When in Rome...

Seeing all the historical sites in Rome is amazing. I have a feeling if it wasn't 90 degrees outside and I had about a week here I would just sit in many of the piazzas and just stare. Honestly, the Palladium alone could take you a whole day to get through- but but I really think that would only be possible if it were not mid-July.

Yesterday I went to the Collosieum in the morning and later to the Vatican Musum, which I thought was the place I needed the sleeved shirt for. When I didn't see any signs I figured that they were being lax because of the heat, but it turns out I had the wrong place, and today when I went to St. Peter's Basilica, I did need to buy a shirt to get in. Oh well. It seems like a common occurrence, it would just be nice if they told you before you walked all the way in.

Last night I wandered around and had dinner at a tourist trap that sat in the same Piazza at the Pantheon. I figured that paying a bit more for a meal was worth is to have a front row seat to that sight. I forgot to throw a coin to the Trevi fountain, so I may have to do that tonight or tomorrow before I leave.

After exploring the Palantine and the Forum all morning I went the the Tiberna island in the middle of the river and had possibly the best gellatto yet. I have ben here for 24 hours and this is my forth gelati, which is truly neccessary. Then I wandered around in the Ghetto- or the Jewish quarter and eventually made me way to a cafe on the west side of the river where I sat and had the best Caprese salad of my life. It was the perfect meal, as a cat sidled up to me before I was served.

I got on a city bus and had no idea where it was going to I wound up riding for about an hour or so. It went all the way to the end of the line and stopped for 4 minutes, so I got out and took a few snapshots of Saint Paul's Basilica, until I got back on the bus to ride a bit more. I had considered paying a lot of money for one of those expensive tour buses, but riding the municipal bus can accomplish a lot of the same, minus the narraration and the guide telling you exactly where to get off and what to look for.

My limited Italian has been quite shameful, but thankfully everyone I have encountered speaks English well enough. I speak Spanish to people a lot, and they seem confused...

Tonight I headed off to a place that my tour book touts as being one the best places for Pizza around, so I will let you know how that goes....

Ciao.

St. Patty's Weekend

I suggested that we make Reuben Sandwiches in honor of the holiday and my Irish heritage. My name is Bonny O'Neill you know, and it doesn't get anymore Irish sounding that that. But since all my sister has been talking about for the last week is corned beef and cabbage, so I thought we'd try a veg version of that, and we did, and it was pretty yummy. Unfortunately the picture above is not my own, but it comes from the website where I got the recipe..It seems like it could be good with real beef too...


Thankfully this year good Catholics will not have to worry about all the discrepancy that comes when St. Patty's day is on a Friday during Lent, and they are not supposed to eat meat. I believe that although that article only talks about the archbishop of Atlanta saying it was okay to eat corned beef on the holiday, I think I have heard something about the Pope himself saying it was okay to eat... I am not Catholic, so I don't have that problem...

One of my favorite things about the holiday and this dish in particular is that it was the last thing that my mom ate before she went into labor with my little sister who was born March, 18th 1987...

I hope that you all particularly green Tuesdays and have some Irish stout to celebrate.

How I started my morning

Would you like some whipped cream on your home-brewed coffee?
Yes, please.

If you were watching the security video...

If you happen to be watching the security video from the Kinko's located at UCI from about 11:00 am this morning, you would see two adults come in with three bags brimming full of Farmer's Market produce.

You'd see the female walk over to the copy center and head right for the free scotch tape. She would have been tearing off long pieces and sticking them to the palms and fingers of her hand and then ripping them off one at a time. The male you'd see walking over to get some not free packing tape with he offers to the female, but she declines. Then she take some more tape and wraps it around 4 of her fingers, two on each hand. She wonders of she should leave them there because they make her prickly fingers feel better, but decides not to and asks her partner in crime to remove the tape from her four fingers. She then wipes here hands and few times, and gathers her bags, removing the greens from the top of her bunch of beets and puts them in trash receptacle. She has been laughing for the entire duration of this time in Kinkos.

And you'd probably laugh too if you saw the tape of David and I in Kinkos this morning as I tried to remove the teeny tiny hair like spines that had gotten into my hands from the cactus fruit I bought this morning.

I am not sure after all that that I will be able to eat the fruit without first having rubber gloves to handle them.

Lots of laughs and a little bit of ouch.

A New One

Since my vacation I seemed to have cooked a bit less, although D has definitely been contributing his fare share of the meal cooking...

My newest food encounter is beets. I remember at the Friends Retreat at Easter we had some wonderful golden beet soup, and really liked it, and David mentioned we should use more beets, but I have to be honest- they totally intimidate me. They have that yucky looking outer peel, and I thought you had to roast them for hours at a time. It turns out you can just boil them like potatoes.

I I boiled them for about 45 minutes the other night (until I good get the fork in easily) and then I chopped them up (skin and all) and put them in the fridge.

I did a little searching for recipes, and decided I would add bleu cheese, walnuts, red onion, and a salad dressing made of lime juice, honey Dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, some other salad dressing, and a pinch or two of sugar. And not only was it beautiful (beets are so pretty) but it also tasted pretty amazing. David really liked it, which is always a huge surprise for me.

