A Happy Holiday & A New Year!

It is amazing - as of this posting we will have been in Rome for one year!Well folks we are in 2012...but let's take a step back first..
A Happy Holiday...
I know this post should have come before the last but I had been waiting for the Lemoncello to finish for a while and I was thrilled to have the first batch done.
As most of you know Tom & I were back in the States during the holidays. We did a lot in a little time and we're both thrilled to be back home.
There are many things we miss from the states (mainly family and friends).
The first leg of our trip was in Richmond where we spent Christmas. It was wonderful being back in our house, seeing great friends, and driving with normal people. We have to thank all our friends for instantly making feel like we had never left!
It was wonderful to see Tabitha, Angi, Maya, and the folks at the Richmond SPCA.
Also amazing was seeing, eating, and drinking coffee at one of our favorite places, the Daily Grind Short Pump. Sam, Allison, and their family always make us feel truly at home!

Here are few photos from our visit - the usual eating, drinking and general merry making:

Christmas Eve w/ Tabitha...

Dinner w/ Maya, Angi & Tabitha

A special thanks needs to given to Pat Manning and the staff of Lemair at the Jefferson!
Pat got us a lovely reservation for Christmas day at Lemair & we had a fantastic dinner with Tom's Mom & Tabitha was able to join us which made it even more special.

The Creche at the Jefferson

Giant Gingerbread house

Tom & his Mom (Georgia) outside the Jefferson

We want to thank everybody for the most wondeful and thoughtful gifts! Most of all we want thank everybody for just being who they are!

Next:
A New Year...
We were lucky enough to be able to spend that with James, Greg and many old (and new) friends in New York! James, as always, threw an amazing party at their house - with many wonderful culinary delights (enough to feed a small army).
More than the party, more than the people, more than the cocktails - it was great just to spend a little time with James and Greg!
As always, it seemed like the whole of Long Island was invited to this gathering.
To put it succinctly - A Great Time was had by ALL!
Of course I had the camera...so here it is...

James - Kitchen...

Greg - Bar...

A Pre-Party Toast! To a Great 2012 & Friends!

And then the party begins...

Tom & Timothy

Lindsey & Craig

Rob & Ron

Billy & George

Even though Dick Clark didn't look his best - everybody at our party was looking marvelous!

I was great to see the entire Gale family and the Ronkonkoma neighbors this holiday!

Everybody is looking great. A special 'Brava' to James' Mom, Marie, who recently had knee surgery and is doing fantastic. The next time we see her we know that even the cane will be gone! Keep it going Marie!

A sneak preview of the next posting...

A Century of Life...

2012 is a very special year it marks a half century for two wonderful people.

We celebrated a combined 100 years for Tom & Greg!

We had am amazing dinner for the combined 100 years of life at one of Tom's favorite places.

All I can say is that it was a great evening. The food was delicious, the pianist was elegant, and the company was the best!

Before ending this post, I want to give a quick update on a previous post.
We finally received our plates! The ones we made during our ceramics adventure.
Drum roll please....

Tom's work of art...

Ron's work of art...

Another 10 pieces and will have a full service!

Until the next posting, we want to wish everybody a great healthy life.

We love you all and wish everybody many happy adventures...

Abbracci a tutti

Ron & Tom

Fatti in casa Lemoncello

Yes, I did it!

I made Lemoncello!

(No that is not me - wise asses)

We had such an amazing fall crop of lemons from our lemon tree I decided 'why not!'...
It is truly an easy and fun thing to do. Since I do not like to waste things, after making the lemoncello (which only uses the rind/zest of the lemons) I made homemade lemon bars too. But that is a different story and recipe.
This posting is 'How to make lemoncello', so here we go...
First I should let you know that I searched the internet and asked around for a good recipe and decided to combine a few to make our homemade 'hooch'.
So here is the recipe (following the recipe will be step-by-step instructions with photos)

Ingredients:
   8-10 Lemons (fresh grown or Organic are recommended) *
   1 ltr of 95% proof alcohol **
   1 ltr of filtered Water
   3 cups of White Sugar (regular everyday sugar is considered the best)
   A little time
   A lot of Patience

Yeah - that's it - simple and delicious - like the final product itself!

* - A few recipes use 8-10 Lemons with 1-2 Oranges. It is supposed to make it smoother and sweeter. I will let you know I did this with my second batch. Also, you can use the same recipe and replace the Lemons with Oranges or Limes - to make the 'cello' version of them. Experiment and enjoy!

** - Grain alcohol or 95% alcohol is pretty easy to find in the supermarkets here but I know it is not that easy in the states. Many recipes call for Everclear (which I have seen in the states and may try) or they use a high proof Vodka (haven't and will not try that).

