Category Archives: Eating

Checking in

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Hi all. I thought I would check in with the few interesting things we have been doing. Being winter, and pretty darn cold, we haven’t been doing too much. I have been volunteering at the Books for Dogs/Libri per i Cani shop. It’s pretty fun. I work on Saturdays, either early or late shift.

Today the bathroom renovation began. The plumber came to disconnect all the appliances. So all the sinks and shower, bidet and toilet have been unhooked. Monday the true demolition will begin. I am not sure how long this job will take. I do know Irma has received all the materials for it, so once demolished I would think they would begin installing the tiles, sinks, toilet etc. The electrician must also come. Then the plumber comes back. Maybe a couple weeks? I’ll post pictures in my next post.
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On the cooking front I have made some wintery dishes. Chili, always a favorite, with borlotti beans. My favorite roast chicken from Thomas Keller of the French Laundry. So simple but so delicious. Then over the weekend I made a Kimchi Soup. Yeah, I know it’s not Italian, but I love those exotic tastes on occasion and this one pushes all the buttons. Luther thinks he doesn’t like kimchi, but when it’s used as an ingredient it is more acceptable. (He liked the soup 🙂) There are lots of discussions on the Facebook Expat groups about foreign foods. Many people are adamant that when you come to live in Italy you embrace the food. Others say they miss flavors of home and it’s perfectly ok to use them. And the third group also misses all the diverse cuisines of the world that are available in the U.S. For myself, I love Italian food, I also love comfort foods from home, and I love exotic tastes. So here is my kimchi soup in pictures 🙂

The recipe called for bok choy but that’s not found here. So I used bietole which is like chard, and very close to bok choy. This soup came together very quickly. It was bright and spicy tart and sour. Very yummy
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I met with a friend, Elizabeth Wholly this morning, for a caffè. My favorite bar is Bar Mary as my long time readers know. It is in the piazza. And in summertime, it is great to sit outside with a spritz or a coffee and watch the world go by. But in the winter, they only have one pretty barren back room and mostly the tables are filled with the old men playing cards. My go-to wintertime bar is Antico bar Giardino. It is just outside the piazza on one of the main roads through town. It, too, has a lovely garden, hence the name, but it also is cozy with deep upholstered sofas and chairs, quirky tables, many different rooms, vaulted ceilings nice barriste. Coffee is good, pastries tasty, nice wines for aperitivo. They have apericena, (drinks with snacks) in the evening. They also have a warm stufa 😁.

Stay tuned for the bathroom renovation!

Umbertide Christmas street art exhibit – Buon Anno!

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Every year for the last three or four, as part of the Christmas celebration, Umbertide hosts an outdoor art exhibit. It is on one of the main shopping streets, Via Garibaldi. Yesterday, since it was fairly mild out, I walked down the street, admired each painting, and took a picture to share with you all for New Years. There are quite a few entries. I now can more slowly look at them at leisure too!

You will notice that there is a religious theme here (of course). Some I couldn’t figure out how it fit, like the one with the rabbit. Rabbit? Shouldn’t that be Easter? Oh well.

You will also see that our own Saint from Assisi, San Francesco, plays a big part in these paintings. There are a lot with birds and St. Francis. He famously preached to the birds. He loved all creatures. The legend of St Francis and the wolf of Gubbio is one of my favorites. We have even visited the church under which the wolf was supposedly buried. It is only a legend, after all right? Then how? 😳 Read the legend in the link to the end to see. I counted 13 works below that feature St. Francis and the wolf.

My friend, Kathleen Mack has a painting in the exhibition. I promised her I would take pictures since she isn’t here right now. She has an apartment in town and comes for the Schengen shuffle, 90 days here, 90 days in the U.S. I will put hers first and then do all the others for your new years enjoyment! She chose San Francesco and the wolf as well. A couple have captions.

I note they mis-spelled her name.
Nicely done. Love Mary and Joseph’s awed expressions.
The rabbit.
A Presepe

I took a picture of the artists as well. Here they are.

Finally, the obligatory food report. 😁. Yesterday I tried a new recipe called Hoppin John Soup. I like regular Hoppin John for the new year but this was better to me. And if anyone is curious, no, you can’t get black eyed peas here. We have some beans that look like them, but they don’t taste anything like them. I have a small stash of them I brought over.

