5 posts tagged “culture”

Go Galavanting's Trip to Rome

Sep 11, 2009
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I'm even more excited to go to Roma next spring after seeing this bit from the wonderful travel blog, Galavanting.tv.

Go Galavanting Trip to Rome

Talking Italian

Aug 12, 2009
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As I typed that, I was reminded of an old Bananarama song, "Robert Deniro's Waiting (Talking Italian)." What a goofy but sweet song that was!

At any rate, I've started taking a beginning Italian course, to help me prep for a trip to Rome in the spring. I bought an exorbitantly expensive textbook, Oggi In Italia, for the class. I've been studying a bit on Livemocha as well so I have some of the basics down. And yesterday, I attended the first class.

Basics mostly...how the class will be structured, the alphabet, the various sounds, etc. But the teacher, who I have to admit originally being a little worried about when she explained that she was still a student herself at BC, looks like she's going to be awesome.

I've got 7.5 months to cram as much into my little brain as I can before I go. I know that I would be able to get around anyway as most places I'm going will likely have English speakers, but I want to really experience it on a different level. I want to be able to talk to cab drivers, restaurant owners and shopkeepers with some level of confidence. I want to be able to understand the gist of conversations going on around me. Plus I think that when you start to learn the language you can't help but be even more swept away by the culture.

I'm very very much a beginner so when you comment back with phrases I'll have to go look them up. :-) But I'll keep plugging away at it!

Live Mocha is excellent, by the way, when it comes to learning a new language. I love the way they deliver up the lessons and have native speakers help correct written and spoken grammar in a way that isn't too confrontational or nerve-wracking (not face to face unless you want to enable instant messaging). If any of you join up, add me to your friends, even if you aren't learning Italian!

Spring at MASS MoCA

May 27, 2009
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Joe and I spent the weekend in the Berkshires, and despite the fact that I tried numerous times for the umpteenth millionth year (okay, maybe only 9) to get Joe and/or his family to go with me to see a Shakespeare & Co. play, it didn't happen. I was really hopeful this time, but alas, I think that I am just plain alone in my desperation to see Shakespeare. It was Romeo & Juliet, which I've not yet seen on the stage, sigh.

At any rate, at least I can get Joe to go up to North Adams to MASS MoCA. For some bizarre reason the girls at front gave us the runaround and said there was no teacher discounts (despite the fact that every other time we've gone Joe gets in free+1 because he works at an art school). So that was rather annoying. Especially since the prices have gone up and half of the museum was video art (Guy Ben-Ner) and neither Joe or I get very excited about video art.

Fortunately there were other exhibits. One of the artists I liked is Sean Landers:

Sean Landers - "Master Jack"

Sean Landers - "Le'Go My Ego"

Joe hates art that has words in it but being a writer I'm very drawn to visual representations of words. As a critical & creative thinker, Landers is interesting to me also because he used mind-mapping in the painting above and he did it in a really interesting way where the thoughts intersect and entwine. Joe just rolled his eyes but for me I really loved the visual workings of the mind (even if they were somewhat deliberate). The thing is, as evidenced by the title, Landers is fully aware of the ego that is present in this piece, which is Joe's primary beef with art that includes words; he finds them full of ego. At any rate I really liked his part of the exhibit.

The other artist that I liked and that Joe actually did too was Robert Taplin, who I think we saw at the Decordova a few years ago. He had an interesting set of dioramas all based upon scenes from Dante's Inferno.

Robert Taplin - "Everything Imagined is Real (After Dante)"

But the highlight of Mass MoCA these days is the new wing that only houses Sol LeWitt. It's pretty amazing, three floors of drawings. You really need to see it to appreciate it. The first floor was really the most mind-boggling. The time and precision that went into the drawings is incredible. These paintings were produced from plans that he left behind after his death. Most of his later art was the execution of these sorts of art plans. It's an interesting concept.

Sol LeWitt

That photo is a very very small piece of a large wall, all done in pencil.

Sol LeWitt

Again, just a tiny piece of the wall. This one was all done in chalk.

To get a sense of the scale:

Sol LeWitt

Sol LeWitt "Wall Drawing 1112"

Sol LeWitt "Wall Drawing 462"

Sol LeWitt "Wall Drawing 1152"

Fortunately for you the Sol LeWitt exhibit will be up for the next 25 years, so you'll have lots of time to get thee to Mass MoCA.

