Day 4: il partito due Food and Family

More on January 4, 2010

I'm not sure you are anxious to know what I eat every single day.. but I thought I would tell you a bit.  For breakfast we start at 8:15, have tea or café or cappuchino, with toast(and homemade apricot (albicocche) Jam or marmalade.  Orange Juice (but not just any orange juice… aranche rosa (blood orange) juice.  And cookies…  Now I'm sure a few of you have heard of Rob and my first fight… and actually we had another one on the same topic a few years ago.  Cookies for Breakfast?  11 year old Robyn was scandalized and Rob was upset that I had set such a poor example for his daughter.  Its is really the only fight we've ever had (I will swear on a stack of bibles that this is true).  Anyway, yes, it appears I come by this cookie monster thing quite by heritage.  (Am I making my case yet?)  They call them biscotti but there aren't like the long biscotti we know.  These are simply dry thick butter cookies in a tin… but, very very good. … not very sweet or very rich.  Perfetto con café or te.

And speaking of what I'm eating.  I highly suggest lots of olive oil in your diet.  Very interesting, um, results.

For lunch Nonna makes the big meal of the day.. several courses.  A pasta (with fresh pasta): today had meatballs as well and a spice I am completely unfamiliar with *Muskett"?  If anyone knows what this is in English, please let me know.  They are little rocky things, Nonna says 'a nut" that come in a spice jar and she has to ground them up.  The smell is familiar but I can't place it.  Yesterday il pasta was smoked salmon sauce over long thick pasta noodles…, a homemade soup  chicken base with these teeny tiny pieces of pasta called granite.. Mi piace molto questa piccola pasta!  I hope I can find it at home.  Today's soup was a potato soup.  I told her it was just like the soup my other nonna made for me… my Irish grandma.  We compared ingredients.  Grandma Hogan used butter and milk and onion to make hers creamy and Nonna uses Olive Oil and a few peas.  Otherwise they taste the same.  Come si dici "comfort food" in italiano? Conforti cibo?  Then insalata misto (green salad) with vinegar and more olive oil.  Then there is usually a big plate of delicious cheeses and sometimes some prosciutto (ham).  Always, fruit for dolce.  Sempre Sempra fruitta.  And if you want extra sweet there is this candied orange rind that I'm now addicted to.  Better than Potato chips?  Is sugar better for you than fat and salt?  Are there any vitamins in this?

Dinner is not as big a meal as lunch and we eat about 8pm.  Homemade soup, insalata misto, cheese, and cortuna piatti of verdura (side dish of vegetables) (yesterday it was green beans with a fresh cheese (like ricotta but with cows milk)… amazing flavors.  And today it was cauliflower to eat with a cheese of your choice.  Molti tipici di formaggio.  Mi dica Nonna di Rob's ricetta per cavolfiore con senape e formaggio.  (I told Nonna Rob's recipe for cauliflower with mustard and cheese… my son Eric calls this cheesy brains).  And, of course, a glass of wine with both lunch and dinner.  I'm usually a one glass a week gal, but somehow here I need it.  The red wine is very light and easy to drink.

I missed taking pictures when Marianna and her husband were here,  But today we had lunch with their other daughter Franchesca, and also , still baby Thaes.  She lives here a lot while her parents work quite far away in Rome.  She's feeling better today but I think Alessandra is getting sick now.  Franchesca goes to college and also works as an aid to blind people, taking them for walks every day.  Marianna and Erick will be back on Thursday for Festa di La Bafana so that should be fun to capture. I need to find a nice gift for them.  I have an idea but don't know when I will have time to go out and find it without their knowing.  I tell them all the time: oh, Collin did that when he was a year old.… they probably get tired of hearing about Collin. 

Alessandra and Thaes

Lillo (Angelo) and Thaes

Francesca (Thaes' aunt), Nonna and Lillo

At dinner tonight Alessandra continued my history lesson, very passionately, and Nonna chipped in.  I heard more about Napoleon.. and somehow we got off the subject and got onto current politics.  (An logical jump from one mess to another).  They find their prime minister to be an embarrassment (Berlesconi.. the guy is just a very rich crook)…….. and I told them how  ashamed we were (speaking for myself and Rob) to have GWB as our president…. At least he wasn't a crook (that we know of), but as they said, he was so incredibly stupid and also a puppet.  And then we went on with the topic of war crimes and oil greed… needless to say, there were very happy when I told them that GWB should be tried for war crimes,  Italy celebrated when Obama got elected.  All I could do is fold my hands together in prayer when it comes to Obama and the issues we face.  He's not a messiah but god knows we could use one.

A gorgeous church

Gold ceilings and a beautiful Nave

A pretty cloister in the style of Bramante and a special exhibit.

  Of the  4 churches I've seen, all have had creche scenes of Baby Jesus in the manger, done at the local elementary to middle school.

This one was too good to be done my a student.  I loved the wood and they way it looked like a puzzle piece.

But Nonna and I thought this was the best.  The scene done all in macaroni.

Sheep in the corral                                                                                            

Shepherds, wisemen and palm trees

After churching, we stopped at the tabacchi stand to buy some buste e francobolli (envelopes and stamps) for my 15 letters to Calvello.  You buy the envelopes individually.  The total cost of 15 envelopes and 15 stamps was 10.50 EU.. about $15.75.   It makes 7-Eleven look like a bargain discount store.  Mamma Mia!

Ciao e ci vediamo a domani

Bye and we'll see each other tomorrow

Maria