May events

There was a lot going on in May. After our stint of "reality" TV, we finally celebrated Ray's 5th birthday with Nonna and Godmother Kathryn and Uncle Marco, our 7th wedding anniversary, an end-of-the-year school party at Ray's scuola materna (Patty, you would not believe how many parents asked me for the recipe for the confetti cake mix you mailed me!), and a rock 'n roll (for a 6th!) and a pirate themed (including parrot) birthday parties. Don't laugh at the scotch tape on the pirate hat I made for Ray - he loved it and the paper eye patch!

Musica

My friend, Kathryn, organized a very successful musical instrument "fiera" - a convention of dealers. We attended last Sunday in Bologna and though it was really loud, it was great fun to see not just the instruments but the exhibits with all the canned bands that show off all the cool products. I hope we will buy a digital piano soon, though Ray really really wants a guitar (half size, of course).

Ciao! (sob)

So our new best friends are on their way back to Milan where they will catch a flight back to LA tomorrow morning. It was so much fun working with Susan, Tom and Stu these past five days. I think they got the footage they wanted, were totally relaxed and we will miss their company. Keep checking the HHI listings and let us know when it airs - you will probably see it before we do. (Unfortunately, I had left my camera at work and only had it for the final day of shooting.) We have to remember to peel off all the black tape around our house where the brands of appliances had been covered. Action/cut/tone!

HH International

So, in the end, it all really progressed and the crew of three House Hunters are arriving in Bologna today. We have a hectic schedule that runs through to next Wednesday and I never lost the ten winter pounds, grew out my butchered fingernails (ah, to work with 5 year olds every day!), got my hair cut, colored and styled, and so on - so you get the authentic Chris appropriate for "reality" tv. I will try to take some photos throughout and hope there are none of anyone losing their patience.














We have been busy just running our regular schedule, but we did manage a weekend escape to celebrate a certain 49th birthday (ouch, well actually a little wine took the pain away) with friends Kathryn and Marco (it's her 34th - double ouch). We went to the same agriturismo that we celebrated at a year ago (www.marzanella.it/) and though it was a little rainy, we were still able to visit the "vulcano" - a natural gas flame that has become our favorite picnic spot (next time we will bring hotdogs on a stick along with the beer and cheese sandwiches).











Above is a game of Italian billiards - I never grasp the goal - those little pegs on the table - to knock down or not?

Lake Garda

This past weekend we went to visit our long-time friends, Marco, Barbara and their 11 year-old daughter Giulia. They owned an Italian restaurant in Times Square for 12 years but returned to Italy the year after I moved here (2004). They have a restaurant at Lake Garda now, but spent the day with us to show some of the local sights, and it was nice to chat with friends who miss NY as much as I do. Ray got his first taste of a real Ducati -now all his model ones just won't do.

I knew him when...

he was just a "little cousin" I used to swing around by his arm and leg. Maybe he will use some of his grub to come do a foodcrawl around Bologna.

http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2010/04/fake_shack_creator_kenji_alt_s.html

‘Fake Shack’ Creator Kenji Alt Scores Six-Figure Book Deal
4/14/10 at 2:02 PM

James Kenji Lopez-Alt, the MIT grad who is better known as Kenji Alt to readers of Serious Eats, Goodeater, and Cook’s Illustrated (Grub Street readers will recall him reverse engineering the Spotted Pig’s deviled eggs) has sold a book, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, to W.W. Norton (curiously, his editor is Maria Guarnaschelli, mother of Butter chef Alex, and his agent is Vicky Bijur, wife of Serious Eats honcho Ed Levine). Kenji confirms that twelve publishers bid on the book, and he ended up selling it for six figures. So what got the publishing world so stirred up earlier this week?

Alt tells us a little about his plan for the 300-page, ten-chapter tome, which will consist of all-new material: “What I’m doing is taking classic, American foods like fried chicken, roast beef, mashed potatoes, barbecue, hamburgers, and fries and using them as a jumping-off point to explain various principles of food science.” There will, of course, be “hacks” along the lines of his method of cooking brick-oven-style pizza, but don’t expect re-creations of restaurant dishes à la Fake Shack — “it’s more ‘the ultimate hamburger’ or ‘ultimate fried chicken.’” The Food Lab will hit bookshelves in the fall of next year.

Aprile/April/Spring/Primavera!

It's been a beautiful spring so far. We went to visit Lake Como in the days following Easter, and I spent the rest of the week off just hanging out in the beautiful weather. Here are some photos to show you what we have been up to - my only regret was not making it to Venice for an afternoon (as Ray is wanting to see more boats) but we can do that in the coming weeks. Oh, and another food article (and again, you can get a similar experience at the Ricci house later this year): http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/travel/11Frugal.html

Here, we had lunch at a local osteria in the Bologna hills where they serve various meats with crescentine (fried dough) - that is the entire menu. Oh, and pickled mushrooms, olives, artichokes and peppers. It is lovely to sit outside of this farmhouse while Ray zips around the tables on his scooter.

Lake Como is beautiful - and one has to take a ferry ride to really appreciate the landscapes that surround it. With Andrea's love of WWII history, we had to visit the place where Mussolini's body was recovered and a couple other related sites. Andrea also loves talking to old locals - here in front of the hotel we stayed at. It was great not to have huge crowds of tourists, though I wonder how these little towns survive the crush in the summer. We had the entire patio to ourselves for a leisurely lunch - that will not be possible from even a month from now!

Hand Gestures

As some of you know, we have been working on getting together some tapes for an American home show. On some of the videos, I realized how much I use hand gestures and I always notice when my British colleagues at work use classic Italian gestures to help express feelings. I have some favorites - they are like words in no other language that perfectly express what I am trying, unsuccessfully, to say. Here are some things to show what I mean (I always use the "what are you talking about gesture"):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0n4Vw6twKo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdn6TSc9T2A

Almablu

Ray is so happy to have a new pet. Almablu is incredibly sweet and so cute. Ray is very serious in his responsibility with him, and he stopped talking about an imaginary baby brother so I feel like we definitely got a two-fer.