Christmas in Bologna

This is the first year in all of my life to spend Christmas away from "home" in Minnesota. And for not being back in Minneapolis for the holidays, I couldn't have imagined or asked for a better way to spend this time. It had been a crazy time of year with the school semester coming to an end, seeing friends and family, and getting ready for my parents to come to Bologna! 

A few weekends ago we went to Poggibonsi to visit Lucas parents. On the way back we went to the Fiorentina vs. Bologna soccer game at the stadium. We chose to see this match because Luca has been a long time fan of La Fiorentina and some of our friends from Bologna were supposed to come too and cheer on our city. As much as I really don't like the obsession with soccer here, there is just something exciting about being surrounded by fans. There is an atmosphere in sports stadiums that you can't find anywhere else. Luca bought me a purple and white striped scarf to show off my support for La Fiorentina and we enjoyed watching Bologna get defeated. 

 Afterwards we wandered around Florence until I had to catch the train back to Bologna. Any city in Italy around Christmas time is beautiful. The christmas lights make the already charming city even more romantic. 

And the following week my parents arrived to spend Christmas with us! It was so incredibly wonderful to have them here. For them it was also their first Christmas away from home, and also the first time for Lucas parents to spend Christmas away from their home in Poggibonsi. 

Of course as soon as my mom arrived, we got to baking, and made some of my favorite Christmas time treats like Russian Tea Cakes, Lemon Spritz cookies, Peanut Butter Ritz dipped in chocolate, and chocolate covered pretzels-- yum yum yum!

We headed back down into Tuscany for the weekend for a friend's wedding in Lucca, and we couldn't help but stop in Florence again and show my parents this enchanting city in winter. We practically had the whole city to ourselves. We were able to walk from Chiesa Santa Croce up to Ponte Vecchio, through Gli Uffizi, and into Piazza della Signoria without hardly seeing a single person. It's definitely breathtaking compared to the overcrowded streets overflowing with tourists in the summer months. 

Of course we made it back to celebrate Christmas on the 24th with both of our families in our tiny apartment in Bologna. Luca prepared a delicious dinner and we spent the evening opening presents, listening to christmas music, drinking wine, and enjoying each others company. The day after we walked around the city enjoying the festive atmosphere. To our surprise the tower was open to climb, and so walked the 498 steps to the top. 

Unfortunately the video is turned, but we definitely had to take the opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas from high up above Bologna.  

As always, time spent with family is never enough, and the time with my mom and dad here flew by. And I can say without a doubt that this was a fantastic way to end the year. 

3rd Annual Cooking Contest

This year "Rialto" (Luca's old apartment) held their third annual cooking contest. For the weeks leading up to the evening everyone was talking about what they were going to make, how good it's going to be, and how they're definitely going to win. 

There were 

9 people cooking, 

4 people preparing desserts, 

 21 people eating and voting. 

The evening always goes late, with a traditional late start, however this year everyone was much better with timing their dishes to come out pretty much right after the person before them. We started eating at 10 p.m. and didn't finish until until 2a.m. Everyone practically rolled out into the streets. 

The photos are never very appealing and I regret not taking more.

Luca prepared Pappardelle with a wild boar sauce

 Lorenzo prepared mini ribs- the photo doesn't do them justice but these were absolutely exquisite.

 Barbara prepared meatballs along with some stuffed potato cheese rolls

 Leo prepared pappa al pomodoro which is a mix of bread, tomatoes, garlic, and basil 

 Illaria prepared Eggplant Parmesan

 These are my mini chicken tacos 

 Vittoria prepared a gratin- potatoes with sausage

 And last but not least- Matteo made homemade pasta and cooked it up with pumpkin and bacon

For the "Salati" category Matteo won first place with his pumpkin bacon pasta. He definitely deserved it! He put in a ton of work making the pasta by hand, baking and carving the pumpkin. Second place was Leo's Pappa al Pomodoro, which despite the picture was actually incredibly flavorful and delicious. The eggplant parmesan came in third place, however everyone doesn't think it deserves third place and we think there was some biased voting going on. 

This year there were 4 dessert: 2 cheesecakes, 1 pie, and 1 chocolate cream cake. 

 The first picture is the Coffee Cordial Pie, then the New York Mocha Hazelnut Cheesecake and below a lemon cheesecake that was served with a raspberry sauce. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Luca's Pan di Stella cake which was 3 layers of nutella, whip cream, and pan di stella cookies!

