Ricotta Cheese Workshop

A couple of weeks ago I was able to go to a Ricotta Cheese Workshop with a couple of my girlfriends.  The workshop consisted of watching the cheese be made and then, my favorite parts, tasting the cheese and having a fantastic lunch using the cheese and other fresh, local products.

The beautiful, rustic ceiling of the restaurant

Making Tuma, the first cheese

The Tuma is ready!

Tuma with pepper corns, called Pepato

Big Basket of Tuma

Did I mention that all of this wonderful cheese is made from Sheep's Milk?

Lining up for milking, they know the drill

Around the farm, a bare tree with a strange spiky pod (the greenish thing)

Ricotta means re-cooked - Ricotta is the 2nd cheese and is a re-cook of the whey from the Tuma with more milk added.  Its almost ready!

This was a great way to spend a day!  I learned a lot and got to spend time with wonderful friends. I would definitely recommend this trip to others!

Buon Natale!

I can't believe that today is Christmas and it is already almost over!  December passed by much too quickly.  I've been so busy that it seemed like I merely blinked on Thanksgiving day and now we are almost through December!

Playing with my new star filter

I've been having fun, and enjoying Sicily a lot lately.  I've been out an about with friends seeing new places which is the best part of living here.  Often I get bogged down with day to day life that I don't have time to really enjoy myself so this month I chose to put chores to the side (they'll be there tomorrow or the next day) and get out of the house to have fun.  It has been awesome.

Star filters are really cool!

Now that it is Christmas I actually have a bit of time to sit down and reflect on where I've been and what I've done.  I've also had time to go through my pictures from my journeys and edit a few to share here on my blog.  Those posts will be up soon.

Les and Terry at Christmas lunch

For now, though, this post is about Christmas.  Today has been good.  Lots of awesome presents for me, but even more fun was watching my husband unwrap the gifts from me and my family.  I get true joy out of watching someone open a gift that they are excited about and will truly enjoy.

My goofy husband

This afternoon we were able to go out to lunch with good friends.   We ate a huge meal over the course of about four and a half hours at a nearby agriturismo.  It was fantastic!  I doubt I'll need anything else to eat tonight, though.  I'm still so full!

Terry and Betsy

Merry Christmas to all of my amazing family and friends! I hope your day is filled with blessings and love!

Cooking Class at Azienda Trinita

Last night Les and I attended a cooking class at Azienda Trinita in Mascalucia. This place is amazing!  It is right in the middle of Mascalucia, but as soon as you enter their gates you feel like you've been transported to the country.  They have beautiful sprawling gardens, which we got to tour, rooms to rent for the night, and a fabulous kitchen where we learned to cook delicious Sicilian dishes.  This place is so cool that even Oprah stayed there! Yep, seriously, I saw pictures of the owners with Oprah!

 An old church just outside the gates of Azienda Trinita

 Fireplace painted with Mt. Etna

The delicious house wine

A beautiful painted wooden barrel

 In the Garden

Persimmons

A 200 Year Old Olive Tree

Tuma Cheese - the 1st Cheese that is made (Ricotta is 2nd)

Making Scaciatta

Filled with Tuma Cheese, Black Olives, Scallions, & Anchovies

Crostata, almost ready to go in the oven

Sweet dough covered with Orange Marmalade

Are you hungry yet?  Just looking at the pictures of the food we had last night makes me hungry!  In addition to these dishes we also had Penne alla'amatriciana, a meat dish made with ground beef, provolone, prosciutto cotto (ham), and boiled egg; and battered, fried cauliflower.  It was all so good!!

If you are my friend or part of my family and you decided to visit me in Sicily this place will definitely be on our agenda to visit! Les and I had so much fun and met some wonderful people.  Hopefully we can do trips like this more often!

