CYBER MONDAY! The Sale Continues!

Greetings friends! I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend.

We traveled up to Rockford and celebrated with both Matt's family and mine. (Did I ever tell you that our parents live 2 blocks away from each other? Crazy!) We got to eat a little at both houses. Here are my highlights:  Grandma Vicki's (Matt's mom) sourdough bread stuffing, my mom's Italian sausage bread, my cousin Breana's banana cream pie, and Matt sister Carrie's salted caramel cheese cake. I love my carbs!

We also traveled to Chicago to celebrate my parent's 37th wedding anniversary with them. We shopped, saw a spectacular show (Memphis) and had a dinner I'll never forget at  Rick Bayless's Topolobampo. Our 5 course tasting menu with wine pairings included genius combinations like Foie Gras and sherry, Wagyu ribeye and black mole, bittersweet chocolate cake chocolate-red wine sorbet. The wait staff was incredible and went out of their way to accommodate Matt's food allergies. What a night!

On the Etsy front, my weekend sale continues!

All of my shoppe listings are set up with free shipping, but you have to do a little work to get the 20% discount. Hop on over to my Papernstitch exhibition to score that one, and do check out the other fab artists there while you're there.

Happy shopping! Ta-Ta for now.

New Year Resolutions

The end of August marks the beginning of the school year.  As a teacher, this is more of a "New Years" than January is. I've decided to make a few resolutions as I start the 2010-11 school year. I hope that posting them out for all to see on the blog will help me stick to them!

1. I've got a wedding dress to fit into. (Yep, already bought one!) I will try to workout at least 3 times a week. I am so good about going to the gym in the summer. I hope to keep it up during the hectic school year for once! 
2. I vow to continue buying all produce from local producers until the growing season is over.  Rockford's farmer's markets have become very strong. I love that every type of produce I'd want at this time of year is available from a local grower. 
3. I vow to continue cooking 3-4 nights a week. After a week away from any cooking, I forget how much I really like it and how good I feel doing it.  Tonight I took all of the leftovers from the fridge and invented a new dish. I parboiled some pasta, layered it with leftover grilled eggplant, onions,  garlic, and summer squash, added some diced tomato, basil and oregano from my garden, threw in some egg and cheese to bind it, and baked it in the oven. Yum!
4. Last, but not least, I vow to write one blog post a week. I have plenty to write about...No lethargy allowed!

I leave you with a newish piece I've created entitled " Try, Look, Show, Tell." 

Ta. Ta.

Italian Adventure Part Four: Roma

As I sit and write this post, I am listening to my "Italia Soundtrack". This eclectic collection of songs brings me right back to our room at Hotel Elide in Rome.

July in Rome is hot - desert hot. There was only so much walking and sightseeing I could do during the day without needing an air conditioned nap in our hotel room. (Matt, on the other hand could usually walk forever.) Our routine was to get up and go in the morning by 9 or 10 and then stay out until lunch time. Then, like all good Italians do, we'd head back to our room.

Our Italia soundtrack was formed during our daily afternoon siesta, watching the only station with some English broadcasting. Unlike the American version, MTV Italia broadcasts music videos 90 percent of the time. It was refreshing, for a time, until we noticed that their playlist was limited to the same 20 videos or so. Matt and I know know every word to "California Gurls" by Katy Perry and "Waka-Waka" by Shakira. ( I don't know if that's something I should be bragging about!) Besides the usual sugar pop, we were introduced to some new favorites like Stromae from France, the Baseballs from Germany, and the Drums from Brooklyn. (So strange that I had to go to Europe to hear the Drums!)

We spent seven days in Rome. This post would be a mile long if I wrote about all of the food, sights and art we took in, so I'll just hit some of the highlights.

• Hotel Elide: I would recommend this place to anyone. Its right in the heart of things, on via Firenze between Via Nationale and via del Quirnale, with a metro stop just 3 minutes away. The rooms are updated and clean, the staff is fun and helpful. The only thing that was less than stellar was the breakfast. You're better off heading right across the street to the Snack Bar (also a Rick Steve's pick) for an espresso and brioche.

• Baroque art in churches: The Catholic churches that seem to be on every corner, are truly best place to see Baroque art, and its free! Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa (above), Caravaggio's Conversion of St. Paul, The Calling of St. Matthew, and several other of his works line the walls of these churches. It seems ridiculous, but the lighting on these works is better than in Rome's showplace museum, The Borghese Gallery. In the Caravaggio room at the Borghese, you can't stand in one place and view the whole Madonna dei Palafrenieri at once. That's just bad! The churches are also great places to duck out of the heat for a bit too.

• Borghese Park: Just 2 metro stops away, we spent quite a bit of time walking around this park, once the private property and home of the Borghese family. It's lush and shady, with miles of paved paths for walking or biking. When you get hot or tired, there are plenty of little carts and even a full blown cafe to grab a Pepsi or a Peroni. (You can buy alcohol anywhere in Italy, even from the street vendor.) Matt and I liked to go to the park to escape the hustle and bustle of the city.

