Monday 4 January 2010
Its overcast today, in complete contrast to yesterday. As I am writing this, my nephew is sitting in the seat next to me learning his history. In fact, he is reading out loud word for word from his history book. Given that I cannot understand what he is saying next to me it is quite funny. But I think it must be good for him to be next to someone when he reads aloud rather than being in a room by himself, at least he has some company. It would be nice if I could pick up a few things as he speaks, and perhaps I will learn some history as well as the Italian language. At the moment he is reading about the people and culture of Egypt. I can tell that because of the pictures in his exercise book.
Today we are having polenta for lunch. I have never eaten it before to my knowledge, except once in a sort of desert dish from a fundraiser I attended at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Derby in which they had cooked some scrumptious Carribean food, delicious. The polenta we are having for lunch today is a savoury dish and I have been told it is to be eaten like a piece of bread. It goes particularly well with stews and casseroles. We bought the packet of polenta from the supermarket, and on the side of the packet it has instructions for how to cook it as follows:
Istruzioni per la cottura
Portare ad ebollizione 2 litri abbondanti di acqua con un cuchiaio di sale fino. Versare a piaggia la farina di questo sachetto rimestando con una frusta. Proseguire la cottura continuando a mescolare per circa 2 minuti dopo l’ebollizione. Se risultasse troppo soda aggiungere un poco di acqua bollente e continiuare a mescolare sul fuoco.
Did I mention before that they make their own ricotta cheese at home from the milk of the buffalo? Well here is a picture of what it looks like. It is very rich and creamy …. delicious!
After lunch I downloaded the photos we had taken and then we decided to go out for a walk. Oh, I also took this fascinating photo of the pasta my Mother-in-law cooked for the dogs.
Fortunately it was not raining, but we took the umbrella with us just in case. We went further down the road and ended up at the river down stream. It reminded us of New Zealand because further down the track there was a picnic area and some covered areas for you to picnic or have parties or whatever you like. When the weather is good in summer time it would be the ideal location for parties. Although Giuseppe did warn me you need to be careful when its warm because there are plenty of snakes around. He did say though that as long as you take a stick with you and make plenty of noise as you walk then you should be fine. It sort of put me off the idea after that, but we will see. I would still like to come back here in July to celebrate both our birthdays.
This evening we will be heading out to Sapri, as I want to take the opportunity to take some photos there….
… Later on. Well it was still cloudy and it started to rain. By the time we got to Sapri it was also dark, so we did not walk outside to take photos. Instead we went to do some errands, and then ended up at the new commercial centre in Sapri.
We did however drop by Villamare on the way home and so I tried to take a couple of photos there, but since the car was moving as I took the photos and it was dark, the quality was not so good, but the effects were interesting.
Alice Letts 