Gordon Ramsay's Method for Finding Out if You Are a Real Man

May 14, 2009
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My husband is obsessed with Gordon Ramsay. I don't know why he has this sudden fascination, but it's bad. When we're out at a restaurant eating and the food is not 100%, he pipes up in the Ramsay voice, "You donkey! You could have killed someone!" or some such other witty quip. He even found a place in Boston that makes Beef Wellington because neither of us have ever had it (although the recipe is here and I can already seeing us attempting that in the future).

I swear my husband only decided to get the extended cable so he could watch the "F-Word" on BBC.

For those of you who only know Hell's Kitchen or the USA Kitchen Nightmares (remind me to tell you about the food prepared by one of the previous chefs that I had at a Long Island hotel...blech), then you really don't have a true sense of the man. The assholish nature is really just because Americans are idiots and feed on such horrible behavior. Ramsay is a business man after all. His British shows are much calmer, more thoughtful, nicer and I really LIKE the man after watching him in his native element.

To give you a taste of what the "F-Word" is all about, here's a great clip of fellow Brit and journalist James May, and Ramsay, who is administering a test to find out who is the real man.

The F-Word: Gordon Ramsay vs James May

The funny thing is that I actually know several people who have eaten the same type of shark in Iceland and washed it down with a swig of Brennivin. They all got through it...way better than they might have with bull penis, let me tell you. I'm clearly no real man. I wouldn't eat this crap if you paid me. ;-)

Tasty Fruit Terrine

May 10, 2009
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It comes as a surprise to me that I haven't blogged here since January! I mean, I knew it had been awhile, but didn't realize it had been quite that long. So let's celebrate my blog return and the end of spring/start of summer with a fruit terrine!

We get an organic box of vegetables every week from Boston Organics and I had a whole bunch of strawberries that I wanted to do something yummy with. We also have a Le Crueset terrine pan that we have only used once and that gave me the idea to try out a tasty fruit terrine.

I started with a recipe from Epicurious, a Prosecco and Summer Fruit Terrine. Except that I changed the fruit all around. Joe picked up some blueberries and some VERY tasty (and outrageously expensive) cherries from Whole Foods. I already had some excellent organic strawberries from our veggie box, so went with those fruits rather than the grapes and peaches described in the recipe.

Cherries were the first layer:

Fruit terrine 1

Then the blueberries and then the strawberries:

Fruit terrine 2

I added another layer of cherries and another of strawberries then added my prosecco gelatin concoction to the terrine and then threw it in the fridge to let it set for a day. We sliced into it earlier today.

Fruit terrine 3

The green spots in the center are actually halved blueberries. I'm sure this would have looked very pretty if we had unmolded the enitre terrine but since it's just Joe and I enjoying it we decided to cut out slices instead. Oh my, SO delish, especially with some real whip cream on the side. Very refreshing and lo cal (270 calories a serving). Will make this many more times over the summer and most likely I'll test other flavors out...different fruits, maybe adding in some St. Germain...will be fun to make it again. Soo easy too!.

Here's the recipe:

Prosecco and Summer Fruit Recipe

Yield: Makes 8 servings

Active Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 6 1/4 hours

4 cups mixed fruit such as berries; peeled and thinly sliced peaches (see cooks' note, below); and halved seedless grapes
2 3/4 teaspoons unflavored gelatin (from two 1/4-oz envelopes)
2 cups Prosecco (Italian sparkling white wine)
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Arrange fruit in a 1 1/2-quart glass, ceramic, or nonstick terrine or loaf pan.

Sprinkle gelatin over 1/4 cup Prosecco in a small bowl and let stand 1 minute to soften. Bring 1 cup Prosecco to a boil with sugar, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add gelatin mixture, stirring until dissolved. Stir in remaining 3/4 cup Prosecco and lemon juice, then transfer to a metal bowl set in a larger bowl of ice and cold water. Cool mixture, stirring occasionally, just to room temperature.

Slowly pour mixture over fruit, then chill, covered, until firm, at least 6 hours.

To unmold, dip pan in a larger pan of hot water 3 to 5 seconds to loosen. Invert a serving plate over terrine and invert terrine onto plate.

Notes:

·To peel peaches, first cut an X in the end opposite the stem and immerse in boiling water (15 seconds). Transfer it to ice water and peel.

· Terrine can chill up to 3 days. Unmold just before serving.

·To achieve a look similar to that on our cover, use 6 (8-oz) ceramic or stainless- steel molds and 2 cups of fruit and double the gelatin mixture. Once gelatin is at room temperature, spoon 3 tablespoons into each mold, then chill 1 hour to set. (Keep remaining gelatin at room temperature.) Arrange 1/3 cup of fruit in each mold and divide remaining gelatin mixture among molds. Chill, covered, until firm, at least 6 hours.

Each serving contains about 290 calories.

Enjoy!