The town of Matera, in southern Italy. Matera is a very unique little city, with houses piled one atop another, but all of them dug into the solid rock sides of the little canyon. Most of them are uninhabitable now, although some have been remodeled, fortified so they’re safe.

After leaving Ostuni, where we stayed in the Trulli masseria, we drove a few hours to Matera, toward the west into Basilicata. Southern Italy is a poor part of Italy, and back in the day, these crude carved hovels of homes dug into the rocks were even then hardly considered homes; yet thousands lived there. At some time in the recent past the government forced people to move out – and paid for them to be housed elsewhere. Some of the dwellings have been repaired, but probably most of them have not.

The photo at right I copied from Wikipedia. The old town of Matera is a narrow canyon, and the caves were fronted with a façade, an entrance, with a door and maybe a window. They rise up on both sides, networked with tiny passageways, and jillions of steps.

The photo at left was one fairly level area. Because Tom & Joan lived in Italy for a couple of years, back about 20 years ago, they have some Italian language skills, so we were able to wend our way into the canyon, up a very narrow street that ended a few hundred feet further on. The natives pointed to a set of cobblestone steps. And no, the car couldn’t stay there. We were told we could park on the street long enough to get our luggage out and up, but then Tom had to go find parking someplace else.

Then we began our ascent up. And up. And up. I really didn’t count how many steps we took UP, but I’m guessing it was in the 90s. All somewhat primitive cobblestones, rounded, some flat, uneven for sure! Tom carried my suitcase for me. THANK YOU, Tom! I took my carry-on and my raincoat and my purse. And up we went. We stopped to take a photo or two, and finally, we came to the hotel, L’hotel in Pietra. It has good ratings on Trip Advisor. The rooms are absolutely gorgeous, and inexpensive. My room, #1006, was 95 euro.

The bathroom, you can see there straight ahead, was dug further into the rock and was very low ceilinged (rock), and the big walk-in square shower was behind the door.

The walls were the raw stone, but done nicely, and the room was very cosy. Warm. Inviting. It’s a small hotel – they have about 10 units or so, I believe, and they vary in price depending on how big they are.

The biggest disadvantage to Matera is that nothing is very easy to get to. There are cobblestone paths every which way, up a few steps, down a few, over a few, around corners, up, and up some more. Obviously if you live here, you’ll get to know the passageways like the back of your hand. The rest of my group did go on a guided walking tour of Matera (I opted out, just to be on the safe side with my foot). My guess is that residents of Matera are all heart-healthy because of all the climbing and walking they must do in their little town, every day.

We had dinner in a restaurant that was a kind of winding path to get to. Fortunately it wasn’t too many steps up further than the hotel. We used an elevator at one point to get to the top.

My room did have that one itty-bitty little window (see photo at right) – it could be closed, but I left it open all night. There was a big window up high in the room (up above my bed and to the right in the outside wall) which provided plenty of light.

As you can see, some of the steps are wide and long, and most had a center groove for drainage. But all, and I mean all, of the flat surfaces were uneven. Rocks are the way of life in Basilicata, so they use them every way they can. No cement for them – they used their free resources!

I think one night in Matera is probably enough. At the most two, with a full day of walking around all over the town. Fortify yourself with water and some snack food as you’d expend a lot of energy going everywhere!

While everyone else went on the walking tour, I wended my way down the steps to the small main street of town and found a little restaurant recommended by the hotel. I don’t remember what this was called, but it had 3 different kinds of pasta in it – little spirals, the little ears (conciglie?) and a few tube-type ones. It had a sauce of tomatoes, mushrooms and cheese. It was a bit on the dry side, so I didn’t eat but about half of it. It was tasty, though. And I think I ordered a Coca-Cola. Precious stuff Cokes are in other parts of the world. Here I think I paid about $4 for it. In Paris I think I paid $8 at one place. I ordered a Coca-Cola about 8 times on the trip, I would guess. Mostly we drank water.

Tweet

I’ve always loved ceramics. And many years ago I took classes (this was about 50 years ago) learning only how to paint them, not form them with the clay. These pots above I thought were particularly beautiful. They were sitting in a window sill at the Masseria Cervarolo.

Puglia is known for its ceramics. Umbria is also, and is probably the more well known for the town of Deruta, where most of the world-famous plates and dishes are made. So it was a surprise to find that Puglia has its own reputation for ceramics as well.

The Masseria had a number of lovely things sitting around, and we found out that the town where most of them are made, Grottaglie, was about 15+ miles away. So on one of our forays out to nearby towns to tour, we made a detour to visit the ceramics shops.

The photo at left is a large piece (probably 2 1/2 feet high) that sits in the living room of the Masseria. I’m not a fan of cactus, but I’d suppose some people must be, otherwise nobody would make such ceramic sculptures! I found it so interesting that they’d make one, and also that it would be white.

There at right is a grouping of 3 very tall vases (the tallest one is probably 2 1/2 feet tall). It sat in a corner in the same living room at the Masseria.

We found out who the ceramicist was (name and shop name) and went in search of his workshop in Grottaglie. Imagine our dismay when we discovered the shop was closed. It was Friday afternoon, Good Friday, so we supposed all the shops must be closed for the holiday. We walked around some more, did find a couple of shops open, but they had nothing like what I was looking for. I wanted to buy one piece, or maybe 2 or 3 in a grouping that will sit on my very large kitchen island. I’d also seen a particularly cute artichoke at the Masseria that I wanted to find.

There at left are two steps at the Masseria where they’d set out some fresh flowers. Note the very rustic walls. So simple, but yet so pretty.

Well, anyway, we wandered into another shop and I knew immediately this one would probably have something I’d like. The proprietor came towards us and after saying hello, I asked: “do you ship to the United States?” He was so very funny – he said “of course, is Nordstrom good enough?” We all laughed. He spoke very good English and had a beautiful store. Fasano Ceramiche.

Wandering all over the large store, I found lots of things I liked. If I could have, I’d have purchased about 100 things and shipped them all. Puglia is known for one particular shaped thing, called a pumi. It’s egg-shaped with a flared base so it will stand. All over the region we’d see them on the top corners of buildings. On the top of walls, on patio fences. Sitting on front steps, in windows. I asked about them, and was told that they’re a Puglian good luck symbol, and often women use them as a fertility good luck charm, so to speak. Well, the things I bought aren’t pumi, but they are similarly shaped.

The shop had dozens of pumi in different colors and sizes. This was a distant shelf with them in many sizes. The pumi always is shown with leaves around the bottoms.

What I bought is a bit different – they’re ceramic egg shapes with decorated tops, in a mosaic kind of loose pattern.  And no leaf patterns. See photo below.

I purchased the lower set of 3, but they’ll be in a gold/mustard color in the mosaic design (which will blend in with the streaky granite I have on my kitchen countertop). I also bought one artichoke. It’s so cute. I have no specific idea where the artichoke is going to go in my house, but I wanted it, that’s all I knew. The artichoke is about 11 inches high, I’m guessing. Photo below.

I’m supposed to receive them in the next week or so. Customs inspection permitting.

Tweet

Do you keep a travel log when you take a trip? Especially if I’m abroad I do. I just kept a short running commentary of notes about what I did each day and what I had to eat.

