Update

Right now Eric is busy studying for his Statistics exam this Saturday, so I'm planning to do a mega blog to catch everyone up on the events of the last couple weeks. Last weekend we didn't do much since Eric had lots of homework. This was fine with me since sometimes I like to sit around an read a book all day. I cooked Friday and Saturday night. Friday after work we went to the Italian market and my new ingredient was radicchio. This is a purple lettuce found in mixed bags of salad, but here in Sicily they serve it grilled as a side dish. OMG, it is good. It is SUPER bitter, so not everyone enjoys it, but I am a big fan. I got an appetizer a few weeks ago called Faccia Vecchia, which I think means Old Face, anyways it turned out to be grilled eggplant and zucchini slices and grilled slices of radicchio, all drizzled in hundred year old balsamic vinegar and to top it all off there was a wedge of warm smoked provolone in the middle. I was ecstatic. So Friday I brought home my radicchio along with some fennel, pasta, fresh italian sausage, and some involtini alla mandorle. A note on involtini- loosely translated it means "rolled up", and it is usually a small piece of thinly sliced pork that has been rolled around something, usually another type of pork. :) Other times it is a mix of breadcrumbs herbs & cheese in various combinations. Then it is skewered and coated in breadcrumbs. These always turn out great at home, I sear them on all sides on the stovetop and them pop them in the oven for a few minutes to cook through. So back to Friday... I'm a little excited about the involtini alla mandorle b/c mandorla is "almond" and I've never seen this before. After we get out of the grocery store we head over to the pet store...

I'd like to introduce you to the new members of the Thor clan, Mr. and Mrs. Fishypants. Mr. Fishypants (red fish) joined us a few weeks ago. We wanted to make sure life could survive in our tank before bringing home his bride on Friday, Mrs. Fishypants. She was a little shy at first, hiding out in the Parthenon a lot, but now they are swimming together all the time and I'm sure they are in love.

When we got back to the house I started cooking. I was making a saute of the fennel and radicchio with some toasted pine nuts as a side dish for my involtini. Eric kept walking around saying he could smell something, "what is that smell?" "is it the food, Eric?" "No, it isn't the food, maybe I smell. Do I smell?" "No, Eric you don't smell" "Well there's something smelly" I think after a while he realized it was the fennel/radicchio combo and he shut up about the smell. Anyways, I would recommend you all try to grill radicchio (outside) rather than saute it. I still really liked my saute, but the last thing you want your family doing while you are eating your dinner is sniffing themselves to see if they have B.O. :) The involtini turned out to be halved almonds mixed into philly cream cheese then rolled in the pork. Not exactly epicurean, but trying new things that end up tasting terrible is all part of the adventure.

Saturday I decided that the time had come in my life when I was ready to bake bread. I got inspired last weekend when Eric and I went with some friends to the pizzeria next door, Il Canguro (The Kangaroo), and the owners invited us behind the counter to make our own pizzas, including instructing us on how to work the dough. I found some yeast in my cabinet. The package said it was best if used before September of 2006, but I decided to give it a shot. The yeast actually belongs to my pharmacy roommate Jessica, who bought it in 2005 when she and her then-boyfriend-now-husband Dan made pizzas together. This yeast has moved with me from Chicago to DC and now to Italy! There's a recipe on the back of the package and I do my best to follow it. After kneading it and letting it rest, I'm pretty surprised when I peek under the dishcloth and see that the dough has risen. I'm even more surprised when it comes out of the oven looking not only edible but pretty! The bread turns out a little dense but tasty and Eric and I enjoy it for dinner that night and breakfast the next morning. I baked again tonight and the results were great- I put an eggwash on top of the rolls so they came out nice and shiny.

