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A Most Amazing Tuscan Al Fresco Dinner Party

September 11, 2018 by Mary 10 Comments

Hello there, or should I say: Ciao! Come and visit A Most Amazing Tuscan Al Fresco Dinner Party!

I have been away in Italy again for the past 3 months. I have not written a blog post since last November, although I have wanted to, it’s just been so very hard to get back into the swing of things.

It was a year on June 18^th that my dear husband, business partner, lover, and best friend, Steve, passed to the other side, completely unexpected, from kidney cancer. I know there is another world, purely energetic, but very real. I cannot accurately express how big the hole is in my heart. He was the love of my life, and I was his. I thought that the one-year mark would mean my grief would ease, but it has not. Instead it’s reared its ugly head even more forcefully.

Fortunately I have two great sons and two great daughter-in-laws and (drumroll please), a new grandson named Steven Malcolm, who is completely beautiful, adorable, full of love and the happiest baby ever!!! We call him Stevie. We don’t know why he is always so happy and loves to laugh so much but we sure love him. He makes me laugh. A lot.

Meanwhile, my friends in Italy are all so amazing and have taken such good loving care of me. I am so very grateful for all of them.

My final evening in Tuscany last week was a most marvelous dinner party, al fresco, in a tiny town called, Valtrito, overlooking Cortona. Marzia and her husband, Giorgio, hosted it at Marzia’s ancient family house, built in 1720. Giorgio is my good friend Tiziana’s, brother.

Marzia’s just picked figs as sweet as honey.

My friend Tiziana with her bounty of just picked figs to make her own jam.

What we call Italian purple plums, they call them “cosce di monaca”, which translates to “thighs of a nun”!

Sun-dried plums and Marzia's delicious crostata.

Tuscan sun-dried “cosce di monaca” and Marzia’s crostata con marmellata – with her own homemade plum jam.

Everything Marzia cooked or baked was made with ingredients grown in her garden! We started with incredible roasted peppers and eggplant, just picked incredibly sweet figs from their trees with prosciutto and sausage, sundried tomatoes and plums. Insanely good!!! Buonissimo!!! All with Marzia’s still warm, just baked bread, one whole wheat – pane integrale – and the other white – pane bianco toscano

Marzia’s beautiful table in a gorgeous setting…

Marzia and her DELICIOUS homemade, still warm breads. Tuscan bread has no salt. One explanation I heard is that in the 12^th century, salt had become scarce due to a high tax put on it and they decided to save the salt to use to cure the hams and sausages, so that none was left to also use for bread.

Marzia’s beautiful breads.

My first course or “starter” plate – so delicious!!

Marzia then served a marvelous lasagna, (most of us had seconds) followed by roasted chickens and potatoes along with a most delicious sausage stuffed zucchini half – my favorite – and the meal finished with a delicious crostata con marmellata made with her own homemade plum jam. In Italiano, the plums are called cosce di monaca, which translates to “thighs of a nun”! Don’t ask…

Our table was filled with Italian friends, a couple from Norway and even one other Americana, besides myself, so the conversation was wonderful and lively. I immediately spoke my limited Italian, but to the Norwegian couple who didn’t have any idea what the hell I was saying, being that they do not speak any Italian at all, which my Italian friend had to explain to me. It was a wonderful twist in that I knew more Italian than someone there!

All of our wines ending, of course, with Vin Santo on the far left.

Everyone brought wine and one guest was a sommelier while the other had worked at a winery nearby so the vino was free flowing and all so special and delicious with interesting stories to accompany each bottle.

Just feast your eyes on these pictures and my apologies for not getting all of the food, there was just too much goodness all around that as the evening progressed, conversation ruled, rather than photos.

The delicious roasted chickens.

Our view while eating!! #nofilter

Shots from the ancient main house, built in 1720.

The original kitchen. Look at how big that fireplace is!!

The original kitchen. Just look at how big that fireplace is!!

The currently used kitchen with yet another fireplace. And every good Italian kitchen has a meat slicer!! (I want one too!)

Marzia’s grandmother’s stove. It looks like a toy! (I love the floor!)

An overview of the table from a house window after the dinner.

A magical evening to be sure, a most memorable end to my three month journey in life learning more about myself, attempting to heal, enjoying the food, wine and most importantly the friendships I have in this spectacular setting. For that, I am so grateful.

I will be back again sooner, rather than later, with recipes. Promise!

