at the Villa in Chianti

Iris, Kathleen, and Emma here-
We met up this past Saturday at a Villa in Tuscany. When we arrived, we hopped straight into the pool at our house! It was the perfect temperature- nice and refreshing after a long, boring car ride.
So far, we have...
Went into the town of Siena. There, we shopped, looked at museums, Kathleen and her mom Lois climbed up the Civic Tower (660 steps!!!!), went out for a nice dinner, and of course... Ate GELATO!!!We saw amazing views!
And... We watched Espagna (Spain) win the FIFA World cup 2010 against Netherlands (Holland) 1-0!!!!!!!!Kathleen had her Spain shirt on and everything! And when they scored, she ran around the whole house, then we all went swimming in the pool 'till 12:30a.m!!!!!!!!

Today, we got the chance to cook a professional meal for ourselves! We took a cooking class! We made 4 courses which were;
Homemade Bruschetta (bru-sketta) topped with liver heart paste, and some topped with regular tomato topping.
Next, we had a Ravioli course (,which we all agree was fantastic!). We took some ravioli dough and stuffed it with a ricotta cheese and spinach filling, and then spread egg yolk on one edge to seal it together, then freeze them for a bit. when the ravioli is finished in the freezer we smothered it in tomato sauce!
Our next course was wild boar with white beans! It was delicious!
And finally, for the dessert, we made chocolate souffle! The souffles were so yummy! When they were done in the oven, the inside was melted chocolate, the top was covered in sugar with chocolate drizzle on the plate! It was all wonderful!
As you can see, we have had a wonderful time so far, and we will tell you more later!
Ciao!   



Kathy Here- Just wanted to add my praise to the wonderful cooking class! Simone loves food, loves food chemistry, loves teaching and is very patient in his small kitchen with seven people. We were there from 9:30am to 3:30 pm. He brought us into the restaurant which was closed for the day, offered us coffees, water and then presented us with an apron each, complete with our names and the date (in Italian) embroidered on each one. We were hooked. We cooked for three hours then slowly ate each of the courses one by one, with a wine he had chosen for each, pausing to enter the kitchen to put the finishing touches on each dish. It was heavenly.