iTunes is back, better than ever!
You can now view our show
in a higher resolution within your iTunes Player, download the
video files to your PC/Mac or your Apple TV, and
eventually store them into your iPod...so you can
show them to your Grandma next time you go visit!
Here is the only catch: the video files will need to
be converted before you can actualy synch them to an
iPod or iPhone (ctrl+click or mouse right button).
Also, as you might have noticed (or we hope that
eventually you will), we are finally featuring
original music thoughout the show, thanks to the
great help and inspiration of Terry Radigan and
Joshua Camp in New York and Pat Buchanan in
Nashville. Many of our viewers have been requesting
information about the music we feature in our videos,
and also asked about what we listen at home while
cooking or entertaining...stay tuned, as a few
surprise posts will be coming soon.
For the moment,
enjoy Under The Tuscan Gun on a bigger screen...now
you can!
Debi and Gabriele
A Salad by the Pool
Today, mid summer, still, hot...nothing better than a light lunch by the pool.
Enjoy this super fast recipe, and let us introduce you to a very special wine.
Buon Appetito
Midnight Spaghetti; What a Date!
since our social life is these days somewhat limited (read: got two kids and we’re exhausted), we decided last night to improvise a romantic date in our own house.
We put the kids to sleep, we chilled for a bit, and then we got all dolled up, cracked the wine open and...well, it was a blast.
Even if the dish we
prepared is somewhat synonymous of “hot italian
summer nights wearing shorts and flip flops on the
porch”, it was refreshing to find an excuse to get
elegant and celebrate.
Please join us for a midnight
Spaghetti all’ Amatriciana.
The Florentine
This summer, if you
intend to visit Tuscany and florence, be sure to look
for this free magazine, or check their website, you
will find tips and calendar events that will help you
navigate the city with ease.
This month Debi and I are featured on The Florentine
pages...just a few questions about how we met, and
what’s going on with our lives.
The Tuscan Gun goes AppleTV
As of now, our show is sindacated on all the major video platforms available: youtube, revver, howcast, blip tv etc...
In the past year, it seems that many of us have been upgrading our video systems; almost everybody now has a widescreen TV in their home, and a few of us developed some kind of maniacal obsession toward “TV on Demand”...the affordable empowerment of picking and choosing, downloading and trashing.
Therefore, in a couple of
weeks from now, our Podcast on the iTunes store will
be Apple TV ready: the
downloadable file will become noticeably bigger,
and the resolution on your computer or TV will be
doubled! The only somewhat disappointing note is
that from now on, subscribers that wish to
transfer our cooking show on their iPod or iPhones
will have to convert the file within iTunes. We
also decided to reconvert all our episodes and
post them in Hi-Res, reorganized by season, with
new graphics and a couple of special treats we are
working on....so, please be patient as our
episodes won’t be available on iTunes for a few
days, we will come back stronger then ever!
The Show won’t be affected by this “summer cleanup”,
and our episodes will still be posted regularly on
the website!
We hope you all are well, we’ll be back with a new
recipe next week.
Take care
Debi and Gabriele
The Not So Smart Diet...
I wonder through the store, incessantly investigating on other mouths' habits.
Until now, I never shared, I never felt it was that necessary, or elegant for that matter...
There are many things I would like to say and write about this lady and her items...I really wanted to talk to her, ask her why?!
It would have been rude, an unpleasant public argument about her private life and habits, and I am too shy to corner somebody I do not know, in front of a whole crowd of shoppers...
But still, all of a sudden I found myself very angry! Should I have walked her home and cooked for her, maybe!
Gabriele
What about the Italian Brakfast?
I assume this couple is currently vacationing in Italy:
Subject: breakfast???
Message: I need some tuscan lovin breakfast. my husband and I have been eating pasta for like 2 weeks now!!!! don't people in Italy eat breakfast food??!!! I want to see some
and eat some, and cook some
too thanks, you guys are
AMAZING!!! and I love when you two
bicker!!!
First of all, thanks for the compliments, always appreciated.
Second...
AHAHAHAHAH,
you are very funny!!!!!
Here is the thing,
From birth to 13 years old your breakfast is milk...from 4/5 you can have Nesquick in it.
When you turn 14 years old, since you start high-school...well, you are allowed to start with coffee....
Eventually in high school you will start smoking. Read More...
Earth Day, The Human Footprint...and Me.
the day that we hope and expect more people to care...just this one day, more than any other.
We mark it on the
calendar, Youtube has a custom logo, Madonna has
another magazine cover, my kids have a project at
school...
What about tomorrow? What about Yesterday? What about
each single day of our life?
I apologize for the very personal space I am taking
today on this blog, but...
in this exact moment, instead of a burst of energy,
wishful thoughts and good attitude, well, I sit down
and feel such a small creature of Nature.
I do remember when I was a kid, and the weather was
different, I remember the fluctuation of seasons,the
changing colors, the muffled sounds of life when
everything was covered with snow, right before spring
"used to come"...
We all feel the same way, to a degree...maybe people
with kids care just a bit more; if we do not act for
our sake, well, at least let's try to think about our
children!