Thanksgiving in Tuscany

December 3, 2017 by Mary 6 Comments

Last Saturday, I made (with a lot of help) Thanksgiving dinner at my friends Tiziana and Andreas’ house, in Tuscany, as they have a very large dining table, for 13 Italian friends, including my son and daughter-in-law from Poland.

Here is a video from the appetizer part of the evening.

And Tiziana’s beautiful table.

It was so great! They were all very excited and appreciative to eat and be a part of this truly American meal!!! Please take a look at all the pictures, and especially this video where my son Zach wheels out the huge turkey. It was 7.8 kilos – over 17 lbs. At the last minute, we all realized that there was no room on the table to carve the turkey and the platter was so huge and heavy with the bird on it, so Tiziana says, “let’s wheel it out” and is wiping off this cart that I never even realized she had! Zach wheels it in to the clapping and cheering of “TACCHINO!!!!”

It was thrilling and hilarious all at the same time!!

To make this meal happen here was quite a lot of work as well as nervousness involved on my part. The stakes were pretty high. People were traveling in from Roma, Milano and Berlin. I was cooking with unfamiliar things in a kitchen I had never cooked in before. I made all of my recipes in my Thanksgiving book, but to get all of the ingredients and convert from pounds to kilos and translate the spices and EVERYTHING – I must admit – it was quite a feat. And, you can’t buy things here too early because the fresh fruits and vegetables do not last as long as they do in the States. Either we put preservatives on everything and they don’t, or the refrigeration systems here are not as good, or both.

It literally took me about 4 days to shop and find everything, and some things could never be found here in Arezzo. Fresh cranberries and pecan halves were an example, but luckily I discovered that beforehand and Zach and Agata “imported” them from Poland. The so-called “sweet potatoes” they have here, are nothing like ours so I’ll have to correct that somehow for the next time, as that was the only thing that was not so good. Perhaps we’ll have to import those from Poland next time too.

Poor Zach had to make many trips back to my house for ingredients I had forgotten to bring to Tiziana’s house. The vanilla extract, that I had to search for high and low at stores here, (it’s different from ours, by the way, it’s thicker), never made it into the pecan pie as I had forgotten it and Zach couldn’t make in time to bring it over and the pie had to go into the oven and be out, so the turkey could get in.

I made the pie crust first and I guess I was still a little sleepy. I was able to borrow measuring cups from Cristina’s kitchen, but I left the one cup measure in my dishwasher and thought the ½ cup measure I had brought with me was the one cup measure so the pie crust had only half the amount of flour that it should have had!! AUGHHH!!!

They were very buttery!!

So needless to say, I was a nervous wreck. And, the turkey was done 1.5 hours before planned! But it was a DELICIOUS bird. Through Chef Franco here and my friends, I’ve made friends with Marcello the butcher who thinks I’m just the funny Americana. He speaks no English and my Italian now, even with lessons, is poco. He calls Chef Franco or Tiziana to find out what I really want, but he always gives me the best and also moves me up in the line in his shop, much to the ire of the other Italian women, and offers tastes of things to me – which is not often done here.

Bianca, Tiziana’s daughter, likes to drink martini’s and I love them too but I would not normally have one before such a big dinner but by the time cocktail hour started at 7:30 and I had been working since 8:30 am and 4 days before, I said, “what the hell – let’s have one!”

So between starting with martinis and the gorgeous bottle of 2007 Amarone (that has a very high alcohol content) that Franco (another Franco) brought, along with a lovely bottle of Vin Santo from Andrea, by the end of the evening, I was notably smashed – and then they surprised me with singing Happy Birthday right after midnight and a lovely gift, and flowers, and candied chestnuts, and I also received a surprise delivery of extremely gorgeous flowers and chocolates from my son and daughter-in-law in NYC. It was crazy good!!

So you can see it was quite an amazing day!!!

The dinner, I must admit, was spectacular. Zach said, “Best turkey ever!!” Marcello outdid himself. And, EVERYTHING else tasted amazing because the ingredients here are SO, SO GOOD!!! Everything! So Agata said, no matter where we are living in the future, we should always have Thanksgiving here in Tuscany!!

I agree!!

The apples and sausage and bread in the stuffing, the oranges from Napoli in the cranberries, even the cranberries from Poland, the baby butternut squashes for the soup were so, so sweet – it was all so amazing!!

Again, I don’t know what we have done to our food supply in the US, but here, everything tastes SO GOOD!!!! And of course, I added a lot of LOVE!!

