Bon Appetit!
Still do not know what we are referring to?
Well, if you read the “feedback” page in the latest issue of Bon Appetit Magazine you will quickly understand what’s happening in our life and where we’re going with The Tuscan Gun!
We would like to thank all of our followers scrambled over the web, the Bloggers, the Twitters, the Facebook addicts, the Fans and the Foodies from all over the world that have been keeping this project alive (and very much healthy) by cross-posting, syndicating and “Stumbling Upon” our recipes and videos.
Thank you again
everybody, we will be online again this coming week
for a new episode...Deb was in NY shooting “Law and
Order SVU”, that’s the reason for the delay in
posting (we will post the air date as soon as it
becomes available).
Breast Milk, Powdered Milk, Foodblogging Addiction...and Twitter!!!
Very worried about what is happening in China with the tainted milk situation, even Starbucks started pulling milk off their shelves.
In Switzerland however they seem to be having the opposite problem; maybe bored wit the regular cow’s juice, a restaurant owner thought that cooking with breast milk could actually be a valid alternative...and then what, breast milk chocolate bars?
And why do you think that the newly posted mini-enciclopedia Kids’ Health Guide posted on the New York Times opens with the line: 6 Food Mistakes Parents Make? Such a lack of confidence right?
On a different note...we started Twittering, and immediately hooked up with a few friends...First impression, very addictive and fun for the moment. We added a feed for it in our sidebar, it will display our status and the conversation with friends that have their profile set to public.
Read More...Let's brag a bit...The Bloggers Choice Awards.
The kids started school, the alarm started buzzing early in the morning, life gets busier...but we won’t stop cooking and posting. This blog of ours has become in a few months a reference point for many of you, we do receive emails everyday, and the overall support of our readers is truly humbling!!!
To answer one, actually two, of the most common questions:
Yes, more features, and way more recipes are coming your way, and we are working very hard in designing the new architecture of the next version of this blog (sounds easier to say that an update will be online soon)...
And again, yes, there are very good chances that we might end up evolving this project to Television...in case that happens, do not worry, our website will keep on grinding good recipes, and we will keep on reaching out personally to all of you on these pages.
In the meantime, in part to satisfy our curiosity, and in part to brag a bit, we submitted Under The Tuscan Gun for the Bloggers Choice Awards.
We are eligible for Four
Different Categories: Best Food Blog,
Best Podcast,
Best Celebrity Blogger
and...Hottest Daddy Blogger!
It would obviously be ideal if we did not disperse
energies and give you only one possibility for
voting...like:”Please vote us as Best Food Blog”, but
at the same time we figured that it is appropriate
for us just to keep it light, fun, and see what
happens...
So, if you feel like, please click away, tell your
friends and your grandma, and get us on top of the
list!!!
Have a great week end, we will be back next week with
a brand new episode.
Ciao
Debi and Gabriele
The Black Book
Click on the image below to access the full article.
On a different note, just to crack a smile...(or choke in disbelief),
Read More...Happy Labor Day Weekend!!!
Make the best of eat
treating yourself, your family and a few of your
friends to a
Tuscan Backyard Barbeque.
To celebrate with you this Labor Day weekend, Debi
and I are posting a full menu episode, nothing too
fancy… just celebratory, fun, and not that hard to
do: remember, is mostly the freshness of the
ingredients that ends up making a good dish, not an
elaborated recipe.
Also, as we promised a
couple of weeks ago, we created a music playlist for your
kitchen, and we are sharing it via
iTunes (while waiting for our e-store to be ready
for launch). We love Latin and Jazz music, and
this first compilation is all Brazilian, a place
very close to our hearts…that’s where Gabriele
escaped in his twenties, after serving too long
for the Italian Army…but that’s another story.
However, we like Samba and Bossanova very much,
mostly the old stuff from the 20’s to the 60’s, and
it was not easy to find some good songs on the iTunes
store…good enough though for this holyday weekend at
the door!
