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
Our First Salad !
what's best for lunch than a light salad and a glass of Pinot Grigio.
We opened a bottle of
Lumina from Ruffino, and
wished we were at the beach!
Enjoy this new fresh recipe,
Have a good week end!
Debi and Gabriele
Risotto and White Wine for a glorious lunch!
after visiting one of our big time favorite restaurants in town, Giorgio Baldi, we decided to replicate the memorable risotto that we were served.
So, please come in and
enjoy our new menu entry:
Risotto alla Giorgio, with Peppers and Seafood.
Buon Appetito!
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...
Want to have lunch?
Today we cooked
Orecchiette with Sausage, Radicchio and Walnuts,
and a Roasted Peppers and Cheese appetizer.
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
Testing the Aero Garden
it turned out to be an interesting project and a very long testing experiment (about 11 weeks)...for the whole family.
The Aerogarden has been see on TV and in various specialized stores around the country, and I am sure that many of you had for a moment the thought: "Mmmmhhh, interesting. Shall I give it a try?".
"No, you should not!", this is our opinion.
Technology in the house and in our everyday life, we all have to admit, brings these days peace of mind and some convenience. There are many utensils, tools and gadgets that we would not live without, especially when it comes to the Kitchen. This one, well, yes...we can live without this one.
Do not get fooled by what
you're shown on the tube at night...what you see in the
advertised pictures is absolutely impossible to
achieve.
Look at the pictures below, can you try guessing which
one is mine and which one is the advertised one?
We also would like to
reassure you...
yes, more food episodes are coming.
Evelina (our oldest daughter) has been enjoying her
Spring Break, and we've had our hands full around
here, for the past two weeks.
Next episode then, for sure, will be a recipe!
For the moment, we hope you enjoy this little clip.
Debi and Gabriele
New Coffee Episode Online!
We are very happy today
there are not so many dishes to clean...
Just one, one and only, very very important thing. It
does not matter which kind of appliance you use to make
your coffee, never, ever, use soap to wash your coffee
machines!!!
Debi and Gabriele