I hope you enjoy these crazy pictures and videos!

International Market in Arezzo, Italy

November 1, 2017 by Mary 6 Comments

Arezzo International market - spices for sale.

All the beautiful colors, all the beautiful spices!!

Two weekends ago was the International Market in Arezzo, Italy, where I am currently living. My very good friend Tiziana, was supposed to meet me for an aperitivo, but she was not feeling well so I was by myself and then ventured through the market.

I have to tell you about the aperitivos that are offered here. You order a drink such as a decent martini, as long as you explain it correctly that you want a gin martini cocktail instead of Martini brand bianco poured straight into a glass with some olives, and that’s um, bad straight white vermouth to us Americans – total yuck – for a martini.

So, anyway, now I’ve got this place that knows me and they’ve got it down pat, (so nice!), and for 4.50 Euros, you get a drink and then 3 small plates of salted peanuts, potato chips, and green olives, PLUS a buffet of cheeses, bread, roasted peppers, a pizza-like thing and sometimes roasted zucchini and eggplant – my favorites! I think this whole thing is AWESOME vs. 15 – 20 dollars for a martini in NYC, with not even a single peanut to boot!

So I’m walking down the streets of the International Market with nothing enticing me to buy or eat. I maybe could have stopped to have had a beer someplace and tried to meet some people but I had to drive home and I already had that one martini by myself so I did not want to do that. Then, this person on the street grabs my arm and says, “I know you!” and I’m like, “No you don’t. Nobody knows me here.” (except for my lovely 12 friends and NO ONE else and she wasn’t one of them) But no, she insisted, “I know you, I know I know you,” she said flaying her arms, very surreal. And I was like, Ok, maybe… and then she says, “From the winery!” Where I live in San Fabiano, at the cantina, she did write up my order…

It was so sweet of her and I was finally so sweet back. I may look normal on the outside but I am not, since Steve has passed.

I am really messed up In my brain and just with everything, I am so, so sad. Writing this now with tears streaming down my face, I’ve learned that it’s much easier to cry in the shower.

My whole life has changed and yes now, I am living in beautiful Tuscany with amazing friends, but I so miss Steve and I am so sad.

So for now, I just want to share with you some pictures from the International Market. Italians are very interesting. First of all, there were amazingly few “international” booths and when I was there, they were completely empty!

The Swiss and Tunisian booth had no one, the Russian booth had some activity with the vodka as well as the Spanish booth with paella. Potato chips were a hit in the German booth. My friend Cristina enjoyed the New York Pastrami booth, complete with Heinz mustard, the next day. But the most active booths were the prosecco, porchetta, salumi and cheese booths – all Italian!

Here are some pics to enjoy.

Arezzo International Market - one big paella pan.

This is one HUGE paella pan!!!

Arezzo International Market-loving potato chips

Italians LOVE potato chips and isn’t it neat how they get them on these spears?!

Arezzo International Market - the delicious porchetta.

Ahhh – the DELICIOUS porchetta along with the pancetta and salumis!! My “porchetta” recipe is here

Truffles for sale!!

Arezzo International market - frying bread.

Frying ciaccia fritta – bread!

Arezzo International Market - another great Popiel product.

Selling another “great Popeil product.” I think this is a pot lid that can cook something else at the same time…

I’ll have a recipe coming next week. LOVE to all!!!

A Wedding in Tuscany

August 8, 2016 by Mary 38 Comments

Our recent trip to Poland and Italy is one that storybooks are made of. It was full of visiting family and friends, discovering family roots, amazing food everywhere, renewing friendships and partaking as family in a Tuscan wedding.

Are you jealous?

Let me tell you about the wedding in Italy first as Poland deserves a whole other post.

Our oldest son did his university semester abroad in Arezzo, Italy some ten years ago and lived with an Italian family in a gorgeous modern house (as only the Italians can do), high on a hill overlooking Arezzo in Tuscany. Here is the view from their house.

The family, Tiziana and Andrea, have a girl, Bianca, and a boy, Giulio, sandwiched between our two boys in ages with Giulio being the youngest. While our son was there, we went to visit him with Zach and both families hit it off splendidly!! Tiziana was interested in having her family learn English better and of course our son needed to learn Italian. Now I really need to learn some Italian!

During the past ten years our boys have been back with their girlfriends to visit the family in Arezzo and Bianca has come to visit us many times, sometimes escorting a Prada bag but always with some Parmigiano and Pecorino cheeses and some olive oil from the olives that grow on the trees in their front yard.

