Yesterday we were off to Pescara for a business meeting. While we were there, O and I decided to take the opportunity to do some shopping since they have a lot more shops in Pescara than we do in the area. So, after the meeting, we were off. Our main goal, find a Christmas tree. [...]
Posts from ‘November, 2007’
My darling Clementine
I’ve never been crazy about oranges, always finding them too acidic and sometimes bitter for my taste. But I go crazy for Clementines. I know some of my counterparts in the Italian blog world have already written about them, but after buying a kilo of them once a week for the last 3 weeks, I [...]
Friends, Food, and Laughter
Yesterday was our Thanksgiving Day celebration. Yes, a little late. But, as I mentioned before, Thursday wasn’t a holiday here, meaning we couldn’t all sit down and feast. So, we postponed the celebration for Sunday. We ordered a turkey from our butcher. Well, actually, we ordered a tacchinella from our butcher. A regular tacchino probably [...]
Happy Thanksgiving!
Today isn’t a holiday here in Italy, so rather than celebrate Thanksgiving today, we’ve postponed it to Sunday (depending upon whether some friends can come join us). We had no definite plans because we weren’t sure if the turkey would arrive. You see, it’s not that easy to get a turkey here. It typically needs [...]
Doctor, Doctor
Ah, the Italian medical system. It has it’s good points and it’s bad points. There are things here that are done much better than the way they are done in the states, and then there’s worse. Of course, the best part is that, unless you go to a private doctor, your doctor visits are free [...]
That’s a spicy meat-a-ball!
I’ve heard various people say that meatballs are an American invention. Believe me, they eat meatballs in Italy too, but like other Italian dishes, they’re regional. We once went to a sagra where they served boar meatballs! Anyway, here they’re called polpette or, in the local dialect, brasciol’. Here’s my recipe which is partly the [...]
Chestnuts
Yes, Gil and KC, you guessed it, it’s a chestnut splitter. (You were very close Judith). This little thing-a-ma-jig comes in handy with chestnuts. I don’t know about you, but I cringe every time I watch someone cutting a cross into the chestnuts, sure that the knife is going to slip and they’re going to [...]
Crazy for gadgets
I have to admit it. I’m a kitchen gadget freak. Anything from little hand-held thing-ma-jigs to heavy-duty electrical appliances may strike my fancy. The only requirement is that they have to be useful. There are plenty of gadgets out there that are a waste of time, just made to take your money and take up [...]
Misery loves company
When some friends came to visit the other day, they brought us this beautiful plant. In Italian it’s called “La Miseria” which, despite the title of this post, translates more accurately as “extreme poverty”. I’m not quite sure what the symbolism is there. If you have this plant is it supposed to stave off poverty? [...]
Leaving on a jet plane
Well, my parents are leaving Italy today after a 5 week stay. We actually said goodbye yesterday after we drove them to the train station in Vasto where they took the train up to Pescara and then over to Rome. Of course, I had to call them to make sure they made it on the [...]
