Limoncello update

The official verdict is - that stuff is GOOD!

Making Limoncello...yum!

Inspired by my host country (they haven't kicked me out yet!) and my friend Katy, I have tonight been making Limoncello. Vodka, Lemons, Sugar and Water...it just sounds right, doesn't it?!

Here are the wonderful ingredients...

Zest your lemons (this is one of 6 large ones)...

Tip into the sugar, water and vodka mix...

Give it a good stir...

... and bottle.

Leave for a minimum of 24 hours or up to three months (yeah right!)

Sieve, put in the freezer and then drink, freezer cold.

I'll let you know what it tastes like tomorrow then!!









I used Lorraine Pascale's recipe, but there are plenty of them out there on the internet if you want to give it a try. And on Friday, with the juice of the lemons that are left behind I will be making homemade lemonade for our secret seven meeting in the shed...I did promise Jake after all!!

From barrel to bottle

One night, after a few glasses of the good stuff, a new project was born. In 2012 we harvested our own vineyard for the first time and made our own wine...that in itself is a bit of an achievement for two novices. So, why stop there we thought?

So enthused (carried away?) were we with the whole wine making thing -or was it the wine?! - before we had even harvested our first grapes we had the genius idea that, instead of bottling our wine in the standard green litre bottles with beer bottle type metal caps as do most folk round here, we would go all out and bottle and label our wine to make it look like the real deal. During a conversation with our lovely guests, the Sharmans, last summer, whilst sitting on the terrace, under the stars, Adrian mentioned that he might be interested in using his  graphic design expertise...which started the cogs working!

After some careful thought and a suggestion from Adrian, we decided that we wanted a label that would tell a story, a label that would develop with us, as our knowledge of the wine making process grows. Adrian translated our ideas and our wording into our first year's label.


From then on there was no going back. We ordered the labels, bought the bottles and corks from our fabulous local vineyard Pietrantonj at Vittorito, run by two superbly dynamic sisters, who are the eighth generation of winemakers in their family, we bought a corking machine and a bottle drying rack, and set to with our Ikea funnels and Robert Dyas plastic jug - nothing but the latest techniques and most advanced technology is used in our bottling plant!

So now, all that is left is to sit back and enjoy our 2012 vintage, whilst pondering our label for the next harvest. Watch this space...!!

One year on

One year ago we moved to this amazing place to start new adventures. What a year! We have laughed often, cried sometimes and I think achieved an enormous amount in a short space of time. Our feet don't seem to have touched the ground and we have so much more that we want to get done...bring on year 2!!

I honestly believe we deserve to be proud of ourselves and I wanted to share some of my thoughts after our crazy first year. Here they are in no particular order:

Top 6 things I love about being here

1. Good cappuccino almost anywhere for only a euro.
2. Skiing and sledging in the winter; walking, canoeing, swimming and cycling in the summer.
3. Default blue skies year round (although they have not been quite so 'default' so far this year!)
4. My new English and Italian friends, who have all been so welcoming.
5. The amazing mountain views we see everyday when we look out of the window...
6. Seeing my children blooming in a new culture and language

Top 6 things we miss:

1. Crumpets
2. Decent Tea (our families have been superb at keeping us supplied on various visits!)
3. Cheddar cheese...please cheddar companies start exporting to Italy (more specifically Abruzzo)
4. Friends and family - thank goodness for Skype!!
5. Indian, mexican and chinese food...in this part of Italy you eat Italian, full stop!
6. Porridge!

Top 6 things that frustrate me about being here

1. How beautiful this region is, yet how difficult it is for people to find out about it.
2. How difficult it is to find out information about how things work...and contrary to what others would have you believe, things do work here...just in a somewhat complicated, sometimes illogical fashion!
3. How long everything takes (post office queues, making hospital appointments, paying bills)
4. ...

no...that's it...I honestly can't think of anything else. Must be a good sign don't you think?!!!!!

Catching Fireflies

During the last month or so we have been watching the amazing phenomenon of fireflies floating around our garden. During a barbecue with our 'Irish Bugnarese' friends on Thursday night the spectacular fireflies were out once again. Inspired by the book with the same title by Tony Rocca that Dougie has just finished reading all nine of us decided to go catching fireflies. I can't begin to describe the cries of excitement from the grown ups each time they managed a catch, suffice to say it is difficult to know who had most fun - the kids or the adults.

We transferred six of our catch into a large glass jar with holes in the lid and when all the festivities were over and we were snuggled into bed the fireflies were our nightlight for the night. Dougie and I sat in the dark fascinated watching them for ages . Released in the morning, I am pleased to report that all flew away happily and now we have the jar on standby for the next time!

The Guest Garden

So one of this year's bigger projects was to make a private garden for the apartment, something I have been wanting to do for about four years now. Those of you that are following us on facebook may well have already seen the photos. Now, here comes the story!

Should we, shouldn't we, should we, shouldn't we? We should-ed and shouldn't-ed for a while (we have taken to our new country's 'piano, piano' - slowly, slowly - approach quite well I feel) and then the true face of team Reid revealed itself. Seriously, work isn't worth doing unless you are under serious pressure!! So, with just ten days to spare before our first booking of the season we went to the builder's yard and made the decision to go for it. From then on in there was no turning back!

Poles are in!

Fence is going up.

 Creating the garden involved:

• digging holes and concreting in 7 posts and 4 corner spars
• wiring the posts
• attaching the fence
• putting up screening for privacy
• knocking through the wall from the terrace
• digging out and transplanting 7 rather (too) well established laurel bushes
• building and paving a step
• capping a wall and finishing to make the garden entrance
• painting the wall
• creating a culinary herb bed

What can I say? True to form we got the job done with 3 hours to spare! Yes, if it hadn't been for the fact that our lovely Dutch guests  (the De Bruine family) arrived late evening, we might have had to warn them to mind themselves because the paint was still wet. But as it was, they remained blissfully unaware of our frantic building, clearing and painting, interspersed with all our usual guest preparation duties.

Before the breakthrough.

The moment of no return...

  

Digging out the hedge

Even our neighbour helps!

And still the digging continues...

A work in progress

6 hours before arrival

3 hours before arrival

Now, there is a private little haven for all our guests to enjoy!

June is all about the cherries...

Yes, I know, it has been, well...a while! We have been crazy busy this month with guests in the apartment, the end of school and all the various activities that involves, Dougie's mum to stay and a trip to England to see our lovely friends, but in truth...June has really been all about the cherries for all of us!

We have made cherry jam, cherry liquor, cherry cheesecake, cherry pie, cherry milkshake and cherry smoothie and the cherries keep coming! We have frozen a few kilos to see us through the winter and today we have picked another 5kg. More jam on the horizon methinks!