At the Masseria Cervarolo, we enjoyed two wonderful dinners; multi-course gastronomic enjoyment. I can’t tell you exactly what I ate, and some of the photos were way too dark to enhance.

But, what I am going to tell you about is fava beans. I can recall, growing up, at Italian festivals in Rhode Island. I lived there from about age 14-16, and I ate some marinated fava beans. The kind that you squeeze between your thumb and forefinger and out pops a nice big kernel of bean. It was good. But here in California I almost never see jars of fava beans. You can buy plain, canned fava beans, though. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen fresh fava beans.

So, enter Puglia in the picture, and fava beans played a very frequent dinner role. We had fava beans multiple times while we were there. And what they do with them is cook them and puree them into a kind of mashed potato consistency. I suspect they add garlic, seasonings (although only once did we see anything like herbs in the puree), some broth or water and most likely some amount of olive oil. And then they cook some kind of bitter greens to put on top. I did find a recipe online that looks much like the dishes we had in Puglia. It seems that this fava bean dish with cooked chicory is unique to Puglia. I think (someone correct me if I’m wrong) that when fresh, fava beans are very green – so I think this was dried fava beans, which turn a light brown once they’ve dried and hardened up. For certain it was chicory season, so that may be why we had it so often.

At right is a photo of the first one we were served. And I wrote escarole on the photo, but I think it was chicory (same family). They drizzled a bit of olive oil on top. For awhile we didn’t know what that mound of puree was – we thought mashed potatoes until we tasted it. Definitely not potatoes. Finally one of the waitresses explained about fava beans.

We all cleaned our plates it was SO good.

The next day we ventured out to a city 20-30 miles away and our group went on a walking tour. I decided not to do that only because I was concerned about overdoing it with my foot. After their tour they came and got me and we had lunch out at a  trattoria a few blocks away. We ordered fresh grilled vegetables, which were plentiful in nearly all the trattorias. I couldn’t get enough of them. They prepared eggplant, peppers, onions, leeks, zucchini, tomatoes, sometimes mushrooms, sometimes sun dried tomatoes, all grilled and drizzled with olive oil. And guess what? They brought us a plate of fava bean puree that was done just slightly differently. This one was more chunky (see left). Still chicory on top, but they served it with garlic croutons on top. We also had a platter of salami (salume or salumi in Italian) and cheeses too. We couldn’t believe it when we were done – we’d eaten nearly everything they brought out. All with lots of bread. Bread is the staff of life, and there’s no doubt in my mind that I ate more bread in those  3 weeks than I’ve eaten in the last year. It was so fresh, so yeasty, so tasty. None of us could stop eating it.

There at right was a small basket of bread with the little snail-things in the middle. Those are a frequent cracker. I can’t remember what they call them – snails, shells, or worms, or something like that. We ate those too. They’re crispy like crackers. The grilled breads were the best, by far. And a bottle of olive oil was nearby so you could drizzle some on top. No butter.

Here is yet another fava bean dish. This one had a mound of it in the center of the plate, but then they’d made a sauce with onions, I think, garlic, garbanzo beans, mushrooms and some little flat pieces of pasta. All that poured over the puree of fava beans you can seein the middle. It was absolutely scrumptious, and I had to talk to myself out of eating the entire plate. This was one of the courses at the Masseria.

Here again, at right, is another fava bean dish with a piece of mushroom plunked on top, and 4 lovely mounds of greens around the outside. This one wasn’t my favorite – the puree was too thick. I ate all the greens, though, and they were good.

As in many places, it’s hard to get enough vegetables when you’re eating out all the time. At the Masseria, we did have a course of grilled vegetables. Picture at left. We had eggplant, zucchini, leeks and chanterelles. It was really delicious and since we all knew we weren’t getting enough veggies, we ate most of it. Yet we knew we had several more courses to come.

More than once we ordered caprese sandwiches – they’re very inexpensive and almost always the trattoria served them with a bowl of local olives. It was fresh mozzarella, always, and slices of fresh tomato, all very tasty and ripe, and a drizzle of olive oil and maybe a slice or two of fresh basil leaves, or sprinkled with some dried Italian herbs.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a fan of gnocchi. Well, at the Masseria one of the courses was gnocchi, and I looked at the plate, thought “oh dear.” I didn’t want to not eat it at all, so I thought I’d pick at it, move it around on the plate as children do, but I did take one gnocchi. OMGosh. This was unlike any gnocchi I’ve ever had. All I can tell you is they tasted like little pillows of pasta softness. They were absolutely fantastic. The peas and tomatoes along with it was a perfect pairing. I ate most of it. I’ve never had gnocchi that were so good.

On occasion in the mid-afternoon we’d all have a craving for a little something – maybe a gelato, as you can see in the photo at left of Lauren with a double scoop. She fell in love with gelato (doesn’t everyone?). That particular day Lauren was the only one who had room for any as we’d just had a big lunch.

One day I craved an espresso, so at the Masseria they had a lovely espresso machine and I made myself one and dipped into the jar of cantucci (little cookies) that Italians like to accompany an espresso.

If you’ve ever watched Italians standing at an espresso bar – most of them are stand-up only at a tall counter –  it’s just a place to get an espresso, throw it down and leave. First they pick up the sugar dispenser (no packets, this is the real thing, a big glass jar with a special spout) and they pour in about 1/4 CUP of sugar, stir it around and down it in one big gulp.

At the Masseria, they offered a huge table of breakfast food, full of cold cuts, salami, a daily frittata (room temp), hard boiled eggs, several fresh breads and jams, fresh mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, fresh ricotta cheese, the wonderful cornetto (Italian croissants) and at least 2 dessert cakes. When I asked for a latte, they always brought it in a tall glass. It was lovely. If we’d really eaten our fill, we could have gone from breakfast until dinner without additional food, but we never did! We always needed more food around 1:00 or so.

There’s my breakfast plate at left – from the top: tomato, ricotta, ham, mozzarella, frittata and then a slice of the lemon layer cake topped with powdered sugar. On another plate I cut fresh bread and had a croissant. So much food. Way too much food!

I have more food pictures but I think this post is long enough. Hope you haven’t been bored. . .

Tweet

Every time I travel I seem to have odd frustrations or difficulties. Maybe not big ones, but traveling in Europe, especially traveling in old-world countries where you’re staying in old hotels or inns that aren’t Hiltons, or even European mega-hotels, you’re going to find oddities in every place you stay. Here’s my little bit of (sage?) advice. Every trip, I come home with things I need to remember for the next trip.

