Panarello Cheese and a Tomato Soup Trick

Today I went to the grocery store for 10 lbs of tomatoes that I needed to make Roasted Tomato Soup and grilled cheese.  In Italy you have to use a plastic glove (provided by the store) to choose your produce...no touching with your bare hands;)  After bagging it you weigh it yourself and print off a sticker before you can take it to the register.  Just an uninteresting tid bit of useless information that I though you might want to know;)  

 At the cheese counter I tried my hand at speaking Italian and asked for "formaggio per un panino caldo"  a hot sandwich...formaggio per la fusione...for melting (I got that last word from google translate, my new boyfriend that I am totally in love with).  She seemed to understand me and chose this cheese: 

Panarello Cheese 

(I didn't take these pics...found them on google images;) ha) 

I did a google search on Panarello Cheese when I got home and discovered that it is a specialty cheese made in the little ski town that is straight up our road, Via Col De Rust.  It's a soft cheese with good flavor.  From what I gather soft cheeses usually don't have much flavor but this one, according to some links I read, is has a bit more flavor than most.  I made panini's out of it and it melted perfectly and did that perfect stringy thing when you bite and pull that you see in pizza advertisements.  It was yummy dipped into the tomato soup;) For what its worth I recommend the tomato soup recipe (highly....it's our favorite both for ease, price and tastiness) and the Panarello Cheese, if you can find it.  When you come we'll take you for a tour of the organic cheese farm where it is made!

xoxo

Ash

Palu Di Livenza

On Friday the school sent out a flier advertising a free tour of the archaelogical sight located just up the road from us.   The kids and I have rode bikes/jogged by it so many times and wondered what was behind the ropes so we decided to join the party even though everything would be in Italian. 

 The event included a boat tour:

 There was a heavy mist that lay over the water as we rode over it.  It was pretty cool.  We didn't actually see any evidence of an archaelogical sight which was kind of a bummer.  The boat ride was still cool though.

After the boat trip we were dropped off by a bus to a field where they had crafts waiting for the kids.

 They made stamps out of clay, supposedly used materials that would have used by the civilizations they are studying here.  The kids loved it.  The lady there spoke a good bit of English.  Between she and I (mostly she:) we got the point across to the kids.  And I learned a few new words.  Lisciare is to smooth and profonda means deep.  

 The next craft was really cool.  They made an arrow (as in bow and arrow;)  My kids were really excited, Isaac being.... well, a boy and just being Isaac and Georgie because of the movie Brave;)  They used sharp flint rocks to shave/clean the sticks which took forever, small pieces of the flint as arrowheads, hemp to tie the arrowhead on and some composite of ground bone, dirt and something else (I didn't understand it) to paint over the flint to hold it on. 

Some of my thoughts throughout the whole activity were that 1. you could never do the arrowhead activity in America, too many lawsuits waiting to take you down when you send dozens of kids home with sharp flint arrowheads at the end of an arrow, not to mention all the sharp tools they were permitted to use while making the things.  And 2. the Italian parents seemed much more hands off than American parents.  When I wanted to jump in and help my kids shave the sticks I noticed that no other parent was doing the same.  A 4 or 5 year old little boy worked on shaving his stick from before the time we got there and was still working on it when we left.  The parents stood on the peripheral and just watched.  This could have been anecdotal evidence but it was just something I noticed.  

It can be so easy to stay home on a weekend and get your chores done or hang out on the American base with American people where it's familiar, easy and comfortable.  I do that more than I should.  But it felt really nice to get out and be the only American around, pick up on a few words and get a little more familiar with the culture.  We're trying to make that a priority even though sometimes we fail.  

xoxo

Ash

Dreaming of...

Today we were potty training Juliet, home all day, glued to the kitchen timer or the potty, locked inside from the rainy, overcast weather (really quite charming actually)  Fall is coming.  

I dreamt a little bit of this:

Lake Barcis, 40 minutes north of us.

where naked babies play in shallow river beds...

and little boys collect driftwood and rocks to paint.

Two weeks ago we spent some time in Lignano, the beach town most direct from us, also about 40 minutes away.  Lignano reminded me a lot of California actually.

