Shop early & save!

All of our large holiday orders are coming in soon and we’re going to have a hard time finding room for it all in our new location.  That means good news for you!

If you come in, PRE-ORDER and pay for holiday gifts by November 17th we’ll take 15% off your total!  This include gift baskets, gift cards, small hostess gifts, holiday meat/cheese platters & cases of wine.  We’ll take all the information down and you can come pick them up at a set date.  This will allow us to stage better in our smaller store as we’re already packing & shipping hundreds of gift baskets from an offsite location.  Not sure what you want?  Grab a gift card for yourself and use it at your leisure.

We hope to see you soon…. bring in your mailing list and get all your gifts done at one time!  🙂
~ Nichole & Connie

P.S. – if you haven’t seen the Special Thanksgiving Menu from our roomies, Sweet Pea Bakery, check it out and special order some Thanksgiving treats!

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Now Open in NEW Location!

All Things Italian is back OPEN!

We are all settled into our new space and will OPEN to normal business hours tomorrow!  All Things Italian will now be open: Tuesday-Friday 9am-6pm & Saturday 9am-5pm (please note we are now closed on Sunday & Monday).  Online orders can be placed at anytime!  🙂

The new space is in the same retail space as Sweet Pea Bakery so look for their signs as we don’t have ours up yet.  There’s also a small map here if you’d like one: http://www.all-things-italian.com/findus.php

Stop in to check out the new space!
~ Nichole & Connie

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Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions?

It’s a new year and a perfect time to incorporate some new foods!

It’s always fun when the New Year comes around to make a few resolutions.  Just incorporating a few new food items into your diet can do wonders!  Lentils are one of those foods that are easy to add into the mix, would you like to try them out in a new recipe?  Mix up a batch of the soup below and let us know what you think!Happy 2011! ~Nichole & Connie Spiced Winter Lentil Soup (Serves 4)2 Tbsp good extra virgin olive oil* 200 g red lentils* 50 g green lentils* 4-6 cups chicken stock 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp ground coriander 2 bay leaves 1 tsp caraway seeds 1-2 tsp sea salt* Fresh ground pepper* 1 onion, diced 2 celery sticks, diced 2 carrot sticks, diced Zahtar* *Available at All Things Italian Gently cook your onions, celery and carrots in the olive oil in a heavy pot, add the cumin, coriander, bay leaf and caraway seeds after the vegetables has been cooking for about 10 minutes and stir for a further 5 minutes so the spices infuse the vegetables. Add the lentils and continue stirring over the heat to get the lentils cooking. After about 5 minutes add the stock to the pan and bring to the boil, season with sea salt and pepper. Turn down the heat and simmer gently for about 40 minutes.  Stir regularly until the lentils have cooked (add hot water if it gets too thick). Check the seasoning, take out the bay leaves and blend the soup with a hand blender.  Don’t blend too much, a chunky texture is desired. Serve in deep bowls with a good sprinkling of Zahtar seasoning over the top of the hot soup.  Naan or pita are great to have on the side to soak up the soup! Mention this e-mail in our store or enter – LentilSoup – as a coupon code online to save 10% OFF all lentils & zahtar! —————————————————————————————————————————- P.S. We still have room for 4 guests on our 2nd Annual trip to Italy in September.  Would you like to join us?  Find more info here: 2011 Italy Trip. ~ Become a Fan on Facebook ~ Follow Along on Twitter ~ Search Recipes on our Blog ~

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Felice Anno Nuovo!

Thank you for your business over the last year, we had a wonderful year at the store and we couldn’t have done it without you.  Here’s to an amazing 2011!

All Things Italian is OPEN today until 6pm for all your final party needs and then we will be CLOSED over the weekend to count inventory.  Shipping from our online store will also resume a normal schedule on Monday, January 3rd.

Have a Happy & Safe New Year’s Eve/Day!
~ Nichole & Connie

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Recipe: Apple Risotto

3 Types of Risotto - Chanterelle, Raddichio, Apple

350 g carnaroli rice*
2 apples, peeled & diced
1.5 L vegetable stock*
1 glass dry white wine*
Good extra virgin olive oil*
40 g butter*
2 handfuls Parmigiano-Reggiano, grated*
Sea salt & fresh ground pepper*
*Available at All Things Italian

Place stock in a pan and bring to a boil, keep at a simmer while making the risotto.

Place a good drizzle of olive oil in another saucepan and heat.  Add the rice and stir to coat in oil.

