International Woman's Day

Last week was the International Woman's Day which supposedly started in the US, but I had never heard about it before coming here.  In Italian it's called La Festa della Donna.  Fabri and I have never really celebrated it much.  Two years ago we bought a mimosa tree, the official woman's day flower.  Unfortunately Winter of 2009 was very harsh and that died and hasn't been replaced.  Last year Fabri probably brought me flowers, but I don't remember.  This year a couple of my American girlfriends here in Italy (Tammy & Anna) convinced me I had to do something for woman's day.  Fabri's response was, "yeah, sure, whatever go out and I'll go out with some guy friends."

The restaurant gave Tammy & I mimosa swags

So Tammy attempted to organize an evening of dinner and dancing, but apparently you have to book weeks ahead of time.  Who has time for that?  So then she suggested we go bowling.  I like bowling, but bowling in just two didn't sound that great, so I suggested we bring our husbands.  They put up a front like we were ruining their plans for a wild night out with the boys, but neither of them had spoken to any other "boyz" the afternoon of Festa della Donna.

Fabri and Michele LOVING their American import beers!

Anyway, they certainly enjoyed the restaurant choice! We went to Eleat in Cuneo. It's a new restaurant that opened in October.  Tammy & Michele had been there a few times and especially liked their mussel dishes.  Fabri and I were happy when we saw the reviews that they have good beer.  I have to say that bottle of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale tasted better than any Sierra Nevada I've had before. 

Tammy and Jess love Barbera!

The restaurant is very modern and looks super American compared to most of the restaurants I've been to in Italy.  It is on the third floor of an office building and the walls are completely windows so you can look out.  We told the owners that the restaurant was almost perfect, they just needed stools at the bar.  They had a nice looking American style restaurant bar, but no stools.  If they had been there, we would have had a drink at the bar while waiting for Tammy & Michele instead of waiting at the table.  Not that that's a big deal, but the restaurant owners said it was a good idea and that next time we came, there would be stools.  We all had the mussel appetizer and different pizzas.  It was good, but Tammy said the mussel portion used to be larger, and I'd like to see the bowl filled to the brim with mussels next time instead of the stools! 

Strike a bowling pose!

After dinner we went over to the bowling alley.  That was a lot of fun.  It was great to do something new.  We hadn't been bowling for at least a year.  I don't know if Festa della Donna will be an annual event for me, it's sort of a pointless holiday.  I expect Fabri to treat me like a goddess every day, not just one day a year! But it's always fun to have an excuse to go out with friends.

Roses Maria Pia bought me for Festa della Donna

A Normal Day in the Life

Exciting news.  This is my hundredth post!  Ok, not really that exciting, but I've been enjoying writing these and I really enjoy looking back at the photos and stories from the past 2.5 years.  Let me know what you like the best about the blog!

We've been keeping things low key lately.  You know, the holidays have been over for a couple months; the weather is still pretty bad; and, though we have things to look forward to, they're not happening until the spring.  So what have we been doing?  Well, Fabri's been working a lot and I've been trying to keep busy.  I have a few students, but I don't volunteer at the museum anymore.

the path around the field

Everyday I walk the dog a couple of times.  Often we meet neighbors with their dogs and let them play together in the field near our house.  

making some beer can chickens to eat for the week

I attempt to keep the house clean and presentable because sometimes we have fun folks come over for dinner!  This week was our upstairs neighbors.

rosemary encrusted salmon with red potatoes

I love to cook so I make dinner every night.  Sunday we made bugie, fried cookies, with Maria Pia.

Now that it's getting to be a little, tiny bit spring-like, I've been working in my "garden".  I cut some flowering bush branches and brought them inside to open.  The pink ones are very perfumed so the house smells like spring!

The palace in Racconigi, check out the storks on the roof!

Sometimes we go to markets or just to visit around a nearby town.  Last weekend we went to a flea market in Racconigi. 

Olney is a Fatso!

Another Snowy Weekend in the Mountains

I've been told my snowshoeing stories are getting boring.  Well too bad!  That's what we're doing in these days because it's February in the Alps!

Sunday morning we again headed to Limone to play in the snow.  On the way we stopped in an antique store to find a birthday present for Antonio.  We found a cute, iron shoe cleaner with squirrels on it.  Then we went and played in the snow with the Olney puppy.

Fabri and his Dad walking around Vernante after lunch

After our playtime, we left the puppy in the Limone apartment and met Fabri's whole family at Troll Brewery for Antonio's birthday lunch.  This time we ordered ahead of time the steak marinated in beer.  Yummy!

Birthday Dinner!!

Last night we went to Fossano to have dinner at Giovanni & Brunella's house for Giovanni's 45th birthday!  The big 45!

Giovanni made a yummy dinner.  He likes to cook, but thankfully took it easy for his own birthday.  We had focaccia, prosciutto and salami for an appetizer.  Accompanying that was a fizzy Barbera wine called Biricchina that Fabri and I brought from one of my favorite wineries, Roagna Igino.  The wine was perfect for aperitivo or appetizers.  Very happy with that pairing!

Brunella, Lulu and I loving the vino!

