Who doesn’t smile when they see the face of a bright yellow sunflower?
I told my friends on the trip to Tuscany the only picture I really wanted was one standing in a field of sunflowers, and they came thru for me.

One day we agreed to venture down the dangerous white road (dry gravel road with a 30 degree grade) to visit some of the nearby towns. Along the way we spotted fields of tall sunflowers stretching their large faces toward the sun.

When we found a perfect field we turned off the highway onto a ribboned path between two flowered fields. A farmhouse sat nested in the flowers to our left. We were definitely trespassing. And I believe we could not have been the first carload of American women to do the exact thing.

The post A field of sunflowers first appeared on Zjudes blog.

In Florence we visited a leather shop at the suggestion of a friend. Hope Hanna had given us an excellent recommendation as the leather jackets, slacks and coats were the best we had ever seen. Tom ordered both he and Louis suede leather jackets and we bought shoes and other leather goods as gifts. We struck up a conversation with the owner/designer Jennifer Tattanelli who corresponds with us to this day.

During our trip I had been shopping for dinnerware. Florence is world renowned for hand painted ceramics. And they were absolutely beautiful and colorful, however priced well above my budget. The place settings alone for eight would run over $1400 Euro which converted to $1800 dollars.

Tom suggested I ask Jennifer if she knew of any ceramics shop to recommend. She was most excited to say she had only recently had one shop do her entire new home and was very pleased with their work. When I told her I was interested in purchasing dishes she pulled out her cell phone dialed the number of her connection “Giovanna” who owned the factory in Montelupo.

We learned that every trattoria (family owned restaurant) in Tuscany has their own vineyard. They produce their own vegetables and grapes for their own delicious food and wine. Well, in similar fashion, ceramics factories are not what Americans would imagine. They are small places where maybe two or three artists work hand painting and firing ceramics to be sold in the shops all over Italy and the world.

Jennifer arranged for us to meet Giovanna at her shop in Montelupo in one hour. We rushed back to The Grand Hotel where we were staying and Tom arranged for a car to take Lindsay and I to meet Giovanna. The driver whisked us off in his mini-van to what we could only describe as a scene from “Under the Tuscan Sun”. In minutes were riding along the autostrade. The rolling patchwork of hills dotted with fields of sunflowers were breathtaking. Every few miles we would see a bell tower and a farm house. Pinch me…. The driver spoke NO English and tried to sell us his own friends ceramics by shoving a brochure into my hand and repeating “cheap, cheap”. Within the hour we had arrived in front of the shop along a narrow street with cars parked on either side. A attractive well dressed Italian woman, stood blocking the parking space in front of the shop so no other car could take our spot. The driver parked and let us out. He would wait for us while we inspected the wares, hoping we would consider his recommendation.

When we entered the shop Giovanna introduced herself and explained she had asked her friend come to translate as her English was “Not so good”. She also introduced her smiling full-figured Mother who spoke no English at all. They seemed genuinely happy to see us.

The shop smelled new and was bright and cheerful. Along the walls were shelves displaying jars and bowls and pieces of every sort.

I explained that we were there to purchase dinnerware. I told her Jennifer had told me she would give me a good price and that she had highly recommended their work. I was sure that I could not afford to buy all of the pieces I would pick out, but, I would have a “wish list” that Tom could pull from for special gifts. They had a web site so that would work perfectly.

Giovanna, then her interpreter, suggested first we needed to choose the shape of the plates. I asked Lindsay for help, after all, these would be her dishes one day and I wanted her to love them too. They showed us the options and we settled on plates with some character to them. We agreed on the dinner plate and bread plate and then chose the bowls.

When we asked for coffee cups and saucers they brought out small demitasse cups and small saucers. I asked if they had any larger….”grande” I said. She laughed and ran to a shelf grabbing a large coffee mug. “We see these on TV Friends.” she said. I told her they would be perfect.

Next we began to pick out platters of all sizes and shapes then bowls, then canisters. Giovanna asked if we wanted the wording to be written in English or Italian? “Italian, I want Farina, Cafe’, Zucchero, Sale and Biscotti.”
It was all coming together. When we were finished we had thirity-eight items on our list.

” Now you must choose a pattern.” said Giovanna. I looked at Lindsay and we began to browse the shop. We turned a corner at the same time and seeing the deep cobalt blue background and bright golden sunflowers we shouted in unison….”sunflowers”.

