Both Rick and I love to cook. This past Saturday we did something really enjoyable. We went to a cooking demonstration by Giuliano Bugialli, a world-famous Italian chef in case you haven’t heard of him. He has written many cookbooks, such as The Fine Art of Italian Cooking, and also hosts cooking school vacations in his native Italy. Did we go into NYC to see him? No, amazingly enough, he was at a tiny little cooking school/kitchen supply store right down the street from where Rick works called Adventures in Cooking. We understood that he’s been coming there for years, so he must be a friend of the family or something because why would a famous chef come to Wayne, NJ?

Over the next three hours we watched him bring together a four course luncheon, which of course we got to enjoy after the demonstration. Here is the menu:

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Focaccia alle Cipolle
(Onion Focaccia)

Pennette al Sugo di Braciola
(Pennette with “Braciola” Sauce)

Involtini di Verza alla Pommarola
(Mozzarella Bundles with Pommarola Sauce)

La Torta di Mandorle di Capri
(Almond/Chocolate Torte)

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Professional chefs are amazing to watch. How they juggle all four courses on-going at the same time is a mystery to me. Of course he did have help, and as one of his three kitchen assistants quipped “don’t attempt these dishes unelss you have at least 4 assistants.” Amen. They washed and dried as the pots, pans, dishes, etc. were dirtied, fetched tools, measured out ingredients and were kept busy scurrying to and fro.

I took some short videos to try and capture the essence of the demo. If you’ve never been to a cooking demonstration before, there is a mirror mounted above the work space area so everyone can see the food being prepared. Quite a bit of this video is shot looking into that mirror.

Kneading the focaccia dough:

He joked, rolled his eyes when the assistants needed gentle scolding for not stirring the sauce, and was very entertaining. You had to listen closely when he spoke because of his heavy Italian accent.

Both of the tomato based sauces were interesting. One was very simple with whole plum tomatoes which were topped with chopped vegetables. The vegetables cooked on top of the tomatoes; not stirred in! Just shake the pan once in a while to keep the tomatoes from burning, thus allowing the vegetables to steam for a lighter sauce. Once done (in about one hour) everything got put through a food mill. Delicious! The other sauce had braciola (pounded top round of beef spread with a parsley/parmesan paste, then rolled up and tied) at the base of the sauce with tomatoes and beef broth. This sauce went over the pasta and was very different from the first sauce; much heartier due to cooking the meat in the sauce.

In this video you can see the sauces bubbling on the stove, a bowl with the chocolate mixture for the dessert, and the preparation of the mozzarella bundles all going on at the same time.

It was obvious that he had quite a following of groupies in the audience that had attended his classes in Italy as he seemed to know quite a few of them. I was beginning to feel a little envious when he told one of the women that he had arranged for them to attend the opera on their visit. It sounds like fun to me. Cooking classes, good food and wine, visits to various places; a perfect combination!

The food was delicious, but the best part was the dessert. Sheer ambrosia! A flourless cake made from a “paste” of ground almonds, walnuts and sugar (which forms a flour of sorts) and chocolate, topped with whipped cream and a crumble of sugared orange rind. I think I could have eaten the whole cake! I got halfway through my piece before I remembered to take a photo ...

And, of course we remembered to take our cookbooks for an autograph. A very well spent Saturday afternoon indeed.

I know, I don’t particularly like caterpillars either, but this brightly attired one was on the bird bath when I went to change the water out. The different colored spots, blue and red on its back and yellow on the side were fascinating to me. Is it going to be a butterfly or a moth? Will it have the same color of spots on its wings?

I glide through the water trying not to make a sound. I do a few “dolphin rolls” and they make me dizzy. Which way is up? When doing the side stroke one ear is submerged in water and all I can hear is my breathing and the sound of my body making its way through the water. Peace and contentment. Who would have thought a pool could add so much dimension to one’s life?

Tiki torches glowing; fireflies twinkling in the grass. Naked as a jay bird with no one to see, I swim until my body is sated. To bed ... and sleep ... good night!

