Leftovers

Well, as you can imagine we are still happily devouring the leftovers from our Thanksgiving feast (and we will be eating beef for some time to come). This morning we had prime rib and eggs for breakfast, and tonight we demolished the last of the pumpkin pie.

We have heard some tales of the terrible snow storms that are hitting Washington right now, and although we pity you all, we have to gloat at the fact that our weather is still quite pleasant. The mornings and nights are chilly, sometimes there is even frost when we wake up, but the days have been sunny and only require a light jacket. Jealous? Well, people keep saying the cold is on its way, so perhaps we won't be gloating for long and you'll have to listen to us whine about the two-mile trek through the freezing cold to get to the train station.

In other good news, we finally got a phone line in our cottage, so now we have internet access in the comfort of our humble home, and you can call us anytime you wish to say hello (be sure to get yourself an international phone card first). Can't wait to hear from you!

Sometimes it Feels Like We Live in a SItcom

So, as you all know, we hosted a Thanksgiving feast for our Italian friends and a few American colleagues this weekend (11 people in total). In the end it was a wonderful evening full of good food, good people, and lots of laughter, but as per usual we had some interesting setbacks along the way.

Turkey (or tacchino) is of course the traditional Thanksgiving meat prepared by countless American families every year. It is possible to get turkey here, simply by ordering it from the butcher, but we prefer prime rib, and that has become our little tradition passed down from Mom and Pops Brezina. So Charles very carefully researched what prime rib would be called in Italian, and we placed an order for a large piece of meat at our usual butcher a week in advance. He seemed to understand what we wanted and that it would be ready for us next Saturday. Come Saturday morning we were feeling good about all of our preparations as we headed to the market for some last minute items and to pick up our meat.

When we arrived at the butcher shop he greeted us in the usual fashion, and when Charles asked for the costata di manzo it was clear that he had forgotten. After trying to pacify us with inferior cuts of meat he finally offered to try and get what we needed by 4 o'clock and told us to call him at that time to see if he was able to get it. Of course this was unacceptable. 4 o'clock would be too late, and what if he wasn't able to get it after all?

Dante suggested we go to another butcher in the next town over, and he kindly drove us there. When we arrived Dante began talking to the man and explaining what we were looking for. As it turns out, this particular butcher actually slaughters his own meat (which is very unusual) and they had a side of a cow uncut hanging in the fridge. Charles accompanied the man into the locker and showed him exactly how he wanted the meat cut. Very authentic. Our piece of meat ended up being just over 11 kilos (a kilo is 2.2lbs) including bones, and because of the large order he also gave us a discount in price. Charles got to play butcher and carve up 22 pounds of meat into a delicious prime rib loin amongst other things. As you can imagine we have alot of steak in our freezer right now. So, things were back on track, our delicous meat was fresh and ready to be cooked, and all we had to do was to get the sides ready.

Since I was in charge of making dessert I spent most of the day preparing two pumpkin pies and one apple pie. I made each pie from scratch (prepared pie crust does not exist here), and I was pleased with how well they turned out, having never made pie before. One of my pumpkin pies was still a bit warm, and so I left it on a patio table outside of the clubhouse to cool while we were setting up for dinner.

As I was walking from the cottage to the clubhouse with wine and bread for the table I was startled by a rustling in the bushes as one of the villa's cats scurried away from the sound of my footsteps. As I approached the door to the clubhouse I looked down at m pie and saw that half of it had been eaten by the damn cat!! I couldn't help but laugh, and think that it was a good thing I had made two pumpkin pies. Dante found it hilarious and said that it must be good pie if the gato liked it.

Dinner was pretty good overall, it was funny to watch the Italians as they tried new things. The stuffing, the green jell-o, sweet potato pudding and the pumpkin pie were all very confusing to them. They couldn't figure out why the jell-o was green, they thought for sure it was pistachio, then we finally explained that it was "colore artificiale" and they all went "aah". They seemed to like that one. The sweet potato pudding was also tough to explain, they do have sweet potatoes here but it seems like no one knows what to do with them. This combined with the marshmallows (there is no translation) was even funnier but they also seemed to like it. As for the pumpkin pie, they love pumpkin but they don't eat it as dessert, and especially not from a can! However, again, they liked it and they liked it even more with homemade whipped cream on top!