Finally, on New Years Even we are supposed to all wear red underwear, and eat cotechino with lentils for luck! I kinda think in 2025 we are all going to need that!

Buon anno a tutti!

Christmas 2024

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Christmas this year was a bit different. As you know from all the past Christmas posts we normally stay home for the day. This year, we were invited to our friends Susan and Gary’s apartment in Florence. They have been there a few years and we had never seen it. Susan had planned a Christmas luncheon for 11 already so just added Luther and I into the mix.

We stayed in a much-too-big for us apartment that actually shared a wall with their apartment so it was easy to go back and forth between the two. And we had to because we used the oven and refrigerator in our rental as well as their own kitchen. Here is the view from the bedroom of the rental. It is the Uffizi museum, just across the Arno and far to the left is the Ponte Vecchio so you can’t get a better spot in Florence. Next photo is the Uffizi straight on with the tower in the big piazza behind it. All was quiet on Christmas morning.

The Christmas lunch was being catered by a restaurant that Susan and Gary enjoy. One of the owners is American so they do turkey and fixin’s American style. The restaurant owner arrived on his motorcycle with the big box of food strapped on back. He delivered it to the kitchen and proceeded to take out all the dishes, multiple courses and sauces and explain what to do. Well we all nodded and said va bene and then we all promptly forgot what went with what and how it was to be used. After several phone calls we thought we had it all straight. We were lucky it was so cold and that they have an outside space just off the kitchen. We used it as an auxiliary refrigerator.

Then we sat around the kitchen table and worked out a step-by-step timeline for the meal. It took a LOT of time. Turns out it was invaluable on the day of the feast. There were so many different moving parts and courses that for us six to get it all done and in an organized and timely fashion it was necessary and we referred to it constantly.

I took a picture of the ballroom which was going to be used as a dining room this day. Susan and Gary had worked very hard to get tables and chairs and decorations and everything all set up. It is a beautiful room, check out the frescos.

We had a chance to meet all of Susan and Gary’s new friends. We enjoyed meeting them. The description of the meal. Appetizers: there were three, a mushroom strudel with a cheese sauce, smoked salmon on toast, and artichokes with a delicious garlic sauce. The next course was Cappeletti pasta cooked in a rich broth and it was served next to tiny meatballs. All of that was submerged in the broth. Main course was served buffet style. Turkey, dressing, vegetables gravy. Only one picture.

Here we all at table.

It was a lot of fun. Thank you Susan and Gary for a lovely Christmas. It was wonderful to share the holiday with you and your friends and sister Sarah!

Next day we took the train back home. It takes just 1.5 hours to get to Florence from the station that we use in Umbria.
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Here is my annual Christmas Card. I hope 2025 is a good year for us all. Happy Holidays to all my friends and family!

New Supermercato in Umbertide!!

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Big days in Umbertide. We had heard rumors for years about a new super store coming to Umbertide. We waited, and waited. They had been repurposing the old Molino Popolare facility. It is a big piece of land on the main road south out of town. The old mill had been defunct for a long time. They tore down, and cleaned up all the small superfluous buildings but left the big four story old mill building. Rumors had it that would become loft space. Anyway, we had noticed them building a new road etc, but somehow, seemingly in the dead of night, someone snuck in a big, shiny, new supermarket! An EMI to be exact. Today we went over for a look see inside. It is open all day Sunday, not the usual here.

Front of store
From the back, to show the old mill building.

We went inside and applied for the EMI membership card so we could get the discounts. Then we explored. For you Americans out there this will seem mundane for the most part. But much of it is very unusual, especially for our smallish town. Here we go, captions if needed.

Interior of store
Fresh squeeze-it- yourself orange juice. Yay!
I guess I’ll try the guac someday.
Can you feel me rolling my eyes?! 🙄 puleeze.
Lots of fresh pasta both here and in the case.
Well it is almost Christmas after all…time for panetone!
Hah! Hamburgeria.
Aging beef
Prepared seafood. Fries with eyes! The fresh seafood looked great as well.
Prepared foods.
Disappointed in the cheeses. Nothing interesting.
Pizza by the slice.
Here’s something you don’t see here…donuts!
Freshly baked bread.
In the US the biggest aisle is cereal. Here….it’s pasta of course!
Prosciutto for Natale!

