Yay for Sleep, Boo to Volcanoes

Gosh, I love sleep. Why it insists on being such trouble for me, I wish I knew. I slept til 11:30 this morning and it felt sooo good...mmm.

You know what I don't love? Volcanos that decide to erupt mere days before my family is coming to visit me and force flights to be cancelled. Thanks, Mother Nature. Way to be cool. NOT.

It's still a little up in the air as to whether or not they'll be able to make it, but seeing as how the ash is still a LOT up in the air, that possibility is looking mighty dim. Ah well, best-laid plans, as they say.

I met up with Alaina for lunch--well, her lunch, my breakfast--at Trattoria da Rocco, a well-known place inside the San' Ambrogio market that we've been trying to go to for ages but schedule conflicts have gotten in the way. But today, one of the few free Fridays we have left, was the perfect opportunity! It's a really cute place open to the rest of the indoor market, and definitely had the local feel. And absolutely amazing prices!

I ordered this lovely concoction:

Panzanella di farro

Panzanella is a typical Italian summer salad, usually made with big chunks of bread and tossed with capers, tomato, basil, cucumber and red onion in olive oil + vinegar (usually red wine, I believe). It's actually one of my favorite salads--my mom and I got the recipe out of a Weight Watchers cookbook and fell completely in love! [Those cookbooks have, by the way, some seriously delicious recipes - don't make snap judgements about it being "tasteless diet food" until you've tried their turkey chili recipes!] Anyway, this was made with spelt (farro) grains instead of bread and I really enjoyed it! Light and tasty. Not a bad breakfast/lunch! Could have used a few more tomato/cuke chunks, though. 

For dessert, Alaina and I split a cup of fruit salad- macedonia di frutta, because it sounded so good:

A bit uninspired in terms of the fruit used, but I rarely meet a fruit I don't like, and we happily gobbled this up.

I returned home to functional Internet-it was out all day yesterday and was driving me nuts! I still have a paper and presentation to work on, so I was getting a little nervous. Now I'm just worried that my procrastination skills will overcome my hard-working student skills...an eternal battle, truly.

Did a bit of shopping later - I had to buy a bathing suit for tomorrow because API is taking us to a thermal water pool (basically a naturally formed spa) in Siena!! On Sunday we will be in Perugia for a wine tasting. What a weekend! Before I left home, I was given strict orders to visit Siena by my neurologist, and who am I to go against doctor's orders? I will probably be a bit bogged down with homework on Sunday, but expect an update on Monday (given the internet behaves, which is far from probable...)

So, sorry for the lack of pictures today, but I promise to make it up to you this weekend - I just hope Frida is in a good mood!

~Namaste~

A Wonderful World

Pick a day of the week, any day, and I'll give an example of why I'd rather spend it in Florence. Wednesday, for instance:

Lunch at Sergio's. I think we are official regulars.

I got their ribollita for the second time because I wanted to re-try it after I had it at Mario's. For comparison's sake, of course. Sergio's version is chunkier, you can see the pieces of vegetables and soaked bread, whereas Mario's was smoother, almost like it was pureed. Sergio's uses better olive oil, but also tastes a bit more cabbage-y than Mario's (I'm not much for cabbage)...I think it's a toss-up. They are each amazingly delicious and soul-satisfying in their own right. This is one love triangle I hope is never resolved ;)

Unfortunately, a large part of my day was spent sleeping. One nap after Italian in the morning, and another in the late afternoon. Sleep and I have a very interesting, ever-changing relationship, and right now we are having some schedule difficulties. It will work itself out eventually; right now, I'm just taking it when I can get it and focusing on getting work done and erasing stress.

I started to get antsy after an all-too sedentary day last night while working and decided that a walk was just the medicine I needed. It was nice to just get out and get some air and do some thinking. And get gelato.

I walked by Carabe, one of the places nearby which seems to have mysterious opening hours that are always 'just wrong', and when I saw it open, I took it as a sign. Who am I to mess with fate?

I have gone once before and got the almond, but was a bit underwhelmed by it. My roommate went recently and raved about the tiramisu, so obviously I had to give them another chance! There was also kiwi on that cone - not because it's the perfect compliment to tiramisu, but really because it looked good and I wanted to try it. I gobbled it down before Frida came out, but it looked like what you might imagine kiwi gelato does - pale green with little black seeds. It was deeelicious. The tiramisu was a semifreddo, not gelato, which basically means it's a kind of cold mousse instead of frozen. It was heavy on the coffee flavor--but that's a good thing! It was good. Tiramisu gelato is one of the funnest flavors to try because you never know what it's going to be like; some are more coffee-y, some are more rum-y, some are blended smooth and others have actual pieces of tiramisu in them. It's a wonderful world.

