Two Rednecks in Italy: Part 2

I formally apologize for all the numerous installments needed to document our trip but I really dislike reading freakishly long blog posts with way too many pictures so I figured other people might as well.

After our rendezvous in Torino, Tyler and I rented a compact car, a Lancia to be exact, and headed east to Bologna. On our way there we decided to make a little pit stop in Alba and Barolo for some wine tasting. I really wish pictures could do this place justice but they just can't...

Yes, we did stop on the side of the road and yes, I did steal a grape off of some poor unsuspecting farmer's grapevine but I couldnt resist. And I would also like to confess that I stole some hazelnuts that had fallen from the trees in a nearby orchard.

 In the beautiful village of Borolo.

Wine tasting in Borolo. It's amazing to me how the same grape grown in within 5 miles of each other in either sandy, clay or a sandy/clay soil can taste so different!

And because I love videos....

 After our little detour we finally headed to Bologna. We used airbnb.com for this one and ended up staying in an apartment owned by a computer programmer and his artist girlfriend. They had an amazing apartment inside the city walls with courtyard garden all to themselves! When we arrived they were busy watching an old Russian film on their laptop in the garden. Must be nice!

 Here is Eli giving me some travel tips before we left for Parma.

After walking around Parma for a while we figured it was time for the pièce de résistance, prosciutto de parma. Oh yeah, and the Parmesan cheese was not bad either! We left with almost 3 lbs of prosciutto and about 2 lbs of Parmesan cheese.

Next up, the city of Romeo and Juliet, Verona, and the Northern Italian city of Bolzano.

Two Rednecks in Italy: Part 1

To tackle these travel recaps I have found myself uploading pictures before I decide what to talk about. After the long and arduous process of sifting through all the pictures to find  my favorites I realized that almost all of the pictures that I uploaded are of food or drinks. Weird.....

Now let's resume our Tour De Caldwell.  Next stop: Torino, Italy

Yes, all of our train trips required sustenance. We stopped at the grocery store in Lucurne before we headed to the train station and stocked up on German beer (duh), numerous types of Swiss cheese (double duh), meat, bread, mustard that comes in a toothpaste like tube, fruit and Swiss chocolate. Train travel is so much better than air travel!

 Our first gelato of the trip. Mine was dark chocolate and hazelnut, double scoop of course and Tyler had pistachios.

Trivia Time: Did you know that Tic Tacs originated in Turino along with solid chocolate, the "slow food movement," breadsticks and you guessed it, Vermouth.

 Another fun fact, Vermouth is made in both red and white varieties, just like wine. I had no idea!

 Dinner number 1: caprese salad with a softball sized serving of mozzarella.

 Calzone for me and roasted veggie pizza for Tyler.

 More free water for thirsty tourists.

 Tyler managed to take a picture of me staring at a map at just about every city we went to.

Italians apparently don't like to work between about 2:00 and 4:00 pm so finding a late lunch spot was impossible. We settled on a wine bar instead.

 Tagliatelle with pesto for the Mr. and agnolotti for me. Both are traditional dishes from the area.

Last but not least. Desert. We went with the cheese plate with homemade jams and honey.We loved how they reused the jars and wrote the dates on the tops.  We were able to con the chef into giving us the recipe for the onion jam. Alabama National Fair canning competition, here we come!

Happy Cows Come From Switzerland...

Well we are finally home and the pictures are officially sifted through and edited! Our journey begins in Luzern, Switzerland...

Well actually it starts at my parents house; Strongbow had to get dropped off at "camp".

Yes we did fit 11 days worth of clothes in our backpacks and were so glad that we budgeted what we brought so that we could carry it all on our backs. It's way easier when you are moving every 2 days.

 On the train from Zurich to Luzern.

 First things first, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up beer, cheese, meat, bread and fruit for our first picnic by the river. Did you know that you can buy kitten seeds at the grocery stores in Switzerland!? Ha!

 Our picnic spot.

We managed to find numerous water fountains in Europe. Considering those silly Europeans (kidding) like to charge for water at restaurants, it's wonderful to be able to fill up a water bottle with water straight from the Alps for nada.

 Our awesome living room that we had all to ourselves! Thank you http://www.airbnb.com/!

 The bathroom, obviously...

 Penthouse!!

Yes we did take advantage of the separate beds! Hey it's not everyday that you get to sleep in a full bed all by yourself!

