Rainy Afternoon, a Good Book, and a Great Olive Oil Recipe

We finally had a long rainy afternoon in Northern Virginia. I sat on the almost-completed porch, and enjoyed the hours of thunder and lightning, while reading (and finishing!) Andrea Lee's Lost Hearts in Italy. It's a compelling novel, very well crafted! I didn't know until now that it's on Oprah's Summer Reading List. (Lucky author!)

Throughout it all, organic heirloom plum tomatoes were roasting in the oven. I purchased 2 lbs. of tomatoes at the Farmers' Market on Saturday morning, where I also saw my favorite baker who gushed over the bottle of Tenuta di Ferento's Merlano that I gave to him two weeks ago. (Someone else gave him a bottle of Trader Joe's olive oil, and Wes expressed that there's no comparison).

To roast tomatoes....set the oven at 250F. Spray a light coating of oil on the bottom of a large roasting pan. Cut each tomato in half and placed cut side up in the roasting pan. Next, drizzle a good extra virgin olive oil (just 3-5 tablespoons) over the tomatoes, sprinkle with sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and a teaspoon of rosemary. Roast at 250F for 3-5 hours. For the olive oil, I used a notable Tuscan, Frantoio Franci Le Trebbiane.

We enjoyed them with Italian (turkey) sausage, sauteed in Santisi Extra Vergine di Oliva (2006 Harvest), and also with fresh corn on the cob, and pasta salad. The pasta salad included more Santisi, along with low-fat mayo, peas, red pepper, scallions, and sun-dried tomatoes (those were from a jar!)

During the week, we celebrated Carly's half-birthday with dinner at Roberto Donna's Bebo Trattoria in Crystal City, where they are presently serving Olio2go's Frantoio di Sommaia Extra Virgin Olive Oil with their lovely bread. Two of us had pizza from the new pizza oven, and two had pasta. All was wonderful. Also the Gelato selections are more than enough to share. We don't need to order three desserts!(Next time....)

In a change from the Italian theme, I recently read Susan Vreeland's Luncheon of the Boating Party, which I greatly enjoyed and keep meaning to recommend to my friend, Suzanne. I think she would enjoy it for her love of France and art. A bit of light reading was a mystery, Knock Off by Rhonda Pollero, set in a Florida law firm. I attempted to read the Barbara Taylor Bradford biography, but couldn't be captivated. I'd read her novel long-enough-ago, that the constant references to the various books was tedious!

I was lucky enough to run into a mom-friend, Janet, this week to get to say good-bye before her move to New Hampshire. I hope she writes a blog about her adventures in moving from a big city to a small town, on a move they didn't expect to make at this point in their lives! I'll miss her.

Fancy Food Show

Sunday was the day for the express trip to NYC for the Fancy Food Show. I met Jeff at the Javits and visited with Olio2go's current vendors and had the chance to meet many prospective producers in the world of fine extra virgin Italian Olive Oil. We had a wonderful tasting of four very nice DOP oils from the in the Tuscany area with Carlo Badaili of the Camera di Commercio of Firenze.

Efisio Farris from Gourmet Sardinia shared with us the galleys of his new book, Sweet Myrtle & Bitter Honey, to be published in October by Rizzoli. We enjoyed fine tastings of Saba, Mosto d'Uva, a grape must reduction, and honeys. I can't wait to try Saba or Mosto d'Uva in a vinaigrette. We'll add the book to our product line as well.

At Italian Products we tasted the new Merlano DOP from Tenuta di Ferento and placed an order as the 2006 Harvest was a very limited production, with the new certification. We had the pleasure of meeting Natalia Ravida representing her family's extra virgin olive oil from Sicily. We look forward to her new cookbook, Seasons of Sicily.

Camille and Carl Jurgensen, suppliers for many of our organic products, and I shared tips on our favorite books. I recommended The Reluctant Tuscan, and one of their favorites we all shared is Too Much Tuscan Sun. Of course, we all have enjoyed Donna Leon's mysteries set in Venice.

