Homemade Pizza in an outdoor wood fire pizza oven

Margarita Pizza, simply mozzarella and tomato

Our new house in Italy came equipped with an outdoor pizza oven and a grill, but I have to admit I was a little intimidated by it! The idea is novel and romantic but how, pray tell, does someone actually use an outdoor pizza oven? I grew up with my mom making homemade pizza every week, I shouldn’t be so nervous, but Italians have this affect on me, they always make things seem complicated and make me second guess my cooking abilities. Could an outdoor pizza oven really be that complicated? Is Italian pizza dough really that different then my moms pizza in the electric oven? I was afraid to find out.

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Budapest in December

Budapest in December

Recently we were with some friends talking about places we would like to see in Europe and we all agreed that we would like to visit Budapest. I had heard from other friends that it was a beautiful underrated European City with amazing buildings and low prices. So a little research on the internet and the next thing we knew we had cheap tickets booked on Ryanair and an Airbnb rented for four days and three nights.

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August in Sperlonga, Italy

Views in Sperlonga

Oh, Italy in the Summertime, specifically Italy in August! Living in Italy presents quite the paradox. The beaches are beautiful and buzzing with activity. The lounge chairs on the beach are all lined up in perfect little rows. Each beach front establishment has their own colors of sun umbrellas and matching lounge chairs. They are playing music and mixing up Spritz (the favorite Aperitivo or mixed drink of Italy). The Italians are out in full regalia, suntans glowing, and families playing and lounging in the sun together.

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Culinary Tour of Napoli

Napoli
Napoli

A local friend that has origins in Napoli asked if we wanted to go on a Food tour of Napoli you know the answer was a resounding “yes!” So we took the 6:58 am train from Nettuno heading to Napoli. We met our friends in route and two and a half hours later we were disembarking at the Naples train station.

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How to Roast Your Own Coffee Beans

So first let’s talk about WHY you should roast your own coffee: Buying high grade, single origin coffee from your choice of countries costs the same as buying mid-range pre-roasted coffee from Costco. The benefits are you get to choose the beans and country of origin, control the depth of the roast and most importantly control your freshness.

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