A thick coating of frost
Up before the sun today, heading for the ferry in Nanaimo. It was the coldest we had felt on the island and the usual heavy dew left a thick coating of frost over everything.
The fishing gear stowed and our traveling bags packed we quietly loaded the car and hit the road just as the first signs of sunshine lit up the Georgia Strait in a wash of pink. We drove silently reflecting on our wonderful stay on Vancouver Island in our pre-coffee haze. As the sun continued to climb a new section of forest was lit and glistened as the frost began to melt. The landscape looked pristine, beautiful and cold.
The sky was blue from horizon to horizon
With plenty of time to spare we arrived at the ferry terminal and soon set sail towards Vancouver. The sky was blue from horizon to horizon and the Pacific Ocean was as calm as I have ever seen it, a perfect day was dawning and what better place to witness it than the deck of BC Ferries‘ Queen of Oak Bay.
With a month of Vancouver Island living under our belt and all of our nature deficit disorder reversed, we are ready to ramp things up a bit now for our next destination.
With renewed vigour
Five days in Vancouver with a flurry of appointments, rendez-vous and drinks with friends and then we are off again with renewed vigour for A Cook Not Mad.
Lately we have wondered whether this whole blog thing had got the better of us and at times wondered what the hell we were doing spending a good chunk of our traveling time creating content for ACNM.
We have been working hard at optimizing and tweaking our site and social media connections to try and get every quarter out of this little blog in order to try and sustain this lifestyle but we need to be able to do more than play pinball, we need to live. So now it’s time to get serious, get inspired and get motivated. It’s time to take this blog out onto the open road and see what she can really do! It’s time to light the burners again to do what I do best and start cooking with the same passion that began my culinary journey over twenty years ago.
It’s time for Nat to reinvest herself in her photography and take things to the next level, surprising herself with her abilities and taking you on the journey with her.
Reigniting the passion
For us there is one place we know worthy of inspiring and reigniting the passion we have for our crafts, Italy! So next week we head back for another dose of “la dolce vita” in Italy’s green heart, Umbria.
We have been lucky enough to land a wonderful house sit just outside of Orvieto and for the next three months we will submerge ourselves in the Italian lifestyle by living (and eating) like locals.
A new part of Italy for us, we are stoked to discover the culinary secrets of this historic and landlocked region. Like all of Italy, Umbria is steeped in history, tradition and lore and food plays a major role. We intend to unlock the secrets of porchetta, the mystery of truffles and the splendour of cooking through the winter in a land where there is no translation for the phrase “comfort food” because it just is!
There is also a great Christmas jazz festival in Orvieto to attend and heck, there is Christmas itself to look forward to, we hope to create some new traditions that you can share with us as we cook our way through the holidays.
In order to let you taste the delicacies we are sure to enjoy we will be starting a weekly recipe post to look forward to every Monday. Of course it will be accompanied by many tasty photos and maybe even a video or two.
Live streaming broadcasts
We have also started working with Tivamo creating live streaming broadcasts that allow you to interact with us and pick my brains as we showcase recipes, food and more. Stay tuned for more on that as we work together to create some fun ideas that will bring you on location to make your own pasta, cook a holiday feast or maybe visit a special destination (Porchetta museum possibly?).
Along with the new we will continue to post our culinary stories and whatever other stories we think might tickle your fancy as well as Nat’s weekly 365 project which obviously will turn a whole lot more Italian for the next few months.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Trover and Pinterest is where you can follow us to fill in the details of daily living and savour delicious morsels that may not end up in a blog post.
We are excited and inspired but we can’t do this without you, we encourage you to like, tweet, pin, follow along. If you like what you see, why not share with your friends? And if there’s something you don’t like, let us know.
Wow, Christmas in Italy sounds nice indeed, it has been few years now that I haven’t spent it with my family and friends in Puglia. Umbria is a nice part of Italy, I’m sure you’ll love it, if you go to Perugia don’t forget to try “Torta al Testo”, it’s a typical and incredibly delicious traditional food from that area that I absolutely love, you might actually be able to find it even in other part of the region, I’m not 100% sure.
The Christmas jazz festival sounds nice too.. enjoy guys! 🙂
I googled Torta al Testo and it reminds me of piadina in Emilia Romagna, looks delicious!
I’m excited to read about the Tivamo.com broadcasts and seeing/hearing more about your days/nights along the way.
The Thanksgiving Q & A we did is free to watch now. http://tivamo.com/tivamoservice/mo/145-Thanksgiving-Dinner-Q-A-with-Chef-Tim We’ll probably be doing another one for American Thanksgiving, stay tuned.
You’re hitting places on our bucket list- Vancouver and BC and now northern Italy. You are living the good life!
We’re trying, now if we can only start making a few dollars 😉
Your next 3 months in Italy sound exciting. I look forward to reading about them and maybe trying out a recipe or 2.
Thanks Donna!
A stay on Vancouver Island sounds like just what you needed to kick start your next adventure. Looking forward to reading about (and sampling from your recipes) your Italian discoveries!
Thanks Nancy, we look forward to sharing our discoveries.
I’m looking forward to hearing and reading about your time in Orvieto. Can’t wait to see what food you Instagram! We’re going to Italy for the first time in May and I’m beyond excited!
You’re going to love it!
Sounds like your life is in transition. A change of scenery is always good. Enjoy Italy!
Thanks Carole, hard not to enjoy Italy 🙂
You both are so talented, I just love you guys. I promise to continue sharing and tweeting (why doesn’t everyone do more of that?) Christmas in Italy is a fantastic inspiration! My son lived in Florence last year at this time and love the Christmas markets and the charm of an Italian Christmas. Lucky you!
Thank you so much Suzanne. Christmas and the Christmas markets are what we’re looking forward to most.
I’m a Canadian from the other side, and do enjoy spending time in Vancouver and on the Island. I must dust off some fab sunset shots that I took on the Island when I was there a few years ago. Italy sounds fantastic for Christmas and the winter. I’ll look forward to seeing/hearing more about your live streaming project. Definitely, sounds like fun.
Thanks Nancie!
I’m looking forward to following your new paths and seeing where your adventures take you in Umbria and beyond. This is an area I know little about so it will be interesting to read your take on it as well as check out your recipes too!
Thanks Anita, we’re looking forward to discovering the area and its food!
Looking forward to following your next moves: living, eating, and blogging from Orvieto and Umbria. Best regards,
Thanks Kristin!
Wow, so impressed that you are strategising and ramping things up with the blog. I’m also impressed that you have a lovely house-sit in Italy – what a way to travel. Well done. I think a lot of us would be interested in how you go about monetising your blog – as you said it’s so hard, and trips and famils don’t pay for the groceries 😉
Johanna, the only real money we make with the website itself is from sponsored posts. We make a bit of money from selling photos, t-shirts and from our Etsy shop. Other income comes from writing articles for other websites. We’re hoping these live broadcasts will help us add to that and at least sustain us while we travel.