Family Dinner

May 27th, 2012

Megan and I spent the day getting the apartment cleaned and preparing for dinner tonight.  We went out to the garden and picked flowers for the table and then we found some figs and other fruit growing in our garden so we made a fruit salad for lunch.  After that, we went to this market that only happens on the last Sunday of every month and it was full of antiques.  Most of it was flea market stuff but the two things that Megan and I really liked turned out to cost over 1000 euros. Hahaha we couldn’t believe it because everything else was around 5-10 euros.

Our family dinner was of course eventful as always. There were about 12 people who came over to the apartment and our menu consisted of salad, bruschetta, risotto, veggies, pasta, and stuffed chicken – it was very tasty! We had flowers and candles set up on the table and all the food looked great but the company was even better.   After taking tons of pictures and cooking all night we finally sat down to eat where Crystal nonchalantly said, “Hey guys, I think something’s on fire.” At that point we turn around to see this massive flame and one of the tea lights managed to ignite the entire bowl of salad on fire! We quickly ran over and threw a pitcher of water on it to find a massive hole burned through our salad bowl.  We burst out laughing when the chaos was over and blew out all the other tea lights before we had any more accidents!

The dinner party somehow ended with Nate, Jessica and I standing on the table and doing a full out karaoke performance to Lady Marmalade, while Nate was wearing a sombrero we randomly found in our kitchen cabinets today. These people crack me up.  Everyone went home for now, but tonight we are going to the secret bakery to end this perfect day.

germany bound

May 17th, 2012

My day started off by going to the local markets in my cooking class as my professor, Chef Desy, told us about the different ingredients and the areas of Italy where they come from. We were sampling olive oils, balsamic vinegar, cheese, meats and olives at 9am, but it was the most amazing breakfast ever.  The markets are filled with locals who typically run family owned stores that date all the way back to the 1800s – pretty cool stuff. Afterwards as a treat, he bought us some gelato where I was finally able to try the hazelnut flavor which was molto bene! (very good)

After Italian class, we then went to our family business course where we went around the city looking at family businesses and talking to the owners.  They were all really sweet and it was sad to hear that so many are struggling financially when they have been around for centuries. Also, today we found out that an apartment full of girls was broken into and they had their laptops stolen.  It really shook us all up but in a good way since we are taking more measures in being safe.  They took nothing else and didn’t rummage through their apartment either – no windows or doors/locks were broken.

I might not be able to post much this weekend since I am leaving to go to Berlin tomorrow to see my friend Charlotte! I should get in around noon their time and I can’t wait to see and experience the different cities. Until then..