Cefalu cont with pics

sorry could not add these....

Where to go when you need to run away from home?

Answer.........Cefalu on the coast of Sicily

One of the Mediterranean's undiscovered jewels. The epitome of picturesque grandeur. Good descriptions of this captivating seaside town in the shadow of a steep mountain. Cefalu has a beach, winding, narrow, medieval streets, and delightful restaurants overlooking a rocky coast. All under the everpresent gaze of the Norman-Arab-Byzantine cathedral, one of the greatest churches of southern Europe. Nestled between the Madonie Mountains and the sea, Cefalù's mountain boasts the ruins of a large fortress and an ancient Sicanian-Greek temple. The view from the summit is inspiring.

Too much noise...dust..and Gino being grumpy. So Isabella and I ran away from home for a few days.....Cefalu is a must if you visit Sicily...its small and simple and warm and welcoming. Today was overcast so we did not get to swim in the ocean but we have free internet at our hotel and I have a nice bottle of wine.

Just came home from a great Pizzeria...one large pizza to share and we still brought half of it home...midnight snack if we are still on the computer.

Today we also had a great lunch...carponata with olives.....was superb...risotto with fungi/mushrooms..a nice little steak..some wine....and this was only mine........God help me I will never lose weight here...

Before dinner we sat in the main square in front of the 16th century cathedral..enjoyed a glass of wine....people watched...tolerated lots of second hand smoke......I never said the Italians were perfect!...snapped a photo or two of a wedding party.....it was all lovely.

Tomorrow if there is sun..or not.... Isabella says she is swimming....stayed tuned.

Blog was difficult tonight...another blog right after this with pics

Cook from your heart and your food will be eaten with love

Today was all about food. I had too much in the kitchen.....too many red peppers and a huge eggplant that had to be used. What do you get when you put eggplant, onions, peppers together? Sicilian Carponata...a wonderful dish of fresh veg cooked in the best olive oil. Every ones Carponata is made to their own tastes.....many have olives and capers included...mines is more simple as I do not like olives.....yes I know...too bad for me....really sad as I have olive trees now in our orchard. Note: our wonderful olive oil we buy from Angelo Pavone..our contractor/gardener. Carponata is served in most restaurants here as a side dish...have yet to taste one I did not like.....even with olives included.

So what else did I have in the fridge? Some nice chicken drumsticks. I made a little marinade for them..olive oil, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, ketchup and some espresso coffee. Put them in the oven to bake and then made some risotto requested from Isabella...simple risotto with a little onion and fresh peas and lots of good grated Parmesan at the end. Also added to the lunch table was a bowl of homemade soup.

Lunch was served up in no time add some fresh bread bought at the bakers that morning and finish it off with some pears from our trees...again some full tummies and lots of smiles.

That evening we went up town to visit Mama/Nona and I took the left overs from lunch and we had a late supper. We lost Papa Mario last November 84 yrs old...and Mama does not eat well....so to see her enjoy my food was really lovely. I love to cook and I have learned a lot from Gino's Mum over the years. Now she is only cooking for herself she has lost her heart in the kitchen as she tells me...so when I cook and she eats some... even a little ....it makes Gino and I very happy.

Cook from your heart and your food will be eaten with love.

Calascibetta, Sicily Another festival

Monday night in Sicily.........these Sicilians know how to have a good time. No sitting in front of the TV for them!

I think just about 7 days a week at least thru the summer you can find a town or two or more having a festival...nearly always centered around some religious icon......Jesus......Madonna....no not the singer.......

Last night we travelled ten minutes to the other mountain top town that sits opposite Enna.....Calascibetta.......another stunning Sicilian town with small curving roads. We drove thru the town into the surrounding countryside to a church that was hosting their annual Madonna/Sausage festival.

Its a lot like a carnival in the US....tons of people.....loads of food..sweets games candy floss etc etc..but the difference......GOOD food.....we all know we end up eating horrible food at carnivals well not the Sicilians.....

We chose a booth that had homemade sausage, lamb, beef fresh bread........local wine. Pure heaven and all watched over by the Madonna sitting in the church high on the hill above us all.

So many people..hundreds if not thousands...enjoying life..each other...it was very emotional for me. Missing all of my family and wishing them all here to have this experience.

Live music starts around 10 and goes well into the night...these people old and young have energy that I have not. I believe its the siesta (daily nap or quiet time).....I have yet to get into that routine but when I do I will be out there late with the rest of them. 11 pm seemed so late to us as we drove home with full tummies and smiles on our faces and my daughters words still in my head telling me she had a good time tonight. This is living.

