A month in Tuscany Day 2 - The supermarketo is not open on Sundays!

The second day at the villa started off beautifully, I was up early with a good strong cup of Italian coffee and this was the view in the morning light.

After a breakfast of yogurt and a bacon sandwich we set off to explore Sienna.  We discovered which was the best bus to take (not necessarily the first time) and arrived in central Sienna in the late morning.  We wandered around the narrow winding streets which, away from the Campo were quite deserted.

As we got closer to lunch time and the Campo, the streets started fill up and it became quit hot in the sun so we decided to find a shady pizzaria for lunch.  My husband and I split a insalata misto and a pizza with artichokes, ham, mushrooms and mozzarella. The pizza crust was very thin and crispy, and the toppings light, not heavy and soggy.

The salad was simple and fresh and the combination with a house red made a great lunch.

After lunch we wandered back through the narrow streets checked out the Duomo which reminded me of wedding cake somehow it was so white and the front facade was very frilly and highly decorated.

A month in Tuscany day one - arriving at the villa

It has long been a dream of mine that when I retired I would rent a villa in Tuscany big enough for all my friends and family, and host a month long party to celebrate.  This would also be a way of thanking all my friends who have cottages, boats and other toys that they have shared so generously with us.

View from the Villa

Well my dream has come true I have retired and yesterday we arrived in Sienna to pick up the keys to our villa.  We got a cab from the bus terminus and wound our way around the Tuscan countryside to the address I had been given.  I had been down the road on street view on countless times and recognized the villa as soon as I saw it, but the name and house number did not match what I had been given.  You can only imagine my panic as I thought I have been duped and wired thousands of dollars into the hands of crooks, and had ruined about 30 friends vacations, who had planned a trip to Europe around this dream of mine.

Almost healthy potato gratin

I love potatoes, they are probably my favourite food.  I like them boiled, mashed, fried any way I can get them.  Potatoes sliced and cooked with cheese in the oven is found in almost every European culture, in France it is called potatoes au gratin, in North America it is called scalloped potatoes.  What these two dishes have in common is cream or milk and lots of calories, so I decided to lighten up the dish and made a version with much less cheese and chicken stock instead of cream.

I used asiago cheese as that was what I had in my fridge.  Asiago is an Italian cheese, and is strong flavoured similar to paramazan.  Any cheese would do, but the stronger the cheese the less you need to use.

This made a dish that served 6

6 medium potatoes thinly sliced, I used my new mandoline and managed not to slice my finger!
1 yellow onion thinly sliced
1 cup of grated cheese
1/4 cup of grated parmazan
1 cup of chicken stock.

Put a layer of potato slices in the bottom of a baking dish, I used a deep sided pie plate.  They should be just overlapping and cover the bottom completely. Then layer 1/4 of the onion on top.

Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top then a 1/4 of the cheese.

Mustard chicken

This recipe was inspired by flipping through a book in Chapters. I work with in a minutes walk from a Starbucks contained in a Chapters book store. I am a frequent visitor to the Starbucks for coffee and sometimes I walk through the rest of the store and check out the merchandise.  Last week I picked up an interesting looking cook book, I am afraid I have no recollection of which book, but it was french food.  I saw a picture of this dish and thought it looked good and so read the ingredients and directions.

As I made this a few days later and had only read the ingredients and directions once this is my interpretation of what I remembered.

Feeds 6

12 chicken pieces I used 6 whole legs cut in half
1/4 cup of grainy Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup of white wine
1/2 cup of chicken stock
1 onion chopped
1 large garlic clove sliced
1 sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf

Put the chicken in a bowl and add the mustard salt and pepper.

Mix together and let it sit for about an hour at room temperature.  Then add the oil to a heavy frying pan and brown the chicken.

Celery and parmesan salad

This is one of my husbands favourite dishes and since it is so incredibly easy to make that is a very good thing.  A couple of weeks ago, after what seems like a very long winter we had a Sunday evening that was warm and sunny,  warm enough to have Sunday dinner on the deck! this is pretty good for what was mid April, so I barbecued a pork tenderloin, roasted some vegetables, made a quick cheesy potato gratin, and made my husbands favourite salad.

This is a great salad because it easy and quick to make for 20 or 2 or even one, and I often make this mid week when something fresh and crisp is needed to counter a rich main course. Don't be put off by the simplicity of this recipe, it comes from Italy the masters of simple good food. This made enough for 4 for dinner

8 ribs of celery thinly sliced (I used a mandolin)
1 cup of grated fresh parmesan cheese
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Lay the sliced celery on a platter that allows the celery to be almost in one layer.

Sprinkle over the cheese

Tuscan pine nut cake

I was having a dinner the other evening for a few neighbourhood friends and in anticipation of our trip to Sienna this fall I decided on Tuscany as a theme.  I found this recipe on yummly.com It was from a food blog called Jul's kitchen, Recipes and stories from Tuscany. This is a blog I think I will be returning to. I also made it for Easter dinner as there was something about it that reminded me of Easter, maybe all the eggs, and it was very very good.

• 180 g of butter at room temperature
• 150 g of sugar
• 3  eggs
• 180 g of  flour
• 10 g of baking powder
• 1 handful of shelled pine nuts

For the custard:

• 3  egg yolks
• 4 tablespoons  flour
• 500 ml of  milk
• 2 tablespoons of raisins, soaked in Vinsanto, Tuscan sweet wine or sherry

Make the custard first as it needs to be cool when you add it to the cake. Heat the milk in a saucepan until it starts to simmer, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and flour, then pour in the hot milk in slowly whisking continuously with a whisk. Put the custard on a low flame and stir constantly until it begins to thicken: remove it from the heat, add the raisins and let it cool. I did not have a raisons or vinosanto unfortunately, so I used dried cranberries soaked in sherry and it worked just fine.

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Whip the butter at room temperature with the sugar for a few minutes until it becomes creamy and light. Add the eggs gradually, one after the other, waiting for the first to be completely mixed before adding the second. Stir in the flour sifted with the baking powder.

Grease and flour a 23 cm wide spring form pan

Separate the dough into two equal parts put half the batter into the prepared tin and level the batter off.

Spread the cold custard over it.

Pork tenderloin stuffed with feta and artichokes

I really like pork tenderloin it cooks quickly and it is low in fat, so really it is like a chicken breast.  And like a chicken breast it needs a little help in the flavour and moisture area.  I came up with this recipe the other night when I had a pork tenderloin in the fridge and a large container of feta cheese to use.

My husband loves feta cheese, artichoke hearts and mushrooms, so 2 out of 3 aren't bad!

To feed 2 big eaters or 3 or 4 light eaters. (This fed us 2 for dinner and one for lunch the next day.

1 pork tenderloin
1 cup of crumbled feta cheese
1 small jar of artichoke hearts quartered
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 cup of white wine

Butterfly the tenderloin which I described in pork tenderloin stuffed with mushrooms. Sprinkle the feta over the pork and top with the artichoke hearts.

Roll up and either tie with twine or pin closed with bamboo skewers, which is what I did this time. Cut off the long ends of the skewers.

Add the olive oil to a preheated ovenproof frying pan and brown the pork all over.