Southern Italy

Our third and final Italian cooking class took us all the way south for the freshest seafood (Whole Foods in our case not the Mediterranean Sea or the Adriatic Sea-I wish). Not only did we learn to bake a whole fish in salt but we also tasted the best eggplant parmesan. Our menu for the evening consisted of:

wine

Eggplant Involtini

wine

Linguine alle Vongole (clams in shells)

wine

Whole Baked Snapper in Salt

wine

Tiramisu (a favorite of ours)

wine

(we love wine)

The test with this menu was to get my meat-and-potato-eating-English-husband to like fish! To him, fish tastes fishy, not enjoyable enough to want to cook it at home and eat it. Well Chef Boyle was pleasantly surprised when she swayed my husband over to the fish lovers side.

I don't have any pictures of us cooking this menu, lets be honest here folks, we have to really prepare to have a whole dead fish in our house! But I will tell you that it's on my summer to-do-list right up there with finally painting our master bedroom! Oh yes, the Curtis-Wellings will attempt to cook a whole fish. I never shy away from a challenge!! Until then, I'll let you feast your eyes on this lovely photo I found on the Internet...

It's really neat how the salt forms this layer on top of the fish and holds all the moisture in and then just flakes off before you serve it-AND IT DOESN'T EVEN TASTE FISHY OR SALTY!

Ever Wonder...

When your child will blow bubbles in their milk...

When they'll have a favorite color...

When they'll start trying to hold a pencil or crayon correctly...

When you won't be able to leave a store before going down the toy aisle by request-everytime...

When they'll start playing at the park with other children independently (actually communicating with one another) and you can just sit and watch...

When they'll get scared of thunderstorms and have to sleep with you in the middle of the night...

THREE!!!!!

Jump for it! It's exciting.

"A farm with no animals???"

Well that's not entirely true...they did have horses (a petting pony, a riding pony, and a horse) and some rather large bulls! But Taylor kept asking to see the "other" farm animals-I guess horses and ponies just weren't his thing, who knew!

Today Taylor and I went on a little road trip south of Austin to Weimar for a 1st birthday party on a farm. Just over 2 hours away we were transported to the country and I loved every minute of it! I love visiting Texas farms (it's why I secretly love living in Texas) it reminds me of my childhood. My moms parents owned and worked a small farm in Montana and I can remember being about 5 and picking fresh berries out of my grandmothers garden, playing with the new litter of barn cats, walking through the huge metal sided barn where they kept all the farm machinery, driving on dirt roads, playing in a treehouse, playing outside on the porches, watching my brother ride horses with his friends (even the time when we had to rush him to the hospital because he got to close to a nail or bolt on a gate while on a horse and it went through his knee-nice!). As for any farm, there were always tractors. I only have a few memories of my grandfather, he passed away when I was young, but most of them involve him riding on a tractor.

Back to the farm with no animals...if there aren't animals then large, loud, drivable machines will do just fine when you're a 3 year old boy! He was super excited to sit on the green John Deere with cousin Garrett and scared/excited to go for a ride on the "mule" with aunt Vikki and cousin Megan. He wanted to go so bad but refused to sit up top and insisted on sitting on my lap. Later when all the boys went for a ride he sat up top with uncle Bubba-baby steps here folks!

It's crazy to me and probably his mom that he's almost old enough to be legally driving us around. Megan will be driving next year!!! When I came into this family they were 2 and 4-holy cow!!!

Since this was a birthday party after all there was some fun and games to be had.

Trains & Horseshoes & Washers & BBQ & CakePops-so yummy and no mess!

The Taylor's Farm (yes, that really is the name of their farm) began in 1972. This is their cute main farm house...and their 8 car garage that I couldn't get all in one picture. Thanks to all the Taylor's for a fun day in Weimar! And thanks to the Johnson's for inviting us along!

Under My Umbrella

When the sun shines,

we'll shine together

Told you I'll be here forever

Said I'll always be a friend...

Central Italy

There's no better food critic than a 3 year old!

I would love to be writing about us traveling through Rome and Central Italy, but eating our way through Central Italy (while living in Austin, Texas) will just have to do for now.

"Make your pasta water as salty as the sea"-Chef Danika Boyle

http://danikaboyle.com/blog/

Our 2nd Tuesday night cooking menu consisted of more traditional Italian cooking dishes:

Fresh Pasta-Fettuccine with Wild Mushrooms & a side Bolognase sauce to taste-you will never make canned pasta sauce again after doing this recipe-5 basic ingredients and leave for up to 3 hours. DELICIOUS!!! No more red wine in our homemade pasta sauce, the secret ingredient is white wine and milk-who knew?

Arancini-Rolled Risotto balls stuffed with mozzarella and deep fried-YUMMY!

Hazelnut Gelato

**The following pictures were taken on Mother's Day as Andrew and I prepared our cooking class menu for our family and my mom. This menu was much easier to make-thank goodness!! We enjoyed every minute of it, and every bite of it!

The Sauce!!

It's not quite "Gorillas in the Mist"...

It's more like "bunny in the grass"

We have a new resident living in our backyard... no she's not hungry she's 'nesting'. She's been hard at work creating something in our backyard all morning. The funny thing is she's not like all the other jackrabbits in the neighborhood, she actually lets you get pretty close and doesn't run off. Here's to the sacrifices of being a mom on Mother's Day!

I'm sure she thought she hit the jackpot with our grass, considering she's pulling it all up because it's so nice and long. Unfortunately the lawn guys are coming tomorrow!!! No worries, I will be creating some sort of wildlife preserve sign so they don't mow over her and her babies.

The Gnocchi Experiment

Andrew and I enrolled in a 3 part Italian cooking class at Faraday's Kitchen Store. Our first class last Tuesday night brought us to Northern Italy. Our chef is Danika Boyle and she is fabulous! She's at the top of my "I want her job" list because she gets to travel to France and Italy 6-8 times a year doing culinary tours. For a measly $2,500/person (airfare not included) you could enjoy a week in Provence with our chef doing market tours, cheese farm tours, lavender field tours, and my most favorite thing of all... 6 course meals every night!! Until we win the Texas State Lottery, cooking with her on Tuesday evenings will just have to do:)

She walked us through 5 different dishes our first night:

Classic Caprese Bruschetta

Basic Gnocchi

Parmesan Cream Sauce with Butternut Squash

Short Rib

Bakes Chocolate Fudge

My husband of a chef (leagues ahead of myself) was super excited to test try out the new recipes, so off to the store we went in search of the right olive oil and all the other perfect ingredients.

Gnocchi, (N'YO-KEE), is the Italian name for a variety of thick, soft noodles or dumplings. Made from potato, flour, and egg.

Delicious!-Bravo to the chefs (uncle Tony was there to help roll and cook the gnocchi while I entertained a non-napping 3 year old! I can't wait for tomorrow's class and a whole new menu!