When life hands you peanuts...

Um, make peanut butter?

In any event, that's what I did this past week and it was so delicious and easy that I just had to share. Most commercial peanut butters are loaded with sugar and preservatives - plus they're pretty hard to find here in Italy. And natural based peanut butter? I'm sure I could track it down somewhere but I'd hate to see the price tag. So I had some celery sticks and was craving PB on top. After checking out some recipes on the internet, I put a simple combination together that made it really easy.


2 cups peanuts (plain or salted)
4 tsp canola oil

Put the peanuts in your food processor and drizzle the oil on top. Process until you have the desired consistency. I like it a little crunchy so it only took me about 4-5 minutes. If you used plain peanuts, taste and add salt if necessary. Then, you can just put it in some tupperware and store in the fridge! Delicious and way better than Skippy or Jiff.

Next stop for me is almond butter, following the same instructions as above.

Nove, Home of Ceramics

American holidays in Italy are great for travel. Roads are empty and restaurants are reasonably crowded.. For Memorial Day, I hopped in the car with two friends and a three-year-old and we headed to the Northern Italian city of Nove. Nove is about 2.5 hours from Milan and the home to several ceramic manufacturers. We parked at the town square and found ourselves surrounded by ceramic shops and factories, honestly, there were probably 3-5 within a kilometer in each direction.


Our first stop was the ceramic museum which happened to be closed when we stopped by. Luckily, we asked for tourism information at the town hall and they volunteered to open up the museum for the four of us! It was a small museum but interesting and it was great to have it all to ourselves.


We popped into a factory store that was recommended by a town hall official. The tables and walls were covered in handpainted ceramics and I fell in love with a lamp painted with a black and white toile print. The price tag for the matching set was a bit intimidating so I carried on to the next stop.


At La Ceramica VBC, we truly hit the jackpot. They are the producers of earthenware for Tiffany & Co, Williams-Sonoma, Southern Living, and Lenox. The prices were out. of. control. Seriously. I picked up a serving platter made for Tiffany & Co for 22 euro. That translates to a little over $30 - a significant discount.


Of course, we didn't just come for American items at a discount. There was quite the market for Italian platters, dinner sets, vases, candlesticks...just about everything!


Below, you get a sneak peak of some of the things I purchased for myself (there were other items but they're gifts so it's a secret). The yellow and white item is a trivet. The yellow is quite vibrant in person and it's gorgeous. I also bought a black 3-pronged candlestick holder that I am newly obsessed with. Beautiful. Had I felt the urge, I could've bought a 12 place dinnerware set of amazing ceramic for under 30 euro.


Put this list for when you come to visit us - don't forget we can help you ship stuff back to the States!

Only in Italy

At this weekend's Italian-American baby shower, there was spiked punch, key lime cheesecake, cute games, and an advice session from those who have children and, well, those who were children. Like most showers, the presents were the serious point. In Italy, however, showers (either bridal or baby) are simply not a tradition. As a consequence, registries aren't really a 'thing' over here. The mother-to-be had registered at the European store Prenatal but I was one of the few people to actually purchase off the registry. Let me tell you why.

After work on Friday, I went to the Prenatal location nearest to my home. An employee asked for the family's name and, when I replied, shuffled through a pile of emails about two inches thick to find the message with this family's info. What kind of info? It was the name of the store they'd registered at. Because they registered at a different location of the same store, I had to call the other store to find out what was still available on the registry. I narrowed down the price point but, as you can imagine, it took awhile to go through all the items and match them up with the flimsy catalog at the desk.

After choosing some tub accessories (I like to pick the functional, boring stuff), I was disappointed to find out from the clerk at my store that the store doesn't even have half the items in stock. Back to the drawing board.... I finally settled on a giostrina mobile, a musical mobile of fuzzy (so soft!) monkeys since bedsheets were my only other option (I like boring but have the draw the line somewhere). So then, once the clerk at my store got the mobile, we had to call back the other store to give them the item number so they could cross it off the registry. I'd show you a picture but, naturally, the store does not have online shopping or internet catalog.

I'm hoping that my next baby shower will be for an American (online shopping and registries!) as I have now discovered why Italians tend to ignore the whole concept of a registry.

The Milan Garden Show

I had a friend in town from Rome for the weekend (with her two-year-old daughter) so it was a good excuse to do the kinds of things that my husband won't do with me. We ate Indian food, watched 'Mary Poppins', and went to a garden show in the nearby Giardini Pubblici.


The Giardini Pubblici are always lovely but were made even more so by the gigantic trade show taking place over the weekend. Obviously, plants were for sale and we saw a huge variety of flowers (I lost track of the different types of roses), herbs, and green things. I often felt tempted to add to my balcony collection but stayed calm, remembering that we are already halfway through our time in Milan and will leave before next summer even starts.


As I am now learning, it seems to be a requirement that any show or fair have multiple booths selling food that is produced locally or typical to the region. The garden show was no exception and this olive oil vendor came well prepared with huge vats in his little truck. Still well-stocked with the olive oil I bought last fall from a colleague's family production near Salerno, I walked past - only to be waylaid by the most amazing raspberry jam. Second only to my granddad Blum's homemade jams, this was world-class.

Amazingly, the two-year-old made it several hours without complaint, perhaps distracted by all the fake animals (made of stone, metal, and topiary). Glad for an afternoon with a friend, we headed back for bedtime and movies.