I know. Aren’t I lucky?

Our family with Bianca and Cesare at sunset at the Bonechi home.

Our family with Cesare and Bianca on the right. (Those are the olive trees behind us.)

Hotel pool in Tuscany overlooking Arezzo.

Our hotel view and pool! The driveway leading to the hotel was bordered with deep beds of lavender – the smell was intoxicating!

So Bianca married Cesare and our whole family (our boys with their fiancées) met up in Italy to celebrate this joyous occasion and let me tell you, this was one big spectacular visit and wedding. Tiziana and Andrea are so very gracious hosts and they insisted our boys with their girls stay with them as Tiziana thought, “Bianca will be much more relaxed if her American brothers stayed there.” And we stayed nearby in a gorgeous hotel while they provided one of their cars for us so we could get around.

It was just so good to be back and visiting and really, it was like no one missed a beat, it certainly did not seem like 10 years had passed since our first meeting.

I got to spend the day with Tiziana on Friday catching up and shopping for cheeses, last minute vegetables and flowers for the family party that evening at their house. Here is Giancarlo Canti, who makes world renown, award-winning cheeses, with Tiziana. Look at all of this Parmigiano!!

Agata and Tiziana preparing the appetizers.

Andrea slicing the delicious porchetta.

A Tuscan spread of appetizers at sunset, overlooking Arezzo.

Part of the appetizer table at sunset.

We all helped in preparing the two pasta dishes and an amazing porchetta was delivered and carved at the table. The cheese, the wine, the prosecco, the sausages, the pasta, the prosiutto, bresaola, were all to die for. Tiziana buys all of these meats as large pieces and slices them on a meat slicer that holds a permanent and prominent space on her kitchen counter.

While here in America, rehearsal dinners are common on the Friday night before a wedding, that is not the case in Italy. It is usually just the immediate family having a quiet meal at home, getting ready for the big day. So Tiziana, in throwing this party for 50 of their closest friends and out-of-towners broke tradition in the most beautiful way as getting to know Cesare’s family and their close friends before the big day was so special.
Here is Cristina on the right, Tiziana’s best friend, (who graciously took me to the Prada boutique on Sunday), with Antonella, Cesare’s mom.

Bianca and Cesare were married in a gorgeous church, the Basilica of San Domenico especially renowned for housing a crucifix painted by Cimabue, dated 1265, which is considered an authentic masterpiece of art.

Guests waiting outside the church for the wedding to begin.

The very fashionable guests wait for the bride and groom to arrive.

Tiziana Bonechi and Steve in conversation.

My husband with Tiziana. She is holding the rings!

Cesare arrived in a 1974 red-orange Porsche while

Bianca arrived with her Dad in a ‘70’s white Alfa Romeo. Isn’t this just so cool?

The bride and groom greet each other outside the church first – so beautiful!
Bianca looked like a Roman goddess.
Here’s Bianca with her father, Andrea walking her down the aisle (I’m happy to report that Andrea has used my shot here as his new profile picture on Facebook!)

Here’s Bianca with our oldest son.

And here’s our whole family.
The reception was held at Santa Maria a Pigli which is a beautiful outdoor venue with an amazing cocktail time with various different tables featuring oysters and crayfish, sushi, tempura vegetables, cheeses, smoked meats, tripe sliders, and cocktails smoking dry ice. The dinner started with risotto, then a traditional pasta and then Florentine steaks grilled on an open flame with roasted vegetables.
All luscious and delicious and best of all, leisurely paced, which was so nice. Dinner and some dancing ended around 11:30 and then the real dance party started in another tent that lasted until about 5:30 am!! We left at around 3:30 as we were danced out, even with switching out of heels and into flip-flops. Our boys were there until the very end and then watched the sunrise back at their house.

It was an amazing, beautiful, perfect party!!

And Sunday, was lunch at the hotel, Prada store with Cristina – here’s my husband having coffee with Cristina at the Prada café and then another great dinner at Tiziana and Andrea’s.
And here we all are, oohing and ahhing over all the pictures.

It was an amazing, awesome trip and we are hoping that Andrea and Tiziana will be coming to our home for Thanksgiving! Cesare and Bianca will be here in September for our oldest son’s wedding. So fun, so special!!

I hope you enjoyed this story and photos as much as I enjoyed putting it together and sharing it. ☺