And so our first holiday abroad was a success and a lot of fun to make happen.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We just wanted to wish everyone back home a Happy Thanksgiving! We're planning our Italian Thanksgiving for Saturday. We'll be introducing Thanksgiving to an Italian family and a Romanian family so it should be interesting to see what they think of an N. American tradition. Thanks to our families we were able to pretty much duplicate what we've had for the last few years back in the States. Hopefully, I correctly ordered my "costata di manzo" er, prime rib. We're pretty sure that the butcher understood what we needed and when we needed it but it could be a surprise come Saturday morning. I also have no idea how much it will cost, so that will probably be a surprise and a shock, as well.

Happy Thanksgiving and make sure to have a good time, whatever company your in!

Chuck's Week in Review

Ok, let's do a brief recap of my last week.

Saturday - lost favorite beanie on the train
Sunday - nice little Sunday, we went to Home Depot to look at some flooring...
Monday - nearly fainted on the train to Roma
Tuesday - stubbed the crap out of my toe
Wednesday - business as usual
Thursday - lost my favorite and only pair of gloves.
Friday the 17th - this day is equivalent to our Friday the 13th superstition. except in Italy, they take it to the next level and some people really believe that its bad luck to even leave the house on this particular day. as we walked to the train station in Zagarolo, things were looking up because my foot was feeling much better. then a car drove by us in the oncoming lane and someone yelled something out the window and then smack! a freakin egg hit me in the leg! luckily, it hit me, not Allie in her nice white jacket. so all day, i had to walk around with dried egg on my pant legs.

that being said, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday have gone off without a hitch.

I'm Having Something of a Rough Week

Well, after nearly fainting on the train, I figured things could only get better for the rest of the week. Unfortunately, I was wrong. On Tuesday night, I was getting ready for bed and I walked out of the bathroom as I've done a thousand times. However, this time I planted my foot firmly against the leg of one of our chairs. Normally this chair isn't in this particular spot but we had moved it in order to access our living room heater. My pinky toe took the brunt of the pain. I yelped like a little girl. It really felt like some one had kicked my square in the nuts! I tried to walk it off but I knew this time it wasn't just a stubbed toe. After about ten minutes, it was visibly swollen but i was still hoping it was just a really bad stubbed toe. In the morning, I checked it and it completely swollen and black and blue. Of course, I'm not going to go to a doctor or anything but I'm pretty damn sure it's broken.

Now we've postponed our trip to Assisi, which is a total bummer. Hopefully, the bruising and swelling will go down within a day or two.

Almost Fainted on the Train!

Charles had another first experience today, though not a positive one. As usual we caught the 7:45 train to Roma but for some reason it seemed to be really packed and neither of the windows were open in the car that we were standing in. I started to feel really hot so I took off my sweatshirt and Allie noticed that I had gone kind of pale. Things were getting really bright and then they got dark. I decided to sit down on the floor and by this point I was sweating profusely and a few people noticed and offered to give me their seat. I drank a bottle of water and sat in a daze for the rest of the train ride trying to figure out what the hell just happened. I still don't know why it happened to me though we have seen people faint on the packed trains and busses previously. Unfortunately, I felt like hell all day with a slight ache in my neck and a headache. Don't worry though, I'm feeling better now and I survived to tell the tale.

Ah, Napoli!

