Mother Nature has changed direction. After the balmy summer nights of July and August, September has arrived. The crisp, damp mornings. Even though now it is accompanied by the sound of tractors heading off to the vineyards and the smell of wine fermenting in the town's cooperative, it still vividly reminds me of pulling up … Continue reading A Perfect Autumnal Plum Pie
The second Sunday in September will go down as the day in which both the oven and the dishwasher broke down. Of course, an oven never fails when you're not trying to use it. I had made a plum pie (see here) and was halfway through cooking the roast chicken and potatoes when it conked … Continue reading The Second Sunday in September
The boy and I got hit with a stomach bug this weekend. After just a half-day in the vineyards, we came home and he camped out on the sofa because it was closer to the bathroom whilst I battled a fever from underneath the duvet. Whoever said romance is dead! By the next day, some … Continue reading What Would Be Your Dream Kitchen?
"What do you mean, the old men of the village don’t come over to take a look at a building site in the UK?" asked my Italian friend, bewildered. I was asking why, over the last month or so, a stream of people have walked, driven and peered over at our ongoing - and increasing … Continue reading The Return of the Goat
[August 2018] I wrote about my experience of trying casu marzu for the travel site Bookmundi.com. You'll find it, under the "Unconventional Foods" section, here. [July 2017] I've already talked about mimolette (the cheese-mite / bed-bug cheese) which is often banned by the FDA in the USA for its high levels of *cough* "residual protein." But mimolette is a … Continue reading Casu Marzu – the “maggot cheese” from Sardinia
Butter, Ricotta and Kefir - I made all three of these at some point in Paris. They're relatively labour-intensive and ordering unpasteurised milk from my local cheesemonger (it had to be ordered in specially for me) got me the reputation of being "the weird English girl." However, the butter here in Italy is really dire (I was so spoilt in France!) that desperation may well drive me to risk my reputation again and ask my cheesemonger to put aside some milk for me...
It's been really boiling hot this week and often without as much as the slightest breeze. Temperatures will easily soar above 30 degrees (86F) every day... and what makes it particularly unbearable is that it doesn't start getting cool until at least 10pm at night. Normally I like standing in the kitchen, spatula in hand, … Continue reading Some Like It Hot
Picture an old house, on a hill, in the lush Italian countryside, completely surrounded by vineyards. Sounds idyllic, right? Especially if you've seen or read "Under The Tuscan Sun" you'll already have indulged yourself in a fantasy of doing up a house in Italy. Read this superb article in The New Yorker if you're under any … Continue reading Renovating A House In Italy Is Nothing Like “Under The Tuscan Sun”
Living - and surviving - in Italy means being resourceful. You think something's going to be ok because previous experience has taught you how it's done. Well, moving to Italy means putting all that "I've got this figured out" attitude aside and being prepared to eat a lot of humble pie. After a while, however … Continue reading To Survive In Italy, You Must Be Resourceful
You may remember from my post ten days ago (Building A Life) that building works have started recently on the house next-door. Consequently, my daily routine has now been set to a soundtrack of drilling, banging and grinding of heavy machinery. It starts at 7am and plays on loop until 5pm, with just one hour … Continue reading On Shaky Foundations?
The Burnt Cream Blog 