Clint & Marie

New Blog

2009-07-16T07:19:00.001+02:00

Our blog has moved to http://clintandmarie.wordpress.com/

Our trip to Italy

2009-06-25T05:51:00.008+02:00

Ian got to see his godfather again.

Eric's christening.

Venice airport displayed this publicity for this tourist attraction . It said: "Castelbrando, the pleasure to tasting courtly life" !!

Yes, we're still alive!

2009-03-13T05:13:00.011+01:00

Well, here's a summary of what has happened since our very OLD last post.

We spent Christmas in Louisiana where we -as always- enjoyed the famous Cajun food (sorry no pics!)

In January, we celebrated Ian's second birthday. I apologize for the fuzzy picture (they were all like that)

The highlight of this winter is our move in a newer and bigger house (yeah!!)

Finally, a kitchen where we can both cook without walking on each other toes!

And Ian has his own play room where he can kick back ... away from mummy (aaah!)

The view's much better too: here's what we see from the kitchen, living/dining room and master bedroom. Not bad, ehh?

Besides moving, we kept pretty busy with things like.... shoveling snow!

And when Clint isn't busy studying for his Master Degree in Environmental Science, he still has his "arms" full ...

As for me, well is looking after these two not enough?

Goatheads

2008-11-18T04:09:00.003+01:00

Sure, Utah's weather is enjoyable, but those prickly weeds aren't. Not only do they make cycling and gardening hell but they also attack stroller wheels!

Halloween

2008-11-10T07:47:00.003+01:00

We took Ian to the children' s museum for halloween and all got to dress up. Ian didn't show much interest in the "enchanted woods" tour where kids met famous storybook characters. He only cared for playing. Better luck next year.

Enjoying the garden's harvest

2008-11-10T07:32:00.005+01:00

As we showed you the garden, we thought it would be nice to let you see its produce. Here are some pictures of some of the vegetables I needed for a French rustic recipe: la potée. The only veggies that didn't come out of our garden were the turnips.

I'd like to point out the color of the carrots: that's right, they're purple!

And now, the dish ready to eat!

Garden

2008-09-18T06:35:00.004+02:00

We've been busy lately. Our garden has taken up a lot of time.

Quality Control

2008-07-29T07:03:00.003+02:00

After my cleats wore to the point I couldn't get my right shoe off the pedal, I decided to replace them. Campy cleats have metal hooks that don't have to be swapped out each time, you just replace the plastic part. Each cleat has 3 screws and 3 washers.

It would make sense the replacements would come paired, like 2 screws and 2 washers. For some stupid reason mine came with 2 screws and one washer. I guess in case you lose a screw but the washer hangs on?

I can understand not sending 6 of each, since the assumption is the original cleats are still attached to the shoe, or you'd be buying the full kit with metal hooks and hardware. Somehow, the mismatched hardware seems dinky.

Pfeiferhorn

2008-05-27T06:01:00.002+02:00

Sunday I set out to summit the Rfeiferhorm in Lone Peak Wilderness Area with Christine and Walt. It's a beautiful peak, with a great headwall that you can see in the picture below. Unfortunatly, we were a little off pace and had to head back from the saddle so Christine could get back to her kids, so no summit. It would have been my 3rd time this winter, so I was a little disappointed, but not much. Plus, I was introduced to some primo ski areas on the downhike, so a good day.

Family

2008-05-24T06:41:00.004+02:00

Unfortunately, my really cool cousin moved to Colorado and left me here. Fortunately, she has a blog. Check out Wayne and Linnea

Spring Powder Skiing

2008-05-24T06:29:00.008+02:00

Wednesday night and Tursday a storm dumped 12 inches of powder on Big and Little Cottonwood, and a foot and a half in the Uintas. So rather than skiing spring corn today, we were skiing spring powder!
Thanks to Christine from the Wasatch Mountain Club, I finally have a sweeeet backcountry pic. Can you believe it's May 23rd?

REALLY Stupid Stuff

2008-05-18T22:44:00.004+02:00

Just got back from a ski mountaineering trip up Red Baldy in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Considering it's only the 2nd tour on these new skies, and I'm not that good, maybe it was stupid, but not too. After all, no cliffs or rockbands involved in the descent, so all in all safe. Calculated risk, unlike what I saw on the way home.

My personal Darwin Award has to go to the family having a picnic. On the way out of the canyon we stoped at the floodgate station to check out some of the falls in the cutes. Hey, we're in the middle of the spring melt, with temps at 90 in the valley and 70 at 10,000 feet, the canyons are a great place to be. BUT, 3 feet from a raging creek and 10 feet upstream from a 15 foot sluicegate drop with a whirpool is not a good place to have a picnic with an 18 month old and a 3 year old. We warned them, not that the advice was heeded.

Triple Traverse

2008-05-11T01:49:00.003+02:00

Last weekend I did the Mt. Dromedary Triple Traverse. I've joined the Wasatch Mountain Club and have the good fortune to spend time with and gain experience from some excellent mountaineers, climbers, and skiers.

The Triple Traverse heads up Tanners Gulch to Sunrise, Jepson's Folly, East Twin, and West Twin peaks, back to East Twin, down to Broad's Saddle and out Broad's Fork. It's an incredible climb, although Tanners Gulch was enough to put a little fear in me, as summitpost.org states:

Warning: Do this route only between early May and late June or early July. This is one of the worst avalanche chutes in the country, so don't attempt it in winter.

Here's a picture of Tanners, it's the coulier on the right.

Luckily our trip was uneventful, but on Tuesday a group following our tracks had a cornice fall out from underneath 2 guys. Luckily they were able to self-arrest.

Here's some pics not involving near death.

Executive Travel

2008-05-11T01:43:00.002+02:00

I hear Ann & Marc are having a great time being world-class guides in Beijing. If anyone out there reading this blog wants to have a great time at the Olympics, check them out:

www.ludustours.com
Tours and Hotels to the Beijing 2008 Olympics, Pamplona Bull Run & Oktoberfest in Munich

www.trackandfieldtours.com
Beijing 2008 Olympic Tickets, Hotels, Accommodations and Tours

www.oktoberfesttours.com
Oktoberfest in Munich l Hotels, Beer Tent Reservations and Tours

www.pamplona-tours.com
Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain l San Fermin Hotels, Tours & Balcony Spots

www.ludustickets.com
2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Tickets

Epic Tour

2008-04-13T17:21:00.004+02:00

Friday I headed out with Alex and EJ on a backcountry tour in the cottonwoods. It wound up to be an epic day - 17 miles, 6,000 vertical feet - and only 4 runs!

Here's our trail.
We from the upper parking lot at Alta we skinned up the cat track to the ridgeline, headed up towards Patsy Marley, then dropped into Wolverine Cirque.

We then skinned out of Wolverine back to the ridgeline, traversed west, and dropped into Silver Fork on the west side of Solitude's Honeycomb Canyon. By this time the sun was heating up the snowpack so we headed toward Big Cottonwood, thinking we'd turn west and climb the ridgeline to Silver Fork and drop into Alta. There wasn't a turnoff and we wound up in Solitude, hitched a ride up canyon to Brighton, and bummed a chairlift ride.

At the top the ski patrol had closed access to Millicent, so we had to enter the bowl and climb up a chute, which was half skin, half bootpack. Once on the ridgeline we skinned up to Wolverine.Then just drop off Wolverine and under Patsy Marley to the car.

Mountaineering + Backcountry Skiing

2008-03-03T01:55:00.007+01:00

A few weeks ago Marie was nice enough to let me bookend a week with 2 weekend trips. The first was a winter summit of the Pfeifferhorn. The second was a 3 day backcountry skiing yurt trip.

The Pfeifferhorn was a great trip, but a BIG time learning experience. We snowshoed in a narrow skin track, and I was stuck in big, awkward rental Tubbs 30s, with almost everyone else on MSRs or at least 25s. MSRs rule, the rest suck. end of story.

Here's most of the group on the way in. I look bad in all of the pics. I lost my sunglasses on the trail (had spare goggles) and my eyes still seem more sensitive after PRK, so I'm always squinting.

Here you can see the beautiful hole under the rock where my group slept instead of building an igloo or snow cave. Problem was we didn't block off the entrance enough to retain much heat, and the rock sucked it out pretty fast anyway. Also, the canyon we were in hardly gets any light, so the temp was about -15 overnight instead of the expected 0. Not much sleep.

