Americano e Italiano Feasting

Right now I'm enjoying one of my favorite parts of the week: Saturday mornings. Everything is quite and only the true early risers of the world are awake - a decidedly cheery and optimistic group of people. I'm sure I've inherited this gene through the male line in my family. My dad and my dad's dad all seem to enjoy this time of the day as much as I do and I have memories going way back of me and my grandpa eating Eggo waffles with dark Karo syrup before anyone else gets up or me watching Saturday morning cartoons and eating Raisin Bran while my dad reads the paper. So while I wait for my steel cut oats to finish cooking (soon to be mixed with Vietnamese cinnamon and blackberries) I thought I'd do some blog updating.

Yesterday I got to make a feast for some friends who were coming over, one of them being my friend Emily who's also been going vegan. Needless to say, I was excited. On the menu? Chips and my homemade salsa as an appetizer then fiesta corn salad with edamame (which in hindsight needed more dressing), curried wild rice, green apple slaw and lots of grilled veggies. Dessert was peanut butter chocolate banana pops which I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of. They are a MESS to make but so worth it!

We spent the rest of the night around my friend Abby's fire pit laying down the framework of our Italy 2011 trip, a mere 1 year away! Right now the plan is to start in NE Italy (Venice) and work our way down in a big, elongated "C" going through Tuscany, Rome, Pompeii, Pisa, Naples and ending up in Sicily with Emily and I potentially starting the trip a little earlier in Switzerland.

I've listed the things I'm most excited for in descending order:

1. The food in general
2. Wandering around Rome with no map and no agenda
3. Cafe con leche and a croissant for breakfast...every morning
4. Seeing the Alps again
5. Getting to speak the little Italian I know, the word due (two) in particular.

*Sigh* The only plus to it being a year away is that it gives me another 52 weeks to save up money to go. But for today I'm going to spend my love on CoMo. I'm done with my oatmeal and now I'm off to the farmer's market, then a few hours of landscaping at church and after that the possibilities are wide open.

Ciao, ciao!