The sky looked so cool, I couldn't resist taking Frida out again. She was in one of her moods and it's a little blurry, but doesn't this picture make it look like the bell tower is fake? Like one of those little models architects use. I swear it's real!

I didn't really sleep and have a neck/head ache that would stagger a horse, but I'm doing just fine because it's Thursday, and that means one thing...

COOKING CLASS!!!

Not until I've had my oats, of course:

Doesn't it look like the vanilla is giving the cocoats a big hug? ...Well, I thought so. I swear I'm not crazy...just, um, creative.

But back to the show.
Today's class was focused on cooking with FRUIT! Quite possibly my favorite food category. I don't take pictures of everything I eat, mostly because it's just not all that interesting or photogenic, but if I did - you would be very sick of apples and pears. I think I eat at least one of each a day. Can't wait for summer berries!!
NEEDless to say, I was quite excited about today. We started with a salad:

Spinach, artichoke hearts, chickpeas, red onion, pears, fresh buffalo mozzarella, dressed with lemon juice + olive oil + few drops of good aged balsamic vin.
Now, I grew up with the reigning queen of salads. My mother makes wonderful and creative salads not unlike this one, and I'm actually pretty envious of her ability to whip up the right dressing that complements the salad ingredients. That said, this salad blew my tastebuds away! The pears just made it. Although I would recommend using a more pungent cheese like a goat or bleu, would have been even better with the sweetness of the pear.
We also made some fresh rosemary focaccia to go with it (and by made, I mean actually hand-made it from ingredients-up, not just took it out of some plastic and threw it in the oven):

Oooh, this made me so happy. 

I've found I'm not such a fan of the oily, airy focaccia found in the bakeries here, but the focaccia we make in class (see our first here) is amazing. Dense and doughy but thin and chewy, with juuust the right saltiness. I had 4 small palm-sized pieces...I have no ability to resist when it comes to fresh bread. And yes, I know how to make it. Expect to see a lot of this rolling out of my kitchen when I'm home.

My 1st portion of salad + focaccia:

I had a large second helping of this stuff! I can't wait to make it again!

Next up was my team's dish:

Risotto alle fragole (strawberry risotto)!

Sounds weird, right? Well, it was. I have had it before, at a restaurant, and liked it a lot, but my tastebuds remained a bit confuzzled. It's something like mac & cheese in its creaminess, but then there is the surprising sweetness of the strawberry. We made parmesan crisps to top it and finished it with a drizzle of balsamic. The crisps could not be easier - literally take a palm-ful (or however much you like) of grated parmesan cheese, put it in little circular piles on a baking sheet, and bake it for 5-10 (just watch it, it will turn golden-brown when done). Easy and quite pretty! Added a nice extra kick of cheesy flavor, too. I enjoyed the dish as a whole, but I'm not hankering to have it again. To be honest though, I think that has a lot more to do with the fact that I really just don't like rice very much; it just does absolutely nothing for me. Perhaps I should try this with pasta? Hmm, experiment time...

Next dish:

Chicken with porcini mushrooms and green apple

This dish was fine. Acceptable. Perfectly edible. But I was unimpressed. We took a chicken breast and fried it in olive oil (about 5 minutes on each side), then covered it with the simmered porcini mushrooms and apples with some parsley and baked it for about 10 minutes covered with tin foil. It's not that it was bad, it just didn't appeal to me. I'm not a big meat eater anyway (fish, however, is a horse of a different color!), and the texture of the chicken was quite nice (not to chewy and slightly crispy), but overall...meh. Could have done without it happily. The mushroom-apple combo was not as striking as I expected, even with the saffron added (which I love!). Good, but not more than that.

I can't say the same for the dessert...

Chocolate souffle.
This is, I believe, my first-ever experience with a souffle...and now I am wondering why. This. was. so. good. It had the light, fluffy texture of mousse that I adore but was warm and moist like cake fresh out of the oven. The chocolate was dark but not too heavy and all in all, this was a little ramekin of heaven. We did not alter this recipe, and the only fruit added was that raspberry that you seeon top, but I think it makes an important statement nutrition-wise: it's perfectly healthy to eat indulgent foods! It's all about the portion size. And what better an end to a meal than chocolate? Especially in carb-form. I left perfectly satisfied.
This class was the first that I didn't go ga-ga over every single dish we made, but the salad, focaccia and dessert more than make up for the other two (which weren't even bad, just not something I personally enjoyed as much as the others).

