Holidays Update

From US Xmas 09

We had a wonderful time in the US this past trip.  Our favorite part was being snowed in and spending time with the family.  We (amazingly) were able to get home with all of our stuff.  We bought a LOT of stuff (as usual) and received a lot of great presents (thank you, thank you)!  Dad gave us an HD video camera, so be prepared for more videos.  I bought extra storage space from Google, so I'm ready for them!

From US Xmas 09

Now when I say snowed in, I mean there was a LOT of snow!

Fabri worked a 22 hours long shift Dec 31 ending the morning of the first.  He was able to come home for lunch and dinner though, leaving around 11pm.  This is Olney sleeping on the couch on the 31st while Fabri was at work.

From Olney Puppy

 Olney is terrified of fireworks (and loud noises in general) so I put on a Bond movie and tried to drown out the noises with that.  It worked well and he was fine during the midnight countdown.  Then on the first we went to Ruffia to have lunch with Maria Pia & Antonio.  The best part was watching Olney run around and play in the yard.  He chased a couple of bunnies.  The second is Maria Pia's birthday, so we returned to Ruffia for lunch the next day.  They made pizzas (delicious) and we hung out and ate all afternoon.

Now the holidays are almost over, but not quite.  Wednesday is Epiphany which means another huge lunch with the family.  We're doing a big fondue party.  I'm helping Maria Pia because Fabri & I have had some experience hosting successful fondue dinners.  We'll do broth & oil with meat, shrimp, pasta and vegetables.  Good stuff. 

So I'm on a snow watch.  They're calling for snow starting tonight and continuing through tomorrow until Tuesday.  But get this, people are NOT freaking out.  I'm not sure how much snow they're calling for, but in Maryland, if people saw a forecast that said snow for 24 hours, they'd be FREAKING OWT!  Shoot, I better go check and make sure we have at least 30 rolls of toilet paper....

From US Xmas 09

Let it snow!

The forecast said 4 days of snow ending Wednesday night.  Fabri and I were worried, our flight leaves at 7:15 on Thursday morning.  We got a few hours of snow yesterday.  Big beautiful flakes.  Nothing stuck (here in Saluzzo, Cuneo got 3 - 4 inches).  Now the forecast says no more snow until after Christmas.  So much for that giant snowstorm. 

I took Olney out for a walk when the snow was falling.  We're pretty sure that was his first time seeing snow.  We don't know if he was born in December or January, but either way, he would have been VERY little during last year's snowstorm and wouldn't have gone outside.  Yesterday he caught some snowflakes in his mouth and jumped around a little.  We might take him up into the mountains this evening to let him run around in the snow.  I'm sure he'll love it.

From Sunshine Gospel Choir

Last Sunday Fabri's work celebrated the 10th year of the Hospice.  One of the nurses organized a lovely performance.  There was an a cappella alpine troops singing group.  Then the nurse who organized the event read a poem.  Then it was time for the main event: the Sunshine Gospel Choir.  They had a lot of energy, but the singing wasn't that great.  There was one soloist that had a good set of pipes on him, but the others couldn't make themselves heard without a microphone.  The conductor sang and danced and performed and for the second act, he came out in a gold suit.  I wanted to ask him afterward where you buy such a thing, but I didn't have the guts.  But they were having fun, so it was fun to watch and the whole thing was in a beautiful renovated church that is now a part of the Cuneo town hall.  The most important thing was that Fabri networked with doctors and politicians, though, as usual, I had to pull him away from talking to nurses so he could do so...


Sunshine Gospel Choir from Jessica Goldstein on Vimeo.

This might be the last post this year depending on how quickly I post the photos from our upcoming trip!  I hope to see everyone in Washington!

Italian Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was an overwhelming success.  Everyone was so happy and I got so many compliments!  When dinner was ready, I was ready to go to sleep.  It was an exhausting day.

Olney and I arrived at the Motta's house a little after 10 Saturday morning.  Fabri was at work doing rounds at the hospice.  At 11 or so the cousins started arriving.  I made us a pancake breakfast to start the day off American style.  We will definitely skip the breakfast next time I cook Thanksgiving dinner.  After the pancakes, people left to go shopping and I came back to Saluzzo to meet Fabri and to pick up the pumpkin pies and quiches that were still in my fridge.

From Italian Thanksgiving

At 3:30 we arrived back in Savigliano.  We worked on the table settings and at 4 we lit the fire.  We decided to do the turkeys in the wood oven because there was room for both of them in one oven that way.  Also it was pretty cool and rustic.  The cousins returned soon after and I put them to work cutting onions, celery & mushrooms for the stuffing.  I prepared the turkeys and got those in the oven.  It was really great because everyone helped with something.  It was truly a communal effort.  That was Fabri's favorite part of the holiday.  The family working together to create a delicious meal.

