Day 30 - Saturday Nights Allright

The market for the third time, and this time I took Pictures! It was very cold, so a few less vendors than normal. We purchased some more fresh mozzarella, micro greens, and of course cappuccino. I had 4 cappuccino's before noon, this might be becoming a problem. :)

The cooking class went well, we made cannoli which was a first, with fresh ricotta that we bought from the market. With the leftover dough, we made some custard filled italian wontons that were rather good all cooked up. We made plans to hang out with the KSU folks after work, so looking forward to put on a pair of jeans and feel like a normal gal again.

The evening dinner party schedule for 19 was set for 9, and they showed up at 9:50, so that was lovely! We ended getting out of work just before 11, and headed to the house party. The boys and I headed out. It was a very long day and at the end of the night, it was time to walk home, yes this means down the big hill. We were at a crossroads, they boys went one way, and I tried another path, which was a little more dangerous and I may have ran into a pricker bush and a little gate or 2, but made it home just fine.

All in all, I was ready for a half day on Sunday, looking forward to my next day off on Wednesday.

Language Lesson

Pusto - Stinky

Camera - Room

Albergo - Hotel

Day 29 - Friday Funday

So it has officially been 4 weeks since I arrived in Italy. It is wild to think that it has only been a month when it is feeling so much longer than that. Friday was a quiet day, we were prepping for a party of 16 that would be coming in for dinner that night. Other than that, not a whole lot happening. The new intern Drew, it was his first full day. He had been with the last contingent of AI students for 10 weeks here in Italy that left in December. He is back now, after graduating from the AI in Cincinnati. The first half of the day was slower, no customers, but with Chef in house there was quite a bit of prep to work on for the weekend.

During siesta, Chef took all of us to a cheese factory. Um, amazing! This place produces sheep, goat, and cow cheeses. Although the machines were not running, we did get to look at the factory floor and walk into the aging coolers. You have never smelled anything like it in your life. Formmage everywhere! We ended up purchasing roughly 100 Euros (45 lbs) of cheese, in the US, all this cheese would have sold upwards of $400. It was wild and delicious! We also had snow in Orvieto, although it did not stick, the pictures attached came from the trip to the cheese factory.

Dinner was slow, but the party was good. We worked on a few last minute items for the cooking class on Saturday, and then off to bed I went, since we were being picked up early again for the Market with the 2nd round of KSU students.

It has been very cold, but from my understanding, no where near as cold in Colorado & Michigan! Thinking of you friends!

Also thanks to my Mom for sending me the best care package ever!!!! I am so much warmer now!

Love ya'll,

Nikki

Day 28 - Party Harty

We started the morning with an early trip to the market with 10 students from KSU and Chef. It was a bit cold and rainy, but still good. We purchased some guancale (pork cheek) from the meat truck, that was pretty fun. Some black cabbage, fresh arugula, cherry tomatoes, and plenty of cheese to boot. It was nice to have a smaller group to cook with this time. With Tyler making bread, me on getting the party food ready for the 82 person party, and Franchesco working the students, this was a very lively kitchen so early.

The students made some tasty items, but the chocolate mousse was the best. And if you hadn't already guessed it, my roommates were trying to figure out which gal to swoon. Always fun to watch! The 82 person party came an hour and a half late, so that was fun, but if you can believe it, we served 3 courses to these folks in an hour! Wild, but fun. No siesta break today, but also had no customers in the evening. The boys went out, and I went home. Yes this is lame of me! So What! I needed some down time, a hot shower, and sleep.

I was able to talk with my mom and my friend Melaine, so that was amazing. Sleep came well on this chilly day in Orvieto.

Miss you all!

Day 27 - No More Customers

Wednesday, a whole day with Chef Lorenzo in the kitchen, and a whole day without customers, again. We prepped a few last minute items for the 82 person party that was scheduled for Thursday afternoon. We were also prepping for the 10 person class in the morning from Kansas State University. Overall it was a pretty easy day.

In the afternoon, Franchesco and I bought some gelato, which was delightful, considering I got the Bacio, which is chocolate with chocolate chips. It was pretty tasty. At the end of the evening, Tyler came in at the end of his day off and we all walked to the bus and had a simple slow evening.