Dig the gear? Military gortex is warm, but it doesn't breathe at all.

The view from up top is awesome.

Yurt life was much better than rock cave life. Heating rules!

Yurt from the outside.

Skinning up to the ridgeline. My mega-bling Suunto watch did a lot of good during the trip, since I didn't set it to record. I have no idea how many vertical feet we did, although I'd guess about 3,500. The first aspect was solid, but mega crusty and it was comic to watch the tele guys catch tips and wipe out. Randonee rules!

Ice Climbing

2008-02-05T05:22:00.000+01:00

Saturday I went ice climbing for the first time - mega rush! It's awsome when you're 100 feet up and you can see the water flowing on the other side and you're thinking "What the hell am I doing?" We were on a frozen waterfall about a mile up a canyon next to Ogden, Utah. The climb was about 30 meters and rated WI4 (WI for Water Ice, as opposed to alpine and glacier ice), which means "Good protection is still available on these routes but the route approaches vertical with fewer rests." I climbed it 3 times - twice with leashed tools and the last time leashless. The leashes allow you to hang by your wrist to rest, plus you can't drop them and ding them, which can cause a stess fracture and means you just trashed $200+ apeice. The leashless let you get a lot more technical and really push the limits, especially when you're top roped.

The adrenaline rush of the day was when I overstreatched placing my ice tools. When I lifted my left foot, my right gave way because I changed the angle on the crampons by raising on my calf. Then my left tool gave way and I was hanging by one tool. I was roped in, but my brain sure didn't know it.

All in all it was a blast and I can't wait to go again. Sorry, but no pics.

Powder Mountain

2008-01-28T04:10:00.000+01:00

I skied Powder Mountain resort yesterday. It's huge - 5,000 skiable acres - supposedly the largest in the US. The weather was bright and sunny, and there was still spots of untouched powder, even close to some of the lifts! I ran a few blacks, then moved into the trees and hit some knee and waist deep powder. The resort is great, not very comercialized, and even offers Cat tows for $10 to a reserved canyon. You can check it out here: http://www.powdermountain.net/

Toys & Projects

2008-01-21T21:28:00.000+01:00

I'm finally getting ready to go enjoy Utah. Last weekend I hit the slopes at Wolf Mountain - a dinky little 3 lift ski area, but cheap and all I needed to get some runs under my legs. Took an hour or so before I was linking turns on blue slopes, then a bit more before I could straight shoot some of the easy blacks. I definatly need a lot more work, but it has been 13 years since I skied!

Last week I picked up a used Alpine Touring setup - older Powder Cruises with Fritschi Freeride bindings and Garmont G-fit boots. I'll probably junk the skies after this season, but the bindings and boots are in good shape.

2 Feb I have my Avalanche I course, followed by an Intro to Mountaineering trip the 16th through 18th and a Winter Skills Yurt trip the 22nd thru 24th. I'm hoping I can get 1 or 2 AT days between those. I picked up a nice pair of Asolos from Sierra Trading Post dirt cheap, and got a Suunto X9 GPS for a present (thanks Ty!).
Unfortunatly, there are 2 things holding up all this fun. I have a promotion test the end of Feb, and the GRE next week, so this weekend has been a wash.
Ian enjoys the studying about as much as I do.

Sledding with Ian

2008-01-18T06:29:00.001+01:00

Utah

2008-01-05T06:41:00.000+01:00

There's no real way to describe what I'm feeling here. I left Utah in September 1996 on an adventure that has taken me through 15 countries. Coming back has been a return to reality that I was not prepared for. The one thing I am sure of is that I want more adventure. I want to learn something new everyday, to meet new people, to see new things.

The main things I have noticed are not the chain stores - you see them everywhere. Shopping centers are going up like mushrooms around the world. Instead it's the billboards. Every other one is for a hospital or medical center. The buisness that healthcare has become is ridiculous. People shop for medical procedures, convinced of the care, compassion, and superiority one clinic, while they owe thousands in medical bills for necessary interventions. The non-medical billboards all seem to deal with the housing market, and most show you just how happy your family will be in an oversized house, of course you can afford it.

Last Days in Italy

2008-01-05T06:01:00.000+01:00

The "highlight" of our departure from Italy was a farewell party we threw for all of our friends there. I know that sounds backwards, but that's the way it works there. You throw your bachelor party, pay for drinks on your birthday, etc...

Here are some pics of good friends we left behind. We can't wait to see you again. For those not in here - no harm intended. We were too busy talking to take pictures.

I kept my touring bike until the last shipment, so Marie could have the car. Here I am with Ian after my last Italian ride.

Naples was pretty much a filthy hole, so no pics of it. Pompeii is incredible though. Just imagine how terrifying the last moments of their lives were.

OK

2008-01-05T05:26:00.000+01:00

We're OK, it's just been a little hectic. Here's how the last few months have gone.

October

week 1 - Flew to France to see Marie's parents - were stranded by Ryanair.

week 2 - Naples for Marie's US visa - Pompeii

week 3 - Back home preping for the movers

week 4 - Shipped everything - moved into the hotel

November

week 1 - Arrived in Utah - checked into the hotel

week 2 - Flew to LA to pick up the car - visited my grandmother

week 3 - Checked back into the hotel for a few days

week 4 - Headed up to Park City for Thanksgiving with my parents

December

week 1 - Checked back into the hotel

week 2 - Moved into the house

week 3 - Flew to Louisiana to spend Christmas with my family

week 4 - Returned to Utah, started unpacking and setting up the house

Busy.

Settled in

2007-12-31T14:17:00.000+01:00

Well everyone, we're finally settling down in our home. I have to run into work this morning for part of the day, then Wednesday will be my first real day of work since October 3rd! With appointments, vacation, holidays, and picking up the car we've really been busy.

I'll post pictures and a synopsis of the move / vacation / etc... ASAP. Right now, I have to earn my pay for once.

Utah

2007-11-10T18:20:00.000+01:00

We've arrived and started settling down. Next week we're off to LA to pick up the car.

Knife bikes

2007-10-01T19:10:00.001+02:00

Back in August we had the Maniago knife festival. The coolest things I saw were the old knife sharpening bikes the tradesmen would ride to different town markets. Imagine hauling that whetstone around!

Check out the drive for the stone. Just pop the chain off the crank and hook up the second chain between the drive and the crank. The second chain isn't there, but your other chain would be around the chainstay, and I don't think they had removable links!

The bike in action.

Here's another knife sharpening bike. The sign said it's from the 1940s - 1950s, but...

Check out the carbide headlight and taillight. More like the 1920s - 1930s.

Cimbri

2007-09-26T05:54:00.000+02:00

The course profile is located on page 5 here.

Here's an interactive course map.

Overall, there was 6,000+ feet of climbing/descending.

The stupidity continues…

2007-09-24T20:47:00.000+02:00

Apparently limping around for a few days after the Forni di Sopra Sky Race didn’t teach me enough of a lesson. The middle of the week before last I decided to run the Ecomaratona dei Cimbri. I had wanted to do it for the last few years, but stuff kept coming up. Anyway, I decided it was now or never, so I took the plunge.

It was a great run, and I felt wonderful the whole race. I had convinced a new guy at work to run with me. Unfortunately he was quite a bit slower and cost me a lot of time the second half (and a little before that), but he also kept me from running too hard and bonking. I finished with a time of 6:11, although on my own I’m sure I would have been about an hour faster, and maybe even under 5. He had to walk most of the decents, including the final 7 kms, and I have no problem running them.

This run really reminded me how much I enjoy trail racing.

Here we are about 2 or 3 miles into the race:

Then again at village "Le Rotte", 30.5 kms:

Sky Race

2007-08-26T21:13:00.000+02:00

Today was the Friulane Dolomite Sky Race - http://www.fornidisopra.it/?page=spr.maratonina.dolomiti. Last weekend I ran into one of the guys from my running club and he convinced me to run it. There was only one problem - the last time I ran on mountain trails was back in April when I bragged about it on this blog http://clint-marie.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html. 4 months of 3 to 6 miles flat runs, and not really many of those.

