Playing catch-up

Hey everyone! Yes, I'm a slacker. It's been forever since I posted anything! Life has been hectic, much cold cereal and scrambled eggs have been consumed, but we have also had some interesting foods, which I will now try to update.

First, I made a stuffed meatloaf with roasted potatoes. Basically, you flatten out the hamburger, put an omlette, spinach, ham, and cheese on top and roll. Bake it with the potatoes and enjoy!

When my mom was here visiting, we went on a tour of Italy. The food in Tuscany was amazing, though they don't salt their bread. Basil ravioli, gnocchi (potato dumplings), and big, thick sandwiches from the butcher shop. Mom loved the gelato, so we ate it often. Our favorite came from San Gimignano (a small Tuscan town made up of mideval skyscrapers): Raspberry Baby (raspberry and rosemary), and gorgonzola and walnuts. Just as a side note, my mom LOVED the coconut, so she had it every time.

Everything else in May was boring, so we'll skip to June and our trip that included Amsterdam, Bruges, and Brussels. After living in Italy so long, we didn't realize what fantastic variety other countries have in their food products. We went to a grocery store in Amsterdam to buy some sandwich stuff and ended up with cheese & onion Lays, authentic Dutch cheese, chocolate-covered waffles, and curry mango sauce, all of which were completely out of this world tasty. That sauce was so good that we squeezed it onto rolls and ate curry-mango sandwiches. Belgium is known for four things: fries, waffles, beer, and chocolate. The fries, served with a variety of sauces (we chose green pepper sauce), can be a meal in themselves. True Belgian waffles are actually a dessert, not breakfast. They are covered with chocolate, sprinkles, or powdered sugar. We had one with strawberries and whipped cream. The beer and the chocolate? All I can say is excellent.

 

And finally, before I go, let me tell you that since school is finally out for the summer, I plan to cook more, try new things, and keep you posted. Maybe I'll even share a recipe or two. For example, yesterday I marintated chicken in barbeque sauce and some strong red onions (from my garden!), then threw them on the grill. The result was fantastic! I plan to do it again and use it it in a variety of ways: salads, pasta, etc.

Have a great summer and I look forward to making you hungry!

The great pizza experiment

Naples is the birthplace of pizza. It's better here than anywhere else in the world. I have heard that it cannot be replicated in other places. Something about Italian flour and the water... So armed with the right flour and water and a pizza-making class (3 months ago), we decided to give it a shot.

"Put flour on counter, make a volcano, and put all other ingredients in the crater. Mix by hand." Sounds easy enough, but when I started to mix it, our volcano erupted, sending oil and yeast all over my kitchen. Oops. We finally got it all mixed and dough-like, but the house was too cold for the dough to rise. Oven to the rescue!

The pizzas were finally assembled, one Hawaiian and two personal-pan vegetable pizzas. We had been longing for a Hawaiian pizza. Italians put many things on their pizzas (eggplant, seafood still in the shells, lettuce, corn), but apparently pineapple is not one of them. For all the trouble we had with making the dough, they came out very yummy! The crust was a little flat and extra-crispy, so I think it would be better if we let it rise more or made it thinner or... I guess I will just have to keep playing with it. This has been a very valuable experience. If there is one thing I want to leave here knowing, it's how to make a good pizza.

And so it begins...

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the Lindsay's blog. We hope to make you extremely hungry. Maybe we won't always talk about the interesting food we eat, but also our adventures as we explore Europe.

As a faithful narrative of all our dealings with food, let me begin with looking back at our time so far in Italy. It all began in July with eating ox in Germany and kebaps in Austria. Then in August a trip to Tuscany left Tim with a craving for wild boar. We have eaten a lot of pizza and a lot of gelato since being here. In October, we attended the EuroChocolate festival in Perugia. That was heaven! Chocolate everywhere!


Chocolate ravioli with strawberries

Then there was Venice with the "muffin" flavored gelato. It didn't taste like muffins, but we weren't sure what it was. November had the 20 pounds of mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving, and how could we forget the Thanksgiving pizza?





Thanksgiving pizza, with all the fixin's!

Christmas had a combination of struffoli, a traditional dessert made of little dough balls coated in honey and sprinkles, and baked dentice, a fish that translates into English as dentex. The potato gnocchi and lasagne of New Year's Eve was a hit.



Merry Christmas!

Finally, (and unfortunately there is no picture) Tim ordered "mixed fried seafood" for dinner one night. It came out as a plate piled high with several small, whole fish breaded and fried, with their pathetic little eyes looking at you and their crisp little tail fins crackling. Tim ate them happily, I might add.

Are you hungry yet?