Adventures in Cooking, Part II

After a day of sightseeing yesterday, today we returned to the kitchen, where things went a little smoother, though the second course was a little less appetizing. Our starter was something called sformatta (sp?), which was essentially a quiche with ham, mozzarella and parmesan. This took maybe 10 minutes at most to prepare and then cooked for 40 minutes – it was delicious and something I’m sure I can make when I get home. The first course was a cavatelli pasta with broccoli and n’duja, which is a spicy local sausage consisting of all the parts of the pig you would never want to eat or think about eating. Cavatelli is a little like gnocchi but made of just flour and water (no potato). It was a little harder to roll, and there was a trick to making a little slit in it with two fingers. I never quite got the hang of it, but mom did, so I stuck to rolling and cutting it and she stuck with forming it.

Our second course was pigs' hearts and livers sauteed in olive oil and garlic with red pepper and a sundried sweet pepper. I think if it was a different kind of meat I would have enjoyed it more, but for now I’ll just say the baby wasn’t into it and it made me slightly nauseous. Cutting it was particularly gross and unfortunately I can still smell it on my fingers. Our side dish was chicory (spinach) with breadcrumbs and garlic, and that was delicious. The nice thing about having so many courses was I was able to say I was full by the second course and just tasted it without offending. Afterwards we went for gelato with Christiano, our interpreter.

Yesterday was a local sightseeing day. We first went to a farmhouse where many of the local fruits and vegetables are grown. One in particular, the cedro (a citrus fruit), is only grown in two places in the world, this region and in Lebanon. It is a fruit that Jewish people use for religious purposes as an offering. We went and saw where that is grown. Also grown in this region are olives, figs, sweet peppers and oranges. We also went to a little hillside town called Orsomarso and stopped for a cappuccino. We came back and took a little nap and then did a walking tour of Scalea, the town we’re staying in. Many of the villages in this region are very old and built purposefully of stone to defend the land from invaders from places like Turkey and Algeria. Many are actually walled-in cities with one entrance, usually very narrow, and everything is attached. Apparently most of these villages didn't even have running water until the 1970s. We walked over 200 stairs, enough to build up an appetite for dinner.

We've been eating every night at the restaurant and bouncing around the menu, getting a little more adventurous each night. I unknowingly ate rabbit last night. Our waiter doesn't speak English, so when I asked him what was in the sauce he put his fingers up by his ears, which I took for some reason to mean goat or a horned animal, but it was rabbit. And it was very good. They've been making the portions smaller for us now, though whether it's from the food or the pregnancy, the zipper on my jacket busted last night from my growing belly. At least the baby is eating good!

Tomorrow is our last class and Wednesday is a wine-tasting day, which unfortunately won't be much fun for me. A funny tidbit I'd forgotten: Anyone who knows my mom knows she doesn't drink. At all. Something the Italians don't comprehend. I tried to encourage her to at least have a glass of wine, and Christiano suggested that she mix it with coke and a lemon. She did, and she loved it. And when people mock her at home, she can honestly tell them (hopefully in a snobby voice), "Well, THIS is how they drink it in Italy."

Adventures in Cooking - Part I

This morning I faced my fear of inadequacy and went to the dark place where I am most inept in life: The Kitchen. The cooking class is held at a restaurant called Antica Osteria just a short while from the hotel in the town of Scalea. When we arrived, we were met by our chef, Genaro, and a translator named Christiano and a photographer named Carmine. While they were setting up, I had a cappuccino and a mom had a “caffe.” I had explained to her yesterday that a coffee here means a shot of espresso, but she’d forgotten and thought the tiny cup was hysterical (musing that my dad would need about 20 of these) and made several faces after tasting it.

Now to the kitchen. We started with our appetizer. I was given the task of peeling potatoes, and mom, cutting the peppers. Mom was a pro and was tossing peppers around and hamming it up for the camera in the time it took me to peel two potatoes. Soon she started to help me, thankfully, so we could move on to the first course. I found that while peeling potatoes was a weakness of mine, stirring them in a frying pan was a strength. Unfortunately I couldn’t do that for long, but the more time-consuming task of making gnocchi kept me busy for a good while. I especially enjoyed the little contraption that looked like a Play-doh fun factory. Once we made the dough, rolling it and slicing it kept me busy while mom cut the meat for our second course. The sauce for the gnocchi was an olive oil based mushroom, sausage, tomato and garlic sauce. The second course was a simple meat, carrots and celery with white wine sauce. We then did an after-meal course of tomato with a gratin of anchovies, capers, bread crumbs, garlic and parsley. The bread crumb maker was another cool contraption.