Anyway, I did a steep 5 km trail run last Monday, then regular runs on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. My legs hurt from the climbing until Saturday, but it must have toughened them up because I made it today. Here's a Google Earth of the course:

And an elevation graph:
Here's the elevation numbers from the GPS:
Total Elevation
3,758
Elevation Gain
1,878
Elevation Loss
1,880
Net Elevation Change
-1

Average ascent grade was 24.6%, average descent grade was 20.8%

Winning time was 2:04. I ran a 3:32. Course record is 1:56 with a world champion running, so if you add 10 minutes to the winning time you roughly equate it to a marathon time, since the fastest amateurs hit a 2:15 or so. That's adding 8% to the winning time. If you treat mine the same way, I ran the equivalent of a 3:49 marathon. I feel pretty good about that, considering I didn't train for it.

Sick Bastards

2007-08-14T16:34:00.000+02:00

It's festival season here, and most seem to have displays of farm animals. Here's Ian checking out a donkey.

And a show pheasant.

How about some goats, a donkey, and a pony?

The best was the "Do Not Touch the Animals" sign. Literally translated it states "Do Not Molest the Animals". Eeewww!!!

Solids

2007-07-30T21:12:00.000+02:00

We've started introducing solids to Ian. The first attempt, involving steamed plums, was a little too bitter.

Bananas went down great, but didn't come out that well. 2 full days without #2. Sorry, no pics.

I tried avocadoes today and learned Ian knows how to spit. After that he threw a good crying fit. I tried to take some pics of him "enjoying" his avocado, but he loves to take pictures and started mugging for the camera.

I managed to get one blurry, half crying shot.

Sacrifice

2007-07-22T10:28:00.001+02:00

On the way back from France we stopped by St. Avold to visit the Lorraine American Cemetery, the largest American WWII cemetery in Europe. It is an incredibly emotional experience. 10,489 American dead rest here, their graves marked by white marble crosses. I wanted to stop on the way to France, on the 4th of July, but a wreck in Munich that closed down the autobahn, along with the usual summer construction, slowed us down too much.

The American Battle Monuments Commission cares for the cemetery, and the job they do is exceptional. It is a fitting resting place for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Here's what those guys fought against - Nazi occupied Europe at the start of WWII.

Not yet...

2007-07-15T11:19:00.000+02:00

Chris commented on the fact I hadn't posted in a while. Sorry, we've just been a little busy here.
Anyway, we just returned from France, where we had a little welcome party for Ian with Marie's family.
Everyone was happy to meet him.

The weather was predictably horrible, with daytime temps of about 15 deg. C. It did warm up the day we left, check out the outside temp, it's as warm at 6 in the morning as it was most days!

I constantly think it's not that bad in Northern Europe, then we go there. Of course, it doesn't help that Marie's area of France is at the tail of "rust belt" that is still in economic depression from the closing of the coal industry. I have to admit it has gotten better over the last 10 years we've been together, but the economic rise of the area is just a result of its suburbanization by Luxembourg, and her village and those nearby could best be termed bedroom communities, without any cultural or social outlets. Chris' Germany is much better, even if the weather is not the greatest.

Here's Bernard, the husband of Marie's cousin. He's a FAST runner, with a 48:13 in a 16km race (that's a 4:51 mile average) this year at 52 years old!

Deleted

2007-06-10T09:11:00.000+02:00

You may notice the link to the Hammer of Judgement blog has been removed. SOMEONE decided they no longer had time to entertain the rest of us.

Too long...

2007-06-02T09:51:00.000+02:00

since my last post, but hey, I'm busy. Here I am studying for my last English class. Ian is a big help.

Went to a town festival down the road. It was good to see some of our friends.

This guy hand carves spoons, spatulas, and other kitchen utensils. Up through the 1950's guys like this traveled around to all the weekly markets.

Neat tree trunk.

Great run

2007-04-27T22:08:00.000+02:00

I've really been feeling slow this year. I guess I need to spend a lot more time doing intervals, because this is about 3 years that my speeds have been pretty stagnant. It also doesn't help that most races here are short - 7 to 10 km. What I don't have in speed I generally make up for in endurance.

Finally the running club decided to push it a little longer. Wednesday was a 7.4 km race in Sacile where I ran a well paced but slow 6:50 pace (although considering the winding course that's probably equivalent to 6:30 on the track). Thursday for practice we had a nice 9 mile trail run. 5 miles up over the foothills into Val Cellina and down to the old road, then 4 road miles back. 4,000 feet total elevation change. Check it out.

The climb up was hard and quick paced, leveling out to even paced rollers. The GPS glitched on the descent, but it was about as steep as you see on the graph (and slow going). At a little before an hour and a half we hit the road, then dinked along to a spring to drink. I hit the road hard, knocking out the next 2 1/2 miles at 5:50 pace and dropping to a 5:10 for the last 1/2 mile. It was downhill, but I was pretty happy with the pace after all the climbing and descending.

Vinyard

2007-03-31T07:49:00.000+02:00

I had been telling Marie's father we'd go to get wine. Finally we headed up the road to the village of Valeriano and the vineyard of Emilio Bulfon. Bulfon has dedicated his vineyard to recapturing lost varieties of grape. For example, Cividin was common in the 7th and 8th centuries as a banquet wine during weddings.

Emilio Bulfon

Our purchases of the day

Bulfon has reclaimed these lost grapes by searching through small private vineyards and gardens. It is not uncommon for somebody to have as few as 2 or 3 vines at their house with which they make a small amount of wine each year. Or the older private vineyards whose grapes are processed into red or white table wine at the local cooperative may contain a diverse variety of vines.

Of course, local people I spoke with don't think there is anything special about the wines. Everyone has a friend or family member who makes (or more often made) these varieties at home. Unfortunately, they fail to understand the varieties will only be saved through commercialization such as this. Without creation of a market, the older vines will gradually die and be replaced by commercial varieties.

WTF?

2007-03-21T22:41:00.000+01:00

Check out Cooper's Yard, March 13th, below. I just posted the pictures and brought it up from a draft.

Sorry, but I'm busy.

Pordenone Garden Fair

2007-03-15T22:07:00.000+01:00

Last weekend we went to the garden fair at the fairgrounds. There were lots of really cool plants. I knew the old olive trees cost a lot, but can you believe they go for up to $50,000? They are 300 years old, though.

There was a neat bonsai exhibit. This week I heard the artist on the radio and found out he has studied in Japan and is world famous. He even did Hugh Hefner's bonsai (boy, that's a joke waiting to happen).

There was this catus.

The coolest thing was this "Hand of Buddha" fruit. It's a type of lemon. Freaky.

Cooper's Yard

2007-03-13T19:54:00.000+01:00

The other night we took Marie's parents (and Ian) out for rotisserie chicken at Cooper's Yard, a microbrewery nearby.
The decoration is great, and it's a comfortable family restaurant early that turns into a fun bar later on.
My neighbor Michele (not a girl's name in Italy) was there with his kids.
The chicken was great. Marie was good enough to get hers with salad.

I pigged out on fries.

Goodbye Barchetta

2007-03-02T23:10:00.000+01:00

AKA "The Barbie Corvette" (thanks Chris), the Barchetta was sold yesterday. Despite being a Fiat, she never broke down on me. Thank goodness, because I could never find a mechanic to work on her.

When I first arrived in Italy in 2000 from England, I immediately decided to buy a convertible to enjoy all the sun here. The Barchetta took me all over Northeastern Italy, Eastern Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Croatia. If you really want to you can count San Marino also, but isn't that kind of pushing it?

She will be sorely missed, and I doubt I will ever have another like her.

Carnevale

2007-02-25T22:00:00.000+01:00

This was the first year we didn't dress up for Carnevale. Usually we are part of a float from Montereale Valcellina. This year they were gangsters.

These pictures are from Maniago's parade last Sunday. Today was the last parade of the season in Anzano Decimo.

???

2007-02-25T21:42:00.000+01:00

I was throwing out a bunch of junk and noticed this advertisement I had picked up a while back.

1345th annual city fair!

Cool, and not so...

2007-02-20T22:11:00.000+01:00

We went shopping in Pordenone the other day. There's not much to buy right now. The last of the winter inventory is on sale and very little of the spring fashion is out. It always seems to take a bit for people to decide which fashion to choose for the season, although this spring and summer there are lots of silver and gold colors for women, mainly silver. For men spring seems to be cream, sky blue, and light brown. We'll see what catches on.

I did see these awesome coin purses in leather. About $100+ apiece.

