. Bag on the right is saved for later.
opened_bag

My lunch. Beautiful pomodori con basilico e Burrata.
lunch

Brochure from the producer of the Moazarella.
mozarella

Picture of the lady without which we’d never be able to enjoy this pleasure.
buffala

And it’s summertime in Umbertide. The outdoor cinema is open on Piazza San Francesco. It has seats outside with beer and wine sold and on Thursday they screen original language films.
cinema_al_centro

Dealing with health issues in Italia

I’ve avoided writing about something for a while now and it’s time I begin to chronicle this new adventure (?) Last year I began to have problems with my right knee. I went to my doctor and she prescribed anti-inflammatories and icing. For a while it seemed to improve but took a nosedive earlier this year. We are very new to the Italian health care system so are groping our way along with many false starts.

We went back to our doctor and I asked for an appointment with an orthopedic doctor. Dotoressa Mommi wrote a prescription for an appointment. And said it was urgent enough to get done in 30 days. The only available doctor was in Deruta, about 30 minutes south of us. We visited him and he was frustrated that we had no X-rays or an MRI. All he could do is proscribe something which turned out to be pretty useless. We decided to go and get an MRI on our own and pay for it. If I didn’t want to pay I could have gone and asked our doctor to prescribe one and waited (again). So we went to a diagnostic center and I paid 126€ for an MRI. Not bad.

Armed with this we could make an appointment privately with a doctor of our choice. The only one we knew was far south in Spoleto. We visited him and he read the MRI. He said I need a total knee replacement. Sigh. We paid 150€ to consult with him.

Back we went to our doctor. In hindsight we could have asked this doctor we went to privately and he could have put us into the system and done the surgery. But we didn’t understand this at the time. Dot. Mommi explained it to us. And she offered to make an appointment for us with a good orthopedic guy in Umbertide. I prefer to not have to go too far for the procedure mainly because I would like it to be close for Luther to visit.

We visited the orthopedic guy yesterday. He was nice enough and even spoke a little English. But mostly it was in Italian. He too recommended knee replacement. Second opinions are good. So he gave us a form to fill in and email to the powers that be to schedule surgery. As always, everything in Italy shuts down in August. In this case last week in July to first week in September for non-emergency surgery. So we are looking at October-November for operation. Sigh. It is a long wait.

I guess my biggest worry is communication while in hospital and rehab. But on the bright side (?) I’ll learn more Italian. We are told it’s 5-7 days in hospital and then three weeks in in-patient rehab. Seems excessive by American standards…but in America it is all about the bottom line so they kick you out fast! For me, I’m thinking by the time I’m done I’ll be able to do the stairs here. Operation will be in the very nice hospital in Perugia, rehab here in Umbertide.

Since this is what I’m stuck with I am going ahead with plans that I was kind of worried about. We have a cruise on the Crostian coast in August and have a friend housesitting. I didn’t want to cancel either. I may be stuck in my stateroom but… Then we have friends in late September and another in mid October. This will mean I can just do what I can do and I and my guests will have to deal with it.

For my everyday life I stay mostly in the apartment. I descend and ascend the three flights of stairs maybe once a day. So far, so good. Hurts but manageable. The good news is knee replacements have generally good results and are not too hard to recover from. Crossing fingers it will be so for me and I will be good as new. This will be great! 🙂

Project: Corn

Ciao a tutti! Today I’m posting about a food that is near and dear to my heart. Sweet, summer corn! When we lived in the US as SOON as the corn started coming in I had it frequently. I am a corn snob, however, and when I was buying at the farmers market I would push my fingernail into a kernel and if there wasn’t a squirt of liquid I wouldn’t buy. It is a sign of freshness and when it was picked. As soon as corn is picked the sugars in the kernels start to turn to starch and harden. No longer a succulent sweet ear but a hard starchy one. I had a garden a couple times in my life in which I grew corn, my mantra was…get the water boiling, go pick the corn off the stalk, immerse in boiling water for 5 minutes, slather with butter and a sprinkle of salt and EAT! Heaven.