The next day is Sunday and we are excited b/c it is Opera Day! Our German friend Monika who Eric has blogged about before, has had a box at the Catania opera for a decade or so. She invited us to get season tickets with her this year. The opera house is beautiful- it is dedicated to a famous composer from Catania, Bellini. He wrote 12 operas, and the paintings on the ceiling of the opera house depict a scene from each opera. We saw the Greek tragedy Medea performed. It was wonderful! Part of the fun of going to the opera was seeing all the italians decked out. All the women were in fur coats, even though it was 50 degrees outside. I'm always amazed when I'm standing in a crowd of Sicilian women- they are all so tiny! Especially the opera crowd who are a bit older. At 5'6" feel like a giant standing next to a Sicilian who is 4'11" even in her 2" heels!

The top picture in the blog is from two weekends ago. We went to the Catania vs Bologna soccer game. It is hard to tell in the picture, but Mt Etna is right behind us. That weekend we also went to Siracusa for the day. Here I met my now-favorite sculpture:

We came upon her at the beginning of the Siracusa adventure, we'd just seen the ruins of the temple of Diana from however many years BC, (hopefully Eric's blog will be more specific) and had made our way into the Piazza Archimede (Archimedes was from Syracuse). This lady is part of a large fountain. She's a half woman, half sea creature holding her baby. I love her because she's smiling and happy. Close your eyes and see if you can picture a sculpture you've seen where the subject is smiling. I can't- except her. It was so lovely to see in her in the morning sunlight in this quiet square.

After visiting the Duomo, we went underneath the Duomo into a series of tunnels and caverns which served as shelters for the townspeople during the air raids of WWII

Can you imagine?

Next we went to the aquarium where I made friends with a sea turtle.

Then off to the fishmarket.

Finally to the Greek theater where they still hold plays in the summer.

On the go...

Ciao tutti! I'm dead tired after a long but wonderful day. Eric and I have season tickets to the Bellini Opera House in Catania and today was our first show. It was wonderful and I promise to blog and post some pics soon about the opera, our trip last weekend to Siracusa, our first soccer game, going back in the kitchen and making pizzas at the pizzeria next door, and all the other crazy things happening lately. But for now I'm molto sleepy. I've got Italian lessons tomorrow and I'll try to remember to look up the word for sleepy. These pics are from when Eric and I were dogsitting for our friend Adam. His dog Hoya was very sweet but needed lots of attention. He wouldn't get more that a foot away from us! These pictures are taken by Eric when I'm laying on his lap on the couch, then Hoya comes up and wants to be laying on Eric's lap, too. Goodnight!

Ups and Downs of the Sicilian Table

As most of you know, I love to cook. One of my big fantasies when I thought about moving to italy was that I'd meet some tiny hundred year old woman who would want to teach me everything she knew about Sicilian cooking. She wouldn't know English and I wouldn't know Italian but we'd be able to communicate through the universal and magical language of food.

This hasn't happened yet.

In the meantime when I go to the Italian grocery store I try to come home with something that I've never cooked before. Last week it was artichokes. "Cariciofi" are in season right now. I know what is in season based on what people are selling out of the back of their trucks as I'm driving home from work. In the fall it was cauliflower, which for some reason is purple here. Then around Christmas the food was replaced with poinsettias. They're called Stella Natale, or Christmas Star, which I like a lot better than the name "poinsettia". Along with the stella natale the vendors would be roasting chestnuts. Now it is oranges and artichokes. I've never made artichokes before; the only way I've eaten them is artichoke hearts out of a can in salads, dips, pizzas, etc. Eric has had whole artichokes before and assures me that they are very tasty. I also have a memory of my mom making these for a fancy grown-up dinner party 20 or so years ago. Anyways, I'm not afraid of these pointy vegetables. I find a recipe online for stuffed artichokes involving lots of garlic, breadcrumbs, cheese, white wine, parsley, and a few other things that all sound delicious. I get to work. A couple hours later I present the plate pictured above to my adoring husband. I couldn't believe how good they smelled and how beautiful they looked. I don't usually photograph my food, but it looked so nice that I couldn't resist. Eric instructed me on how to use my teeth to extract the artichoke flesh from the leaves and I tore into my gorgeous creation. As we started picking them apart, all my hopes were dashed. They were terrible! I don't understand how something that looks like an artichoke and smells like an artichoke can have no actual edible artichoke within.