And now for what is definitely not cool. Pink briefs for men.

Centrale

2007-02-08T10:50:00.000+01:00

We went on a walk the other day and passed the Centrale Antonio Pitter. This hydroelectric plant was built at the turn of the century and provided electricity to Oderzo, Treviso, and Venice. It's now a museum.

Underneath the building in the spillway they have these cool spider sculptures.

Going home I saw this door with a beautiful patina.

Chair capital of Italy

2007-02-04T11:18:00.000+01:00

We've been looking around in the local furniture stores for a rocking chair or preferably a glider, to no real avail. Yesterday we decided to to go on a road trip to Manzano, the chairmaking capital of Italy. Surely they would have rocking chairs and maybe even a few gliders to choose from, right?

Wrong. Numerous factories and showrooms, all of whom said there is no demand for rocking chairs. They do make about every other type of chair imaginable.

One of the neat things there was the world's largest chair. It was too foggy to take a picture, so here's one I pulled off the net.

New blog

2007-02-02T23:56:00.000+01:00

Ian now has his own blog.

http://ianloicholm.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Macelleria

2007-02-02T23:48:00.000+01:00

During the pregnancy, Marie really missed prosciutto, salami, and other cured meats. One of her favorites is pitina, a cured and smoked sausage patty of game meats dusted with cornmeal. A traditional food of the mountain valleys of the Pordenone region, it originated as a way to store excess meat from the annual hunt. It's only smoked over oak and juniper wood.

One of the best places around to buy petina is at Macelleria Salumeria Polesel in Maniago. The have a great selection of all types, plus lots of other great meats. Plus, they're nice people.

Check out their poultry selection (except for the rabbit in the back right).

Daniele Polesel (on the left), is a third generation butcher at the family shop.

Trans Fats

2007-01-30T10:34:00.000+01:00

More against trans fats.

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/131/118026.htm

"Obtaining just 2% of total calories from trans fats instead of healthier monounsaturated fats was associated with a doubled risk for this type of infertility.
In addition, each 2% increase in trans fat consumption as a replacement for carbohydrates brought a 73% greater risk of ovulation-related infertility, after adjusting for other known and suspected infertility risk factors, according to the study".

Less than 0.5 grams of trans fats are not required by the FDA to be listed on nutrition labels. Anything with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils contains trans fats and is unfit for consumption.

Avoiding Teflon

2007-01-30T09:53:00.000+01:00

The June 12, 2006 issue of Time had this little one page article.

Basically, if Teflon is heated to over 600° F it releases perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which causes cancer, immune system damage, and death in animals. 95% of all Americans have traces of PFOA in their blood. PFOA is also released from DuPont manufacturing plants.

With natural gas having a flame temperature of about 3000° F, it's virtually impossible to keep an entire pan surface below 600° F. Oven bakeware can be kept below the limit easily, but the manufacturing process has created PFOA, and where will it go when you throw the pan away? Teflon care calls for all cookware to immediately be thrown away once it is scratched, which would be everything that is not new.

What to do? You can use stainless steel pots and pans, enamel covered cast iron is great for low temp cooking (check out Le Creuset), and nothing beats cast iron for high temp cooking.

The key to cast iron is proper seasoning and care. Once well seasoned, the stuff practically as non-stick as Teflon.

1) Wash the new iron cookware in hot water with a strong soap solution. It is usually shipped with a wax covering.

2) Place in a 400° F oven for 1 to 2 hours. It will stink. Let cool and wash again.

3) Pour a small amount of oil into the cookware and rub it all around, inside and outside. For best results use lard. If using vegetable oil, use olive oil. For gods sake DO NOT use shortening or anything else with trans fats.

4) Place in a 300° F oven for 2 hours. Remove and let cool. Clean with hot water and a gentle scrub pad only. NO soap.

5) Repeat 2 more times.

6) Lightly cover with oil. Your pot/pan is ready for use.

Stuff will still stick, but don't get alarmed when your pan looks like this.

The cast iron will not have a good patina yet. That will develop over time. The key is not damaging the patina you do have. Only wash with hot water. Scrub stuck bits off, but do not be too aggressive. If they refuse to come off, let them be. Eventually they will wear off. Be sure to oil after each use.

One hint: Clean cast iron after cooking while it is still hot. Everything comes off much easier.

I cannot emphasize more how much better lard works. You only need enough to lubricate the pan, so don't worry about your heart. Hydrogenated fat and high fructose corn syrup will kill you first anyway.

Ian Loïc Holm

2007-01-26T09:07:00.000+01:00

He's Here!

2007-01-24T07:25:00.000+01:00

Ian Loïc Holm was born 23 January 2007 at 1702 CET. He weighed 3.63 kilos/8 pounds and was 52 cm/20.5 inches long. Mother and son are happy and healthy.

Maialata 2

2007-01-16T21:19:00.000+01:00

The man who slaughters and butchers the hog is called a norcino. He's very respected. This is a hobby and a source of (little) extra income, not a full time job.

So, how do you slaughter and butcher a hog, then make sausage?

First you shoot it through the forehead. At this point the hog is dead, he's not feeling anything, but there are plenty of death throes left, so you quickly slit the throat, then get out of the way as it flops about.

After the hog stops moving, spray it off as best as you can with a hose. It may still twitch, especially when you flip it over and the blood that has pooled flows into muscles.

Next, load it up on a table and start taking the bristles off. You do this by pouring boiling water over the hog and scrapping the skin with a knife.

The boiling water and scraping cleans the hog very well, but you must ensure everything is clean, including scrubbing between the toes. food poisoning sucks.

Once the hog is cleaned, it's time to take off the head.

One of the norcinos will take the head away and continue cleaning it. It's a lot of work.

Now it's time to hang the hog. Ropes tied to the leg can easily slip off, so you suspend him using the Achilles tendons.

No need for a winch, just a little ingenuity.

The last bristles are burned off using a propane torch. Also helps in preventing contamination.

Next, gut the hog.

Then place it on a table and start butchering. The feet are cut off.

The tenderloins are removed. Then the spine, ribs and pelvis are cut away, leaving the ham, shoulder butt, picnic ham, belly and loin till attached to the skin.

The meat is trimmed, saving all the scraps for sausage. The ham is saved for either prosciutto, or in this case deboned and the outside reserved for speck. The belly becomes panchetta, the top of the shoulder coppa. These reserved pieces are salted, seasoned, and set aside to begin curing.
The rest of the meat is ground, along with fat, for sausage. There are 3 grinds. The hock and the liver become figadel, the shoulder, picnic ham, and back fat; along with any white meat scraps, become lugauegoand soppressa. The skin and gristle become mussette. The ground meat is seasoned and kneaded by hand until the correct consistency is achieved.

Pack the stuffer and begin stuffing sausage.

The norcino ties off the sausage and pricks the casing to release air and water.

After the sausage is made, the norcino rolls and ties the pancetta and coppa. The speck will be smoked later.

Here's the result, minus 12 fresh sausages that were cooked that day. The hog was 190 kilos.

Maialata

2007-01-16T05:44:00.000+01:00

This weekend I helped slaughter and butcher 2 pigs, and make all the sausage, coppa, speck, panchetta, and so on. Further details and pics in the next post.

Energy Drink

2007-01-10T05:50:00.000+01:00

I've been trying to get away from food additives. We eat mainly organic around the house, and prepared foods are limited to cereals, usually. But how do I replace Gatorade, now that I've gotten off my fat ass and started training again?

I searched the internet, modified a few things, and came up with this:

Energy Tea
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons lemon juice
2 green tea bags
1 liter of boiling water

Put it all together, throw it in the fridge, and its ready the next morning.

Befana

2007-01-07T11:12:00.000+01:00

Friday night was the Befana, festival of the Epiphany. Every little village has a huge bonfire and vin brûle, mulled wine. Some set up beer and food booths also. You have to bring your Christmas tree to the be burnt, or you'll never be able to get rid of it in Italy. You can't put it in with the garbage, the recycling won't take it as the trunk is too thick for the chipper, and obviously it can't be burned in a fireplace. Here's the pile in Malnisio waiting to be burnt.

Grizzo has the best Befana near us. Unlike most villages, their bonfire is in the central park/piazza, rather than out in the fields. Also, this is when they sell their calender, full of historic pictures and stories of the commune (municipality). Additionally, they give out this little calender at the same time.

