Friday, January 30, 2009

Workin' in a coal mine goin' down down down

In Italy the IDs have everyone's occupation as well as height, weight and eye color.  Mine currently says looking for work, but I told the woman who made it that wasn't correct, that I'm a princepessa.  Well, my days as a princess are numbered because Fabri's making me look for work.  He claims it's because I sit at home complaining about being bored.  

I have already started volunteering at a natural history museum near here.  (Storia Naturale Museo di Carmagnola)  I emailed an entomology professor at the University of Turin about 5 years ago when I was finishing up at SMC to see if there was a chance of my doing a master's in Italy.  That obviously didn't work out, but he was very nice and we emailed again a few months ago to see about possible opportunities for me when I moved here.  He hooked me up with Gianfranco, the entomologist at the museum.  We all met 2 Fridays ago.  We went around the museum, discussed research, and looked at the insect collection.  Then we went to lunch and took a field trip to a green house near the museum where Massimo, the university professor keeps and propagates his cactus collection.  Afterwards Gianfranco invited me to come to the museum as often as I like and curate the lepidoptera (butterfly & moth) collection.  So I've been going 3 days a week for 4 hours in the morning. 

In addition to looking for entomology work, Fabri and I have gone to several language schools in the area and inquired about work there.  In-fact I have 2 interviews tomorrow in Cuneo!  Fabri is going to come with me and then we're going to go out to dinner at this restaurant we liked up there.  

Speaking of Fabri, he had a hellish week this past one.  He had a night shift on Wednesday and bad cases for the hospice.  Then this weekend he worked even more than he does during the week!  He worked a boxing match with his dad for 13 hours on Saturday and 10 hours Sunday.  Tonight is his last night shift because he quit that job.  So we will be celebrating that and making sure this week is nicer than last in every way!  

Monday, January 19, 2009

Third Wedding!

How many brides get to have three weddings? It was my intention to get some decent use out of my wedding dresses. This final wedding celebration was a dinner with all of Fabri’s extended family most of who weren’t able to make it to the second wedding party back in September. This one was better though because my family including a Crow family representative were there.

There was no ceremony or grand entrance unfortunately. We had a lovely dinner of about 50 people. I had planned on wearing my long wedding dress, but it was snowy and cold and I didn’t want to get it dirty. Instead I wore a purple dress (purple is VERY IN in Italy this winter) and went as a groovy bride.

We began (of course) with an aperitivo at Gerry’s bar and met Danny & Mickey. Then we all moved on to Da Vincenzo’s for the dinner. Vincenzo and his family have been patients of Antionio’s for years & years and they are always very nice and accommodating. He had his head waiter with us while he was working in the kitchen. The reception began with an aperitivo drink with aperol (ick) and many hors d’ouevres both butler passed and stationary. This is an important distinction when there are 50 people standing around a relatively small space.

The tables were set up in a large U with one end longer than the other. There was no way you could talk to everyone, but at least we were all at the same table, which is the way Italians prefer to do it. The table was very lovely with a Christmas theme and I got a beautiful bouquet from Fabri’s cousins Luisa and Pasqualino.

Ok, the dinner. Most importantly, the wine was good. I believe the red was a Barbarera d’Alba. I only had a taste of the white, but it was good as well. I think most white wine is good as long as it’s not too sweet. The first antipasto was a variety of meats and cheeses typical of the south of Italy. The sun-dried tomatoes were particularly good and I ate them off of several people’s plates. Next was a spinach and cheese crepe, which was creamy and delicious. For pasta there was seafood pasta, which is always a favorite of Fabri’s. Then we had pasta fagioli (pasta with beans). It is a poor dish, but done well it’s really delicious (as is often the case with poor dishes). Antonio can’t have dinner at Vincenzo’s without that. Vincenzo brought it out in a big pot to serve us at the table and Antonio spooned out the first bowl.

The meat course was the one that was most important to me and I have to say I was disappointed. Maria Pia, Fabri & I met with Vincenzo to form this menu and he suggested this beef with a sauce served with polenta. I didn’t think the meat was very good at all. The polenta was good, but polenta is heavy. I would have preferred grilled vegetables or something. Oh well, live and learn.

The dessert was my favorite Italian dessert though, profiteroles!!! They are little pastry balls with whipped cream inside and they’re rolled in a sort of chocolate frosting with lots of extra chocolate on top. Fabri says they are not a classy dessert and are usually found in pizzerias, but they are my new favorite and I eat as many of them as I can classy or not.

Fabri and I made the rounds to all the tables between all the courses so that we were sure to talk with everyone. Afterwards we went to Gerry’s and then to Tricksy for some cocktails. I was exhausted by the end of the night, but we had a great time.