Preparation:
   - Wash and dry the lemons, then peel them. Make sure that you just get the yellow part NO white (called the pith) - this will cause bitterness in the final product. When peeling you can use a vegetable peeler (my choice) or a small knife. Some recipes call for large pieces, some for small pieces, and other for just the zest using a micro-plane. I have made 2 batches - one with large pieces and one with small pieces - I will let you know how each works out.
   - Place the peels in a large air-tight jar (approximately 2 ltrs in size). I use a wide-mouth Swingtop jar (you will see a picture below).

Peels waiting to get drunk...

Now we wait...

  - Simply add the entire 1ltr bottle of 95% proof alcohol into the air-tight jar, stir gently and seal her up. Now is where the first waiting period and patience come in. Recipes vary in the time you should let this mixture sit. It has been a low as 10 days and as long as 40 days. Keep the container in a cool (not cold) dark place. This will allow the alcohol to extract the oils from the peels creating the lemon infusion.
   - Every 2-3 days open the jar and gently stir the mixture around. This is supposed to insure that alcohol permeates all the lemon peels. During any part of this stage you can test the lemon peels for 'done-ness'. If the lemon peels are still flexible then they still have oils in them, continue to let it sit. If you test the lemons and they are what is referred to as 'lemon chips', meaning they are crisp and break like a potato chip when bent - the time is up! (Note: you can continue to let them sit if you want. I only started testing the peels after a minimum of 15 days had past).
   - After enough time has past or you are satisfied that the lemon infusion has sat long enough - we can now move on to the next step...

Lemon infusion is ready for next step...

Simple syrup on its way...

   - Time to make 'simple syrup' - simply dissolve the sugar in the water. Some recipes warn against boiling the mixture and others do not care. I decided to heat the water and sugar mixture until the sugar was fully dissolved but not boiling. Set aside to cool. Time to wait again - the simple syrup mixture must be a room temperature before you can add it to the lemon infusion.

Lemon Peel Chips...

Time to make the donuts...

 (A quick video on this stage...)

   - While you are waiting you can strain the lemon peels out of the lemon infusion mixture. I simply used a wire-strainer to do this. After that I needed to filter the liquid further (many recipes recommend this to get more impurities out - it ultimately looks like a very yellow clear liquid). You will need a 3ltr clean jar (again I used a wide mouth Swingtop jar), a funnel, and #4 coffee filters (a few of them). Place the funnel in the mouth of the new jar, dampen a coffee filter, and place that in the funnel. Using a ladle, scoop the infusion into the filtered funnel and let it drain into the 3ltr jar (Note: if the filter gets 'gunked up', remove it gently, throw the filter and the remaining liquid away. Dampen, replace the filter in the funnel and continue to filter). Once you have completed this step, wait for the simple syrup to cool and then move on...

Lemon infusion...

Time to mellow!

   - Now that you have a filtered lemon infusion and the COOLED simple syrup - just add the syrup to the infusion, stir to combine, seal the jar, and return this liquid to the cool dry place for approximately 40 days. The liquid is now a cloudy yellow-white color. This will allow the mixture to begin its mellowing process and become Lemoncello!
   - Last step before being able to enjoy the fruits of your labor! After the 40 days you need to do another filtering. This time it will be into the jars you are ultimately going to store, serve, or gift in. In the same fashion as the earlier step - place a funnel with a dampened coffee filter (in this case I used the #2 filters) in the mouth of your storage bottles and ladle the liquid gold into it.

The final tools are ready...

...start the final bottling...

Batch 1 - Filtered, bottled, labeled...Now freeze and enjoy!

Last thing I have to talk about is the labeling:
   - Create your own label if you are gifting your creation (like the one at the beginning of this posting & on my bottles). Be proud of what you have accomplished and enjoy making a great label.
   - Please remember to mark on your label that it is a gift and not for resale. You would not like the ATF showing up at your door and arresting you as a bootlegger. Also, if you like you can add that the contents are 45% alcohol by volume.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest is all enjoying...
Remember Lemoncello is best stored in (& served from) the freezer as a digestive after dinner. It is also great on Vanilla/Creame Ice Cream, Shaved Ice or just as an Aperitif.

Otherwise, like Tom & I, just Enjoy it! Salute! CinCin! Lunga Vita!
PS - Batch 2 will be ready soon...

More than anything I hope this posting makes you want to create your own batch of Lemoncello. If you do pass some along - We would love to try it!

A Pre-Christmas weekend in Umbria

In early December, we had a long weekend in Umbria, a beautiful province in the center of Italy.  Previously, we had stopped in Perugia (the capital of Umbria) on our way back from a weekend in Bologna and were so captivated by it that we planned this final weekend adventure for 2011 here.