Next on my list is beet borscht. Anyone ever had/made it? I am hoping to find some golden beets at the market in the next month or so...

Break Room Fou Paux

Let me start out my post by saying how much I love my job. (Sarcasm intended)

So I walk in to the breakroom for lunch, and there is an almost gone pizza. Generally at my office pizza in the breakroom on the table without anyone in there means that someone had a meeting and didn't finish it and now it's a free for all.

So I say 'Can I have a piece of pizza? Whose pizza is this?'

And I get this weird answer that was like 'Well yeah, I guess. W paid for most of it, but umm..'

Out of embarrassment I am just like 'Oh I don't need to eat pizza anyway' (Which is true)

But it make me feel like an awkward food scavenger in my office.

We just don't have the relationships here where were share stuff with other people.
(Can't wait until school starts)

Weekend Loves/Likes/Not Like so Much

Loves

• David making me such a yummy breakfast this morning
• D telling me how much I mean to him and how much he truly appreciates all my help in house hunting yesterday. (Feeling that I have been on less of an emotional roller coaster about the whole thing, and feeling very secure about the future.)
• Having a non-spastic back, which is such a change from a week ago today.
• The Sicilian Thing pizza place that the Remy family recommended. D had thick. I had thin. It was scrumptious.
• Having the kitty wake me up on Saturday morning (and then going back to bed for a while.)
• Talking much with my surrogate sister, and thinking about getting her and Arnie together when she is here.

Likes

• The Mushroom Focaccia pocket for breakfast from the F-Market.
• Book Club meeting outside on my porch tonight. We talked about Three Cups of Tea, which is a really touching story about a man who starts a foundation to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
• The pretty sunset on the ride home.
• Playing a word game on the table at Macaroni Grill last night.
• Fresh watermelon from the F-Market, and blueberries, and blackberries. (YUMMM!)
• Staying in an air-conditioned house and a weekend when AC was much needed.
• Going to a party and seeing old friend on Friday night. Realizing how great being real with people is, and how certain relationships are such blessings.
• Feeling like we found a good home for D in San Diego.
• A few new dresses that are good for hot weather. (None over $15)

Not Like So Much

• D's parents dog who is really rambunctious and feeling bad for her being in the hot yard all day.
• My new shoes rubbing a bad blister on the back of foot, and realizing after a month of wanting them I need to return them.
• The lady not calling us when she rented the room D wanted, causing us to wait in San Diego for two additional hours.
• The temperature ranging from 109 in San Diego yesterday to 95 here today.
• Stubbing my two twice yesterday.

All in all this was a great weekend. I will be in L.A for the next two nights at two concerts. I am pretty excited about both. I am so thankful that life has been a blessing lately, and actually feeling great about house sitting for the next week and a half or so, because both places have AC and the heat was definitely getting to my head a little bit.

Have you ever heard of scrapple?

Scrapple is a savory mush of pork scraps and trimmings combined with cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour. The mush is formed into a loaf, and slices of the scrapple are then fried before serving. Scraps of meat left over from butchering, too small to be used or sold elsewhere, were made into scrapple to avoid waste. Scrapple is best known as a regional food of Delaware, South Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. You can read more on Wikipedia.

I am posting this because tonight at Jana's birthday party I asked if anyone had ever heard of this, and they said no. I was shocked. I ever had a fellow east-coaster at the party and I know at least one of the other attenders lived on the East Coast for a while. I didn't realize that this 'savory mush' has such a small region of existence, but now I know.

I grew up eating this occasionally, and the Wikipedia article honestly kind of makes me want to gag. Mainly because of the parts of the pig it includes and also because it mentions the fact that it is gelled into a loaf form. I remember it having a distinct flavor if not more of an extremely distinct texture. The only way I can describe it is that is is a meat flavored slab that has a firm outer layer, but inside it is kind of the texture of mashed potatoes or a hash brown.

Can you say yummy?

Not really though. It's a pretty gross concept overall. My mom never bought it but I definitely had a my fair share of this regional delight when I was coming of age.

I wonder if it is much worse than eating hot dogs?

Vegan Corned-Beef and Cabbage?

I am not making Vegetarian Beef and Cabbage, but I am celebrating St. Patty's Day by making a Guinness themed, Vegetarian Irish meal tomorrow night. The menu includes

• Vegetarian "Beef" and Guinness Stew
• Irish Apple Mash Recipe
• Irish cheddar and Stout fondue
• Vegan Irish Whiskey Cake

I am excited about making all of this, but I also get kind of nervous when I make new things. I am wondering how strong the cake is going to taste of Whiskey. Also, generally I make vegan recipes with non-vegan products like real butter and milk and eggs. I am not a vegan and I figure that generally speaking real butter is better than fake butter.

We'll see how this Irish feast goes. My name is pretty Irish so you have to give me that. One the same hand, I cannot really drink beer like an Irishman (woman). I wish I could.

P.S. My mom always said that it was the corned-beef and cabbage that put her into labor with my sister, who was born on march 18th, 1987. I actually just remember that.