Simply Grateful!

This weekend was one of those weekends where everything takes your breath away. Where you feel so GRATEFUL for everything and everyone you encounter. This Friday felt much more like the week than a weekend. Knowing I had to work on Saturday, I hit the sack early. Saturday we had plans to have some family friends over for dinner so Matilde and I spent the afternoon preparing the house for company. As to be expected, we had a FEAST. Tiziano asked me the night before if I wanted to help cook, and naturally my answer was "of course!! I would love to be your assistant/sous chef" and he said "no, no, you would be more than an assistant this weekend. You get your own recipe!" I was thrilled. My recipe turned out to be gamberi! Massive prawns (served raw) dressed with lemon zest, lime juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper, covered with aneto and set in the fridge to chill until dinner time. They were fantastic! I got a round of applause at dinner and was so happy - of course Tiziano helped me out with everything so he deserved the applause, but I soaked it up anyway. We had 5 courses in all. Mine was the first course, then two more of pesce carpaccio. The fourth was like a seafood pot-pie. I will post pictures as soon as I upload them to my comp. The fifth was panna cotta with chocolate ganache- in the words of Ina , "how bad could that be?" It was slap yo mamma good.

Sunday we all woke to freezing temperatures and heavy rain. I made a point on Friday to attend mass at a nearby church after I had a pleasant encounter with the priest. I had wandered in San Pietro to light a candle and ended up having my first Italian conversation!! I know this sounds like something I shouldn't be too excited about, after all I have been here for two months.. but normally I would say 'I don't speak Italian,' but this time I bit the bullet and gave it my best shot, and the outcome was more than wonderful. The priest (Pastore Ghiani) invited me to come back on Sunday, so that's exactly what I did. After mass I came back to the house and had the laziest day since I have been here. It was so great to lounge around the house in my PJs. That night we had "leftovers" but that term is used verrrry loosely. In reality, we didn't cook all of the fish that we had bought for supper Saturday night, so Tiziano used the remaining fish for three new (and absolutely fantastic) recipes. The first was a bruschetta, the second was calamari with a lemon and olive oil dressing, and the third was linguini with mussels and tomatoes. I am obviously doing a horrific job of describing the food, but that's the thing, it really is indescribable. I guess there goes my dream job as a food critic!

BUT the absolute crowning moment of this weekend of gratitude was this evening. Marina went out of town on business, so me, Tiziano, and Matilde went to the nearby town of Casina, where Tizian's parents live, to have dinner. His mother, Valeria, was going to cook us dinner and show us how to make her mother's 'ancient' recipe for a traditional Christmas cake. The measurements are literally in 'ladles;' 11 ladles of water, etc. It called for sugar, so much sugar...., cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, pignoli, toasted bread crumbs, walnuts, raisins, and a few other ingredients that I feel should be kept secret :) Once all of these are combined, they sit in a cool dark place for TWENTY DAYS. I don't know much about what happens after those days, but I know the cake takes work up until Christmas day when you are finally allowed to eat it- so much for cake out of a box! Nonna Valeria prepared us gnocco fritto and I about died when I had my first bite. They are pieces of fried dough that puff up and get golden brown. You put a piece of proscutto between two pieces and eat like a little sandwich. They are simply unbelievable. We made some to take home with us. Valeria even let me roll our some of the dough with her pasta maker for us to fry and take home. I could not believe that I was allowed on this trip! I just wanted to thank them over and over for letting me be a part of something so special. It blows my mind how incredible it is that I can partake in these outings like one of the family. Mati and I have been cutting up non-stop it seems lately, and I have been hearing the parents commenting "le sorelle" which puts the biggest smile on my face even thinking about it. Grateful is the only word I can think of at this time to explain how I feel, and to explain this entire experience. Simply Grateful!