From Italian Thanksgiving

I had been worried it wouldn't be enough food.  I had never cooked a dinner for 17 people before, but in the end, we had plenty of left overs.  We started with quiche (Aunt Pam's recipe) and baked brie (Stephanie's recipe super-sized).  The main course was, of course, roast turkey (Mom's recipe).  I cooked all the traditional sides as well: mashed potatoes, stuffing (Mom's recipe), green bean casserole, creamed corn (Aunt Pam's recipe), cranberry sauce and gravy.

From Italian Thanksgiving

Practically everyone brought a dessert.  I made two pumpkin pies.  Maria Pia made an apple cake and a chocolate cake.  Detta made a delicious Sicilian ricotta & chocolate cake.  Antonio & Laura brought pastries from the best pastry shop in Savigliano!

During dinner and also later in the weekend I got a lot of thank yous and compliments from all the guests.  Maria Pia & Antonio were so happy with the dinner, on Sunday they gave me an iPhone! Sunday I returned to Casa Motta to pick up my left overs (they did all of the cleaning and packing up without me).  Then Maria Pia, Detta and I went to the Christmas Market in Savigliano.  Before heading home, Antonio brought out the iPhone and I did a happy dance.  Good weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving

Tomorrow we're doing our Thanksgiving.  I'm cooking dinner for 17 of Fabri's family!  I don't know how I get myself into these things.  This afternoon I'm going with Maria Pia to buy two turkeys!  No 40 pound turkeys thankfully.  Two smaller ones will work much better I'm sure.

Yesterday Fabri got off work early which was really nice and we had lunch together and toasted to Thanksgiving.  Then I did some cooking for tomorrow.  I had to make my own evaporated milk.  It's not that hard, you just heat milk on very low heat, but it takes HOURS.  I needed 3 cups for 2 pumpkin pies and it took about 4 hours to create it.  I think that will be the hardest part (at least I hope so).  Last night we went out to dinner at our favorite restaurant in Saluzzo, La Taverna del Artista.  We had steak with grilled veggies, french fries, foccacia and our favorite wine.  Yum!

Now I have to hop to it and make those pies before it's time to go turkey shopping.  Have a great holiday weekend!

Tar Baby

Does anyone know the story of Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby?  Well I have my own Tar Baby.  Olney cannot walk past a mud puddle without rolling and digging in it.  He just loves to be dirty.  Yesterday I let him run around in the fenced in dog area to get some exercise.  Unfortunately, that area has been incredibly muddy for months and Olney felt the need to dig and slide around there.  That wouldn't be so bad, except that upon exiting the dog area, Olney needs to jump on me and rub against my legs so that I can get all dirty too...

Someone said that I don't write about the museum enough.  My work at the museum is going really well.  I'm about to start a new project.  I am almost finished organizing the butterfly and moth collection.  Gian just gave me a copy of a publication where he thanks me for helping him write in English and we might coauthor an article about an unusual sex ratio in a beetle species collected from Africa.  So that's all good and exciting!

Last Friday we went to the Leek Festival in Cervere.  There was a 10 euro buffet with raw meat (very popular here) and leek, a chicken coleslaw with leek, little baked leek cakes, leek risotto, ravioli with leeks and ragu sauce, and leek-free hazelnut cake.  It wasn't bad, but we were forced to eat quickly (and compete with others for food) so that wasn't so great.  We went in a big group of our friends from Savigliano who we hadn't seen in a long time.  We were pretty lame though and ready to go around 11:30.  There was a band, but the music wasn't very good and all of Fabri's friends were outside smoking, so we headed home.  I prefer nicer, slower, sit down dinners I've decided.  It was not as good as the gnocchi festival or bagna caoda (that being my favorite food festival). 

Anyway, it was awful weather today which I think was responsible for a recurring headache.  Hopefully this weekend will be nice.  There's a Christmas Market in Saluzzo which we will definitely be going to and I don't know what else.  But Fabri's not working, so we'll have fun!

Dinner Party Machines

Amy A. (the first one) said Fabri & I were dinner party maniacs yesterday.  We just really enjoy having people over and I like to cook, so things seem to go together quite nicely.  It's a good excuse to always have dessert & booze in the house as well. 

A week ago we had Fabri's cousins & sister over for fondue.  Fondue is great because it's a party, not just a dinner.  I made two types of broth, a French bouillon and an Asian inspired broth.  They were both big hits, especially the Asian.  One thing people have come to expect from our dinner parties is to have wine charms identifying everyone's glasses.  Italy, the land of wine, doesn't know about wine charms for some reason.  Everyone we've had over has gone crazy for them.  I have some wedding ones my mom gave me around wedding time.  I have a bunch I made myself with beads & old charms.  My newest are a set of insect wine charms I found at TJ Maxx.  Gaetano seems to really like those....

From Blogger Pictures

If those weren't colorful insect wine charms, he would be such a bad-ass biker dude. 

Saturday Fabri & I went to Ikea.  They opened a brand new store in Turin right off the Turin Beltway.  We got a new carpet for the family room (Olney's slowly destroying ours) and of course couldn't resist buying some fun Ikea stuff.  I got a beautiful red orchid, Fabri got a new fluffy pillow and Olney got a new mat for underneath his dog bowls. Though Ikea is, by definition, crazy, we had fun!