Photo Club Christmas Party

Just over a week ago my photo club held its first Christmas party!  We enjoyed a fabulous dinner at the Masseria Portiere Stella agriturismo and had a fun, photo themed gift exchange.  Everyone came up with creative photo themed gifts that were under $20 each.  Let me tell you, it was a challenge!  Photo stuff is rarely inexpensive. :)  I brought a couple of packs of photo paper (1 for a watercolor effect, and 1 canvas) and a photo magazine.  There were also gifts such as digital photo keychains, photo DVDs for storage, photo books, and my favorite (which I won!!) mats, backboards, and clearbags for displaying pictures at craft fairs, and such!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my photo club?  I have so much fun with these people and always learn a lot when we get together.  Sig Photo Club ROCKS!

Les' Reenlistment

With all of the Thanksgiving postings in November I fell behind on posting about the other important things happening in our lives.  One very big event was Les' reenlistment on Nov. 24.  My husband dedicated another four years of his life to serving our great country in the U.S. Navy.

The reenlistment ceremony was doubly important for Les. Not only was he swearing to continue protecting our country, he was able to have the ceremony at his Masonic Lodge.  The Lieutenant who performed the ceremony is one of his brother masons and several of his other brothers were also in attendance.  For me this event was unique because I was actually allowed in the lodge and have the pictures to prove it!

Everyone who attended the reenlistment

Les and his brother masons

Photo Club Challenge: Sound

Sound is tough to photograph.

When we decided on this challenge I had an immediate idea, but unfortunately even with a month to work with I wasn't able to pull it off.  I wanted to photograph Les against a white backdrop, dressed in black with his black fedora, playing his guitar and singing.  I would have processed it into sepia.  It would have been awesome.  Unfortunately, he's been really busy and we never found the time to do the photo shoot.

So, last night as I was laying in bed, wracking my brain trying to think of some sort of sound I could photography I realized that my life is very very quiet.  I'm usually alone and other than the noise of household electronics, an occasional dog barking in the neighborhood, or my cat demanding food, its usually silent in my house.

I then started thinking of ways to make noise. I thought of the irritating noise of a leaking faucet.  Luckily we don't have any leaking faucets in our home so I had to fabricate one. My goal was to capture the drops of water mid-air, and also show the disturbance in the water when the drop hit.  What do you think?

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving, Day 29 & 30

Well, I fell quite short of posting every day this month and completing the NaBloPoMo challenge, but I still counted a lot of blessings! I may try this challenge again, but certainly not for December.  Posting every day for a month was a lot more difficult than I expected.  To wrap up the month here are my Thanksgivings for yesterday and today.


Yesterday I was thankful for:

• A clean house (or at least downstairs)
• Christmas decorations
• Christmas music
• Help from my hubbie cleaning and rearranging things for Christmas
• Dinner out at a great Agriturismo with new friends

Today I am thankful for:

• A better id card picture than I expected (still not great, but better than my last one!)
• A nap to make up for having to get up early
• More boxes in the mail!  One of them I only ordered a week ago, AMAZING!
• A yummy dinner of Trail Camp Beans and potatoes, tastes like home!
• Root Beer Floats for dessert
  

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving, Day 28

I did it again :) I forgot to post about yesterday's blessings! Here they are, just a little late.

Yesterday I was thankful for:

• Time hanging out with friends at a birthday party
• More Thanksgiving leftovers (they are almost gone!)
• Relaxation time
  

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving, Day 27

I'm a little late posting this one, but better late than never, right?

Yesterday I was thankful for:

• Thanksgiving leftovers - reheats AND turkey tacos, YUM!
• A new wireless router so that we now have wi-fi downstairs
• The crisp air of Fall

I will post again later on today with today's Thanksgivings. I just woke up a little while ago so I don't have any idea what today will bring.

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving, Day 26

On this Thanksgiving holiday I have much to be grateful for!  It has been a fabulous day, complete with a lot of time in the kitchen preparing a feast and time spent with dear friends at a table filled with fantastic food.

Today I am thankful for:

• The roof over my head and the comfortable furnishings inside my home
• A wonderful husband who is a great provider
• The best family anyone could ask for
• An heartwarming email from my Daddy (not a forward!!) :)
  
• Wonderful friends both here and scattered throughout the world - I have been truly blessed to know so many awesome people
• A bounty of food on our Thanksgiving table
• Great friends to spend Thanksgiving with
• Telephones that bridge the miles and cross oceans - after I write this I'm calling my family to with them a Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who read my blog!  I'm also grateful for you, my readers!  I hope you have much in your life to be grateful for too.