I
grew up in the country, and to a degree, I saw
it dying...day by day, succumbing to industrial
farming, not being able to perform under such
pressure.
It made me sad, and made me feel helpless...I was
young.
Now it's different. I am a husband and a father, I am
older and just a bit wiser...well, at least wise
enough to realize that now, finally and for real, I
am running short of time.
And even if I have been conscious about these issues
for many years now, something happened last Sunday
that shook me very hard: I came across this Article on the New York
Times Sunday Magazine.
Nothing really new, to any of us that are informed
about the health condition of our planet...but for
the very first time, I asked myself: "What am I
waiting for?"
It is not anymore a
matter of switching light bulbs around the house or
start timing my showers. Things are getting more
serious and more complicated by the day.
As of now, we consume 10 calories of fossil fuel to
produce 1 calorie of organic vegetables, our (the
world) need of meat is responsible for a massive
carbon footprint that will lead one day to a dead
end, we are still highly dependable on oil...I do
expect vegetables from life, I will never stop eating
meat, and like everybody else I will keep on driving
my car and heating my house.
If two and a half years of diapers for each one of my
kids equals to 5 cut trees, I am responsible for 10
trees in the past four years (plus about 1.400 Lbs of
plastic and about 2.000 pints of crude oil) ...only
in diapers...what about all the rest? What about the
toilet paper they will need for the rest of their
lives?
The catch here is that We Can Not Stop. We do need
energy, we do need to live and survive, and keep on
moving forward, we need to keep on cutting trees,
pollute and produce an incredible amount of garbage.
These days, unfortunately, there is basically only
one choice left. Try to be responsible for yourself,
Do Not Depend. And this is very sad, because not all
of us have to opportunity to choose this way of life.
Let me explain,
I decided that my Earth Day resolution is to go back
to my land and live by the most natural principles I
know.
Today, early this morning everything got finally very
clear...not easy, just clear.
Today I decided that I will ask my wife to leave Los
Angeles and all the associated glitter, and trade it
all in for a life in Tuscany, with a vegetable
garden, a few animals, the olive threes....and some
good work to do, finally fix our house. We will trade
our two cars for one small car, a goat and a cow!
You might have read before in these pages about our
little pink house in Tuscany, and "our dream" of
moving there...well, for me the dreaming is over as
of now, it is time to roll up my sleeves, pack my
family and ship our lives on the hills of Florence.
My children need to know.
They need to grow in respect of our earth, our first
and final resource. I have been privileged and lucky
enough to have a visionary grandfather, that invested
everything he had in land and olive trees...
Now all that is available for me and my family. It
will require years of sweat and hard work, a lot of
sacrifice on everybody's part.
But really, when the mud will finally hit the fan,
where do I want my family to be?
Me, I want to make sure they have a solid roof over
their head, fresh food daily and "energy" available
throughout the year...no matter what war or what
president....
I want solar panels in the field below my house, I
want to recycle the rain water every season, I want
to grow plants and fruit trees, get a few cows and a
pony for my kids.
I will offer public education in Florence, a Roman
Amphitheater around the corner from our house, and
the opportunity to grow learning a few survival
tricks that, trust me on this one, we'll all need to
put to good use one day!
And now I am going to tell my wife,
wish me good luck.
Gabriele
Homage to the Carnival, come in to bake a Pagan Cake!
Debi and I will cook for you a Traditional Florentine Cake that is available only in local bakeries between the first week of January
and Fat Tuesday.
Come in and enjoy your
first
Schiacciata alla Fiorentina!
What is Eaten in One Week in the World
We Are Back!!!
we are back in Los Angeles.
Our trip has been a once in a lifetime experience:
Deb, Me and the Girls finally took possession and lived in the house that my grand father promised me over thirty years ago.
I gave my family a Tuscan Home, surrounded by Olive and Cypress trees, we had breakfast staring at Deers and Boars (yes damn it, boars!)
roaming in our garden, our fireplace worked twenty four seven for over two weeks, and we had a well deserved meat and wine Holiday.
We came back to an
overwhelming response to our People
Magazine piece...
The website have been slowing down a bit for this
reason, things are happening faster than we expected
and we are already working
on a new version of the site, optimized for this
amount of traffic, and also a mobile mini-blog, so
you can carry us everywhere...how lucky are you.
We have over seven hours of footage that we will
start editing for some new upcoming episodes to be
posted starting in a bit more than a week.
Welcome Back to Under The Tuscan Gun!!!
Gabriele and Debi
The Tuscan Gun on People Magazine
The Tuscan Gun is coming
to life.
Debi and I hosted a lunch this past Sunday in our
home in Los Angeles. A few celebrity guess attended,
a lot of food was cooked and eaten, a lot of Chianti
bottles were opened and finished. It was truly a
happy celebration.
The piece will come out the 2nd or 3rd week on
January, and one of my best kept secret recipes will
be revealed: Pappa al Pomodoro. This Tuscan Peasant
Soup made of stale bread and tomatoes is one of those
dishes that look very easy on paper, but then you go
to the restaurant and you are always served something
different; usually it comes to you in form of tomato
soup with a slice of bread...with some garlic, if
you're lucky...how sad!
