Piazza Armerina and Madonna della Rocca

The past week or so I have gone on a couple of day trips.  Over the kids spring break, I went with a couple of friends (the kids had no desire) to a place called Piazza Armerina where there is the ruins of an old Roman villa know for its intricate mosaics.

The villa was covered in mud due to a flood, and it is believed that the mud helped to preserve the mosaics.

This is part of the villa with some of the remaining columns.

All of the floors are covered in different mosaics made up of the smallest tiles, and each one tells a different story.

This pattern included 4 different animals, here you can see the tiger and horse.  This design when entirely around the central garden.  Although there were only the 4 animals, they were not all identical.

This one was supposed to represent the different seasons.  There are 4 pictures of a man and he is dressed slightly different in each picture.  There was a description of which picture was which season, but it made no sense to me.  The dress didn't look that different, but the seasons here really aren't that different, so you wouldn't expect the dress to change too dramatically.

These are the "bikini girls".  They are actually telling a story about the long jump and the discus throw.

It was a really interesting villa to walk through.  The tiles were so small that even in the areas where the ground had buckled due to the mud covering it, every tile was still in place and the pictures were clear.  It is amazing to think of all the work that must have gone into planning and executing all the mosaics.


This past week the new guy in Mike's  office arrived, and we are his sponsors.  Since he is single, he will be living out in town, so there isn't a lot we can do to help with that.  However, we did take him out for the day Saturday so he could see Sicily as well as get a sense of where the various towns so he has some sense of the geography as he is looking at real estate.  The main focus of the day was a trip to Taormina.  It is the big tourist area around here, and we love going there.  There is a castle up on top of a hill there that we have not been able to figure out how to get to.  So before we went,  I googled and got some basic directions.

This picture is taken from the main square in Taormina.  If you look closely, you will see the church to the left (there is a small white cross on the left) and then the remains of the castle to the right.  That is where we were determined to go!

From what I had read, there were around 500 steps to get up there.  I didn't count, and I am not sure at what point the count would start, because we had to go up a bunch of steps just to get to the street where the steps started!

The steps don't look so bad here.  As we got further up the mountain, the quality of the steps deteriorated and the side rail disappeared altogether.

Along the steps are the stations of the cross.  This is much more effective at having you imagine the struggle Christ had carrying the cross then just walking the stations in a church!

I don't think we were even halfway up at this point, and that is Taormina down there.

Getting closer!  If you look just right of center, you can see the guardrail for the steps.

That is the castle, still a ways away!

So close here you can see the door and the windows!

The church was closed, but I was able to put my ipad right up against the glass door and get a picture.

This was a great resting point, as there were still more stairs to climb to get to the castle.  I must have been really tired, because I didn't get any pix beyond this point.  That might also have something to do with the fact that we climbed the rest of the way to the castle, only to have the castle closed and the gate locked!  It was quite a workout!  My calves were shaking after that climb and it took a couple days for them to recover!  Not sure If I would be willing to do it again, but if we do, I will be sure the castle is open first!

My Birthday

 Castelmola

This past weekend, was my birthday.  Both kids were gone for school sports, but due back in the middle of the night Saturday night.  That gave me and Mike the opportunity to see some more of Sicily without anyone whining about all the walking.  Fortunately, the weather cooperated and it was a beautiful day.  We decided to drive up some pretty crazy roads to a town above Taoromina called Castelmola.

This is an example of the crazy curves we drove up.

Thank God we didn't drive on that road!  Crazy!

 After driving up the mountain and parking, we still had a bunch of stairs to get into and around town.

 The town and the views were definitely worth the drive and the stairs.

After a nice day out, we had pizza at a friend's house, and Mike surprised me with a gelato birthday cake.  Then I went to sleep and Mike awaited texts from the kids saying they made it back and he needed to go get them from the school.  They were both in Naples for the weekend, but they traveled on separate buses.  Sam got back around midnight, but Tommy didn't get in until closer to 3.  The best part is that Tommy's bus was not able to get onto base because of a steering issue, so Mike just picked him up outside the gates.  But a steering issue, really!  Not exactly what you want to hear about the bus that your kid was on for 10 hours!  I guess it broke down on the way up to Naples as well, and they were stuck at an autogrill for an hour.  I am just so excited for their next bus trips, NOT!

