I wanted to catch up with a couple of things. First, I don’t think I ever showed a picture of the garage we rent. It is quite spacious and we even thought we could use it to store things like pellets for our stove as the space, even with the car inside, is big.

Last week when we went to Leroy and Merlin we purchased some items. It never ceases to amaze me that nearly everything I buy here is made in Italy. How they manage to hold onto industry here and we can’t do that in the US is puzzling to me. This is the box with the toilet paper holder and brush we bought for the guest bath.

We also talked to Jim, our realtor about our fireplace and terrace shade (two items from our list). He dropped by and took a look. He knows just about everyone so we figured he was a good source. Also Emanuele is a busy person lately and we thought we’d try to manage without him this time. Jim said what we wanted to do to the fireplace was definitely doable. He is supposed to get in touch after he talks to some folks.

Saturday morning dawned gray but the Kilometer Zero market is hanging in, even in the dead of winter.

We had planned to go with Joseph and Paul to visit a vineyard or two. We drove to Montifalco and first visited Adanti. We still had time before they all close for lunch so we visited Filippo not far away. We managed to fill the trunk of course.

We had decided not to lunch because Joseph and Paul needed to get back to Georgia, their little dog. I had planned to make dinner tonight anyway. I want to share a great recipe that I found for roast chicken. This is the best, and the easiest roast chicken I’ve ever found and I’ve been making it over and over. It is by Thomas Keller of the French Laundry. The trick is to make the chicken very dry so it crisps up. You also put it in the oven and do not mess with it. So easy. Best Roast Chicken. I do not use a rack. It is just as good in a pan with space around it. And here is a picture of mine. SO GOOD!!

And finally, on Sunday we went back to Calagranna for lunch. Alberto was in the hospital so Ely was cooking and had a big birthday party bunch of Brits coming but she said that is we just eat what she is making for them we can come. It turned out it was roast beef and yorkshire puddings with all the fixin’s as a main course. But for us the best part was the anitpasti. She made a bunch of wonderful little things. I couldn’t describe them all but here is a picture.