For the Love of Schiacciata

I am not sure if I have fully described where we have landed in Italy.  We live on the edge of a lovely small Tuscan town with a population of about 850 people.  Being North Americans in the little village in the middle of winter, we are somewhat of a phenomena.  I have heard people in the Bar describing where I live, though I have never told them this information.  People just seem to know who we are.  Very few people speak any english, which for our learning experience is fantastic, we are forced to practice our Italian.  But this can also be intimidating.  Those who know me well, know I will strike up a conversation with anyone anywhere, so this language barrier is a bit like hobbling a race horse.  It is unusual for me to feel shy about approaching people, but little by little I am working on it.  If I don't practice and I don't make mistakes, I will never learn. 

There is a van that travels through the village honking his horn, selling fresh bread out of the back.  Some people even hang canvas bags on their fence posts or doors with their daily order.  I was not sure exactly how this all works, are they pre-ordered or do you just rock up to the van and see what he has.  How do you get him to come by your house, it is all a mystery to me.  So today we saw a gathering of donne (women) around his van and we decided we should swing by and try out this quaint little tradition.  Why today, why was I feeling courageous enough to try my limited Italian skills?  Well it is all about the schiacciata.

A couple of weeks back a friend here mentioned this bread called schiacciata (skee-ach-iata).  It is a traditional Tuscan flat bread, drizzled with olive oil and baked.  A bit like Focaccia by my reckoning, perhaps the same thing by a different name, but schiacciata seems flatter less bready more yummy.  (Schiacciata is an Italian word meaning flattened.)  Well we found it in the grocery store one day and it barely made it home, we ate so much of it in the car.  Then we even baked some of our own.  We have become lovers of schiacciata.

So this morning when we saw the bread van, my fear of approaching and trying to ask in Italian if we could buy some pane, was outweighed by my desire to have some fresh schiacciata.  The grouping of ladies looked on, chatting away in Italian, asking about our cane (dog).  And to my surprise the Van Bread Man spoke a wee bit of english.  So I practiced my Italian ordering 'schiacciata e mezzo chilo pane senza sale' and he practiced his english 'thank you very much'.  "Prego".

I was kind of giddy with excitement as I carried home my fresh bread, partially because I was excited about the yummy bread, but partly because I had negotiated one more Italian situation which until this time had me intimidated.  Baby steps, but steps all the same.

For the Love of Bagels

Being in Italy there is no shortage of really good bread.  Myself and the children have been joyfully trying many different varieties.  We have also begun to try our hand at baking some breads.  One delicious member of the bread family we have been missing is bagels.  Nice chewy bagels.  Mount Royal bagels to be exact.  So the other day Mieran asked if we could bake our own.  I figured why not.  We searched online and found this great recipe.


Today we gave it a go.

Here are the formed bagels, ready to be boiled.

Boiling the Bagels.

The finished product is the picture at the top, they didn't last long.  I think we will have to double the recipe next time, and definitely get our selves some smoked salmon!

Cutting Myself a Little Slack

The day before yesterday, I was finding it challenging to be making lunch, in the middle of a somewhat busy day.  I thought to myself, this whole idea of homeschooling four children and trying to make lunch, it is a lot at once, I am not sure why I do it.  Then I took a look around and this is what I saw.

A pan of homemade schiacciata

Oven Roasted Potatoes and Peppers

Vegan black bean burgers from scratch.

I am missing a photo of the homemade cookies baking.

And I thought, seriously, cut yourself some slack, this is a pretty fantastic lunch with, in my opinion, four pretty fantastic children.  And I realized why I do this, because though it can be mind numbingly insane and exhausting at times, the special moments that are realized through out my day make up for all of that.  The number one reason I do this, is because I love it.  Being around my children, the freedom to educate outside the box, and cooking up yummy meals, it makes my heart sing.  This is my career.  I chose it and I think that sometimes I rock at it.  And this is one of those days that I was rocking at it!!