Back in the day Hemingway spent some time here and, supposedly, wrote a short story but 

I've snooped around online and can't seem to find what it is he wrote in Lignano.  

This may just be a local Italian fable;)  

Our first Italian summer is gone now.  The kids and had their first day of all day Italian School from 8:15 to 4pm.  They came home with great reviews of the lunch, the 1.5 hr recess and the time they spent together playing tag with some Italian girls from Isaacs class.  The long day didn't seemed to bother them as I (and they) had originally thought.  

I am feeling increasingly happy that we sent them to Italian School.  All around we have nothing but good things to say.  Today, my favorite thing happens to be how well they are getting along because of it.  They really need each other here, they play together, as best buddies, every single day at school and it shows in all their interactions.  Of course, as the mom, I love that.  

Last week Isaac decided he wanted to play with the boy across the street who is in his class.  He saw him outside, asked me if he could go, marched across the street and said to him, "Calcio" (soccer) and they played for an hour.  He went back over on Sunday night and brought Georgie with him.  She played with his sister and a few other neighborhood girls across the street.  Yay!  We're so glad.  

xoxo

Ash/Mom

More on Italian School

Most of you probably want to know more about the better half of our family...our kids, how their doing in school etc.  Here's a brief update.  They seem to be progressing fine.  They are still in half days of school which we are all enjoying actually.  They go from 8am to 12pm, home by 12:15 in time for lunch and we spend time doing chores, playing outside, running errands, playing video games, doing crafts or watching a movie.  We wish all school was 1/2 days forever;)  (well, I'd take 2 full days and 3 half but I won't tell them that:)

A typical after school conversation with Isaac and or Georgie would go something like this:

M:  How was school?
I G: Good, yea, it was good!

M:  Did you learn any Italian words?
I:  Ummm....no not really.  Well, I learned what turtle is, tortuga.  
G:  ANd I learned my colors.  Do you want to hear my pattern that we learned?  Giallo, rossa, verde, blu, and then we say it back words but back wards is hard!

M:  Did you figure out what you're supposed to call your teacher?
I:  No, I just raise my hand.
G:  I heard someone in my class today just say "teacher"  She said it in English.  And she doesn't speak ANY English...NO ENglish (Georgie is just shocked about this!)

At dinner every night we talk a lot about the language and it comes out that they've picked up more than they think.  Also, they're accents sound really good.  The teacher isn't expecting much out of them yet and is still translating a lot for them.  We're wondering when that will stop and hope it will be soon so they can learn the language.  We're starting to realize that while it's great that they have each other (they're BEST buddies here which is so cool) it could turn out to be a bit of a stumbling block to them picking up the language.  They're not forced to learn it in order to make a friend.

M:  Are you playing with any of the Italian kids?
I/G:  No, it's just too hard, besides we just walk around and talk to each other.

M:  What do the other kids do?  (There is no playground equipment on the school grounds here!!)
I/G:  They just walk around to.  They play tag and some of them bring toys to school.   They're aloud to bring cars or dolls and stuff.  They bring a lot of smurf stuff.  Smurfs are really popular here except they call them "Puffi".

Georgie has no homework and, I'm told, won't have any all year.  Isaac has brought home a few things that he has to do, mostly writing letters and a few Italian vocabulary words they've given him to study.  When full days start and the other kids go to Catholic school for 2 hours of the day, our kids will have private Italian class with their teacher.  They have a pretty cool school supply system using graph paper which I could see would really help the kids develop excellent handwriting (a big deal in Europe).  They have to write their letters inside the small squares of the graph paper rather than just on lined paper.  They also have a parent to teacher communication notebook that comes back every day from school where the teacher glues in any notes or things to be signed or jots down special notes that we might need to know or something they want to tell us about our child that day.  In it I can write down any questions or notes of early pick up or drop off etc that I need the teacher to know about.  It's pretty nifty.

They're doing well but missing family just the same.  MOst families around here live in a compound with Nona's and Papa's down stairs or in the house immediately next door.  Even though most Italians only have one, maybe 2 children, they still have the big family feel.  Everyone is closely knit together.  It makes us miss all you guys!   Come soon!

xoxo
Ash

Today, Isaac got off the bus and looked like he had something on his mind.  I squeezed out of him that some girls had been teasing him.  They were pointing at him and the other American girl in the school and then making kissing noises and faces.  He does NOT like that.  We're still trying to figure out what he should say or do back to them to make them stop.  Any suggestions?

