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.

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...

Trip Home

Ok, sorry for the break in the news flow. Fabri and I were in Maryland for Thanksgiving. We had a lovely time and were sorry we couldn't see more people and more of the people we did see. We did get downtown though which is always fun and we ate all of our favorite American/ethnic food. We also did a lot of shopping AND we packed all of my stuff and brought to a trucking company to ship it here to Italy. That was a stressful proposition, but I am so glad to have gotten it started. I need my stuff after all! But this blog is not about trips to the US, this blog is about adventures in Italy.

If I ever get into making iron on t-shirts again, I'm going to make one that says I heart IKEA. Fabri and I went for our second time last night. We're old pros now, so we knew hot to navigate through and which areas held which types of furniture. We purchased a bookshelf, desk, small file cabinet and a china closet along with some various odds and ends we had to pick up. I know it sounds like we're crazy and filling up the house, but that's it for furniture and we needed to have an office of sorts because I'm tired of just having piles on the floor and around the kitchen. Fabri really wanted the china closet and it will look great offsetting our credenza. We put together the credenza from our first IKEA trip on Saturday. We had a lot of fun doing it and it looks great. There were really no problems except that the Sky (satellite TV) technician came in the middle and kept talking and wouldn't leave. At least he fixed our Sky while he talked.

Sunday was a fun and interesting today. Fabri and I were invited to a quadruple birthday lunch celebrating the December birthdays of Gibo, Miriam, Albi and Simone. It was a huge party with over 60 people in attendance. The food was just so-so, but they had a singer with a keyboard and we danced and sang a lot which is always fun. Fabri and I sat with newlyweds (slightly less newly than us) Francesca & Andrea and they assured us that all of our issues we've had with the house are completely normal and they went through the same. That made Fabri feel better. I'm not so concerned with it's being normal or not, I'm more concerned with getting everything right. Anyway, the party was a lot of fun, but it was a little concerning because it started snowing very hard while we were there. And they were large wet/icy flakes. But it eventually turned to rain and we drove home slowly. Now I would kill for large icy snowflakes. It has been raining since Sunday and probably won't stop until Thursday. There isn't a lot of concern of flooding here though because in the hills and mountains there's snow, so the water is remaining trapped up there.

So I'm keeping busy running the house and running errands. We forgot the keys to the garage in Fabri's car yesterday, so all my errands will be wet and on foot today, but this afternoon we will go to the grocery store and maybe a couple other places. Fabri asked me "we have to go to the grocery store again!?" I replied, "yes, we have to go every week if you want to eat every week." That's just how it works.

Dinner Party

First and foremost, here are photos of the new house.  I am sooooo happy to be living in our own home finally.  After 3 months being married we're living like a married couple!

Now everyone can see where they're going to stay when they come visit!  Both couches are sofa beds, so we have lots of room.

Last night Fabri and I threw our first dinner party for his cousin Giovanni, his girlfriend Brunella, their baby Lucrezia (the cute little monkey from the previous post), and Fabri's friends Antonio and Laura.  Fabri's cousins Gaetano and Detta couldn't make it because Detta's train was delayed and she didn't get home from work until 10:30 poor thing!  Without those two it was all medical people and me.  Fabri's a doctor, Antonio's an ER doctor, Giovanni's a doctor, Laura's an OR nurse and Brunella is an emergency/ambulance nurse.  Poor me, I'm always the odd one out.  The only American and the only non doctor.

