Destination Spotlight - Amalfi Coast and Southern Italy

Southern Italy is a great destination to spend time on the water, and eat delicious food. The port town of Naples is a vibrant city, full of pizza and historic sites, including nearbyPompeii. The coastal towns of the Amalfi Coast each have their own special charm, and they are easy to traverse by boat. A short flight to Sicily opens up a whole other world, and access to ancient towns and unique culinary delights.

This ten day itinerary allows you to take it all in:

Day 1: Arrive in Naples

Spend the day walking around this bustling city, stopping in at one of the hundreds of pizzerias whenever you feel peckish. There are several art galleries to visit, and old forts and castles where you can catch views of the gulf. The funiculare is a great way to get to the higher up sites.

Day 2: Pompeii

Tidy gardens of Pompeii

Ancient restaurant

Take a short train ride to Pompeii, then meet your guide for a day touring the volcanic ruins. There are plenty of restaurants by the train station, for lunch breaks during your day of exploration. For dinner, head to one of Naples' storied restaurants for a taste of the original Red Sauce Joint.

Day 3: Depart for Amalfi Coast

The Tyrrhenian Sea, along the Amalfi Coast

From Naples, catch a train to the quaint town of Salerno, where you will board a short ferry to the Amalfi Coast town of Minori. Hotel Minori Palace is centrally located, and a short walk from the beach. Take the lemon path, a scenic hike from Minori to Maiori, full of lemon trees. Grab a snack and a drink in Maiori, then return via ferry. For dinner, be sure to try the local delicacy; lemon cream sauce, either on pasta or on freshly caught fish.

Day 4: Agriturismo

Farm fresh salad served al fresco

Agricola Fore Porta

After a morning at the beach, head to the town of Amalfi, a short ride away by ferry. From there, begin your ascent up into the hills. After a lovely hike, you will arrive at Agricola Fore Porta, a beautiful farm and restaurant. Take a walk to the nearby waterfall before enjoying lunch amid the lemon trees on their lovely patio. Return to town for aperitivos, then watch the sunset over the beach before dinner.

Day 5: Shopping and Seafood

Freshly caught local seafood

After a couple of cappuccinos and pastries, head out to the resort town of Positano. Grab coffee in town for prime people watching, before hitting the shops in town. Don't miss the custom sandal experience. Hop back on the ferry for a late lunch in Cetara, an adorable fishing village with excellent seafood restaurants. Return to Minori for drinks and dinner.

Day 6: Travel to Sicily

View from Teatro Antico de Taormina

Return to Naples, and board a short flight to Catania, where you will be transferred to the ancient town of Taormina. Stay right in town for easy access to historic sights, shops and restaurants.

Day 7: Mount Etna Wine Tour

Mount Etna wine tasting

Cheese pairing

Meet your driver in town, and spend the day in the wine region below the Etna volcano. Taste these unique, earthy wines and enjoy a generous lunch, featuring local ingredients. Return to town for a stroll on the beach, before heading to dinner.

Day 8: Travel to Catania

Fried seafood at Catania Fish Market

Take a morning train to this coastal town, home to the Catania Fish Market, a stunning display of local seafood and traditional Sicilian recipes. Take your time exploring and tasting, before heading out to the many museums in town. Catania also has beautiful piazzas, so walk slowly and take it all in. Catch an early evening train to Palermo, the largest city in Sicily. Have dinner al fresco, while enjoying performances by local musicians.

Day 9: Exploring Palermo

Palermo Cathedral

Ancient archway

Spend the day taking in the many museums and palaces in town, including the incredible Museo Palazzo Branciforte. There are also several markets to peruse and buy local artisan products, as well as culinary goods. Palermo boasts great options for fine dining, so treat yourself to your final dinner in Italy.

Day 10: Return Home

Sculpture in a piazza

Palermo airport has connections to several international airports, where you can catch a flight home. Have one last cappuccino in the piazza and reflect on a vacation well-spent.

Destination Spotlight - Road Trips

One of my silver linings of the pandemic was that I spent a lot of time on road trips. As a native New Yorker, who didn’t get a license until 27, I never really embraced road trips until I lived in the midwest. Armed, finally, with a license, I traveled every road I could, uncovering every culinary and natural beauty gem I could find. Supper clubs in Wisconsin, Cornish Pasties in da Yoop, and endless miles of beautiful scenery.

When I returned to the East Coast, the road trip bug stayed with me. After several years, having visited many of the most exciting places near New York, I moved on to flying to road trips. Picking up a car at the airport opened up the whole world, allowing me to take in the secret pockets of the most remote places on earth.

