Wanderlust: Cooking Lessons!

If you have been reading this regularly--- you may remember I mentioned my Dante’s World professor with the funny/lame jokes.

Well I have started to write down things he says, because they crack me up.

(It’s not just me though, my friend Jessie is always chuckling too!)

FOR INSTANCE:

“Now when I think of forests I think 2 things- darkness and animals. But I’m not thinking of animals like cats, I’m the sort of Italian equivalent of a cat lady. I don’t know if they have male cat ladies, but that’s me. I suppose I am a cat gentleman”

ANNND...

“Nowadays when we think of midlife crisis we think of a man getting prostitutes and a motorcycle who cheats on his wife and wants to play sports again, it’s really pathetic. This is much more complex than that”

Please imagine all of this in the voice of Bartok the bat, because it’s the only way to really do it justice. I don’t know if these are “had to be there moments”, but even if you are there its not that he is TRYING to be funny I really don’t think he realizes he is a hoot!

Another class I am in love with is drawing. Today we went to the museum by the duomo, it has all the pieces that were in or on the duomo that have since been removed. We were there for 3 hours drawing our little hearts out. It was a lot of fun.

Tiziano came to look at what Devon and I were drawing, and we ended up in a fit of giggles and he was whacking us with our boards- the museum staff thought we were lovely I’m sure. He also told Devon that she runs out of steam and needs to charge, as if she has batteries or something. There was no stopping us after that one we could not stop laughing.

Anywayssss here is what I was working on! We decided she is a war goddess or something and she is protecting people from roommates that wake them up! (we had a lot of time to work on this great story) We also decided that museum workers must make up a ton of stuff about all the pieces or else they would go crrrrrraaaazzzzzyyyyy!

We may or may not have taken dumb pictures around the museum to recharge said imaginary batteries.

Devon and her friend- peace out cub scouts

After art I headed over to school to meet up for cooking class.

We went to “In Tavola” and I had one of the best experiences thus far.

For dinner I learned how to make…

1. Zucchini alla florentine

2. Crepes alla florentine

3. Salsa di besciamella

4. Tiramisu!

It was all so delicious. I made sure to not eat a big breakfast or lunch today in anticipation. Okay this is a lie, I was also still really full from last night, but it all worked out perfectly!

Tiramisu makings

There were 12 students that went, so it was two groups of six at each mini-kitchen.

We started with the tiramisu because it needed the most time to sit.

soooooo goooooood

(If you see this UNCLE JIMMY- one time you let me and liz help you make tiramisu and I remembered this when we were splitting the egg yolk and whites!)

We were told to use “savoiardi” cookies because they soak up more brandy, but if we cant find those to get lady fingers

(THE COOKIE! not fingers of a LADY!...gosh guys that’s cannibalism)

ALSO you should use brandy, but kaluha works- he listed a bunch of other stuff that also works but this tiramisu tasted AMAZING *said while drooling* so I don’t know why I would stray from the recipe!

Then we started on the zucchini, which we cut in half, cut out the insides and made them hollow-ish. The knives were REALLY sharp and much better quality than the ones we have in our apartment. I now understand why all the adults at Nevin Christmas were freaking out about that knife during secret santa. A good knife is great! (hahah I’m an old person!)

Moving on,

we put the mince meat -that Noah so nicely…."mushed" around to make everything go together- into the zucchini cups, bread crumbs on top and off they went.

Next up, cutting spinach and putting ricotta cheese in the bowl with it and stirring it around.

It sounds much more professional in the directions but I call it like I see it!

Then it was time for crepes. I am THRILLED that I learned how to make crepes- it was so easy! And now I can make them, fill them with nutella and strawberries and all things unhealthy and have a delicious dessert!

These crepes were for the spinach and ricotta we made (see picture of green contents in bowl above). The crepes were fun to make. You had to pour the mix onto the pan and each of us tried to flip them. I managed a half flip, Noah got a double flip (kinda defeated the purpose but it looked pretty cool!)

The spinach/ricotta were put onto the crepes and than folded in half. Once folded in half you make another fold so they are little triangle guys.

Once folded into little triangles- ADD SOME BUTTER!

Then tomato sauce and parmesan!

I don't remember how long it all cooked for- it is in my receipe but it all happened so fast! All the sudden the food was before us! And as our instructor was explaining how great olive oil was, I was silently contemplating taking all the food and running!