Add half the glass of wine and stir until evaporated.  Add the diced apples and a ladle full of the stock, stir until stock is absorbed.  Add another ladle full of stock and continue stirring until absorbed.  Repeat until the rice is almost tender, about 18 minutes.  Half way through the 18 minutes add the remainder of the white wine.

Remove from heat and stir in butter and Parmigiano.  Season with sea salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Recipe from: The Poppy Farmhouse

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Virtual Italy Trip – Day 9 & 10!

Cooking & Pilates at The Poppy Farmhouse in
Costigliole d’Asti – Piedmont, Italy
~ Day 9 & 10 ~

Our 1st Annual trip to Italy was a great success!  The Poppy Farmhouse is the perfect setting to enjoy a week of cooking and pilates in Italy.  Thank you to John & Robyn for putting so much of themselves into this property, your passion really shows and I’m glad we could spend some time enjoying your Agriturismo.

From the Farmhouse our group took a taxi bus to our hotel near the Milan airport.  We had a little extra time so some of the group went into Milan to see the Duomo and Canal District.  The rest of us hung out at the hotel to relax and take walks.  Then it was off to bed to catch our flights back home in the morning.

*** SAVE THE DATE: September 12th-19th, 2011! ***
We reserved the same week next year at The Poppy Farmhouse, would you like to join us?  Let us know if you would like to go and we’ll get you more information and add you to the list of folks interested in traveling to Italy with us.

For more information about future trips please contact:
All Things Italian – Specialty Food Store
. 2251 W Kagy, Bozeman, MT 59718 . 406.586.0444 .
. info@all-things-italian.com .

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Virtual Italy Trip – Day 8!

Cooking & Pilates at The Poppy Farmhouse in
Costigliole d’Asti – Piedmont, Italy
~ Day 8 ~

And yet again I won’t be posting this evening. Sadly, I need to go pack 😦

We had a great day at the Palio d’Asti so I’m very excited to be able to share some photos/videos with you soon. Tomorrow we are leaving to go back to Milan to head home so this post might be up a little later than typical. I hope you’ve been enjoying reading about our lovely trip!

————— next day —————

The day started again with a nice breakfast at the Farmhouse.  We then had the morning to relax and get organized.  A light lunch and we were off to the “races.”  We were fortunate enough to be able to come the week of the Palio d’Asti.

Part of our group had tickets to sit in the grand stands to watch the processional and the rest of us were with the crowds on the streets.  What fun!  We got there at the perfect time to get on the corner of the street right before the track.

The processional came right down the street towards us before entering the track.  Wow, the costumes and pageantry was fantastic!  Once the gates opened it was a mob of people going towards the track to get into the center of Piazza Vittorio Alfieri to watch the race.  It took us a couple times to get into the track.  We watched 3 races and then wandered around town to grab some more presents and gelato.

For our final dinner we went to a local pub for wood fired pizza.  The prosciutto and mushroom pizza was great with a glass of Dolcetto d’Alba.   Finish off dinner with a hazelnut gelato and I’m happy 🙂

Back to the Farmhouse to pack up our Barbera wine grown here at Cascina Papaveri and find room for all our shopping finds.  Then off to bed!

For more information about future trips please contact:
All Things Italian – Specialty Food Store
. 2251 W Kagy, Bozeman, MT 59718 . 406.586.0444 .
. info@all-things-italian.com .

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Virtual Italy Trip – Day 7!

Cooking & Pilates at The Poppy Farmhouse in
Costigliole d’Asti – Piedmont, Italy
~ Day 7 ~

The schedule for today was very similar to Day4 except this morning we left early to go into the town of Alba. We went into the center of the city for a typical breakfast of cappuccino and brioche. Right at the side of the courtyard was the start of a street filled with shops and street vendors. Instead of picking up ingredients for lunch we all went shopping for ourselves! Clothes, boots, purses, scarfs, regional food items, truffle products, calendars… we came back with arms full of bags 🙂

Back at the Farmhouse to a nice lunch of: squash soup, stuffed squash blossoms, gnocchi romana, mortadella & speck, salad & melon. During the free time before our last cooking class some of the group participated in pilates, enjoyed the sauna/steam room, wrote home or rested.

Tonight was the 5th and final Cooking Experience. What fun it has been cooking with Gino this week, he is a phenomenal chef and his personality is perfect to keep track of everything, speak in another language and make us all laugh! For the final meal we made:

• 2 types of Bread: Sesame Knots & an Egg Bread made into small Cheese Rolls
• Parmigiano-Reggiano Bowls with a Celery-Apple Salad
• Vermicelli in an Amatriciana Sauce
• Veal Saltimbocca with Roasted Peppers
• Hazelnut Panna Cotta with Chocolate sauce

A farewell and many thanks to Gino!