The sad story is that here in Europe, all over as far as I’ve seen, people see corn as animal fodder, not for human consumption, on the whole. In Italy they do have canned corn, they do NOT have frozen which is infinitely better. I have searched for corn here and on two occasions last year I found some. The first had been allowed to stay on the stalk far too long and was all starch and inedible. The second, from Umbria, in the super market, in NOVEMBER(!) was actually almost good. SO…

I decided to buy seeds and find some way to plant some. On the Burpee website I came across Container Corn. It is corn that will do well planted in pots. So I bought some to try. I also bought two other types in hopes of finding an outside place to plant. I did manage to partner with my British friend Angela and paid for a plot to be prepared. It was hardly optimal. Good sun but the soil really wasn’t tilled deeply enough. We planted anyway so we’ll see.

I’m happy to say my corn on my terrace is doing really well. Angela told me the corn there was up and growing. I think I will have at least some corn this summer. Happy days!

Here is my corn.
corn2

I call this my orto. It means vegetable garden in Italian. It has my two spicy peppers and the corn.
corn

I love sweet basil and it’s almost ready to harvest the tops for pesto!
basil

My herb garden: parsley, thyme, sage, rosemarie and chives.
herbs

Flowers
planters

tunias

tunias2

Happy growing to any of my gardening friends. I will post progress reports occasionally.
Buona estate!

Lemon harvest!

My little lemon tree had 12 lemons on it! I am amazed at the output of these little trees. They flower and fruit all year. Already we have many new flowers and baby lemons. So I harvested ten of the pretty lemons and decided to make preserved lemons with them. Then I can make some Moroccan food this fall. They have to sit for at least three months.

lemon_harvest

preserving

Bellissimo view with our new Tende di Sole open.
tende_di_sole

Table set for dinner all’aperto. Nice. Did you know Al Fresco doesn’t mean eating outside in Italian? It means spending time in jail!
dinner_table

Fun with friends…old and new

We have had visitors for in the past few weeks and I’ve documented some of our adventures in pictures below.

Our first visitors were new friends. They own a place down in the south of Italy in a small town called Pisticci. They came to Umbertide for a few nights staying in a nearby B&B. We had fun showing them around. Our first lunch at Erba Luna in Montone. We went to Erbe Luna to escape a gaggle of loud Americans. But damned if they didn’t end up with us anyway. Can’t win. But they gave us our most memorable moment when one of them asked if a dish came with a side of spaghetti…must have been Italian Americans…maybe from New Jersey (no offense New Jerseyans). Reminded us of the movie, Big Night.
Erba_luna

Ravioli with tartuffi, truffles…
ravioli_truffles

Pretty stairs down from the walls above to the outside dining terrace.
erba_luna_stairs

View from Montone toward the Apennines.
Montone_appinines

Sunday was a beautiful day to go to Calagrana for Pranzo. Asparagus, poached egg showered with truffles.
tartuffi_asparagi

Too pretty to eat Scampi with grilled polenta.
2pretty2eat

Such perfect weather. Such a perfect view!
beauty_calagrana

We went to a couple of wineries for tastings and then to Montefalco to our favorite L’Alchemista. The Giro d’Italia was passing through town that day and they were all decorated in pink flags, bikes, and paraphernalia.

giro_d_italia

Ravioli and favas. Spring is the time for fresh favas.
l_alchemista_ravioli

We had a great time getting to know our new friends and plan to see them again soon.

The next weekend Luther and I decided to go to the Cantine Aperte, or open cellars. Many participating wineries. We chose one in Orvieto. It was a beautiful day but all the places we went to were very crowded.
Our picnic. It was a pretty day.
luther

Our next guests were very old friends…well not physically old! We’ve known each other since we all lived and worked in Germany 25 years ago.

We visited Montone for lunch and our great Wednesday market. The next day we went to Assisi. Our final day we visited Tabarinni, one of the best wineries in Umbria, lunched in Montefalco and went ceramic shopping in Deruta. Then, on the way to Rome we stopped in Orvieto mainly to see the magnificent Duomo. We had a light lunch of assorted bruschette and meat and cheese plates.

Lunch in Assisi. Another beautiful day.
Carlo_mary

The grilled octopus appetizer was amazing.
belissimo_octopus
As were the pastas.
pasta_Piaz_erba

pasta_favas

We enjoyed our time with our last guests. Talking of old times, eating, drinking and catching up.