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving, Day 25

Today I am thankful for:

• The weekly market and the wonderful foods that I find there at really reasonable prices
• Fresh bread
• The smile of an old Sicilian gentleman, he had deeply etched smile lines, I've never seen a more beautiful face!  It was easy to see that he has had a fulfilling life.
• My husband coming home from work early
• The time, energy and know-how to bake Thanksgiving treats from scratch
• Pizza for dinner and the new pizzeria we finally got around to trying - delicious!
• An evening relaxing with my husband, watching TV, sipping wine, and playing with our iPods
  

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving, Day 24

Today I am thankful for:

• My husband's commitment to our country and the military, and his continued employment (he reenlisted today for another four years)
• Time spent with a good friend this afternoon
• Errands that I can now cross off of my list
• Having all of the necessary ingredients to make my dishes for Thanksgiving (really, this is HUGE having an overseas military commissary to shop in, rarely do they have what i need!)
• More boxes in the mail and all of the fun stuff they contained
• My awesome mom who sends me the best care packages ever (seriously, Summer Sausage and Starbucks Thanksgiving Blend Coffee, who could ask for more!)

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving, Days 18-23

All it took was one little missed day to completely mess up my developing habit of blogging every day. Today I'm going to try and catch up and hopefully be able to stick with my daily routine of counting my blessings for the rest of November.


On Day 18 I was thankful for:

• The market and all of the wonderful fresh foods I was able to purchase
• Clean clothes and a clean bathroom (it was a cleaning day)

On Day 19 I was thankful for:

• Having the necessary info to prepare more in advance than usual for my card class
  
• The energy to be productive around the house
• A tidied garden and driveway
• Time spent with a close friend who will be moving soon

On Day 20 I was thankful for:

• A clean comfortable home to welcome friends into
• An awesome card class with much fun, laughter, and wonderful women
• Time to make homemade goodies to share with my friends

On Day 21 I was thankful for:

• My husband who washed the car without me having to ask
  
• A party at a friend's house and fun people to hang out with

On Day 22 I was thankful for:

• A down day where nothing really had to be done except relax
• A "job" (if you could call what I do with Stampin' Up! work) that I love, where I get to meet and hang out with awesome people and be creative

Today I am thankful for:

• Bible Study and the wonderful women that I've met and become friends with
• Napping with my cat
• Talking with my mom on the phone
• My LONG Christmas card list which represents all of the wonderful people who I care about and who care about me.
  

That catches me up through today. I have every intention of posting tomorrow and each day until the end of the month.  If I miss a day don't be afraid to call me on it! I put this challenge out to others and I need to keep up with it myself.  It does me good to think about the blessings in my life, to dwell on those things and not the negative things that could bring me down.

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving, Day 17

Today I am thankful for:

• A kitty who loves to sprawl across my lap whenever and wherever I sit down
• Les' leave, its been nice to have him home for a few days and see his stress level go down
• A freshly cut lawn (thanks, honey!)
• Capers preserved in salt (not brine)
• My new iPod
  
• Time to chat with my mom
• Friends who, even when super busy and stressed, remain upbeat. They inspire me.

Overall its been a quiet day. Got a few things done around the house, but also had some time to relax.  Tomorrow starts real life again.  Les goes back to work and I have a lot to do, too.  The rest of the week will be busy for me, but I'm glad.  Too much time sitting and doing nothing isn't good for me!

Mt. Etna Getaway

For our 6th anniversary Les and I decided a little getaway would be nice.  We decided to go up to an agriturismo on Mt. Etna for two nights, just to relax.  We planned to take books, our ipods, and possibly not even the leave the agriturismo property.

We drove up yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed the drive, however, about halfway there I realized that I'd forgotten my books.  I was peeved at myself but got over it.  At least I still had my camera and ipod.  We arrived about two hours later and checked into our bed and breakfast, Etna Wine. The owner showed us to our room which was actually a three bedroom apartment!  It was quite lovely.