Luther gave the wine selection a three🫤. I found a few nice things. I bought a rack of lamb from the butcher. I found pork tenderloins which I haven’t seen in a few years. I bought three! I bought fresh bread and a few other things. There was no international section which I had hoped to see. Overall, it is a nice store. More variety than the Coop. But not a great store.

Cinghiale stew

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The weather has gotten cold and damp. We had our first hard frost. The days are so short now. But the Christmas lights have been going up, which are cheery, and I saw pictures of the Christmas tree going up in the piazza. The big tree lighting day is December 8 on L’Immacolata Concezione, or the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Photo credit Helen Harrison Jefferson

Cinghiale! That well loved beast which runs wild here in Italy. Well they are well loved for their meat but little else. I don’t know any hunters, but I have a store here in town that carries the meat. Occasionally I buy it and make a warming stew or ragú. Yesterday it was a stew.

The raw ingredients.
It has to marinate for at least a day

The meat can be tough. And it can have a strong taste. So it must be marinated a good long time. I used celery, carrots, onion, juniper berries, rosemary, bay leaf and red wine. When ready I drained it from the marinade. Meanwhile I chopped a carrot, celery, and onion which I sautéed until it softened. Then I added the meat and cooked until no longer pink. I added in more rosemary and bay leaves and then deglazed with a robust red wine. I used Primitivo which is said to be the grape from which Zinfandel evolved. Once the alcohol had evaporated I added some of the marinade and a little water. Then I covered and braised it in the oven for 2 hours, checking every so often to be sure there was still liquid. When it was done I thickened the sauce and checked for seasoning. It was meltingly tender and delicious. The recipe said serve over polenta but Luther isn’t a fan so I used mashed potatoes.

The finished dish.

It was delicious. 😋

Thanksgiving 2024

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We had some wild weather last week with strong winds and rain. After the storms, all of a sudden all of the surrounding mountains changed to gold. I couldn’t get a good picture but this is our Monte Acuto. Doesn’t look so golden in this one but take my word for it, it is!

Thanksgiving was wonderful. We had nice weather, we got to see a lot of friends and we ate lots of food!

We were guests of Susan and Gary at a table with nine people. Luther and I treated everyone to the wine. We had four italiani and five americani. We are all old friends. I sat at the end of the table with the Americans who mostly don’t speak great Italian. Me, Roger, Gary. Luther was seated next to Antoinetta. She is mother to our old Geometra, Manuele who did our first renovation here. Manuele’s wife, Barbara came with her mother in law. Then there was Fabio, our most enthusiastic thanksgiving Italian friend. He wonders why we only do this once a year?! And his girlfriend Chiara.

As always, we went to Calagrana. They always have a Thanksgiving lunch every year. The dining room was full. Quite a few British friends also like the feast. Here is the food starting with a plate of four little bites.

Then a gamberi appetizer served chilled.

The main event. A Tom turkey who weighed in at 18 kilograms or about 40 pounds. The entire dining room was fed from this bird. They made a smaller one just in case, but it wasn’t needed.

The turkey was probably the best I have ever had. The entire thing was moist and delicious. There were many sides. A roll of sausage, dressing mashed potatoes, carrots and green beans. I provided the cranberry sauce. I used up my last cranberries on this one.

For dessert we had a delicious, and light, semifreddo.

After dinner we had a delicious coffee with cognac and whipped cream. I didn’t get a picture.

It was a really nice lunch. It was so good to see everyone. I am very Thankful for my life here in Italy and all the blessings we have. I miss family on this holiday where families are the most important part. I hope all of you folks who read this journal had a wonderful day as well.
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Baci e abbracci a tutti! 💕

Books for Dogs – Libri per i cani

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As an addendum to my last post about the appalling practice of catching, killing and/or eating songbirds in the north of Italy. This is practiced everywhere in Italy but the Brescia area is a natural place because of the north south valleys that are natural migration routes for the songbirds. I hope anyone who sees this in their area will turn them in. It is illegal. And cruel. A couple people asked for the name of the group so I thought I would publish the link. They take volunteers (but there is a rigorous fitness test). I will just donate some money. Committee Against Bird Slaughter. They also have a Facebook page.
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Yesterday I volunteered for the first time at Books for Dogs/Libri per i Cani. I helped them out years ago, before they had an actual store. It was time I try again. They sell donated items to support two Canili (dog rescues) here. They have all sorts of things. You never know what will come in the door. Could be an Armani designer blouse! Or a lawn mower! Right now it is all about Christmas. So I was just kind of learning the ropes yesterday. I was a bit worried I wouldn’t be able to stand up that long. My back complains usually. But I did fine so I will do it more regularly.
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Today, Sunday, I decided to use the things I bought yesterday at the market before going to volunteer. I got 2 pieces of zucca. That’s the word for most all types of winter squash and pumpkins. I also bought cavolo nero — black kale. I roasted the zucca until it was soft and cut into pieces. I sautéed an onion and garlic, then added the chunks of zucca, a chopped jalapeño and vegetable broth. I simmered for a while until the zucca was completely soft. I used the wand blender to purée. Next I added black beans, corn kernels and chopped green pepper. And finally the chopped kale and a rosemary sprig. I cooked it about half an hour and it was done.

