Ice storms, snow storms and cold weather, oh my!

12-18 dicembre
Well, hello from the USA! After 20 hours of travel by car, train, 3 flights and car, I arrived in St. Louis a couple of days ago and was treated to a fine steak dinner by my brother and sis-in-law at his office party. Jim and I took a road trip on route 66 the next day to visit his farm and I pruned his grape vines for him. We stopped at the world’s largest rocking chair and bought some pecans and work gloves, the latter for me and then returned to the big city. Sunday, after church, the family met for early Chriistmas and thankfully, our olive oil and passito made the trip with me successfully and everyone got their own little cruet of olive oil and sampled the sweet wine. Kim and Jim went all out with dinner and I celebrated a bit of Thanksgiving with turkey and dressing and all the fixings.
Tomorrow, it is off to KC on Southwest Airlines, the last domestic airline which will permit 2 checked bags for no additional fees. I noticed it is -11 degrees in Denver today with a windchill of -25 and I brought a windbreaker to the states!
I am in the airport at St Louis looking at weather forecasts from hell. Snow all through missouri and nebraska with ice underneath. Freezing temperatures to boot.
Good news as my airline is on time and those 2 bags got checked for free. Thanks Southwest airlines!
Here I am in Kansas City, making the rounds, seeing new and old friends, trying to drive in weather unknown to the Marche and also trying to find wireless access to post.
I have travelled 7 hours to see my old partner Joe Roh in a nursing home in Omaha where he continues to try and rehab after a severe stroke almost 5 months ago. Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers.
Surviving that snowy journey to the north, I returned to my friends Larry and Pam and immediately raided my wine stash in his basement, trying a neat 2001 Syrah from Ridge and a 93 Raymond Reserve Cab. Yesterday was full of travel, coffee and talk and I was happy to meet a few new friends, Elizabeth, Holly, and Cindy, have lunch with my aunt and uncle and then caught up with about 20 of my oldest friends at Jasper's restaurant for a wonderful dinner! (menu to follow) We were treated to a 1st class italian tasting menu and incorporated Raffaele's and my olive oil and passito. It was great to see everyone!!
Today, more coffee and return of the rental car, pickup of the rental truck with its loading and then tomorrow I will meet up with my old bible study group and then hightail it (haha) to denver. Wish me luck.
Pictures are from last night's dinner with our host Jasper Mirabile, my brother's christmas tree and turkey tail and the world's largest rocking chair on route 66
dds
Thanks to Jasper, here is our menu
Jasper's Holiday Menu

Receptione
Parmigiano Reggiano - Roasted Peppers - Sicilian Olives
- Riccota - Fra Mani Artisan Salumi

Wild Mushroom Cappuccino

Antipasto
Prosciutto & Fontina Filled Polenta

Pasta del Giorno
Pappardella & Tuscan Pork Ragu

Piatti del Giorno
Pesce San Pietro

Pollo alla Chiantigna

Dolce
Pannetone Bread Pudding

Coming to America

11 Dicembre
Well, it is off to the mother country today, starting in Rome tonight and leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow. I will try to update the blog while I am visiting, with vacation photos such as these from last year.
Buone feste a tutti! Happy holidays to everyone!
dwight