Giovanni made some pasta arrabbiata (spicy red sauce).  That's Fabri's favorite sauce and we were happy for the lightness of the dish.....because the next course was a cheese sampling!  I do not remember all the cheeses we ate but they were generally yummy and we had honey, fig jam and a special Piedmont jam called cugna to accompany them.  I tried for my first time a goat's milk blue cheese.  With the cheeses we drank a deliciously Barolo-like 2004 Nebbiolo wine.  It was strong, but it was so good.

The party people!

Then we had the cake and some sweet Moscato wine to accompany it. After cake we hung out on the sofas for a while.  Lulu was very talkative and played a lot with Fabri and I.  We sang songs from her song book I made her for her 4th birthday.  We posed for pictures and Lulu photographed us.  Then she spent a while jumping on Fabri and beating him up before being my hair dresser and manicurist while wearing my shoes.  Sometimes you need an evening playing with a 4 year old. 

My portrait by Lulu.

Shopping in Torino

My sister said that there are too many pictures of snow and stories of snowshoeing on my blog lately.  I asked her what she wanted to read about and she said shopping!  So that's what I did.

Laura & I on the train to Turin

I called my friend Laura (of Laura & Antonio) and said, "let's go to H & M in Turin Saturday morning."  She said, "ok, let's do it!"  Well sort of, we were speaking Italian the whole time and I don't remember what anyone said exactly, but that's the gist of the story.

Piazza San Carlo

So Saturday morning I walked the puppy twice before running off to Savigliano to pick up Laura.  We went to the station and caught the train to Turin.  It was pretty comfy and not crowded at all.  We arrived in Turin at about 9:45 in time for the stores opening at 10!!  We had a coffee and took some photos of the beautiful piazzas of Turin.

Piazza Castello

First we went into H & M which was full of 1980s throw back clothes.  Not cute.  But I did find a shirt and some hair clips.  Love those H & M accessories!  Then we went into a bunch of other clothes stores looking for some deals.  Not many to be had, but Laura did buy a skirt from Zara.  After a few hours shopping up and down the fancy Via Roma we headed back to the train station where we checked out a few more stores.  I bought some gloves at the train station United Colors of Benetton and then we got a couple of sandwiches for lunch. 

Porta Nuova Train Station

At 1 pm or so we caught the train back to Savi Beach.  I got home at 2:30 and walked the puppy who had probably slept all day.  Fabri got home at 3:30 and we hung out and took it easy until he had to go back to work for a night shift.  Thank goodness for a little shopping excitement!

Thumbs up to shopping in Turin

Troll Brewery

Last time I told you I would write about our super duper awesome lunch up in the mountains near Limone. 

Fabri and I have been getting more and more interested in the microbrewery revolution taking place here in Italy.  I would say as few as 5 years ago there were hardly any microbrew beers being made in Italy, now they boast more than 265! Last June we went to a little brew fest in Saluzzo where we must have tried the beer from about 10 breweries.  Unfortunately, a lot of these places only produce the beer, they don't have a restaurant, but we are finding more and more brewery restaurants to check out.  Also, the Italian microbrewery scene is expanding and even Saluzzo has a Baladin bar serving only microbrews now! 

After snowshoeing, Fabri and I took Maria Pia & Antonio to Troll Brewery in the Grande Valley above Vernante (for those of you who have visited, Vernante is the Pinocchio town).  You can find Troll beer in many fancier restaurants and wine stores around here, but we had never tried it.  We wanted to go to the restaurant for our tasting.  We were particularly excited because the Troll website talks about how they cook with beer (something I want to learn more about) and they cook their meat on the grill!

When we arrived, we found Troll to be much larger than we had imagined, and much more popular.  We were lucky to find a table in what I imagine was the original dining room.  There was also a very large add on with enormous windows which were closed in winter, but can be opened to provide an open dining room in summer.  When entering, there is a beautiful wooden bar and a fireplace in the middle of the room.

I wanted to try basically all of the food prepared with beer which included trout marinated in beer and then smoked and thinly sliced; beer bread batter rolled in balls and fried; and fresh cheeses with beer and spices.  Yum, yumm, yummmmm!  Those were are appetizers then we shared a couple of large rib steaks cooked on the grill.  Next time we go, I'm going to pre-order a steak marinated in beer then grilled!  That has to be reserved 24 hours in advance to allow time for the marinade.

Ok, so the beer.  Like many Italian microbreweries, they are generally rather high in alcohol.  The double malt" with 8% - 9% alcohol is served in every pub here.  While I love malty beer, these are often highly alcoholic just for the sake of being alcoholic, not for a benefit to the flavor.  While Fabri was delighted to try an Italian I.P.A (his fave American style beer) (6%), I went right to the dark, malty beers: a red double malt (8.5%) and a winter stout for dessert (10.5%)!  Maria Pia had an interesting pale ale (5.2%) with an after taste of lavander and Antonio had a Belgian white (4.7%).  All pretty excellent.

Of course at the end we had to buy some bottles to bring home.  We got Fabri 3 bottles of the I.P.A. and the kind proprietor gifted us two Troll glasses so that we could drink the beer from the appropriate glass.  Little did he know that Fabri & I collect beer glasses!  Anyway, it was really nice and really fun and we can't wait to go back and of course we will be bringing my parents when they visit in April!