Luckily, I didn't throw my Calphalon cookware into the sea that night. This week I decided to try something a little more in my "range"- Spaghetti alla Carbonara. This is on many of the ristorante menus here in Aci Trezza. I'm familiar with it b/c one of the main staples of my college years were Lean Cuisine dinners, and one of my favorites was Linguine Carbonara. Of course, this sodium-filled concoction is nothing like getting the real thing here in Italy. I decided to learn how to make it. Turns out, it is so simple I bet my brother Glenn could even pull it off! Well, maybe not Glenn, but Greg or Steve could handle it for sure. I made it once for just Eric and I, and then another time for company. You should try it!

In a large pan on med-hi heat cook 3/4 C pancetta, cut into 1/2" cubes, until it is browned and getting crispy. Pancetta is the italian equivalent of american bacon, except it is usually cut up into small chunks and tastes smokier than bacon. I could never find pancetta in the states, but as I've said in other posts, my grocery store has an aisle where they've virtually dissected a pig (see above), so everything porcine is abundant. You could substitute pancetta with thick-cut bacon. Back to the recipe- after the bacon is browned, remove it from the pan onto a paper towel. Into the drippings, add a finely chopped onion and saute until translucent and soft. In the meantime, add 1 pound spaghetti to boiling heavily salted water. In a bowl, beat 3 large eggs. Add a good amount of freshly ground black pepper. I don't know exactly how much, just grind until you say to yourself "boy, that's a lot of pepper". Now add 1 cup grated parmesan cheese and 1 cup grated provelone cheese to the egg mix. (traditionalists would say to use romano or another hard parmesan-like cheese, but I think the provelone makes the sauce creamier). By now your pasta should be al-dente and your onion should be cooked. Add the bacon back to the pan and turn off the heat. Drain the pasta and add to the onion/bacon. (I actually suggest using tongs and directly transferring the pasta from the water to the pan) Pour the egg mixture over the pasta and mix everything together. The heat from the pasta instantly cooks the egg & cheese mixture into an unbelievably smooth and creamy sauce, the bacon adds some smokiness and the pepper gives a nice kick. Now just sprinkle with some chopped italian parsley and serve. Enjoy!

