Julie and Julia reprise

Watching Julie and Julia again with Kristen over lunch.  That is why I even thought of blogging but I failed the first time and moderately succeeded this time.  At least I posted more than once!

So this morning, Kristen asks me "how do you say 'thank you' in French" because it was gone from her head...  Like the title of my blog implies, many many words flew through my brain but did "merci" come to mind?  Oh no!  

Loving the first scene of Julia (Meryl Streep) trying to flip her eggs!  "You can always put it together - if you're alone in the kitchen, who's to know!"  So true!  Thank goodness!

So today, we'll go to the store to get some fresh veggies and fruit and other necessary items.  On my list to make:  strawberry shortcake, lemon cookies (to surprise Mike when he gets home from Paris) and who knows what for dinner!

The start to the weekend is fantastic starting out with this movie.  Bon appetit!

P.S.  Loving watching chick flicks with Kristen while she's home!  It's the best!

Adventures in using Italian ingredients in American recipes!

Only today (Christmas Eve) did I realize that we didn't have any yeast for our Christmas morning cinnamon rolls!  So we called Ernesto at the office and he told us yeast is called lievito di birra.  Off to the PAM store we went and bought milk for the 3rd time this week, some eggs, and 2 packets of lievito.  Before our dinner of pappardele con cianghale, Kristen and I assembled the ingredients and placed them in the bread machine.  Then, Kristen asked me if the blade was in the machine bowl... uh, I don't know was my answer.  Then we started the search for the blade which obviously wasn't in the bread maker during our move from the Netherlands to Italy.  It isn't very big and could have been anywhere among all of my cooking utensils.  Finally, we found it in the drawer and I turned the machine on (perched on top of the microwave using the only electrical outlet in the room).  Can you see the whole microwave cart rocking with the rhythm of the bread machine as it kneaded the dough?

After dinner, we pulled the dough out and let it rest.  Kristen completed the process by rolling, topping and cutting the dough and placing the rolls into the pan.  Only then did she realize that the recipe said to let them rest for 30 minutes in a warm oven!  So, the preheated oven was turned back and the rolls are happily resting until things cool down a bit.  Our kitchen is very much like a magazine test kitchen except that we tend not to want to read the recipes that carefully or worry about the small details!  This is what happens when ADHD is running amok in your house!  Only the tasting will prove whether we placed the right amount of lievito in and whether they were prepared properly.  I can't wait!