I’m so sorry for the lack of updating. Now the holiday (at least Thanksgiving) craziness is over, updates are in order. First will be stuff from Thanksgiving and then watch out for the Iron Cook competition! Guest blog post from my friends Josh and Jena as they hosted an Iron Chef-like competition with an interesting secret ingredient.
My Last Day in Cheese at the New Amsterdam Market
•November 16, 2010 • 2 CommentsIt was beautiful this past weekend. Perfect weather for selling some cheese at the market. My dad and I started setting up around 10:30 and we were put next to Scott Bridi from Brooklyn Cured.
Dad showing off the goods.
Some delicious samples.
Great blue marbling.
Nothing like a little artisanal bonding.
The market was holding a Danish Smørrebrød (pronounced smoe-bruth, open-faced sandwiches on rye) and Beer Garden event so, all sorts of people dropped by.
Including these freaks, my besties Josh and Jena.
Even Chef Nate Appleman and his family, which was awesome. He was very humble and tried some cheese. His kid really loved it too and I remarked, “He has a good palate” to which Appleman replied, “I’m teaching him young.” So cool.
So many of my friends came down to say hi, which was awesome. Shout outs to Josh, Jena, Seth, Nate, Holly, Liz, Ginger, Kim, Wes and his friend (I can’t remember his name :-/), Jason, Jill and their friend Matt, and Rich and Nancy. It was great showing everyone what we do and have them taste the product that I’m always talking about. It really made my day. A great way to close out our market season.
See! I’m so happy. (Nerd)
I’m in the process of creating a blue cheese dressing. Once I tweak it to the point of greatness, it’ll be around for people to try and give feedback.
I’ve set a date with Anne Saxelby and I’ll be interviewing her on December 6. Josh is still in the process of writing up the Iron Cook competition piece. Sounded like it was a great time. Can’t wait to hear about all the pomegranate concoctions that people came up with.
I’ll also be documenting my pie making process. I sorta took the easy way out and am not making crusts (except for the graham cracker crust for the key lime) since we don’t have a rolling pin, but everything else that’ll be put in will be homemade. Four pies. Pretty ambitious, but I think they’ll turn out great.
Oh, and I’m seeing the Peewee Herman show tomorrow. Don’t be TOO jealous 😉
Iron Cook, New Amsterdam Market, Saxelby Cheese
•November 13, 2010 • Leave a CommentHey all! Sorry it’s been so long between posts. As the holidays come closer, the craziness gets even … crazier. Though not all our Thanksgiving will be homemade, I’m going to be making all the pies: keylime, pumpkin, apple and pecan (not all the pie crusts will be done by hand).
My friend Josh is hosting an Iron Cook competition tonight (think Iron Chef). The secret ingredient was pomegranate. He’s going to guest blog here in the next day or so about the experience which will be great.
My dad and I will be at the New Amsterdam Market for the last time this season tomorrow, Sunday, November 14. The market will still be going on until some time in December, but we’re hanging our coats up for the winter.
I will also be interviewing Anne Saxelby from Saxelby Cheesemongers who are in the Essex Street Market in the coming weeks as well.
Got some things cooking up here! Dr. Awesome and I went to Hecho en Dumbo for brunch and it was amazing. Photos to come soon.
Anyone have any cool Thanksgiving trips or recipes that they’re using? What are your plans?
Hope to see you at the market!
Italia – The End
•November 2, 2010 • Leave a CommentSorry for the lack of updating. It’s been a busy week. Be warned: This post is going to be very photo heavy. We start off with our dinner after our travels around the underground and duomo, at an agriturismo not far from our villa.
Dr. Awesome carrying some wines to dinner.
View from the agriturismo.
Our amazing race pose.
Jason and Jill pouring some wine to get us started.
Then we made our way inside. We sat at a long table in a nice dining room, preparing for our four course meal.
Of course we start with some crusty bread, freshly made olive oil, tomatoes, mozzarella and cured meat.
Then came a huge friggen bowl of pasta with a delicious pesto sauce. This could’ve just been the meal, that’s how huge the portion was.
The main course was some stewed boar with carrots and rosemary potatoes.
To finish, panna cotta.
And some homemade vodka from the waitress’s Polish friend. It was yummy. I think the reason is brown is because it’s not distilled. I’m totally shooting in the dark here, so I might be wrong about that.