Check out the elevator to the 7th floor. Keep in mind that our apartment was on the 9th floor. We had to take the elevator then use the fire escape walkway to get inside via the floor to ceiling windows then we took the stairs to the top. Very strange, I assume they didn't use that trusty ole Swiss engineering for this apartment building. I guess that is what you get when you add an elevator to an extremely old building.

The guy who owned the apartment that we rented also owned the British pub downstairs. He was a wonderfully jolly Brit who relocated to Switzerland many years ago. It was so nice to be able to hop downstairs for a pint and some directions in English!

Our overall observations of Switzerland: Very clean and efficient and the natural beauty is hard to beat! We didn't find as much culture and history as we found in other places but the cheese and chocolate made up for it!

I'm Baaaack!

Caution: This post contains NO pictures

It has a been a whirlwind of a month for the Caldwells and it is finally starting to slow down! I finally graduated with my MBA and couldn't be more relieved. I also started a new temporary position at work the day after I turned in my last final which made for an interesting transition. I worked in Birmingham for 3 weeks then we headed to Europe for our big vacation. Now we are home and I'll start doing pharma sales again on Tuesday here in Montgomery until the permanent rep gets off maternity leave.

So with that said, any day now I hope to do a vacation recap with pictures and videos of me doing numerous Sound of Music impersonations and eating far too much wiener schnitzel and cheese!

"Super" Gift Idea

Here is how this random project came about: Tyler and I were invited to a Ever's 2 year old birthday party this weekend and I was determined to bring my A-game in the gift department! You see being the only child of model/photographer/musician parents meant that I didn't think a normal monogrammed beach bag was going to do the trick! So I decided to think outside the box on this one and what did I come up with? Duh, what kid doesn't need a superhero cape?! I'm not talking about a generic, cheap shiny fabric kind of cape, I'm talking about a personalized, washable, you can play in this thing until your face falls off kind of cape!

So Saturday morning, with my 40% off coupons in tow, I marched over to Joann's and made the magic happen. I picked up 1 yard of solid colored broad cloth, 1 yard of fun printed fabric, Velcro squares, 2 colors of felt, and some good ole "friendship bracelet" thread. Yes, I still refer to cross stitching thread as friendship bracelet thread.

Next up, I stole one of Tyler's ugly old king sized pillowcases from his bachelor days and did my best to make a template from scratch. I took it over to Blair's house so I could test it out on her 2 year old daughter and it seemed to work pretty well. So I headed back to the studio (aka my dining room) and started working away. I traced and cut out both pieces of fabric, sewed them together (good side to good side), then flipped it so that it had the good sides faced out. Next, I pressed the seams, did a finishing stitch all the way around and sewed on the Velcro for the neck.
I hired Tyler for the next part, he used his master geometry/drawing/cutting skills to create and cut out a perfectly symmetrical capital E and a not so symmetrical but equally awesome starburst. I used my cool friendship bracelet thread to secure the E and then used a zig-zag stitch for the starburst. And TA-DA it was finished!

 I am not going to lie, I think Tyler and I were way more excited about this thing than the birthday boy ever could be and even Strongbow begged and pleaded to try it on!

 
If you need a superhero cape for your next event let me know and I bet I can make it happen!

Southern Living Night

It took me about 2 years of begging but about a month ago I finally got the coveted invite to my friend Blair's big Southern Living night. You see Blair's aunt and uncle, Betty and Bob, live in Millbrook, AL and every so often will whip up a few of Southern Living's most recent recipes and vote on the best ones. I say whip up but I mean slave over the stove for an entire Sunday. Go check out Blair's blog post and read all the details and recipes from our big night.

So in honor of Blair and her family Tyler and I tried our own little Southern Living night. Blair has given me a subscription to the magazine for about 3 years now and I every month I flip through it and mark the recipes, then quickly forget about them. Not tonight....

picture via Southern Living

Let me tell you, the Grilled Chicken with Fresh Corn Cakes in the July 2011 issue is quite tasty! Allow me to share...

Grilled Chicken with Fresh Corn Cakes

Serves 4

Ingredients

3 lemons
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1/3 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
3 skinned and boned chicken breasts
3 ears fresh corn, husks removed
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 (6-oz.) package buttermilk cornbread mix
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
8 cooked thick hickory-smoked bacon slices (I crumbled mine)
2 cups loosely packed arugula

Preparation

1. Preheat grill to 350° to 400° (medium-high) heat. Grate zest from lemons to equal 1 Tbsp. Cut lemons in half; squeeze juice from lemons into a measuring cup to equal 1/4 cup.