Although, we were going to go to Naples for a pizza lunch and a nice dinner we actually had two pizza lunches and opted to skip the dinner and head back to the safety of Zagarolo. The Pizza: We went to Da Michele as planned and we were not dissappointed with the pizza. The place is insanely busy, we waited 20 minutes for a table but by the time we had finished the crowd had at least tripled in size I would guess that there were atleast 75 people waiting on the street to get inside for the pie (check out the pics). Da Michele offers only two pizzas (the classic Margherita and the Oregano) and basically nothing else besides drinks and only three drinks are offered; Coke, Beer and Orange Fanta. We had one of each pizza and a couple beers. The prices are rediculously low for how busy the place is, 4 euros for a really big pizza. I don't think I can describe how good the pizzas were, you'll just have to come visit and we'll go together.

After we ate there, we walked around the area near the train station. Let's just say Naples is different and it feels a lot more dangerous than anywhere we've been in Roma. We decided to get the hell out of dodge before it got any crazier but first we had to try one more pizzeria. This second pizzeria was called Trianon and it's been in business since 1923. It has a way more extensive list of pizzas and we opted for one that had eight different flavors. This pizza was good but not great. All of the toppings seemed kind of half-hearted, which was dissappointing to us. We were so damn full at this point it didn't matter that we didn't finish the pizza.

In retrospect, our trip was kind of ruined before we got there because of our paranoia regarding Naples. All of our students were warning us that Napoli was a different kind of place than Roma. They were right. Though it's illegal not to wear a helmet on a motorcycle, the people of Naples don't seem to know it or care about the law. This general sense of chaos is just typical of the feeling that you'll get in Naples. Of course, we were in the the area around the train station which is probably not the pinnacle of Neopolitan living so we're not completely casting judgement until we can return and see a different area.

Our Week in Retrospect

We enjoyed a pretty good week. We were looking forward to getting paid on Monday, unfortunately we didn't get paid until Friday but it's cool because our landlords know that it's common place in Italy not be paid on time. It's also the norm to only be paid once a month, which is slightly disconcerting.

The ups and downs:

Starting with the downs. I (Charles) was on a train home one day after work and suddenly it just stopped in the middle of the tracks. This isn't all that strange but after 15 minutes the Italians were starting to get restless. After 20 minutes of not moving the train crew sent out a sacrificial lamb to the angry passengers. He told them something which I couldn't understand of course, but the reaction of the crowd told me we weren't going anywhere soon. The Italians starting yelling at this poor guy and I was sitting back trying to understand any words possible and basically watching the show. After an hour, we finally started heading home. Of course, by that time, the bus which I take home was long gone so I had to walk my sorry self home. Woe is me.

The Downs for Allie were that many of her students cancelled on her and so she had to sit around for hours waiting for the next lesson to start. However, she did get paid for the boring hours because the students didn't cancel before the designated time. So, basically she made 24 euro to sit around bored as can be.

The Ups. We got paid! Well, Charles did, Allie gets hers on Monday. It's hard to describe how great is feels to be paid after 4 months of no paychecks.

With our money in hand, we were off to eat some pizza!

Finally, a Call!

It’s true what they say: When it rains, it pours. As you know we’ve been working steadily for the past month, and it seemed that each week during October our boss would call and add a few more hours to our schedules. At this point we are both working approximately 35 hours per week, which is great, because our upcoming paycheck will be a fatty. Now, if you remember (and how could you forget) we were frantically searching for employment throughout the month of September, and to no avail. So, you would imagine our shock when we got a call at 8pm on Friday night from a school asking if we’d like to come in for an interview!

More experienced English teachers in Italy had told us to be patient, that schools will call, but we did not expect to have to wait until November!! It was gratifying to be able to tell this woman that, “sorry, we’re both working full time now,” although now that I think about it I should have seen what she was willing to offer.

La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life)

After a three-week-long voluntary boycott of our heavenly neighborhood Sicilian bakery (our heart rates were screaming from all the sugar) we decided it was time to create some of our own treats at home. At first it was simple, we did the common Nutella on toast, but this weekend it was time for something bigger and better.

