Mamma Americana

4th of July, Italian style

A proper 4th of July celebration was in order this year. Saturday morning we went to the weekly market in Tonfano and bought an American flag. Back in the garden I attached it to a broom stick and we put it up on the trellis. It looked pretty good. 

That evening, Lorenzo got the BBQ going, which was no small feat. The charcoal had been in the storage room all winter long, sucking up moisture and was rather damp as a result. It was too late to run to the store for more, so Lorenzo used newspaper and a fan to get things burning. 

Here he is grilling up some porcini alongside my mother in-law. It's odd to find porcini this time of the year. I usually see them in the fall, but it's been raining so much lately that they seem to be coming up early.

The lovely rosticciana (pork spare ribs) piping hot from the grill. We also had hot dogs (I felt it wouldn't be the 4th of July without them) served on hamburger buns because the supermarket was out of hot dog buns. All in all, I'd say it was a great evening. 

A New Dress

O.K. so this is my first attempt at sewing clothing and using a pattern. I bought the Simplicity pattern (9784) for a cute pinafore dress for Eleonora when I purchased my sewing machine. The name "Simplicity" gave me a sense of comfort, being a newbie and all. The Reader's Digest New Complete Guide to Sewing was a big help (thanks Joanne!).

It's not done yet. I still have to make the button holes in the back and add two buttons. And throw it in the wash. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Most importantly it seems to fit!

Cicadas and a small Ikea kitchen hack

I wanted to write about cicadas last week, while the temperature was soaring, but didn't get around to it. Over the weekend a storm moved in and cooled things down considerably. As I write this I can only hear a few cicadas singing outside. Not the usual din, but they'll be back at it in no time. 

For anyone who lives in an area with cicadas, they are part of summer's soundtrack. Their arrival means that summer has officially begun. Although it can be irritating at times, I've grown to love their song. Here is a picture of a Tuscan cicada. And you can hear their song too. Not sure if it's the right species, but you get an idea of what they sound like.

On to the hack. I've had this kitchen hutch for a couple of years. At first, I liked the open shelving. The dust finally got to me though, and I decided to cover it up. I couldn't find it on Ikea's web site, so they must not sell it any more.

I sewed up some "curtains" using a small gingham print. Then I sewed some velcro to the tops and used adhesive velcro on the hutch.

No more dust or clutter! Yeah!

Sea, Sun and Airplanes?

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I always get super busy this time of year. June usually finds me trying to finish up projects before summer gets underway. I finished one such project yesterday: the Blair family cookbook. I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. It has over 78 family recipes, along with old family photos or copies of the original old recipes. I was surprised to find that some of the oldest recipes go as far back as the 1930's. Here's the link if you want to take a look at it on TasteBook: Blair family cookbook.

We spent the weekend at the family's beach cottage in Tonfano. There's still some work left to do on the patio, but most of the interior is back in shape after the humid winter. There was quite a bit of peeling paint and some mold that had to taken care of. 

There was an air show planned for the weekend that we were unaware of. It was a nice surprise to see jets doing stunts as we pedaled our bikes to the beach. Evidently the Frecce Tricolori  (Tricolor Arrows) were performing. They're the Italian Air Force's flight demonstration squadron. They rehearsed on Saturday and did the full show on Sunday with their trademark tricolor smoke trailing behind.

Shooting over the pier in Marina di Pietrasanta

A low fly by

A civilian group does a loop

Getting Ready For Summer

Last weekend was a long holiday weekend. Tuesday, June 2nd was a national holiday celebrating the Republic. We spent it at the beach cottage, but since the weather was not cooperating, cleaning was about the only thing that got done. That's OK though. The place really needed a good cleaning. We hadn't really been there since last September. The place is the size of a postage stamp, well maybe two stamps, but it took the better part of 2 days to get the place in order.

Here are some pics. of the cottage from spring 2007. 

Ikea hack play kitchen (part 3)

Time for the big unveiling:

The inside of the fridge.

The construction of the oven, sink and fridge is covered in part 2. 

Here's a list of the accessories that I used to outfit the kitchen:

Oven:

Snodd knobs (Ikea)

Lindsdal handles (Ikea)

LED pop light on inside

Panna coasters (Ikea) for the burners (superglued into place)

two hinges

MDF for backsplash and front panel where knobs are attached

(The MDF came with the Odda chest and happened to fit the front of the Aneboda nightstand perfectly. I didn't have to do any cutting.)

