Asparagus Risotto

Spring WAS HERE! It left yesterday when it snowed all day, but before that it was so sunny and warm and perfect for about two and a half weeks and we've been outside as much as possible. Two weeks ago I went down to Venice for the day and the vegetable market by the Rialto Bridge was filled with....asparagus! Finally! Here, they are a true sign of spring because we can't buy them until March.

So, this month's risotto is made with spring asparagus:

I made a little extra this time because I had lots of asparagus and I was thinking that leftovers would be good, but the risotto ended up being so good that we ate it all at dinner! Here's what you do...

As usual, simmer either chicken or vegetable stock, about four cups. Dice half an onion and a shallot and put them in a frying pan with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Once they are soft, add one cup of Arborio rice and stir to coat.

Meanwhile, break the ends off the asparagus, drizzle them with olive oil, a little salt and pepper and a few chili flakes, and roast them in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until they are soft (I actually like them kind of burnt and crispy too).

Back to the rice - add a ladle of stock to the rice mixture and stir. Once the rice has absorbed the stock, add another ladle, and repeat this process until the rice is tender but still has its chewy bite... you'll just know when it's right.

When the asparagus are done, remove them from the oven and chop them coarsely. Add them to the rice along with a half a cup of freshly grated Parmesan. Stir together and serve immediately. Yum.

Seaside Getaway

Since it's been so spring-y lately, my friend Cori and I decided we needed to be by the sea!

So, we drove down to Trieste which is a seaport right on the Adriatic, very near to Slovenia. And then we did absolutely nothing but stare at the water for the whole afternoon and evening and then again for a bit the next morning. But here are some pictures, if you'd like to see...

We arrived around lunchtime and we walked around town for a bit until we found a spot to eat that was right on the Grand Canal. We read that it's hard to find a bad meal in Trieste (unless you don't like seafood!) and we found that to be true. Everything we had there was amazing and we ate lots of fish since we don't get that too much in Cortina!

After lunch we wandered around town and came across the outdoor market which was filled with flower stalls and spice stalls with tons of different salts and spice mixtures that looked amazing.

We sat in the main square, the Piazza Unita d'Italia, on big comfy chairs in the sun which is what everyone else was doing too...

In the late afternoon, we headed down to the pier to sit by the water and watch the sun set with the local fishermen.

The next morning we took our time driving home, stopping on the way to walk on the beach and look at the Miramare Castle which was right on the sea.

And now our mini spring break by the sea is over and we're back to mountain living! The second round of playoffs starts tonight!

Playoff Season

It's playoff time AGAIN! Last night Cortina made it through the first round (beating Fassa 5-0, 5-2 and 5-1 in a best of 5 series).

The second round starts next Thursday. In true Italian fashion, the second round is completely different from the first round. While eight teams entered the playoffs, you would think that after the first round, there would be four teams remaining. Wrong. There are six. You can follow along on the team's website (here) or Pointstreak (here). Ryan has been on fire this playoff season with 11 points in 3 games....this picture sums it up perfectly:

Image via Cortina Hockey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canals

Homemade Ravioli

Ryan and I got married seven months ago and all last summer, a new wedding present would appear on our doorstep from Crate and Barrel. We knew we were coming back to Cortina in September, so we didn't want to open anything too much since it was packaged so carefully and we didn't want anything to break in our storage unit. When we started packing for Cortina, we were a little sad to part with our first matching sets of silverware and wine glasses, but we couldn't take our presents with us because honestly, if we shipped them, they still might not be here. But! There was one little present that we took with us. Our brand new ravioli stamp (thank you, Leigh)! And last night we tackled homemade ravioli.

I used this recipe to make the pasta dough. At first it looked like this:

 

But then we got everything figured out and it turned into this:

We made a spinach and ricotta filling and then rolled and rolled and rolled, stuffed and cut the squares. There was flour everywhere.

We were very busy! We started at 5:30 and ate at 8:00....

But, in the end they were delicious and we can't wait to try it again with different fillings.