“Please give me the cost for the entire order Giovanna.” I asked. She busily tapped on her calculator and spoke in Italian to her friend. “How about $1500 Euro?” she asked coyly. “Does that include shipping?” I asked.
She looked at her friend and they agreed it would be around $300 Euro to ship to the USA. She replied “Yes, it includes shipping.”I smiled and said, “We will take them ALL!”

Giovanna was as excited as we were and agreed to throw in a spoon rest and an olive oil and vinegar cruet. She could have the order made and shipped in just three weeks. Everyone was thrilled.

Our ride back to Florence was wonderful as we dreamed of the beautiful dishes we would use everyday for many years to come.

When the dishes arrived, they were even more beautiful than we had expected.

Tom never said a word about the price because it was the memory we created. It was wonderful to have something meaningful from our trip we could pass on to Lindsay and her family from our unbelievable trip to Italy 2004.

The post The Sunflower Dishes first appeared on Zjudes blog.

We awoke at around 10:30am to the sounds of birds chirping.  The simple down comforters and pillow were easily fluffed and pulled over my twin bed as I made my way to my private bathroom longing for the first shower taken since home.  The shower felt warm and lovely.  And when I emerged fresh and dressed from our suite the sun was shining and the air was comfortable with no humidity.  Kelly was approaching, coffee mug in hand. She made a dart to the room as she had had a confrontation with the cappuccino maker and needed to rinse out her white tee.  I took several steps around the perimeter of our building, actually an old stable,  that Barbara told us was constructed in the 15th century, my jaw dropping as I took in for the first time the magnificence of our Tuscan home.  The outer walls are large stone with shuttered windows and floors of slate.  The glass french double doors allow plenty of light.  The interior walls are plaster painted cream white with red brick floors and the ceilings are rustic, made of huge round beams and exposed wood.  It is extremely cool despite the fact there is no air conditioning. The large living room contains a huge fireplace and a kitchen  The spectacular views are amazing and the flowers…roses everywhere.  This place is more than we could ever have imagined.

There are several separate buildings within close proximity. Near the cucina and cantina, (kitchen and dining area), are about ten very large pots with fresh herbs of basel,parsley,sage, oregano, rosemary and thyme. On the block wall behind them is a cistern and a niche where the statue of The Virgin Mary sits draped with a rosary and between two white pillar candles  Kelly and I noticed a larger pot with greens springing up and agreed it was young lavender a week from bloom.
Laura Guisty is an accomplished chef who owned a restaurant for 18 years as well as a catering business.  She is surprisingly 53 years old and  very beautiful.  She has her own home, but lives at Casa Ombuto during cooking school.  She is warm and friendly and works diligently learning to speak English, while her helper speaks no English whatsoever. She is a patient and excellent teacher.
Lunch was served at noon and consisted of crositini of three types and of course wine.  The first Crostini Neri consisted of chiicken livers, capers, juniper berries anchovies and dry vin santo a wine liquer.  The second red tomato with garlic., the third was artichokes with butter and fresh herbs.  Delightful.  Then the main courier of sausage and cannellini beans in a tomato sauce. Simple and delicious.
For dessewt we had a great custard similar to flan called
We had an hour before we would need to report for our first cooking class. So, we walked the grounds near the pool and took in the magnificent views from every direction.