Now it was time to eat our masterpiece and neither mom nor I had the appetite to eat the whole thing, so by the time the second course came, we were really just tasting it as the chef lovingly yelled at us in Italian, reminding me that I’m eating for two, and making hand gestures of a microscope. Stuffed, we were able to relax for about an hour before our excursion to the town of Diamante.



Diamante is a town known for its murals. Apparently in 1981 an artist came to the town, once just a small fishing village, and talked the mayor into letting 180 artists come and paint murals all over the buildings. Much of the countryside we passed between the airport and here was made up of abandoned towns because there is no agriculture or any need for people to inhabit some of this land. But apparently the artwork revitalized the town and brought with it a tourism industry. Carmine walked us through the town explaining the murals while Christiano translated. They then took us for some gelatto before returning to the hotel. Now we are just trying to work up enough appetite to go back to the restaurant for dinner (which apparently they didn’t think we ate enough last night.) This has been an amazing trip so far and it’s only our first real day of the course. Tomorrow is a non-cook day and we are going to a museum of regional foods.

When in Rome... Bring Bryan

So I’ve been so consumed with making it through my first trimester that I didn’t spend a whole lot of time planning this trip. I figured this is my fourth trip to Rome, and the Calabria portion is all planned out. I bought a TimeOut book for all of Italy and left my TimeOut Rome at home because it was 10 years old. I never looked in the book to realize that it didn’t contain any maps or practical information. Mom and I got to our lovely little convent hotel in Trastevere, checked in with a nice English-speaking front desk person and showered and napped.

Once ready to hit the town, the front desk person now didn’t speak a word of English and didn’t have a map. Our neighborhood isn’t near a subway station so we would have had to take a bus to a train station. Without my TimeOut Rome I couldn’t even remember how and where to buy bus tickets (Bryan will tell you a story about that…), and alas we took a cab, feeling like a defeated American tourist. I realized, while I consider myself a fairly experienced traveller, just how much I’ve relied on Bryan for his willingness to try and speak the language of whatever country we’re in. I had at least bought an Italian phrase dictionary, but the minute someone started talking back to me I’d blurt out “Parlo inglese?”

A very random coincidence took place the day before I left, in that an Italian court reporter that I’ve met at various international conventions named Fausto found me on Facebook. So at least now mom and I had an Italian-speaking friend to do the talking and take us somewhere off the beaten path. He suggested we meet him at the Pantheon and we’d go from there. This was a great area that gave mom plenty of great photo ops, as we were also close to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain. He took us out of the tourist trap area and took us to this awesome little wine bar that had a smorgasbord of Italian goodies for free as part of a happy hour. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the convent where I entered Time Warp Hell.

I did what I never do and broke the cardinal jetlag rule: I took a nap when I got in. I tried to justify it by saying, well, I’m pregnant and I nap now and it doesn’t keep me from falling asleep at night. WRONG! While I fell asleep by 10, I was up by 1 for the rest of the night. To make things worse, our room had no clock and we had no watches. Mom bought an international cell phone, which we didn’t realize that the time zone was defaulted to Chicago time. So we had thought the time difference was seven hours all day long. In the middle of the night I realized my iPod had clocks of the world, and didn’t realize that my iPod’s EST was on daylight savings, so that would make the time difference five hours. Long story short, I called Bryan to see if he could look at a computer and tell me what time it was, and he wasn’t home and couldn’t. We were supposed to have a wakeup call at 5, but I got up at 4 (which I thought was 5), and that was how our day started.

We flew to Calabria this morning and had a driver drive us to the seaside town of Scalea where we will be staying for the week. I feared for both our lives as it was the scariest display of driving I’ve ever experienced – a 2.5-hour drive took less than 2 hours and we played chicken as he passed several vehicles on the two-way road. Now we are settling in and have our first cooking lesson at 10 tomorrow. Hoping now that we have the time zones figured out, the jetlag will wear off by tomorrow.

Where it all began...