Christmas season in ascoli and roast chicken

9 dicembre

My luggage is packed and I am ready for the long, tedious flight to the states on Friday.  At least, I am flying BA and not an american airline, so the drinks are free.  I hope to arrive with olive oil and wines intact. Yesterday was the festival of the annunciation or something similar, so all of Italy was off work.  Raffaele and I cooked a meal for his sister and friends and their families (only 10, with us included).  Thinking of american appetites, I cooked 3 roast chickens and since there have been requests for the recipe I use, check out Emeril's finest here- http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/perfect-roast-chicken-recipe/index.html We also had a primo of angel hair pasta with prosciutto, antipasti of cheeses and breads and desserts of sorbets and an apple tort.
After the cleanup, off we went to see the Ascoli chocolate festival with Bacco in tow. For its 1st year, it was ok, but I will hope for improvement in subsequent editions. Dropping Bacco back at Nascondiglio, we then headed to a "show" at the theater/opera house of ascoli piceno which consisted of Shel Shapiro, the 1st long-hair to arrive in Italy in 1963 and later a famous rock star here. He recounted his memories of the good old days from Bo Diddley to U2, the beatles to REM. The name of the show was 1968-the last time it was possible to change the world, (a loose, but accurate translation). It was sort of a "Summer of Love/Woodstock/everyone full of hope for good changes-Us vs Me type of story. 3 hours long, it reminded me a bit of our lectures at UNISG, which were all 3 hours long. This discourse included music from the 50's-90's at least. I must say, being a half generation behind old Shel, it seems my generation and those after me have always been about self and not the group, a shame, really.
Now, it is time to continue my work in the olive trees. As a friend once told me here, cutting is in my blood!
The pictures are from the Piazza del Popolo in Ascoli and are designed to show the similarities between our Christmas festivals and theirs and finally the "before" chicken foto. I forgot to take "after",sorry!
dds

Dawn, December 5, 2008 and Pearadio and 75th anniversary of the 21st amendment

I was lucky today and got up at dawn, thanks to my amico, Bacco.  I saw some cool colors coming from outside my room, so hustled to get the camera and "capture" dawn in digital.

The colors are untouched, one is a bit impressionistic from camera movement and another I made into a vignette.  The vignette was taken at a different exposure, so the colors are not as they were in reality; the others are as I saw them  Enjoy!  I have to add a little publicity here for a free internet radio station called Pearadio.  You can find them at pearadio.com.  The guy "Mr. Pear" has a playlist of 8500 or so songs and they are eclectic and wonderful.   Try it out!  Finally, lets all raise a glass to the 75th anniversary of the end of prohibition.. drink responsibly!

dds

New youtube slide show of Nascondiglio di Bacco

Raffaele taught me how to do this. I hope you enjoy the photos which are all jumbled up and include everything from the mountains to the sea, various views of nascondiglio di bacco and of course, bacco himself, and our friends who have visited and helped out with everything from grape to olive picking and stomping and cooking.  Sorry, there is no music as I can't sing well and I am afraid of copyright infringement if I use someone else's song.  Any musicians out there who want to donate the theme song,  just send it along!

dds

And the winner is: Matteo Barolo!

Check this out-all in italian. Our friend Matteo who is sommelier in a starred restaurant in northern Italy and who was a fellow student at UNISG, has won the title of best sommelier for Barolo wines! How exciting for him and for us, his fellow classmates.
http://www.aispiemonte.it/?p=114
Bravissimo Matteo! Now, quit studying and get your butt down here to visit; oh, and bring a couple of well aged Barolos!
dds

Wow, it's the 1st of December! 1049 visits - GRAZIE MILLE

Where do the months go? I am thinking about Christmas and my visit to the USA, while stranded inside during our "monsoon" season. It has been raining quite a bit here, although this morning it was fleeting and a beautiful rainbow was then visible over Ascoli.
I was able to start the pruning of the olive trees this afternoon and raced through the 1st 5 or so, before fading light became an issue. If you get a chance tonight, go outside and look at the crescent moon which is snuggling up next to Venus (brighter) and Jupiter.
I have helped out the cause of cyber commerce and have finished the christmas shopping for everyone back home. Everyone is getting personalized gifts from zazzle.com where I have designed various products with the nascondiglio di bacco logo or pictures of bacco. The gift I made for my brother was actually banned, so you can't see that one ( i guess that means it is perfect!)
Boredom is dangerous and I can see how the shopping channel does good business. There are some really good sites out there to find bargains like www.dealnews.com which guided me to some incredible buys on memory cards for cameras and other indispensable knickknacks and also wasted a ton of my time.
The pictures are from a little walk I made with bacco in the neighborhood yesterday, showing the local shepherd with his flock, our vistas and bacco making fiends with the local sheepdog. The bottom 2 also show Nascondiglio and our terrain with the vineyard.
Thanks to everyone following the blog! I had a record 1049 visits the month of November.
dds