All in all a slow and sleepy day in Orvieto! Missing you all!

Nikki

Day 26 - Day off in Perugia - Part 2 - Shopping and Eating

Even though all the guidebooks told me to get a quick meal and eat it on the steps of the piazza, I decided to dine at Ristorante Victoria, overlooking the piazza.

A small, quaint place that probably seats about 35 total people. First up, Salumi Umbria with Mustard Fruit, yup, another delicious cured meat plate, so good!!! The bresaola was divine and the prosciutto was almost more sweat than salty, my favorite item on the plate. Not having mustard fruit before, I was excited to try this item. It looked like a can of fruit cocktail was opened and cooked down a little to thicken the sauce consistancy. However the taste, very pungent with mustard and almost a bit spicy. Paired will with some bread and a slice of cappicola or bresaola. After all the tasty bits were gone, on came the Spaghetti Carbonara. This has been my favorite dish since bein in Italy, so I decided to stick with it. The seasoning was spot on, but the sauce could have been a little thicker. The one bad bit was that in some of the slices of meat in the dish (we use guanciale, others use prosciutto) there was a little bitty bone chunk in them. Not so nice on my teeth the first time it happened. So I picked around them. I was going to order a secondi, but I decided I wanted dolci instead. Even thought the Omelette de Tartufo (Truffle Omelette was clearly calling my name) I went for a cappuccino and the ciocolate salami instead. Whoa was this thing damn good! Like a fudge consistency, with bits of hazelnut in it to look like salami. Rich, yet I was able to finish 2 pieces. The house wine with the meal was tasty too.

With only an hour and half before my train home, I decided to walk back to the bus stop and peruse some shops too. Yeah! New Italian Coat! I know that everyone here wears puffy down coats, but I just don’t work well in those, so I found a coat that is lovely and wool and on saldi! The picture to the right does not do it justice, the collar actually can unfold into a hood, very cool. I also bought a little present for Melaine! I am going to need to buy another suitcase for all the presents alone I think.

On Bob’s suggestion, I also bought some chocolate, as Perugia is known for this. And in the land of carbs, I found chocolate pasta! I can’t wait to make a sauce of brown butter, pistachio, and chocolate shavings to go with this. I did purchase some little bites too, but I have been a good kid and not eaten them yet. I also went to a bakery today, Stranacha, purchased a delectable little item called a strochelia. MMMMMM, tasty! Like a big fluffy donut.

Miss and Love you all!

Nikki

Day 26 - Day off in Perugia - Part 1 - Travel

As you all know, I am such a morning person (lie #1) and I never oversleep (lie #2) I also never stay up late (lie #3), so it was so shocking that I missed my 6:11 am train to Perugia today (lie #4). Yes, silly me, I booked the earliest train to Perugia today, to get as many hours in as possible. Yes, I stayed up until 3 am, mainly because after the movie and getting showered and checking some email items, it was that late. So yes, I did oversleep my alarm(s) and miss my train. Luckily, the ticket I purchased was a regionale one so it was good for 4 hours before or after my original ticket purchase. Phew! I jumped on the 10:06 out of Orvieto, with fog all around, I was worried that it would be a cool weather day to explore, but halfway through my first leg of the trip, the sun broke and the clouds dissipated. Perugia is roughly a 2 hour train ride from Orvieto with a stop. It is north-east of Orvieto halfway to Florence. It is very close to Assisi, another day trip for the future. Thanks to Bob for telling me about his experience and for giving me some pointers.

It is a beautiful city, yet another Italian hilltop town. The train drops you off at the bottom and then I jumped on the bus to take me the 1.5km up to the top to Piazza Italia. From here, the main shopping and dining street Corso Vannucci takes you to the center of town and Umbria. I did a little window shopping and then was on the hunt for a meal. (see Part 2)

With Perugia being the home to two different collages, there was a definite collage vibe there. Lots of young people and stores that cater to them and down the mountain, all kinds of build up and it was more of a city than I had expected it to be. It is interesting to see that the same vibe that happens in Ann Arbor or Boulder resonates here in Italy too. Gotta Love a Collage Town!

