Here in Italy, I’m so glad that the weather has been getting nicer ! The trullo is finally warming up, meaning that we don’t have to constantly watch the fire ! Most of the time, we don’t even have a fire burning; we only light one in the evening to help reduce the humidity.
Yesterday, Nomade turned 6 months old. We celebrated by going on a super long walk with her and some friends. It was so wonderful to stroll around with spring in full bloom ! The almond and wildberry trees are blooming, and with every gust of wind comes an amazing perfume !
By the end of the walk, my nose was itchy from smelling every flower in sight (my favourites were the wildberry trees/bushes. Their flowers actually smell like blueberries !!) Along the way, Marisa picked up a big bunch of wild asparagus. I had never seen an asparagus bush before, and could never have guessed it looks like this :
Asparagus sprout from the ground, under these spiny horrible looking plants. It's worth a few stratches to pick them, though. After the walk Marisa gave us the asparagus with cooking instructions.
To know how much of the asparagus you’ll need to snip off, you check by trying to pierce it with your fingernail. If your nail can pierce the asparagus easily, it’s good to eat. Once it’s too hard, you need to cut that part off. Marisa told us to cut them in little pieces and fry them with diced tomatoes, oil and garlic.
You can add cubes of pancetta or ground beef if you’d like. Then, you serve over pasta. It is incredibly simple, but oh so good! Although the asparagus were tiny, they were FULL of flavour! I guess I had never tasted asparagus so fresh before. Amazing amazing amazing!
I still go to visit the ponies when it’s nice out. The little baby has grown so much since we’ve arrived in Putignano! He’s become very friendly, like Liduina. There are 4 ponies in total, but the mommy pony, the baby and the male don’t generally come by to say hello, and only Liduina does. The other day, though, I was lucky enough to give a little pat hello to all of them!
The male and the baby were engaged in a full on neck hug and were chewing each other’s manes! I guess spring-cleaning is in full swing!
In other news, I’ve finally found a television program I enjoy. You see, Italian television is very strange to me. Programs are filled with provocatively dressed women, many of whom dance around like strippers. I have yet to see one male news anchor, but I have also yet to see once without bursting cleavage, bouffant hair and some part of their face redone. For instance, there is one program that shows special reports on the mistreatment of people by their landlords, employers, etc. It “busts” and confronts people on horrible things they’ve done and tries to inform the public of what’s really going on in Italy. This is a good idea for a show, the sort of 20/20 of Italy, but the way it’s packaged and delivered doesn’t make sense to me. The hosts come on the stage one at a time and dance around. They sit at a news desk and chatter and act silly for a while. One of the hosts is a woman who, from what I understand, appears to be quite witty. Then, two scantily clad women (always one blonde and one brunette) appear dancing like strippers and crouch awkwardly on the desk for a while… it’s just one example, but to me, it makes no sense. Right after the dancing, the jokes, the sound effects and the dancers, they go on to presenting serious reports about the injustice in Italy…it just makes no sense. The female host usually takes a jab or two at the dancers by saying things like “you really call that dancing?” or finds another way to poke fun at the situation. If the host realizes the concept is ridiculous, you know there’s something strange going on…Well, I guess the producers know what the public wants…Anyway, what I meant to talk about is that I found another show I really like. It’s a game show called “Eredità”. There are six contestants and they gradually get eliminated until there is one left over who tries to win all the money he or she has “inherited” from the contestants who were eliminated. I like it because the questions are written down when asked, so it really gives me a chance to learn Italian. I watch it with my French/Italian dictionary handy! What’s funny is that there are also “stripper women” (4 of them) on this show. I tolerate their 30-second “dance” sequence by telling myself it’s okay because these women actually get to talk on this show. They read out questions and fun facts every once in a while. It’s better than on most shows
I made brownies again this weekend to try and perfect my recipe. It’s getting pretty damn good. I think my friends are happy I’m working on this recipe :)
Apart from that, not much is new. I’m still working on my painting and enjoying myself in the process. We still make cheese on Sundays and go out for dinner and drinks with friends on Saturday nights. I’m having a wonderful time in Italy and really appreciate everything I’m learning here!
Oh, and Nomade loves laying in the sun. In the photo below, I disturbed her from her precious sun bathing time. She eventually forgave me.
MC
1 comments:
Mmmmmm brownies.......
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