 |
| Pretty Chain |
That little section took me 5 hours to make. And the round rings aren't even soldered yet. By the end of the class period, my fingertips hurt from bending wire and getting poked and my back was sore from bending over my workbench. Totally worth it. I'm really excited about my bracelet!
Next noteworthy event of the week: Central market. (Again; and again I didn't take pictures; sorry.) Meghan and I met Lindsey and her friend to go to Nerbone for lunch. It's a restaurant(ish) inside the market, and you can get things like tripe or lampredotto (cow stomach) sandwiches, typical Florentine food. The locals get their lunch here, so we decided to, too. I had a panino con bollito, a boiled beef sandwich that's dipped in the beef juices. (That sounds kind of gross. Pretend I didn't say juices.) It was delicious. I didn't take a picture. When my brother Josh comes (in 1 month!!!) I'm going to take him there and see if he wants to try the cow stomach. I hear it isn't bad.
I also bought cheese from the cheese dudes! Pecorino. The oval-shaped kind called Marzolino, because it is made with the milk from March which is the best because that's when the grass the sheep eat is all fresh and green and new. I learned that in food class. Anyway, this cheese is the bomb. I'm a little addicted. And there's some wine on sale for 1.40 a bottle at the grocery store. Cheese. Wine. Bread. What more could you want?
(If you were wondering, the bread ladies at the market also make very good strawberry muffins! . . .or so I've heard. . . )
Today's lunch was falafel!
You know how you learn something new and then once you know it you see it and hear about it everywhere? That's how it was with falafel. I've seen recipes for it it all over other people's blogs now.
I just learned what falafel was before I came here, but in case you don't know, it's a Middle Eastern street food: patties or balls made of chickpeas or fava beans and served in a pita (or not) with some other delicious toppings. Lindsey heard about a legit falafel place here, and we decided to check it out.
It was legit.
This picture is terrible, but here it is, anyway.
 |
| My Falafel |
Rundown of my falafel:
- Freshly-made pita (It was steaming when she sliced it open!)
- Falafel (She squished the patties into the bread, so I got falafel in every bite!)
- Smear of hummus
- Lettuce
- Tomatoes
- White sauce
- Red sauce (Sorry, I have no clue what the sauces were.)
- Dollop of some tzatziki-like sauce
- Maybe something else. I can't remember.
It was delicious and very filling. And now I know where the best falafel is in Florence! (Seriously, everyone kept coming in and ordering falafel, even though they had other things on the menu.)
To complete the afternoon, Lindsey and I went back to the market for supplies for tomorrow's dinner. She got the asparagus. I got the strawberries. Then went home to assemble the pie. (Not with the asparagus, though. Just the strawberries. Hehehe. . .)
Since you can't really find Crisco here (It's super expensive at the one place I saw it.) and since I didn't really feel like trying to convert grams of butter into cups again, I decided to use this strange No Roll Pie Crust recipe that calls for oil instead. It was weird. I mean, I haven't eaten it yet, but it looks weird. (At least you can't really see it with all the strawberries.) And it was very easy to make, but it seemed pretty greasy when I was trying to squish it into the pan. (I also used about half the water it called for and that was plenty.) I baked it at about 400 degrees until it was golden.
Next, we melted some dark chocolate with a little butter, and spread it around on top of the crust so that the crust doesn't get soggy.
Then, we used this strawberry pie recipe, except that instead of cornstarch, we doubled the amount and used regular flour. And we used a kilo (about 2.2 pounds) of strawberries. I am not sure if that's a quart, or what, but it worked!
 |
| It smells so yummy! |
Now it's sitting in the fridge waiting for tomorrow night. With some freshly whipped cream, it should be delightful.
No comments:
Post a Comment