Straight from the heart of Rome

Am I so in my element here?

This post is dedicated to my same Caroline Craven and my lover (mistress?) and object of my affection/birthday girl Rachael James Mulder. Also known as Ms. Gorgeous/fashionista/beauty.

So I still love pasta. Even pasta bianca (olive oil and parmigiana) is so good to me. But the boiled object I love most is gnocchi. So soft and chewy like a starburst candy for the dinner plate. No, not that they are sweet, but that the texture is gluttonously inviting.

I recently had a gnocchi lesson from a very Italian cook named Marilena. I met her because Landon Hansen from Rupert, ID told me to look her up. I moved into her ward and I mentioned his name and got VIP service. Her food makes me cry sometimes (not just because of the taste but because sometimes I am so full that I have to chase a bus with my belt unbuckled after we eat at her house and it makes me cry because if I laugh I will throw up). She thought we (me, my roommate, and two girls--Cami and Janise who I met who also know Landon--they were on a European tour but have gone home) were so strange for wanting to make gnocchi instead of an amazing fish pasta, but we were adamant. And I knew I would be here long enough to learn all her fish or pasta secrets (I PRAY).

Step 1- Boil potatoes. The metric system ratio is 1 kilo of potatoes with 400 (more or less)grams of semolina flour. I think that serves 3 or 4 or 5 or something like that.

Step 2- Find a way to get potatoes (without skins) squished out so that you can stir in flour. I think you can just use a masher, but mash them really well.

Step 3- Stir in flour a little at a time. When it gets too hard to stir, knead the mass of starches like you would bread dough. Knead it for 10 minutes or so. The difference between bread and the gnocchi dough is that the gnocchi will not be as elastic. But aim to make it less sticky like you would bread dough.

Keep your hands really floured and rub off the dough stuck to them.

Step 4- Take a chunk of dough and roll into "snakes" about 1/2-3/4 inch diameter. Cut about 1 inch rectangles.
At this point it is completely aesthetic. You can roll them into little balls. You can make them into shapes like red blood cells (always thought they were a cool shape). You can mark them with a fork or something. Marilena had me push them in a quick motion on the back side of a cheese grater. The holes make bumps that look cool. It took me about 15 minutes to get one to look right . . . but I got a "brava" from her in the end. Make sure to put shaped gnocchi on a floured surface, don't let them touch, and sprinkle flour on top of them.

Step 5- Ok. At this point you should have some water boiling. You want to try to get all the gnocchi in together as quickly as possible (I mean that they should go in at the same time). But don't freak out and dump them everywhere. Just GENTLY drop them into the water. Once they go in don't stir them. Don't touch them. When they float to the top they are finished. It takes about 5 minutes or so. Then use a slotted spoon or a strainer to get them out of the pot. She had us put them in a strainer and then dump them into another to really get the water off. Then put them in a big bowl or something and dress them with the sauce you desire. And really, just enjoy. They are such the food to make me say "mamma mia".

love

m.jean gnocchi making machine

here are some pics

reminds me of home for some reason


Piazza Venezia for Unification day

My first glimpse of the Colosseum a few weeks ago


Just another great view of the setting sun

I'll Always Come Back to You

Caveat:
We are not professional recording artists. All we had was my Mac, Bernie Mac. We didn't have Scott Carter. Hopefully Gramps won't notice when we get off-key.






Happy Birthday! Love you. Apologies for the end. Bernie decided to stop recording.

Thinking of Tahir Square

I have felt and continue to feel compelled to write about the things catching fire in Africa and the Middle East (yes, the Suzanne Collins' title seemed most appropriate). I have been reading, or devouring, BBC news on Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. I have since seen headlines alluding to protests in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. I have begun to drink from the well of fuel and flame that is the history, the present, and the future of this area of the world. This is a doomed task as the thirst is not quenched and the contagion of knowledge spreads even to my fingertips with so much energy that I must dip the bucket into the well again and again.

Though I urge to parrot all the things I have heard and read I will try to limit myself to discussing three poignant factors that I can't ignore.

1. We are all Khaled Said. This was the title of a facebook page that became a stage for videos and photos of policemen doing illegal acts justified by the "emergency law", a law created after the Six Day War. It has allowed activist to be "dealt with" in any imaginable way without consequence. Khaled Said was a young buisness man who was dragged out of an Internet cafe by police. He was beaten to death. The report of his death said that he had suffocated while swallowing a packet of drugs. Family members said that he had a video that implicated police officers in a drug deal. His death sparked the facebook page that was an unstoppable tool in organizing the revolution. In reality, it did the only thing it was ever meant to do--to build connections.

2. The role that social networking has played in the Egyptian revolution is incomprehensible. Does Mark Zuckerburg lie in bed each night, eyes wide open, as he realizes that his creation has ventured into areas he never once considered? He has discussed the idea that the nature of facebook would change communication, but did any of us foresee the role of it in places like Egypt? Did he imagine it in time of war? Do the words "We are all Khaled Said" flash through his mind? Think about everything you know about other wars and how the availability of information was limited by book burnings, controlled newspapers, or monitored telephone calls. Think of the secret radio stations, code words, curfews, and whispers spoken in musty places in the dark. Wael Ghonim, administrator of the facebook page, said that the regime couldn't control it that way in his interview with 60 minutes. The only way to control it would to be to cut off the Internet--which would only tell "4 million people that they are scared like hell from the revolution." He said that the regime made the mistake of blocking facebook and it only forced people to the streets to get connected. (P.S. google search how facebook will end March 15)

3. I don't know much about politics. In fact, I know so very little about my own government, let alone government in the rest of the world. However, I do know some things about religion so it is natural that this last topic is what I notice. Muslims and Christians united to stand for the rights they deserve. They protected each other from harm. This is one picture of Coptic Christians surrounding Muslims as they pray in Tahir square, protecting them from anti-revolutionary forces. Remember that one month before, 23 Christians were killed by an Islamic extremist suicide bomber.



Connections.