Salzburg, Austria or Rather The Sound Of Music Tour, Merback Style

Salzburg, Austria

Sound of Music Style

ON my first trip to Europe my family and I ventured over from Germany to Salzburg for a peek.  It was my favorite place from that trip, a place I've longed to go back to.  I remember the cold yet cozy cobblestone streets, the large windowed shops with beautifully curated leather shoes, the horse drawn carriages, the magnificent food and, not at all the least, the gigantic fortress staring down over the city. It takes you back to a magnificent century of great architecture and Catholic vs. Protestant wars.  You almost feel surprised to look down at your clothes and find that you're not wearing a 17th century dress and boots when you're walking through the old town.  Joey had been here before as well and loved it so we were both excited to show the kids around.  

Here we are, our one full family photo, on one of the many verandas of the fortress.

We stayed at a little modernized hotel called Hotel Astoria just outside of the Old Town.  It was maybe a 15 minute walk with kids and a stroller into the heart of all the sights but for that we got a better deal on a really nice hotel (still not cheap).  The breakfast proved to be quite the spread.  We enjoyed it.  We're not set on staying there again, necessarily, but we would.  Here Joey and the kids are posing just inside the city wall with a great view of the fortress.

When you walk into the Old Town from the outside you literally go through a tunnel that leads  under the great stone wall that once was security for this ever Catholic, Roman City from the Protestants seeking to take over it on the outside.  Because of it's sturdy fortress and towering walls it lasted tens of years.  One of the first things we saw upon entering the city was this bike:

I thought it was so cool I had to include it.  The thing is covered in Crochet, virtually unrideable and chained to the tree.  Who knows how long it has been there.  We will check for it next time;)

In order to keep the attention of the kids we decided to devote this trip, our first of at least 2 or 3 to Salzburg since it is so close, to the SOund of Music Sights.  The kids watched the movie along the way (we listened) to freshen up their memory of the views.  It was fun hunting them out on our own vs taking an expensive tour bus and was also fairly easy to do.  We used this as our guide but really appreciated our Garmin when it came time to search out the houses and the church that are outside of the city.

The first stop was the horse fountain that Maria splashes her hands through whilst singing;) on her way to the Von Trapp home for the first time.  In the movie I remember it feeling much more quaint and quiet but in person it is much more grand.  You'll notice I am in a lot of these pictures (dangit) but since I care much more about the SOund of Music Joey insisted I be in them and he take them;)

Here's Georgie at Mirabelle Gardens where Maria and the kids sing Do-Re-Mi while staggering cutely on the stairs.;)  We're trying to imitate but we look like goofs:

Ha!

Close to Mirabelle Gardens is an excellent playground where I took too many pictures.  I think I'm beginning an intense obsession with European play grounds.  I REALLY wish I could collect them.

If I had any recommendation for traveling with kids it would be, realize that you're traveling with children (#1) and #2, stop at every playground that you see.  It really adds to the enjoyment for everyone.

Too cute not to show two.

The funnest swing yet.

love it!

Our next stop was the cemetery where the Von Trapps hide before escaping into the mountains.  They didn't actually film it here but they used this cemetery as a model for the set the built for the film.  It was truly a beautiful cemetery.  Remind me to tell you about cemeteries over here.  I'm guessing the commonality is that they are all Catholic cemeteries (that we've seen so far) and not that they're European.  Anywho...

At the top of the fortress

As a family.  A really nice young man from Israel took our photo for us.  He was decked out in a leather jacked, hat, boots, a fancy camera, a goatee...totally dark and GQ.  I wish I'd taken his picture.  I LOVE people watching here.

A tower of Canon balls

That about ends our tour of the Old Town.  We ate dinner at a middle eastern cart in the middle of a HUGE Salzburg Sunday market of handmade items and antiques that I could have shopped in for days.  I have plans to go back by myself.  We slept soundly in our hotel and woke up to a breakfast of fresh made croissants, crusty rolls, quark, muesli, delicious peaches and plums, spreadable cheeses, jams, sausage, hot chocolate...the list, oh the drool worthy fat roll inducing list and then rolled ourselves out the door for the last of our Sound of Music tour.