Join us on our walk down our street with Daisy and Alex through the humid evening.

Our neighbors have built a beautiful stone-and-split-rail fence at the boundary of our adjoining property lines. I just love it.

We have a new bear in the neighborhood. I haven’t had the privilege of seeing him yet, but he’s been visiting neighbor Aileen for about a week now. She tells me he’s BIG. Actually, he’s not really ‘new;’ only to our yards. Luke [our resident teen who lives down the street and takes care of our cats when we’re gone and walks Kim’s dogs] has seen him before. Makes sense with all the cubs we have running around.

A few days ago around 7:15 a.m., Aileen called me to tell me he was headed our way. I held the dogs inside and ran from window to window like a little kid. Watching. Waiting. He didn’t make an appearance. Darn. Then my other neighbor, Kim, called the next night at 7:15 p.m. to tell us she just had a visit from the bear and he was now entering our front yard. We didn’t hear the phone ring, [watching TV in the other room] and didn’t pick up her message until the bear was long gone. Missed him again.

The day before yesterday the dogs were all “on alert.” It was a lovely cool day with a strong breeze blowing. I had both sliding doors in the sunroom open and they were all laying in the draft. I was sitting close by, reading. They started barking and almost went through the screen door. I told them to be quiet, but they kept on barking furiously. I got up and looked out the door. Nothing. Probably a dumb squirrel again. We went through this whole routine again about five times over the next hour or so.  Barking first in one direction, then in the other. I was getting a bit tired of this, as you can imagine, and finally I very firmly had to tell them to STOP IT! [okay, I yelled, I admit it; stomped my feet and threatened the pound] Hmpf ... fat lot of good that did, they know I’m only bluffing. A stong breeze blew through the room and they all lifted their noses and sniffed. Even the cats! It was a surreal moment. I sniffed too. I didn’t smell a thing, but they certainly did.

Okay, okay, I finally told them after another bout of barking. I will do a proper walk-around. I went into the back yard to take a look. Right. You’ve heard the expression “can’t see the forest for the trees?” Well, I can certainly relate because I can’t see the forest for the trees. It’s a jungle out there! Anyway, I walked around the back yard and to the back fence and peered into the woods. Nothing but trees.

Into the front yard. Nothing. Okay. Around to the side yard by the garage and I see something has changed.

The beautiful stone-and-split-rail fence is down. Not only down, it’s ... well ... downright split asunder!

As much as I love the fence, BRUNO,  [yes, I named him Bruno. He had to have a name; everyone else does!] however, does not. He just decided to go right through it instead of around it or over it. I immediately felt chastened, and was sorry I had yelled at the dogs. They knew. When will I learn to trust them? When they are that adamant about barking, it must be a bear. Please help me remember that in the future. He must have come through the fence the first time they nearly went through the screen since they were pointed in that direction.

When I called neighbor Aileen to tell her that her fence was broken, she said it wasn’t the first part of the fence that he’s taken down. He took down another section a few days ago and her husband wasn’t very happy with him. No, not likely. I told her about the dogs’ reaction. A few hours later she was calling me to tell me that the dog’s were spot-on: the bear had an encounter with her husband down by their chicken yard. The bear just sauntered on by, headed in our direction [again]. Rick had just arrived home from work, so we kept the dogs in and walked to the back of the yard to see if we could spot him in the woods. No such luck. If the fence incident hadn’t happened, I’d be thinking he was a figment of Aileen’s imagination at this point.

It kind of reminds me of Jaws where the music starts and builds and you know he’s coming but you can’t see him yet: 
da ... da
da ... da
da . da
da . da
dadadadadada ...

Where will he show up [or not] next?

Only one thing. You see, it’s mating season for black bears as they mate from late May through early July, with June being the prime time. Just what we need is a BIG randy bear breaking up fences and looking for love. I, for one, plan to stay out of his path. Yoo-hooooo! ... oh, Doris ... oh, Ursa ... wherefore art thou ladies?