Yes, Chef!

 On Wednesday night I had my long-awaited cooking lesson!! Chef Andrea Consoli is one of the nicest Italians I've met so far. He loves students and loves to teach us how to cook (lucky us!). In a group of 15 girls and one boy, we worked together to make a four course meal under supervision of the chef.

Il Menu

Antipasto..............Potato, Cauliflower, Pumpkin and Leek Soup
Primo Piatto..........Gnocchi with fresh tomato sauce
Secondo Piatto..... Straccetti (beef and artichokes)
Dolce.....................Custard Pie with Pine Nuts

It took a good two hours to prepare and cook all the food. Everything was especially challenging as we were working in a tiny, crowded kitchen without good equipment and mostly-clueless cooks. For all the work that Chef Andrea does with John Cabot University, I think that it is about time for the university to give him more of a budget and better workspace. He allowed us to use his personal knives because he couldn't afford more decent equipment, and chopping half of a fresh pumpkin with a 1 euro knife is not easy or safe. I give him so much credit for patience, both with the university and the students most of whom barely know how to cook a box of store-bought pasta, let alone make homemade gnocchi. 

I tried to work a little on each dish so that I have and idea of how to replicate each recipe:
I prepped the pumpkin for the soup - simply peeling and dicing a beautiful, fresh pumpkin.
I made the tomato sauce for the gnocchi - sautéing whole cloves of garlic in olive oil, then adding chopped fresh tomatoes, salt and fresh basil and then mashing the tomatoes into a sauce-consistency.
I thinly sliced a large piece of beef for the second course (I got a hug from Chef for taking on that task alone!).
Finally, I boiled the milk for the custard and helped roll out the sugar-cookie-like dough for the dessert.

Despite the kitchen facilities and inexperienced cooks, Chef Andrea's recipes came out excellently and I enjoyed the well-deserved meal...at around 9:00 p.m. (Also, since my roommates and I stayed to help clean up we were able to take home a TON of leftovers!) Chef promised to e-mail us all the recipes for this menu, so I am looking forward to trying these recipes on my own to share with everyone at home.

Sorry for the lack of pictures for this experience. 1) I forgot my camera and 2) it is difficult to take pictures while cooking. Luckily, Chef was taking pictures to document our experience for us, which he also promised to send us later this week.

I think that the only disappointment of the night was learning that Chef Andrea was married...

One month down, three to go.

 Sorry for not posting as regularly as I'd like but I don’t want to bore you with unnecessary chatter. I have fallen into a nice schedule here in Rome and nothing too exciting has happened in the past week, but here are a few highlights (disclaimer: this post is mostly about food so I apologize in advance if it makes you hungry):

Monday started my week off perfectly – with coffee. And even better, free coffee. That’s right, I found a café just around the corner from JCU campus that treats students to the first coffee of the day for free. And even better, the cappuccinos are the largest I’ve had so far in Rome (probably only the size of a Starbucks tall, but much more substantial than most cappuccinos here) and even more exciting, they give you it to-go without looking at you like you’re committing a crime. I still appreciate that Italians take their time to enjoy their coffee at the café but, hey, I am a student with a caffeine addiction. I like my coffee with me during class.

Monday was also my roommate, Meghan's birthday - yay 21! (Although not quite as exciting here as it would be in back home.) But we did make a nice meal and dessert and sipped a few beers to celebrate! In place of Meghan's favorite all-American meal of burgers and fries, we surprised her with an Italian alternative...hamburger pizza and potato pizza! And for dessert, biscotti and strawberry gelato. Yum!




On Wednesday it was back to traditional Italian cuisine. I met some new friends for dinner at a restaurant that quickly became my favorite so far here in Rome: Tony's. The staff was very friendly and fast! For 10 euro each we had wine, bread, garlic bread (basically pizza dough with butter, garlic and rosemary), and a massive portion of eggplant parmigiana. To top it all off, our server treated us all to tiramisu! We've decided to make Tony's a tradition and I'm looking forward to more Tony's Wednesdays with good friends and food in the future!