Patty and I have been enjoying our trip so much as of late that we haven't really kept up with the blog as much as we'd hoped. So after yet another wonderful day here in Dublin, I figured I'd post some pics and write a little bit about how we really got here.

As most of you know, Patty and I met at a pub in Ireland. I mean where else could you possibly meet anyone in Ireland, right? The name of the pub was/is the Wicked Wolf, and it's in a little town called Blackrock where we both happened to be living in 1999. There's a long storybook version of how we met that I'm sure Patty would love to see down in writing, but I'll spare you all for now. If you're interested sometime, just ask.

Anyway... thankfully, our pub is still there!

A jovial man by the name of Bobby Arnold was standing out front when we stopped by and he offered to snap that photo of us if we'd agree to come in for a pint. We gladly accepted his offer. However, we didn't realize though at the time he offered that he'd had quite a few pints of his own before taking that picture! After showing us his master photography skills, he examined the photo further and said something along the lines of, "I probably should've aimed a little lower, huh?"

After telling Bobby briefly that we had met 10 years earlier at his favorite pub, he proceeded to tell everyone in the bar our story. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone.

Patty and I had actually met for the very first time in the upstairs bar which is typically only open in the evenings and was off limits during the day. After mentioning our story to the barman, and with a little extra encouragement from our new friend Mr. Arnold, we were allowed to go upstairs to have a look around. The place looks pretty much the same, although the upstairs bar is now called "Club Eugene" after the current owner. Here we are at the corner of the bar where it all began.

After snapping a few photos upstairs, we went back down to finish our pints and head back into Dublin for the evening. Bobby couldn't get enough of us and our story and offered to take another photo of us. This one actually came out pretty good!


On the way out of the pub, we got a few congratulations from some locals seated at the bar and then Bobby Arnold blurted out, "You two are the greatest Yanks in all of Ireland!"

I love this country.

Maybe tomorrow I'll actually get around to posting some more pics and filling in some gaps. There's a lot to catch up on.

Hotel Livin'

I always say that picking the hotel is one of my favorite parts of any trip we take, and this time I definitely have to pat myself on the back. In Paris we got a great deal, and our hotel was just steps from the Eiffel Tower. But the fun began when we got to Cannes. Each floor of the hotel we stayed at invoked a different continent. Since Africa is one of the few we have never been to, that is the one I chose. The room was decked out in crushed velvets and Moroccan lighting fixtures. The roof had an amazing pool with a view of the sea. We didn't do much in Cannes besides eat and sun ourselves. The whole atmosphere was a little snooty, from the service at the hotel to the designer shops to the Ferraris and Lamborghinis everywhere you turned. It felt like we didn't have enough money to be there.

When we originally booked the trip I was looking more forward to Cannes than Nice, but this town is a "Nice" surprise, a lot more my speed than Cannes. The shopping is more fun, and the streets are more lively. We are also staying in an art hotel here, where every room was designed by a different artist. The room we are in is called Parfum du Orient, and it reminds me of something my Grandma Orsini would have loved. It has these antique chairs that may have even been in her house, French doors leading to a patio, a Victorian bedspread, but this awesome jade colored wallpaper. The hotel staff is also much more friendly and it has added to the welcome feeling. Bry and I spent a lot more time in the last 24 hours roaming the streets, and tonight we're hopping the train to the casino in Monte Carlo. You have to wear a suit and tie there, which isn't all that appetizing in this 90-degree weather, but hopefully we'll win big. Come on, sevens...

Yes Ouí Cannes!

Since we left Paris, we've spent the past few days in Cannes. The weather has been perfect, 85 to 90 degrees and sunny! I'm glad Patty and I are pretty much on the same page when we travel... pretty laid back.

Our first day here, we got in in the late afternoon, so we pretty much just checked in, dropped off our bags and walked down the promenade on La Croisette admiring the beautiful views of the bay, yachts anchored off in the distance, and an amazing sunset.

We spent yesterday lounging around at our hotel's pool, soaking up some sun and floating around a bit.


After a nice day at the pool and some great food at really good restaurant (which we've thus far had three meals) Patty and I snuck some wine, cheese and crackers onto the rocks by the water to catch a Cannes sunset.



Although I'm not sure if it was legal or not to drink out in public like that, we just couldn't resist. Here's the evidence of our impromptu "picnic"...