Adventures in Messina

Today I have the day off of work. Eric is using his time installing lighting in our kitchen
(see bottom pic). Our kitchen is pretty nice- it has the best view in the house, and we've painted it a pretty blue- azzuro marino (sea blue) or something like that. I mentioned in my last post that Italian grocery stores only have 10 produce items. Well, the hardware stores only have 10 paint colors. At this point Eric would point out that some stores have places to choose a color from a book and have the paint mixed, but this brings up so many problems I don't know where to start. Consequently, our kitchen is accented with azzuro marino and our living room with marrone (red-brown).
The other day we drove up to Messina. This is the 3rd largest city in Sicily, about an hour away from us. It was completely destroyed by an earthquake 100 years ago, so it looks quite different than most Sicilian cities. I couldn't tell if this was a good thing or a bad thing. Their roads were really nice but their buildings were pretty uninspired. Our travel books said there wasn't much to do there except see the Duomo and go to the Museo Regionale. The books in particular liked the museum and said it has the largest collection of 15th 16th century art in all of Sicily. We thought it would make a good day trip.
We wanted to get there by noon, since the big sight in Messina is the belltower of the Duomo, which houses the world's largest astrological clock. Eric and I had been impressed by an astrological clock in Prague, so we wanted to see how this one compared. (you can check out pictures of our Prague adventures on Eric's blog) We got there early and took a look inside the Duomo. I really liked this church- it didn't have nearly as much of the flare as most churches- relatively no marble and an ugly altar, but it had an ornately painted wooden ceiling and really pretty mosaics. I'm a sucker for mosaics. Also, the sides were lined with larger than life statues of the apostles and other saints, which I thought were pretty well-sculpted. In a lot of Sicilian churches I find that the proportions on the human sculptures don't look quite right. Seeing some goofy looking saint with forearms the same size as his thighs makes you appreciate when you see one that looks fairly close to human.
We exited the church and took positions in the square with a good view of the clock. At noon the two big gold ladies started ringing the bells. These women supposedly saved Messina from invasion way back when. Too bad they couldn't do anything about that huge earthquake and tidal wave that killed 60,000 Messinans! Ok I guess I shouldn't mock devastating natural disasters. After they finished ringing the bells, the lion started wagging his tail and rearing his head back and roaring. ROARING. It was loud. After he roared a few times, the rooster perched between the bells followed suit and CROWED. Again, waking up the dead kinda loud. We thought this might be the end of the show, but then the Ave Maria starts bursting out of these tiny speakers. It was really dreadful sounding, but Eric and I were too transfixed to cover our ears- since Jesus is risen from the tomb, and He's waving at us! And there go the apostles walking past him waving back at him! And what's that- the Messina Duomo rising up out of the devastation of the earthquake, and there's a dove circling around it as it rises! And there's the holy family in the stable in Bethlehem, and the camels and shepherds and wisemen all pay them a visit. AVE MARIA!
Eric timed it- 12 minutes. It really was something.
Next we drove over to the museum. As we drove by it, we were impressed b/c it looked like a modern building and had lots of cool-looking bits and pieces of old archways, sculptures, etc, all over the grounds. We parked and walked up and found the gate locked. Hmm...was it closed that day? As we looked around it became clear that this museum hadn't been open in a LONG time. At least months, maybe longer.
This kind of thing ALWAYS happens to us in Sicily. Our guide books will say there is some really cool thing we should see, then we get there and it is closed/non-existent/not open on days ending in "Y" or months ending in "R"/closed for riposo (italian version of lunchtime "siesta") and may or may not open back up at 3:30 even though the sign says it should.
Frustrated, we head back into town and hope to find some good lunch. We go to a place in the guide book and of course it is closed. We walk around and find a place that looks adequate. When we get our menus we find that not only is nothing in english, but there is no italian description of the food, either. On most menus, they'll call something "Maccheroni alla Norma" and then describe it in italian "melanzane, basilica, ricotta salata, tomate". I can navigate these menus since I've become almost fluent in "restaurant italian". This menu no has descriptions and everything has names like spaghetti alla donna vecchia- old lady spaghetti?? Huh? And most of the other names are outside of my vocabulary. I'm hungry and still mad at the Museo Regionale, so I don't really want to ask the poor waiter the ingredients of every dish. I order the second thing on the menu- Paparadelle alla mare e monte. Eric orders the only recognizable thing on the menu, risotto con fungi porcini (mushroom risotto). Long story short, the pastas save the day! Mine was swordfish, shrimp and roasted mushrooms in a smooth and creamy tomato sauce with undoubtedly homemade paparadelle pasta. YUM!

Immersion Blending

Today I would like to introduce you to my immersion blender, pictured here with a pretty platter I bought in Caltagirone. I got it as a wedding gift from my brother Steve and sister-in-law Erinn. Ever since I got it out of the box, we've had soup at least twice a week. It makes everything so easy! One day all I had in the kitchen was an onion, 2 potatoes and 6 or 8 carrots. Doesn't sound very appetizing, but saute up those veggies with some crushed red pepper, add some chicken stock and curry powder, then blend away and you've got a professional looking (and tasting) Curried Carrot Soup. When I'm making soup Eric wanders into the kitchen and asks me what I'm making. I tell him "something that no one else in the world has ever made before". I treat it like a culinary challenge, I'm Iron Chef Shannon, and I have 30 minutes to turn these 5 ingredients into something tasty. GO!

