enjoying the FOOD Italian-style

Mmmmmm the food and treats in Italy :D

I have about 3 months left in Italy... I'm going to miss breakfasts like this one!!!!

My mom will like this one! Focaccia bread with green olives!

This was my breakfast one day at school:

On a recent Sunday morning, I enjoyed a muffin and caffe latte with a book about careers:

Third-grade twins from China brought me a moon cake for the Chinese Lunar New Year!

This was reminiscent of my time in Vietnam when they also celebrated the New Year with moon cakes : )

Hoooooomade tiramisu by an Italian! Perfetto!

Our Help Desk Manager made tiramisu for a staff member's birthday:

I love walking through the markets here. The colorful fruits look great here:

...every meal since

I have waited about three and a half years now to purchase a toaster... and yesterday, I finally did so!

I love toast. And bagels. And toasted bagels. Being at my friend Jen's place last week and having toast gave me the push I needed to purchase this cute little guy:

That's right! -- Let there be toast!

I'm overly excited about this... and really should have just purchased a toaster long ago, considering how much happiness it is giving me... but it just hadn't happened until yesterday.

Now I'm going to get my money's worth out of it. I already probably have, actually -- every meal I've eaten since lunch yesterday has come out of this toaster.   :D

Lunch at Le Proposte in Piacenza

I was invited to go to lunch last Sunday with a group of ladies from school. They had all been to this place before and raved about it... now I see why! It is about an hour's drive to Piacenza from Milan. The drive is gorgeous... especially once you get to the area and there are rolling hills of vineyards.

Panoramic of the area:

We had lunch at Le Proposte - a cozy little place with amaaaaaazing food!

We started with the antipasti dishes, which they bring (and seem to never stop bringing!) and we shared. Then we each ordered a primi (pasta) - I had the pumpkin ravioli. We skipped over the secondi and went straight to dessert from there! And, of course, finished up with un caffe.

The drive to and from Piacenza was almost as delicious as the food!!

food and restaurants - Spain

Mmmmmm tapas in Spain! Although - I don't know how I would cope with tapas all the time. The tapas I ate while in Spain were mostly fried goodness.

I love the decorated front to this restaurant:

Mmmmmm my delicious gyro from an international fair going on in a park:

Fish in a garlic sauce!

Best tapa I ate while in Spain - fried goat cheese "with tomatoes," which hilariously showed up as ketchup...

This sign made me laugh... which one isn't like the others?

 pizza, pasta, ...burritos??

In the land of fancy Starbucks...

...and fancy fast food    : P

OLIVES! ...if everyone buys olives, would you buy olives too?!

I was in a large supermarket in the city, Esselunga, picking up some groceries the other night.

While perusing through the produce section and heading into the bakery section, there was an entire case of olives. Yes! All different kinds of olives... marinated olives... green olives, black olives... olives that looked the same as other olives but were apparently different, according to the label... olives, olives, olives ...mmmmmhmmmmm.

I was trying to figure out what kind I should take with me to try...

I walked back and forth along the long case of olives a number of times...

And while doing so, three different elderly Italian people came up to the olive case and each went straight for one type of olives. They were green, they seemed to be marinated with something - to which I assumed had to be a marinade of deliciousness, seeing as how all three people that chose olives while I was there, ALL three, went for this one type.

Done.

I completely followed suit.

If these elderly Italians know which type of olives to buy (because apparently they do), then I'm going to trust them!

I scooped up a package of the delicious-looking olives and went on my way.

As soon as I returned to my apartment, I opened this package of olives and was definitely not disappointed! Mmmmmhmmmmm! Delicious.

Here's a photo to make your mouth water a bit...

I've been enjoying these each day since the purchase.

Come visit me in Milan! -- I will feed you delicious green olives!   : P

making spreadable butter

While I was in Denver this summer, my brother Lenny was making his own spreadable butter. I just tried it myself and will definitely continue doing this! Basically... this easy step cuts about 3/4 of the cost of this food staple... instead of buying a tub of spreadable butter, I can now make my own from a couple sticks and some canola oil (although I didn't have canola... so I used a mixed seed oil).

I followed the recipe found here and plan on trying to mix in a couple herbs for a smaller batch soon. Mmmmhmmmmm!

Funny timing on seeing Lenny do this at his house - as I had a huge block of hard butter in my refrigerator that was always impossible to try and scrap away at to use. ....Problem solved.   : )

Thanks Len!