Like I said in an earlier post, the great thing about an agriturismo, everything you eat or drink is grown or raised on its land. It’s also not very expensive. I think this huge meal cost us about 30 Euros each (not including all the coffee and drinks). Plus, you’re supporting a local slow food organization. FTW!
Moving on to Friday, our last day in Italy. It’s hard to describe to people where Orvieto is situated. I tried my best in the moving car to get a photo of the city on the cliffside. It’s an amazing view and the photo doesn’t do it justice. Just one of those things.
We decided to venture out of Orvieto and go to another medieval city in Tuscany called Montepulciano. This place is a bit more touristy than Orvieto, but it’s just as beautiful. And also built on a hill.
Random lady with a random crow (I guess it’s her pet?)
I love that all these clocks have awesome statues that ring the bell on the hour.
Lots of good shopping on the main strip.
Had to go into this wine store. Later on, we came back to it and had a few tastes of different wines.
Cool old church.
A really cool copper store where we could’ve bought a whole distiller set.
LOVE how old this place is. I get very excited about things like that.
We found a cantina at the top of the city. We went in. The wines were ok, but Dr. Awesome and I really liked their olive oil, so we bought a small can for special occasions.
Then we went down a random alley where a bunch of people were taking in the view.
The fixer-upper.
She totally caught me taking a photo of her.
We made our way to the car to drive back home, but decided to stop at this winery right by our villa. They were a bigger place than the other ones we had experienced, but had some great, complex wines. We all ended up getting this white dessert wine that was delicious.
That night, we went back to Orvieto to eat our last dinner together at a restaurant called Le Grotte Del Funaro. It looked like the underground caves that we toured around. The food was great, as usual.
Saturday morning, we drove back to Rome to catch our flight to Montreal, connecting to NY. Of course, things didn’t go as planned and we missed our connecting flight (Air Canada, I’m very disappointed with your service and the Montreal airport in general). But at least you provided some sort of comedy at the hotel you put us up at. Jason and Jill had this amazing plate in their room:
And that concludes (finally!) my Italian vacation. It was a great time and I would love to go back and travel around a lot more. Of course, like any vacation, it went way too fast. Now, I have to try and make my own pasta! Time to experiment!
Orvieto Duomo and the Underground
•October 26, 2010 • Leave a CommentBack to Italia! The day after our wine tour, we just laid low and chilled out reading by the pool. The next day, Thursday, we went into Orvieto to go and see the duomo and the underground that was dug out about 2500 years ago.
This is us figuring out where we are and how to get to the duomo since the tourist office is in the same area. We had a schedule to keep and needed to get tickets for a certain tour before it sold out. On our way, we wandered around, going into random churches.
Tiny car
This place had a bunch of frescos.
We then went into another one. You can see how big the entrance is compared to us.
This one had some creepy statues.
After leaving, we came upon the sight:
As you can see, this thing was so massive and colorful. It was really hard trying to get the whole thing in a single frame. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take photos inside, so all mine are exterior shots.
Sneezy Dr. Awesome.
We made our way to the tourist center to meet up with our group and guide for the underground tour. I had no idea that this even existed here until our friends mentioned they wanted to do this. These people basically carved out these storage areas by hand. You can still see the marks from the tools they used. You’re also basically on the side of the cliff at some parts with a beautiful view. It was a bit humid down there as well.
Before we made our way down.
A view from a “window”.
These are where pigeons were kept, whether they were for selling or eating.
After we came back up to the main land, Dr. Awesome and I split from the group so that we could explore a little and I could get some souvenirs from the city since this was going to be our last day traveling in.
While roaming, we sat down for a quick lunch. We hadn’t had pizza at all on this trip and decided that it was a necessity. My pizza had prosciutto with rosemary and potatoes. It was delicious.
We also passed by a place that was selling whole truffles and boar prosciutto. It was siesta time, so the shop was closed.
And then there’s the shot of me, standing like I always do in photos on a random street.
Orvieto is known for their ceramics, so I was able to buy an awesome handmade plate from this woman who has a tiny store down a random street. I also got some tea cups and saucers for my parents. We met up with everyone around 3:30 and went back to the villa to get ready for dinner at an agriturismo that was about five minutes from where we were staying. More deliciousness to come! 🙂
I YUM New York 