The most exciting part of a road trip is the exploration. When you are traveling on a micro level, you get to experience the tiny places that you may never get to when you’re sticking close to an airport. Some of my favorite culinary experiences have been in small family restaurants in towns way off the beaten path.

With that said, a road trip is no reason to skimp on luxury. Some of the most loved getaways are off the beaten path - Blackberry Farm, Wildflower Farm, Sage Lodge. Including several destination properties on a road trip itinerary is a great way to mix adventure and pampering.

Are you ready to travel? Let me help you book luxury transportation and lodging, and the best reservations! Contact me to get started.

Destination Spotlight - Mexico City

Mexico City, or CDMX, is one of the most lively and electric cities in the world. The tradition of street food, paired with the incredible architecture, the grand parks, the world-class museums, and the cutting edge culinary scene, makes Mexico City a perfect destination for an adventure.

There are neighborhoods to suit any style - from the glitz and glamour of La Condesa to the hipster charm of Roma Norte. No matter where you stay, good food is never far away.

A TACO LOVER’S DREAM

Depending where you live, it’s possible that you don’t have access to great tacos. No matter where you live, you’ll probably never have access to as many great tacos as you will in Mexico City. From streetside carts, to creatively reimagined classics at fine dining restaurants, the food in Mexico City is sure to delight.

FINE DINING

It is no secret that several Michelin stars live in Mexico city. The tradition of the multi-course meal comes alive with local ingredients, including heritage corn, legumes, and squashes. Exploring Mexico City through the eyes of their world-class chefs is a culinary adventure of a lifetime.

Destination Elopements

It’s been a year since the entire events industry was thrown into an absolute tizzy. I still remember the week where every single event that we had on the calendar for two months was wiped out. Then slowly all the rest were postponed, or hanging indefinitely in limbo. From the beginning, we all had hope - we rescheduled from spring to fall, then to spring, then to fall again.

Along the way, some of our events just went away, as families and couples made alternate arrangements. Of all the micro-monies, backyard soirees, and other fabulous creations I’ve seen, one of my favorite has got to be the Destination Elopement. When a couple flees to a romantic location and has a dream wedding - just for the two of them. I noticed it before the pandemic, as well. A friend from college eloped to Fiji, others to Napa, or France.

Throughout my own travels, I’ve always applied my event planning skills - creating a run of show for each day of adventure. For example, this full-day pizza tour of Napoli. I was traveling with my mom and I outlined a vigorous morning to night marathon of pizza eating for our short stopover, before we head out to the Amalfi coast.

Along the way, we saw a wedding taking place at the gorgeous, historic Castel Nuovo - one of several weddings we saw on our Italian adventure that year. Seeing the bride and groom, while I was on this pizza adventure, invoked the old saying - the path to the heart is through the stomach. This inspired me to create elopement plans that were also culinary adventures.

Are you dreaming of a destination elopement, with a culinary adventure attached? Share your ideas below, or email me at heather@mortarandpestleevents.com to start planning your culinary dream Destination Elopement.

Destination Elopement - Napoli, Italia

a walking pizza tour, fit for a post-ceremony celebration!

10am - Ceremony Castel Nuovo (a 13th century seaside castle, the perfect backdrop)

10:30am - Walk with Photographer to Galleria Umberto via Fontana de Leioni, Piazza del Plebiscito

12pm - Lunch at Pizzeria 400 Gradi

1:30pm - Funiculare Ride from Augusteo to Castel Sant’Elmo, an ancient catle with sweeping views of Naples

3pm - Afternoon Snack at Pizzeria Sandropizzettata

4pm - Funiculare from Cimarosa to Parco Margherita

5pm - Explore Italian artwork at Studio Trisorio

6pm - Wine at Enoteca BelleDonne

8pm - Pizza at L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele

10pm - Late night pizza to go from Sorbillo

The Hydroponic Cocktail Garden

How a Crafty Bartender Turned Old Bottles into Cocktail Ingredients

The Liquor Bottle Garden at Freddy's Bar in Brooklyn

One of my very old friends, Michael Sternfeld, works at an awesome place called Freddy's Bar , in Park Slope, Brooklyn. As the weather warmed up, he went to task creating a hydroponic vertical garden in their backyard. He was kind enough to tell me all about his experience.