Perugia is another jewel-like hilltop town, but a bit more lively than others we've visited thanks to the universities that call the area home.

Home base was the Hotel Brufani, situated at the edge of the hilltop, affording magnificent views of the surrounding Umbrian countryside.  What made this trip extra special was the proximity to Christmas, which meant even more adornment in the form of twinkling lights and Christmas carols piped into the cobblestone streets. 

Ron was particularly excited about a ferris wheel, set up temporarily just outside our hotel entrance for the holidays.  Although I'm afraid of heights, I tried to be a good spot and joined him for a go round.  It made for some nice picture-taking of the lit streets (and Tom).

Not so afraid of heights...

Wonderful lights all over...

Needless to say, we had some terrific meals, including one in which the chef/owner spent some time at our table to tell us about his cooking adventures in the US, from his restaurant in Texas backing up against the Bush family compound to his stints in Palm Springs and Tampa.
Through the hotel concierge, we set up an artistic day in which we visited a typical ceramics studio to learn how to paint ceramic plates in the style that is typical to the region.  The neighboring town of Deruta is well known for its ceramics and, as they say in the South, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a ceramics shop in Deruta.

The ceramics class was about 4 hours long.  The highlight of this was an older gentleman known as the Maestro, who came into the studio about a half hour after we arrived to help us learn the technique and helped us to erase our mistakes (mostly mine) so that the end product would be something we'd be proud to display.  The technique involves taking a stencil pattern that has holes dotted along the design and using a brush with carbon to dust the plate, thereby transferring the pattern from the stencil onto a blank plate.  Once the stencil pattern is in place, the student takes various artist brushes and pigments and fills in the design on the plate prior to firing it. 


Shhh...artist at work...

Stage 1 - Ron

Ron was an absolute natural at this, not surprisingly.  Maestro came over to him early on and asked in Italian whether this was his first time doing this kind of art.  When Ron answered that it was his first time, Maestro was clearly pleased and impressed with Ron's natural ability and praised him profusely.


Shhh...artist at work...

Stage 1 - Tom

 











When Maestro came over to my work station, the same question was not asked, nor was expected given how poorly I was doing in filling in the design on my plate.  Maestro used a razor blade through most of the session to help me erase my mistakes so that I could end up with a plate worth firing at the end of the session. 

Stage 2 - Ron

Stage 3 - Ron (next step firing)











The next day we headed to Assisi:


The countryside from St. Francis of Assisi Cathedral

Thusfar, I think that Assisi is the most perfect of all the picturesque Italian towns that we've visited.  Almost too perfect.  I joked with Ron that it was as though 6 gay set designers had come to arrange every rock and stone 'just so' - every corner, every vista, every view was even more special than the one before. 

Picture perfect...

Fryer collecting...

Even the perfect Vespa!



Tomb of St. Francis

The highlight. of course, is the basilica of St. Francis.  Actually, there are 2 basilicas, one built on top of the other.  The one on the top is newer, bigger, more elaborate - with frescoes wrapping around the walls depicting the entire life of St. Francis.  I read somewhere that St. Francis would probably not be so happy with the elaborateness of the basilica in his name.  Taking several staircases down leads you to the original, older basilica, which though still elaborate is a bit more humble and charming.  Yet another level down leads you to the remains of St. Francis in a fairly simple brick reliquary. 
Outside the basilicas we found a large, sprawling nativity featuring life-size statues:

After a nice lunch, we stopped in a little shop to pick up some hand made sketches/tintypes.  Most were of St. Francis or the countryside.  We picked up a few for gifts and for ourselves and asked the kindly gentleman behind the counter who the artist was who made these lovely pictures.  He proudly pointed to himself and we had to get a picture of him to share with you.  It is definitely one of the lovelier aspects of Italy, running into local artisans selling their handmade pieces out of little shops.  During this trip we overdosed on handmade Christmas ornaments.  Each one is a little gem and a little remembrance of our magical adventure here.  As I turn 50, I can't help but be thankful that Ron and I are able to do this now.  As we wrap up 2011 and greet 2012, we send our love to all back home.

We leave you with another stunning view of Assisi
from in front of the cathedral....Enjoy!

Up coming blogs will be more frequent, I promise (A Anno Nuovo Resolution)...hoping for weekly!
We have a lot to catch everybody up with: Fatta in Casa (homemade)Lemoncello, Richmond/New York - Tom's Brithday, Ron & Tom at Italian cooking class and much much more...
Be well, abbracci a tutti!
Tom & Ron