Homemade Pasta July 6th

Homemade Pasta July 6

I decided it was time to do some cooking for our hosts so I proposed homemade pasta. They were quite impressed when I whipped out a batch and then rolled it flat and hand cut it. I had picked some fresh basil and had previously made some flavored basil oil. So with the infused oil, fresh leaves of basil, parmesan and a few tomato chunks we consumed half of the noodles. There upon I said there was more to cook if we wanted seconds. The vote was yes and we ended up eating the whole batch. I have to admit it was rather good. We finished the dinner with a fresh salad from the garden.

Dinner is served anywhere between 8-10pm depending on what we have going on. But our days are all delayed in general as we serve the guests first. Breakfast for the guests is anywhere from 8-10 in the morning and can go longer. We eat around 10 or after. Then we clean the rooms or change over for newly arriving guests. There are 5 rooms to keep up with and we usually all help to make things go faster.

They mostly raise bib lettuce here. Generally a salad is usually just lettuce with a vinaigrette. I add my flair when I make salad! I like a few more things in my salad like tomatoes, cucumbers or radishes. I can't wait for tomatoes to get ripe. I am in charge of the garden here. I'm getting used to the new climate and having a

little trouble figuring out water consumption by the plants. I finally called attention to the fact they plants were getting too much water and we were getting blossom end rot. So we corrected that and things are looking better. They have four leaf clover plants that are very invasive. I didn't know they had a bulbous root so to eradicate them you have to dig out the bulbs. Of course you never get it all so there is always clover to get rid of.

There is an herb garden up on the hill in the front yard. As a special project I've decided to revive that area. It is so neat. I've never seen anything quite like it and really like the concept. It's basically the raised bed idea but of course it was built in 1870 with the villa. So the stone is really old and looks really cool. It's nice to have the permanent raised beds in amongst the ancient walls with the climbing vines and flowers. It will be a fun project.