So, plug the iPod and start chopping away,
Happy Labor Day!!!
Debi and Gabriele
iTunes is back, better than ever!
You can now view our show
in a higher resolution within your iTunes Player,
download the video files to your PC/Mac or your
Apple TV, and eventually store them into your
iPod...so you can show them to your Grandma next
time you go visit!
Here is the only catch: the video files will need to
be converted before you can actualy synch them to an
iPod or iPhone (ctrl+click or mouse right button).
Also, as you might have noticed (or we hope that
eventually you will), we are finally featuring
original music thoughout the show, thanks to the
great help and inspiration of Terry Radigan and
Joshua Camp in New York and Pat Buchanan in
Nashville. Many of our viewers have been requesting
information about the music we feature in our videos,
and also asked about what we listen at home while
cooking or entertaining...stay tuned, as a few
surprise posts will be coming soon.
For the moment,
enjoy Under The Tuscan Gun on a bigger screen...now
you can!
Debi and Gabriele
A Salad by the Pool
Today, mid summer, still, hot...nothing better than a light lunch by the pool.
Enjoy this super fast recipe, and let us introduce you to a very special wine.
Buon Appetito
Midnight Spaghetti; What a Date!
since our social life is these days somewhat limited (read: got two kids and we’re exhausted), we decided last night to improvise a romantic date in our own house.
We put the kids to sleep, we chilled for a bit, and then we got all dolled up, cracked the wine open and...well, it was a blast.
Even if the dish we
prepared is somewhat synonymous of “hot italian
summer nights wearing shorts and flip flops on the
porch”, it was refreshing to find an excuse to get
elegant and celebrate.
Please join us for a midnight
Spaghetti all’
Amatriciana.
The Florentine
This summer, if you
intend to visit Tuscany and florence, be sure to look
for this free magazine, or check their website, you
will find tips and calendar events that will help you
navigate the city with ease.
This month Debi and I are featured on The Florentine
pages...just a few questions about how we met, and
what’s going on with our lives.
The Tuscan Gun goes AppleTV
As of now, our show is sindacated on all the major video platforms available: youtube, revver, howcast, blip tv etc...
In the past year, it seems that many of us have been upgrading our video systems; almost everybody now has a widescreen TV in their home, and a few of us developed some kind of maniacal obsession toward “TV on Demand”...the affordable empowerment of picking and choosing, downloading and trashing.
Therefore, in a couple of
weeks from now, our Podcast on the iTunes store will
be Apple TV ready: the
downloadable file will become noticeably bigger,
and the resolution on your computer or TV will be
doubled! The only somewhat disappointing note is
that from now on, subscribers that wish to
transfer our cooking show on their iPod or iPhones
will have to convert the file within iTunes. We
also decided to reconvert all our episodes and
post them in Hi-Res, reorganized by season, with
new graphics and a couple of special treats we are
working on....so, please be patient as our
episodes won’t be available on iTunes for a few
days, we will come back stronger then ever!
The Show won’t be affected by this “summer cleanup”,
and our episodes will still be posted regularly on
the website!
We hope you all are well, we’ll be back with a new
recipe next week.
Take care
Debi and Gabriele
The Not So Smart Diet...
I wonder through the store, incessantly investigating on other mouths' habits.
Until now, I never shared, I never felt it was that necessary, or elegant for that matter...
There are many things I would like to say and write about this lady and her items...I really wanted to talk to her, ask her why?!
It would have been rude, an unpleasant public argument about her private life and habits, and I am too shy to corner somebody I do not know, in front of a whole crowd of shoppers...
But still, all of a sudden I found myself very angry! Should I have walked her home and cooked for her, maybe!
Gabriele
What about the Italian Brakfast?
I assume this couple is currently vacationing in Italy:
Subject: breakfast???
Message: I need some tuscan lovin breakfast. my husband and I have been eating pasta for like 2 weeks now!!!! don't people in Italy eat breakfast food??!!! I want to see some
and eat some, and cook some
too thanks, you guys are
AMAZING!!! and I love when you two
bicker!!!