1. European countries don’t all use the same plugs. I knew that – I’ve traveled abroad many, many times. And there’s a difference between an adapter and a converter – I only needed an adapter as all my electronics are low voltage so I didn’t need to convert from 220. So, I took just one adapter plug which I’d purchased recently that SAID it would work in all plugs in Europe (except Britain). Wrong. Britain has its own very big cumbersome plug. We didn’t go to Britain so I was fine with that part. But even in mainland Europe, you’ll find three different kinds of plugs – the old 2-prong, and a newer thick bodied indented 2-prong with a ground and a 3-prong type in Switzerland only. I had the one with the ground, and I didn’t take the old-fashioned little 2-prong one. I didn’t have the Switzerland one, but the 2-prong did work in one plug in each hotel in the 3-prong plug. But even if you DID have the 2 (or 3) different kinds of plugs used mostly in Europe, it was problematical everywhere I went, to find an outlet. The photo at right I found on the internet – not sure what the red X’s meant, but wanted you to get an idea about the so very different configurations! Also, old hotels don’t have many outlets. Sometimes you have to move furniture to find where the lamp was plugged in, for instance. Sometimes the only  outlet that would charge was in the bathroom. But some of those were only for razors and NOT electronic devices. But then, sometimes I’d find my iPhone just wouldn’t charge. The lamp worked, but it wouldn’t work to charge a phone. Rick Steves had one very clever idea – use some duct tape to hold your American plug into the adapter, so you don’t accidentally leave behind your adapter plug. I only took 4 electronic devices (iPhone, iPod – that I listen to when I’m trying to go to sleep, my Kindle and my Canon battery charger). All had different cables and outlets. So Rick Steves’ advice wouldn’t have worked since I had to switch them every day or two. Two of the adapters connected to a USB, so I took my one Apple USB square plug that fit into the adapter. My problem was that my adapter was the wrong type in most of the hotels. Fortunately, Tom (Joan’s husband) let me use his and when he flew home from Rome, he handed it to me and I was able to use it the remainder of the trip. It was a multi-purpose plug and you turn a knob and out pop different kinds of plug configurations. I think I have one of those somewhere here at home in my big overflowing travel drawer – but obviously I hadn’t taken it along! Just one more thing to remember. Here’s a link to a website that gives very specific info about plugs. Do ask at the hotel front desk for plugs – sometimes they offer them.

2. When you travel in Europe, eating out mostly, it’s hard to get vegetables. I love vegetables. No, I’m not a vegetarian at all. But just as we have the same problem here in the U.S., not many restaurants offer side vegetables. Often entrees are served with just meat and a carb. No veggies. So, you have to expect the same in Europe. It’s hard to get veggies. Salads are available – and we ate them in abundance in many cities we visited. Veggies were harder to find and if you do find them, they’re often a fried appetizer (not my favored way to eat them). My advice: if  you have any kind of problem with getting sufficient fiber in your diet, take along something over-the-counter.

3. Don’t forget Pepto Bismol or Imodium. I took a package of the latter along just in case, but then I gave it all to Cherrie when she got sick in Switzerland. Fortunately I didn’t need it, but as soon as I got home I came down with an intestinal bug. I made a quick trip to the drug store. Cherrie and I both arrived home with some kind of bug. Not from food because it didn’t begin until 18-24 hours after our last meal in Paris. It was a kind of bacterial flu bug, I guess. I’m still under the weather as I write this 7 days after getting home. Some doctors will now give you a prescription for Cipro when you’re going to travel, a heavy-duty, multi-use antibiotic. I didn’t have any and would be reluctant to use it unless I was very sick. It’s a very strong drug. Cherrie visited her dr. a couple of days ago and she told her not to use Imodium because it can easily be over-done and then you have the reverse problem. Her dr. recommended Pepto instead, which you can buy in liquid (probably not the best choice when when traveling), capsules or chewables.

4. Only a few hotels have room safes unless you’re staying in very high end hotels. Mostly I wasn’t. My cell phone went with me everywhere, even though I left it turned off a lot of the time. And my Kindle slipped into my purse most days. The only item I left in my hotel room was my iPod which I hid as best I could. Someone mentioned on our trip that hotel safes aren’t all that “safe” either. I bought a new purse for this trip – a nice-enough Brighton (black fabric, flat) that had room for my iPhone and my Kindle. I wore it cross-body, which most people do anyway. I kept it zipped up and never had anything valuable in the outside compartments or zippered slots. We actually never encountered any gypsies on this trip, which was very unusual. We saw a few homeless sitting on the ground with a money cup, but that was it, and only in Paris.

5. Be sure to have some money in local currency. On this trip I only needed euros and Swiss francs. I found an envelope in my travel stuff with about 40 euros in it. That meant I didn’t have to find a money exchange or an ATM at the airport. Sometimes at the airport there are long lines. Currently, the best “deal” according to advice websites, is to use ATM machines to get money, which I did exclusively. In Europe, ATM machines are everywhere (only exception might be a very tiny village). And some banks are now offering no-fee international ATM usage. I think Capitol One is one of them, and USAA, I’ve heard. When I left Switzerland, I used my last Swiss francs as part of the hotel bill, and the balance was charged to my credit card. (Oh, and by the way, American Express is often refused at hotels and restaurants all across Europe. I may be giving up my AE card when Costco’s AE membership credit card will no longer work next year.) I came home with about another 40 euro. That will go back into my safe for my next trip. Or I’ll sell them to Cherrie who is going on a 7-week family trip to Europe in about 4-5 weeks.  Don’t buy foreign currency at a bank here at home. They rip you off on the conversion.

6. Every hotel/inn we stayed in, including our apartment in Lyon, had hair dryers. That was a big boon. Even small hair dryers take up lots of suitcase space. And extra suitcase space we did NOT have! If they didn’t have one in the room, all we had to do was ask at the front desk and they’d hand us one.

7. We all traveled with one 21-inch spinner suitcase and a carry-on. This is a newer size, with 4 spinner-wheels. And it’s a deeper suitcase. If you think 21-inches, you may be gasping that no, you couldn’t possibly. But these new ones really are deeper and some have a zipper extension you can use also. I can’t tell you how great this was. A very worthwhile investment. Mostly they’re made to fit in the overhead as carry-on baggage. Another important reason is that European cars have short trunk space. When we rented cars in Italy and Switzerland, we had station wagons in both places (non-standard – thanks to Tom who arranged both rental cars for us). In the rear we were able to fit all 4 of the 21-inch suitcases and 2 of the carry-ons (3 straight in, one sideways across the back and 2 carry-ons stuffed in). Joan had a backpack that sat at her feet, and my carry-on was flat on top, so it became the armrest in the middle in the back seat. If you’re traveling alone, you’ll have no difficulty. But with 4 of us, it made for a bit of squeezing. We all took a similar bag and a carry-on. (We had a meeting about this before we left the U.S. because I knew from previous trips that trunk space was going to be a problem with any rental car.) My carry-on slipped over the handle extension of my suitcase. On my flight home, when I packed my heavier raincoat and my minor purchases into the suitcase, it was very tight. So, I did unzip the extender. In that configuration, my suitcase would easily tip over frontwards, but once I plopped the carry-on on top, it would stay upright. Two of us had red bags. The 4-spinner wheels made for very easy walking long distances from terminal to terminal and mostly, once we arrived at a new destination. I checked my suitcase – I never intended to take it on board a plane –  because I had in my suitcase several liquids that were more than 1.3 ounces (sun screen, shampoo, aerosol hairspray, etc.) which are no-nos. We also walked distances from our car into hotels, or when we did train travel, from taxi to platforms, platform to taxi. Those spinner bags are now a necessity in my book. FYI: For my 22 days abroad, for my clothing, this including what I was wearing: I had 3 pairs of slacks, 8 tops [including the thermal undershirt and one slightly more dressy kind of top], underwear for 5 days, a pullover sweater, vest, raincoat with hood [no umbrella], 3 thin “pretty” scarves, 1 pair of leggings, 1 pair of thermal leggings, 1 longer sleep t-shirt, 2 pairs of socks, 1 extra pair of shoes, 1 warm neck scarf and 1 pair of gloves – that I wore only 1 day. I wore everything except the thermal leggings. Next trip I’ll forget the leggings, all but 1 dressy scarf, replace the raincoat with a thermal windbreaker of some kind. I washed underwear and socks often but they all dried overnight with no difficulty. Thank goodness for heated towel racks in a couple of places. If the trip would be in warm weather that would change significantly the packing needs, obviously.

