Umbria and Altarocca

As we headed south on our Best of Italy tour, we visited two more hill towns in Umbria or "green heart of Italy", a region of Italy known for it's wines and olive oil. This is the only landlocked region in Italy and it's geographical center. We loved all the vineyards here

and seeing olives growing on the trees.

In fact, we stayed at an organic farm and winery called Altarocca Wine Resort that is a working family winery and we got the full tour, including wine tasting.

They are a small, organic winery producing about 40,000 bottles per year. (Small for Italy's standards)

All their grapes and olives for their olive oil are picked by hand and some of them were being harvested while we were there.

They produce three types of white wine and three types of red wine here.

For our wine tasting, we tasted two white wines and two red wines including a 2011 Chardonnay, a 2015 Red Wine called Labrato ($18.00/bottle), and a 2010 full bodied Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon mix called Lavico.

The food for our wine tasting was incredible, it could have been a meal in itself.

We had two group dinners while staying at Altarocca and they were equally spectacular. For example, the first night we had guinea fowl stuffed with vegetables served with mashed potatoes

and dessert was mascarpone mousse with coffee sauce.

The cookies served with this dessert are called Lingue di Gatto or Cat Tongue Cookies. Aren't they cute? They are named after the shape of a cat's tongue, in case you didn't figure that out and tasted like a crisp shortbread. These were the two best courses of this dinner but we also got two course before these two and it made the dinner too filling to eat, unfortunately. The first two courses were ewe's cheese flan with peas sauce and crispy bacon. I hardly touched this dish because I could tell this was going to be a very rich and filling dinner already.

And the second course, hardly anybody in our group touched...rissoto with goat blue cheese and saffron. Just too rich and filling, plus I don't really like blue cheese or goat cheese.

Our second dinner was more reasonable and instead of four courses, it was a family style barbecue including a variety of meats, plus bruschetta

potatoes and grilled vegetables

with a lovely dessert that was a cheesecake with caramel nut sauce. This was a much more simple menu and I'm all about simple.

You can probably tell by now that we did not go hungry on this trip at all. Breakfast at Altarocca was my favorite here because of the gorgeous views sitting out on their patio.

What a beautiful way to start your day.

Altarocca also offered many spa services such as massages, various beauty treatments, Turkish bath, sauna, etc. They had a beautiful outdoor pool...with a view, of course.

The rooms were the nicest we stayed in during the whole trip, very roomy and comfortable and many had views.

And I can't forget to mention the owner's resident dogs that roamed the property who were always eager to greet you or show you around their domain. They were the perfect touch to a perfect Italian winery.

Trader Joe's Gluten-Free Oatmeal, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't have very many gluten-free cookies on my blog because quite frankly, I usually don't like gluten-free. But occasionally, I do find a good recipe and this is one that is from the back of the Trader Joe's oatmeal and it's a good one. My friend brought some over to our house last weekend when Nick and family were here for our birthday celebrations and we all loved them. My friend lives a few blocks away and we walk the neighborhood together on weekends. We can easily go 5 miles in no time, talking non-stop. She loves exploring our neighborhood as much as I do and we discover so many favorite little spots. We even found a property with a horse (or more like a pony, I should say.) The views are always quite lovely, too. Bruce and I had our thirty-ninth wedding anniversary on July 18th and I made a point of walking past the house where we had our wedding reception. I told my friend, "Thirty-nine years ago today, t...

Meatloaf by Mark Bittman

Once again, I turned on the television yesterday and saw that Mark Bittman was on the Today show and was making his version of meatloaf . This must be meatloaf season. It was surprisingly similar to the Pioneer Woman's version who was also recently on. I was a little surprised of his version because Mark Bittman is into healthy eating and has lost a lot of weight and improved his health by changing his diet which he writes about in his book, Food Matters . His meatloaf recipe also included bacon and cheese! I must be doing something wrong. The thing to remember, which he writes about in his book, is that you can eat healthy without going extreme or changing your whole life. If you don't know who Mark Bittman is, he is a food writer and a four star chef with multiple cookbooks who loves to eat but changed his food philosophy to improve his health. He tells his story in Food Matters and provides ...

Two-Bean Soup with Kale

This hearty vegetarian soup warms up chilly nights. Use any type of canned beans you happen to have on hand and add chicken or Italian sausage for a heftier dish, if you prefer. Makes 4-6 servings 3 Tbsp. olive oil 1 cup chopped onion 1/2 cup chopped carrots 1/2 cup chopped celery 1/2 tsp. salt, divided 2 cloves garlic, minced 4 cups vegetable broth, divided 7 cups stemmed, chopped kale (about 1 bunch) 2 (15-ounce) cans cannellini beans, rinsed, drained and divided 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar 1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary or 1 tsp. dried rosemary 1. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add olive oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add onion, carrot, and celery, and saute 6 minutes or until tender. Stir in 1/4 tsp. salt and garlic; cook 1 minute. 2. Stir in 3 cups vegetable broth and kale. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simme...

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