Already 1 Meter of Snow in October!

It started snowing yesterday and there's already 1 meter of snow. I think this is going to be a powdery season and boy am I glad. Last year I couldn't go snowboarding b/c of the baby but this year yahooooooo!!

 Brrrrrrrrrrillo the cow pup, not so happy about the snow.

Everyone is out having fun on their skis/board. I'm inside baking my bun in the oven. Besides baking my bun in the oven, I searched around and found this great recipe for Crostata al Limone. It's the first time i made a latticed top pie and it was more simple than I imagined! I didn't use Meyer lemons, nor did I make the whipped cream topping...but it was incredible nonetheless. Here's how mine looked:

 Cooling in the window

After a few hours this was all that remained!

What to do if you can't ski/snowboard this year.

When you live next to a ski resort town and you can't ski/snowboard, you've got to be creative in having fun. This year I'm super happy because i'm pregnant, but very limited in what I can do besides working and dreaming about the new baby. I tried to avoid walking down to the ski lifts because I get a little green seeing all of the people having a blast skiing and snowboarding on Sestriere's pistes. They've even built a new ski/snowboard jump this year! I walked down one afternoon and watched people do jumps.

New ski/snowboard jumps built on Sestriere's Olympic Pistes

 Our first Xmas tree in front of the Villa MilleFiori guesthouse

at night

 Mistletoe is abundant...we hung it everywhere 

and our guests seemed to be eager to take advantage :) 

The tree in the center of Sestriere

 Teach them about Hannuka! They loved this.

and don't forget to eat panetone and drink champagne on New Year's Eve!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from SESTRIERE!

Fall Colors and First Snow

The first snow fell this November and then within a few days it was gone!

 Now you see it...

Now you don't!

Oh well..that leaves us plenty of time to enjoy the fall colors....

Valle D'Aosta Day Trip and Fontina Cheese

My boyfriend's family produces Toma cheese which is the most commonly known cheese of the Piemonte region.

Toma Cheese, typical cheese of the Peimonte Region, Italy

But every once in awhile we get a hankerin for some Fontina cheese and what better reason than cheese to make a day trip to the neighboring region of Valle D'Aosta.

 Main Shopping Street in the Center of the Capitol City Aosta

 It's very fancy

 Main Piazza and old municipal building

 Arc of the Duke of Aosta

 Grand Paradise National Park near Cogne

 Home of the Jeanet Brothers Farm inside the Nat'l Park!

 They produce all of this wonderful fontina cheese made from the milk of their cows.

The old fashioned way!

Plum and Almond Crostata

October is a quiet and beautiful time of the year here in Sauze di Cesana. Not many tourists make it a great time to get things done around the farm in preparation for winter. While Luca and his brother chop firewood, I make plum jam and plum cake from the plum trees growing in the area.

Plum and Almond Crostata Recipe 
(adapted from La Cucina Italiana June 2011 Issue)

The original recipe is made with apricots, but it's great with plums as well.

Ingredients:

300g all purpose flour
100g butter room temp
100g ground almonds
 50 g water
100g powdered sugar
80g sugar
1 large egg white
20-30 little wild plums or 12 regular plums halved and pitted
1 egg
pinch of salt

Preheat oven 200 degrees C.

Mix together flour and butter until it forms soft crumbs, then add 80g sugar, egg, pinch of salt and water. Form dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and leave in fridge for 30 min.

Combine the ground almonds and powdered sugar and the egg white.

Roll out the dough and press into a 20cm pie or spring form cake pan. Spread almond mixture into the circumference of the pie crust. Place plum halves face down in a circular pattern in the pie.

Bake for 40-45 min with heat only from the bottom of the oven. Decorate with powdered sugar.

Wild Things: Berries and Fungus Among Us

Summer came late this year, and September is hotter than August...here are just a few of the yummy wild things you can pick up around the end of the summer in our fertile valley.

HUGE but not edible

 Luca told me not to eat these

which was a pity because they were everywhere

Orecchiette!!! These are the ones we EAT! 

 wild blueberries

 wild cherries

 wild strawberries

 wild raspberries

wild gooseberries