nocino

for the second year running we have made the sicilian walnut liquor nocino with our neighbor's black walnuts.  It's super easy to make and tasty, but watch out, it can be evil.

One day I will figure out how to get a bottle to Chiara and Jon that won't break laws about shipping or flying with highly flammable liquids.  

we got the recipe from Steven's family's friends, the Natoli family, from Sicily. 

Mettere infusione in 1 litro di alcol a 95%

15 noci a pezzetti

5 chiodi di garofanoun per 40gg

fare uno sciroppo con 1/2 litro d'aqua e1/2kg di zucchero

lasciar bollire 5 minuti, far raffreddare, aggiungere all'alol, mescolae e filtrare.  lasciar maturare qualche mese. cosi viene buono ma forte.  se lo volete piu leggero, fate bolire piu acqua.  

crepe cake

I made this cake a few weeks ago and honestly, I didn't like it. It was beautiful, but took forever to make and it was way too sweet. The candied hazelnuts were good though.

creampuffsinvenice has a recipe for a different crepe cake that they say is fantastic.  maybe one day when I am feeling especially obsessive I will try it.  

espalier

fall planting season is almost upon us and in addition doing a ton of work on the front yard, which I will blog about later, we are going to take out the chain link/crappy vinyl fence combo we have in the backyard and replace it with a wood fence.  I am going to plant a couple of espalier apple trees on the fence line.

according to wikipedia, "Espalier is a horticultural technique of training trees through pruning and grafting in order to create formal "two-dimensional" or single plane patters by the branches of the tree.  The technique was popular in the Middle Ages in Europe to produce fruit inside the walls of castle courtyards without interfering with the open space and to decorate solid walls." 

  

they even look beautiful without leaves.


if we didn't have dogs I'd use the espalier's as a fence.  but if we didn't have dogs I would be very sad.

ours will probably look like this for a few years.
  

dog bed

I have to get Gus a bed for the studio.  Poor little guy.

(this photo was taken before they got their summer hairdos.  Looking at Ollie in the background I think we might have waited a little too long. yikes!)

hideous

I hate our garage in all it's vinyl sided ugliness, and I'm trying to convince Steven we don't need one.  We never park there and if we tore it down I could replace it with a small garden shed for bicycles, rakes and things.

I love these. images from flickr.com

Gus and Ollie

cutest dogs ever.  really, strangers stop me on the street to tell me so.

Ollie is on the left, Gus on the right.    

fish on stick

The best food I ate while living in Stuttgart was a whole mackerel grilled on a stick.  I bought it at an outdoor stand like it was a corn dog. They just handed me the fish, a fork and a napkin. I loved it.  So fishy, so good.

Well, I didn't put it on a stick, but I made grilled mackerel for dinner last night.

Stuffed the belly with garlic and a pinch of salt and put it directly on the grill, closing the lid for a while to make sure it got nice and smokey.  Delicious!

best cappuccino in the world

this is how I start every day, so I thought it a fitting way to start this blog.

Steven makes them every morning using a stovetop espresso maker and a french press to make frothy milk.

He must ad magic or something because no matter how many times I try to match his skills I fail. So, when he's out of town I go out for coffee.