Italienisch Essen

Ribollita

This winter, we've been all about Italienisch Essen. For a bit, we moved into Slovenia, but spent most of our days eating Tuscan-like peasant foods with the help of Giada DeLaurentis. I think my favorite part of this dish is the Parmesan Rind you put into it - parts, but not all of it, melts and adds incredible texture and flavor.

And who doesn't love Cannelloni Beans?? For a few months there, I think we had Black Beans in almost every dish, so it was nice to switch gears.

Grete and the Marshmallow Bed

If you remember our first trip to Germany in 2006, we discovered Bettdecken at all of our hotels, except the American ones (tsk) and loved them. Personal warmth control, no need for stringy sheets when you're trying to curl into a ball, you can layer them if you're really cold, and if it's too warm - just stick a foot out and let in some cool air. Plus, they look so cute rolled up. They look like Marshmallows.

We are not the only ones who like these Bettdecke. Especially after new sheets are put on them. (They are like duvets covers, but the nifty sets we bought in Deutschland zip up at the bottom.)

Here is Grete demonstrating how to kick a foot out to get fresh air. Or watch the ongoings of the house. Or create whatever master plan she has going on in her head to take over the world. She gets an A+ for technique.

California

Next vacation: California. We both can't wait to be in the sunny land. It's unfortunate that a bunch of Texans will also be there for the football game, so I kindly ask they avoid Disneyland at all times that week. We are also going to revisit Santa Monica and a great English pub, Ye Olde King's Head (last seen in June of 2008). Can't wait.

Tschüß!!

Lasagna Rolls 2009

The last time I posted about Lasagna Rolls I hadn't yet figured out how to keep the noodles from getting soggy or the edges from tearing apart. This time, I had a much better handle on things (well, I just let Ryan cook the noodles for me since he is a human-sized pasta timer) and even tried different lengths or Lasagna noodles to make some fatter and skinnier rolls.



We've made this recipe over the past two years and it never fails! We even do a larger batch so we can freeze a couple for a rainy day. I did cheat out and use store-bought marinara sauce...I seriously just need to make a huge batch of my own and can it. It would be so much cheaper and so much tastier. Mom and Dad - when's your next trip down here?



Hungry yet?



Click here for the recipe.

Tschüß!

Grilled Parma Schwein (Pork) Rounds

On Thursday nights, the weekly menu is usually out of sorts. I try to plan around the days...Monday's recipe needs to be quick and easy since Ryan is off all day. Tuesday and Wednesday can be more elaborate since he's not home until later and it gives me time to cook. So Thursday sometimes becomes "FFY" or "Fend For Yourself" night. I grew up in a family of 8 and Thursdays usually were "leftover night" - my favorite night of the week. It was always fun to make a hodgepodge plate of some leftover roast pieces (never a roasted carrot survived the original day), mashed potatoes (with some gelatinous gravy plopped on top), sweet-and-sour pork (takeout from China Platter), a bit of chicken enchiladas (G-ma Peyton's recipe), and homemade chop suey.

In our house, with only two of us, most leftovers are eaten the next day for lunch.

Last Thursday night, the freezer had some frozen pork tenderloins and frozen rolls, and the fridge had remnants of a Parma Proscuitto package (today being the last day to use them) and a few carrots. What to do...



Parma, to me, is the tastiest variation of Proscuitto...so after defrosting the tenderloin legs, I cut them into 1 1/2 inch rounds, wrapped them with a piece of Parma folded in half, stuck a toothpick through it, and generously salted/peppered the centers. I put it on the grill (always get it hot, sear one side for a minute, then flip them over before they stick, and then turn the grill down to medium-low), tossed the carrots in olive oil, salt, and pepper and popped it in the oven.

Voila...



And there were enough leftover rounds for a good lunch the next day. We actually repeated this recipe a few nights ago and reheating the rounds in the oven is even better than the microwave. YUM!

For fun, I gave it a somewhat German/Italian name since the Parma is definitely Italian, but pork always reminds me of Germany.

Tschüß!

Parma, Buffalo Mozzarella, & Orecchiette #2

In Milan, after walking somewhat bleary-eyed through the city after landing at 9:00 in the morning and only meeking out a an hour of sleep, we decided a big feast was in order. (This happened to come directly after our 18:30 appt with The Last Supper. Chuckle.) The hotel recommended a neighborhood restaurant that was along the same tram line and within walking distance to Santa Maria delle Grazie. We finished being tourists at about 18:50 and walked through wide and dark streets that reminded me of the upper west-side of Manhattan until we found the restaurant.