It's full of useful information, such as train and bus times, when the local doctor office is open, which gas station is open on each holidays, hours of the recycling center, etc...

Real life

2007-01-05T00:35:00.000+01:00

We were driving home from some shopping today and I saw this guy pulling hay home from the fields.

I stopped and spoke with him. His name is Marcello. He had cut the hay for his rabbits, which he said were the best around. A friendly guy, he wanted to know more about me than I wanted to know about him! Very polite, and formal. It is always strange for me to be addressed in formal Italian by older people, but it is just a sign of respect. Unfortunately, as I learned Italian in bars and among friends, I really lack the formal language. All in all, I was probably rude.

Marcello wrote down his address and asked me to send him some prints. Unfortunately, I had the camera on the wrong setting and the pic is blurry. But, we went to Maniago afterwards and made some prints anyway. I'll put them in the post tomorrow.

Bunis Fiestis

2007-01-05T00:28:00.000+01:00

Happy New Year. Here's a picture of the lights on the side of the mountain above the village. It means Happy Holidays in Friûlan, the native language of this region. If you want to know more, there's a web dictionary here.

Chef Clint

2006-12-28T17:39:00.000+01:00

Everybody knows Marie is a wonderful cook, but few know there is another force to be reckoned with in the kitchen - Me.

Last night, after a productive day of playing Bowmaster at work and generally failing to do anything of any value, including eating lunch, I decided to get off my ass and cook. With the help of one of Marie's cookbooks (and her telling me where everything was in the kitchen), I managed to fix Spanish Rice with Chorizo.

Cook 1 diced red onion and 1 clove of minced garlic in 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Add 1 diced red bell pepper, 1 cup of rice, and 1 teaspoon of turmeric. Cook for a bit.

Add 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth. Bring to a boil and cover, reducing heat to low.

After 5 minutes, toss in about 6 oz of chorizo.

Cook a couple of minutes, then add 1 small bunch of fresh sage, chopped, and 6 oz of frozen peas.

Cook for 5 or 6 minutes. Done.

Cold

2006-12-27T21:44:00.000+01:00

Boy, it's been cold here. Cold, cold, cold. Today grass in the shadows stayed frozen all day! Check out the morning temp. I almost had to wear gloves today! I guess winter eventually had to come.

Of course, it is supposed to get to 7 or 8 degrees Celsius tomorrow, with bright sunshine. I wonder what it's like to live in perpetual darkness. Buz?

Seriously though, still no snow. It's been beautiful weather, but it's my last chance to go alpine touring, and at this rate I won't make it. I had hoped to go before the baby came, but that's probably best. My luck I would have been at the peak when Marie went into labor.

Apple Brandy II

2006-12-26T10:13:00.000+01:00

I did the first run through the still, and I'm pretty happy how it came out.

Here's the setup. Pretty basic. The wash (alcohol containing mixture you're distilling) is dumped in the kettle on the bottom and boiled. Cold water runs from the blue tub through the hoses and back, cooling down the condenser (sticking out of the right of the column). The alcohol drips out of the condenser, and is collected in a bottle.

Once the wash (alcohol containing mixture you're distilling) begins to boil, or when the thermometer on the top of the column reads 60 degrees Celsius, you turn on the cooling water. Soon, a clear liquid begins dripping out. The first stuff to come out is called the "foreshots", and contains all kinds of nasty little organic compounds, including methanol. You collect the first 100ml and toss it. Don't even think about keeping it, just get rid of it.

The run is divided into: Foreshots, Heads, Hearts, and Tails. In theory, you will toss the foreshots. The head swill contain lots of alcohol but not taste good, so you keep them to add to the next batch. The hearts is the best. The tails begin to taste bad, and get thrown into the next batch.

Collection of the alcohol should be limited to about a half liter at a time. Collect a half a liter, then start on another bottle. This way you can decide what to keep on flavor. After the run, keep the best half liter separate, then just mix the others that taste good. Any that are off can be dumped into the next batch or thrown away.

Watch your thermometer and taste the distillate. You'll have times where the temperature jumps or climbs rapidly (this is why you start the cooling water so early) then holds at a point for a long time. When the temperature holds, something is evaporating. Taste the distillate. If it tastes great, that's the point you are after.

The actual numbers on the thermometer are not that important, since they can be up to 10 degrees Celsius off in either direction due to still design. Rules of thumb can be not to collect below 75 and above 95. The rest depends on taste.

I wound up with about 3 1/2 liters of alcohol. Tastes pretty good!

PROBLEMS

The guy who gave me the gas burner told me it sucked. No lie! Hardly any heat output. This run took 7 hours, as opposed to about 3 to 3 1/2 it should have taken.

I don't have an alcoholmeter yet, so I don't know what % this stuff is.

Moka

2006-12-24T00:28:00.000+01:00

About every house in Italy has a moka, a coffee maker for espresso. The traditional brand is Bialetti. The beauty of this is almost anything that can break is replaceable. Check out this display, in a normal little corner store.

I love the mentality, compared to the Walmart - everything is disposable attitude - of America.

On a side note - If you have a Bialetti coffee maker, the coffee should always be brewed on the lowest heat setting possible! Never on high heat as it will scorch the coffee.

Apple Brandy

2006-12-17T10:09:00.000+01:00

My brother-in-law makes about 25 liters of plum brandy a year. He uses only pure fruit, fermenting in wooden barrels with wild yeasts. Unfortunately, he has to have someone else distill it for him, at a cost of about €8 a liter. I decided to fix that for him, and bought him a still.

As this will be his Christmas present, I decided I'd give it a run first.

The work of the last few weeks has been apple brandy. I'm not real sure how much longer it will take, or how it will all turn out, but here's the story up until now.

First, I started with 20 kg of windfall (the ones lying on the ground) apples taken from the neighbor.

Then I cut out any bad parts and chopped them up a little. It is better to mash them, but I didn't have a fruit press for that.

Then I dumped in 20 liters of spring water I get from up in the mountains, or right behind the house if it's flowing.

Next I pitched a yeast starter going with purchased wine yeast. You can use baker's yeast, but wine yeasts produce more consistent, flavorful results and tolerate higher alcohol percentages.

The yeast is stirred into the apples and left. The next morning you could tell they were starting to work.

A few days later a nice wort had formed

I stirred the whole concoction daily, and covered it with a towel. It's ready for the next step when the wort falls. It basically just disappears - there one day, gone the next. That took about 2 weeks.

Then we strained the liquid.

Poured it into demijohns.

Pressed the juice out of the remaining bits using nylon leggings - again, no fruit press.

Here's the remains of the apples. Not much.

I wound up with about 35 liters of juice. Not much alcohol in it at this point. I capped the demijohns and monitored them for a few days for fermentation - nothing. The apples I used weren't very sweet, but the juice definitely still had sugar in it and I want enough alcohol to distill, so I added 5 kilos of sugar and moved the demijohns from the cold basement to the office. Then I pitched some more yeast and tossed it in. The juice is still bubbling happily. Once it stops, the fermentation will be done and it's time to distill.

My driving future - when Kia makes one!

2006-12-10T17:15:00.000+01:00

Just the other day I was thinking about how someone should debut an electric sports car. I had been reading about hybrids and the writer made a comment about how this is one of the few technologies not used for the racetrack first.

Anyway, someone IS bringing out an electric sport scar, and a pretty nice one. It’s basically an electric Lotus Elise, a car that just so happens to have the lightest and most rigid chassis in the world. Check it out:

http://www.teslamotors.com/

So, if any of you have a spare $90,000 laying around, go for it. However, anyone who doesn’t spend the extra $10K or so to cover their garage with solar panels and power this thing with 100% renewable energy is a LOSER.

A small step.

2006-12-07T20:08:00.000+01:00

New York has banned trans fats! Actually, it's a phased process, but hey, baby steps.

How much further will it go? Hopefully, very far. Just think of the junk we are pretty much forced to eat through lack of choices. Some use the capitalism argument, saying it's just the system's way of giving people the cheap food they want. Of course, once the choice has been sufficiently limited, how can you say the consumer is deciding? Also, we must remember driving costs down gives the large profit margins the corporations demand.

For well written articles on this, check out Christopher Wanjek on Live Science:

Trans Fats

The Food Supply

Family Farms

Commercial Organic

Going down to Whole Foods Market may be good for you, but it's certainly not enough for the environment, physical and social.

