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Published: February 20th 2006
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ciao ciao everybody.
first i'd just like to give a shout out to Esmerelda and say that i'm going to the cat santuary today in your honor. i'm hoping that the cat santuary is just a big pit of cats.. because i've heard that exists here. and that would be freaking cool to see. but the point is, i heard the news dad and don't worry, we had a seventeen gun salute on the top of the janiculum last night.
now for travel and things. i have another recipe for you, i am wonderfully sneaky and got into the cooking lesson on thursday. here you go, lasagna from italy.
recipe for 4:
500g lasagne (emiliane oven-ready pasta)
extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, carrot and celery
2 cans whole tomatoes
1/2 kg ground beef or veal
5 slices mortadella
5 slices ham
4 mozzarella balls
besciamella cream
grated parmesan
salt to taste
ok i have know idea how much a slice of ham is or mortadella.. and the mozzarella balls they sell here are a little bigger than an egg.
directions: for the ragu, finely chop the celery, onion and carrot. heat the olive oil in a large pot,
caffetteria al parlamento
clearly where all the politicians go to grab un cafe. toss in the vegetables. saute. after, add the ground beef. cook well and add the whole tomatoes and salt. cook on a low heat setting for at least 30 minutes, occasionally stirring.
preheat oven to 180C (ahhhh sorry for the C, and also for the measurements in grams). finely chop the ham and mortadella slices together, set aside. cut the mozzarella balls into large chunks, set aside.
for the lasagna, lightly grease the pan with olice oil to prevent the pasta from sticking to the pan. add a thin layer of sauce, then the lasagna, another splace of sauce. evenly spread the ham, mortadella, chopped up mozzarella, and a little bit of your besciamella cream. sprinkle this layer with parmesan. top it off with another layer of lasagna, repeat this process until you get to the top. here you will finiish with sauce, a little bit of besciamelle, mozzarella and parmesan. bake for 40 minutes.
i hope that makes some sense. the directions i have make more sense in italian, but alas. i couldn't put that version in here.
so friday one of my roommates and i went with a group of students from our school and from
i see it!
i can't believe it just shows up in between buildings like that. another american university here, john cabot, to parliament and to the office of the democratic left. it's a huge pain in the butt to get into the parliament building. i'm pretty sure they passport check everyone. we were a legitimate tour group so it wasn't too much of a hassle, but they made us lock up our coats and bags in a separate building before going in. so again, no pictures. i really need to stop forgetting my super sleuth pen camera went i go out.
well anyway the parliament building is great. the tour was in italian, although i'm not sure why because i heard the guide speaking pretty good english, and we had one of the professors with us translate. i was very excited that i was picking up a good deal of the guide's italian, there were a few times though when his nerdiness got out of hand and he got so excited over what he was telling us about that his speech sped up beyond the grasp of my brain in italian.
fact of the day -- the main lobby of the italian parliament building was designed to look like an ocean liner.
also there is
almost there
at this point i am extremely excited. a corridor of offices that has little cute coat hangers and umbrella holder things lining the walls. it made me wonder where the cubbies were and what time they were going to have recess.
there isn't too much to say about the trip to the office of the democratic left except to relate that yes, it is actually a political party.. that is to say that the people who work there have political opinions and ideals. i had no idea. my mental picture of italian politics has always been that of a huge wine crashing party of italian elites that like to argue and have no real interest in well, anything that matters. the man that spoke to us from the democratic left didn't give me that impression at all. apparently i was thinking of the party in power, mr. berlosconi's forsa italia. the domocratic left man, by the way, was the most convincing george clooney impersonator that i have ever seen.
-don't worry, i'll keep you kids updated on the election-
friday i also wandered around and FINALLY saw the colosseo up close, the pantheon, and i got a good wander through the foro romano. i don't have many
pictures from this wander because i am still without a memory card and so picture taking is limited. i will go back though. or, if any of you chose to visit, i could take you in person. just a thought.
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Mom
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I'm workin' with ya!!!
The memory card has been on its way for over two weeks now!!! Ya gotta luv that relaxed Italian way of life!!! muah!!