Well not one for sitting around by the pool all day I have been practiing my bread baking skills for when we are entertaining guests. Stone ground flour, wheat germ, natural yeast and a Biga.
The Biga the better! The better your bread is, that is. It gives Forza to your bread so no knead for Berlusconi.
The Biga is starter dough which is left to rise naturally and develope slowly to give it a good strong flavour and a bit of bounce. I am now hooked.
I blame Angie and James for buying me the book. Thanks guys.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Lazy Days enforced idleness.
I have been absent from blogging for a while not because I havent had time but probably because I was a little despondent that it was taking us so long to officially open after all the work we have done.
The house has been finished for six months, we survived the winter with some minor damage although the builders are back to rectify a few things.The declaration of agibilita (a declaration that the house is habitable)we will collect at the beggining of june,finally. Strange how you can live in the house with out it but if you want to operate as a B&B you need it.
Our major bureacratic problem has been that we run off a well and to make sure we can drink the water without problem and having to transport large numbers of bottles from supermarkets etc we have a treatment plant in the garage similar to the local water company although a lot smaller. This is maintained by Culligan who come quarterly to ensure everything is ok. Unfortuntely as we are not on the communal water supply Asl had to confirm our water is drinkable. As we all know being on the communal water supply in Italy doesnt necessarily mean the water is drinkable. Anyway for Asl to certify it they needed to take samples from the well during the year( a whole year!) to tell me that I need to treat the water which I am already treating it but that is not good enough and they wouldnt even allow me to use bottled water to drink for guests. It took me 6 months to get them started on the analysis at great cost in professionl fees and then they charge euro 2700 fee up front. They started at the end of February(winter analysis) They needed to do one in spring which I had to chase them to do but they never answer the phone.They then do 5 over summer when there is less water around and one in winter. They then tell me I need to treat he water which I aready do as I installed a comprehensive system to be on the safe side. But it wasnt/isnt that easy. They still need to decide how much clean water I can keep in the tanks so it doesnt go off......and so it goes on .another bit of paper and another department and at the end of the next century i will have collected all the ofifical stamps.......and then I can frame them.
.
This is when Italian bureacracy can start wearing you down and no wonder the economy hasnt grown for years and you wonder if was all worthwhile in the end.
Hmmmm who knows. Its very grey today and maybe thats influencing my mood.If the sun comes out if could all seem much better....
The house has been finished for six months, we survived the winter with some minor damage although the builders are back to rectify a few things.The declaration of agibilita (a declaration that the house is habitable)we will collect at the beggining of june,finally. Strange how you can live in the house with out it but if you want to operate as a B&B you need it.
Our major bureacratic problem has been that we run off a well and to make sure we can drink the water without problem and having to transport large numbers of bottles from supermarkets etc we have a treatment plant in the garage similar to the local water company although a lot smaller. This is maintained by Culligan who come quarterly to ensure everything is ok. Unfortuntely as we are not on the communal water supply Asl had to confirm our water is drinkable. As we all know being on the communal water supply in Italy doesnt necessarily mean the water is drinkable. Anyway for Asl to certify it they needed to take samples from the well during the year( a whole year!) to tell me that I need to treat the water which I am already treating it but that is not good enough and they wouldnt even allow me to use bottled water to drink for guests. It took me 6 months to get them started on the analysis at great cost in professionl fees and then they charge euro 2700 fee up front. They started at the end of February(winter analysis) They needed to do one in spring which I had to chase them to do but they never answer the phone.They then do 5 over summer when there is less water around and one in winter. They then tell me I need to treat he water which I aready do as I installed a comprehensive system to be on the safe side. But it wasnt/isnt that easy. They still need to decide how much clean water I can keep in the tanks so it doesnt go off......and so it goes on .another bit of paper and another department and at the end of the next century i will have collected all the ofifical stamps.......and then I can frame them.
.
This is when Italian bureacracy can start wearing you down and no wonder the economy hasnt grown for years and you wonder if was all worthwhile in the end.
Hmmmm who knows. Its very grey today and maybe thats influencing my mood.If the sun comes out if could all seem much better....
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