Not your traditional images of Tuscany

This morning we woke to a carpet of white across the landscape.  Our children were so excited, they have been waiting all season for snow.  They were so upset when they missed the snow in Victoria a few weeks back.  It was quickly declared a Snow Day and the the children began to get dressed to head outside.  Finn and Pippa had actually laid out their snow gear a 5 days ago when they heard there was going to be snow.

I made a Snow Day to do List.

1. Update my blog
2. Knit a toque for Mark
3. Nap

Then, the power went out.  So, I decided to skip to number 3.

After a lovely nap, I headed out in the snow with the dog, for a walk, some attempts at tobogganing with a garbage bag and finished the whole excursion with making a snow angel.


 Here are some pictures from our day.

The View from my Snow Angel

                   
                             

My Snow Angel 

Olive Trees heavy with snow.

One more for the Parents

I have been meaning to write this post for a few weeks now, but have been very busy.  My mother is visiting, and we have all been a bit sick with a cold, we also endured 4 days without LPG (gas for the casa) so we had no heat and no cooking and by some weird coincidence we lost our internet as well.  Then the pompa (water pump) was not fully functioning.  It was quite a long and I mean long weekend.  But that brings me back to this post.

In Italy, the Epiphany is a national holiday.  The epiphany in Christianity is January 6, the 12th day of Christmas, when the Magi arrived at Bimbo Gesu (baby Jesus) and came to the brilliant realization that he was the son of God.  Well as Italian folklore goes, on the way, the Magi were lost and stopped at the cabin of an old woman, Befana, to ask directions, probably the last recorded time a man has stopped to ask for directions.  The magi then asked Befana if she would like to join them on the journey.  She refused but later decided when she saw the bright star in the sky that she would like to join them, so she hopped on her broom and flew threw the sky in search of the Bimbo Gesu.  She never found him, so to this day on January 6 each year she flies around to the houses of children hoping to find Jesus.  She leaves stockings with small gifts and candy for the good children and carbona (coal) for the bad ones.

I really like learning about these traditions, but it take me back to my post of October 31 on the tangled web we weave with our children.  So now, do I become Befana also.  I am going to start having some sort of personality disorder, but as I say, when in Rome....

So I became Befana.  We were given a lovely stocking by a woman in the village and I filled it with candy and lego mini figures.  No carbona, not because my children are saints, but in Italy the Carbona is actually a candy made of black sugar. Yikes and I wasn't prepared to go down that road, though I was intrigued.

Mieran and I decided to needle felt a Befana, one of which had a little sack with two chocolates and we took it to the lovely woman in the village. And in the end, it was a lovely little treat for our children to wake up to see that Befana had come.  Kind of like Christmas with out the pressure of the whole holiday.

A Year in Review

Another Year Over....

Well it has been a busy month, and I have had so much going on, that though I have had lots to write about, I have had no time to do it.  I will start by recapping the year and in the next few weeks will chronicle some of the last month.

January 1st, 2011 - While having a lazy morning in bed, we came up with an idea, that we should sell our house and move to Italy.  Mark could finally spend sometime working on his own artwork, something he had been hoping to do for years.  We had a beautiful walk on the beach with friends, one of whom had a place for rent in Italy.
New Years day over, we were swept back into the day to day of life.  Children and I doing lessons, Mark to work and soon January was over.



February brought snow, and a snow day for friends, which meant a snow day for us.  I kept busy knitting, the children kept busy with lessons, and Mark kept busy with work.



March brought the end to the soccer season.  Mark headed off to visit his parents and I took the children for a fun filled visit to Vancouver.  We went to the aquarium, the science centre, Granville Island, and in general just ate our way around our favourite places in Vancouver, while having a long overdue visit with good friends.



April, Mark celebrated his birthday.  I started getting geared up for the market season, as well as family birthday season and the girls began practicing the May Pole dance for the May Day celebration.



