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.