Monster Energy Backpacks

What busy lives! Massimo
Tuesday and I we are dedicated to the study all day, was also a bad day, there we were at ease in the house and we made good. In the evening we watched "The Reader" a beautiful film for those who have not seen ( Review imdb).
Wednesday evening I had guests for dinner: I called home, my host family here in London when I came here for the first time in 12 years. I wanted to make a good Italian dinner, but decide the menu has been particularly complicated: they came in Italy so many times that probably would have considered a trivial pasta. I thought about preparing a risotto with sausage and mushrooms, but I was a little 'uncertain because here in London is quite common to find vegetarian and I was not sure they were not. Think and think again I got the idea to make eggplant parmigiana! I love them and always make a good figure. Too bad that I had never cooked before! I'm not exactly a dish of simple ... ... I was very dubious, but the desire to prove he had the upper hand. So I decided to

appetizer: bruschetta and spritz
primae: eggplant parmesan salad

sweet tart with orange marmalade

I note that I had never done even a tart but I felt it was very easy to prepare!
So Wednesday afternoon I went to Massimo and Sainsbury's to shop. Sainsbury's is a chain a bit 'expensive but gave me a higher quality than Tesco ... Why do the bruschetta with tomatoes that do not know anything nn make much sense, then it is better not to do it!
Sainsbury's is at Manor House, about 10 minutes from here, we went mountain bike leading the pack to bring home the shopping (it's a great technique !!!!). I have taken away the tickets, Tesco and Lidl to understand how much things cost more. The absurd thing is that here everything is always on offer: if you take 2 or 3 packs of everything save always ... but if you only have a shelf of the fridge and pantry and more things you have to take you home in your backpack nn is always possible to buy 3 packs of everything!! Anyway fruits and vegetables had a decidedly better than the other supermarkets where I go usually. We just buy things for dinner, shopping for me, I still spend a Lidl or risk capital! In any case, it took us two hours to buy everything, it was not easy. For example, the fruit you can buy in bulk, like us, but there are no scales to weigh it and print out the price! Every fruit has its own stamp and the cashier enters the product name and number when you go to pay. What causes me considerable disorder!! If I take the tomatoes that cost less and he misses me and make them pay like the ones that cost more ????? Oh well say that the British are always correct ... so we trust .... But I need 800 grams of tomato sauce to make ... how do I know how many 800 grams ?????? I need a balance! Ok ... put a pack of 500 grams of tomatoes packed in one hand and a bag with a maximum bulk tomatoes in the other ... Massimo you imagine the poor in the midst of the shopping center to make a human scale ???!!!! Ditto for eggplant of course. Choose
wine was even more complicated, I think it took us half an hour! Take the white spritz had to be very simple: find the cheapest of all and it's yours! But no! At first, we found a white lambrusco .... do you realize?? the white labrusca even there !!!!! It cost £ 4 !!!!! No way! Eventually we found a English white wine for £ 3 which seemed much better. Since we start with a spritz, and the Parmesan is neutral enough thought to keep white ... but there was nothing drinkable. That is, I am a white wine at £ 9 with the cap that screws do not buy it! Then we went to red and after a long search we found a Chianti truly Italian, with a cork, to £ 6.
Total expenditure 70 pounds, I thought worse! We completely filled the backpack and mountain bicycle basket ... and of course the return is almost all uphill!
We arrived home by 6, just 2 hours to prepare enough!
Porto in the kitchen computer to see the recipes ( parmigiana, pastry) and it begins.
