Saturday, March 20, 2010

Le Lezioni di Cucina

Eccomi! Here I am!

Today is Saturday, the day of my second Italian soccer game. Most people are traveling this weekend, but there is a pretty solid group of us ready and excited to go tonight. I'm about to go out to breakfast with Ashton, as she slept here last night in place of my three missing roommates, and then we will go purchase our Roma sweatshirts to show our Roma pride! But until then, I will provide a nice update.

So my Wednesday and Thursday cooking classes were the highlight of my week. Wednesday night, I departed for Francesca's home, hopping on a bus that takes me past the Colosseum. On the bus, I heard on either side of me people speaking English. I first realized that on one end were two girls from my school, Jennie and Michelle. I texted Jennie and she looked up and yelled "YEAH! I'M GOING TO THE COOKING CLASS TOO" haha. Then I heard someone say "...you know, because I'm a Jew." Gail! So I texted her too. And she was with Hannah. So all five us of somehow managed to get on the same bus going to same place at the same time. Hilarious. So we showed up and the cooking began...

I told you already what was on the menu, but I will further explain. The main dish was one of Francesca's own creations. Here in Rome, a very popular snack is something called "supplì," basically a fried rice ball with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese inside. This was Francesca's take on that. We used bread crumbs and olive oil to line the bottom of a large round pan covered with freezer paper. Then we made the rice mixture: white rice mixed with tomato sauce, garlic, olive oil, a little salt, and an egg. Heat the sauce first, add to the rice, then add the egg. This was layered on top of the bread crumbs. Then we added a layer of mozzarella cheese. Then another layer of the rice mixture, topped with more bread crumbs and sprinkled with olive oil. Bake. Eat. Delicious.

The second course was salad. There was a lot going on in this salad, but it was still very simple. Lettuce, naturally, with carrots, fennel, mushrooms, peppers, hard-boiled eggs, and maybe some other ingredients, but I didn't work on the salad...I was too busy helping with the dessert. The strawberry tart. Just saying it I can hear the angels singing. She already had the crust baked by the time we got there, because there was so much else for us to do. I was given the task of breaking the eggs to get the egg yolks for the cream mixture for the tart. The egg didn't even make it out of the carton before it was cracked by my clumsiness. Now there's efficiency. Francesca just laughed and took over for me. I was fortunate enough to have signed up for the cooking class the following night, in which we made a chocolate and pear tart, and we started from scratch. (When it came time for the egg yolks...Francesca did it herself). This tart was amazing. Whereas, the strawberry tart was just a cold tart, with strawberries on top, this tart was enclosed and baked like a pie made of dough...and so good.

Also on Thursday night, we made a very simple pasta with gorgonzola sauce. The two salads we made were pretty diesel too. Rucola with honeydew melon and gorgonzola cheese. And just mushroom and parmigiano for the second one. So healthy...until we devoured the chocolate and pear tart.

As for the evenings of these cooking classes...Wednesday was St. Patrick's day. So I wore my green and met up with a group of people at a bar that I am embarrassed to say is called The Drunken Ship. I had a few drinks, chilled out for a little bit and then headed home at a decent hour with my roommates. Nothing too crazy.

Thursday night, Nicole and I were both at the cooking class, so we came back to my apartment together and waited for Aston, while I skyped with Carleigh. Then we watched Extract. Not recommended, but we still had a nice relaxing night.

On Friday, when I woke up, I got myself ready and called my friend Sam. Together we went to Villa Borghese to enjoy the nice weather. I wore shorts for the first time (which ended up being a mistake, as the "warm" weather only lasted for about an hour before the sun decided to hide himself). I attempted to study but failed pretty miserably. Did I mention I have three midterms next week? No big.

Friday night I met up again with Ashton and Nicole and we had a very nice, very long dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It was, as always, so nice to take a break from heavy Italian food...and then we had fried ice cream for dessert. Ha. After dinner, we came back to my area, Trastevere, and hung out in my apartment for a little while with another girl from my program, Kayla, after we ran into her on the tram. Ashton fell asleep and the three of us stepped out into Trastevere and went to a bar that took meal vouchers for a drink.

Now here I am. The sun is not shining at the moment, and I had trouble sleeping. So I will probably study a little, maybe write some of my art history paper, but most definitely take a nap so I can enjoy the game tonight!

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