Butter as Food
Often, we think of butter as part of a pantry, to be used for cooking but not really standing on its own as a food. Living in Italy and France, I have had artisan butters which deserve such respect.I was recently asked to participate in a butter "tasting panel" by the

Salt- Cured Olives
The olive harvest began a little early this year, at the end of October, many people wait till November 3- something about numbers. When the olives are harvested for oil, some of them are still green, giving the oil here a peppery flavor.As we get farther into the season the olives ripen to black an

Strange but Wonderful
I adore when the seasons change in Italy, it is present in the colors on the trees, the dropping of the temperature, but most of all in the markets.This weeks market treat was this strange but lovely Chicory plant, Chicoria, which is a speciality in Rome. I have seen

13 at the Table
Cinta Senese pigs are not the only ones pigging out in Tuscany

Falling Back
my room with a view, where I writeToday we fall back one hour- sleeping in a little extra and waking to an incredible fall day.When I am working at my computer upstairs in our tiny 1/3 of a old stone farmhouse in the hills outs