Cut the eggplant slices for the length ... the drunks would have done better ... decide who will be the artistic slices! Let the eggplant on a cutting board inclined to make them weep, whatever that means. Dr. Maiocchi shows off his wisdom by arguing that an engineer if we press and hold in the process should speed up vertical ... No, but we know how to press so the plan was abandoned. Dr. Maiocchi starts to insult the eggplants with the intent to make them cry ... even in this case we get great results ... step further and we focus on the tomatoes. Cut the tomatoes into cubes and let them fry in a wok, Dr. Maiocchi argues that we need to do fry the onion, the recipe does not say, we decide to stick to the recipe, but we are skeptical! Add salt, pepper and basil (we have a plant on the windowsill ... what we are Italian !!!). Let cook the tomatoes for the sauce and we are preparing to cut the tomatoes for the bruschetta ... I cut them in small cubes, Dr. Maiocchi into strips, then decided to comply with my method but its cubes are much larger than mine, review all the cubes of Dr. Maiocchi dividing them into small cubes. Let the tomatoes in a bowl to make "tocio. Wash the eggplants though still nn had decided to tear "is that we can not expect that they cry all night." The dry thoroughly and put back on the board. Dr. Maiocchi is going to fry. I make the dough for the tart. I decide to do it in a bowl instead of a plan as suggested in the recipe (the plans of this house are not reliable!). We do not have a dispenser ... what will be 150 grams of sugar?? Fortunately, the package is new "Maiocchi, how 1kg 150gr?" made the calculations and measurements spans the package to the sugar. This is repeated for the flour ... I decide that I meet the amount in the bowl. Luckily, the butter is easier, the British put their marks on the package! Small Maiocchi
interrupted "because they have to fry the eggplant?" "I do not know the recipe does not say ... I would say until they are fried." "Oh well I think this is fried." "Ok."
Resume. Cut the nuts but it seems too cold to blend easily with the rest. I put it briefly in a water bath but I am very worried about having to work quickly because the mixture is hot ... who knows what happens if you warm! maybe beat myself up! Best to avoid ... I pull up the butter before they get warm and heat the mixture as a result ... grate the lemon and proceed to knead. Rallied everyone in the house (the poor Valerie was trying to eat in the middle of the chaos) to determine whether the dough has a consistency that would establish crumbles. Proceed to add the egg and I start to knead. I think that starts to go well but I have a lot of experience ... I decide to try out "damn! is just like what mom makes !!!!" I love the raw pastry, but resist the temptation to eat it all. I put it in the fridge to rest even if I do not think my mother ever did at home ...
But at this point is panic: we do not have a pan to bake the pie!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. I go out to look for something in the shops around here ... In the first three there is absolutely nothing useful ... decided to make my way to instill the road, I remember that also sold pots and dishes ... Bingo! I find the aluminum pans, will be great!
On the way home I call the Maiocchi: We bought some bread with raisins instead of normal bread bruschetta ... how we do?? Tragedy: the bread is not an easy thing to find in London! Ok on the way there is an Italian restaurant, maybe you can sell them a bit '. Unfortunately I have little but give me 4 slices, but I suggest that one of supermercatini them closely makes good baguette and may still have. Fortunately, there is the last baguette!
I come home to find that we do not know how to turn on the oven ... are the 7:45, the guests arrive at 8 am, we only things that require baking and we do not know how to turn it on!! Beginning to panic. Dr. Maiocchi decide that we must strive and humming the symbol of MacGyver uses two pots containing the mold of Parma in suspension (acts as a lid) to create a mini oven to be placed on the stove. Try to explain that the circulation of heat will be the same as in the oven ... I am in panic!
finally managed to turn the oven (you fit completely inside the oven and put a hand in a place that gives you the idea that you get burned for sure!), are 8.5 ... Meanwhile, the oven warms up I wipe the table, take off the old brown cloth with brown flowers (these English ....) and I'll put the paper with colored stripes that I purchased in the afternoon. Unit. We put the parmesan in the oven. Are 8.30 and you do not see nobody ... beginning to think that we have not understood and will not come! Anyway I start trying to roll out the dough for the crust, the table set with shame that I only have very little space on the kitchen counter in front of the oven.
