Thanksgiving - bless us one and all

Some of the men carving the turkey as seen from outside -

The fourth Thursday in November is the American holiday of Thanksgiving ....oddly placed on the calendar to serve as a celebration of the harvest and to give thanks for the blessings of the year.  

To me, the Canadian date for Thanksgiving, the second Monday in October, is more aptly placed on the calendar.  Never the mind.




 Today DH and I celebrated Thanksgiving with a feast with our neighbors and other friends.  It was good to share a wonderful meal and remember all we have been blessed with - family, friends, life ...

Wishing you and yours all the best -

 Holly

Yesterday ...

the colorful leaves are gone ... and ice crystals are the norm.    Have even had a few light snow flurries .. 


One of our neighbors has two puppies, Leo and Lilly, who just don't know what to make of the falling snowflakes.  They dance and bark and chase the flakes .... quite fun to see.

how the road looked at lunchtime .... yup, the weather is changing ....

A month ago ....

everywhere you look, 
     colorful trees and plants ....

Chicken Pitcher

Traditionally, Italian chicken pitchers came about after the Medici family (a very wealthy and powerful family in Renaissance Florence) was saved due to a flock of chickens.

The brother of Lorenzo the Magnificent named Guiliano decided he wanted to hold a large celebration in the village of Gallina (which no longer exists).  The night of the festival (after everyone had drunk their fill of wine, beer and ate all the food they could possibly hold ... and were all soundly asleep) ... assassins hired by the Pazzis - a rival family to the Medici - tried to sneak into Gallina to kill Guiliano.   They might have succeeded except the assassins crossed a yard full of chickens whose cackling and noise awoke both Guiliano and his guards.  

Guiliano was so happy that his life was saved - he threw another party for the village and had artisans create ceramic chicken pitchers to use for wine and gave them as gifts to all the villagers as good luck gifts. 

It is now Italian tradition to give a chicken pitcher to friends and family to protect them from danger or trespassers.  

Found this little guy while up in Naples one weekend ... thought he was so charming I just had to get him.  Not traditional by any stretch of the imagination ... but, I love the tuxedo!

Holly

Finally back .... made a snowman

Bet you all thought I had fallen off the end of the earth .... sometimes, so did I.  Still trying to go through boxes from the move, have gotten most of them dealt with (or tossed ... or given away ...). 

The rooms in our German home mostly flow together ... so I don't want to put a lot of decorations up (plus I REALLY REALLY don't like putting Christmas decorations up before the American holiday of Thanksgiving held on the fourth Thursday of November ... I LIKE being able to enjoy each holiday in its turn).  

For right now ... this is my only decoration ... what do you think?

Holly

Sad Kitty

Poor Indy kitty! 

Found a new vet (really nice one) who gave Indy her annual physical -

wanted  complete blood-work done to check kidney functions
and overall health due to her age. 

Not a happy kitty after her blood draw ...
don't blame her in the slightest ...
I don't like needles either.
Holly
 

I'm Back Again ... in Our New Home

I sure didn't expect to be gone this long!  Moving is such a bear!! 

It is so depressing to leave a place where you have created a life and made friends .. have made memories (lots of memories) and changed a building from just walls, ceiling and floors into a home, welcoming and filled with the treasures that decorate our life.  It was so sad to look at the empty spaces and know that our time there has come to an end ....

DH found a wonderful place in southern Germany ... a bit smaller than our last ... so some things we have acquired over the years are going away to brighten other lives.  Dear Kitty managed to make it up here okay ... though she wasn't too sure about that while we were on the ferry going from Palermo (Sicily) to Genova (northern Italy).  The cat kenneling area was under repair ... and since she was the only cat (and pets are not allowed in the individual cabins ... which I can understand ... fur, "accidents", fleas, other issues) ... she had to spend nearly 24-hours in one of the smaller cages at one end of the dog kennel.  Fortunately there weren't a lot of dogs in the kennel area ... and the staff did put her at one end of the room and the dogs at the other end ... but several of the dogs barked A LOT!!!  Poor kitty.

Since the kennel area was accessible to the passengers the entire trip - I did spend time with her over the trip.  But mostly she just wanted to huddle in her carrier  with her blanket (I left the carrier open and just stuck the whole thing in the kennel cage) and made sure she had water the entire trip ... as well as food once her motion sickness/panic settled down.    I felt bad for her ... I don't even like going into pet stores because I don't like seeing the animals in cages. 

Still have some boxes to go through ... but progress has been made.   Amazing some of the things I am finding packed away .... even though I did quite a bit of purging before we left Sicily (I packed a lot of boxes myself in the weeks before the movers did the final packing and loading) ... there are still things that I have to just shake my head and wonder what on earth I was thinking.

Our new home is brand new ... it was nearly a month and a half after we moved in before the landscapers finished laying the patio and putting in the landscaping.  Lots of dust and dirt during that time period .... ugh!!