I went into the Nazionalle Collegio de Cambio, said to be the worlds most beautiful bank. They may be right. I took some illegal photos :) The word working was ridiculous in this place. The frescos were lovely. Mom, this is one stellar bank lobby I tell you what. Then I went to the National Galleria of Umbria, housing some of the finest works of religious artwork I have ever seen. There were many things to see and I would recommend paying the 6.50 Euro to go and do this.

If you ever make it here, spend time in Perugia eating chocolate and street food and seeing the sites, all while looking over the mountain to the bustling city below. Also, the public transportation here is so great! My roundtrip ticket to Perugia was 14.20 Euro and my bus fare RT to the top was 3 euro. Not to shabby of a travel day.

Mom, get your walk’n shoes on!

Day 25 - Slow Monday...actually, not a single soul

We were open on a Monday again, after chef said we would be closed. This time with the schedule for this week, only Tyler and I were there with Carlo in the morning. We busted out 3 kilos of ravioli in the morning. With no customers, this is easy to do. It was a basic dough that I made and then we filled it with asparagus, onions, garlic, and some cheese. It was actually pretty fun to all line up at the three different work benches and bust it out assembly line status.

After this, Carlo wished Tyler and I ‘Buon Fortuna’ for the evening shift. He would not be working, but Chef Lorenzo would and he was not in a very good mood. It was funny, yet a little nerve-wracking to see what the evening would be like. We were going to be making similar pork roulades to the ones that we did on NYE. However, this time we were using loins, so double the size from before. So the loins were butterflied, salt, peppered, fennel seeded, garliced, herbed, then came the prunes and raisins. Because we did not have enugh prunes for all of them, we had mixed these with raisins because chef said to “camouflage and confuse” the patrons with similer items mixed in with the actual item listed on the menu. I thought we were finished, but chef wanted to keep adding in, so onto each loin went more camouflage & confusion with some red cabbage leaves, ick. Same color he said, so we went with it.

After prepping 40 of them for the 80 person party on Thursday, it was time to encase them in caul fat then encase them in the ‘sausage’ elastic that we use to keep everything together. Of course this turned out to be my job. It is basically a length of pvc tubing that we stretch elastic casing over to make sure the item stays rolled and tight. And mind you, I was about to do 40 pork loin rolls the size of my forearm. I will pause now for the jokes and snickers.

It was actually pretty funny to watch me do them all I am sure. There was some definite discussion about catso size and the average length of certain races. Appropriate kitchen talk for sure. After it was all done, we seared them off and then cleaned up to go home. Tyler and I were headed out for a gelato, yes again, before catching the bus home and we asked chef if he wanted to join us. Surprisingly, he said yes. As we walked through the sleepy town of Orvieto, we ate gelato, Black Cherry for me (3 times this week, fat kid!) there were movie poster signs up. I had seen some folks earlier in the week with popcorn, so I was wondering where this theatre was. Low and behold, I walk by it every single day, at least the ally that it is in. We took a look and the three of us decided to see a movie, dubbed in Italian. TRON. Pretty sure that it was better in Italian because we didn’t need to hear all the cheesy lines. I probably understood about 40% of the movie language, which is pretty good I think. It was nice to go and veg out in a movie and let the rest of life stop for 2 hours. Funny though, with all things in Italy, the movie had a siesta period too, when they stopped the movie halfway through to change movie reels.

I will be attending more movies in Italian, so I will keep you posted on the best ones!

Ravioli Dough Recipe

1 kilo of flour (2.2 lbs)

11 Eggs

5 pinches of salt

2 tbls. of Olive oil

Mix all ingredients in a kitchen aid mixer with the dough hook attachment. Mix until smooth consistency. Remove from bowl and knead on table for 2 minutes until smooth, cool, and slightly tacky dough is formed. Wrap in saran wrap and bench rest for 30 minutes. When ready, use pasta roller machine to make rectangle sheets. Fill, cover, cut. Boil 3-5 minutes. Serve with favorite sauce.