8. Don’t pack heavy stuff in your carry-on. There’s a lot of walking involved in airports these days, and especially for international travel. It’s just the way it is. And if you travel much, you already know there are long security lines as well. My carry-on is just a fabric type with 2 handles and a shoulder strap. I carried my cosmetics (all items within the 1.3 ounce limit) in there. And my travel pillow. My important travel docs for all the trip planning I’d done for Switzerland. And a paperback book (just in case my Kindle had a problem or during the time when you can’t use electronic devices). My purse actually would fit in there as well, and I took this other cute plane-purse thing that I hung at my airplane seat (see #10 below).

9. Traditional raincoats are out. I took a black London Fog raincoat that has a semi-fuzzy lining (not removable). Everyone else wore a kind of a padded, warm windbreaker style, and I’d say that 98% of everyone we saw in all 3 countries were wearing the same. So my regular raincoat will go into the rarely-used jacket closet henceforth. For my next cooler-weather trip I’ll probably need to buy something new. Some designers now make a thin puffy-coat that mushes down to next to nothing and fits into a small square and packs easily. Darlene had one she bought at Nordstrom.

10. My Samantha Brown packing system was great. And particularly I loved the small purse that you use on the airplane (which can be used as a regular purse on your travels; it’s small, though). There’s a photo I found on ebay for one sold separately. To buy new, you have to buy the whole set: Burgundy Samantha Brown 6-piece Travel Survival Kit. There are many colors (mine was bright red I bought at HSN) to choose from. I used all the pieces which are a heavy-duty water-resistant polyester, I suppose. But I particularly loved the little 7×8” purse that you hook onto the airline seatback in front of you. It held: my Kindle, my lip moisturizer, a little vial of Tylenol, a tiny bag of snack food, Kleenex and my prescriptions I would need to take in flight. There would be room for a tiny bottle of water, but only if I removed the Kindle. The other pieces in the set (that goes into the suitcase) include two sleeves for slacks or other clothes, an underwear bag with a “wear me” on one side, and “wash me” on the other – easy to keep everything in one place and you knew each day how many clean clothes you had left. The thicker cube was for tops/shirts. I was able to fit 8 of them in there. Unpacking my suitcase was a real breeze – sometimes I did that and put the packs/cubes into a drawer or shelf. Other times, one-night-stays, I left everything intact and it made for very neat and quick re-packing. I like the system. In a bright color there was no way I’d forget it. I’m very impressed with the Samantha Brown packing system. I also bought the accessories kit – one additional packing case that contains 3 small cubes inside. In there I stored my charging cables, my adapter plug, my camera battery charger, scarves, jewelry and a Ziploc bag with all of my miscellaneous small liquid things I needed (hair gel, extra shampoo, the aerosol hairspray, body lotion – a few hotels didn’t provide any – and my moderate sized tube of sun screen that I need to wear every day because I’m so fair skinned). And also the two small pieces of jewelry I took and barely wore.

11. If you’re so inclined, do get a Global Entry pass. It costs $100 for 5 years (and takes about 4-6 weeks to get it, including an in-person interview at only some border patrol locations set up around the U.S., to do the Global Entry screening), and probably isn’t worth it if you don’t do a moderate amount of travel. And it doesn’t help anywhere but in the United States (leaving and returning) so it didn’t help as we arrived in Italy, left Italy, arrived in Switzerland, or flew out from Paris) but it was SO fast getting through passport control at LAX, both departing and returning. On our return, they have kiosks now in the international area (more for Global Entry pass holders and fewer for those who don’t). You slide your passport in and it snaps a photo of you, you tick a few things on the screen and it’s a breeze. We walked right through and out to baggage pickup.

12. It used to be that Europeans wore dark clothes about 8 months of the year. Not so anymore. My wardrobe was all planned around black and brown, mostly black. My coat was black. My sweater was black. My vest was black. Two of my tops were plain black. We saw people wearing all kinds of colors and nobody stared like they used to. I can remember on previous trips feeling embarrassed because I was wearing even a brightly designed (maybe still in black/brown and white) blouse. Now everybody wears just about anything. Although we didn’t see white pants or even light color slacks. But everyone wore brighter colors in shirts and tops. And coats were in every color of the rainbow (except white).

13. My favorite 2 pieces of clothing were my velour vest and my Land’s End Thermaskin short-sleeved undershirt. I wore them both about 16 of the 22 days I was gone.  The black thin undershirt (pictured right – and it also comes in white) was perfect for cooler days and has a longer length so it keeps tucked in, and I think I’ll be wearing it lots here at home on colder winter days. If I wore a v-neck top over it, it looked fine if the scoop neck showed. The vest I’ve had for years – it’s a longer style so my tops didn’t hang down below (even though that’s very current style), and it was fuzzy enough to provide lots of warmth if I zipped it up. I also took the Thermaskin leggings, but I never wore them.

14. Be prepared for duvets everywhere. I’m not a duvet person. They make me too warm, so I’m continually having to stick my feet out or fold back the duvet to cool off. I know there are different weights of duvets, but every single place we stayed had fairly heavy duvets. So if you’re a warm person, you might want to pack very light pajamas or sleep in the buff. I took a long tee-shirt as my sleepwear. I lost a lot of sleep being awakened in a heat, and no, I don’t think they were hot flashes. None of the hotels had blankets in the closet, or I’d have tossed that duvet off and used one. Not a big deal, but it did bother me some. When possible, I opened windows to keep the room really cold at night. That helped. In some places my hotel room overlooked a busy square or a trattoria or bistro, and opening the window wasn’t feasible or I’d have been awake all night, but in most places I could. Or I adjusted the heat to very low, if I could, and that also helped.

15. Use small bags or Ziplocs for different toiletry types. I’ve decided that small little bags or Ziploc bags work best for the different kinds of toiletries needed. I have a great little cushy cinch-up thing for my make-up. But everything else needs to be divided up into bags or Ziplocs by use: shower (shampoo, gel, hairspray, body lotion), night-time (prescriptions, eye makeup remover, lip protector and my nasal spray) and morning (prescriptions, lotion, sunscreen). I have amongst my travel things 2 large box-shaped padded things for toiletries, but they’re bulky. I found the smaller things worked better. I have oodles of little zipped bag things I’ve gotten from cosmetic give-aways – they work well, or just the quart-sized heavier-duty Ziploc bags make for easy squishing here and there to fit in the suitcase. This is especially true if you’re trying to squeeze everything into a 21-inch bag. If you’re using Ziploc bags, put a yellow piece of paper in the morning one, a blue one in the shower bag, and a black one for night-time. Very easy to see which one is which. Since we 4 women were traveling together and shared one bathroom in the apartment in Lyon, France, we all had to keep our toiletries neat and tidy. We just picked up our baggies or whatever(s) and took them back to our bedrooms so the bathroom counter space (minimal) wasn’t clogged up with our stuff.

