Knitters Wine Tote -- Is this Useful?

I visited a Wine Show this past weekend to determine if it would have been a good show for Olio2go to be at (sadly, "no"). It didn't seem to be a gourmet olive oil crowd! I did find this cute wine bottle tote bag. I can't possibly think of an occasion when I would need a 6-bottle wine tote, but this holds promise for a knitting sports mom (that's a term in need of a definition!) The dividers could well keep separate a couple of bottles of water, a small snack, and small knitting projects such as socks or mittens.

The bag holds a twisted hank of Ballybrae, and the Finished Object: The Farrow Rib Scarf in Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo yarn. I haven't blocked the scarf yet because today is Valentine's Day and I need a flash of Red. A special thanks to Claudia for a great pattern and scarf idea. I particularly like this pattern because it could also be well suited to a gentleman's scarf. I must get back to updating my knitting log so the details can be found when needed again!

Reading Adventures: I finished Adriana Trigiani's Home to Big Stone Gap. The beginning was familiar in the sense that I kept asking myself if I had read this book before or if the deja vu sensation was from being familiar with the characters in her prior books. It took until the mid-point of the book before I realized that I hadn't read this book before. I've now read everything except her cookbook, Cooking with My Sisters.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Having recently read A Thousand Splendid Suns, it was time to do my part by sending wool hats to afghans for Afghans. If you haven't read the book, "compelling" is the best word for it.

I mailed them to San Francisco yesterday and know that four more people will have warm heads, comforted by hand-knit wool. The next due date is October 12.

My friend Joyce had a birthday yesterday, I left a goodie bag on her porch with two olive oils (Santisi and Goccia Umbra) and a bar of Olive Oil soap. One from Olio2go and others from my olive oil collection!

Truffles, Olive Oil, and More

Scarf picture has nothing to do with Truffles. You'll have to read on down to find out why it is here.

Do you remember your first Truffle? Not the chocolate kind which are surely mighty fine, but the sublime cousin-of-a-mushroom? Mine was at the Fourways Inn, in Bermuda in late March or early April of 1981.

Spring Break with MA was not the raucous kind. We’d already gone to Ft. Lauderdale as Freshmen and Sophomores so Junior Year was time for Bermuda. (We were out of ideas –or money-- by Senior year…)

Last week Olio2go received a case of Selezione Sliced Black Truffles in olive oil. We’ve priced them low, so it is a spectacular treat for anyone not willing or able spend $999 a pound at the local grocery store. Olio2go now has the jarred truffles, truffle salt, and truffle oil. What more could anyone ask?

Oh, what did we do with them? One of us made risotto and the other made scrambled eggs. Go figure! And, the jar still has enough for 2-4 more recipes!

Truffle butter is something we don’t have so I picked up a small container from Wegman’s gourmet butter case, next to the bread. Merchandise can work so well! The D’Artagnan Truffle Butter has lovely black specks of truffle. It’s an inspiration to make something as simple as toast, just to eat more truffle butter. Price about $7 for the equivalent of 1/2 a stick of butter.

Memories of Ireland abound at this time of year, and I find myself craving Irish Soda Bread. First, what we have here, is often “better” than the bread in Ireland. Perhaps if I’d been brought up on real Irish bread, I’d have a greater appreciation for the bread on Irish soil. That said, I have a recipe that’s pretty good, second only to that found at Kell’s in Seattle or Portland. Whole Foods Irish Soda Bread was pretty dismal. Great Harvest’s was pretty good. I still have a quart of buttermilk in the fridge to make some. What’s a good one? It needs to be firm, slightly sweet with a good balance of raisins and caraway seeds.

I will commend Whole Foods on their gelato offerings—the best we’ve shared since Florence.

Recent Olio2go olive oil tastings included Tenuta di Nozzole from Tuscany. It’s another great Tuscan. We also tasted a yet-unnamed oil from Marche. We’re looking forward to their name and packaging.

I’ve just finished reading Stolen Figs and Other Adventures in Calabria by Mark Rotella. It was a very pleasant travelogue through one of Italy’s less-traveled regions.

I finally finished the Koigu Scarf. The pattern is based on an odd-number of stitches and on every row, simply Knit the first stitch and then continue across with Yarn Over, Knit 2 together until the end. Turn and repeat. Mine is in a colorway I’ll call eggplant or aubergine as that is the dominant color.

Last Saturday, we finally made it to 2Amys for pizza. The four of us went for lunch. It’s so noisy that it’s a bit difficult to carry on a conversation. The pizza was great. I wonder if there’s a time when it is any quieter? While at 2Amys a Bucknell classmate, Jill, stopped by our table on the way out. It was nice to see her and to begin talking about our reunion in June. After leaving the restaurant, we took a stroll to the National Cathedral. It’s an architectural wonder, but it doesn’t quite have the character (and tombs!) of cathedrals in Europe.

Paula and I attended the International Wine & Food Show at the Reagan Building last weekend. The crowd was overwhelming!

After a lovely St. Patrick's Day, Katie and I took one last roll down the ski slopes at Bryce yesterday. Someone remind me to buy gear in the fall! The drive was a little longer than anticipated, but it was a great last day. I love Spring skiing!

Vinegar Buzz

On Satuday we made a quick trip to the Italian Store in Arlington, and purchased goodies including a Star brand jarred sauce with grape tomatoes and their wonderful homemade pizza dough. We used the recipe from Williams-Sonoma Florence and added the paper thin onion and the rocket. Wonderful!

Even better was the salad. Yes, another combination of field greens, lusty extra virgin olive oil, a good vinegar, sea salt, fresh ground pepper and one crushed garlic clove. I think I need to start keeping a list of the best oil-and-vinegar combinations.

This time we were evaluating Goccia Umbra's Aceto Balsamico de Modena, which came packaged together with an olive oil. I chose to combine it with Gourmet Sardinia Fruttato Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The combination was entrancing....award-winning....enough so that I may have to create a chart of the best oil-vinegar-and-greens combination for Olio2go. Perhaps I'll even create the all-salad-diet because I could live on these combinations.

The local middle school has been performing High School Musical this weekend and we saw it last night. It takes guts to do a big show like that while the original is still popular. The kids and their directors are to be commended!

Here's something crazy: I'm supposed to "coach" field hockey this afternoon. I'm the designated parent for our group, and the coach is in Arizona, so the responsibility falls to me. I sure hope those girls all know what they are doing. Most of the parents know that I can usually be found knitting on the sidelines.

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.