RENOVATING A RUIN: Brian & My Sister Come to Stay, A Week of Food & Laughter (Ep 57)

power [Music] this past week my beautiful sister was arriving from mayorca and my wonderful friend Brian and his partner Gareth were flying in from Australia I took out a few days to shop for ingredients and cook all I could in advance and try to renovate the guest bedrooms upstairs a little having worked on the bathroom do you remember the one I painted green and stencl and our new bedroom I was fairly familiar with the crumbling plaster situation uh but Guido had his own dose of it when he started chipping away at a few little cracks and half the wall fell away there wasn't enough time to completely strip back all the walls to Stone and replaster them which is what needs to be done my father kindly filled in the gaps and both my parents uh gave each room a very light coat of paint to freshen them up I masking taped the bti scula and put up some curtains with John [Music] Franco we also put off a new vintage ceiling light [Music] why he got a razor why does he go from and then I planted some new hydranges which I know are gareth's favorites and also [Music] mine my parents planted flowers around the pool for the start of the new swimming season even though they've been doing a cold plunge single lap of the pool every morning or winter so I'm just cutting some wild flowers Jo Franco sleeping and hoping I can make a big enough bunch to make a centerpiece for the table [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this man drives his truck of fruit up from Sicily every week or so and has the best oranges the men uh for my sister's arrival I made a blood orange and chocolate chip cinnamon cake it is so lovely to have her back here with Jean Franco who Ador her even though she has to work remote we ate smoked salmon with fresh salad and lemons from the garden and toasted rye bread you have your bread look for Brian and Gareth I first prepared a slow cooked Ru and then also a flowless chocolate pear and almond cake [Music] okay sure I know [Music] guo was in Florence working and he went to buy another terra cotta pot for more hydranges so John Franco and I were measuring what size we needed for there's no more there's no more to cut [Music] it's wow [Music] and I pre-prepared a spicy chili chutney with fridell these are sweet green peppers and I serve this sometimes with meat or I serve it over eggs in the morning for breakfast I also made a short crust pastry in advance and filled it with franger pan then put it in the freezer to add fruit uh later on I find this is a good way to not be baking the desserts when your guests are there so if I've sort of done most of it then I can just add the strawberries on uh on the on the day that I want to serve the dessert [Music] the roses have all bloomed and everything is Lush and green not like when Brian and Gareth normally visit in July and August I like to set the table with candles and flowers and napkins uh well before the guests arrive even in the morning if they arrive in the evening just so that that's one less thing I have to do the chocolate and pear cake I made I think a day before or even two days before because it just gets better with time and it can be kept in the fridge without drying out you'll find the recipe for flowless chocolate cake on my my site and this is just an adaptation where I added fresh pear I should have done a video but [Music] [Music] in the mornings and at Sunset my sister who is also a trained yoga teacher led a class on the tataa [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we all went to morning mass in the church together then for breakfast uh toast with poached eggs and bacon avocado and my chili fidelli Chutney my parents and sister chatted and swam in the pool with Brian and Gareth uh they get on very well because Brian has been holidaying with our family for many many years weedo meanwhile picked fresh arter chokes from our Hill uh for a pasta dish that he prepared for the preo and I meanwhile made a double layer lemon and ricotta cake for DT said our orto is producing so much now about seven zuc a day Jan Franco gets so excited to see new vegetables appear every morning as if by Magic and in fact I'm almost as surprised as he is one feels that at this speed if you were to just stand still for half an hour you'd literally see them grow [Music] [Music] [Laughter] that's okay after the Primo of pasta Ki that prepared we served marinated barbecue salmon with asparagus which is so delicious and it in season now and also some zucchina and [Music] friell not that then [Music] [Applause] [Music] everybody shut up stop overachieving um right behind very good cuz you literally hike an hour and this this thing like throwing off lava lava they say yeah last year it got a bit rough yeah Island because of exped put something heavy down there wow wow hold on you're so cute whose wedding is it this is our wedding T it is as long as we don't have to come to Australia we will host it yeah we [Music] will Brian and Gareth are back and uh they didn't come here without a lot of adventure oh let's not bring it up I left my phone in a taxi and then I spent three days looking for it on find my iPhone and I got it back thanks to guo brother but anyway they're here now and here we're having the best time and they're com they've chosen to come in in in Spring instead of Summer which it's the it's a game changer come to Italy in April May don't tell the people actually no July and August is a lot [Laughter] better [Music] it so much pressure dinner my mother made a lentil and eggplant Musa match and I served the Strawberry Tart with thick whipped cream we played board games until late in the evening and even broke out the karaoke machine [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] one lunch we ate out at a beautiful restaurant where they cook the meat on an open fire we had bista and wild boar and a local wine that was made from The Vineyards we had just driven through that morning we explored a little village and followed the sound of medieval drums into out light ended up in a Piaza with teenagers performing the ancient art of flag throwing [Applause] [Music] w [Music] [Music] wow [Music] so cool [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] FAL woo [Music] bra [Music] bra [Music] braim way W bra [Music] we [Music] it was so special we just heard this drums from the car park K's like run run we got to run and we didn't know what we're running at and then all of a sudden these flags were just flying it was amazing yeah amazing and and and Brian is almost orchestrated inadvertently a no pville flag accident calling out I'm afterwards we got gelato and went home for more karaoke in the afternoon sun [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] and during their stay Brian even caught the hatching of one of the eggs in the window of his room look John Franco J Franco Gua look it's a little babies [Music] another lunch I roasted orata in the oven with tomatoes olives lemons and fresh herbs and served it with roast potatoes and sauteed [Music] asparagus for dinner I made a very simple pasta alas serentina and while I put John Franco to bed which took quite a while because he's teething uh the others curled up and watched Under the Tuscan Sun for the millionth time funny how even though it's a Hollywood film and the narrative is so different from the book I have to say much of the film really does feel like our life here sometimes and then Brian and Gareth departed for Sicily and and we all returned to work and I thought about how each year they come and visit the house is a little further ahead one year there was a giant rectangular hle in mud where the pool would be I was heavily pregnant and they were helping me move all the cutlery and Crockery from the kitchen upstairs to the one downstairs that we had just built another year they were in our bedroom and bathroom trying to help us decide how we could do the layout every year they come back and the chicken coop is still not finished but slowly this property is becoming more and more of a home I hope you enjoyed this little look into our stay uh sometimes I don't want to film too much because I just want to uh be present with them and not uh make my family and my friends feel uh that they are being filmed but I know you all adore Brian in fact every time he goes to Rome he has always stopped on the street by people who watch this Channel and he might actually be coming back so uh if if you have any requests of what you would like uh to see him do or or speak about then do let me know in the comments thank you all for watching and and thank you as always to my patrons who uh kindly donate to this Channel and I will see you next time Alim [Music]

Channel: Kylie Flavell

Views: 77,627

Keywords: Tuscany, Italy, move to Italy, Italian, learn Italian

Id: YgKhUAo74u8

Length: 23min 24sec (1404 seconds)

Published: Fri May 03 2024