Strangely, no one was in there and the lights were off. Ryan tried the door and it didn't open. I know it's Monday night, but... Hm, we walked around the block, and by 19:05 the lights were on and someone was tying their tie at the front desk. Nervously we approached. Part of me felt the big "T" revealing itself on my back, heading to dinner at a little after 7 p.m., "ahh, tourists...American tourists...grab the English menu with the day-old dishes from Sunday night, they'll happily slurp it!"

I tried the door. Pull, pull, it wouldn't move. The guy inside is looking at us a little strange. Push, it opens. Doh, our first intro to Italian street-front door mechanics. We motion for two and he kindly directs us to a cute table by the window in the quiet restaurant. He says some things in Italian, we nod and smile, he gives us the menu and he's off. I reach in my bag and pull out my petite, discreet English-Italian dictionary and start to translate. Next thing I know, a English menu is quietly sat on the table, without fanfare. I'm starting to love this restaurant.

More people came in, eventually, including about 50 children coming to a birthday party in the back; some arriving with parents, some just showing up alone (and probably took the tram alone too). We settled into our groove and not only ordered appetizers, but a primo, and secondo as well. Why not? The food was incredible!

Our favorite - was the Parma and Buffalo Mozzarella we ate for an appetizer. Not only was the Parma the most delicate, melt-in-our-mouth flavor and texture, but the Mozzarella left us speechless. No, it wasn't just sliced up Mozz...some was runny, some was in the middle, all of it was delicious.



Last night, we went in search of a replacement dish. We tried Whole Foods, but they had pulled all of their Parma di Proscuitto because they asked the Italian makers if they used nitrates and didn't receive a response...go figure...so no more Parma there and the Buffalo Mozzarella was $9 for one chunk. We couldn't think of any local Italian deli shops in the entire city...and were about to head to Central Market when Ryan remembered that Costco had some...?? Costco?? To our interesting delight, Costco had a bountiful 12 oz package of Parma for $16. (Remember, in the deli case it's $27 per pound.) While they also had some Buffalo Mozzerella, we had picked up regularly cow mozz at Whole Foods and wasn't sure we were ready for the big Costco package that cost $8 and included several balls.

The results were fantastic...we loved every bit of it...and can't wait to use the extra Parm for a wrapped pork roast or something yummy like that.

Oh, then we made Orecchiette for the second time in a week. F-a-b-u-l-o-u-s. Note the new Le Creuset dish...merry christmas to us! This, along with a new iron (to replace the one I accidentally dropped and dented) made up a functional but fun Christmas.



The pasta was a bit thick and and while Orecchiette technically means "lambs ears" in Italian, we like to think they are pasta contact lenses. Here, Ryan displays the proper application...might want to leave the salt out of your solution.



Tschüß!!

Photo Recap: Day 3-4, Venice (Europe 2008)

One of the highlights of our trip; an amazing two days and one night with Silvia and her family. We met Silvia at the Hofbrauhaus in München on our October 2006 trip and kept in contact ever since. Going to Venice was a last-minute change to our trip but the best decision we've ever made!

I still can visualize meeting Silvia at the train station, walking through labyrinth-like alleys and streets to find their 200-year old house, petting their beautiful cats (Tommy, Lady, and Tommy II), eating Oreccetta and drinking wine for lunch, enjoying grappa in espresso, the special tour on their family boat, walking through the streets and hearing Silvia's papa singing somewhere in the distance, drinking amazing Cappuccinos, a foggy walk in the morning, pizza with Silvia translating back and forth, hearing "Trinque, Trocque, Balokey" which is used to say "etc, etc, etc" but sounded like she was making fun of Ryan's slavic background, seeing the market full of locals, watching Silvia and her papa saying ciao to others, having Silvia's mama grab my head and say beautiful Italian things that I didn't understand to say goodbye (then hearing it again on the cell phone the next day, "ciaociaociaociaociaociao"), learning how to curse at Berlosconi with our hands, climbing into Silvia's upstairs on a winding wooden stair, seeing groceries chilling on the windowsill outside, walking through crazy alleys to find the beautiful staircase............a dream.



Click here for more viewing options.

p.s. This is my 201st post! Thank you for coming along for the ride!

Tschüß!!!

Orecchiette

The afternoon we arrived in Venice, Silvia and her mom made the most delicious lunch I've ever had - it was simple, tasty, and beautiful on the table. I got the recipe from Silvia two nights ago and made it. So good, so beautiful, awesome. The pasta is called Orecchiette and it has broccoli, a bit of butter, some pasta water, and ricotta cheese. Simple. Let me know if you want the details.







Tschüß!!