16. Take snacks and a water bottle every day. Not that you have to bring snacks from home necessarily (although I wished I’d had a few protein bars along on this trip) . . . but stop at a grocery store and find some kinds of snacks that will work for you and your family. Have one in your “day pack” or purse for those times when there just aren’t any restaurants nearby and you’re famished. Also, take along a small water bottle. Sometimes hotels offer a free bottle – take it and refill it each day (I know, they say that’s not a good thing, but hey, this is just one trip) so you have it with you, or in the car. If you have children, definitely have water and snacks available. I had a few Trader Joe’s dark chocolate bars in my suitcase, and I shared them with everyone now and then. One little square helped me get through to a later meal. Nuts would have worked also.

17. Figure out what kind of international cell phone plan you want to use. Now, I’m no expert, but after being with Tom & Joan for 8 days with Tom having a portable hotspot in his pocket, all of us got spoiled really fast with having internet most of the time. When Tom and granddaughter Lauren flew home, Joan and I were sad! The hotspot Tom had, only worked in Italy and he rented it for a short time span anyway. Next time I travel, I’ll be getting myself a portable hotspot. Not that it will work for my next trip (Botswana and Dubai next fall) but it will work in most places for most trips except remote areas in Africa (a guess). I purchased a small, special plan with my wireless carrier, but as good as I am with techie stuff, I had no idea exactly what I was getting (and I don’t have my bill yet to know what I did use) I wasn’t sure it was the wisest. Every hotel offered free wi-fi. Here’s one photo I took in the town of Matera, in Tom & Joan’s cave hotel room (the door is open because the light through the door was all we had, other than soft indirect lighting). We’d just checked in and all of us were on our phones checking for texts and email. This happened every single day of the trip! I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet that in France, wi-fi is pronounced wee-fee. You can purchase/rent short-term phones in Europe, but they’re a new number and I didn’t expect to get any phone calls. Although I did get one from my opthalmologist’s office wanting to ask me a question or two – this at 3 am Europe time. I didn’t think to turn my phone completely off at night. There are plenty of websites that will give you advice about how to handle this – there are so many options. Too many. Some cell phones don’t work in Europe, either, so that’s another factor.

All of these words of (my) wisdom are just my two cents worth. Merely FYI.

Tweet

Oh my gracious! This salad. This salad is going to knock your socks off! Trust me. Bread salad with lots of nice greens, some pine nuts, a few chopped raisins, a tart vinaigrette, and on top – well, just the most delicious chicken I think I’ve ever had. Bar none.

Having guests over for dinner a week before I left on my trip was maybe not the best idea I’ve ever had – I was kind of frantic getting everything done, items packed, friends and neighbors notified, bills paid, taxes done and paid for, and yet, I’d been wanting to have these friends over, and figured oh well, a week before my trip I’ll be fine. And really, it was. Joan brought marinated tomatoes. Jackie brought a delicious blueberry custard dessert. I made the main dish and an appetizer. I brought out one of Dave’s favorite wines from the cellar, an Amavi Syrah, which was wonderful with the chicken. Also served a Zaca Mesa Viognier for two of the guests who preferred white wine. I set the table, of course, chilled the water, made the appetizer the day before, and did the shopping 3 days before.

There is a caveat, however, about this recipe. You absolutely MUST start this at least 24 hours before you want to serve it. And 48 hours are still okay too. It’s not hard to do that step, but it’s imperative you do it. The whole chicken is drained, dried off, salted and peppered and a few sprigs of fresh herbs gently slid underneath the breast skin and the thigh skin. Then it’s left to sit in the refrigerator with just a paper towel over the top. It’s like dry brining. It just sits. See, I said that part was easy. It probably took about 10 minutes of prep to find the right dish to hold 2 chickens that would fit in my garage refrigerator. And 4-5 minutes to dry off the birds and pat the salt all over them. The cold air in the frig helps dry out the skin, but then the salt helps protect it and hug in the juices. Such a chemical term – hug in the juices. I don’t know how else to describe it.

It’s a recipe I’ve been wanting to try for a long time. I’d heard, many years ago, about the fame of Judy Rodgers’ roasted chicken. It was epic to her San Francisco restaurant fans when she published her cookbook with the beloved recipe contained within for her roast chicken. Judy Rodgers died a couple of years ago. Chefs and fans mourned grievously. She was a rock star in the chef world. I don’t own her cookbook – The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco’s Beloved Restaurant [Hardcover] [2002] First Edition Ed. Judy Rodgers, Gerald Asher. The link just provided goes to an older edition that isn’t available for purchase, but you can find it in hardback. Amazon’s link is broken, somehow. Her cookbook is noteworthy for chefs, and very experienced home cooks. It’s not meant for the weeknight family dinner. You can find Rodgers’ roasted chicken full recipe online.  I copied it off from the ‘net, but wasn’t so sure I’d ever make it, as it’s an extremely complex masterpiece.

But, when I found an easy version of Rodgers’ famous chicken and bread salad, I downloaded it in a jiffy from a blog called NW Edible. It’s been in my to-try file for several years. Gosh, what a shame I hadn’t made it before since it’s such a winner!

Here’s what’s involved. Once you have done the dry brine, and a couple hours before you want to eat, bring out the bird(s) to reach room temp. Chop and oil the rustic bread and broil or bake until crispy but not hard. Make the vinaigrette. Get all the other ingredients ready. NW Edible used cast iron frying pans for her chickens. I don’t own 2 of them, so I opted to use my big Teflon coated turkey roasting pan, which was a perfect fit for 2 Costco chickens I’d prepared. I pre-heated the pan to 475°F. Now, that’s not a typo. The chicken IS roasted at 475°. Really. Once the pan was heated, I took it out and plopped the 2 chickies in the pan and they did sizzle. Probably not as much as in a cast iron skillet, but it worked fine in my book.

Into the oven the birdies went and I set the timer for 80 minutes. Meanwhile, I served an appetizer and wine and we would occasionally catch a whiff of the chicken roasting away. Once out of the oven, right on time – the chicken breast was at 170°, a little high, but it was fine. With help from Joan, we each poked a utensil into each end of the chicken and allowed the juices and fat to drain out into the pan. You also slice the skin near the legs to allow all those juices to drain. Then the chickens went onto a big carving board while I worked on the salad. The big roasting pan was drained (and saved) for of all its juices. I used a fat-separator, as I didn’t want the fat, just the juices. For the 2 birds, I think there was about 1/2 cup of juices and fat. That was set aside to do it’s separating and I went back to the pan. It went onto a stovetop burner and once heated up, with the residual fat in the pan, I added fresh garlic and pine nuts and they took a minute or two to get barely golden. Then 1/4 cup of the juices were poured in. That got poured over the top of the bread croutons in a big bowl. They are allowed to just sit for a minute or two – you want those pan juices to soak into the bread. The raisins were added (currants are called for, but I didn’t have any, so I used regular raisins chopped up fine) into the vinaigrette. A couple of huge wads of salad greens were added. The recipe calls for arugula, but Trader Joe’s was all out of arugula (gosh, that stuff is popular), so I used a multi-colored greens mixture that contains quite a bit of arugula anyway.

