Archive | September, 2011

at home in San Antone

September 21, 2011 at 9:45 pm

Lots of transition these days! (These days. These months. These years!) Yes, we “moved” to Sicily in July, but unfortunately Elliott had a mandatory training for the Army from mid-September to mid-November. So away from Sicily we flew, and now we’re making a temporary home for ourselves in San Antonio, Texas.

When I pictured two months of life in San Antonio, I could only imagine a dismal apartment furnished with the drabbest and barest of necessities. However, my husband has a little bit more of an imagination. With a little bit of searching, he found a beautiful apartment on the upper story of a carriage house in the beautifully historic King William neighborhood of San Antonio. The owner sent pictures and we were sold. Elliott negotiated for a price within our budget and we sent in a deposit.

Now for the past week we have been making a home for ourselves in this lovely little apartment. Here’s the view of the apartment from the top of the stairs. You can see the door at the entrance to our apartment below.

The kitchen, which is right in front of you when you walk up the stairs. One fabulous thing you can’t see: a KitchenAid mixer! I’ve used it at least 4 times this past week.

The living/dining room, and a peek into our bedroom in the back.

The view from the other side of the living/dining room. There’s a daybed underneath that far window.

Our bedroom. So airy and filled with light!

Lena’s bedroom… or our guestroom. Come visit!

And the sleeping lady herself.

I’ve been reading this wonderful book while nursing Lena before bed. I would like to do a post on it later, so I’ll save the details for then.

The bathroom. For me the clawfoot tub is the icing on the cake of this apartment.

Such sweet vintage details everywhere.

And a last glimpse, now with Lena “reading” after her nap!

We’re loving this little home away from home. We’ll be here until just before Thanksgiving, so plenty of time to explore the city and some other parts of Texas. Soon I’ll have photos to share from a walk Lena and I took around the neighborhood… you won’t believe some of these incredible old houses around us!

3 :: in home sweet home, Texas

how to make Italian espresso like an American

September 19, 2011 at 7:16 pm

Our last morning in Venice dawned cool and rainy. Sicily, clear at the other end of Italy, has a climate like central California, and therefore it rarely rains in September. So to be in Venice on a rainy day felt just as exotic and cozy as it sounds.

Having neither umbrella nor rain jacket with us, and also lulled into peaceful somnolence by the rain, we decided to stay right where we were. We were renting our Venetian studio for $89 per day, so why not do some staycation in it?

So we watched our neighbors move. That meant loading all their belongings into a barge and puttering downstream to their new house. No moving trucks in Venice! No cars or motorized street vehicles at all. Just boats.

The psychotherapist who owns the studio had three espresso pots (moka pots, or macchinetta) on top of his refrigerator. We put those little pots to good use that rainy morning.

A little tutorial on coffee-making, Italian-American style. Begin with your supplies: ground coffee and your moka pot.

Fill the boiler/lower half of the moka pot with water. Spoon ground coffee into the basket. A lot of coffee makes espresso. A little less makes a strong, dark cup for an americana like myself.

Fit the basket into the pot. Screw on the top of the pot, which is currently empty.

Put it on the stove. Light the stove, which involves turning on the gas, a short match, and your hand. Watch out!

After a few moments, the water heats up in the bottom chamber. It bubbles up through the coffee and out a spout in the middle of the upper chamber. The upper chamber fills with rich, dark coffee.

Pour your fresh coffee into a teacup.

Add a little zucchero.

And a tad of whole milk.

And then sip and enjoy! While the creepy anthropological photo smokes in the background and your darling daughter (a future coffee aficionado, clearly) takes it all in.

We spent our last day in Venice day in the kitchen, reading silently and aloud, drinking teacup after teacup of strong dark coffee, and charming (and being charmed by) our daughter. Speaking of whom, we discovered this day that Lena has a tooth! A little sharp white nubbin working its way out of her lower jaw. Baby’s getting so big!

6 :: in eat this, Lena, travel

how to make Italian espresso like an American

September 19, 2011 at 6:16 pm

The psychotherapist who owns the studio had three espresso pots (moka pots, or macchinetta) on top of his refrigerator. We put those little pots to good use that rainy morning.

A little tutorial on coffee-making, Italian-American style. Begin with your supplies: ground coffee and your moka pot.

Fill the boiler/lower half of the moka pot with water. Spoon ground coffee into the basket. A lot of coffee makes espresso. A little less makes a strong, dark cup for an americana like myself.

Fit the basket into the pot. Screw on the top of the pot, which is currently empty.

Put it on the stove. Light the stove, which involves turning on the gas, a short match, and your hand. Watch out!

After a few moments, the water heats up in the bottom chamber. It bubbles up through the coffee and out a spout in the middle of the upper chamber. The upper chamber fills with rich, dark coffee.

Pour your fresh coffee into a teacup.

Add a little zucchero.

And a tad of whole milk.

And then sip and enjoy! While the creepy anthropological photo smokes in the background and your darling daughter (a future coffee aficionado, clearly) takes it all in.

6 :: in eat this, Lena, travel

Venice, Part III

September 18, 2011 at 5:24 am

After a whirlwind Saturday where we hoofed ourselves all over Venice, we were ready to relax on Sunday. We enjoyed our peaceful apartment that morning and then set off for a long walk around the city.

Before long we got lost. What looked like a bridge on the map turned out to be a dead end. Or at least a potentially very wet end.

Undeterred, we journeyed on. Signs pointing to St Mark’s Square and the Rialto Bridge were generally helpful, unless they pointed the same way. They are not very close to each other.

We went back to St. Mark’s Square to get a picture with the famous lions, the symbol of Venice. I think Lena looks so stinkin’ cute in this picture!

Later that day we went back to the Rialto Bridge to watch part of the regatta (boat race).

I love doorways like these in Venice. I mean, what is this used for? A gondola garage?

Later that evening we found a grocery store and I cooked up dinner in our little kitchen.

Spinach gnocchi, vegetable and pork kebabs-cum-stirfry, and peaches. And wine, which is the red liquid in the plastic water bottle on the table. Elliott bought this wine in a shop full of old wine kegs. He studied the labeled kegs, chose a Malbec, and then the shopkeeper tapped the keg and filled an old 2-liter water bottle with the wine. And it cost 2 euro!

Lena is ready to eat real food. Elliott offered her a taste of his peach a little while back, and now when she sees us eating peaches and nectarines (of which we eat about 3 apiece these days) she reaches for it and sucks on it. Rice cereal–the standard first food for babies–is going to be such a let down after sweet peaches!

1 :: in family, Italy, Lena, travel