It's here! I finally got my KitchenAid mixer. I got it for a ridiculous price (ridiculous because Lowe's accidentally advertised for much lower than they meant to - a typo meant $100 less for me!) I haven't had too much time to play with it, though the first night I managed to whip up a batch of cheese breadsticks.

I am off to California this evening. I am really excited! Already I have a lot I've been meaning to write, but so little time to do so. The many hours flying across the country will allow me to get some thoughts down on paper. When I return next week I hope to post a lot more. In addition, I will have California stories!

Last night Ryan and I prepared two more of the Happy Days' recipes: Baked New Potatoes with Sea Salt and Rosemary and Roasted Asparagus with Rosemary and Anchovies wrapped in Pancetta. From an ingredients standpoint, using rosemary in two dishes made sense... but rosemary is funny. I feel that just the right amount should be used, otherwise it is very overpowering and perfum-y. I enjoyed dinner, but I don't think I will make the asparagus with rosemary again.

Warm Bread Salad of Crispy Pancetta, Parmesan and Poached Egg
(from Jamie Oliver's

Happy Days)

SERVES 4

1 ciabatta loaf

extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

12 slices of pancetta or bacon

juice of 1 lemon

4 large organic eggs

3 large handfuls of arugula

1 head oak lettuce (I just used a mix)

3.5 oz parmesan cheese

Prehead oven to 400 degrees. Remove the crusts from the ciabatta and dicard, then tear the bread into finger-sized pieces (I accidentally left them a bit big - it was a quiet dinner...chomp, chomp, chomp.) Place on a baking sheet, drizzle with a little 0olive oil and toss with the garlic and seasoning. Back for 10 minutes or until crisp. Lay the pancetta over the bread and bake for another 5 minutes, or until that's crispy too. Mix the lemon with 8 tablespoons of olive oil and season. Put a big pan of unsalted water on to boil.

In a large bowl toss the salad leaves, pancetta, bread, and dressing together, then divide between 4 plates. When the pan of water is simmering, add you 4 eggs. Cook for 4 minutes for a soft egg, or to your liking. Place an egg on each salad and shave over your parmesan, using a vegetable peeler (or use pre-shredded - it's more convenient, less expensive, but doesn't look as cool.)

My trip to Florence, Italy in late June was such an interesting one. It was the first time I'd ever traveled alone in a foreign country and without much knowledge of the Italian language. Actually, I have the basics down - I can make it clear that I speak English and I can order a complete dinner without one word of English spoken either way. I also know random words like:

carta = card (if I didn't have cash I would ask if they took 'carta')
uscita = exit (as a firefighter's daughter the importance of this word is ingrained in my very being)

I thought I knew the word for peach, after all, I ordered a peach gelato, but it wasn't until I told my mother that I placed my order completely in Italian that she informed me that I had actually ordered a FISH gelato. Pesce, peche. Is it really that different?

I traveled by train from Verona and arrived in Florence by noon on a Friday. I exited the train station completely unaware of the fact that I had gotten off at the wrong station. It was Florence, but the directions I had to the hotel obviously did not apply. After walking for quite some time with the determined expression of a woman who knew where she was and where she was going, I finally hailed a cab (a man sitting on a park bench was becoming interested in this 'determined woman' who had passed him four times and OBVIOUSLY didn't know where she was or where she was going.)

My time there was really great... and as I expressed in an early entry, a culinary inspiration. My favorite place in Florence was the Mercato Centrale.

PASTA MAKING sans PASTA MACHINE equals BIG MUSCLES. Sounds like the heading of an Italian gent’s personal ad. Alas, it actually describes our Saturday night. Though great fun, pasta making can really be a workout.

Our first attempt to make the pasta dough was memorable at the very least. I was leaving for what I hoped would be the last ‘ingredient run’ as Ryan started making the dough. But instead of a puffed chest beaming with pride, I returned to a furled brow and a shaking head. He picked up the ball of dough and let it fall to the counter. Cement. It turns out I bought whole wheat flour (uck!) and when the recipe was converted from metric to standard something went awry. Too much flour, too few eggs. We could have bowled with that ball.

Back to the store.

Our second attempt was a success – though dear Lord, it took some muscle to get the elasticity into that sucker.

From there we had great fun. We made three different types of ravioli: wild mushroom prosciutto with basil pesto, ricotta and mozzarella fried ravioli, and a berry mascarpone dessert ravioli.

We also made the recipe that kicked off Mission: Jamie Oliver Warm Bread Salad of Crispy Pancetta, Parmesan, and Poached Egg. I will post the recipe soon.

RYAN AND I HAVE DECIDED TO TACKLE Jamie Oliver's Happy Days with the Naked Chef. I've loved this book for a long time - the recipes all sound so tempting and they are fairly easy! Over the course of the next few months, we plan to prepare each recipe in the book. We aren't going page by page, we are simply ticking them off as we go; preparing what we are up for that day. Already we've started... this weekend we mastered one of Jamie's salads; it was so good we made it both Saturday and Sunday! We also made ravioli this weekend (although that recipe came from Jamie's Italy.) I've plenty of pictures and will upload them this evening.

A FEW WEEKS AGO I CAME ACROSS A BOOK CALLED Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously.

Nearing 30 and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, Julie Powell resolved to reclaim her life by cooking, in the span of a single year, every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child’s legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her unexpected reward: not just a newfound respect for calves’ livers and aspic, but a new life – lived with gusto.

While fulfilling her goal, Julie Powell kept a blog documenting her experience: The Julie/Julia Project. The blog came before the book, as she really had no idea her project would result in publication.

Today, while I perused the the many food blogs that exist, I came across The Gourmet Project. A grad student in Canada has decided to take on The Gourmet Cookbook. He does not claim to be original, he simply recognizes that this isn't something he has done before.

Can you see where this is going?

That's right.. I want to do this! Rediscovering the Jamie Oliver cookbooks that had been sitting on our shelves for years tripped my culinary wire months ago. Jamie Oliver just makes everything seem so easy! That was when I started to bake bread. I experimented by making various types of foccacia, bread sticks, baguettes, pizza dough, even bagels (but that was disaster.) My culinary buzz intensified after my trip to Florence (photos coming soon.) Though our newest cookbook (only 26 hours old) is Jamie's Italy, I've not yet decided if that is the book I will tackle. I'll keep you posted.

FOR YEARS I’VE FELT THAT THERE WOULD BE SOMETHING SPECIAL about my 27th year. I never quite knew what would be so special, but something, I was convinced, was going to set this year apart. So, as my birthday neared in June, I knew that I had to make a plan. I am not one who believes things just happen, I am sure we must make them happen.

The first thing I decided to do was to start buying more lottery tickets. Maybe this is the year I become a millionaire!? Ok, while buying lottery tickets certainly increases my chances of fast and easy money, it still leaves me waiting for something to happen.

I have to start painting again. The simple thought of painting usually empties my mind of any creative ideas, leaving me feeling like a daft simpleton, drooling uncontrollably. A deer in headlights; I am frozen by the high expectations I hold for myself and subsequently the 0-0 track record I have maintained for five years. I allow myself to fail without even trying to succeed. If I can conquer this severe artist's block, my 27th year will be a special year.