On Saturday I found another restaurant that put up some hard competition for Tony's! I met with two of my sorority sisters in front of the Pantheon (yes, I am in Rome and meet my dinner dates in front of historic monuments). The restaurant was just on the back corner of the monument. I don't even know the name but I think the owner is named Mickey, so we referred to the place as “Mickey’s.” Even in the most historic areas of Rome they still love Americans. There was a photo of President Obama at the entrance and we were served potato chips as an appetizer. I had my first spaghetti alla carbonara here (delicioso!) and fragolino, known as "sexy wine." Mickey's is famous for this fragolino which is produced on location every day. It is a sparkling, sweet, strawberry wine and such a treat! I am getting very spoiled here. Again, we were treated to free dessert (ice cream bars) and an extra bottle of fragolino. After dinner, we had a fun night out dancing!

Sunday has become market day. The massive Sunday flea market is the largest in Rome and seemingly endless. It could easily keep me busy for an entire day. I don’t think I will ever get tired of looking at all the things they have to sell, from beautiful leather jackets to cacti to…well, junk. However, I have decided that Americans and Italians don’t see eye-to-eye when it comes to fashion. Italians have beautiful leather items, nice basics and pretty scarves, but I will continue to dress in American style.

I hope things are going well for everyone at home and for all of you spending your semester in various cities around the world. Happy Valentine’s Day to you all! Xoxoxo <3

Back to being a tourist...

Not much has happened since my trip to Veneto. I've just been enjoying the beautiful weather we've had lately -- every day is sunny with highs around 60 degrees :) But with the warmth comes allergies. (At least what I assume is allergies...time to go on a scavenger hunt for Claritin D in Rome? I think so.)

Carleigh visited this weekend, which was perfect timing. I needed some sparkle in my life as I begin to miss home a little bit. At the same time it is so crazy to think that nearly a month has already gone by and I only have four months left!

Carleigh's visit was the perfect excuse to tour Rome yet again. This time I was the guide, successfully navigating my way to the train station, Coliseum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and Spanish Steps! I might be slightly obsessed with the Coliseum, here are a few pictures I took there (and by a few, I look about 100)!
Thanks to Google maps and my handy map of Rome...and to Carleigh for conveniently forgetting that you get Google maps on your cell phone until the last night here, my fears of getting lost in Rome are long gone!

Carleigh had an early flight home on Sunday. After saying goodbye and going back to bed until 11a.m. I forced myself out of bed to get some fresh air.

My roommates happened to be heading on a day trip to Castel Gandolfo which I tagged along for. It is a small lake-side town just a 45 minute train ride outside of Rome. Castel Gandolfo does not have a castle, but it the location of the pope's vacation home on top of the mountain. We had a nice lunch in town and enjoyed the scenery - a great way to wrap up the weekend :)

Pictures!

As my lovely roommate Kristiana occupies the kitchen to prepare some pizzas for our family-style dinner tonight, I made an attempt at creating a Flikr account. I quickly I gave up. Making a Flikr account would require me to re-organize and re-tag all of my many pictures that already exist in my Facebook albums (and apparently a limit on how many pictures I can post?!).

My goal is to keep all of you non-Facebook users up-to-date with the many pictures I am taking on my travels, which usually go hand-in-hand with my blog posts. So, once again, Kristiana is taking care of me and pointed out that I can post a public link for my Facebook albums so anyone can see!

Here are my albums so far if you'd like to take a look!

"Home in Rome"
Location, Rome
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039051&id=1227570674&l=d3be76e530

"Don't be afraid of the little rivers and lakes, they like them here"

Location, Venice, Verona and Padova

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039409&id=1227570674&l=3ede8c2b64

Some other quick updates:

Twice now I have been asked in Italian for directions in Rome. (I won't lie--I had no idea where they needed to get or how to get there. I'm just flattered that I look like I know where I am.)

Also, we are working on nicknames for our apartment mates. So far we have:

• me - Betty Crocker
• Kristiana - the Chef
• Sarah - "Mom"

Hwe will have the rest decided on soon!

Okay, I'm to help out in the kitchen! Enjoy! xoxo