Desserts galore!

Today

Dessert day!

We started off the morning making biscotti, then took a field trip to the grocery store because we needed Vin Santo (dessert wine) to dip the biscotti in as well as to make some other dishes. We then worked on preparing 3 other desserts and a pasta dish because eating only dessert for lunch would've been blasphemy.

Dishes:

• Spaghetti Aglio e Olio (Spaghetti with garlic, olive oil)
  -mixed with some parsley and hot chili pepper, topped with bread crumbs
  -simple but yummy
  
  
  
  Spaghettio Aglio e Olio
  
  
• Cantuccini (Almond Cookies/Biscotti)
  -served with Vin Santo
  
  
  
  Cantuccini
• Sebadas
  -oh my gosh so good
  -flaky pastry stuffed with cheese and fried
  -drizzled with 3 different kinds of honey (coarse, double-processed and chestnut)
  
  -om nom
  
  
  
  Sebadas and honey
  
  
• Biscotti alla Lectina (Lecithin cookies)
  -cookies that used soy lecithin (like the pasta from last week)
  -served with fig jam
  -very light, shortbread-esque and delicious
  -lowers your cholesterol!
  
  
  
  Biscotti alla Lectina with Fig Jam
  
  
• Dessert ai Cantuccini (Soft Cantuccini Dessert)
  -variation of cantuccini made of bavarian cream, wine gel filling and cantuccini and topped with vin santo whipped cream
  -made my first bavarian cream
  -made caramel for the first time
  -got to load a siphon bottle with oxygen cartridges for the whipped cream topping...so cool!
  
  
  
  Dessert ai Cantuccini
  
  ME!

Afternoon

• After school this morning I came home and helped Andrea finish icing the cake she made for Alyssa (who's birthday is today). When I walked into the kitchen, she was trying to write on the cake using a knife and a jar of nutella; she thought I was brilliant for suggesting putting the nutella in a bag and cutting the corner off and then piping the letters on.
• I rode a bike for the first time in 8 years today, and (luckily, surprisingly) went unharmed!
• I went with Andrea (my Italian sister) to her University today to sit in on her urban planning lecture, but it turns out they were just having group project conferences with the teacher, so we sat around and they worked on their project a bit. It was still interesting to see her University and how different it is from American universities...let alone Michigan! ...Her whole school is one building--I'm pretty sure it's smaller than Markley (my freshman dorm).

After having picked up a bike this afternoon and gone with Andrea to class, I have now travelled around Florence by every possible means of transportation.

Evening

We just had a nice, long, relaxing dinner with the family. Oy, I have eaten so many desserts today! Not only did we eat my leftover desserts from class after dinner, but we also had the cake! It was fun though and I finally have some pictures of people!

Me, Alyssa and Andrea

Lesson of the Day

Some things, once you learn them, you don't ever forget

Photo of the Day

The anti-climactic birthday: turning 21 in a country where you can drink at age 16.

Alyssa, the birthday girl!

The Count

Glasses of wine drinken: 38
Pasta dishes eaten: 25
Modes of transportation used: 5
(can you guess them all???)

Photos taken: 1493

Tomorrow

Vegetables, Day 2--looks like we'll be doing different vegetable sauces as well as probably some pasta, cheese and olive oil (no surprises there!)

Going to the botanical gardens!