After remembering an apple torte desert we had at a trattoria back during our TEFL course weeks I decided to do some internet research and see if I could find a recipe that sounded like it would be close. Bingo! Not only did I find an easy recipe, but it is delicious and tastes very near to the torte we had a few months back. While my first attempt turned out pretty good, I have some adjustments to make due to the measurement conversions (check out the pics), but I thought I’d share the recipe with everyone.
Let me know how you like it if you give it a try:

This Italian apple torte is easy to make, and delicious. Cooking the apples first helps concentrate the flavor and remove moisture, so the cake doesn't get soggy. The lemon zest, although only a half teaspoon is used, is an essential ingredient - you can really taste it in the apples.

1/2 cup (4 oz or 125 g) plus 1 Tbsp of unsalted butter
3 Renette or Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and cut into slices 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick
2/3 cup (3 1/2 oz or 105 g) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 whole eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (8 oz or 250 g) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
confectioners' sugar (optional)

1 Preheat an oven to 375°F (190°C). Generously butter a 9-inch (23 cm) round cake pan with 2 inch (5 cm) sides.

2 In a microwave, melt the butter. Pour 6 Tbsp (3 fl oz or 90 ml) of it into a small bowl or cup and set aside. Add the apple slices and the remaining butter to a large frying pan and cook on low heat, stirring occasionally, until the apples are tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.

3 In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, beat the whole eggs and egg yolk until blended. Add the 6 Tbsp of melted butter, the vanilla, the granulated sugar, and the lemon zest. Stir in the flour mixture and the apples. Spoon into the prepared pan, smoothing the top.

4 Bake until browned, 30-35 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Invert the cake onto a plate and lift off the pan, then invert the cake again onto the rack and let cool completely.

5 (Optional) Just before serving, place confectioners' sugar in a small sieve and dust the top of the cake.

The Weather Outside is Frightful

In true November fashion the weather has begun to change on us. While leaves have been turning orange and the chestnuts have been falling (nearly on our heads) for some time now, the days have remained full of sun and a perfect 70 degree average (we’re still not used to the Celsius measurements of temperature). This last week all of that changed. We woke to our first morning frost (and cursed it as we trekked to the train station with frozen ears and noses), and the evenings have left us longing for the old days of carpet that kept our feet warm as we try desperately to keep our stocking feet off of the cold tile floors.

To add insult to injury, the heater in the bedroom is on the fritz, and although Dante has done his part by having a repairman over to inspect the problem, we are incessantly waiting for a part to come in the mail (which, if you know anything of the Italian post’s reputation you understand the problem).

Naples Ahoy!

After four months + approximately two years of dreaming of real Naples pizza, we find ourselves only a week away from paradise. We promised ourselves that as soon as we got our first paycheck we would take a day trip into Naples for some world-famous pie, and to prove to ourselves that we were serious we bought our train tickets last week. The itinerary is still sketchy; we know that we want to eat at the famous Da Michele restaurant (which is near the train station), and for dinner we have selected another restaurant to feed our need for the famous Naples seafood fare: Ristorante Bellini.

Da Michele is famous not for its looks or atmosphere (it’s supposedly quite dingy and unbecoming) but for its perfection of Naples style pizza, which they‘ve been working on since 1870. They only make two types of pizza: margherita (tomato, bazil and mozzarella) and marinara (tomato, garlic and oregano). We plan to order one of each for our lunch, and if they’re as good as they say we might order more.

Ristorate Bellini is said to feature seafood as fresh as the morning catch, and pasta on a grand scale (how can you beat that?), and so we’ve chosen it as our dinner destination and one of us will surely order the vermicelli with clams and mussels. We don’t know much else about what they serve, so the surprise will surely be as exciting as the food.

For the time we will be required to waste between meals, we plan to stay near the train station and explore what Naples has to offer in that section of town. If you have been following any Italian news you would have heard that gangs (the mafia type) are at war in Naples, which at first deterred us from taking this trip at our scheduled time, but Dante so wisely reminded us that it may actually be safer now with the extra police in the area. So the trip is on as scheduled, and we are well aware of the dangers of pick-pockets and thieves in this charming city, so we are only bringing the few bucks we’ll need to eat, and of course our Chuck Norris-thief-stopping-moves.