Meanwhile, I asked one of the guys to carve, which Don did, very kindly. I could have done it, but I thought I’d ask for help. Tom was the sommelier, we decided to call him and he kept our wine glasses filled. The two husbands handily stepped in to fill Dave’s shoes. Once the salad was tossed – the greens and the soaked bread, it was all on the big white platter you can see up top, and then Don put the chicken pieces – some thick breast slices, some dark meat and a drumstick or two on top, and it was ready. Done.

Almost always when I serve dinner, I serve it buffet style in the kitchen. On my huge island. Then everyone takes their plate into the dining room. We had a lively conversation about a variety of things. Travel, politics, religion. Two of those somewhat no-no subjects. We talked about our families, grandchildren and their busy schedules, travel destinations, etc. Anyway, it was just great fun, and the chicken was magnificent.

What’s GOOD: there is absolutely nothing that isn’t GREAT about this recipe. It takes a bit more prep than some, and you do have to start at least a day in advance. The vinaigrette is fabulous. The salad and slightly soaked crispy bread is magnificent. And the chicken. Well, it’s in a league of its own. Make this. It’s going onto my Carolyn’s Favs list, if that tells you how good it is.

What’s NOT: only the part about needing to start it at least a day ahead.

printer-friendly CutePDF

Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click on link to open recipe in MC)

Tweet

Puglia (or Apulia in Italian) isn’t on everyone’s radar. It should be. Not only is it beautiful, but Puglia contains these unique old houses that have been turned into country inns. Mostly the Trulli houses exist in and around Ostuni and Alberobello. If you search on a map of Italy, you’ll find them way down south, the boot of Italy, on the Adriatic side, just south and inland from Bari (a city on the Adriatic). If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to stay at one of the Trulli inns.

The history of Trulli houses is very interesting – it’s a legend, and there doesn’t seem to be any proof of this. Trullo (singular) were peasant huts, and usually no more than two were built next to one another – one for people, one for livestock. Back in the very olden days, the tax collector visited homes annually to collect taxes. You paid based on your home, its size, etc. So the good folks of Puglia decided that they’d just dismantle their homes (I suspect the original Trulli homes were stacked tufa or limestone as you see above, clear down to the ground). There was no mortar (now they use rocks and mortar for the bottom portions). The house could be dismantled in a matter of a few hours, the tax collector came to visit saw no house, so they paid no taxes at all – the house was just a pile of rocks. Then the next day they’d rebuild it for another year. If you click on the Trullo link above, you can read a whole lot more about the origin, history and construction of them.

Most trullo were single huts, with only a few joined, and most were abandoned when farms failed. In recent years enterprising people have bought the land and the run-down trulli houses, did tons of work on them, re-worked them, adjoined them, built other buildings near them, and voila, you have a country inn. At the Masseria Cervarolo, where we stayed (above) the couple/family who bought it put in years of renovation and they say that it doesn’t make a very large income for them, but it’s enough. The day we arrived photographers and models were doing a photo shoot at the Masseria in a variety of casual to elegant clothing.

There above is a bigger photo of the inn. (The owners sent me their photo – isn’t it lovely?) The entrance gate is off to the left. Some rooms are in the square building, and then a few lucky people/families can stay in the trulli houses. The restaurant is a separate building off to the left, and a generous parking lot further down the gentle slope.

Here’s a photo of my room. The living room actually had 2 day beds for additional sleeping. There was a TV, although I don’t think they received any English stations. Off to the far left through that alcove was the bathroom. Photo down below. It was a room addition and didn’t have the trulli cone roof. The bathroom was charming. And the lighting throughout was lovely – soft light, warm. Next to the bed there’s a little niche (see it?) and there was a tiny little indirect light inside which was the last light I turned off when I went to sleep at night. Each of the two trulli houses had a door and the glass in them provided the only exterior light. So they manage to include some nice lights here and there to provide ample light.

Each day we were there (we stayed 3 nights) we took a day trip somewhere. There are so many little villages in the area, many of them containing trulli houses. The most memorable was Alberobello. I have a bunch of photos from there. I think I should write up a separate post about that one.

Of the 3 nights we were there, we had dinner at the Masseria two of them. It was an exquisite meal both times, about 5 courses, for 30 euro per person. A bargain. So that I don’t make this post too awfully long, I’ll write up a separate post with pictures of the meals we had at the Masseria. The Masseria has a good reputation for their food, and they hold weddings and events on the grounds. In the summer, I’ll bet it’s beautiful. It was lovely when we were there, although cold.

I thought the soapstone sink was just adorable. But then, I love these kinds of hand-made things; it’s so European. The shower was all rock, with a slate floor. It also had a heated towel warmer. I used that to dry my laundry. So helpful!

It takes a bit of getting used to, to use the showers in Europe. Not only the different ways of just turning on the water, but Europeans are much more efficient about using water. We think nothing of using gallons of water. In Europe, you get a bit more than a trickle, maybe a triple trickle and that’s your shower strength. I have short hair so it doesn’t take much, but people with long hair – well, it takes awhile to rinse shampoo out when you have a trickle of water. But you get used to it. It’s just the way it is!

The photo below is the main (public) living room at the Masseria. We enjoyed a glass of champagne with our group before we went to dinner in the restaurant. I’ll have to do a write-up about the ceramics we saw in Puglia. I had no idea it is such a mecca for ceramics. One of the days we visited a ceramics factory. More on that later.

Tweet

There’s an old movie, a love story, called Return to Me (Minnie Driver and David Duchovny) – my DH Dave and I watched it together many times – and one scene takes place on a rooftop terrace in Rome. This photo reminds me of that movie. I don’t think the movie scene was filmed here, but it was very similar. While I was there, I enjoyed the rooftop terrace and took pictures from several angles. They served cocktails (I had prosecco) and on some occasions (weather permitting) they serve dinner up there. It was cold. Probably about 45°. I was bundled up and sat in the lee of a wall to stay out of the wind. But it was beautiful, no?

That view above includes Piazza Navona – it’s buried down in front of or behind that one long peach-colored building you see, and the church steeple. I think. I was just a short block off the Piazza, which was right where I wanted to be. The Piazza Navona is not open to cars – it’s strictly a walking area, and it’s full, day and night, of tourists, business people going from one place to another, hand-holding couples seeing it for the first time, artists with their oh-so-romantic street scenes slap-dashed onto canvases, magicians, and a large number of hawkers trying to sell purses, selfie-sticks (very annoying), scarves, or waiters trying to lure everyone into their restaurants. I walked it early in the morning (when fewer people were there, nice) mid-day, noontime, afternoon, evening and late evening. I walked it numerous times. I had dinner at the touristy restaurants (vegetable soup because my tummy was rebelling the rich pasta I fed it at noon) and watched people. The waiters were kind to me. They never asked – why are you alone? They never asked – are you waiting for a friend? Thank goodness, or I might have dissolved in tears.