For more information about future trips please contact:
All Things Italian – Specialty Food Store
. 2251 W Kagy, Bozeman, MT 59718 . 406.586.0444 .
. info@all-things-italian.com .

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Virtual Italy Trip – Day 6!

Cooking & Pilates at The Poppy Farmhouse in
Costigliole d’Asti – Piedmont, Italy
~ Day 6 ~

It’s going to be an early morning tomorrow to go into Alba so I will post about Day 6 tomorrow afternoon……. all I can say is this trip has been so much FUN!

I’m excited to put together some videos when we get home with regards to cooking, pilates, truffle hunting & the horse race on Sunday. That’s right, we went truffle hunting today! 🙂

——————— next day ———————

We had a free morning to spend some time doing pilates, going into town, corresponding back home or resting.  A quick trip into town to change some money and shop and it was back to the Farmhouse for my second pilates session.

I had never experienced pilates before coming to the Farmhouse and it’s been great to learn more about.  With all the eating & walking we are doing here it has been a wonderful experience!  A basic class on the reformer and a little chair & cadillac work and I’m set to get right back to it and enjoy more of Italy.

Right after pilates we had another gorgeous lunch out on the terrace, which included: fennel-cabbage soup, butter beans with veggies, fennel-orange salad, green salad and bresaola with parmigiano-reggiano on a bed of arugula.

Then it was off for an amazing adventure.  Truffle hunting with Natale Romagnolo!  Natale explained about how truffles grow, the truffle hunting industry and his family’s history.  We were then introduced to one of his truffle hunting dogs, Diana.  Diana took us into the woods behind Natale’s house to search for truffles.  She found one little white truffle (the season is just starting) and then a larger black truffle.  While Natale was digging out the truffle Diana found another black truffle and I got it out of her mouth since Natale wasn’t with her, she was just slightly chewing on it 🙂

Back to Natale’s to enjoy some truffles!  There was truffle salami, fresh truffle oil on bread and then shaved white truffle on a robiola cheese with a nice glass of Barbera wine.

Then what’s one to do except eat more?  For our 4th Cooking Experience we made:

• 2 types of Bread: Small Rolls with Salt & Walnut-Anchovy Rolls
• Tuna Stuffed Peppers
• 2 types of Gnocchi: Potato & Semolina
• Trout with Porcini
• Tiramisu

Only because the food is so amazing can we all find room!  Off to bed 🙂

For more information about future trips please contact:
All Things Italian – Specialty Food Store
. 2251 W Kagy, Bozeman, MT 59718 . 406.586.0444 .
. info@all-things-italian.com .

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Virtual Italy Trip – Day 5

Cooking & Pilates at The Poppy Farmhouse in
Costigliole d’Asti – Piedmont, Italy
~ Day 5 ~

This evening we went to the Doua D’Or, the large wine festival that features wine from throughout Italy and many from Piedmonte.

I am going to postpone this post until the morning. Because 1) I’m tired & 2) I don’t want to wake up my roommates for the 3rd time to go get my camera cord. So until tomorrow…. buona notte! 🙂

—————– next day —————–

After our normal breakfast we all had a free morning or afternoon to get massages, have a pilates session, relax or walk down to town. I chose to walk down to town to do a little shopping and get some gelato. First we stopped at the cemetery to see the architecture and history.

Costigliole d’Asti is a nice little town to check out, it has a great little bakery called Bisco that had really great gelato & cookies. Always a nice rest when walking up & down all the hills. There were also a few nice dress shops, a bath & body store & of course my favorite place to shop… grocery stores.

After a nice lunch of leek-potato soup, sliced meats, cheeses & salads I took a quick swim and then we started our 3rd Cooking Experience a hour earlier so leave room for the Douja d’Or. For the cooking class we made:

• 2 types of Focaccia: Onion & Olive
• 3 types of Risotto – Apple with White Wine, Radicchio with Red Wine & Chanterelle
• Summer Eggplant Parmigiana – very light with Orange Zest & Taleggio
• Stuffed Quail and Tomatoes
• Apple Tart & Abbracci Cookies

Dinner went a little faster than usual and we all had a good laugh because Jack is excited for the “rodeo” on Sunday, also known as the Palio di Asti. A group of us headed off to the Douja d’Or where you grab a glass and tickets for tastes of wine. Nice to see families & friends out sampling wines from throughout Italy!

For more information about future trips please contact:
All Things Italian – Specialty Food Store
. 2251 W Kagy, Bozeman, MT 59718 . 406.586.0444 .
. info@all-things-italian.com .

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