• Fifa Fan Fest: While walking around Borghese park, we came across the Fifa Fan Fest cite. Rome was one of 6 international cities to host the event. Every World Cup match was shown on a huge screen and was free and open to the public. We decided to head down one afternoon to watch a match. As we walked through the park towards the cite, we worried that we may have gotten the time wrong. The park was dead silent! We approached the fan fest grounds and found thousands of people sitting silently, enthralled in the game. It was so different than any other sporting event I've watched in my life. The spectators were so into the game that there was little time for talking or drinking. We sat down on the ground at the top of the hill with hundreds of others and watched. It was sweltering hot, but a great experience.

• The Roman Forum: We got lucky and visited the Forum on an overcast day, so Matt and I could really enjoy and explore this fantastic cite. The Forum was the heart of ancient Rome, both politically and socially. We walked along original Roman streets paved with huge stones that had also been walked on by the likes of Julius Caesar and Augustus. Rick Steves, our travel guru, gave us a guided tour via his podcast, that Matt had downloaded onto is Iphone. I just don't know how to explain how amazing it was to walk amidst these beautiful and iconic architectural marvels, made almost 2000 years ago.

• In the foreground here you see an ancient Roman arch, and in the background a baroque era church. You find vignettes like this all over Rome, where old and new collides and even exists on top of one another. For instance, the ancient ruins of the Baths of Diocletian, dedicated in 306, were converted by Michelangelo into the Renaissance Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. The bath's ancient walls are integrated into and are preserved by this church. I didn't take any pictures inside of the church, but did take the shot below of the exterior.

• Al Bric: Now, did you really think I could write an entire blog post about Rome and not mention the food? On our last night in Rome, we decided to splurge and headed to the Michelin rated Osteria Enoteca al Bric. (Yet again, Rick Steves did not disappoint.) To start, we drank wine from Montalcino (a stop on our Tuscan tour) and ate mussels baked in their shell with bread crumbs and Roquefort. Matt and I both had delectable fresh pastas with seafood, and we finished the meal with espresso and homemade vanilla ice cream flavored with acacia honey. Divine dining!
  

I leave you with a picture of me in front of my boss' house. (St. Peter's at the Vatican. Catholic school teacher humor Ha.) Our 2 weeks in Italy were truly magical and Matt and I can't wait to go back again.

Italian Adventure Part Three - Tuscany

If I had to choose just one place from this last trip to visit again, it would be Tuscany. Spectacular scenery, delicious foods, world class wines and a laid back attitude so appealed to me.

Our first stop in Tuscany was Montalcino. We parked the Cinquecento outside the city walls and walked in. (In most of the tiny Tuscan towns, only residents are allowed to drive in the town itself). We had lunch at a spot recommended by our guru Rick Steves, and of course, we were not disappointed! Anchovies with pesto, local pecorino cheese served melted with honey, gnocchi and a delicious salad. Very yum!

We drove on to our agritourismo, just outside of Pienza. Podere Poderuccio is a working farm with 4 beautifully appointed and modern villas for tourists. For just 60 euro, we had our own air conditioned apartment with a kitchen. Wow! This is a shot of the outside of the villa. Erika, the agritourismo proprietor, wasn't quite ready for our arrival, so we drove into the next hill town over to spend the afternoon.

Montepulciano is a quaint wine town; quiet, inviting and beautiful. When I think of my family living in Sicilia, this how I pictured things. Below you will see one of the first places we visited as we walked up into the city.

Do you see the name above the door? Ok, so it says "Cacciatori" and my family name is "Cacciatore", but it was exciting! I took a lot of pictures of doors on this trip. So many beautiful wood doors with unique looking knockers lurking on every street.

Matt and I walked around Montelpulciano for a spell and then settled into the outdoor cafe in the town piazza. They were playing the World Cup match of the day (England was slaughtered by Germany!) on a big screen. As I'd mentioned prior, it was fun to be in Italy during the World Cup and be amidst people who respect soccer as much as Matt and I do. The weather was mild, the house wine was tasty and they kept bringing us snacks. Pretty heavenly!


Before heading back for the night we found a little place to eat with inexpensive wine and enticing looking antipasto. Matt (who is allergic to pork) indulged me and let me order a cured meat extravaganza. I have never seen cured, salted pork in so many different forms! Proscuitto, salami, a jerky of sorts, plus three other porkie products I'd never even seen before. Amazing!

We struck up a conversation with the owners of the restaurant, a friendly husband and wife. It turns out that the husband is originally from Sicily and his last name is Torrisi. (The mom of my soon to be stepson Jack is a Torrisi. Small world!) The Torrisi's told us how much they'd like to live in the US and we told them about how much we'd like to live like they do in Tuscany. The grass is always greener I suppose.

I leave you with a shot taken from outside our villa at Podere Poderruccio. There's nothing quite like the Tuscan countryside. I promise that I will finish up my Italian travelogue in the coming week. Last stop: Roma.