For dinner Fabri & I chose an Asian theme basically because he really likes my stir fry.  But when we go to everyone else's house for dinner, they serve multi-course meals.  So I scoured the internet and found some extra Asian inspired recipes to sufficiently stuff our guests.  When they arrived we had chips & salsa (always) and I made cauliflower popcorn which was a hit especially with the baby.  These appetizers and the drinks were on the bar which was a cool way to begin.  Next we moved to the table and I served egg drop soup.  Everyone was really nervous about it at first, but mostly it was well received except by Giovanni who doesn't like onions.  Fabri & Antonio both had seconds.  Next was a salad with Japanese Ginger Dressing I made with our new food processor.  That was really fun because I didn't have to chop anything.  This also had a lot of onions, but everyone liked it except for Giovanni.  Laura asked me for recipes for just about everything.  After the salad came the main course, chicken stirfry with veggies.  Antonio and Laura had had it before when I made it at Fabri's parents' house, but Giovanni especially was really impressed.  Of course I served it with  rice and soy sauce.  By that time everyone was like "Jess, enough food," but Fabri had made dessert, pana cotta.  People were surprised and asked if I really made it, and I said no, I only cleaned up after it (he made a mess!).  But it's not hard, you just buy it in a box and boil the milk and cream, add the ingredients packet and put it in the fridge.  Fabri came up with the idea to serve it with Bailey's in addition to the traditional caramel and fruit toppings.

Everyone loved the house and I have to say that our first dinner party was a huge success.  I didn't want to cook Italian food for Italians, but I can't wait to cook Italian food for American guests!

New House

We are in the new house!!  Pictures will be appearing soon.  I just want to wait until we get the light fixtures installed today.  And to hang a few paintings.  Now I am going to eat lunch and relax because I have been running errands all morning!

The house is almost finished!!

As the title of this post states, the house is almost finished!! I plan on moving in on Friday no matter what. I told the painter I was going to move in this week and he said I was crazy. I needed time to clean everything and put everything in its place. I said I'll do that after I move in. I have been going to the house every day to clean and put things away. I was there for two and a half hours this morning with the Motta's maid helping me clean. Then this afternoon Maria Pia and Fabri and I will do some work there.



This weekend I got to help babysit Fabri's cousin's 2 year old daughter, Lucrezia or Lulu (pictured above). Maria Pia was watching her while her mom was at work and her dad ran some errands. She is a very good baby, and hardly ever cries, but she's sort of shy and has never been sure if she likes/knows me or not. She started off following Maria Pia everywhere she went, but when Maria Pia had to run upstairs to grab something and Lucrezia started getting upset she couldn't follow, I saw my chance and grabbed her. I walked around the yard with her and waved at the Motta's dogs. Then we went and picked some flowers which was a fun game.  Then Maria Pia thought of a game she really loved.  We went through Francesca's jewelry and found a bracelet that was small enough for Lucrezia.  She loves jewelry and every box we opened she would go "oooooh" and then dump everything out.  Then I figured out she likes to color, so we spent a long time coloring together.  She hadn't taken a nap and had to be getting tired, so her uncle Gaetano tried to get her to fall asleep, but as soon as she saw me, she put her arms up and wanted to go with me.  It was really funny and Gaetano was mad.  She's his brother's daughter.  Then we all decided to put on Finding Nemo and relax hoping she would fall asleep.  At first she colored some more, then she sat on my lamp and watched the movie.  Then she climbed up on my chest and fell asleep.  It was sooooo sweet.  After only 5 minutes or so her dad arrived and we transferred her without waking her up which was good.  That was my Saturday afternoon.

We saw them again on Sunday at the 30th birthday party for Fabri's cousin Michella.  Fabri had to work and didn't arrive until after the party was over, but I went for the whole thing with Francesca and Antonio.  Lucrezia's mom Brunella said that when she works in Saluzzo, she would love to bring Lucrezia to stay at my house so I can speak English to her.  She's not saying more than Mama, Nonna & no right now, but it's always helpful to speak English and it's easiest to learn when you're young.  I said sure, that would be great.  I also might have a job going to a friend of a friend's house for 2 or 3 hours a week and speaking with her kids in English.  I have no idea what I'm going to say, but I like to talk, so I'll figure something out.  

The party was nice with lots of Michella's friends there.  I was sort of overwhelmed because I had to speak Italian with everyone without Fabri there to help.  But Francesca speaks English well and helped me with a few words I needed but didn't know.

