Groceries and Cooking for the first time in Italy

I went on my first trip to "Bennet's" (The Italian equivalent to Walmart) to get a small amount of groceries to make our first few dinners. At first it looked pretty similar. However, if you want a normal metal cart you must first leave a deposit. I opted for a small plastic crate that has a long handle and tiny wheels. It holds a small amount of groceries but was just right for what I needed. The isles are smaller and needless to say nothing is in english. I was prepared though. Before leaving my apartment I made a grocery list and translated it into Italian. Unfortunately I forgot to translate descriptive words too. Like milk is latte in Italian. I forgot to translate what kind of milk I wanted. I chose what another woman picked and hoped for the best. LOL Generally every meat you could want is fresh not frozen and not in large plastic bags like Walmart. Thats a good thing because refrigerators here are half the size of what we have at home. There were more cheeses than I ever imagined and the fresh vegetables were insanely huge.

I opted for the ingredients to make a Shrimp Pesto with angel hair pasta (which was fresh pasta btw), and the items needed to make Chicken Alfredo with linguine noodles. The picture above was the first night's dinner. Shrimp Pesto with angel hair pasta. It was very difficult to make because I only have two burners at the apartment and all ingredients being fresh cooked at an alarming fast rate. The parmesan regiano was fresh and I added a bit much so it was really cheesy but Randy ate it all and said it was great. For my first meal I was a bit frustrated but overall happy with the taste and my full belly. Although, I now know why Italians drink a "Limoncello" after dinner. It rids your mouth of the remnants of the amazing strong garlic they have here!

My cooking will get better. I just need to remind myself that I'm new at all this.

Oh, note to self... upon returning to Italy, bring measuring cups and spoons and learn how to translate to metrics.

Everything New and Overwhelming

We have been in Italy for a little over a week. I have finally set up a blog account to chronicle our trip to Europe. This past week has just been so overwhelming its hard to figure out where to start. Before we left the States my husband (Randy for those whom have not met him, yet) bought me a brand new MAC PRO. Thing is, I have always used a windows based operating system so I'm learning the most basic skills over again. We hop our way over the big pond to a land I have never been to and I am lost with everything. Even having converters I managed to blow up to electric items I dearly wanted to help me feel at home in a foreign land. I'm slowly learning but its been overwhelming. I plan to use this blog to capture my first impressions, my learning of new cultures, and the over all experiences here in Europe. My hope is that other people coming here and those not as fortunate as I find myself to experience this adventure with me. I truly feel blessed to be able to have this opportunity and it is an adventure I will never forget.

As a child my Father went to Germany and told me and showed me pictures of places and people that I would begin to dream of meeting and seeing one day. When I entered middle school and high school he put me in several different foreign language classes so that I would open my eyes to the world further than my reach. I met many different people with different cultures growing up and all of this combined sparked a passion to learn about other cultures and lands. I never though in a million years I would have the chance to do what I am doing. This is truly a dream come true.

It hasn't all been flowers and cappuccino's though. I plan to write of this as well. There are issues and situations that make me want to go home to my comfortable place in rural America. However, the pros out way the cons at this point so I will take the great, the good, the bad, and the unsafe and roll them up into the most fabulous life learning experience I can.