Pinerolo Fiera and a Contest!

And just to tempt you to get your thinking caps and aprons on,

"Alex", over at "Blog from Italy" is cooking up a recipe contest with some prizes in the form of subscriptions to the la Cucina Italiana cookery magazine.
I'm going to be one of the taste testing team!
Here is a date for your diaries: the contest details will appear on the 5th September.

La Cucina Italiana Magazine

Monday(Labor Day in the US and fondly referred to by me as "Stress Fest" for many years, but that is another story), was the semi annual festival of Pinerolo, the large market town at the mouth of our valley where we always enjoy the festivities on offer. I wasn't really intending to post anything on this years autumn version, as I have several other posts simmering on the back burner. Fabrizio, however, was so taken with this little boy on the big tractor, that he begged me to put it on the blog so convincingly or should I say so insistently, that I could hardly say no, especially, as he told the parents that was exactly what I was going to do.

I hope they enjoy it if they find their way here.

We were in the farm animals and implements section which always makes me think of where I grew up in the Midwest, as we had very similar type of festivals. Here of course there are all sorts of different implements to amuse and make you wonder. A few years back I was surprised to find Lamborghini tractors of a amazing size, even by American standards. They looked to be just what you would want if you are plowing those fields for hours on end in the heat of the Po river agricultural heartland. You'll find a picture in the little slide show I added at the bottom.

I really thought the log cutter was quite the interesting contraption and ha a small crowd of older men gathered round to discuss it's merits and shortcomings or may just talk about their glory days of cutting wood every year to keep the family warm. This of course is more for the professional cuter that is selling wood to all the folks that don't have their own private resource of renewable energy.

We wandered around finding all the little odds and ends that we've eyed before or not and decided that this time the price or timing was right to make that purchase of must haves that you just can't live without, but have. Fortunately, there weren't that many of them. We found a small wooden platter for our polenta, and a well made grill pan that we have been eying for awhile, before moving on to the strip where all the cheeses, salamis, anchovies, truffles resisting with great will power.

This is after we had been nibbling on it a time or two.

There is one guilty pleasure we have decided not to resist any more, throw caution to the wind and buy a chunk of soft gooey nougat packed with toasted hazelnuts and that would be Torrone.
Enjoy a short stroll through the festival below.