We had a lovely time with the representatives of Domodimonti, and we soon expect to have their Francesco Bellini extra virgin olive oil from Marche in stock. They produce lovely wine as well, but alas, we don't carry wine!

Only bottled water seemed to be in short supply at the show. All of my favorite foods were there. Pecorino, speck, prosciutto, salami, Grada Padano DOP, truffles!

One domestic tidbit....I'm trying to find out the label of the Extra Virgin olive oil served in Google's staff cafeterias. It is a fruttato, first cold press...but that's all I know. Any tipsters in the know?

The Valentine's Day Snow Day

Two Wednesdays in a row! It's almost like being a kid in Upstate/Central NY. That said, I wouldn't mind being up there for the historic snowfall, reminiscent of the Blizzard of '66 and the snow of 1993. It's getting there that's the problem. For the fun of it, I keep checking the Syracuse.com website, and occassionally, even the forum for Cortland County.

Guess who turned 15 since the last update? Carly! She's off to a good start on her 3rd quarter grades, which is a good thing. We're looking forward to lacrosse tryouts, eventhough she broke a piece of Hardiplank siding last weekend with her lacrosse skills. She's signed up for a field hockey camp at William and Mary this summer.

We had a few friends over for dinner last Saturday night, and once again, we included an Olive Oil Tasting--all extra virgin from Olio2go, of course. The tasting table featured: Gourmet Sardinia Fruttato, Titone DOP, Vittorio Cassini Classico, Olio Beato, and Santisi Novello 2006. Our guests could appreciate the freshness of Santisi, the smoothness of Cassini, and the intensity of Fruttato. Titone was the overall favorite, and I used that for the field greens salad--along with splashes of white balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar--one clove of garlic.

Our appetizers included a selection of olives (thanks to Wegman's olive bar), marinated mozarella balls (my own creation), peppery cheeses, bread and crackers.

The salad was served as a separate course along with bread from Wegman's and one of their gourmet/European/restaurant butters.

The main course was Tom's specialty --an unnamed pasta dish with chicken, red and yellow bell peppers, and mushrooms in a reduced red pepper cream sauce. Yum.

For dessert, we had another tasting, although unintended it turned out to be fun. I had two chocolate desserts from Trader Joe's the Chocolate Ganache and the Chocolate Decadence. It turned out that everyone wanted a small slice of each, for comparison tasting! I'm not sure we had a clear winner, as both were devoured.

In the world of olive oil, we've had a challenging learning experience in the process of importing. It's been a long journey and the arrival of San Macario Novello continues to be ....imminent. We've had a very helpful customs agent, been held up by Homeland Security, and continue to wait. It left the port in La Spezia, Italy on January 9th. Our pallet arrived at the port of NY on January 25 (I think), and there's been a long wait for release due to the extra inspections. We'll never know what in the container caused the VACIS exam or the complete unpacking of the container.

I hope to spend part of this snow day working on the Constant Contact announcement for the arrival of San Macario, and also working on pages for Olio2go's new web site. Launching soon!

There hasn't been much time for knitting lately, although I finished a scarf on Tuesday morning and wore it the same day. I bought the yarn when Maureen and I journeyed to Uniquities in Vienna on December 30.

Send me an email if you want to know about H e a d L i c e , attitudes about lice, facts about lice, and how to use olive oil to treat lice. Good readings: the Harvard School of Public Health guidance, the American Academy of Pediatrics position, and Virginia School Health Guidelines. It's always helpful to know your own school district's policy. I hope I don't have to speak with any of you on this topic again!

The books: I keep scaning the travel books and am ready for a return to Italy. I'm also continuing to read the Donna Leon mysteries set in Venice. The current book on my nightstand is Death at La Fenice. Before that, I finished Dressed for Death.

It's a good day to bake bread.....and read!

Happy Snow! Happy Valentine's Day... L.