Field Hockey Fun

Field Hockey season has begun and the challenge is in how to prepare at least a decent dinner with games encompassing the 4:00-7:00 time period. For the first challenge, I used the oven timer and a roasting pan!

Italian (turkey) sausage, onions, peppers, and garlic, were placed in the roasting pan and drizzled with Merlano Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I set the oven timer to begin a half hour after we left the house and to roast at 325F for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Upon return, we sliced heirloom tomatoes and added a splash of Olio2go's Merlano and Goccia Umbra Balsamic Vinegar (not from Olio2go) -- along with a few tiny ball of fresh mozzarella. With a good loaf of bread, it was a nice dinner to come home to after sitting through a foggy and drizzly game.

Carly was voted as one of the team's three Captains. I'm also coordinating the Sports Booster side of the team's activities.

Now reading: Vivaldi's Virgins and it is highly recommended. I just wish I knew where in Venice the Ospedale della Pietà is located!

Porch Update and Olive Oil Emergencies

How clever we are to use cedar lattice, with stain the same color as our clay soil! A green would have been nice, but then I'd feel like I needed to hose it down. This way, we can spend more time enjoying the porch!

Tomorrow or Friday, we expect the electrician and then we'll be in the home stretch. Bill, where are you with the landscaping plans? (That drain pipe will be buried once we get the landscaping plans).

As I was leaving work today, my Blackberry buzzed, the wonderful Elizabeth from the local trattoria, Bebo, had a customer who greatly wanted Tentuta di Ferento's Merlano Olive Oil. Olio2go to the rescue, I took a long detour on my way home and delivered a case to Bebo, so that the nice gentleman can bring some to a dinner party tonight.

Porch Progress

Todd made great progess on the steps last week, and Tom worked hard on the landscaping (see the black-covered area?). We're waiting to hear from Bill of Twigs & Stones on the landscaping plans. Somehow, the landing is level my my photo is not. It looks like the lattice (square, not diagonal!) will be installed today.

The electrical work is planned for Thursday. I can get grumpy on that. I have. When you want to use conduit the size of a gutter/downspout, it's time to present another plan.

I've really missed having a gas grill this summer. It had to be disconnected due to the porch work. I'm down to only one bottle of olive oil in the house! It's time to do more new olive oil selections at Olio2go. I need more choices at home. Right now I have a DOP from Fontanara that Jeff brought back from the April trip. It's very nice, but it is always more fun to have a selection.

I'm excited to be knitting again. I've been working on the red Ballybrae vest, and am enjoying working with the spongy feel of wool. I'll try to put pictures in the next post.

On the reading front, I've also recently finished In Maremma by David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell. It's another find-a-ruin-and-rehab-it book, but this is set in a less-well-known part of Tuscany. We have Frantoio Franci extra virgin olive oils from Maremma. Frantoio Franci Extra Virgin and Frantoio Franci La Cinciallegra Organic are both from olives grown in Maremma.

It's time for work!

Roasted Tomatoes Redux

We were at the Farmer's Market on Satuday and Red Rake Farm had their heirloom organic tiny plum tomatoes, so I bought 4lbs.

Two pounds make two trays like this. I measured the olive oil, and used 1 Tablespoon for each roasting pan. The deeper sided roasting pan resulted in better roasted tomatoes. Aren't they lovely?

Reading: I finished The World in My Kitchen by Colette Rossant. I read it cover to cover, it was chatty, but I was distracted by a timeline that skipped all over the place, and fact-checking puzzles. Did she really have a microwave oven in the 60s in a house in SoHo that had no kitchen, no bathroom, and no hot water heater? Her view that she was an overly attentive mother doesn't quite fit with sending kids to friends over the summer so she could travel to far points of the world. She mentioned her husband in such a detached way, that I kept expecting them to separate. Not recommended.

Olive Oil Fraud?

So the hot news in the world of olive oil is an article on fraud in the New Yorker.

I thought it was a bit of a snooze. It's not hard to imagine that the big grocery-store-brand-names have aisles and aisles to fill and tanker loads might be the way to do it. Spanish olive oil has long been sent to Italy and bottled there.

But there's also a movement in Italy, called Slow Food, and consortiums which espouse quality and authentic production, and the oversight and designation in the DOP certification--all of which are very important to the small producers of extra virgin olive oil.

Our very small producers truly bottle their own oil and they often sell out quickly. Their production process takes place only in the October to January time period (the span includes the various climates in Italy).

Carapelli was last used in our house as a lice treatment. If I purchase a grocery store brand, it's Lucini. Given a choice, I'll take Merlano, Getsemani, or Panizzi from the stock at Olio2go.

Currently reading: Slipknot by Linda Greenlaw (well, it's a book on CD that I'm listening to on my commute). More next time on the high school reunion.