This is actually Sternfeld's second season playing around with hydroponics. As he put it, he started to feel an urge to "get in touch with plants." His initial inspiration was a former girlfriend, a furniture designer who designed vertical hydroponic planter for a design show . In this case, the main focus was the design, not the efficiency of the plants themselves. 

Last year's garden was not as efficient and self-sustaining as the current garden. The initial pump situation was such that it required constant monitoring and early morning check-ins - not ideal for a bartender.

This is the original bottle garden

With the new garden, he built for efficiency.

In the bottom right hand there’s an old 4-gallon pickle tub with water and nutrients. A pump sends it up the top and drips water down on the plants, which are housed in liquor bottles with holes cut in them. The water drips through each bottle, where the plants' roots take in nutrients, then goes through a pouring spout into the next bottle, where the process repeats. This wall-mounted garden grows cucumbers, basil, mint, tomatoes and peas.

The new garden

The whole system uses very little water.

The pump runs for about 12 hours a day, typically during business hours, which looks and sounds pretty for the bar patrons enjoying beverages in the yard.

Roots dangle in the bottle so they don’t have to fight for space, as they would in the ground. With this system, each bottle can house 3 cucumber vines or 5-7 basil plants.

In the ground, each plant would need much more space.

Additionally, the yield from hydroponic plants is much more than what you get in dirt. It is much easier for plants to extract nutrients from water, which makes them more efficient than dirt-bound plants. 

This gorgeous, bountiful garden seems complicated, but when asked if he would recommend trying this at home, Sternfeld says, "Absolutely. It’s a total DIY thing." However, taking the bottom off of bottles still didn't seem very DIY-ish to me. How did he do it??? "FIRE AND WATER. F**KING SCIENCE." Well, there you have it. Apparently all you need to do is take a piece of twine and tie it around the bottle, about where you want to make the break. Light the string on fire, let it burn for a minute or so, dunk it in cold water, and that's it - the bottom blows right off.

Sternfeld sands down the bottle bottoms and make ashtrays out of them.

He says it has been great getting people involved in where their food comes from and the benefits of urban gardening. Many of his patrons come in to watch the plants grow.

Of course, they also get to benefit from the bounty of the garden. The cucumber, basil and mint show up in special cocktails and the tomatoes have been known to make their way into Bloody Marys. 

Overall, it sounds like a fruitful and sustainable project, and a great way to get people involved in the source of their food. For those of you in Brooklyn, definitely make a trip to Freddy's to check out the garden - and the drinks! For everyone else, here is a recipe for the simple syrup behind Brooklyn's best Hydroponic Cocktails.

Freddy's Bar and Backroom,

627 5th Ave (17th street), Park Slope, Brooklyn, (718) 768-0131

Hydro Syrup

Bring equal amounts of sugar and water to boil, lower heat and simmer, stirring, until all sugar dissolves.

You can add more or less sugar depending on thickness of sugar and level of sweetness you want.

Dice up cucumber, basil and mint, in any ratio you'd like, so that there is a total amount that is equal to the amount of water that you used. Turn off heat, add herbs and veggies and let sit til it cools. 

Remove to an airtight container and leave it in fridge for a few hours, or overnight for best results. Strain and use! 

(Ed note: I think this mix would work well with Gin and soda. Also, the strained fruit bits would be nice stirred into this Gin and Grapefruit sorbet that I make sometimes.)

Snapdragons in Bloom!

I started these snapdragons inside from seed in March, and I have been watching them grow everyday. They start out as clumps of tiny little sprouts, and as they grew, I weeded out the weakest ones, and spaced out the stronger ones.  I put them outside after the last frost in May - which was only slightly after the last snowfall at the end of April. Oh, Chicago spring.

For a while, they grew slowly, as the cold weather persisted. Then, it started to get sunny and they began to take off. The day that the first one bloomed  was a very exciting day for me. I can't wait to start cutting them and putting them in vases!

This is a really interesting rocket bronze variety. All of my seeds are from Pinetree Garden Seeds and Accessories. They have a really great selection of heirloom seeds.

Here is an up-close shot of the bloom. When you squeeze the sides, the flower opens up and looks like a dragon's mouth, hence the name!

This is a gorgeous bi-color Brighton Rock variety.  

These guys are almost two feet tall! 

I have some climbing flower plants that will be ready to bloom later this summer. I look forward to sharing them!

Rainy Day Pierogies

If you slept past noon today, then you're probably wondering about the title of this post. It rained all morning, then cleared up, and was beautiful for the Taste of Randolph, right around the corner from Mortar + Pestle headquarters. In fact, we've been enjoying the music all day!

