Sunday, February 27, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
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.
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!
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.
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| Fabri and his Dad walking around Vernante after lunch |
Thursday, February 10, 2011
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!
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.
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.
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!
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| Brunella, Lulu and I loving the vino! |
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| The party people! |
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| My portrait by Lulu. |
Monday, February 7, 2011
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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| Laura & I on the train to Turin |
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| Piazza San Carlo |
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| Piazza Castello |
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| Porta Nuova Train Station |
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| Thumbs up to shopping in Turin |
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
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!
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!
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