Sink:

faucet (I splurged on a real one, but you could use wooden dowels instead)

stainless steel bowl

contact paper (wood grain)

tension curtain rod

fabric

MDF for back splash and front panel 

Fridge:

Lansa handle (Ikea)

two hinges

plexiglass shelves

Omar basket (Ikea)

eye screws

LED pop light

I used a hot glue gun to attach the plexiglass shelves to the eye screws inside the fridge. The baskets on the fridge door are hooked into the eye screws.

The fridge is attached to the wall (the real wall) with an anchor screw. It's heavy and needs to be safe for the little ones to play with.

Wall:

MDF

contact paper

wood slats to make window frame

square wooden dowels for window panes (used glue gun)

I used wood scraps to make the shelves

cafe curtain rod

fabric (I sewed the curtains myself)

Here's a list of tools you'll need:

electric drill

electric jig saw

screwdrivers

hammer

sand paper

level

tape measure

glue gun

All said and done, I probably spent about €250 on the whole thing. It would have been cheaper to build it from scratch, but I'm not the carpenter my father is. I took shop in Jr. High, and that's about it. It came out pretty good, considering my lack of experience. Most importantly, I had fun building it and Eleonora will have fun playing with it.

Ikea hack play kitchen (part 2)

I wrote about making Eleonora an Ikea hack play kitchen back in March. Well, I finally got the project underway a few weeks ago and I finished it on Wednesday. 

I started with two Aneboda night stands and an Odda chest from Ikea. Here's what they should have looked like:

One night stand became the oven and the other one became the sink. I turned the chest on it's end and made it into a fridge. 

Before any serious modifications.

We went to OBI in Sesto Fiorentino and purchased MDF (for the back "wall"), finished plywood (oven and fridge doors) plexiglass (oven window and fridge shelves), contact paper ("wood" countertop on sink and wall paper on back wall), primer, paint, hinges etc. 

The oven under construction. I used a jigsaw to cut out the window on the oven door and to round the edges on the back splash.

The back wall. I marked the outlines of the stove and sink and then drilled holes around the perimeter. I attached it to the back of the kitchen with long screws. The stove and sink were screwed together first. Simply punch through one side of the interior shelving holes and screw into side of other piece. I did this in four places: two in front and two in back, above and below.

When I finished with the construction part of the project, I made sure to sand everything well and coat it with a layer of primer paint before moving onto the final coat of paint.

Poppies, puppies and prosciutto

Lorenzo's grandmother turned 81 on Sunday. The family gathered for lunch on a farm in the country side near Gambassi Terme. It belongs to one of Lorenzo's clients. They're in the process of turning it into a B&B and need financing for construction work. 

They served us a wonderful meal, all home made with local ingredients. We drank red wine from their own vineyards and we ate salami and prosciutto which came from their own pigs. They have a herd of cinta senese pigs, which is a rare local breed named for the band of white around their bellies. Cinta comes from the word cintura which means belt in Italian. We bought a case of wine and a hunk of prosciutto to take home with us.

Everyone had fun playing with the puppies on the farm. They have 15 dogs in all. Cute mutts, all of them.

Lake Bilancino

On Sunday we headed up to lake Bilancino for an annual BBQ with friends. Bilancino is a big artificial lake about 35 km from Florence. It's the perfect place for our large gathering. There were 22 adults and 5 kids in all. The appetizers consisted of fresh fava beans with pecorino (a match made in heaven), bruschetta (toasted bread rounds with fresh tomatoes), scamorza wrapped in prosciutto crudo and  then grilled. The main meal consisted of various grilled meats: ribs, chicken breasts, sausages, and bratwurst. Yumm! 

Eleonora and I 

May Day

May 1st is Labor Day in Italy and much of the world celebrates the International Workers Holiday as well. It fell on a Friday this year so we had a lovely long weekend. 

I prefer the old celtic May Day, celebrating the end of of winter and the coming of summer. It seems that huge numbers of Italians feel the same way. We encountered them all on the highway heading to the sea. Despite the traffic, we managed to arrive in Viareggio in time for lunch.

Afterwards we spent a few hours on the beach before heading back to Florence. The weather was lovely: the sun was warm; there was no breeze to speak of and the sea was like glass. Beautiful! The beach clubs had their umbrellas set up and there was no lack of customers.  The only hints of bad weather were the piles of drift wood and trash left along the shore by winter storms. All of this left me aching for summer. 

Cautious feet exploring a new, uneven surface.

Look at that Grandma!