Day 4 - Venice

It's lunchtime and Silvia's mother already prepared lunch for us. (She left for work at 7, came home on our lunchbreak and made lunch, then left to go back to work. She is amazing.) Last night was fantastic, we ate homemade pizza with homemade tomato sauce and chatted for hours with Silvia's parents and friend, Lele. Poor Silvia had to work double-time to do the translation back and forth, and at some points I think everyone wished we could just all speak the same language! You sort of feel dumb that you can't understand someone who is absolutely smart and intelligent...and you know they feel the same way. But after a while, you kind of get what they are saying by watching their eyes and gestures and tone...although sometimes you can get it totally wrong. (i.e. the Ticky, Tocky Balocky comment I mentioned earlier.)

We went to bed around 11:30 and slept sooo well...didn't stir until 8:30. Took showers and went for a walk around a foggy, mystical Venice. It's so neat to take random alleys that lead to different Campos (squares), with beautiful picture opportunities at every corner. We have already taken 250 pictures of our trip plus about 30 minutes of video.

Continuing our tradition of yesterday, we hit some more Cappuchino bars (haha I went to pay for our last round and asked the wrong person so they were about to make 3 more until Silvia corrected me...lol). There are no tourists in the early morning. Lele works security at the airport and says he sees no Americans coming to Italy. Even flights to NYC are full of Italians and barely any Americans. I like that because I don't really want to see anyone else that is speaking American English but from an economy perspective, it is not very good for Venice. They rely on tourists.

Silvia took us to a cute shop to buy some Venetian glass souveniers...real Italian glass made in Italy, not the Made in China crap that a lot of places sell. Terrible, eh? But we have become pretty saavy at spotting the touristy places from the honest storekeepers who want to offer a real experience.

Oh, forgot to tell you the pizzas last night...one was Mushroom and Mozzerella (fresh mozz that comes in a plastic pouch) and the other was Speck and Gorgonzola plus a little Mozzerella. Speck is more smoky than Prosciuotto (sorry for the spelling in the blog, I am not able to spell check on this italian computer).

Ok, Silvia says that I better go eat lunch! Ciao!

Day 3 - Venice

When you picture the most ideal day in Venice - playing by our rules, of course, which means being more of a local than a tourist - what do you picture? Maybe the sweetest local person, a third generation Venetian that actually speaks Venetian (it's different than Italian) comes to pick you up and offers you to stay in her house with original Terazza floors? And walking in her, mother is cooking fresh lunch (Oreccete) with bread and wine on the table. And you are greeted with kisses on the cheek? And what if her mother's cousin worked at a local espresso bar, who teases you while gifting you espresso (with a shot of grappa of course) while chatting like a regular?

Sound good? That's the past 7 hours of our life. And it got better...

After that, we jumped in their private boat and took a private tour of Venice! The Grand Canal, peeking through tiny alleys, while being serenaded by an official gondolier singer...her father...who wasn't really meaning to seranade us but he just always sings. He is sitting on the couch singing something right now as I type on Silvia's computer.

We then walked for hours upon hours through tiny streets, saying Ciao to various friends of Silvia, checking out supermarkets, joking, learning Venetian and Italian and having an amazing time!

A friend of Silvia's has been invited over and along with her parents we are going to do homemade pizza. Haha, I was just trying to converse with her mother and apparently we were talking about how she loves Salzburg and they say that it is a mini-Venice.

Rick Steves would be proud. Actually, he would pee his pants with excitement on how surreal and cool this all is...all because we sat next to someone at the Hofbrauhaus two years ago and started to talk...which turned to sharing a Struedel...

Time for snacks, then more touring in the morning, and then we leave for Ljubljana at 2:55 tomorrow for another first...Slovenia.

More on Venice later.

Tschuess!

Day 1 and 2: Flight and Milano

Ciao! We made it here safely and just had an awesome first day here in Milan. The flight was fine, although we only slept maybe 1 or 2 hours. But we did drink our fill of some good wine so that probably didn`t help too much. As we approached Milan to land, one of the flight attendants handed us a bottle of dessert wine, saying something about not wanting to count it on their liquor sheet and wanting us to have a warm welcome to our Europe adventure. How sweet! This is the second time they`ve done that to us on a flight to Europe!

After landing, we took a 40 minute train ride from the Malpensa airport to the Milano Nord station and walked about 20 minutes to our hotel. It`s perfect, in a great neighborhood area, and a solid 3 star budget traveler hotel. At some points it reminds me of the Upper West Side of NYC with all the families and old ladies walking dogs...but then you see the Milano side of things. People of all gender and ages racing motorcycles down tight streets with streetcars/trams clanging by and small economical cars pushing through. Then, old men riding bikes through a quiet park with huge statues of some king here and Napoleon there.

