September 2012 Cooking Class

Haven't been blogging much lately, because we haven't done much exciting.  We did finally get our household goods and seem to be pretty settled.  I have some pictures I will post, but I am waiting for Tommy to do a video tour.  Sam has been busy traveling with cross country the past two weeks, and both kids are gone this weekend.

However, Friday I got to go to my second cooking class.  We went to a town called Giarre to a restaurant called Miseria & Nobilta.  It is based on an old movie with a favorite Italian star, Toto.

The menu for our lesson was:  Pomodoro ripieno dell'Etna (stuffed tomato Etna style), involtino di petto di pollo ripieno alla palermitana (stuffed, rolled chicken breast Palermo style), and tiramisu.

Here is the set up when we walked into the restaurant:

First up was the stuffed tomato:

We started with hallowed out tomato, reserve the meat of the tomato and blend well in a blender, olive oil, fresh mozzarella, and a bread crumb mixture which includes parmesan cheese, parsley, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, and the blended tomato.  If you do not have enough tomato to moisten the breadcrumbs, add oil.  We didn't get the exact measurements, but probably about 2 parts breadcrumbs to 1 part parm and then just  season to taste.

You start by filling the tomato half way with breadcrumbs...

Then put a few pieces of fresh mozzarella in..

and top with more breadcrumbs...

finally sprinkle with a little olive oil and then parmesan cheese.  Place in a pan that has a drizzle of olive oil or been lined with parchment paper and place in a 325 degree oven for about 10 minutes.  You can save the tops and put them on after about 6 minutes and continue cooking.

Next, we worked on the chicken:

We started with the same breadcrumb mix, minus the tomato, fresh mozzarella, very thin sliced chicken, speck (an Italian meat, you could substitute bacon or ham or really any meat), olive oil and parsley

Start by dipping your chicken in olive oil, put allow the excess to drip off, then sprinkle the breadcrumbs over both sides of the chicken

place the speck, or whatever meat you want, on the chicken

then top with some fresh mozzarella slices

finally a little fresh parsley

then roll up your chicken so it looks like this

finally, sprinkle with olive oil, and some more breadcrumbs

place on a platter that has been treated with olive oil and bake at 350 for about 12-15 minutes.

Finally, we made individual sized tiramisu

The cream is made by separating 2 eggs.  Add about 2 tablespoons of sugar to the yolks and a pinch of salt to the whites.  Beat the whites until they are fluffy, beat the yolks, then combine yolks, whites, and about a 6 or 8 oz (250 gram) container of mascarpone cheese.  The woman did not fold it all together to keep it fluffy, she just used the mixer to get it all incorporated.

Here is the cream and some brewed and cooled espresso

And, of course the lady fingers

first layer is the cream

then soak the lady fingers in the espresso and place a layer. (I am thinking that if I make this at home, I might soak the lady fingers in some hot chocolate because I am not so sure everyone here would eat it with espresso)  Repeat the two layers and top with more cream

Finally sprinkle with bitter cocoa and chill.

Here are a couple of shots inside the restaurant.

Once we sat down, we were treated to so much more than what we made:

Our first course had fried eggplant (2 thin slices with some cheese in between), salami, sun dried tomato, cheese, olives and some other meat.

Then we got some pasta, yum!

Our main course was our chicken, which once it is cooked you cut into these pinwheels, and our tomato, along with a small salad.

Finally, we had our tiramisu.

It was all so delicious!  I actually didn't eat it all.  I brought home most of the pasta and a couple of pieces of chicken.  Fortunately, I knew from the last time that I would not be eating dinner that night, so I had thrown some pork in the crock pot that morning for Mike and Tommy (Sam was already in Venice for cross country).  What I like about what I have learned so far, is that everything is really simple.  Simple, fresh ingredients, and a wonderfully delicious outcome!

Sigonella Swordfish

Last weekend was the first swim meet of the season.  I intended to write the post much earlier, but we finally got our household goods shipment this week, so I have been spending my days unpacking and trying to organize all our stuff.

This swim meet was one of 2 weekends where we host the meet.  We started Saturday night with a carb-loading dinner.  Families brought all sorts of pasta dishes and fruit and veggies for a big pot luck dinner.  It was a great time for Mike and I to get to know some of the other parents on the team, as our kids quickly ditched us to sit with their friends.  It was announced that the coach had picked Tommy as one of the captains of the team.  He already knew this and was pretty excited.

Sunday morning, we were at the pool pretty early.  I was working concessions and the kids had to be there for warm-ups.  They started the meet kind of like they start football games.  They had all of our swimmers line up in twos and march on deck to music and cheering.  Tommy got to be one of the leaders.  I wish I had my camera at that time, but I didn't, perhaps next time.

The kids seemed to have a good time hanging out with their team mates

and they both swam well....

In addition to concessions, team spirit wear was on sale.  So even though they both have 4 t-shirts for the team already, I bought them some sweatshirts.  The spirit wear tent also had items geared toward the parents, in a way only a swim team in Italy could.....

That's right, we have our own wine!  When I asked how much, they quoted me on what a case costs.  Since I am not sure how long it would take for me to drink a case of Sigonella Swordfish wine, I just bought a bottle.

There really isn't much going on this weekend.  Sam is out of town for a cross country meet, and we will be continuing to organize all our stuff.  I think all the boxes are unpacked and in our carport waiting to be picked up, which is supposed to happen Monday.  Now I just have to get all the pictures hung and figure out storage for everything.  Then I will post some before and after shots of the house.

Caltagirone

This past  weekend, Mike had Friday and Monday off, but the kids only have Monday off.  So Mike and I took a ride to a little town about 45 minutes away called Caltagirone.  It is a town known for its ceramics.  However, it is also known for the Staircase of Saint Maria, or Scala di Santa Maria.  This is a beautiful staircase which has 142 steps.  I knew that the best time to hit this town was when the kids were not around because we have spent enough time listening to them complain about how much they have to walk.

The town is built on a hill, which meant windy, steep roads to get there.

We parked in a parking garage outside of town.  There was really no way we were going to be able to fit our vehicle through those little streets!  Although there were cars the size of mine driving around.  The Italians really know how to navigate their little roads.  Above is a view from inside the car where we parked.  The garage was right on the edge of the hillside, and where we parked was on the outside edge of the garage.  Just straight down on the other side of that fence.

This is the town looking up from where we parked.  Our goal was to walk our way through the winding streets, check out the ceramics and find the staircase.

This is the stairway looking up.  It looks like nothing in this picture!

Aside from there being a lot of steps at the Scala di Santa Maria, the real attraction is that each riser is decorated with hand painted ceramic tiles.

Along the way up, there were little ceramic shops where we stopped in and looked around, while resting a while.  And once we reached the top we sat and watched others climb up.

Behind Mike, there were 4 little boys playing a game of soccer in the small square.  At one point the ball went down the steps Mike is sitting on and approached the big stairway.  As the little boy's eyes got really big watching the ball, it somehow managed to hit one of the few posts that line the top of the stairway.  I can't imagine having to chase the ball all the way down!

As bad as it was walking up, it was just as bad walking down.  It was a pretty steep set of stairs and no rail to hold onto!

And after a long morning of walking up and down hills and stairs, we were hungry.  So we stopped for our favorite Italian mid-morning snack......

That's right, gelato/granite and brioche.  I figure we walked off all those calories before we sat down to eat them =)