On Mozzarella

For foodies, Italy can be paradise. Fresh vegetables, meats, and cheeses are everywhere and are often locally produced. While in Sorrento, we got up close and personal with cheese on a tour of a mozzarella and provolone factory.

This family-run business, the Caseificio Michelangelo has been in the family and in Piano di Sorrento since the 1940s. The production area is tucked behind the shop. After putting our on hairnets, bibs, and footies, we headed back into the production zone to see the family at work. While their day was mostly wrapping up (they work from 4.30 am to noon), we caught mozzarella in the various stages of production. Made here with cow's milk (as opposed to the buffalo milk that is also typical to the region), the first step is adding heat. Once the milk is curdled, the whey is discarded and then cut and drained for a little bit.

Then, add hot water and streeeeeeetch! Once it's all stretchy, you can roll it, braid it, or do whatever you'd like to it. We braided ours (my braids looks better). The padrone then immersed them in a salty cold water. When they get up the next day, they pack it in water and sell it to the masses.

We were also shown the freezer room where all the caciocavalli were stored in varying degrees of doneness. Another cheese with DOP designation (protected origin - the way only sparkling wine from Champagne can be called champagne), caciocavallo is shaped like a teardrop with a taste similar to an aged provolone. It's hung of the below hooks in a de-humidified, temperature controlled room to ready. Caciocavallo is often smoked but to maintain compliance with DOP regulations, they now have to use smoke flavoring (yes, the artificial solution is the legal requirement). The family still smokes their own but this is unfortunately for their personal use alone.


Our last stop was the tasting - lunch! The olives and tomatoes were grown locally and the cheeses were produced in house. It was delicious! Mark also had the pasta a la Sorrentine. A really simple dish, it's easy to replicate at home. Saute chopped tomatoes with a bit of good olive oil, then mix with fresh cooked pasta. Stir in chopped fresh mozzarella and you have an authentic piece of Sorrento right in your kitchen!

The Country Home in Umbria

For the May day holiday, we decided to take advantage of a travel deal we found and stay in country for the long weekend. Waking early to beat the rush of traffic (Milanese are dying to leave Milan on normal weekends - long weekends are even worse), we loaded Cooper into the car and set the Tom-Tom towards Orvieto, Umbria.

The weather was definitely in our favor. We stayed at an agriturismo about 25 minutes from the town of Orvieto. An agriturismo is basically a government-subsidized farm. Part of the program means that these still-working farms or vineyards receive government funds if they lease out rooms or homes on part of this property. Our agriturismo owned several acres in the region and rented out a two bedroom stone house to us and our accompanying friend. Our friend's husband was out of town but she brought her two boys anyways and everyone seemed to enjoy watching the kids chase Cooper around the open yard.

While the Umbrian countryside is dotted with charming medieval towns, we spent most of our time at our rented home. We took some long walks with Cooper and spent a lot of time relaxing and reading in the fresh air.

Our agriturismo sponsored a wine tasting on Saturday afternoon that we happily attended. We toured their wine-making facility and tasted their four local wines, enjoying the crisp white Grechetto so much that we brought home four bottles. Mark is becoming a snob, he later remarked that he was unimpressed since we've gotten much more thorough tastings and tours in the past.

While lunch the prior day had been at the agriturismo's restaurant (fantastic deal and amazing food) and dinner had been made in our own kitchen in front of the fire, we headed into old town Orvieto for dinner on Saturday. Orvieto is built on top of a tall mountain and I'm sure this was of great use in defending the town - you could see for miles. We had a delicious dinner of fresh pasta followed by a steak with balsamic sauce - steaks from the Umbrian/Tuscan region are deservedly famous.

And speaking of famous, we even spotted a celebrity out while out at dinner! The restaurant's owner was serving us and paused to ask how we'd heard of his restaurant. It was truly word of mouth from a friend in Milan but when we asked why, the owner was practically popping with pride as he announced that Rick Steves was interviewing him back in the kitchen. I had to see it for myself so I popped back and came face to face with the famous tour guide. While I've always been more of a 'Lonely Planet' girl myself, I'll have to flip through the 2010 or 2011 Rick Steve's Italy guide to see if the Trattoria dell'Orso made the cut.

We were sad to wake up early on Sunday and make the drive back into Milan. The six hours to Umbria was a little long but the weekend in the country was amazing and we've now resolved ourselves to find a piece of this countryside paradise a little bit closer to home.

Trieste

I continue to count my lucky stars. Not only do I get to live here in Italy but I get to work here too! While that part definitely has it's pitfalls, any work-associated travel is definitely a plus. While I've been to Friuli-Venezia Giulia before (for our January ski trip), this was my first trip to the region's capitol.

Trieste was a part of the Austrian (and Austrian-Hungarian empire) from 1382 until 1918. It joined Austria in 1382 for protection from the Venetian empire. Trieste was annexed back into Italy following the end of World War II, simultaneously losing status as a major port power. The Austrian influence is most evident in the architecture of the Piazza Unita d'Italia, a spacious piazza that faces the seafront.

The road to the highway winds along the shore and there are quite a few sight-seeing points just a few kilometers up the coast. On the way back to Milan, our group stopped at an Autogrill for lunch. Autogrills are the Italian version of highway fast food - located mainly off of highways (and sometimes, literally, on top of them). I have to ask you, do the pictures below look like any kind of fast food you've ever seen in the States?