First of all, thanks for the compliments, always appreciated.
Second...
AHAHAHAHAH,
you are very funny!!!!!
Here is the thing,
From birth to 13 years old your breakfast is milk...from 4/5 you can have Nesquick in it.
When you turn 14 years old, since you start high-school...well, you are allowed to start with coffee....
Eventually in high school you will start smoking. Read More...
Earth Day, The Human Footprint...and Me.
the day that we hope and expect more people to care...just this one day, more than any other.
We mark it on the
calendar, Youtube has a custom logo, Madonna has
another magazine cover, my kids have a project at
school...
What about tomorrow? What about Yesterday? What about
each single day of our life?
I apologize for the very personal space I am taking
today on this blog, but...
in this exact moment, instead of a burst of energy,
wishful thoughts and good attitude, well, I sit down
and feel such a small creature of Nature.
I do remember when I was a kid, and the weather was
different, I remember the fluctuation of seasons,the
changing colors, the muffled sounds of life when
everything was covered with snow, right before spring
"used to come"...
We all feel the same way, to a degree...maybe people
with kids care just a bit more; if we do not act for
our sake, well, at least let's try to think about our
children!
I
grew up in the country, and to a
degree, I saw it dying...day by day, succumbing to
industrial farming, not being able to perform
under such pressure.
It made me sad, and made me feel
helpless...I was
young.
Now it's different. I am a husband and a father, I am
older and just a bit wiser...well, at least wise
enough to realize that now, finally and for real, I
am running short of time.
And even if I have been conscious about these issues
for many years now, something happened last Sunday
that shook me very hard: I came across this
Article on the New York
Times Sunday Magazine.
Nothing really new, to any of us that are informed
about the health condition of our planet...but for
the very first time, I asked myself: "What am I
waiting for?"
It is not anymore a
matter of switching light bulbs around the house or
start timing my showers. Things are getting more
serious and more complicated by the day.
As of now, we consume 10 calories of fossil fuel to
produce 1 calorie of organic vegetables, our (the
world) need of meat is responsible for a massive
carbon footprint that will lead one day to a dead
end, we are still highly dependable on oil...I do
expect vegetables from life, I will never stop eating
meat, and like everybody else I will keep on driving
my car and heating my house.
If two and a half years of diapers for each one of my
kids equals to 5 cut trees, I am responsible for 10
trees in the past four years (plus about 1.400 Lbs of
plastic and about 2.000 pints of crude oil) ...only
in diapers...what about all the rest? What about the
toilet paper they will need for the rest of their
lives?
The catch here is that We Can Not Stop. We do need
energy, we do need to live and survive, and keep on
moving forward, we need to keep on cutting trees,
pollute and produce an incredible amount of garbage.
These days, unfortunately, there is basically only
one choice left. Try to be responsible for yourself,
Do Not Depend. And this is very sad, because not all
of us have to opportunity to choose this way of life.
Let me explain,
I decided that my Earth Day resolution is to go back
to my land and live by the most natural principles I
know.
Today, early this morning everything got finally very
clear...not easy, just clear.
Today I decided that I will ask my wife to leave Los
Angeles and all the associated glitter, and trade it
all in for a life in Tuscany, with a vegetable
garden, a few animals, the olive threes....and some
good work to do, finally fix our house. We will trade
our two cars for one small car, a goat and a cow!
You might have read before in these pages about our
little pink house in Tuscany, and "our dream" of
moving there...well, for me the dreaming is over as
of now, it is time to roll up my sleeves, pack my
family and ship our lives on the hills of
Florence.
My children need to know.
They need to grow in respect of our earth, our first
and final resource. I have been privileged and lucky
enough to have a visionary grandfather, that invested
everything he had in land and olive trees...
Now all that is available for me and my family. It
will require years of sweat and hard work, a lot of
sacrifice on everybody's part.