After one mistake we found the Sound of Music house on Hohenburg Strasse.

It was a bit of a disappointment only because now it is a fairly run down university building of some sort, not nearly as grand as the movie.  But driving down the street was wonderfully pleasant.  It's the one from the movie where the kids climb up those huge towering trees that line it on either side.  There were lots of bikers, dog walkers and runners and the weather was perfectly cool  

Lastly, we made our way over to the house that was used for the back side of the  Von Trapp House before heading for Mondsee to see the cathedral where they were married.

Mondsee is a quaint little town about 20 minutes from Salzburg.  It was worth the trip.  The Cathedral was so lovely inside.  It was simple enough to be somewhat relatable while a lot of other cathedrals are soooo ornate that its hard to really notice everything.  

There is so much symbolism in these cathedrals that we end up doing a lot of talking with the kids during and after.  They want to konw what every sculpture, every painting and every gold thing means (but they don't want too long of an explanation).  Most of our explanations are over their head too.  This cathedral had real skeletons preserved and encased in glass at the front of the church.  They were the skeletons of martyrs that had died for the cause of Catholocism in the 100 years war.  Two of them were women which they specifically mention as a unique thing in the church pamphlet, which I thought was cool.  

There at the front of the church is a statue of the Coronation of Mary.  

Beautiful church, beautiful city.  

In the end the kids definitely enjoyed Zell Am See more.  MOre playgrounds, nature, a jolly festival, friendly people and good, good food.  We all went home a little down on Italy, sadly!  Austria is like heaven, only greener.  We can't wait to go back!

Food and a new recipe

Today I went to a particular local grocery store for the first time, a store called Visotto in Budoia, a small town about 5 minutes from here.  I was told that it was the store to go to in our area if I want tomatoes or goat cheese.  "They carry San Marino Tomatoes (have you heard of these...supposedly legendary tomatoes) and the best goat cheese," my new Italian friend told me.  A butcher shop some 10 minutes away, she said "has good meat".  No American says things like this unless they're a chef or some crazed foodie.  She had me hopping all over the area for each specific kind of cheese or meat or bread with advice on who does is it better.  And I'm grateful for the tips!  It is interesting to pick up on the cultural differences like this here and there.  In America we rate a grocers produce, it's prices, maybe it's cleanliness and I guess I do remember my Mom shopping at a particular grocery store because it carried Boars Head deli meats, but generally we don't go to several different grocers for specific food items the way this Italian woman let on to me that they do.  So today I bought tomatoes and goat cheese from Visotto.  They only had green San Marino Tomatoes which was both a bummer and a soul food godsend since we'll be making fried green tomatoes with them tomorrow.  The goat cheese happened to be rather expensive but since you only buy a small amount I splurged.  I roasted up a pan full of Zucchini, grape tomatoes, eggplant, two onions, two cloves of garlic in grey salt (they sell different varieties of French salts here) and olive oil for 30 minutes on some high temperature that I'm still trying to figure out how to translate to Fahrenheit (no cake baking for me yet!...this Italian oven is UNPREDICTABLE).  When it was done I poured them, all juicy and salty, into a bowl, dropped in the roll of "said" goat cheese and covered it with foil, letting it melt down into the vegetables for several minutes.  For a snack we stirred it all around and dipped Rosemary Triscuits (the kids new favorite) into it and the rest we poured over pasta for dinner, adding a lot of freshly cracked pepper.  I think I'm onto a new appetizer dip (and a new pasta dish) because it was yummy! 

It's interesting to me that Italians are so food crazy and yet my oven doesn't seem to be able to hold a temperature (it's probably me though), my European refrigerator freezes all foods that are pushed to the back (annoying!) and Italian kitchens are legendarily TINY!  Ours happens to be a good size but several friends have large houses with kitchens the size of a walk in closet.  It's wierd.  Bathrooms here are traditionally larger than the kitchens.  And usually there are two.  Anywho, there's my tidbit for the day.  A few people have asked me if we're blogging about food so I guess I'll start here and there to do so.  When I get the language down a bit better I'll work my way into some cooking classes but until then, I'll be cooking from personal inspiration;)  And, being here, I get enough!

p.s.  It's mushroom season here so I'll have to update soon what we've been doing with those.