 Matteo also won the dessert category with his Coffee Cordial Pie, but he only won by a fraction of a point. My Mocha Hazelnut Cheesecake was tied and so we had go down to the decimal point. 

Counting up the votes!

The Holiday Season

This year I pulled off  hosting my first Thanksgiving. Last year was Luca and I's first Thanksgiving together, but we played it real small with just some roasted chicken legs, vegetables, and of course pumpkin pie. But this year we invited over 10 of our friends, ordered a 12 pound turkey from the butcher's shop up the road, and had an Italian Thanksgiving. I would say it was a great success! 

We wanted to of course celebrate on the actual day, Thursday, November 28th, but no was able to come because of work. So we had it just one day later. Unfortunately I had to work until late as well and I knew it would be impossible to get everything done. So I divided up the work and delegated our friends to bring over vegetables, wine, soup, and desserts. Luca was fantastic and helped get the turkey ready by stuffing it, tying its legs together, and putting in the oven. 

It was a tight fit in our small apartment, but it just made for a nice cozy atmosphere. By the end we were absolutely stuffed. 

 Since Thanksgiving was so late this year, and Christmas is right around the corner we decided to put up our Christmas tree too. Bologna put the Christmas lights up and the city is absolutely gorgeous. I love walking around in the evening this time of year. 

Piazza Minghetti

Piazza Maggiore

Malaysia

The last post about our summer trip to Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. 

We had booked the last few days of our trip at the Perhentian Islands because we were sure there would be nice weather. Our whole trip had been risky booking it during the rainy season. However we only got caught in the rain twice so it couldn't have gone better! 

The Perhentian Islands are like a mini Europe over in Southeast Asia. Left and right you hear Italian, French, German, and English. After visiting Krabi, Railay, and the surrounding islands the Perhentians didn't quite meet the expectations we had set. Also being an island, everything was much more expensive and you don't have very many options of things to do or for going out to eat. We had booked 4 nights and it was more than enough. After the third day we didn't know what to do. 

But even before arriving on the islands we had a stop over in George Town. We were on the West side of Thailand and we took a van down to the first point in Malaysia which is George Town. We only had just one evening and the afternoon of the following day. We enjoyed walking around trying to find something to eat but in the end opted for KFC. 

Freshly made pineapple juice 

George Town was a British Colony in the late 17th Century. It was very interesting seeing the mix of cultures. There are colonial style buildings right next to chinese temples. The town is very quaint and has lots of inviting restaurants and cafes. 

My stomach wasn't feeling very good after eating lunch. So we asked for the nearest pharmacy and they directed us to a an all-natural chinese pharmacy. The man gave me a foul smelling little packet and told me drink it with water. We quickly started looking for a modern pharmacy. 

 After our day wandering around George Town we were ready to get on an over night bus ride to get to the Perhentians. We arrived really early in the morning along with 30 other tourists and we were all boarded onto speed boats that dropped you off at the island where you booked your hotel. 

We stayed on the largest island. The days consisted of having the breakfast buffet, then going to one of the beaches and laying out, reading, relaxing, going to have lunch, then going back to the beach until about dinner time, showering, and then out for dinner. On the second day we rented kayaks and kayaked over to Turtle Bay. It was beautiful quiet cove. Another day we chose to hike to the other side of the island. We would have liked to visit other islands but the water taxis were terribly expensive. 

After four days on the island we took the speed boat back over to the mainland and it was a race to catch our bus over to Kuala Lampur. Our water taxi was terribly late and we knew we would miss our bus. When we arrived we tried asking around to several different tourists agencies. Finally someone, somewhere, somehow knew where we had to go so they told us to take a taxi to X. So we arrived at point X and the bus had just left. So we were chasing the bus in a taxi on the highway. We finally found it and it had pulled over and stopped to wait for us. Thank God! 

We only had a day in Kuala Lampur. It is similar to Singapore is incredibly Westernized. We got a cheap hotel right in the heart of China Town. We walked around to see the Petronas Towers, and wanted to go up to the top of Kuala Lumpur Tower but it was too expensive. And on our last day in Malaysia we went to some botanical gardens and a bird park.

 Then we were finally on our way to catch a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, Singapore to Istanbul, Istanbul to Bologna after a wonderful exciting 3 week trip in Southeast Asia!