2. Whisk together lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, next 3 ingredients, and 1 tsp. salt. Reserve 1/4 cup lemon mixture. Pour remaining lemon mixture in a large zip-top plastic freezer bag; add chicken. Seal and chill 15 minutes, turning once. Remove chicken from marinade, discarding marinade.

3. Brush corn with 1 Tbsp. olive oil; sprinkle with remaining 1/2 tsp. salt.

4. Grill chicken and corn at the same time, covered with grill lid, 20 minutes, turning chicken once and turning corn every 4 to 5 minutes. Remove chicken, and cover. Hold each grilled cob upright on a cutting board, and carefully cut downward, cutting kernels from cob.

5. Stir together cornbread mix and 2/3 cup water in a small bowl until smooth. Stir in basil and 1 cup grilled corn kernels. Pour about 1/4 cup batter for each corn cake onto a hot, lightly greased griddle. Cook cakes 3 to 4 minutes or until tops are covered with bubbles and edges look dry and cooked; turn and cook other side.

6. Thinly slice chicken. To serve, place 2 corn cakes on each plate, top with chicken and 2 bacon slices. Toss arugula with reserved lemon mixture. Place arugula on bacon, and sprinkle with corn kernels.

The Schnozberries Taste Like Schnozberries

Well, more like the blueberries taste like blueberries! My 4th of July weekend was full of blueberries I tell you, full of um! You see, my parents have this lake house, and at this lake house are about 8 HUGE blueberry bushes. This means that every summer my mom and I wake up early before the heat sets in and pick blueberries until our faces fall off. Give us about 20 minutes and we will have about 10 cups worth, no lie.

So a few weeks ago, I decided to make some blueberry jam. Little did I know that a little pectin goes a long way, i.e. my jam was about twice as tough as a Jello shot! A non-alcoholic Jello shot of course! So.... I thought, what would MacGyver do? He would make Jam bars of course!

(please be reminded that I'm not a food stylist!)

Blueberry Crumb Bars
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest of 2 lemons
juice of one lemon
4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch
OR substitute about 2-2.5 cups of your favorite jam for the last 3 ingredients.

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch pan.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.
3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries.
4.Sprinkle the blueberry mixture (or jam+lemon juice) evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. (This took an extra 10 to 15 minutes in my oven.) Cool completely before cutting into squares.


Although these blueberry bars were delicious I was still feeling defeated because of my jam fiasco and vowed to try again. The second batch was good, really good.

Blueberry Jam
10 cups/3.5 lbs blueberries (preferably fresh but frozen will do)
1/4 cup lemon juice 
1/2 cup water
4 1/2 cups sugar (more or less to taste)
1 box Pectin

Other stuff:
Jar funnel
Jar grabber
At least 1 large pot
Large spoons and ladles
10 pints sized Ball jars with new lids (can reuse rings)

1. Wash jars and lids (I prefer washing the jars in the dishwasher so they are clean and hot right before I fill them and I boil the lids for about 5 minutes)
2. Wash and toss any unripe blueberries
3. Crush the berries by using a potato masher or putting them in a food processor/blender. I prefer chunkier jam so I don't crush them too much, but the consistency is up to you. You should have about 6-6.5 cups crushed.
4. Mix the dry pectin with about 1/4 cup of sugar or other sweetener (I prefer using about 3/4 of the pectin and adding the rest at the end just to make sure I don't overdo it.)
5. Mix the blueberries with the pectin/sugar and cook to a full boil (med- high heat) stirring often.
6. Add the remaining sugar and bring to a hard boil for 1 minute.
7. Test for desired thickness by chilling a spoon in ice water then take a half spoonful of the mix and let it cool to room temperature on the spoon. If it thickens up to the consistency you like, then you know the jam is ready. If not, mix in a little more pectin and bring it to a boil again for 1 minute.
8. Fill the jars to about 1/4 in from the top and wipe away spilled jam from the top(this is where the funnel comes in handy!), then put the lid and rings on. BE CAREFUL it will be hot!
9. Place closed jars in boiling water for 5 minutes making sure that the water is about 2 inches over the top of the jar. Remove with jar tongs and let cool.
 *if the top does not "pop" within 24 hours then you it's not sealed and you will need to keep it in the fridge, otherwise the jam will remain fresh and testy for about 12 months. PLEASE read up on preserving before you try canning of any kind as there are tons of "rules" that I may not have touched on.

I know canning can seem intimidating but I promise it's easy as can be. If you have any questions at all please feel free to email me or check out the Ball website! Happy canning!