As the owner was heading out the door we asked what time dinner was.  Here is where things got really interesting...they don't serve dinner, only lunch.  One of the reasons we chose this place was so we could eat and not have to worry about who would drive after consuming copious amounts of wine with dinner.  We even asked about dinner when we made the reservation and were given a price.

Slightly perturbed, but not wanting it to ruin our vacation we decided to try another recommended agriturismo down the road for dinner.  Turns out they only serve lunch, too.  Bonus? they were closed Mondays so eating there the next day wasn't an option either.

We ended up having dinner at a very nice pizzeria.  The food was good, but not quite the long drawn out meal we had hoped for.  Again, oh well.  We figured we would go for lunch at the place we were staying the next day and just have a light dinner.

This morning we went to breakfast and asked the manager about getting a table at lunch...surprise surprise, their restaurant is also closed on Mondays! She also informed us that pretty much everything in that area of the world is also closed Mondays, that maybe one restaurant in the next town would be open.  Great, right?  So much for a romantic anniversary dinner!

Over breakfast we talked over our dilemma and decided to check out a day early and come back home. Before we left I did take a few minutes to walk around the agriturismo grounds and take a few pictures. It was truly a lovely place and I would stay there again, but plan accordingly to have lunch at the restaurant, not stay on a Monday, and bring food to cook in the apartment for dinners (it had a cute little kitchen).

After checking out we took a long drive around Etna.  It was a gorgeous day.  At one point we stopped and took a short hike for about a half hour.

After our hike we started getting hungry for some lunch.  We drove down the mountain and ended up in Giarre where we found a bar with yummy calzones.  From there we drove the coast a bit and then headed back towards home.  Tonight, for our anniversary dinner we are going to Borgo Antico Agriturismo, which is just up the hill from where we live.

Our anniversary weekend getaway didn't work out at all like we had planned but we still had a lovely time together, and really that is what counts!

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving, Day 15 and 16

So, I've officially fallen off of the NaBloPoMo wagon, sigh.  I had a feeling doing a post a day for a month would be hard.  I missed yesterday because we took off for vacation and I forgot to post before we left, and then I didn't have internet up on the mountain.  Oh well!  I will still continue on with my exercise of finding things to be thankful for daily.

Yesterday I was thankful for:

• Leaving for a mini vacation
• A lovely drive up into the mountains
  
• The lovely bed and breakfast that we stayed at
• Delicious pizza for dinner
• A much needed getaway with my hubbie

Today I am thankful for:

• Staying married for six years and counting (today is our anniversary!)
• My husband
• A beautiful drive on Mt. Etna
• A lovely mini-hike on Mt. Etna
• Another reason to go to Borgo Antico (Anniversary dinner!)
  

Details of our mini vacation and pictures are coming soon in another post!

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving, Day 14

What a GREAT day, its been a fantastic start to our anniversary weekend.

Today I am thankful for:

• Breakfast in bed
• Being able to curl back up in bed after breakfast and take a snooze
• Having a bit of time to craft
• Shopping
• Chinese Food for dinner
• Early Anniversary Presents (gorgeous black pearl earrings and necklace with a very cool and unusual setting)
• My husband, who has put up with me for just a couple days short of six years

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving, Day 13

Wow, I thought that the more I did something it was supposed to be ingrained as habit...why is that not happening? I nearly crawled into bed and almost forgot to post today!  So, here it is:


Today I am thankful for:

• Doctors appointments with no bad news 
• Fridays and weekends
  
• My husband taking a few days of much needed leave
• Finally making reservations for our anniversary
• A good book to read when I crawl into bed (not that I'll get to far, I'm pretty tired)

Good night. Ci vediamo a domani! (See you tomorrow!)

Thirty Days of Thanksgiving, Day 12

Today I am thankful for:

• Pumpkin Pie Blended Lattes
• My new iPod Touch, wi-fi and free games!
  
• Time to craft and play with new supplies that came in the mail a couple of days ago
• A chance to chat with my dad for awhile, we always have a good laugh together, he brightens my day