Agrigento

One of the three temples at Agrigento, in the Valley of the Temples. These were huge!

Mt. Etna is Smoking!

This is the view of Mt. Etna from the amphitheater at Taormina.

Pictures from Sicily--finally!

This was taken from our amazing hotel balcony in Marsala. The building behind us is the town's cathedral.

Cooking up a Storm and a new Nephew. (Not Cooking the Nephew, Greg)

We headed to Garmisch yesterday to stock up on essentials, including a game of Rummikub, umpteen boxes of American cereal and Thanksgiving-type food (we haven't found acorn squash, sweet potatoes, or fresh spinach on the economy here but they're in the fridge now!). Greg has master-minded downloading NPR's MP3 files and using the transceiver to broadcast our MP3s on the radio in the car. Ingenious, because it allowed us to listen to up-to-date programming in English during the drive, something I don't often have time to do.

During the drive I also found a couple of recipes in November's Family Circle I wanted to try. Both were awesome!

Dessert first, of course:

Turtle Pumpkin Pie

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
• 1 (6 ounce) Graham Pie Crust
• 1/2 cup Pecan Pieces
• 1 cup cold milk
• 2 pkg. (4 serving size) Jello Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 (8 ounce) tub Whipped cream, thawed, divided
• 2 tablespoons caramel ice cream topping
• 2 tablespoons Pecan Pieces

DIRECTIONS

1. Pour 1/4 cup caramel topping into crust; sprinkle with 1/2 cup pecans.
2. Beat milk, dry pudding mixes, pumpkin and spices with whisk until blended. Stir in 1-1/2 cups whipped topping. Spread into crust.
3. Refrigerate 1 hour. Top with remaining whipped topping, caramel topping and pecans just before serving. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

Pictured above is my finished result. The recipe made extra, so I used custard cups. It was a little sweet, so next time I'd omit the second Jello packet. I volunteered to make it for a Thanksgiving fest, so I'll try it again soon.

Spinach- Souffle- Stuffed Mushrooms
Makes: about 2-1/2 dozen stuffed mushrooms Bake: 25 minutes
Prep: 5 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1/2 pound Havarti cheese, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 pounds medium-size white mushrooms (about 30), stems removed and caps cleaned
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Put spinach, Havarti, Parmesan, eggs, milk, garlic powder, oregano, pepper and nutmeg in processor. Pulse until cheese is finely chopped. (This part was painful for the blender. Greg, who is more patient, took over pulsing.)

2. Place mushroom caps on 11 x 15 x 1/2-inch baking pan. Coat mushrooms with cooking spray; sprinkle with salt. Fill each cap with 1 level tablespoon spinach mixture. (Can be made a day ahead; refrigerate, tightly covered.)

3. Bake in 375°F oven 25 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender and the filling is set.

(I divided the mushroom by three for us, but this made extra spinach stuffing anyway, which we're using in an omelet. Greg has requested a repeat for the mushrooms already.) We served it with sweet potato fries sprinkled with Old Bay.

Another high note: I'm an aunt (again)! Our newest nephew, Benjamin, was born on Thursday and weighed in at a healthy 8 pounds. His mom and dad are doing great and went home from the hospital yesterday. We thought it was really cool that the hospital posted these pictures online of him on his birthday:

Recreating Sicily

We returned last week from exploring Sicily. Greg's still working on photo editing, but here are some impressions:

• Driving: we rented a VW Golf and drove over the whole island on 1.5 tanks of gas. Greg was our brave driver. Sicily is really that small (and the fuel consumption on the car was that good). In the area south of Catania, drivers were really aggressive--passing buses and trucks while in the opposing lane, and then flashing our car even though they were in the wrong lane.
• Parking: in many towns we visited, parking was a free-for-all as no tickets are really given. If you can park at least two wheels on the sidewalk, your car has a good spot.
• Food: was incredible. Lots of fresh fish, salad, stone oven pizza, and pasta. My favorites were Sicilian breakfasts in Marsala and Siracusa, where the fruit and pastries were abundant. There's one Italian pastry I'm trying to recreate, a sort of lemon tart with almonds and powdered sugar--divine! One of my favorite meals was in Siracusa--we ate on the main square watched the kids play in front of the church while their parents chatted. Another was on the beach at Taormina--we shared a lasagna, salad and homemade tiramisu at this beachfront restaurant.
  
• Favorites:
  

1. Seeing lots of lemon trees, vineyards and olives being harvested (for olives, the locals put a tarp on the ground and then shake the tree).
   
2. Taormina's amphitheater with a killer view of Mt. Etna and the great beach that we swam on.
3. Piazza Armerina's mosaics from a 300 A.D. villa.
   
4. Agrigento's Grecian temples. These look like small versions of the Parthenon in Athens.
   
5. Erice's views from the castle (after a thrilling, nearly-vertical drive up the mountain).
   
6. In Cefalu, we hiked "La Rocca" the mountain on top of the town and then looked down to see the sea and the tiny town below. We loved that the town had its own access--via streets with porticos--to the beach.
   
7. In Marsala, our hotel room had a balcony that overlooked the main cathedral square and the sea-really special! We saw the same picture that we had taken from our balcony on the cover of their advertising magazine.
   

Best Garlic Soy Chicken

I had bought gingerroot at the grocery store and and wanted to cook it with chicken. Greg and I made the most incredible chicken for dinner last night with it. Totally delicious! I found this recipe on Epicurious from Gourmet:

Interestingly, when we peeled the gingerroot, it smelled really lemony. Greg thought it smelled like Pledge.

Garlic Soy Chicken

Gourmet | February 1996

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Yield: Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup medium-dry Sherry
• 2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh gingerroot
• 1 whole skinless boneless chicken breast (about 3/4 pound), halved
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Make chicken:

In a small bowl combine soy sauce, Sherry, brown sugar, garlic, gingerroot, and salt and pepper taste and stir until sugar is dissolved. Gently pound chicken between 2 sheets of plastic wrap until about 1/4 inch thick. In a large sealable plastic bag marinate chicken in soy sauce mixture, turning occasionally, 25 minutes.

In a heavy skillet heat oil over moderate heat until hot but not smoking. Remove chicken from marinade, letting excess drip off and reserving marinade, and cook until browned and cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Transfer chicken to plate and keep warm. Pour reserved marinade through a sieve into skillet and boil until reduced to about 2 tablespoons.

Drizzle chicken with sauce.

The Blog Begins!

Everyone seems to be blogging, so I'm jumping in as well. I was told it was easy and a great way to share what's happening in our neck of the woods. This is a real labor of love for me tonight, though, since we're out of milk and grocery stores in Bavaria close by 8 p.m. and my blogging experiment means that we're skipping coffee tomorrow.

Another perfect, sunny day in Bavaria. Greg and I got out to the park for a picnic at lunch, where we typically feed the ducks and visit this huge cage of birds. (Lunches are relaxed here: in a hour, we can pick up fresh rolls and cold cuts at the bakery, have our picnic with the birds, and if I'm lucky, convince Greg to get a gelato with me. I love how close everything is in our little town.)

My favorite bird at the park is a goldfasan (Golden Pheasant), who looks like a cross between a chicken and a peacock. He's always happy to play "peek-a-boo" and march around the cage as Greg and I walk outside, and today he preened back and forth, especially proud of his red chest and long tail. His wings appear to be clipped, but he can jump a couple feet onto tree stumps around the cage, which he does to get a better look at his visitors. I uploaded a photo of another goldfasan, which Greg thinks is a pale comparison of the real thing.