The rest of the day was spent in a nearby piazza with a nap in the sun and bit of dog-watching. Lovely.

I am not sure that I have formally discussed this other than maybe some lines here or there, but I am as of now looking into culinary school after next year's graduation (aaah! senior year...how did this happen???). I have no idea what exact career I want--and by no idea, I mean I have about 30 different ones--but I do know that my passion for and fascination with food only seems to increase, and I'm following what I love. I would go for Baking/Pastry because that's really what I love and where I feel I'm more creative, and, well, I'd much rather deal with finicky pate a choux than learn how to de-bone a duck. It's something I've been putting off announcing mostly because whenever I 'announce' something like this, I end up going in a completely different direction. That wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, as long as I love it, but right now I'm so into the food world that the thought of me suddenly not going into it is too scary and sad for me to think of.
Just throwing it out there.

The British weekend is coming!

~Namaste~

A Very Unique Easter

Buona Pasqua...err, 2 days late! The internet has been a serious downer, but I can only get so low before I remember I'm living in Florence. That makes everything so much better.

Easter was...certainly unique. Oh, where to begin. 

I woke up and knew something was off. My head was pounding and I just felt weird. I figured out the problem pretty quickly...

No, I did not get beaten up in the middle of the night. Well, actually, I guess I kind of did...by a MOSQUITO. Mosquitoes are bad all year round in Florence, and the one buzzing around our room last night got me good. Really good. 

I had planned on doing some Easter morning yoga, but I was a little distracted, for obvious reasons. I needed chocolate, and I needed it immediately. Lucky for me, chocolate is how Italians celebrate Easter, in the form of eggs:

All wrapped up perty!

Vestri, a wonderful chocolate company here in Firenze (with excellent gelato!)

300 grams of dark chocolate. Yep, this helped the puffy-face situation.

For comparison ;)

I sought further consolation in my good ole stand-by - oats!

I used raisins for the first time in my oats - I loved it! Added a really nice sweetness.

I also added blackberries and strawberries my roommate bought for pancakes. I LOVE berries in my oats, but they're not quite in season and Italians are big on eating on in-season fruits, so they're not as easy to find. Don't worry - come summer, you will see a LOT of berrylicious oat bowls around here!

Raisins, berries, cinnamon, oh my!

The puffiness slowly receded throughout the day, but I was still quite comical-looking when we ventured out into the torrential downpour for a nice Easter dinner. We went to Dante's, recommended by many students because they offer free, unlimited wine. And puffy face + pouring rain = definitely a good day for wine. 

I ordered my first pizza in Italy!

Foccaccia al salmone

Suuuper thin foccaccia (very much like naan) with mozzarella, tomatoes, arugula, and smoked salmon. Basically, the perfect bagel, with mozzarella instead of cream cheese and a different carb on the bottom. Smoked salmon + arugula is a match made in heaven.

I pretty much demolished this massive pizza, but the thinness of the crust made it lighter than it looked. The wine was nice too...but then they brought a second bottle. And then a free shot of limoncello. And then I was a liiiiittle bit tipsy.

We gave up on the idea of walking home when we looked outside and it was raining even harder, so we called a cab. Alaina generously made a crostata for our dessert that was awaiting us patiently in the refrigerator:

So perty! And quite yummy also!

However, Alaina got upset that Sam and I ate "all" of the fruit (her accusation, not my admission), and things escalated quite quickly into a full-out berry/crostata WAR. Berries in our hair, on the floor, on our clothes, and basically every other surface in our apartment was at some point or other covered in berry juice. True, not so fun to clean up...but totally worth it.

Our Easter Monday was pretty uneventful. Slept in, did a bit of shopping, and sent angry vibes to Mother Nature for not giving us spring weather. I did make a pretty sweet bowl of oats though:

KINDEREGG OATS!!!

If you have never had a Kinderegg before, please find one now. They look like this:

Made in Germany, they are milk chocolate.white chocolate on the inside with a little toy inside.

When I was little, I had several au pairs and two of them were from Germany (in fact, one of them is pregnant with twins!! SO exciting!!! Hi Tina!!) and they gave these to me and my brother a bunch - SO fun. They are huge in Europe and one of my roommates here has discovered them and is full-on addicted, and so she bought us each one for Easter. My first thought when I saw it was to add it to oats. We all have our addictions, I suppose.

So, there you have it. My Easter in Florence. Crazy, weird...and definitely one-of-a-kind.