Dirty Birds

2006-12-03T22:30:00.000+01:00

The other night Marie and I cooked stuffed quail. Wonderful!

Unfortunatly, we neglected to tie the legs togeather, so our birds came out a little "promiscuous".

Quail a'la Porn!

Cowcycle

2006-11-24T13:39:00.000+01:00

Spotted in Pordenone city center.

Shopping

2006-11-24T13:07:00.000+01:00

Last night we went shopping in Pordenone. Marie bought me my Christmas present - a brown wool coat/overcoat with a removable vest. I love it.

I took some pics of storefronts, for those of you who enjoy fashion.

We also bought some chocolate at Peratoner, which is recognized by Slow Food.

This is one display window - all made of chocolate.

Another display window - a nativity in candy.

Some of their pastries.

Sorry,

2006-11-20T20:19:00.000+01:00

but I'm taking 2 classes right now, along with work, sport, wife, and house.

Shopping

2006-11-13T18:14:00.000+01:00

Saturday we went to Udine for some Christmas shopping. It's so much nicer to walk around the historic center, enjoying the beauty of the buildings and buying mulled wine and roasted chestnuts from street vendors, than to walk around a sterile, souless mall.

We came across a small gourmet shop with homemade cingale (wild boar) and rucola e ricotta (rocket and ricotta) fresh pastas. We bought some and I hope it's good, since 2 portions of each was €14.

Kaki

2006-11-10T20:13:00.000+01:00

Kaki, or persimmons, were the first fruit to really take me by suprise in northern Italy. You see them, hanging on the leafless tree in the middle of winter, like some mutant orange.

The reason they hang ther far into winter is not through laziness. Kaki are divided into 2 types, Astringent and nonastringent. Astrigent types have high levels of tannins and must stay on the tree through several mild frosts in order to develop their flavor and edibility. This process is known as bletting.

As we have has several nights in the 20's over the last few nights, the kaki are ready. Earlier in the week my friend Fabbio asked me if I would like some. Little did I know he'd bring by an entire box of the fruit.

They still need to mature a little, then I can make some jam.

Victory

2006-11-09T05:45:00.000+01:00

A Democratic Congress.

Rumsfeld gone.

Let's just hope some true, lasting change comes out of this.

American retail

2006-11-03T14:44:00.000+01:00

During my trip to the States, people kept asking me about the cost of living in Europe. Apparently there are a lot of missconceptions about the differences. Here's what I noticed while shopping for clothes:

1) Clothes generally cost more in Italy, sometimes significantly. In general, I would say 30 to 40% more for seemingly (but not really) equivelent items.

2) Most boutique clothing sold in Italy is made in Italy. Almost everything in America is made in Asia.

3) Quality of these asian manufactured items is much, much, much lower. It is difficult to find natural fabrics, while Europeans mainly use cotton, wool and silk.

4) When you can find upscale boutiques in the States, costs are generally around 50 to 100% higher than the same items in Italy (and sometimes more).

5) Global name brand sports clothing and footwear cost 50% more in Italy. Period.

6) Italy is 1 year ahead of the rest of Europe in fashion. It is 2 to 3 years ahead of the States.

I like the Italian system more, especially considering the trade deficit with China.

Winter

2006-11-03T10:50:00.000+01:00

Winter has finally arrived, with a low last night of 23° F (the temp shown is in Celsius).

It's nice to have a fire going, and the dry weather is forecast to last a while.

Friday, Nov 3
Partly sunny; chilly
High: 46° F
Low: 23° F
Saturday, Nov 4
Several hours of sunshine
High: 45° F
Low: 28° F
Sunday, Nov 5
Mainly cloudy
High: 51° F
Low: 37° F
Monday, Nov 6
Periods of clouds and sunshine
High: 53° F
Low: 36° F
Tuesday, Nov 7
Sunshine and patchy clouds
High: 57° F
Low: 35° F
Wednesday, Nov 8
Mostly sunny and pleasant
High: 60° F
Low: 39° F
Thursday, Nov 9
Partly sunny
High: 58° F
Low: 37° F
Friday, Nov 10
Mostly cloudy
High: 55° F
Low: 40° F
Saturday, Nov 11
Partly sunny
High: 49° F
Low: 42° F
Sunday, Nov 12
Sunshine
High: 52° F
Low: 37° F
Monday, Nov 13
Sunshine
High: 51° F
Low: 33° F
Tuesday, Nov 14
Mostly sunny
High: 53° F
Low: 29° F
Wednesday, Nov 15
Mostly sunny
High: 59° F
Low: 31° F
Thursday, Nov 16
Sunny
High: 55° F
Low: 32° F
Friday, Nov 17
Partly sunny
High: 52° F
Low: 38° F

Louisiana

2006-11-02T04:50:00.000+01:00

My parents are selling their land and moving onto a golf course. It's best, considering the work required to maintain large acreage. Dad is cutting cypress off the property and having beams sawn for the new house. I was lucky enough to help him fall a few.

Zapps potato chips - the best in the world! Because they're packaged at sea level, the pressure change in an airplane will make the bag blow up.

Marie loved the crabs from Tony's seafood in Baton Rouge.

Truly one of a kind, Tony's offers all kinds of seafood, raw and cooked. When you order raw catfish they reach into the tank and grab a fish, knock its head on the counter, clean it and filet it.

Back

2006-11-02T03:03:00.000+01:00

"It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it"
- Mark Twain

The weather was amazing during our return flight, unlimited visibility. The French and Italian coasts were spectacular. St Tropez, Nice, and Monte Carlo gleamed in the sun. Next the Italian jewels of Genoa and Portofino. Turning inland, we crossed the northern tip of the Appennino mountains with their sprinkling of villages and entered the Po river valley. Soon we were over Ferrara, with the volcanic outcroppings of Montegrotto Terme visible to the north. Continuing East we looped around Venice before turning and starting our descent.

This is the point I realize just how much this place has become part of me. The Dolomiti Sinistri stand like a wall in front of us, and as we turn to the north I understand the barrier they truly are. Piancavallo and Zoncolan regain their mythic status, and I want to take the bike and climb them. Not tomorrow, or the next day, but NOW. Leave the terminal, dump the bags on the floor, and grab the bike. I know she misses me.

Now you can make out the cities and villages fringing the foothills, and I start naming them off to Marie like an excited child. Vittoria Veneto! Sarmede! The little borgi nesseled under Cansiglio! Caneva! Polcenigo! Mezzamonte! Budoia! And then we're on the ground.

Home.

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

2006-10-16T07:09:00.000+02:00

We'll be back in 2 weeks.

Roadkill

2006-10-12T06:09:00.000+02:00

The last few days have consisted of moving and stacking firewood. Tuesday morning my friend had a little over a cord dropped off. Unfortunately, he's out of the country on business. I hadn't thought it would be a problem, but the truck couldn't fit through the arch into his courtyard. They dumped the wood in the street. So I had to move it out of the street, go to work, and go back to his house to stack it. Yesterday and today I'm stacking my last delivery of firewood.

On to the roadkill. Fabbio, my best friend here, hit a hare with his car the other day. Yesterday he called and asked us if we wanted to eat dinner with him. Marie fixed a red lentil soup and maple cream dessert, and we all had a great meal.

Long Weekend

2006-10-09T21:06:00.000+02:00

Friday night was aperitifs at Luciano's new bar in Montereale, Osteria Vittoria.

Followed by pizza at Pizzaria al Cervo, owned by Marino.

They make the best pizza I've ever had. Thick crust with lots of oregano and olive oil. Strangly enough, they actually use an electric oven instead of the traditional wood. Here's mine - De La Casa senza wurstle con alio e un po' di gorgonzola.

Saturday there was an organic food market in Grizzo, a few kilometers down the road. It was small, but it brought a lot of people out and we had a chance to speak to lots of our friends. There were lots of gourds and pumkins for sale.

This is our friend Luca, an organic farmer. He cultivates 30 hectacres by himself, plus odd construction jobs to make ends meet.

Sunday was working around the house. Monday morning I went to the Maniago market with Marie. It was a beautiful day to walk around and bump into people.

We stopped by a small breadmaker there for freshly made pasta.

Grappa al Ginepro

2006-10-05T20:30:00.000+02:00

Finally got around to starting the grappa with the juniper berries I picked.