One thing that I've found a little frustrating here in Sicily is that although the Italian grocery stores have literally a hundred varieties of cheese and dozens of forms of pork, they only have about 10 produce items. One food that I find myself buying here that I rarely purchased in the States is fennel. These are softball sized white bulbs with big green shoots coming out on top. The white part is crunchy and has a very mild flavor, while the green fronds have a pronounced licorice taste. I see fennel on menus here, usually pickled in antipasti, or thinly sliced fresh fennel tossed in salads. Here's a recipe for you to try involving fennel and an immersion blender. Eric says it is a keeper.

Trim 2 medium size fennel bulbs (cut off green stalks, cut out tough inner core of bulb, keep a few fronds for garnish) and chop. Add chopped fennel to 3 tablespoons of melted butter in a large pot over med-hi heat. Chop one large leek (white and pale green parts only) and add to pot. Add 1 teaspoon fennel seeds (you will have to buy these in the spice aisle). After 10 minutes or so when the veggies are softened, add 5 1/2 cups chicken stock and 3 large peeled and chopped russet potatoes. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes until potatoes are tender. Blend soup, add salt and pepper as desired. Serve with chopped fennel fronds as garnish, and if you want to get fancy you could garnish also with a bit of chopped proscuitto or smoked salmon. Will make 6-8 servings and tastes great the next day. Boun appetito!

Caltagirone

Caltagirone is a small town about 40 minutes from us. The town is known for its cereamic production, including a 142 step stairway leading from the town square to the church. Each step is decorated with handpainted tiles. We visited a park there and met some swans.

Mexican Christmas

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. Eric and I just returned from Rome. When we got back we found that “Papo Natale” had left us the most wonderful Christmas present – phone and internet service in our apartment!! I’m back in the 21st century! Well, kind of. Anytime I’m doing anything that involves Italians I feel more like I’m going back in time about 200 years. Last week Eric and I tried to go into Catania for dinner. There’s a Mexican restaurant there, and from what I could translate from their website, they have “real” Mexicans running the place- they even had pictures of these so-called Mexicans. We were willing to risk that it might not be exactly authentic Mexican food, we just hoped that they wouldn’t bring out a pizza folded in half and call it a taco. To preface this story, I should tell you that Eric and I have been putting off buying a GPS. First of all we like to think of ourselves as adventurous people who don’t need a GPS b/c we don’t get lost, we just sometimes find a creative way to get to our destination. Secondly, GPS’s cost about $400 and we’d rather spend that money on actual travel and not a computerized map. So back to the Mexican food. Eric had gotten Mapquest directions but couldn’t print them b/c the library printer was broken. Consequently, Eric is driving while I navigate with no map and the turn-by-turn on a sheet of loose leaf paper. This worked out fine until according to the directions it seemed that we should be parked in front of the restaurant, but in reality we were parked in front of a horse meat vendor. Catanians love horse meat. I have yet to try it, but people tell me it tastes like beef. Why not just eat beef, then? Why eat a horse? Eric and I decide to park try to find the restaurant on foot. (grr…I’m in heels) We start walking around and soon find that we are in the Horse Meat District. Even though it is 8:30pm, every other store is a horse butcher who has a table out on the sidewalk displaying various bits of horse. Who goes out to buy raw horse at 8:30pm? How are there this many horse meat stores in one city? Even though I’m passing by horse steak and horse liver and horse intestine, I’m secretly grateful b/c in the fish market they usually have a big swordfish head sitting in the front window, and I don’t know what I would do if there was a dead horse head staring me in the face. He’d probably be mocking me for thinking there might be Mexican food in this neighborhood. Ha ha, “Ney”-borhood. I’m starting to doubt that I’m adventurous person, and that maybe $400 isn’t that much money after all for a GPS. After 30 minutes and still no Mexican food, I decide to give up. I tell Eric I can’t look at any more horses and we find ourselves a nice horse-free pizzeria. A few nights later is our last night before we leave for Rome. We decide to open our Christmas presents that night. I fix nachos and Eric makes margaritas in our new blender (thanks Shelly and Matt!) and we watch The Santa Clause III on TV. I love living here and most of the time it is exciting and rewarding in so many ways, but sometimes I really miss America. Nights like these make me really happy.