28.01.2009

Ha, our hike home!!

It's so open now!!

I woke up around 9am this morning and got on my computer to check my email. Once I responded to the ones I received, Ry called and we chatted for a bit on my dorm phone. Once we hung up, I got ready to go to the grocery store with Cass. We were in need of some milk and cereal...we live off of it!! :) We went to Ipercoop around 11am and since we bought so much and the bags were really heavy, we just decided to take the shopping cart home with us!! :) Ha, it costs one euro to use a shopping cart each time you go, but if you return the cart, you get your euro back...it was worth loosing the dollar!! Ha!! The Ipercoop carts are like the IKEA carts, they have a mind of its own...so it was soo funny trying to steer the cart home!! :) Once I got back to my room and put away all of my groceries, and then I rearranged my room...it looks so much more open now, I love it!! :) Moving the wardrobe was heavy...so I had to put on my tennis shoes so I had some grip on the tile!! Ha, definitely got a workout out of it!! Then I decided to get ready for the day because at 2pm Cass and Beth came over to finish up some homework that was due at 3. After Italiano class was over at 5pm, Cass, Beth and I went into the town walls where our cuisine teacher Christina lives. For cuisine class, we go to her house to make dinner!! :) It was really fun and I ate some foods in which I probably wouldn't have had in the states. There are 12 students (including me) in the Wednesday night cuisine class. There are 12 more which meet on Tuesday nights. When we got there, she sat us down at the dinner table and gave a presentation about Lazio and the foods in which are produced within Lazio (Roma and Viterbo are in the region named Lazio, Italia has 20 regions). Christina thought it would be good to learn about the region in which we are living in first! After telling us about Lazio, we all went into the kitchen where we would make homemade biscotti’s, soup, the meat sauce for our pasta as well as the salad dressing. Once we had everything on the stove/in the oven, we went to the dinner table and enjoyed the bruschetta-which is a slice of bread with homemade olive oil in which Christina and her husband Richard made with their olive trees!! It was the best olive oil I had ever had, so much flavor. After the bruschetta we went to the kitchen to finish our chick pea/hazelnut soup and cut the biscotti’s. Their soup isn't runny, it’s more dense and is like a meal itself-once the soup was done, we took it off the stove and grinded it up a bit, so you didn't have huge hazelnuts in each bit. Once the soup was ready, we went to the table and enjoyed our soup! Wow, I normally don't like chick peas (spelling?)-mom, I know you LOVE them, you would've enjoyed this soup...it not only had chic-peas and hazelnuts, but celery along with tomatoes and rosemary. It was really good. :) Pasta was next, Christina and Richard went into the kitchen to cook the noodles and poor the sauce on...the sauce had bacon in it...but again, not like our bacon...it wasn't crispy, or thin!! Ha, I took a bit and wasn't a huge fan, but the sauce itself was excellent!! The noodles were sooo thick, it was different for a change, I liked them!! With pasta, we all were served 1/4 glass of vino-Italians are BIG on vino with their meals...and Christina says it’s not a meal without some vino! Ha! It was a white wine and actually wasn't too bad. I think I like white better than red...Wow, there was still more food to come. Next was pork, which we all went into the kitchen and watched Christina prepare them on the stove...Richard was finishing up the salad...the salad dressing was anchovies with garlic and lemon juice all mixed together on the salad was different looking...it was actually the stocks of a certain lettuce and when you put it in water, they curl up, it was really fun!! So we all went back to the table and enjoyed the pork along with the salad and another glass of vino to go with the pork only...not the salad...Richard made that clear!! Ha, it was a red vino and wasn't too bad either. The salad really wasn't that bad, anchovies and all, I couldn't really taste them, which was good! :) Then Christina brought out a cutting board with 3 different cheeses on them. One crumbly one with a strong taste (my favorite), one with not such a strong taste and the third was like a brie, but not as strong...ha, I am not good at describing cheese. We ate these cheeses with a white vino which was my favorite, it was really sweet and was made with cannellino grapes...delish!! :) After tasting the cheeses, biscotti was next. Italians eat their biscotti with vino, not with their coffee/teas, like we do in the states. They actually dip their biscotti in the vino and let it set for a minute. We dipped our biscotti’s in a red vino...one which was really strong, so I didn't dip mine or finish the glass. The biscotti’s were SO good!! Definitely going to make them when I get home, they took like 30 minutes to make!! :) After that fabulous meal, we walked back home and I finished up my homework along with some studying, I have my first Italiano test tomorrow, wish me luck!!
CIAO everyone!!
MISS YOU ALL!!