These are some of the pictures and they aren’t very good. On Wednesday I’m getting the photos from Brunella’s camera and I think there are one or two more cameras out there I have to get. This was the first time in years that all of Fabri’s family was together and we took a lot of photos of the different family combinations. Just like the Latchaws do at our reunions.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Post Holidays

Bad Jess, no new blogs for a month! Hopefully I haven't lost my entire audience.

The holidays were super busy. I was very focussed on getting the house ready for our post Christmas company! It was really great having Laura, Liz, Mom and Dad here and now that the house is back in order, I miss them. There are lots of new photos going up on my Picasa web album from that trip.  

As usual I guess I need to go back in time and talk about all the holiday madness, but first a more current update.  Fabri and I are of course still working on little projects around the house.  Today I'm going bird feeder hunting.  Then I'll have to find an Italian bird book so I can ID the birds we attract.  Fabri is supposed to be figuring out how to hang a shelf in our shower wall and we're both looking for rugs and a couple of small pieces of furniture for the master bathroom.  Exciting stuff huh?  Someday we're going to go up to IKEA and buy a shelving system for our cantina (cellar) which we've already picked out.  

So the holidays in Italy are really all about eating.  I guess most holidays around the world are like that, but the Italians bring it to another level.  Southern Italians begin with a Christmas Eve dinner of 7 fishes.  I think we made it up to 7 seafoods by eating: mussels, shrimp, clams, squid, octopus, salmon, and a fish that starts with a "b" and there were probably anchovies hidden in there as well.  I made Maryland style steamed shrimp with Old Bay as an appetizer and people loved it.  That was perfect because just about everyone got a can of Old Bay from Fabri and I in their Christmas goody bags.  While we were in MD for Thanksgiving Fabri and I bought a bunch of small gifts to go in reusable shopping bags to give to each family.  

Now after dinner Fabri usually tries to go to Midnight Mass, but dinner lasted too long and we didn't make it.  Christmas morning Fabri had to work (he worked pretty much everyday during the holidays), so we woke up at 7:30 or so and opened presents and stockings.  Then the poor thing had to go to work and I made chocolate chip cookies.  The weather was pretty bad.  It was snowing and foggy and we met at his parents' country house in Ruffia for Christmas lunch.  I brought the cookies and presents for everyone.  We had another huge lunch and afterwards had Gaetano, Detta, Giovanna, Paolo & Francesca back to our place to play games.  We played pictionary and Fabri & I taught everyone the card game 99 which was fun.  

In Italy the 26th is also a holiday, San Stefano.  That morning the snow was coming down very hard and Fabri and I assumed no one would make it to Ruffia for lunch and that he would only have to go to work if there was an emergency.  But the snow let up and Fabri was called into the hospice, so I headed to Ruffia or lunch.  The roads in Saluzzo were pretty bad, but once I got outside of the city, the roads were fine.  In the country, people just jump on their tractors and clear the snow themselves!  Fabri was stuck at the hospice for a while, so we had to start lunch without him.  By that time we were all sick of stuffing ourselves and happy that the food-fest was ending for a few days.  

The next day Laura and Liz arrived!  Fabri was still working and I went up to Turin to pick them up from the central bus station.  They had not had a relaxing trip and were very tired.  We did some sight seeing and a lot more eating and drinking as more of Fabri's extended family arrived for the January 3 wedding dinner.  I will write about that in the next post.  

My parents arrived on the 31st from Dublin.  They were only in our house for a couple of hours when we had to leave to go to the NYE party at the Ruffia house.  There were something like 40 people in attendance for this food-fest and it was delicious.  Usually it is mostly southern style Italian food, but Maria Pia's friends helped with this meal, so there were a lot of Piemontese dishes as well.  We were stuffed afterwards and tired.  Unfortunately the weather was bad and it was icy and foggy, so we were not able to meet up with Fabri's friends after dinner.  That might have been best though because I heard some mixed reviews about their party and they were probably all incoherently drunk by that point.

January first was another holiday lunch.  Can you even imagine eating all of these several course high carb meals day after day?  No wonder the idea of making and eating pasta now is so unappealing.  Just recapping all of these food-fests is making me feel fat & bloated.  

Fabri and I are "dieting" now.  I put it in quotes because we aren't counting calories and aren't giving up anything, we're just eating healthier and eating less.  I'm making lots of whole grains and vegetables.  We've been eating vegetarian and even vegan dinners!  Fabri loves it all which was a little surprising to me.  I made grilled vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, and peppers), couscous with eggplant and raddichio and stirfried broccoli and mushrooms over brown rice.  Tonight we're going out for a pizza with another couple though.  I am not excited about that because I was trying to go a whole week with out eating pizza.  But that's the official date of Italy and Fabri did not convince the others to come to our house and try my cooking.  Oh, and we're not drinking beer.  Just very occasionally.  We have not given up wine or Martini though...