One of Petraia's Kitchens

Petraia has three kitchens, the main one used for service and general cooking, the pastry kitchen, and the breakfast/pasta/butchery kitchen. They are all amazing. It's not often that you find a kitchen that is both functional, esthetically appealing, and has windows!
This is a picture of the main kitchen:
It has a built in fryer and pasta water boiler, nooks and crannys for everthing, a wood burning stove and oven, and awesome 'drawer' fridges, and these are only some of it's good points!

For the past week I have been responsible for lighting and maintaing the wood stove and oven. I've been putting my Boy Scout skills to use, thats right, no wimpy Girl Guides for me, I'm way more hardcore than that.

The stove is easy and the oven is just HOT...like 550F hot. Like my arms have no arm hair left from sticking them in while retrieving the burning coals. Every day when I come home from work I smell like I've been sitting around a camp fire all day...I love it!

While everyone (Susan, Tobey, Michael, and I) are in the kitchen Olive and Hawkley are usually not too hard to find. They lie on the step outside the kitchen's back door waiting for snacks or just the occasional "Aww, Olive, you're such a sweetie!".

Come on, just look at those eyes....awww, Olive, you are such a cutie!

TGIF!!

Okay, here we go...

Yesterday was a very busy day. 17 birds to be plucked, cleaned, butchered, and packaged. Whew! But we did it! It took 12 hours but by golly it happened! Sadly, I missed out on the actual killing part, lucky for you though you don't have to see the pictures! They try and keep it very calm and so only two people are around to kill. But I was there for everything else. Tobey fashioned me a 'dress' out of a garbage bag, it was her first one of the season and it had four arm holes, but it did the job!

Guiliano and Fabio brought us the birds...

And we got to work plucking...

And plucking...

Just for a second try and imagine what I smelled all day...warm, wet, poultry poop. Nice, eh?

It took us quite a few hours just to pluck, the geese were the hardest and very frustrating. But there was some comic relief through the day, like when Tobey, who was gutting, got squirted in the face by the gallbladder, you should have seen the green liquid all over her face! I laughed so hard I almost peed myself...and then got her some paper towel. The geese really reminded us of the swan dress Bjork wore to some red carpet event:
So, we decided we'd give it a try:
The resemblance is astonishing, isn't it? Minus the blood of course.

Some of the ducks had eggs growing in them, which was sad becuase that means there won't be any ducklings, but Susan says that these embryonic eggs are a delicacy:

Aren't they strange? They kinda look like some weird tropical fruit! That's how eggs grow!!Susan used them to make pasta dough and you should have seen the pasta...it was this gorgeous rich, yellow color. While I wasn't too keen on eating the embyronic eggs as is I definately would've eaten the pasta!

It was a long but fun day! I learned alot and it's going to be fun eating some of the birds that we killed. It is so amazing to me, it's such and old fashioned thing to do...I love it!

It's been a long day for Pecos Bill...

4 geese, 4 ducks, 2 guinea hens, a whole bunch of chickens, and 12 hours later Revanna is p-o-o-p-e-d! More tomorrow but here's a quick shot of what's to come:Oh, and just so you know that garbage bag I'm wearing isn't to keep myself clean...that style is all the rage here in Italy, trust me it's all over the runways in Milan.

My new favorite snack!

Ever since I started eating lunch with the Italian's at work I always watch what they eat and then when I'm at the market next I try and find it. Mario, the stone wall builder, is always eating a bulb of fennel (finocchio, rhymes with pinocchio) at lunch. Now, I've mostly eaten fennel that's been cooked, I have had it a couple times raw but it was bland and tasteless. But I decided to give it a try here anyway. So, I bought a bulb at the market and was so impressed. It was so crunchy and satisfying, it has the most wonderful licorice-y after taste that leaves your tongue tingling.

When I was at the market last Saturday I picked up two bulbs and quickly devoured one. It's kinda like eating celery but not so watery and just all around more delicious.

I would tell you all to go out and buy a fennel bulb for your next snack attack...but sadly I don't think it would be as heavenly and scrumptious as they are here. But you can try! You never know! If you do, just cut the fronds off and if there are blemishes on the outer pieces remove them and then just cut it into piece and devour. Or you can just cut it in half and start munching...that's my perferred plan of action!

Let's Talk Truffles

"Presently, we were aware of an odour gradually coming towards us, something musky, fiery, savoury, mysterious, -- a hot drowsy smell, that lulls the senses, and yet enflames them, -- the truffles were coming.”

William Makepeace Thackeray

Hopefully by now you'll realize these truffles aren't the chocolate kind, far from it. These are the fungi that grow underground and have the most wonderful taste. I had known about truffles before going to school but while I was at school I got to have my first truffle experience. Because they are so expensive and because we were just first years we got to smell/taste white truffle oil. This is oil infused with truffle-ness. And I will admit that I wasn't a huge fan of it. It wasn't until Tracy found some white truffle oil and Superstore and began adding it to mashed potatoes everytime we had them. By March I was a fan. And so while out for pizza a week ago I got really excited when Micheal pulled out his truffle slicer and this tiny little Tuscan truffle. The smell was unbelievable. He shaved paper thin slices on to a pizza bianca (no tomato sauce, just olive oil, garlic, proscuitto, and arugala). Frack! It was so delicious!
I don't know if I can actually describe to you what truffles taste like. Some taste garlicy, some earthy. But it's strange because you just suddenly have this taste in your mouth and its like a breath of truffle air, you can taste it but can't feel it. It's strange, mysterious, and addictive.

If you are interested in given truffles a try I'd start with a bottle of truffle oil, Tracy got her's at Superstore in the Oil section, try there first or maybe a specialty store. Seriously delicious.

It's Sunday, YAY!

*Note: The part where I say I'm not huffing and puffing when it sure as heck sounds like I am, you really should have heard me earlier.