We hit the beach today and I got a little too much sun. Not that bad, but I'm pretty red. Anyone who knows how I "tan" will appreciate my awesome new color. After a mid-evening nap, we chose a restaurant along the promenade and had an amazing dinner on the beach. Here's a long exposure of the promenade to show off the brilliant colors and lights.


As usual, we have many more photos to share, but the internet in France is slow... just like their service. I'm not complaining though... it's kinda nice. Speaking of which, that's where we're headed tomorrow! Gotta get some sleep!!

Paris in a Whirlwind

Three nights in Paris have come and gone on this third trip of mine to Paris. My first time I came with my mom and accidentally discovered the most dodgy and dubious of neighborhoods; my second trip I was here less than 24 hours for a Ween show; and this time I enjoyed the city the way it's meant to be enjoyed, with the love of my life. We spent the first day slogging through the jetlag and taking a million pictures of the Eiffel Tower, conveniently located a few blocks from our hotel. No other piece of architecture defines a city the way the Eiffel Tower does Paris. In the day it can be seen as the backdrop to the River Sienne, and at night it sparkles on the hour. We took a short cruise on the river in which I stole catnaps as we passed many of the other architectural wonders of the city. We ate at a nearby cafe and got a good night's sleep before our second day.

Thursday we went to the Louvre and waited through the line and the crowds to see the Mona Lisa, a small square on a large wall. You couldn't really get close enough to admire any of the detail. We then strolled through the Egyptian antiques exhibit (complete with mummified cats), which I really enjoyed. We had an expensive night ahead of us, so we ate on the cheap at the Hut du Pizza and tried Cheesy Fun crust pizza. They brought three dipping sauces for the crust: Ketchup, Sweet Chili and Barbeque. After working through the language barrier, we were able to get some pizza sauce to make our cheesy crust more fun.

Later that evening I felt it my duty, after having paid tribute to Motley Crue for the past three years, to make a pilgrimage to the Crazy Horse, made famous by the song Girls Girls Girls. Bryan had no objection. I think it was also immortalized in a song we sang in Kindergarten that went "there's a place in France, where the naked ladies dance..." I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but I can tell you what I didn't expect: Shadow puppets. Halfway through the cabaret performance, a man came out dressed in black with a spotlight on him. Soon he was making shadows of birds, rabbits and dogs with his hands. They weren't much more sophisticated than the ones Stacey and I used to make on my bedroom wall in seventh grade. This went on for a good ten minutes. It made the show more laughable. On a scale of cheesy fun, it ranked one notch below the Pizza Hut crust of the same name.

Yesterday, after a late start, we had one of the most memorable meals on a late lunch at Montemarte. We got off at a nearby Metro stop and walked through San Francisco-like hills to get to a little square near Sacre Coeur. We had a garlicky escargot appetizer, Bry had duck and I had chicken, and then we had crepes for dessert. We then proceeded to hit the rest of the city on foot, checking out the intricately designed Notre Dame cathedral, the Pantheon and ended in a beautifully landscaped park called Jardin & Palais du Luxembourg. The gardens were flowery and fragrant, a nice contrast to the smell of the sweaty subways in August. There we watched locals reading books and relaxing and men young and old practicing karate moves (including a Japanese guy with a sword.)

With three days and two past trips under my belt, I somehow still don't feel a real connection to Paris. I realize it's the type of city you have to get a ton of tourist things out of the way before you can truly experience it, but it still hasn't grown on me. The cafes are probably the element I was drawn strongest to, and maybe with a few more visits and a few more coffees, I'd figure it out. For now we'll see how Cannes treats us.

Paris Continued

I see Patty already posted some pictures from our first two days here in Paris. We've had a great time so far and didn't realize three days wasn't nearly enough to see all we wanted to see. So without repeating Patty's pics, here's some of what we saw:


Arc De Triomphe





The Louvre
- You can see me and the Mona Lisa in Patty's pics)





Pizza Hut Crazy Cheesy Crust Fun
- Surprisingly, tomato sauce wasn't one of the three dipping choices!





There's much more to come... I'm on a slow internet connection and these pictures are taking forever to load! Gotta get some sleep. Heading to Cannes in the morning.

Paris in Pictures

More to come...

Work in Progress

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