Guido e Luisa;

UPDATE: To see the meal we enjoyed while watching 8 1/2, click here.
As I mentioned last week, on Saturday we decided to base our meal around the movie we were to watch that evening, 8 1/2. For anyone struggling in the creative process, it’s a fantastic film to indulge in, as the lines between Guido [...]

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I apertivi;

One small part of Piemontese life that we didn’t experience extensively was the bar culture–specifically, the before-dinner-drinks, or apertivi.  Most of our time spent in town (or in Torino) was in the afternoon and we were content to sip on either a beer or a glass of wine with a slab of pizza to tide [...]

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Orzo in salsa di limone, parmigiano e prezzemolo;

I tend to use orzo often when making pasta dishes because it’s just so versatile–it works well in soups, pasta salads and even in faux-risotto dishes–and it also doesn’t necessarily need the giant pasta pot that long noodles require if you’re only making pasta for one or two people.  The original recipe that this is an [...]

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Focaccia e dragoncello;

I know I’ve been away from the blog for a while–my mind is very much in job-hunting mode and that, along with the holidays, have zapped me of inspiration.  But tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, and the husband and I are going to celebrate as we usually do–making lots of food, drinking wine, watching movies [...]

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Il pranzo primo in Italia;

One of the last pieces of information my then-brand-spanking-new-mother-in-law relayed to me over the phone as I was scribbling down the directions to Baur B&B was “there will be a bottle of wine waiting for you two.”  And when we arrived late that morning, that was an understatement.
We lugged our bags up to the room, [...]

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Andiamo a Torino;

I know I’ve been remiss in continuing to recap our Italian adventure, but this last week wasn’t terribly inspiring for me–frustration in other quarters drained me of the urge to write anything at all.  That said, let’s get back to things.
When we were still planning some of the details of our trip, I thought I [...]

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Il piatto del giorno;

Our first full day in Acqui lured us to the open-air market, and entailed us exploring the city in a completely different way compared to our first evening. What was quiet, closed-up and sleepy had turned into a cacaphony of trailers, fruit and vegetable stands and tractors. And that was only in the [...]

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La strada privata;

Neither Michael nor I watched Top Chef in its first season–we had heard that the host, Katie Lee Joel (wife of Billy, married at the ripe old age of 22 and a few months older than I am) was stilted and horrible. Unfortunately, this meant that we did miss out on watching some interesting [...]

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Le erbe;

Another unexpected perk of staying at Baur B&B was the plentitude of herbs around the property.  Diana has the most ENVIABLE herb bushes I’ve ever encountered, and it was more than tempting to go and pluck some sage leaves and a few sprigs of thyme (timo) from the gorgeous and lovingly tended herb gardens:
 

So many [...]

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La citta d’Acqui, parte prima.

Expectation is a funny thing, especially when it concerns an upcoming vacation, and even moreso when it’s a honeymoon. Especially if it involves European travel in some capacity. The most common response I received from others when mentioning we were going to Italy for our honeymoon was “so, are you going to be [...]

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