On the sightseeing list today was Castle Szorza, a beautiful 1300 military fortress which was amazing to behold. We loved seeing the feral cats running through the grassy now-dry moat.

Next, we walked down Via Dante, a pedestrian zone that was carved out of a medieval bunch of streets to celebrate Italian unification, and ended up in front of the impressive Duomo. It seriously is a sight to behold...130 spires and thousands of statues. Got to even creep into the crypt and see an old, dead cardinal encased in silver.

Afterwards, we hit the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, which is something out of the movies. It is a glass-domed arcade lined with shops, four stories tall, built around 1870. We stopped for a cappuchino (yeah yeah yeah I know it`s a breakfast drink around here but it was 11:30 so I think we were ok) and some biscuits before moving on.

Milan is the fashion capital of the world, so we did the obligatory sidewalk stroll of Via Montenapoleone. The Italians are so well-dressed here, beautiful fashion, neat hair, great style. The other awesome thing is we really feel like the only Americans and not everyone speaks English, which is keeping us on our toes and making us feel a bit ill prepared.

Later, we saw the actual The Last Supper fresco in a tiny church...you walk through a series of chambers that takes you to the right humidity since they took 21 years to restore 500 years of grime and touchups. It was an amazing, if not simple, sight. After that, we ate very Milanese food at Cecco. I had Risotto Milanese, a risotto with saffron, along with Tagliate, which is thin strips of beef lightly seared and sprinkled with rosemary. Ryan had Bolognese (oohhh yeahhh it was amazing) and then a Margerita Pizza, which was quite different from U.S. style...thin homemade crust as always but tomato sauce and sprinkled mozz cheese and only one leaf of basil.

Oh and we started that whole feast off with Parma Ham and fresh Mozzerella cheese - two kinds, one that was more formed and the other more runny. Both were deliciouso!

It`s almost 22:00 (10 p.m.) which is my breaking point for staying awake. I`m enjoying one more glass of red wine (it is sooo cheap here! my gosh) and then off to bed. Wakeup call at 7, train at 9, Venice by 12 to see Silvia. We checked with her today and she`s all setup to see us!

A truly amazing start to a fantastic adventure.

Unique moments of the day:

- Again not knowing if service is included in the bill and probably overpaying.
- Going to dinner at 7 and feeling like old early birds since we were the first people in the restaurant. They go for drinks until about 8 or 8:30 and then go to dinner. By the time we left at 9 the place was packed.
- Ordering the house wine in a carafe and experiencing the best tasting italian wine I have tasted.
- Speaking German to bums who are trying to sell things...they can speak italian and english, but German shuts them up.
- Speaking German when I think I am speaking Italian. Not a good idea.
- Trying to type on an Italian keyboard...even more confusing than a german keyboard but less umlauts

That is all - thanks for the well wishes and we are also happy to hear that Sandy and Rich are making out great with the kids back in Austin!

Ciao and Tschuess!!

Chicken Primavera

In anticipation of our trip, I've thrown a few italian dishes into the repertoire. Ellie Krieger has also turned into a huge favorite of mine from the Food Network. She does really sensible, fresh recipes that are very healthy. A few weeks ago, I had tried this Pasta Primavera sauce with fresh tomatoes, mushrooms, asparagus, and a beautiful creamy sauce. I'll be making this tonight for Ryan and his parents plus Melissa and Bobby.



This version has baked chicken with it; I've been recently cooking with the "in bone" chicken, mostly because I like the taste quite a bit more...it seems like you have to work it a bit more to get it considered "done" but it keeps better flavor, better texture, and looks really neat on a plate. Another part of me appreciates the work of having to cut it off the bone on your plate and does make me think about the creature that is providing me nourishment. Without getting super meta on you, it's part of that internal struggle between wanting to not eat meat, wanting to respect the food chain, and enjoying cooking and eating.

Ryan's parents arrived last night and we had a great meal at Hyde Park Grill and a good night of sleep. We just finished breakfast (I started cooking pancakes but was just not pulling through on the delivery of beautiful fluffy and nice-looking specimens...so Ryan had to pinch hit and finish the job) and are going to head out into the fog and rain. Costco, Toys R Us to find this game we've wanted to buy, etc. I need to remember to pull the camera out and take pictures; I regret I didn't take more when my parents were here! I selfishly have a great photo of them in front of some fabulous homemade german food. Sigh!

And if you're counting...8 days until Europe! WOOHOO! Yes, we will be blogging all the way.

Tschüß!