There are just about zero hotels around the Piazza, and when I found the Hotel Raphael, I knew that’s where I needed to stay. It was pricey, although I stayed in the very low-end rooms. It had a nice lobby, a delightful breakfast room. It did have a restaurant, but I didn’t eat there – it was beyond pricey and vegetarian. Not that I’m opposed to vegetarian, but the menu looked very rich with creamy sauces. My tummy said “no.”

My last afternoon there I walked some blocks toward the river and it was so lovely. I crossed the broad bridge, walked down-river about a mile, then back up the other side. My foot/feet did fine. The weather was perfect. Cold, but clear and sunny. Conversations abounded around me, wherever I walked – German, Brit English, French, Arabic, some Slavic languages, some African ones, and occasionally American English. Because it was the week before Easter, there were hundreds (thousands?) of college-aged young people on spring break, I think. There were school children on some kind of disciplined outing. There were old people, young people, of every color of the rainbow. Not so many single people. I was an oddity, I think.

One of the days, my friends Tom, Joan and their granddaughter Lauren came to my hotel and we had lunch together. We went to an osteria (that’s a more upscale restaurant than a trattoria) not very far away, and indeed, we had a delicious lunch. The standout there were the deep-fried artichokes. They were on menus nearly everywhere. Remember, in other parts of the world, they cook by the season (only), and artichokes are just now in-season, so they were on the blackboards in nearly every restaurant. In Italian it’s called carciofi, pronounced  car-chioff-ee. We all shared that one pictured at right, and we ate every smidgen, including the stem.

There’s the Piazza Navona at dusk. All the waiters at all the restaurants (see the awnings – those are all restaurants), like the one fellow on the right, facing right, hang around out on the street (no cars, remember) waiting to lure people in. They’re a bit annoying after awhile, so I walked closer to the center to avoid them. My first night in Rome I traipsed around trying to decide where to have dinner and finally settled on a non-descript place off the Piazza. I ordered fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with ricotta (delicious) and because a heavy meat dish didn’t appeal to me, I ordered pasta. I think it’s called straw and hay – regular and spinach pasta with sausage, mushrooms and peas. And a lot of olive oil. It was very rich; hence I didn’t eat but about half of it. Most restaurants don’t serve pizza except at night. For whatever reason, pizza didn’t sound good to me either. I’d just come off of the 12 hour flight from Los Angeles and wasn’t all that hungry.

You can tell by how shiny the pasta is – there’s a lot of oil in it. It was good, but not exceptional. At right is another photo of ravioli I ordered another day. It was stuffed with ricotta, and was so rich. I wasn’t sure what the swirl was on top – probably sour cream. Yet that seemed odd to me – I don’t think Italians use sour cream very much. It was smooth and soft and had none of the slightly acidic edge sour cream has. I don’t know – I didn’t eat much of it in any case. The ravioli were really wonderful – the pasta was super-tender and the filling very tasty. The strips on top are fresh tomatoes. I was there in Rome for 4 nights. Since I’d seen all the major sites before (the Vatican, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, walked the Forum) I stayed fairly close to the Piazza Navona. And that was fine with me. I tested my foot – I sure didn’t want to injure my foot and have difficulty the rest of the trip. That first night I went walking after dinner and got totally lost. I am certain I walked at least 4 miles before I finally found my way back to the Piazza Navona. People kept giving me wrong directions and my map, although a good one, didn’t show all the streets, so I made several wrong turns. I should have turned on my cell phone’s navigation – I’d have figured it out – but I didn’t even think of it. I’d turned off all of my apps (because they use cellular data and because they draw power even when you think they’re not).

Tweet

What’s there not to like about a rich biscuit? And filled with cheese? Here I made them to accompany a bowl of that Cheese and Ale Soup I told you about a few weeks ago. You can barely see a bit of it up in the top left corner.

Back when I made the soup the first time – the Cheddar and Ale Soup with Bacon and Shallots, I was testing it to serve at a lunch tea I was hosting at my home. It was a fundraiser for my PEO Chapter. There were 10 of us (8 guests and my co-hostess Linda, and myself) who came in early March. First we served the soup, sprinkled with shallots and bacon with this biscuit on the side. Butter was on the table, and everybody loved the soup – every bowl was scraped clean.

Then I did a tea demonstration. First I explained some little known history of tea – dating back to 2737BC (did you know that – the first known tea dates back that far in China?). I discussed types of teas (there are only 2-3 main categories of black tea) and the components of each one. As a young person all I knew was Lipton tea bags and an occasional cup of Constant Comment. So, I told the story of when I was first introduced to REAL tea, as I called it “praw-per” tea from my dear, dear friend in England, Pamela. And I opened 3 different tins of tea (Darjeeling, English Breakfast and Lapsang Souchong [a smoky tea, favored by Winston Churchill, in case you wanted to know]) to pass around the table for each person to smell. I also passed a jar of Lady Grey tea (a milder form of Earl Grey), and a packet of one of my favorites, Marco Polo, a blend from a tea shop in Paris called Mariage Frères (if you are interested, you can google it – you can buy it here and on their website, but expensive) that my friend Yvette introduced me to about 8-10 years ago.

At my lunch tea I demonstrated how to make a proper pot, from the water, the pot itself, the tea, the steeping, the straining, the tea cosy, milk, sugar, etc.  First I made a pot of blended tea (a mixture of mostly Darjeeling and English Breakfast, with a small amount of Lapsang Souchong) that my friend Pamela introduced me to, back in 1981. We poured each guest a small cup (very proper decorated English bone China cups and saucers) so they could taste it. A couple of them weren’t so enamored with the smoky part. This was almost like a wine tasting, or an olive oil tasting. Guests could throw out the remains if they didn’t like it. Then I made a pot of the Lady Grey. Several ladies really liked that – it’s made by Twining’s. The story is interesting – it seems that the Nordic people do love tea, but they generally didn’t like Earl Grey – too pungent most complained. So in the 90s, Twinings decided to make a “new” blend, with less oil of Bergamot (that’s what makes Earl Grey distinctive) and some citrus notes to market to the Norwegian population, to resounding success, apparently.  If you’re interested you can get it at Amazon: Classics Lady Grey Tea 20 Bag in several shapes, sizes and loose or bagged. I bought my box of it in England many years ago, and even after all these years, it’s still just fine. They’re sealed up well, however.

Then lastly, I made a pot of Marco Polo (I gave them a choice, but most wanted to try it). It got raves by more of the ladies. That tea, from Mariage Frères in Paris (in the Marais district), is their unique blend. So I read somewhere, it has Chinese and Tibetan flowers plus berries and fruit, in a bold black tea. It’s very different from Earl Grey. No bergamot for sure. The Marco Polo has become SO popular at the tea store, they now have about 10 varieties. Click this link to see them all. I have the standard Marco Polo, none of the other variations.

During the tea part of our luncheon, I served my favorite Buttermilk Scones, that I’ve been making for about 30 years (half with lemon zest, the other half with added golden raisins), some absolutely gorgeous, huge stemmed strawberries and an apricot tea square Linda brought. Along with my home made lemon curd and crème fraiche. And apricot jam. And more tea. We had a lovely time.