If you have a soccer player in your household, like I do, you know that they require an endless supply of carbs. If your soccer player is part Polish, you know that potato pierogi are the best solution. I whipped up a batch using a recipe from Pittsburgh, a city that, according to the recipe page, eats 11 times more pierogi than anyone else in the country. Chicago and Greenpoint, Brooklyn have to be close.

I grew up in Brooklyn Heights, and our local diner was a Polish diner called Teresa's.  Crispy golden potato pierogi with generous helpings of applesauce and caramelized onions have long been a favorite comfort food, but I have never tried to make them from scratch before today. Here's a walk-through of my first attempt (please try this at home!):

Start by peeling some potatoes, cubing them up and setting them on to boil. Then chop up an onion and caramelized it over medium-low heat. 

While those are working, make yourself a little mound of flour, mixed with some salt. 

 Mix butter and sour cream in a measuring cup, scramble one egg. I used my ever handy durawear glass also known, in our household, as our everyday wine glasses.

Pour the eggs slowly into the well, working it in as you go. Add the butter and sour cream and mix together with your hands until  it starts to come together

Then knead it until it's no longer sticky, and shape it into a ball. Let it rest for 30 minutes.

 In the meantime, mash your potatoes, and stir in the caramelized onions and farmer cheese. Be sure to mash fully before adding in the onions. The onions get stuck in the masher, so they need to be stirred in. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Once you have this delicious filling together, roll balls about 1 inch around. My dough scraper has a handy ruler on it.

Assemble an army of filling balls

Remove the dough from it's resting bowl and roll out to about 1/8 thick.

Cut dough circles about 3" diameter. I, once again, used my trusty Duralex wine glass. Put a filling ball on top of the dough circle.

Mush filling into pierogi shape, so you have a little dough-filling taco.

 Pinch the dough together around the filling. Work the two sides together really well so that they don't open up during cooking. Boil in salted water until they float and then pan fry in olive oil til golden.

Pierogi time! I like mine with applesauce and caramelized onions, but sour cream is a quite popular accompaniment as well! 

Smacznego! Buen provecho! Enjoy your Pierogi


Recipe
Link to original site
Time: About 2 hours

Pierogi

• 2 cups flour, plus extra for kneading and rolling dough
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup sour cream, plus extra to serve with the pierogi
• 1/4 cup butter, softened and cut into small pieces
• butter and onions for sauteing
• ingredients for filling of your choice (potato & cheese filling recipe below)

Preparation:

Pierogi Dough
To prepare the pierogi dough, mix together the flour and salt. Beat the egg, then add all at once to the flour mixture. Add the 1/2 cup sour cream and the softened butter pieces and work until the dough loses most of its stickiness (about 5-7 minutes). You can use a food processor with a dough hook for this, but be careful not to overbeat. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes or overnight; the dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Each batch of dough makes about 12-15 pierogies, depending on size. Prepare the Pierogies
Roll the pierogi dough on a floured board or countertop until 1/8" thick. Cut circles of dough (2" for small pierogies and 3-3 1/2" for large pierogies) with a cookie cutter or drinking glass. Place a small ball of filling (about a tablespoon) on each dough round and fold the dough over, forming a semi-circle. Press the edges together with the tines of a fork.
Boil the perogies a few at a time in a large pot of water. They are done when they float to the top (about 8-10 minutes). Rinse in cool water and let dry.
Saute chopped onions in butter in a large pan until onions are soft. Then add pierogies and pan fry until lightly crispy. Serve with a side of sour cream for a true Pittsburgh pierogi meal.

Filling:
Makes about 20 balls

2 baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 2" cubes
One onion, chopped
6 oz Farmer's Cheese
2 tbsp butter

Place chopped onion in a frying pan with a generous knob of butter. Caramelize over medium heat until golden, about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally. Place potatoes in a saucepan with cold water over high heat. Bring to boil and cook until potatoes are fork tender. Drain, return to pan, mash.  Stir in onions and Farmer's cheese. Season to taste. Roll into 1-inch balls.

What's going on at Mortar + Pestle Events headquarters?

We are in the midst of planning the West Loop Night Market, an evening gathering of farmers and food trucks and local West Loop businesses. It will take place on August 7th from 5-9pm, and until then, we are keeping very busy getting everything ready!

In our spare time, we maintain a roof deck garden. Check out what's growing right now:

 A gorgeous snapdragon, just about to bloom

Baby garlic chives

Blooming Habanero Plants

Can't wait for some more summer sunshine to help all the plants grow!