Food, Glorious Food!

This past week, students taking the culinary class had a cooking lesson at the famed Florence's Great Chefs. Because the professor for the class was sick, I had to accompany them to the building where the lesson took place and where we learned to make lava cakes and a dessert whose name I can't quite recall.

Florence Chef

Easy to Make!

Times Two

Served with Ice Cream

Plate Licking Good

Gone Too Soon

Our travels back to Palazzo Capponi were the stuff legends are made of. We left the cooking school during what I would call Italian rush hour. The bus, in which we squeezed our 26 extra bodies was packed, before we even set foot in it. But braving the wrath of the conductor, we piled in, squished but excited by the sugar buzz we'd just had. Sardines in olio di oliva!Imagine my surprise when the bus driver, at one point, pulled over, turned off the lights in the bus, and just stopped and waited. For what? I don't know. A strike? A capitulation? We will never know, but after sweating for a few minutes in the dark, we got off and walked the rest of the way home.

I had decided to make brownies for the students that evening, the thunder of which was stolen by the lava cakes we ate at the cooking school. They still disappeared fairly quickly, and we are all in need to exercise from so much sugar.

Alex

Lizzie

The next day, Chiara brought me a surprise. In a conversation, I had mentioned that I love "millefeuilles" a.k.a. Napoleons (don't ask why it's called that in English!). She brought some for Urie and me, and Hmmmmm! Delicious! The perfect mix of flaky crust, creme patissiere and sugar. Sweet, light, delightful! The presentation of the dessert is beauty itself. I had not had a millefeuilles since 1990 something, in the port of Baltimore, and this one was even better than the previous! (People, you don't know how many times I have read the recipe and watched videos on how to make this dessert. Some day...Some day.)

They Say It's Not the Package....

...But What's Inside That Counts!

For Valentine's Day, Urie and I went to Quatro Leoni, a restaurant two streets away from our place. The students had recommended the pear and asparagus "ravioli" (it's not really ravioli), and I had it for the primo piatto. (Recipe found online: http://www.thekitchn.com/italian-recipe-fiocchetti-with-pears-and-parmesan-cream-recipes-from-the-kitchn-190991.) For the next dish, I had chicken while Urie had a steak that could have fed half of the gypsies in this town. Neither of us finished our meal, but we had a good time surrounded by French and American tourists.

Pear Asparagus Fiochetti(?)

Steak Bigger than Urie's Stomach

Primo Piatto: Pici di Something

I also had an excellent gelato this weekend on my way back from the cinema. I cannot live without movies, but I am limiting my frenzy to one a month. Dubbed in Italian, I understood perhaps 95% of it. It helps that I am reading a book in Italian. It's a slow process, but I have read 76 pages since Friday, and hope to finish it before springbreak ends. (Springbreak starts Friday.)

My Valentine's Day Date

Late notice: Michele Ferrero (inventor of the Nutella) died yesterday (02/14/15) at the age of 89. Urie had a moment of silence in his memory, thanking him for the bounty that provides 60% of his (Urie's) food consumption on any given day!