arrive. I begin to think that we can do it. The rumors run great, Annie and Alice are exactly even as I remember them, think that 16 years have passed!! Annie brought me a pot with 3 bulbs Hyacinth Blue, says that when you make an excellent flower fragrance. I am very pleased because I really thought about beautifying the room with a plant or flowers ... just that everything costs too much! I end to stretch the dough until I chat, I begin to pour the jam ... not enough!! The Maiocchi decide that cutting an orange we can fill the gaps. I am not convinced but I'll leave it, the result is bad so I force myself to go out and buy another jam (just out here there are two supermarkets that have for sure). The oven should be
pianissimo and the Parmesan does not seem to cook ever, I put it to maximum and while we chat. Annie wants to know how is the whole family, everyone asks me one by one. I tell. Often the conversation wanders away nicely. Spritz getting an amazing success: incredibly in every time they come to us nn had ever tasted! The bruschetta is excellent, good tomatoes from Sainsbury's (which if there is already the possessive case would not the "in" but never mind ...). Finally comes the moment when the Parmesan is ready, it's a little 'liquid but the taste is great! if all the free ride and I'm happy. Bake the pie. After preparing a salad with tomatoes, Parmesan forward by bruschetta. The bottle of wine that has Annie has taken over (was excellent), I put on the table that we bought that we, fortunately, is just as good (the Maiocchi says it was even better). Not even the pie to cook anything, we waited an hour and a half because it was ready (finishing the second bottle of wine). Fortunately, we have 16 years to tell us ... and then with a prime minister Berlusconi as the arguments never fail! (The English are all curious to know how can I even ... uh ... sigh ...). But the tart is ready when it finally is great! For the long stay in the oven jam is a bit 'melted, but the cake is still good. I had provided a good oven would have been all perfect!
The girls go off just before midnight to catch the last train (we live on opposite sides of London, is a trip!). It 'was a wonderful night but me and Max are destroyed and the kitchen looks like a battlefield! But I'm really satisfied! In most years said that my fluency in English reminds so much of my aunt Antonia is the first time I went to see ... many of you do not know but I assure you that my aunt is the greatest compliment that could be me, I was in seventh heaven! (We only hope it's true: p)
Thursday we rested after the fatigue, we stayed at home until 6. I spent the day to inform me on how to care for the bulbs that I got Annie. I've never had a plant or flower so I'm very anxious! I bought a long, narrow vessel in which plants, earth, and I placed them gently in their new home. Now they are on the library shelf at the window every 5 minutes and check if they are good! Are concerned that the vessel has holes to drain under and I've read that the stagnation of water is their worst nightmare. So I think I'll try to pierce the vessel in some way (it was the cheapest I could find).
At 6 o'clock we took a bus to the center, we were wrong stop, we took a taxi to do not be late but luckily the place we had to go was not far away and we did not say much.
7 hours, Lyceum Theatre, 2 tickets in high gallery for The Lion King, Disney's musical, a gift from my Morosetti. The reviews were good but the surprise was incredible! The show is amazing! It deserves, I do not know how to describe it, if you must beware of a few videos on youtube but know that it is much, much nicer ( trailer). As usual, the British turn out to be the biggest of all: there is no queue to collect tickets at the door because a man enters a person not to withdraw, so the groups do not pile up, in front of each seat there is a binoculars that you can rent for £ 1 and on the internet you can order in advance what you want to drink / eat the bar during the interval (have known ...). Obviously everyone bring food from takeaways and smells of garlic everywhere ... : P
Today we made the beggars, someone threw out an old leather couch, that is there are 3 days on the sidewalks. With boxcutter I cut the skin and I brought it home stuffing pillows! Will be a great read for Monday, when Francesca arrives (there is still a maximum and then I make it sleep on the floor) and ottoman in the room in the future! I just have to find the stuff with which dress. Cmq For now take up the whole room (since the desktop is still fully open), there I am almost over and I'm starting to go crazy! Now I have to draw the laundry ... it will be a tragedy, fortunately we go out to dinner with my friends, I hope that tomorrow everything is dry because I could set fire to everything!