This is why, as soon as the article will come out,
Debi and I will cook this dish and post it as the
first episode of our second season.
Oh yes, we're done for
the moment. Deb is shooting this week, and in a few
days we will leave for Italy, where we finally enjoy
a few weeks of family life in the country. And again,
food and wine, lots of both.
We are already working on a shoot list for our trip,
as we want to acquire as much footage as we can, to
be featured next season on the show.
Thank you all for your incredible support! This
project started almost as a joke less then four
months ago, and the feedback is somewhat humbling.
Remember, it is not about being a chef, or thinking
that being a cook is less then being a chef...it is
about feeding!
So, these coming
holidays, feed your loved ones, fill them up, serve
good wine, make them smile. And come back to visit us
next year, we'll give you more of all of this!!!
Ciao,
Buon Natale and Buon Appetito
Gabriele and Deborah
The Tuscan Gun on Epicurious.com is finally online!
The videos are finally online, you can stream them directly from this post, or visit Epicurious to watch them, and maybe browse around for some Holiday recipes.
More
Clips from
Favorite
Kitchen Equipment
Tablesetting Tips
Making Tuscan Beef Stew
The four clips in this post are mainly
focused on our kitchen and our approach to cooking;
the last clip is a 4 minutes edit on my Beef Stew
episode...in case the edit is too short for you to
get a grip of it, go visit our post for the recipe.
Ciao
The Good Morning Email: What This World Needs More Of...
I live with three women and a toy poodle,
and even if I would rather ride a Ducati up on PCH...I always end up wearing some butterfly wings and chase my daughters around the house, or it might be a chick flick on the couch.
So, I fall for things like the email I just received, and That I'm going to post on this blog.
Relevance to the show: Zero.
Emotional Value: Immense.
Will you be a better cook after reading this: You Bet!!!
I usually thrash every mass email I do receive...I do not forward my friends love emails...I spare them from the dilemma. Forward not Forward.
YOU LOVE ME? CALL ME AND TELL ME!!!
TALK TO ME!
Let's be brief. This post is about love; WHAT LOVE MEANS TO AGE 4 TO 8 YEAR OLD CHILDREN.
Deb and I received it this morning from a dear friend, and it made our day.
Read More...
The Lazy Husband? I got a quicker and more efficient remedy!
again I stopped by the book isle,
and AGAIN....my jaw dropped!!
I do realize these are times when it seems we might need a book for anything...
Are we not able to make decisions by ourselves anymore? Can we possibly manage our life in such a way to avoid Dr. Phil-like comments on how to improve our-failed-selves?
GIVE ME A BREAK!
The incriminated book was
peaking proudly from the shelf, and the Ph.D. title
of its author could not have been omitted...
As if it was a guarantee of a proper and well thought
out perspective on the things of life and marriage.
Well, not even a 25% discount on the cover price
should be tempting for any of you.
What I'm trying to say here is....if you really think
you need a two hundred pages manual to help you
straighten your hubby up, well, I'd say you got the
wrong guy to begin with! Or, worse, you are
incredibly under estimating yourself.
Rules to follow with a lazy husband are very simple
and straight forward:
- he is facing you: a nice kick in the guts should do
the trick.
- he is not facing you: brake a broomstick on his
shoulders.
Get your life back into your own hands, let it out
with a nice kick between the jewels, and then...calm
down reading something a bit more inspired than a
manual for overwhelmed grocery shoppers and
frustrated housewives!
In case you are more prone to a non-violent kind of
negotiation, remember: any man would move mountains,
if promised some oral sex!
Therefore, you might want to invest your money on a
shiny red lipstick, instead of buying this
book...just a thought...a very manly thought.
Yours Truly
Ga'
Fatherhood 2.0!
but still it was very energizing to come across the last issue of the Time magazine.
In the Life - Society section there is a very interesting article by Lisa Tackeuchi Cullen and Lev Grossman:
"Fatherhood 2.0. As dads have begun to act more like moms, old notions of masculinity have come into question."
Oh, if I do relate with all that!!!
Stay at Home Dads: Why Real Men Change Diapers.
When I arrived here is
the States I had no visa and no job.
Deb was working like cazy, shooting during the week
and flying to Canada over the weekends for some movie
she was on at the time.
I had about three weeks to get adjusted, then she got
pregnant!
We were very much in love, but still...it was a
"Knocked Up" situation!
It used to be: "Tuscan Cook Book For The Pregnant Male"...
I started writing this "cook book" over five years ago, when Deb got pregnant with Evelina.
The original Title was "Tuscan Cook Book: For The Pregnant Male".
It was my intention to reach out to all the young new parents of my generation, especially men that do not cook habitually, and share everything I know...everything I feed my family with...explain how easy it is, how natural, how healthy....
I will let Deb tell you the story on how we ended up deciding to be in control of our creativity and do everything on our own...I'm sure her story will come out very entertaining!
I am posting here three general rules that I always follow when I approach a new recipe, and how I interpret the kitchen I am cooking in: I hope this post will be useful.
Next post: how to grocery shop for Tuscan food!
Download this post in pdf format
Read More...