Foodstuff

So I've been doing some food-related things recently and to prove that I'm not only eating pasta and pizza to my mother, here's an update.

Before I go on, however, I would like to congratulate myself and my roommates (but mostly me of course) on winning Apartment of the Month! That means we had the most clean apartment for inspections. Or at least it was the most improved from when Mauro (one of the Umbra staff members who comes to our apartment to fix EVERYTHING and the one who inspected our place) usually comes in. Whatever, we won free pizza.

But I digress. Monday was Valentine's Day. I am single. I can buy wine in Italy. I thought that this was the classiest feast I could get:

Yupp. Questo Pistacchio gelato costa cinque euro. Soooooooooooo worth it. Chocolate Mousse chocolate. Red and White wine. PS. I only drank one box. Don't worry.

Anyway, last night Leigh, Kara and I (they're two of my housemates... I don't know if I've ever mentioned them...) decided to get culinary or something. So we went to the butcher, who usually is really mean to us. Or he was in the beginning. But now that we know 3 words of Italian to use in a butcher shop, we don't have to just point at the meat. Awesome! So he was super nice to us this time. I mean, we still pointed at stuff but could say Che cosa e questo? What is this? Or we could actually read the little signs about what the stuff was.

While waiting for Kara and Leigh to finish cooking, the power went out. We checked the fuse box but none of the switches were down. We called the school and they sent Zach, the one who picked my group up from the airport, to see what was wrong.

Turns out that there's another box way above our fuse box (and my and all of my housemates lines of sight but Zach is like a foot taller than us -_-) that the switch was down. Apparently you can't have the washing machine and the oven going at the same time. Good to know. It was quite a dark and fun adventure though. We tried to offer Zach some food for being so dumb, but since the power had gone out while we were cooking, he just laughed more and wished us good luck on our midterm. (In boca al lupo - to which you respond crepi.)

So at about 9:00 I got to start cooking my dinner. This is a normal time for Italians to eat. I'm adjusting to their lifestyle.

I got vitello, which I am now obsessed with and am spending way too much money on. I just love veal.

Of course, the veal was about as big as my plate. I underestimated the size of the pan that I would need for the massive slab, so I cooked it awkwardly. Whatever.

I got some zucchini and carrots and cooked those too to make me look less fat by covering up the giant meat piece. It was really tasty. And they were even vegetables! That weren't potatoes (Mom - this is where you should be proud of me even though the veal is slightly burned.)

To my own surprise, and to the surprise of my roommates and anyone who knows my eating habits (many small meals and snacks throughout the day) I finished it all! Awesomely enough I bought 2 pieces of the breaded veal so I get to have it again! I bough enough carrots too and I have other vegetables. The zucchini was really good though so I'll probably have to get another one to add.

I ate like the rest of Mary's mashed potatoes (we don't have a measuring cup so making those was an adventure for her) because I was still hungry. And the best part is that this whole thing cost me less than ordering veal at a restaurant! Hopefully the power doesn't go out next time I try to make it.

That's all. I had my Italian midterm today and it was all right. A few things tripped me up but we're learning so much stuff that I know I can't get everything right the first time. The important thing is I'm learning to speak a little more (did you notice my clever insertions of Italian phrases into my blog? Yeah that's right.)

Ciao for now! Go eat some veal. It's delicious.