My perfume today was basil & garlic

Yesterday our contractor started at 7 am tearing my walls apart downstairs..after two really cold visits here at Christmas time we bought a new furnace. Currently we have propane heating but its way too expensive. With the Euro the cost of propane is way out of control....I don't how know people can afford to heat their homes here? Good or bad we have this huge house which in the summer is great but in he winter way too much to heat. So after another Christmas of walking around inside with Ugg boots and jackets on and spending ages every night putting hot water bottles in our beds (something I have not done since my childhood in Scotland) we travelled far into the Sicilian countryside to purchase a new wood/chip burning furnace. This was on the advice of Angelo Bonaventura our brother-in-law who has one.

The furnace was my Christmas gift from Gino.....Can you believe I was very happy with this gift? God love him...he also bought me a very old olive tree for a special spot right outside my kitchen window which instantly I named Oliver after my grandson. I then got requests from other family members to name trees after them!

So to get back to the noise....Angelo Pavone......our contractor and another Angelo....of which there are many.....is tearing apart the lower portion of most of my walls to replace new more efficient pipes/radiators. All I can see is a mess but I have to focus on the coming winter and know I will not need my Ugg books inside ever again....I hope. Now the noise....well imagine getting your tooth drilled and multiply the noise 100 times more. Yes its fun...NOT

So my perfume of the day.....Pavone as he is now known so we do not mix the Angelo's up... is a huge gardener and never shows up without a bag of something from his garden. Yesterdays bag was full of fresh basil, tomatoes and red peppers. So I was up early anyway....I pulled some stuff together and made pesto sauce...24hrs later I still smell like garlic and basil.......only Italian husbands would find this sexy. Whatever it takes.

Winston our new Beagle puppy just loves the mess...........he had lots of fun exploring.

This morning as I lie in bed I wonder what bag of goodies awaits me downstairs today.

Sicily summer 2010

Well we finally moved here...left California mid-August...packed for weeks before leaving seemed like years. We shipped a 40 foot container of stuff I could not live without..it arrives here early October.

The house had been closed up for 8 months...I was surprised and happy that it was in good shape and not damp and musty like other times.

The weather was warm..almost too warm. The family here are happy we are here my family back home are sad.....but they all understand what this moves means for us......retirement and easier life and chance to spend great time with Isabella before she gets much older.....she is nearly 13 and mature beyond her years. Very smart..funny and moody. The perfect daughter. Plus we will be closer to Scotland and we can visit more often.

We got our first real dog here..not a dump dog (dogs I find when dumping the trash) over the years I have found about 9.....always had to have them adopted as we were not living here. We now have Winston (Harry Winston) a very cute and smart little Beagle puppy.......too adorable for words..I will be posting pictures of him...and soon we will have Max a german Shep puppy that is not born yet.

We have now been here over two weeks...and have been to the beach several times while the weather is warm. Tomorrow we start work on the house....furnace and radiators first..after having two really cold winters here we are planning ahead. We are also building our swimming pool...so between the two projects it will be busy noisy and dirty with lots of coffee being made.

Ok enough bed time...

Summer 2009

sorry its been a while..life has been hectic.....to put it mildly.

Isabella made me do this blog and I so enjoyed it last year...so why at the end of another long visit am I just posting for the first time?

Lets back track.....when we got here mid-June we were pretty tired.  Gino had just spent 6 months opening his new restaurant....Sicily by Gino in Ventura , CA close you our home town.  I did not want this restaurant so I will be the first to say...congratulations Gino.....its beautiful.  he worked hard did a great job and everyone loves it.  But he  was there day and night for 6 months and I was at Cucina Isabella day and night...so this is why we were pretty tired when we finally got to Villa Isabella.

We also brought Carlo and Julie with us...kids from Gino's previous marriage.  Julie was sick when we got here and we found out she had the Swine flu...yep I will repeat that THE SWINE FLU...Gino spent the next ten days in the hospital with Julie as her private nurse and helper as she does not speak Italian and is down syndrome....Julie is 25

So we had lost some time with what we had planned to accomplish on this trip.......full steam ahead we hired Pavone our contractor from last year.  Garage...we now have three cars here and we needed our own garage..every year we need to take the cars to Angelo ( Gino's brother)..now we can leave them home.

So we built this really lovely structure....the neighbours behind complained right away...I think they thought we were building another house...anyway we ignored them and its just about done...will post pics......then we needed our stair build to take us from back to front.....Pavove brought Alexandro on board and he designed and built my stair..stairway to heaven I am calling it!

Poor Gino is already back in the US and did not get to see his $ at work.  Don't worry Gino Pavove and brother Angelo did a great job and I kept them happy with water and coffee.