The weather has decided to play mean tricks on us.  It has been gorgeous all week.  Cold, but dry & no fog.  Look at how gorgeous Mount Viso is from the field next to the house!

From Blogger Pictures

The problem is, the weekend arrives and so does the rain and fog.  The fog started rolling in around 3 or 4 this afternoon and it's supposed to be foggy & rainy all weekend.  Stinks.  And this weekend and next Fabri isn't working at all!  Not one shift!  This is the first time in a long time.  It would be nice if the weather would cooperate a little so we could get a lot out of these weekends.

So I'm getting ready for Thanksgiving.  I have all of my recipes copied; I have a shopping list and a basket full of food and decorations ready; and I'm getting my game plan in place.  Maria Pia is buying the turkey for the occasion and went to order it on Wednesday.  She called me while I was at the museum and asked if I want a female or male turkey.  I had no idea.  I asked her what the difference was and she said the size.  Females are about 8 kg and males are 20 kg.  I had told her before we want between 10 and 13 kilos for our dinner of 15 (thank you butterball website).  She said then she'd better get the 20 kg bird.  I said ok, not having a firm concept of how much 20 kg is.  When I got home I calculated that in pounds.  FORTY-FOUR lbs of turkey!!!  I started freaking out.  Where are we going to cook this massive bird!?!?  How long should I cook it for!?  Butterball's website only goes up to a 30 lb turkey!  I'm going to have to put this thing in the oven the day before.  As I did more turkey research, I got even more nervous.

Thankfully Maria Pia came over last night (we had pizza & cake for Francesca's 20th birthday) and we discussed the turkey.  Gaetano had already said the same thing, it's too big for the oven.  I said if she can't get one that's between 10 and 13 kilos,  then maybe she can get two small birds.  I am sure we could find room to cook them.  I wanted to try cooking in their wood pizza oven anyway.  She said she would call back the turkey store, so I'm feeling better about it now. 

From Blogger Pictures

This is a wooden turkey made by Grandpa and Fabri bought me those flowers today for no reason. :)

Wintery Weather

We're back in Saluzzamore after a wonderful vacation in the US.  We rested, relaxed, ate and shopped the entire time.  It was great.  We got to see almost all of our favorite people....

From US October 09 Visit

From US October 09 Visit

From US October 09 Visit

From US October 09 Visit

From Micah & Anna's Wedding

..... and we ate all of our favorite foods including crabs!

From US October 09 Visit

We bought a new winter wardrobe for Fabri and some fun stuff for me.  We also came home with all of the American-made ingredients I need to make my first Thanksgiving dinner.  I'm super excited about that.

At the end of our trip we went to Micah and Anna's wedding at a beautiful vineyard outside Charlottsville, VA.  It rained the whole day of the wedding and then an hour or two before the ceremony it cleared up.  They had the ceremony outside with the mountains, the autumn leaves and the sunset in the background.  They didn't need flowers or lights, it was just naturally gorgeous (as were we). 

From Micah & Anna's Wedding

So that's a very brief summary of our trip.  You can see more pictures in my Picasa web albums (as always there's a link to the right).  It was nice to get home and see the puppy.  He's gotten taller and filled out a lot.  He is looking a lot like a Labrador.  He was very happy to see us, but he did fine at the Motta's house and it was clear they really enjoyed having him.  Maria Pia called the next day to check and see how he was doing and everyone was happy the other night when we came with Olney for dinner.

Fabri immediately got back to work and hasn't slept in since the US.  Sunday will be his first day off since we got back and I'm looking forward to that day.  When Fabri doesn't sleep in, Olney doesn't sleep in, so I don't sleep in.  A horrible chain...

I've been back to work as well, but I gave notice at the Wall Street Institute where I teach.  I will be teaching for another month and a half with them.  Then I'll find other ways to fill my time.  Fabri and I are advertising our services as English ~ Italian translators specializing in medical & scientific themes.  I want to study Italian some more so that I can speak better/more correctly and I want to spend more time at the museum.  They are redoing all their displays in this period and I'm really excited to help with that and learn a new aspect of museum work.

Last night we had our friends Anna & Cladio over for dinner.  Anna is from California and has lived in Saluzzo for I think 5 years now.  I made Maryland steamed shrimp (one of Fabri's favorites) and a new pasta recipe from Rachel Ray.  Everything was really good and we had a great time.  Olney for a little wild and kept jumping up on Anna.  We have to do some more training...

Tomorrow we're having Gaetano & Detta, Giovanni & Brunella & Lulu, and Paolo & Giovanna over for fondue.  I think that's a good winter weather dinner party.  Did I mention that it's like winter here already?  And not the good winter moments when it is very cold but sunny & clear; it has been foggy,  grey, overcast and COLD.  Yuck!  We had a couple of days of clear blue sky and I could see the mountain peaks have quite a bit of snow.  No more hiking in the alps this year.