May was busy as usual with parties, celebrations and the beginning of the markets, as well as visitors from abroad. We rounded out the month with two birthday parties on one weekend.  Finn rode in the Timbits Challenge and the girls celebrated a combined birthday with a big Bollywood party.





June, a good friend offered to take all my children so Mark and I could go out for dinner.  I told her it was a bad idea, Mark and I generally cook up crazy plans when given the time.  That night over burgers at Pink Bicycle, we hatched a plan, sell the house, leave the job, head to Italy.  Live the dream we had been dreaming for many years.
The house went on the market 3 days later.



July came and brought warm summer days, the house sat in the slow market.  We busied ourselves, keeping the place clean, going to the beach, visiting with friends, playing in the sprinkler and pool, Mark working and me potting to get ready to pack up my studio.



August the warm weather continued, the house continued to sit in the slow market, we took the opportunity to frequent our favourite spots with friends. And the dream began to fade, and change, was there another way, how could we make this happen.  Just then, in came an offer.  We sold the house and began packing.  The possession was quick and we were excited to get on our way.

September was a blur of packing and teary farewells, as we headed out on the road to Vancouver and Calgary to visit friends and family.

October we shipped our boxes and boarded a plan off to Rome.  We arrived to warm autumn sun, and beautiful views beyond our imagination.  The first few days were a bit rough as we adjusted to time and cultural changes.  The busy two months behind, the emotions of the journey had time to set in, a few tears were shed.  I felt timid and challenged by the language barrier.



November we began greater exploration of our surroundings, the girls got involved in activities.  We rode on the Maestro della Chianna, we went to Siena, Florence and Arezzo.  We picked olives and discovered our love of Olio Nuovo.  Mark busied himself with work, art work!  We worked on our Italian, got more familiar with the grocery stores and in general the day to life of living in a small Tuscan town.







December brought the promise of good friends visiting.  The excitement in our house was electric.  Crafting began.  We made a count down to christmas, we hand made ornaments for the tree, popcorn was strung, and Secret Santa gifts were planned and executed.  We met new local friends, and old friends arrived.  We spent a few days in Florence, a city that has captured my heart, exploring galleries, and palaces and learning about the life of the Medicis.  We bought scarves, ate gelato, drank coffee, and gazed at the beautiful lights and Christmas displays.  We said a sad arrivederci to our North American visitors and then welcomed a wee black lab puppy to join our journey.



Christmas was beautiful, we spent Christmas Eve with friends in Florence, and on Christmas day we introduced our Sicilian neighbours to pancakes and the meal we call 'Brunch'.  Late in the afternoon, we drove to Canadian friends, where with 21 people, originally from Canada and the USA, we celebrated Christmas Dinner in fine Italian form, plenty of wine, food and laughter.



Next week I begin the new year with a part time job working in an English preschool.  The children will continue to busy themselves with lessons, Mark will continue to busy himself with art work,  and we all look forward to the adventures that lay ahead with this coming year.

From our family to yours, we wish a very happy end to 2011 and a joyful beginning to 2012, we hope your year is full of Love, Happiness and Adventure.

Tanti Auguri!

Count Down to Christmas

Each year I make an Advent Calendar for my children, they call it a Countdown to Christmas. The one pictured above is the calendar for this year. They all helped to make it this year. The sports paper in Italy is printed on pink newsprint, so it make a very lovely paper to use, plus the children had fun paper macheing people on to each ornament.

Here are some pics of previous calendars.

2006

2010

One year I filled little take away boxes. Some years I can't remember what I did, but I know I did it, my children would never let me forget. Each day holds a piece of chocolate or some other little treat. And it is not about the treat, they like the counting down and they like the tradition. Each year in November, I am reminded that I need to make my countdown, and some years when I see the inexpensive ones in the shops, or even the expensive ones, I am tempted to buy them, but I just can't bring myself to do it. And really, making 25 or 100 little containers can sometimes be tiresome, it is a tradition they are not willing to part with, and I don't I am either.