Pretty easy stuff. Select 10 of the berries. Mash a little in a mortar and pestle, or with the side of a knife.

Throw in a jar with 460 grams (500 mL) of grappa and 10 grams of sugar (2 teaspoons). Let sit for a month and filter.

I also started another batch of Grappa di Erba Luisa, as my neighbors drank a good portion of the last batch the other night.

Bike path

2006-10-04T21:00:00.000+02:00

I had posted before about my commute home on the bike path. On the way to work I ride the roads. There's no traffic at 6 in the morning, but coming home is a different story and the new bike path combined with back-roads is more tranquil.

I had promised a friend a map of the bike path. Here it is, courtesy of Google Earth and GPS. This is from my work to the Piazza in Grizzo di Monterreale Valcellina. Click on it to expand.

The village to the north of Aviano is Marsure. While the bike path runs from Marsure through Aviano, it is only marked on the side of the road there. Between Marsure and Grizzo is where it splits from traffic and heads through the fields.

Another advantage of the path is a gradual climb. Staying on the road brings you to a nice climb, but it can get tiring every day. Lurking in the wooded area on Via Selva north of Marsure lurks a Cat 3 climb. The profile of the bike path, on the other hand, is much steadier.

Of course time is another tradeoff. This ride was 56 minutes, compared to 45 on the road with the same effort. The fact that I'm not roadkill more than makes up for 11 minutes of my life.

Block party

2006-10-02T18:13:00.000+02:00

We live at the end of a row of six townhouses and fortunately have a good group of neighbors. Sunday we all went out to dinner to a Brazilian steakhouse, or churrascaria. The waiters circulate with large spits of meat cooked over wood coals, including bull, tenderloin, chicken, turkey, chicken hearts, lamb, pork ribs. Supposedly there were 10 kinds of meat - I can't remember the others

A good time was had by all, and almost everyone came over to my house afterward to continue talking and for after-dinner drinks.

Ginepro

2006-09-30T06:29:00.000+02:00

The juniper berries (Juniperus communis) are maturing now, so I went for a hike in the hills behind the house to collect some for Grappa al Ginepro.

Grizzo di Montereale Valcellina, home to one of the best pizzas in Friuli Venezia Gulia

Mt. Fara. A nice hike to the summit. The back side is a gradual slope with forested trails and no scree approaches. It has a great updraft on the face for parasailing, although most people launch off mountains with road access.

Juniper is a conifer, and the "berries" are actually a tiny little cone with overlooking scales. It's used a lot in herb teas and to flavor game. There are over 50 different species of Juniper, and a few are even poisonous. Like most herbs used in liquors it is a calmative and helps indigestion. It has no other real medical value.

The plant grows either as a shrub or a tree.

Praying Mantis

2006-09-26T20:07:00.000+02:00

Marie spotted this European Mantis, Mantis religiosa, outside our front door yesterday and took a few shots.

Painting, dropping a wire, and a baptism

2006-09-25T20:54:00.000+02:00

Saturday I put the second coat of paint on the ceiling and walls of the nursery. Almost done!

I also installed a light in the entranceway. Why there wasn't one, I'll never figure out. Fortunately, the switch I was running to was not far. Unfortunately, installing a light in an Italian house is much more difficult than dropping a line through a hollow wall, like in the States. The walls here are made of terra-cotta cinder blocks, with 1/2 inch of cement on top, followed by plaster. Installing a line involves a mallet, chisel, and a big mess. Once you have a trench you put in the plastic tube with wires and cement it over, following with plaster. It was several hours for a couple of feet. Next I have to paint!

Sunday we went to Venice for the baptism of Elettra, the daughter of our good friends Pierre and Margherita. After eating for 5 hours, we got home 13 hours after we left. All in all a full day.

Wood & Plaster

2006-09-21T20:44:00.000+02:00

The first load of firewood came yesterday. 31.5 quintale (100 kgs) according to the scale. 3,150 kg, or 6,945 pounds. I stacked it last night and this afternoon. Another load will come in a week or two. This should carry us through the winter. A quintale costs €11.5 right now, €10 is the best price you can get if you order your wood in the spring. Guillaume says that's about double the price of northern France. Wish I could get that price!

In other news, I've started redoing the last bedroom, which will be our baby's nursery. It was previously a disgusting orange-peach color (walls and ceiling). You can see the original color next to the way, way red radiator (it will be white when I'm done). I've floated it with fresh plaster and laid down the first coat of white paint.

Strange Marketing - continued...

2006-09-20T05:45:00.000+02:00

Here's a MTV edition Renault Clio.

Why?

BAD, BAAD, BAAAD Blogger

2006-09-15T19:51:00.000+02:00

I just noticed all of my pictures dropped off my peaches posting. I had deleted them, but I drug them out of the Recycle Bin and re-published them. All appologies.

Nocino

2006-09-13T21:16:00.000+02:00

Monday I tasted the nocino. Unfortunatly, it is not ready. The taste is good, but too sharp and alcoholic. Also, it lacks a deep brown color, probably because the walnuts were a bit too old. Traditionally they should have been picked at night on the 24th of June. In northern France they're picked in the middle of July. Guillaume said I should pull the caps off the demijohns and cover the openings with cloth, then let them sit for 2 weeks. That should let some of the alcohol evaporate and develop the flavor.

Marostica Chess Game

2006-09-11T06:09:00.000+02:00

Sunday we went to the human chess tournament, a recreation of real events from 1454, when two noblemen challenged each other to a duel over the hand of Lionora, daughter of the Lord of Marostica. The Lord had no desire to see either of the suitors die; therefore, he forbid the duel and had them instead play a game of chess. The whole story is available here.

The performance was incredible. The costumes were beautiful, the acting well rehearsed. The program consisted mainly of the pomp and fanfare of entrances and exits. First entrance was the Nobility. Next delegations from the major cities of the Serenissima Republic were introduced, such as Venice, Padova, Vincenza, Belluno, etc. Following them were delegations from the neighboring city-states of Trieste, Bolzano, and Florence. Next came the Borgi (boroughs or villages) of Marostica.Followed by the chess pieces. The match was rather quick, about 20 minutes. Next the Lord presented his daughters to the two noblemen, and the exit ceremonies began.

Particularly good was the court jester, especially after the chess match when he came out on stilts that must have been at least 2 meters!

The flag work of the Florentine delegation was truly amazing, especially a solo performance involving flag juggling and twirling with the feet!

All in all it was one of the most memorable performances I've ever been to.Definitely worth working into a trip if you're ever in the area. Be sure to research and see if you can acquire a translation of the performance in English, it will greatly improve your time. The banter is quite witty at times. As the performance is in Venetian dialect, you should be OK if you are fluent in Italian and have some knowledge of dialect. You will also be OK if you are fluent in both Italian and Spanish. If you speak the Catalan dialect of Spain you will understand much more than me! The two dialects are VERY similar. If you are only conversationally fluent or below in Italian, do not expect to understand much.

Marostica castle is set on a hillside, with a lower castle and the city at the bottom. A steep wooded hillside leads up to the upper castle, and the entire area is surrounded by a protective wall.

In the remnants of the upper castle is a restaurant, where we thought we were quite lucky to get seats. Unfortunately, neither the food nor the service reflected the beautiful surroundings and was mediocre at best, especially considering the price. I would advise avoiding it.

Millions of peaches...

2006-09-10T08:12:00.000+02:00

My friend Fabbio gave me about 6 kilos of white peaches Friday, apparently his mom is sick of making jam, so it's my turn. Knowing that I'll never eat that much jam, I decided to also do whole peaches in syrup and liquor. It's best to do these 2 jobs at the same time, as you'll see.

Peach Jam

Peaches, skinned and pitted
Sugar, 800 grams for every kilo of peaches

Peaches in syrup with liquor

Peaches, skinned
Sugar and water, equal weights
Stick of cinnamon
Rum, brandy or cognac

To skin the preaches, boil them for 2 minutes.

Remove and place in cold water.

As soon as they are cool enough to handle, pull the skins off.

Take the best skinned peaches and place in 1 bowl. These are for your peaches in syrup. Place ones with holes, pieces missing, a little hard, etc... In another bowl. These are for the jam.

The peaches will "sweat" juice while in the bowls. Keep this, you'll use it for the jam.

