Mangia!

In my family, we often jokingly apply the expression that certain people "eat to live," but that we "live to eat."  When it comes to culinary appreciation, I have found my people here in Roma.  While I have strayed far (and I mean far) from any of the healthful eating suggestions I used to pore over in Self magazine at home, I can validate the overload of carb-filled, creamy indulgences because this is one rare time in my life that I know I am getting the best of the best!

I am thrilled that my program, IES, understands where I am coming from with the food cravings. They have designed a curriculum that incorporates many sensory activities into our educational experience, the first being a staff-led cooking class yesterday morning (molto buono)!  The ladies leading the class were native Italians which made our cooking experience a more authentic and enriching one (and oh so anthropological, Emory would be proud).  There are so many small differences in the way Italians and Americans cook that add up to produce two very distinct cooking styles.  Everyone in my suite is still trying to fearlessly brave the gas stoves and attempt to properly convert the Celsius degree measures on our oven here, but more than that, Italians cook without reservations.  There were recipe handouts in a small bin for us to take home with us, but I rarely saw the staff consult them.  There was a lot more eye-balling of measurements, throwing spices into the pot just for the heck of it, and hoping (no, trusting instinctively) that things would turn out for the best.  And they absolutely did!  The fabulous vegetables au gratin made me feel a little bit better about my vitamin intake, but were generously coated in breadcrumbs, cheese, and seasoning to up the "yum" factor. Then, we whipped up chicken rollatini (so simple), which was coated in the most delicious broth made from a bouillon cube (dehydrated chicken stock).  The time we spent cooking relative to the fraction of time we spent devouring everything is a very embarrassing ratio.

While I wish I could cook in such a carefree manner as our lovely indigenous coordinators, normally when my friends and I break out a Barefoot Contessa or Giada De Laurentiis cookbook at home, it is a three-hour long ordeal that involves exact measurements and rarely straying from the recipe. However, I know that I'm already making some progress on lightening things up in the kitchen.  As aforementioned in another post, we lack a lot of trademark American kitchen utensils here so we have been performing quite a bit of "kitchen improv" as I have termed it.  When I get back to the states, I am hoping to be a pro!

Below are the dishes we created at IES.  To follow are some more weekly highlights and photos. Coordinating photo uploading among seven roomies is no simple task!

Baci,
Alexi

Vegetables au gratin

Chicken Rollatini: delicious chicken slices wrapped around
mortadella ham, egg, and parmigiano!