QUINOA lovin

I picked up some quinoa at the grocery store the other day and am really happy with the recipe that I found online. This delicious and super healthy dish might just become a staple go-to of mine. My first time cooking quinoa -- success!

I mostly followed the recipe found here on skinnytaste.com but left out the red onion (simply because I didn't have one) and added in feta cheese. I love it!

When I have a small bowl of this, I cut up cucumber and avocado (like the recipe suggests) and also add more lime juice . Mmmmmhmmmmm.

Denver happenings

Mom and Dad arrive in Denver tonight! I'm looking forward to having them here for the rest of the week.

Below are some photos from random pieces of my time so far in Denver. I love this city  : )

Sweet Action ice cream with friends - always a good idea...

Ahhhh Denver  : )

We were shopping for trees...

Lenny's friend, Jodie, came over with her new gorgeous baby - Hannah!

Mmmmm... fish with salsa...

Koura - hiding from Roomba...

dinner at Jacqueline and Giacomo's - Alba Adriatica, Italy

Dinner was a bevy of PIZZAS!

...And below are some of my favorite photos from our time spent with family in Alba Adriatica  : D

Silvana, bringing out more pizzas!

Ylenia with her dad, Giacomo... and Dad   : )

Buddies -- Vincenzo and Sean

Francesca, Denis' girlfriend, brought dessert for the night, mmmmmm

Profiteroles!

Silvana, Francesca, Denis, Jacqueline, Ylenia:

food, food, and onto more food!

Although we all thought that we would not have to eat again for another week... after a few hours of down time... we were off to Jacqueline and Giacomo's house (kids: Ylenia and Fabio) for dinner!

We were told that plans changed from the original menu of food... and they were going to make pizzas. Awesome. Sounds good to me!

Their house is set on a hill... overlooking the mountains and the sea. It was gorgeous.

As we walked into the house, we were greeted by this hugely long table... ready to seat everyone! Ahhh... feels good to be surrounded by family and it reminds me of our family get-togethers in East Rochester when I was little.

Ylena, The Cook!

Ylenia had it all set in the kitchen... creating gorgeous pizzas with a variety of toppings on huge trays. Her mom, Jacqueline was at the outdoor kitchen making potatoes to go with all of it as well.

Giacomo gave us a tour of the house and Dad made a new buddy:

It was pretty cool listening to Giacomo and Dad tell stories of their pet birds. Dad had one growing up and his stories were similar to Giacomo's - they both were excited to share with one another and understand exactly what the other was saying!

Dad's bird growing up, Pretty Boy, would come out of his cage each evening and sit on the side of my Poppy's glasses to watch television with him. He would also fly into my Nonny's hands, as she would cup them together while she washed dishes after dinner.

lunch at Silvana and Vincenzo's - Alba Adriatica, Italy

Wow. Silvana's lunch was amazing... and intense. Intensely GOOD... but the food just kept coming!

We began the meal with bread and a spread of salamis/cheeses.

Then... onto the pasta.

We had an amazing lasagna (that Dad was still raving about two weeks later!)...

THEN out comes carbonara pasta - Mom's favorite!

From the pasta 'primi' course... was the 'secondi' course of... DUCK.

Then... salad.

(We were overly stuffed at this point... but still had to try a bit of everything... aaaand it's very possible that I'm forgetting something here too...)

Stuffed. But the meal still wasn't over.

Out came this amazing tray of dolci - sweets! (Shown below.)

And, of course, espressos too.

Let me just also mention here how much I love Christopher.

We are about the same age and have a lot in common. His English is better than my Italian and he is hilarious. Somehow, the My Little Pony story from Christmas day came up... and Christopher got all excited... saying that HE received the rainbow pony for Christmas this year! - NO JOKE! ...He ran to his room to get it -->

HA! Amazing.

He should make his hair match.

Vincenzo, Christopher's dad, rolled his eyes and said that every year since Christopher was a little boy, he only wants My Little Ponies for Christmas and his birthday. I love it. And I love this guy.   : )

Sean is definitely buddies with Chrisopher's brother, Denis. 

Denis is sarcastic and funny... and he and Sean could usually be found together joking and laughing -->

food, day 2 in Barcelona

Carrie and I really enjoyed the Tapas in Barcelona. The small plates of yummy food were perfect to order a few and share. We usually went somewhere for an early dinner-snack... and then again later for a real dinner around 8pm or so when places actually opened for dinner.

We got bread, cheese, and salami at one place... we were scared of most of the plates we saw on the buffet... so stuck to the basics, which were still delicious!