Visiting

My parents just left this morning after a wonderful week and a half here and we had SO much fun showing them around, taking a few day trips, drinking Prosecco in the sun, having long walks and eating delicious food. Here are a few photos from their trip if you'd like to see:

They recovered from the jet-lag pretty quickly! After one rainy rest day in Cortina, we drove to Austria for lunch (my mom had never been before so it was new territory!). We took a walk by the river, ate fresh goat cheese, visited the church, and then drove home!

The next day, Saturday, we were feeling up for another little trip so we drove to Bolzano, which turned out to be a disaster because there was so much traffic that it took us four hours to get there (but we remembered the Italian rule about all your plans going out the window, so we tried not to mind). Once we finally got there, the weather was warm and sunny and we went to the Archeology Museum to see Otzi the Iceman. We ate a wonderful and traditional South-Tyrolian lunch before popping into the church and then the flower market to pick up some tulips to brighten up winter-y Cortina. Bolzano is a season ahead of us.

On Monday and Tuesday, the weather in Cortina changed and it was BEAUTIFUL. One day, we went up to the top of the mountain for lunch and to sit in the sun and watch the skiers.

One day we took a day trip to Padova to see the Scrovegni Chapel, painted by Giotto. This chapel is the most precise thing in all of Italy. You have to order tickets online at least two days in advance, pick an exact reservation time for your ticket, pick up your ticket at the front desk no less than 45 minutes before your reservation time, wait at the door to be let into the chapel five minutes before your reservation time and you get EXACTLY 15 minutes in the chapel before the guard ushers you out. It was exhausting trying to be that on time in Italy. But we were!

We also enjoyed many long walks, many delicious meals, many hard fought Scrabble games and we taught my parents how to make homemade pasta and Ryan's sauce one night too! Thank you SO much for the visit! We miss you already!

How to do Laundry

Most everything takes longer in Italy than it does elsewhere. For example, it takes us all morning to do simple errands like going to the grocery store, the pharmacy and the bank because we Ryan runs into about 20 people that he knows and then we have to stop and chat and have about 5 coffees with them before continuing on. It took us one month to get our internet hooked up. And it takes three days to do a few loads of laundry.

We are having a HARD time with the laundry this winter. Our washing machine is located in our kitchen and fits approximately six socks per load and takes one and a half hours to complete one cycle. And then do you know what we do when that cycle is finally done? Hang it outside to dry because we don't have a dryer. This is not uncommon here as the living quarters are smaller, so only necessities like refrigerators and sinks are squeezed into each kitchen.

In Italy it is considered VERY BAD BEHAVIOR to dry your laundry inside. It brings too much moisture into the house, and these old houses, they cannot HANDLE moisture. Since you have to dry the clothes outside, you really can't do laundry on a day that's not sunny or else the clothes won't dry. An ideal day, one Italian woman told me, is one that is perfectly sunny without a cloud in the sky, but one that is also slightly windy. Not so windy that the clothes blow off the rack or the balcony railing, but windy enough that they lightly blow in the breeze, imitating a tumble dry low cycle.

This would be an ideal day:

This is an UN-ideal day, but is what it looked like for most of January, and all of February:

Unfortunately, this winter it snowed A LOT so we mostly walked around in stinky clothes. When I couldn't take it anymore, I began to do laundry not only on the one sunny day we were blessed with every two weeks, but on the cloudy days as well. I broke the cardinal rule of laundry-doing and I dried the clothes inside. I hung them on our radiators and over the shower door. I placed our huge laundry rack smack in the middle of our tiny living room and when we needed to watch the Olympics on TV, I moved it into the hall.

But then our little house was like "NO MORE MOISTURE PLEEEEEASE!!!" I noticed a crack creeping up the living room wall and a patch of mold growing in the corner behind the chest. So I banished the laundry back to the great outdoors.

One night, Ryan came home from practice at 9:30 and asked me if I knew that the laundry was still outside on the balcony, now frozen.

"Yes," I said, "I'm trying a new experiment."
"What's that?" he asked.
"I leave the laundry outside overnight like I've seen the woman who lives down the street do. It freezes during the night and then thaws out and hopefully dries on the second day," I tell him, "and then we bring it in and see if it smells like mildew."
"Oh," said my very tolerant husband, "okay."

They say people in Italy have fewer clothes because they have smaller closets but this is a myth that I am here to bust. It's because they have small washing machines and no dryers.