Scuola Italiana

In all of our preparations to come here there was only one thing we were really concerned about, and that was Italian school.  Should we send them, should we not, should we hold them back, how will they deal with the stress, will they get a good education, is the stress worth knowing the Italian language (a somewhat useless one) and on and on and on.  But we came and we asked around and we considered and came to the conclusion that, yes, with all the information we have and a long term vision in mind, we do want to send them to Italian school.

There have been a lot of nay sayers.  We've had Americans here telling us that Italian kids are mean, aggressive bullies that hit a lot and the teachers do nothing about it.  We've had them tell us that the teachers here are cold and that they don't care about our kids because they know that they are not going to be here for very long.  We've had Americans tell us that the teachers will refuse to speak any English to us, as parents, or our children in school and that they are very unhelpful.  But we also, thankfully, spoke with other parents who opted to put their children in Italian school and heard their votes of confidence.  One friend eased my mind by telling me how quickly her children picked up the language and dispelling the idea that Italian teachers don't care about bullying and physical abuse.  She did have one experience with a kid teasing her son and the teacher nipped it in the bud within one day.  That kid and her son are now best friends. Another woman who has been here for 8 years, told me all about the kind of education system here, how they teach (she has been quite impressed), their emphasis on science, things out of doors and unique field trips, the art of school lunches and some of the downfalls to Italian education, like their lack of technology/computer experience.  She is a teacher herself and says that when she goes back to work, if at all possible in the American School system she is going to teach students to read the way Italians do.  In the end we chose to really focus on the information from those that actually attended the schools mostly because, I think, it's what we wanted to hear.  In our minds and hearts we had made our decision and felt like even if all of what the naysayers had to say were true, the pros out weighed the cons.  Here are a few of our pros:

Our children will be exposed in a day to day way to a new culture, a different (albeit slight) way of thinking that Joey and I could never give to them otherwise and an experience in Italy that without attending school here, they could never have.  They will learn another language, which, embarrassingly is so rare in the United States (uhh hmm, a big plus for serving mission isn't it?!) which, even though this is huge, it really isn't my #1 reason for sending them.  With our kids in the Italian school system we will meet families in our immediate community, hopefully make long term friends across the globe and make the difference between a good experience here and an exceptional one.  They will make friends that live across the street rather than 45 minutes away (Americans here are really spread out).  They will know what it feels like to be a fish out of water and develop compassion for foreigners in the states.  The bottom line is, really that we're living in Italy.  Why keep ourselves and our children in the comfortable protection of the US bubble when we're here...in freaking Italy!  We have an opportunity and I can't imagine, especially now that we've made it through the first couple of day, why on earth we wouldn't want to take it.

The kids came home today, their second day of Italian school, with bright eyes and big smiles spread across their faces.  The kids in school are asking for their autographs!  Ha!!  On the play ground, Isaac and Georgie play together and italian kid after Italian kid approaches them wanting to know where they are from and what their names are.  They feel like superstars.  The teachers are every bit of warm and fuzzy and speak all kinds of English to us, as much as they can, frequently apologizing that they can't speak more (what they do speak is plenty sufficient).  They joke with kids, hug the kids and make rules that "they must wear a smile";).  Isaacs new friend, our neighbor, I thought just might be a bit of an exclusionist (big title for a 7 year old, no;) and I actually worried about it much of the morning while they were away today, after I'd met the boy for the first time.  He wore a subtle mohawk, is really handsome and seemed to have a little posse of giggling boys that surrounded him. But the second thing Isaac said when he got off the bus, with wide eyes of surprise, was "Alessandra is soooo nice.  He helped me a lot, asked me to sit by him and gave me his notebook to use because I didn't have one."   The experience, thus far, has been encouraging in every way.

I realize that bumps are before us.  That there will be crying fits over homework and mornings of resisting school over cold cereal.  It will be hard for them to face day after day of expectation dashed with confusion and, sometimes, failure.  But this too shall pass.  And when it does I think the kids will have a really, really great gift that will last a lifetime in the way most gifts do not.  I am grateful for this experience.