Italian Adventure Part Two: Verona & Florence

After 2 days in Venice, we rented a cute little Fiat Cinquecento (500) and headed to Verona. Matt was in love with this car and relished maneuvering the tiny thing on the crazy streets of Italy.

With the help of the GPS program that Matt had loaded onto his Iphone, we made it to Verona. I would highly recommend a GPS to anyone planning on doing any driving in Italy. Streets are confusing and not all that well marked.


We spent just a few hours in the city center of Verona, hometown of Romeo and Juliet. The "downtown" is centered around the Roman era Arena di Verona. Large scale productions like Aida are still held in this smaller scaled version of the Colosseum in Rome.

After a hot night without air conditioning or even a fan, we made our way to Florence. What a fancy place it is. Capri Moon, our bed and breakfast shared a street with Gucci, Burberry, and the Versace store. I couldn't get over the fact that one minute you could be luxury shopping and the next you're standing in front of a renaissance era church.

Florence is the birthplace of the early Italian Renaissance, so there was lots of art historical goodness for me to soak up there. The one thing that you can't really ever grasp via pictures is scale. Florence's Duomo is just enormous! I wish there was a way for me to bring all of my art history students to all of the places we study for this reason.


I could go on and on about the art work we saw here - Donatello's Mary Magdalene, Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise, The Orsanmichele, the most extensive collection of the work of Botticelli in the world. It was an art lover's paradise!

The Caprimoon was one of our favorite accommodations on this trip. We were livin' it up with a TV, fan and an attached bath, all of which are not standard in Italian hotels. Every morning, we were treated to a great little breakfast in the dining room. I fell in love with "spready cheese" and salami on bread. Let me tell you, the cured meats in Italy were like nothing I had ever had before. You would be amazed at the vast array available.

After 2 days in the packed, tourist encrusted, and bustling city, it was time to head out to the country. Tuscany was our next stop....

More next time.

I'm Back!

Ciao Friends!

I've been home from Italy for about a week now, and am finally getting back into the groove of things. What a trip!

Our Italian adventure started off in Venice. Such an interesting city - no cars, just sidewalks and canals for boats. I loved the layers of age visible on all the buildings. Matt and I enjoyed walking around the Island and sampling the local foods like sarde en sour (sweet, pickled sardines). It sounds awful but really does taste delicious! Our travel guru Rick Steves recommended that we order "misto" plates when dining in Venice. A misto plate is basically a combination a restaurant's antipastos and boy was Stevie right on the money. One night we ate octopus, sardines, grilled polenta and mussels.....and that was just the appetizer!


On two separate occasions while in Venice, I ran into Travel Channel personality Andrew Zimmern. He was nice enough to take a picture with us. We didn't get to talk to him for very long, so we don't know what he was shooting. We'll be watching Bizzare Foods to find out.

Something else quite newsworthy happened in Venice....Matt and I got engaged! We're so very excited and so is the rest of the Mullin and Johnson clans. We are planning a "destination" wedding in California wine country for June 2011.

After 2 nights in Venice, we rented a car and headed south. More on Verona and Florence in my next post.

Arriverderci.

High Tea in the 17th Century

I just spent the most amazing afternoon with six other women, having high tea at the Brewster-Randall House in Janesville, Wisconsin. The private home is owned by French national Yoinai DuKunze, who cooked us amazing European style meal.

Yo (as he's commonly known) has an amazing life story that he shares with you throughout the four hour meal and house tour. He came to the United States five years ago to receive a heart transplant. He knew that he would have to stay in the States for some time to recover, and didn't want to rent. After seeing pictures of it on the internet, Yo bought the rundown 1840's Victorian home. He's lovingly restored it and has decorated it with 17th century furnishings that he shipped over from his family home in France. Besides shipping over 10 shipping containers of furniture, he also shipped 4 Olympic caliber horses and 5 dogs! If you couldn't tell already, Yo comes from a very wealthy family. They have a chateau in the south of France that has been in his family for 300 years for goodness sake! And I'm telling you the short version of the story!

Now for the food! We started with hor d'oeuvres on the sun porch including brie baked in brioche, olive and anchovy bruschetta, bacon and quail on toast points, with a champagne and pomegranate punch. I really could have just ate this and have been in heaven, but we had two more courses to go!

We were served our main course in the dining room. I wasn't able to get a really good shot of this room, it was a bit dark. But I did manage to snap this pic of the chandolier. Amazing! Our lunch consisted of pheasant quiche, french green beans, potatoes and the most decadent croissant ever. We ate, we talked, we ate some more. It was very leisurely and relaxing.

For desert we were served an Italian style cheescake with fresh berries, a lemon tartane, and French press coffee with lavender infused creme. Delish!

The whole event was a foodies paradise. And don't get me started on the interior design. I could have walked around that house for another four hours! I could write and write about this experience. What a day!

If you'd like to see more photos of the house, head on over to my flickr photostream.