So that was my weekend.  Poor Fabri worked all weekend, but that was his last weekend on call for this month.  We're looking forward to moving in the house this weekend and then heading home in 2 weeks for Thanksgiving!

Wine Time For Real......maybe

Well, again, I had every intention of writing about making wine in the Motta's basement.  I even uploaded the photos to Picasa so that I could include a slide show, but the thing is, that was so long ago and there are other things going on now.  So if you're interested, you can scoot on over to my Picasa web albums and look at the wine photos.  They're captioned for your increased viewing pleasure.  

That said, I better talk about the house.  Fabri and I are STILL living in his parents house and I'm reaching my wit's end.  We went on a lovely little vacation to Nice this weekend to get away from things.  We went out Friday night to an Irish Bar to eat and listen to some live acoustic music.  We saw some people in costume, but nothing like how it is in the US.  On Saturday we did a bit of shopping at all my favorite Nice stores: H&M, Zara and Etam.  We also cooked lunch and dinner together in the apartment.  We made scallops & pasta for lunch.  For dinner we had fondue with bread & broccoli for the first course and then steaks & a salad.  Oh, and we of course ate chocolate croissants for breakfast every morning.  Sunday we left Nice around noon and had lunch in the alps in the French town of Fontan.  Fabri did his American tourist routine and the poor waitress was very flustered by her inability to speak English.  She did know some Italian by the way as there are a lot of Italians that go through there.  

Now we're back in Savigliano going to the Saluzzo house daily to check on the progress.  Right now our wonderful painter Paolo has been working for 4 days.  The walls needed a lot of work before Paolo could start painting, especially in the living room & foyer which had wallpaper underneath the paint!  

Tomorrow (hopefully) our wayward electrician will show up to finish the job he said he'd have done 2 or 3 weeks ago now.  Because of other delays, we would only be 2 days ahead if he had his work done, but he could still delay us more if he doesn't come and finish things.  The big project he needs to finish is making the window shutters electric in the living room and the kitchen.  

When Paolo is closer to done, our reliable plumber will return to finish hooking up the kitchen including our American fridge which has side by side freezer/fridge and ice & water in the door.  That is very rare here in Italy and we can't wait to show it off.  The bathrooms are pretty much finished except he will install a door for the bathtub/shower and we need someone to make a custom shower curtain bar for our shower in the small bathroom.  

Here are some photos of the house.  If everything wasn't covered in plastic for the painters, I would take more, but it will look better painted anyway.  We are on the first floor at the far end of the building.  There is plenty of street parking, but we have a garage as well.  Across a side street is a large grassy field that will never be built on because it has something to with the military (I assume storage of nuclear waste, but the bunnies that live there appear to be of normal size and with the proper number of appendages).  The grounds of the apartment building are very green with a lot of trees and plants and a small fenced in dog run.  Fabri chose it because he knew I would want to live somewhere that felt like I had a yard.  

As you enter the apartment you enter to the now opened up foyer and kitchen.  You can see in the photos the new peninsula and breakfast bar.  As you proceed past the kitchen you enter the living/dining room.  On both ends of the room there is a large window & door leading to the two balconies.  The back balcony is slightly smaller than the front which has a door leading to the kitchen as well.  This spring/summer we'll buy a table and chairs so we can eat outside on that balcony.  Ok, from entering the apartment, to your right is a small hallway and the master suite.  There is the larger bathroom with a bath tub and Fabri's & my bedroom.  To your left there is the smaller bathroom with a shower and the washing machine/dryer and next to that the guest room/office/reading room/whatever.  This room gets a lot of light as the window faces south and there is a beautiful view of the city of Saluzzo.  

One last thing, don't forget to leave comments!  And sign up to be a follower.  I imagine that mean you'll get emails when there are new posts, but I don't really know, I will have to check Fabri's email after I publish this post.