I thought I would share a sample of Italian driving with you.  I believe I am going to have to start keeping some non-drowsy Dramamine in the car for trips like this!  It's not an exciting video, but it gives yo a feel for the driving around here.

 

 

Cooking Class March 2013

 Cooking class today took us to a rural cheese farm where they raise lamb, cows, horses, and probably other animals.  It was a beautiful old building among rolling hills with some incredible views.

Inside there was a large room decorated with old farming tools.
 

(check out the bookcase all the way at the end.  trust me, it will make sense later)

Behind the demonstration/work tables, there were wine taps on the wall.

The first dish we learned how to make was caponata.  The main ingredient for this dish is eggplant.  Today we also added onion, pepper, and a potato.

Andrea and our chef

We diced all of the veggies.  Then we added some olives, raisins, capers, and pine nuts.  Some caponatas also include tomatoes and/or carrots.  Once they are all chopped, you sprinkle with salt and generously drizzle with olive oil.  At this point you put it in the oven at about 400 degrees and bake for 30-45 minutes.  At that point, you mix up about a 3/4 cup of white wine vinegar and about a 1/4 cup of sugar and pour over and cook for an additional 10 minutes.  It is important to stir periodically throughout the entire cooking class.  I have had this dish before with tomatoes, and it came out tasting almost like a barbeque.  Today's version was good, but when I make it, I will add tomatoes.

Next up was the Sicilian version of fried mozzarella.  The cheese they use is a really bland cheese.  I tasted it before it was breaded and fried and it tasted like milk.  I have never eaten cheese before and thought it tasted like milk.

Nothing new here, dredge cheese wedge in flour, then in egg which has been beaten with salt, and then bread crumbs.

Cheese ready to be fried.

Cheese being fried

The caponata in the oven.  Andrea said we could cover it while baking, but clearly the chef here doesn't.

We did not make these, but we did get to eat them. They are slices of zucchini with mashed potato in between that were breaded and then fried...delish!

After watching them cook our cheese, and sampling it, we had a demonstration of the making of cannoli filling.  Just in case you were wondering, you should not use super fresh ricotta cheese for this process.  The cheese should be at least one day old.  So I think we are safe using Sorrento ricotta ;)

 

Those are the shells.  According to Andrea, nobody makes their own shells anymore, so head out to the bakery and buy some shells for your stuffing!

Ricotta filling consists of how ever much cheese you decide to mix up with 30% sugar added.  Do not mix in a food processor or with another appliance!  On the east coast of Sicily they add in gummy candy things, on the west coast they add in chocolate chips and near Etna they add pistachios.  I wish we were on the west coast!

My mini cannoli

The main dis was lamb.  We did not prepare it, but this is what it looked like before being cooked.

I really liked their plates.

The wine tap I mentioned before

Some ricotta cheese to eat with lunch

This is the caponata all cooked up.  Like I said, with the tomatoes, it is more of a red color and tastes more like barbeque.

On the left are those zucchinis stuffed with mashed potato.  I have no idea what the other thing is, but it was tasty.

This is a version of the blood orange salad.  They added fennel, which I think could have easily been left out.

Some more fried cheese and some eggy baked dish.

Sausage

pasta in a cool dish.

The finished lamb.  I could not bring myself to try any, but everyone said it was good.

After lunch, they opened this door hidden by a bookcase and brought us into the cheese shop.  At the very beginning there is a picture of the inside and you can see the bookshelf all the way in the back behind the tables.

This is the first process in aging the cheese.

Some of the fresh ricotta

and some pecorino cheese which we got to taste.  It was good, but a little would go a long way!  It almost ended up with an aftertaste similar to blue cheese.  But shave this over some pasta with olive oil and it would be really good.

That was pretty much our day at the farm.  I am looking forward to trying out the caponata at home and seeing if I can get it more like the first one I had.