But really, when the mud will finally hit the fan,
where do I want my family to be?
Me, I want to make sure they have a solid roof over
their head, fresh food daily and "energy" available
throughout the year...no matter what war or what
president....
I want solar panels in the field below my house, I
want to recycle the rain water every season, I want
to grow plants and fruit trees, get a few cows and a
pony for my kids.
I will offer public education in Florence, a Roman
Amphitheater around the corner from our house, and
the opportunity to grow learning a few survival
tricks that, trust me on this one, we'll all need to
put to good use one day!
And now I am going to tell my wife,
wish me good luck.
Gabriele
Homage to the Carnival, come in to bake a Pagan Cake!
Debi and I will cook for you a Traditional Florentine Cake that is available only in local bakeries between the first week of January
and Fat Tuesday.
Come in and enjoy your
first
Schiacciata alla
Fiorentina!
What is Eaten in One Week in the World
We Are Back!!!
we are back in Los Angeles.
Our trip has been a once in a lifetime experience:
Deb, Me and the Girls finally took possession and lived in the house that my grand father promised me over thirty years ago.
I gave my family a Tuscan Home, surrounded by Olive and Cypress trees, we had breakfast staring at Deers and Boars (yes damn it, boars!)
roaming in our garden, our fireplace worked twenty four seven for over two weeks, and we had a well deserved meat and wine Holiday.
We came back to an
overwhelming response to our People
Magazine piece...
The website have been slowing down a bit for this
reason, things are happening faster than we expected
and we are already working
on a new version of the site, optimized for this
amount of traffic, and also a mobile mini-blog, so
you can carry us everywhere...how lucky are you.
We have over seven hours of footage that we will
start editing for some new upcoming episodes to be
posted starting in a bit more than a week.
Welcome Back to Under The Tuscan Gun!!!
Gabriele and Debi
The Tuscan Gun on People Magazine
The Tuscan Gun is coming
to life.
Debi and I hosted a lunch this past Sunday in our
home in Los Angeles. A few celebrity guess attended,
a lot of food was cooked and eaten, a lot of Chianti
bottles were opened and finished. It was truly a
happy celebration.
The piece will come out the 2nd or 3rd week on
January, and one of my best kept secret recipes will
be revealed: Pappa al Pomodoro. This Tuscan Peasant
Soup made of stale bread and tomatoes is one of those
dishes that look very easy on paper, but then you go
to the restaurant and you are always served something
different; usually it comes to you in form of tomato
soup with a slice of bread...with some garlic, if
you're lucky...how sad!
This is why, as soon as the article will come out,
Debi and I will cook this dish and post it as the
first episode of our second season.
Oh yes, we're done for
the moment. Deb is shooting this week, and in a few
days we will leave for Italy, where we finally enjoy
a few weeks of family life in the country. And again,
food and wine, lots of both.
We are already working on a shoot list for our trip,
as we want to acquire as much footage as we can, to
be featured next season on the show.
Thank you all for your incredible support! This
project started almost as a joke less then four
months ago, and the feedback is somewhat humbling.
Remember, it is not about being a chef, or thinking
that being a cook is less then being a chef...it is
about feeding!
So, these coming
holidays, feed your loved ones, fill them up, serve
good wine, make them smile. And come back to visit us
next year, we'll give you more of all of this!!!
Ciao,
Buon Natale and Buon Appetito
Gabriele and Deborah
The Tuscan Gun on Epicurious.com is finally online!
The videos are finally online, you can stream them directly from this post, or visit Epicurious to watch them, and maybe browse around for some Holiday recipes.
More
Clips from
Favorite
Kitchen Equipment
Tablesetting Tips
Making Tuscan Beef Stew
The four clips in this post are mainly
focused on our kitchen and our approach to cooking;
the last clip is a 4 minutes edit on my Beef Stew
episode...in case the edit is too short for you to
get a grip of it, go visit our post for the recipe.
Ciao