Later tonight I will grill a whole orate on the fire which I built today. It was a good day for a fire. Gray and dreary and chilly. Very cheerful!

A trip to the wine country for lunch

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Today was a gorgeous autumn day. Crisp and brilliant sun with blue skies. We had planned another meet-up of the Gang o Six. A longstanding group which enjoys lunch together every so often. We wanted to see each other and have fun and this seemed like the time to do that.

We went to Osteria di Sagrantino at Doug’s suggestions since our first choice was closed for vacation. It turns out it was a great choice. It is just my favorite type of restaurant. Not pretentious at all and straight up, seasonal, good Umbrian food. Nice people. Great local wines. It is set among the famous Sagrantino vineyards which are all flaunting their autumnal colors. They are nearly past their peak but still very pretty.

Here is Osteria di Sagrantino. Nice outside space for summer. Inside cozy and an enoteca with a cheese and sausage display for sale.

My first course was Lonzino with Torta al Testo. I had not heard of Lonzino before. Lonzino is an air cured pork which is very thinly sliced. Not smoked like so much is here. It was served with the traditional flatbread of Umbria, torta al testo. I really enjoyed it.

Doug got the Vellutata di Verdura. It was a pretty puree soup of roasted seasonal vegetables.

For the next course most of us got the Tagliatelle con Funghi Porcini. Also called Cèpes in France, and Steinpilzen in Germany. A seasonal delicacy, the mushrooms are not cultivated but are foraged in the wild. Very meaty and delicious.

I forgot to take a picture of our desserts. They had three and we got one of each to share. A cheesecake with pears poached in sagrantino wine. Tiramisù. And a torta al cioccolato with Amaretto cream. All good.

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Today I had coffee with Joanne who brought our six liters of oil from the olives we helped harvest. Thanks Joanne and Mark!

And kindly Doug was nice to share a liter of his just harvested oil. Thanks Doug! We had some bruschetta with the two new oils. Both were delicious and both were quite different.

The distinctive green of the new oil on the bread. Yes, I took bites before I took the photo!

A la prossima…

Olive recap

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I just spoke with Joanne and she said they got 792 kilos of olives (1,746 pounds) in the two days of harvest. The yield was a bit more than 10%. So they got 88 liters of oil. I think they are pleased. They will share some with their helpers. I’m excited to try the new oil when it is truly brand new!

Tonight I had a hankering for something a little Texmex. I was in the store today and they had corn on the cob. This always confuses me here. In the U.S. the corn is a summertime vegetable. You sure won’t see it fresh in November! I have seen it a few times here, but only in the fall. I really don’t get how this could be.

Anywho, I made a marinated chicken with corn, sweet and spicy peppers, onions and black beans. It should hit the Mexican flavor buttons with cumin, chili powder, lime zest and juice for zing. Twas good.

Pictures up next of the new oil! As soon as I get it.

We voted!

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I want to encourage everyone to vote in this significant and important election. We mailed our ballots in this week using DHL because we wanted to be sure they got there safely and on time.

We had a beautiful Sunday today. Upper 60s and sunny. So lovely. And the sunset was spectacular! October has not been normal. Wetter and cooler than normal.

Finally tonight for dinner I made an Italian recipe, ragù di coniglio. Rabbit ragu. Rabbit is not a meat much used in the U.S., but it is very common here. I used to source it before we moved here at a specialty market. Now it is available right near the chicken in the regular supermarket. It’s not the cute bunny you think of. These are farmed just like chicken. The ragu.

Final dish.

It was good. But fussy to make. I hope your Sunday was nice! Buona domenica!