Be still my pounding heart!  I found the perfect gourmet popcorn thanks to Pop! Gourmet Popcorn. For someone who loves the pairing of sweet and salty here is a great combo; are you ready for this.... Chocolate Salted Caramel Popcorn made with hand-crafted caramel popcorn topped with rich milk chocolate and sprinkled with delicate gourmet sea salt. Yes please! And dare I say... LOVE is in the air! 

You can choose from a variety of flavored popcorn ranging from White Truffle Bliss to Butter Toffee with Almond Roca (artisan butter toffee popcorn made with the original Almond Roca Buttercrunch and roasted almond) to Gourmet Cheddar and Maui Waui Popcorn with fresh macadamia nuts, sweet coconut flakes, blended with white chocolate on buttery caramel popcorn.  Pretty enticing right?

Check it out for yourself. And let your imagination run wild as you can create your own Gift Tin with multiple flavors. But beware.... this can become an addictive secret pleasure! 

Enter 19 Charles Street, a members-only gourmet meal provider for time-strapped New Yorkers. Months ago I signed up for their email after reading an article about them and was more and more intrigued as I read their weekly email listing their menu offering. Here's how it works: 

New recipes are posted Monday mornings on their website and sent via email, for deliveries the following week. You have until Friday at 5pm, or until ingredients sell out, to place your order. Every Monday and Wednesday morning, the 19 Charles Street team visits their partner farms, Murray's Cheese, Raffetto's Pasta, and other vendors to gather and package your ingredients for that night or the following night, depending on your order. Same-day packaging guarantees the freshest possible meats, grains, and produce. 

So needless to say I had to try this. I choose a dinner that fed into a pasta craving I was having - Grass Fed Lamb Ragu with Capers, Parsley and Mint over fresh Pasta. 

Everything is so fresh, perfectly portioned and ready to cook--I am loving this! Not time to shop? How great to have a gourmet meal picked out and shipped to you, AND you get to cook it for complete control of freshness and timing, as opposed to take out. Here is the recipe graciously shared by 19 Charles.

Grass Fed Lamb Ragu with capers and mint over fresh Pasta

Prep: Dice the onion. Mince the garlic. Grate the Parmesan. Trim the lamb and cut into 1 inch cubes. Chop the parsley and mint. Set aside

Cook: Heat olive oil in a large pot and cook the onion until translucent. Add the garlic until fragrant (about 1 minute). Add the lamb and cook until browned. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 45 minutes or until meat is tender. Add parsley, mint, salt and pepper to taste. (Be careful not to over-salt since the capers are salty). Meanwhile cook the pasta for 3-5 minutes for al dente. 

Serve: Dress the salad as desired. Serve the pasta with sauce, capers and a sprinkle of Parmesan. Stir together right before eating. Enjoy the baguette on the side. 

Editors Note: And of course pour yourself and your date a generous glass of a full bodied red wine to perfectly compliment this beautifully simple romantic meal for two. 

Thank you for making my life easier, healthier and making my very special guest wanting more! 

More About 19 Charles Street

Whip Up a Gourmet Meal at Home with Recipe, Fresh Ingredients and Easy Instructions 

The idea for 19 Charles Street was born: It's a gourmet grocery and farmers market delivery service where you order by recipe and number of servings. The goal is to minimize waste (you'll receive as close to the exact amount of whatever you need) and provide the best ingredients available in NYC. The legwork is done for the customers. The philosophy is a lot like European grocery shopping -- ingredients come from specialty stories as well as the market. Deliveries take place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays because the produce is sourced from the Greenmarket that morning.   

The recipes include new spins on classics, healthy versions of comfort food, and simplified high-end dishes. 19 Charles Street has also featured guest recipes from blogs like Not Without Salt and restaurants like Bell Book and Candle.    

The founders are not chefs--they are avid home cooks, and that's the target market. These recipes are refined but not too difficult, and everything takes under an hour. The hope is that people will stay in and cook together, eat healthier food, and do their best to respect the planet. 19 Charles Street provides them with a product that can help them fulfill this goal.

Just to put the final cherry on top of our month Italian appreciation, here's a collection of sweet treats to finish off your multi-course masterpiece of Italian cooking. After putting away appetizers, contorni, and a generously sized entree or pasta dish, you might think you won't have room for dessert... but come on. There's always room for dessert.

TIRAMISU via Guy Fieri

Soft, creamy and irresistible, a good tiramisu is one of the most heavenly desserts in the world. Perfect your own from-scratch tiramisu recipe - trust us, it's worth it!

It was hard to separate ourselves from the coast and head back north.  We had planned to spend our last four nights in Florence to break up the trip home.  In the days before our train, we started checking the weather compulsively, praying that it wouldn't be cold already in Florence, that the sun might last a bit longer...

We lucked out and had beautiful weather. Our last days in Italy were spent wandering the birthplace of the Renaissance and sitting at outdoor cafes watching crowds pass by.  In the high season in Florence, reservations are mandatory for any restaurant and hotel prices can be astronomical. In February though, we found ourselves in a small hotel in a building from the 12th century, paying almost half the high season price.  

Our first night in Florence, walking out from the hotel without any destination in mind, we came across a piazza full of beautiful sculptures, then a little farther the famous dome of the Florence Cathedral.   Sitting down at a small unassuming cafe, we had a plate of local cheeses and cured meats with a glass of chianti that was truly remarkable.  I was reminded of Anna's comments our first meal in Bologna about the quality of the ingredients, and eating through a dish so simple as cheese and salami, I realized she was right - even the simplest plates are wonders in Italy. 

The night before our departure, some friends of Anna's who live in Florence brought us to a family restaurant in a residential area outside the center.  The owner was an elderly couple, and while the wife took orders and distributed dishes, the husband wandered the small dining room keeping up an endless stream of chatter with each group of diners.  When we came in he took one look at Anna and asked us: "Bimbo o Bimba?" - is it a boy or a girl?

"Bimbo," she said.  He congratulated us, and as we were seated he poured us all a glass of wine, even for Anna in spite of her declining.  Amidst an endless stream of Italian that we couldn't possibly follow, he proposed a toast and we all joined.

The next morning the train took us once more over the alps, this time heading home via Milan, Zurich, and Strasbourg.  When we got off the train we had our scarves and coats back in place, and even though it was just a two week escape, it felt like we had been gone for years.