All that said, these biscuits – well, they’re a recipe from a restaurant in Encinitas (in San Diego County) called Solace and The Moonlight Lounge. It’s been at least 8-10 months ago my San Diego good friend Linda and I went there for dinner or lunch and we’d been told to be sure to order their biscuits. They brought them first, still warm, along with an orange honey butter to go with it. The recipe for that is down below in the next paragraph. Oh my goodness. Well, awhile after that, the recipe was printed in the Union-Tribune, so Linda sent it to me. Thank you, Linda.

They’re as simple as any biscuit, really. It does require buttermilk, though. And it’s heavy on the butter! But oh, so good.

What’s GOOD: they’re a rich biscuit (meaning there’s more butter than standard). The kind of cheese makes a difference – I used half Irish sharp white cheddar and some Tillamook sharp cheddar (yellow) and a bunch of fresh chives minced up. They taste wonderful. You might, just might, be able to eat them without adding butter on top, but if you’re going to indulge, go for added butter! At the restaurant they serve it with orange honey butter (1/4 pound unsalted butter whipped well to make it light, 1/4+ tsp orange zest, 3/4 tsp honey, a couple of dashes of salt and 1/8 tsp minced garlic, mixed well, refrigerated, then allowed to warm back up to room temp).

What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of – need to have buttermilk on hand and fresh chives (or you could probably substitute parsley). Serve while they’re hot from the oven.

printer-friendly CutePDF

Files: MasterCook 5+ or MasterCook 14 (click link to open recipe in MC)

Tweet

In coming days I’ll be telling you all about Trulli houses in my first post from the Italy part of my trip to Europe. I stayed in a Trulli house and it was really special.

I’ve just returned (yesterday) from a 3+ week trip to Europe (Italy, Switzerland and France). As I write this it’s 5:30 in the morning, and I’ve been up for 3 hours. I could not keep my eyes open after 7:30 last night. I fell into bed and slept like the dead for 7 hours. BUT, that meant I woke up early. Laundry is going, music is playing, I’ve had 2 cappuccinos already this morning. I’ve downloaded all of the images from my camera (I didn’t take my fancy Canon, it’s just too big to lug around) but the photos I have from my little Canon need organizing and naming. And I took lots of pictures on my iPhone too, so they need to be off-loaded and categorized too.

Just a synopsis, I flew alone to Rome. Stayed 4 nights there by myself, and although those 4 days were just one little section, except for meeting friends for lunch one day, I was really alone there. Now I know – note to self – do not go to a big city by yourself – and expect to be happy. I wasn’t. Maybe it’s because Rome is such a romantic place? Or because the last time I was there I was with my DH? Or what? I don’t know. I stayed in a wonderful hotel about 1/2 block from the Piazza Navona, and I tromped all over everywhere (including getting lost my first night there). I didn’t like eating dinner alone – I did, of course, and everyone was very kind to me – but I felt odd. What can I tell you? I just felt odd being alone. I didn’t like walking around in the evening alone (not because of safety – I felt fine in that regard). I missed my darling Dave. As hard as I tried to talk myself out of it (and I did have several conversations with myself about my grief journey and that it’s been a year, gotta get out of it – nope, my emotional, vulnerable part of my head was having none of it!).

After the 4 days I joined up with dear friends Tom & Joan and their granddaughter Lauren (14) and we traveled together for a week by car and had a fantastic time. We went to Puglia and Basilicata (way south, in the boot/heel). As soon as I was with friends, my attitude changed from dark to light, from not coping well (sadness) to delight in everything. Although I treasure some alone time every day, I’m a clan person, I suppose. I want to be around people I know – family, friends.

After a week in Italy, Tom and their granddaughter flew home to California, and Joan and I flew to Zurich. We booked our flights separately, so we flew at different times. I was the last one to arrive. But at our designated place – near the Europcar rental car desk in the Zurich airport, Joan and I met up with 2 other friends, my best friend Cherrie and another long-time friend Darlene, and we began a 2 week trip together.

I planned the 6-day Switzerland part (and I did all the driving except for about 30 minutes when I wasn’t feeling very well) – we went to Lucerne, Brienz, Lauterbrunnen (where I took my 3rd trip up the Jungfraujoch), Gruyere and Talloires (actually that’s in France, near Geneva). Then we spent 3 days and nights in Lyon, France, in a rented apartment with 4 bedrooms and a washer and dryer (oh yippee, were we ever happy to see that piece of equipment in the kitchen!). Then we took the TGV (pronounced tay-jay-vay in French) the high-speed train to Paris and spent 3 more nights (had a tour of the Opera House and a trip to Giverny). Flying home, we flew 3 different airlines, but we left at about the same time. Darlene’s husband picked us up (she and I) and I got home about 3:30 pm. In time to drive to the post office to get all the accumulated mail (oh my, haven’t even started going through the 2 big bins yet) and make a stop at Trader Joe’s. Joan flew Turkish Air, and in order to get the best prices it meant she had to fly to Istanbul both going and returning. So she’s not returning until today. She spent the night at an Istanbul airport hotel. She and Tom have been to Istanbul before and she was fine with it.

SO, all that said, I have some great stories to tell you. I have some great photos to share. I have some wonderful food stories to talk about, and you’ll hear it all in time. You may get very tired of hearing about my trip. I’ll be cooking too – my first thing I’m going to make is grilled/roasted vegetables – but in the Italian style, thinly sliced and soaking in a light bit of good olive oil. I couldn’t get enough of those when we were in Puglia.

It’ll take me a few days to get the photos organized, then I’ll start posting a travelogue. Meanwhile, I relished in taking a shower in my own bathroom with good water pressure, and most of all sleeping in my own bed with my own pillow! I’m very glad to be home, but we had a great trip!

Tweet

My photo isn’t all that great in this one – shaky hands, I guess. But you sure can tell that’s a chocolate cake, right? But this one’s made with olive oil instead of butter, and served with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream. This one’s delicious, and maybe you can convince yourself it’s “healthy” because of the olive oil, right? We try every trick!

It was just about 18 months or so ago that I discovered olive oil cake. And I made Nancy Silverton’s version/variation of Dario’s cake, called Dario’s Olive Oil Cake with a topping of rosemary, sugar and pine nuts. That one’s a real favorite of mine. I’ve made it several times now. Then, not too long ago another olive oil cake hit my radar, that one Diane Phillips’ version of Dario’s cake which she called more of a coffeecake (I didn’t blog about that one). Then this one appeared. Oh gosh – olive oil and chocolate. Who’d have thunk it – that chocolate and olive oil could make a cake? It does. And well. This cake isn’t from Dario’s, it’s Diane’s version of an Italian chocolate cake made with olive oil.

It has all the normal ingredients for a cake – this one being a type that uses boiling water, but not in the traditional manner as cakes are called a hot water cake – no, it’s used to dissolve the cocoa and espresso powder only. Then you add all the other usual things to make a cake – eggs, flour, soda, sugar. It’s poured into a 9-inch high sided cake pan, baked, cooled 10 minutes, turned out to cool completely, then dusted with powdered sugar. Cut and serve. To raves.

What’s GOOD: This has a lovely light texture. If you’ve never made an olive oil cake, then you might think it would be heavy. Nope. Altogether lovely, and the chocolate flavor is just so good. Loved this one.

What’s NOT: nothing whatsoever.

printer-friendly CutePDF

Files: MasterCook 5+ and MasterCook 14 (click on link to open recipe in MC)

Tweet