Mix sugar and water, equal weights, and heat until dissolved. Use enough in a small saucepan to completely cover 1 layer of peaches. Boil peaches in syrup for 3 or 4 minutes, then remove and place in a large-mouth canning jar. I used 1 liter jars. Break the stick of cinnamon in half and place in the center of the peaches.

Once the jar is filled, let it sit for 5 minutes. Then check the level of the syrup, the jar should be half filled. Adjust as necessary, either removing or adding syrup, then pour in the liquor.

The peaches will be ready to eat in about a month.

Now for the jam.

Pit the peaches and mash. You can blend them now if you want, leave them as is so you have chunks in your jam, or blend them later when they're cooking with a handheld mixer. Weigh the peaches and juice.

Place in a large stockpot. The best to use are Le Creuset round ovens. Most steel pots will scorch the jam, while the acid from the fruit will eat the patina off uncoated cast iron.

Add 800 grams sugar for every kilo of fruit and juice. Boil gently until a skin begins to form between the bubbles. Pour into the cans and cap.

Grappa di Erba Luisa

2006-09-07T23:01:00.000+02:00

Aloysia triphylla, or Lemon Verbena, is an extreemly versitile herb, although rare in gardens. The leaves have a very strong lemon like scent and taste. It is mostly used to make a refreshing herb tea. Just take several mature leaves, crumple into a mug, and pour in hot water. The essential oils have calming and digestive qualities, making it perfect for use in an after dinner drink! Another good use is to crumple a couple of leaves and suck them up when you first begin to vacuum the house. They will soon perfume the whole house.

Known in Italy as Erba Luisa, it was named after Maria Louisa the princess of Parma and wife of King Carlos IV King of Spain and was brought to Europe by Spanish explorers in the 17th century from Argentina and Chile.

Now for the good stuff. Grappa.

1 good sized branche of Lemon Verbena
500 mL of grappa

Wash the Lemon Verbena, pick 50 large mature leaves and place in a jar.
Add 500 mL of grappa (460 grams of 80-proof).

Cover and let sit out of the sun for 1 month, shaking occasionally.

Strain, filter and bottle.

Liquore di Bacche di Lauroceraso

2006-09-06T21:58:00.000+02:00

I came home today and the electricity went out for about an hour - a great time to finally make the cherry laurel liquor.

Liquore di Bacche di Lauroceraso (cherry laurel liquor)
250 g of cherry laurel berries (Prunus laurocerasus)
350 g of sugar
1 cup water
460g (500mL) of 190 proof alcohol

Wash and place the berries in a jar.

Heat the sugar water mixture until the sugar disolves and it comes to a gentle boil.

Pour syrup onto the berries. HINT - make sure your container is large enough, unlike the one I started with!

Add the alcohol and cap. Let sit for 1 month before filtering and bottling. Here it is next to the noccino that will be ready next weekend.

If you're wondering why it's called cherry laurel, you only need to look at the fruit, especially the pit.

The genus Prunus includes plums, apricots, almonds, peaches, nectarines and cherries, totaling hundreds of species. Cherry laurel is considered inedible. Although some people do eat them, the fruits contains cynide coupounds, particularly the seeds.

Long, and busy, weekend

2006-09-04T22:23:00.000+02:00

About to head to bed at the close of a very busy 4 day weekend. We just got home from IKEA, which is a daytrip considering it is 2 hours away (at least) and requires driving on the busiest motorway in Italy. Luckily traffic was light, comparatively, and we returned home safely.

We were able to make it to 2 local festivals this weekend. Policinigo had the 333rd annual basket festival. More of a crafts festival, although there were plenty of wicker baskets for sale.

I saw these wooden roses, and I think the picture came out great!

Sunday was Paesi Aperti, open villages, in Andreis, Poffabro and Frisanco. All are beautiful little mountain villages. Poffabro is actually considered one of the most beautiful villages in Italy! All share a similar architecture of multistory stone houses with external wooden staircases between the floors.

There was a good deal of traditional food, music and crafts. Ever wonder how all that spindled furniture was made before electric lathes?

On the way down to the car we ran into a couple and their son picking some berries I didn't recognize. Turned out they're cherry laurel. Only very large, mature specimens make berries.

You can supposedly make a good liquor with them. We picked a bunch and now I have my next project sitting in the fridge!

A Country Life

2006-09-02T07:32:00.000+02:00

My brother-in-law, Guillaume, is one of the most interesting people I know. Kind of a jack of all trades that never stops working. Over the past 5 years he has worked after work, on weekends and during holidays to restore his great-grandmother's house to habitable condition. Although there is still a lot of work to do, he was able to move in last fall with his wife and son.

Very tied to the earth, Guillaume gardens, makes his own wines and liquors, raises rabbits and sheep, ect.... It's hard to imagine where he finds time to do it all. Just take a look at his immaculate garden!

Here he's just pulled some black radishes for our meal.

In keeping with being frugal and as free as possible from the energy market, he uses wood stoves to heat his house. Most European homes use water radiators for heating. Although they are very efficient, the heat is a completely different quality than that you get from wood. Radiators tend to heat the air while leaving the floors and walls cold. Wood fires, on the other hand, warm up the air along with all the surfaces and the heat seems more penetrating. It's hard to understand unless you've experienced it.

Last year Guillaume leased a section of forest from the Lorraine region and cut 75 square meters of firewood. At 3.6245 m2 per cord, that comes out to a little over 20 cords! Since the trees are selectively cut in a managed forest and burned in high efficiency double combustion stoves, the result is environmentally friendly with zero net carbon emissions.

English Domination

2006-08-31T18:21:00.000+02:00

The French are nortoriously sensitive to corruption of their language. They have even gone as far as banning the use of the term e-mail in official correspondence, insisting on the "proper" French term courrier electronique. So you can imagine how ironic it to see this sticker on a car in France.

The French Culture Ministry's General Commission on Terminology and Neology needs to have a talk with Nissan!

Blackberry Grappa

2006-08-30T19:52:00.000+02:00

While we were visiting our friends in Baselga di Pine I found a nice little book of flavored grappa recipes published by the local Pro Loco (Tourism Board). There are a few blackberries left on the bush, so it's time to try it out!

Grappa alle More (Blackberry Grappa)
1 handful over-ripe berries
zest of half a lemon
1 teaspoon (7 grams) of honey
1 cup (250 mL) of 80-proof grappa

Place the berries and lemon zest in a jar.

Add the honey.

Pour in the grappa, but do not shake or mix.

Place on a windowsill in the sun for 2 months, then filter and bottle.

Maybe I'll finish it for Halloween!

Strange Marketing

2006-08-29T21:18:00.000+02:00

I'm always struck by the difference in European and American marketing. For one thing, the American style seems more polished and manipulative, while the European style seems often cruder and simpler, although I must admit the difference has changed a lot in the last 10 years and is virtually absent in Northern Europe.

The strangest marketing I have seen has been models of vehicles, specifically Volkswagens. Rather than using a Pink Floyd song to market a VW Golf, there have been Pink Floyd models, with their own special badge. I have also seen Bic model Golfs, as in the cigarette lighter. Here's an even better marketing trick, as it doesn't involve any payment of royalties.

News from the trip

2006-08-28T09:53:00.000+02:00

The trip to Germany for PRK was enjoyable, and Marie and I were able to spend some time with her family while I recovered. I'll post some photos of that part later.

On the return trip we stopped in Baselga di Pine, outside of Trento, to visit Pierre and Margherita, our good friends from Venice. They were there for the summer holidays, along with Margherita's parents, and took us mushroom hunting one day.

This was only the second time in my life I've picked mushrooms, and the first in Europe. Margherita's dad was nice about showing me where to look and how to tell edible from toxic. Here he is trimming the mushrooms we gathered.

I was lucky enough to stumble acrosss the largest find of the day, a beautiful porcini. On top of the sheer size of the thing, it was a rare Boletus aereus, rather than the more common Boletus Edulis. Look at that monster!

I'm BACK!!!

2006-08-26T20:04:00.000+02:00

Just got in from Trento, where we spent 2 days with some great friends. Unpacked the car and we're heading to eat pizza and see some friends.

While checking the mail for any unforeseen events, I found this great advertisement. Most everything in Europe is closed during August for summer vacation, so what could be more enticing than an open hardware store?

One that serves free beer! Disgustingly irresponsible, surely open to litigation, and good to make fun of.

Later