When we arrived to the cucina for class at 3pm we were given our apron and cook book.  We gathered around the long stone counter where nine wooden cutting boards and knives were placed. Laura decided on our recipes and we began our individual assigned cooking tasks, as she observed.  Kelly and I were to prepare the zabaglione for the strawberry dessert.  We began by cracking beautiful brown shelled eggs and separating the yolks from the whites.  The eggs were so fresh they actually had feathers still attached to the shell.  The color of the yolks were deep golden yellow like none we had seen.  We then whisked the eggs in the kitchen aid mixer adding sugar until we had a frothy mixture.  Then we add moscato sparking white wine and cooked it over low heat whisking constantly until it thickened. The aroma of the wine as the creamy mixture warmed was fabulous. After cooling in an ice bath we folded in the cream we had freshly whipped and set the bowl in refrigerator. Next we would prepare the dough for our ravioli dish..
The dough was simple to prepare.  We made a well of flour on the table and broke four eggs in the well and added just a small amount of olive oil. We began whisking the eggs with a fork slowly incorporating the flour from the sides of our well. Eventually we had blended all of the ingredients and we began to knead the dough on the smooth table. Laura said we must knead for at least ten minutes. Once we had the correct consistency we rubbed a small amount of oil on our ball of dough and wrapped it in plastic wrap.  Now it must rest for thirty minutes. We left the kitchen and sat at the table just outside where we snacked on a bowl of fresh cherries, small biscotti, peach or pear nectar and of course wine.  We shared our personal recipe dos and don’ts.
The thirty minutes went quickly and we were back in the kitchen once again.  We hand rolled our dough and piped the filling made of cheese and spinach, onto the flattened dough halfway down the circle.  Then we pulled the top half of the dough over the bottom half and with the flat side of our hand we made indentions between the rows of filling.  We then did the same in the vertical direction so we had created little pillows.  Then we took the pastry wheel and cut out the ravioli. We then pinched the sides lightly and placed each one on a large tray dusted with semolina flour. We were finished with our first lesson.  The others had prepared the strawberries for the zabiligone dessert, potatoes, kittle bundles, veal scallopine.
Kelly and I took a half bottle of wine from the kitchen and two glasses and headed for our outdoor table where I cranked up the Mob Hits.  The sun was setting so we decided to watch from the pool area.  It was our first day of cooking and we did not feel the least bit tired.
We dined at 8pm.  The beautiful table was set with roses laid  on a white cloth and candles lit. The food was excellent and we were proud to claim our own creations. We ate cheese and bresaola stuffed rolls, ravioli with butter and sage, and veal escalopes all a pizzaiola, a scaloppine that was magnificent.  It was delicious and once again the bottles appeared and a shot glass for each of us .  One of the ladies, Cassie from Wisconsin, played Danny Boy on the piano near our table as Rosemary from Ireland sang. It was very moving.  The universal language ……music.
We retired to our suite and hoped we could get some sleep as we have two cooking lessons tomorrow and will begin early. Our bodies seem to be on eastern standard time 6:30 at home, while it is 12:30 here in beautiful Tuscany. Better get to sleep.

The post Our first full day in Tuscany first appeared on Zjudes blog.

Yesterday Kelly reminded me that we will be flying off to Florence in just 9 weeks!  We will share an Italian cooking vacation for seven days at Casa Ombuto near Florence.  Paolo, Laura and Franco, our chefs, have returned from Sicily where they sampled several new dishes they will add to our Mediterranean Cooking Class cookbook. There is much to do to prepare.

We were wondering if it will be necessary to purchase the international phone package for our IPhones.  I say “yes”.  The GPS will probably come in handy for our walking tours. And it will be great to be able to send pictures of the culinary masterpieces we will create.  I can smell the garlic and truffles already.

Each day is well planned with a sightseeing trip after breakfast and hands-on cooking lesson in the afternoon.  Then we dine on our creations accompanied by delicious Tuscan wines that compliment the dishes. Although the week long course is intense there is plenty of leisure time for a trip to Florence to shop or a visit to LaVerna and its ancient monastery where St. Francis of Assisi lived most of his life.

International chef Laura Giusti teaches the Mediterranean Cooking Class. Laura was born in Subbiano which is a charming village close to Arezzo in the heart of Tuscany.  Her passion for food and wine inspired her to pursue this as a profession.  She studied to be a Professional Sommelier and she also complete and Oil” degustation course.  To improve her cooking skills she took courses with famous chefs from Florence, Rome and Lucca and with the “Slow Food” organization and the Institute of Alberghiero near Sienna. She also completed a Moroccan cookery course in North Africa.  In 1989 she opened up her own restaurant in Capolona near Arezzo “Il Giardiano Sull’ Arno”.  She started teaching in 2002  and was happy to finally unite her two greatest passions, cooking and teaching.  Her extensive knowledge of food and wine, combined with passion for teaching and personal charm will inspire us.

Here is a typical day at Casa Ombuto.  “Day 7  Breakfast.  Morning of leisure.  Light lunch if you are around.  About 3:00 pm begin hands-on cooking lesson.  Prepare an elaborate buffet dinner using all the cooking techniques that you mastered  during the week plus some new tricks. Presentation of food will also be demonstrated.  Grand finale dinner.  You will be presented with a certificate of attendance, cookbook and apron.”

During the next nine weeks I will be brushing up on my Italian and shopping for comfy travel clothes.  I intend to pack light as I will be responsible for my suitcase. Kelly will be a great travel companion and shares the same love of wine and cooking. My 13 day vacation is a dream come true and another line item to check off of my personal bucket list! Thank you honey for making this possible.  Ti amo!

The post Vacanza Italia first appeared on Zjudes blog.