Glad to be back ... time to make new memories, create a new home and make new friends. 

 

The moving van on delivery day, the living room (you can see what will become out patio and the slope that is still raw dirt) before the boxes were unloaded .. and the kitchen part way through the unpacking and putting away process.

Moving is just not much fun ...

It has been an incredibly busy month .... but DH, DKitty and I have managed to get through most of the fuss and flurry.

All our furniture (at least all that we kept) is off and on its way to Germany, the apartment has been cleaned and turned back over to Carmela and Giovanni, DH has reported to his new job (and spent much of his "free time" looking for a new place for us to live) ... DKitty  and I will join him soon ... I have a few more days of work left before the two of us will be on our way.

Amazing how much stuff we packed up and shipped out .... gave away or sold quite a bit ... but there was still a lot.  And I am sure that when we unpack all the boxes ... we will wonder just what prompted us to keep some of the things we did.

Am making the last of the farewells, picking up a few last items to mail/take to Germany ... have shed lots of tears ... I really enjoy living in Sicily and in many ways do not want to leave ...I've made friends here and have created a home here.  Tearing up the roots has been surprisingly painful considering that DH and I both spent time in the military and did multiple moves.

Gave Carmela and Giovanni our keys, gave most of my plants to Carmela ... she loves plants and poking in the dirt ... time to head off for a new adventure.... ... now, if I can only convince the cat ...

I'll miss our kitchen and being able to look out over the plains of Catania
to the ocean and our wonderful huge terrace.

Yes ... I really did need all of these keys to get into our apartment ...

Off and on our way to a new adventure ....  Holly

 

Lady Etna is at it again!

For the 13th time this year (according to volcanologists), Etna erupted today.

Lots of smoke and ash this morning while we were running errands ...

Then this evening, a friend caught pictures of the actual eruption.

changes ... changes ... changes

DH was notified a few days ago that he has been selected for a job he applied for just after New Year's  ... so we're cleaning, de-cluttering, donating and trying to get ready to leave Italy.  DH has to be at the new job in less than a month!  Yikes!!

Both looking forward to it (a new area to explore and new friends to met) ... and not (leaving our current friends... though can still keep in touch via Email, cards and Skype ... our wonderful apartment, even more wonderful landlords and the charm of life here in Sicily).  We really do love the pace and joys of life here.

Doubtful I will be working any time soon once we get moved .... so I can devote more time to sharing my world.

See you soon!

Christmas letter 2012

This is one of the two versions of the Christmas letter DH and I sent out with our cards this year ... the family one had a few more personal items listed on it and the "Merry Christmas" and "into 2013" block were both smaller so I could add personal notes.

Not quite what I had originally envisioned , but I like how it came out.

Cuban Picadillo - cheater's style

Had this in a restaurant long ago .... had my doubts while reading the menu ... a main dish that combines beef and cinnamon?  But I gave it a try and it was really good.  
Later I found this recipe in a magazine I read occasionally ... must have been fate!

This tends to be our "emergency meal" for the nights we are both tired from work and didn't start anything before heading off to work.  
Both DH and I really like this ... as you can probably tell from the LARGE jar of olives! 

Cheater's Picadillo


1-lb package of lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped -  about 1 cup
1/2-teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 jar (16-oz) corn and black bean salsa
1/2-cup golden raisins (brown raisins work, but they can look like bugs)
1/4-cup drained pimento-stuffed Spanish olives, stuffed

In a large, non-stick skillet, cook beef and onions over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until beef is browned and onion is soft.  
Stir in cinnamon so it flavours all the beef.
Add salsa, raisins, olives and 1/2-teaspoon salt.
Cook stirring occasionally until heated through.
Serve over cooked rice or quinoa.
Chopped cilantro can be sprinkled over the top, if you have any. 

I keep mis-placing the recipe ... decided if I saved it here, I could always find it again!
Enjoy!

how does your garden grow?

Part of Giovanni and Carmela's winter garden for this year....
 it just never stops.
One thing gets finished  ... pull it out and put in the next item.
They can .. and do ... grow just about everything!

super-easy chicken wings

It's Superbowl Sunday for American football .... time to settle in and watch the 49ers and the Ravens battle for supremacy.  It is a time to gather with friends, cheer on your team and eat!

This is my go-to recipe for wings...

You will need:
bag of chicken wings
bottle of barbeque sauce (I personally prefer one with molasses)
bottle of hot sauce (tabasco, texas pete, buffalo wing -- whatever)

Boil however many of the wings you want in a pan of water until they are cooked (I usually set them cooking and fix other dishes .. so not a clue how long they generally cook).
Drain off the water.
Mix the bottle of barbeque sauce with however much hot sauce until it has the spiciness you prefer (we like it spicy so we generally use a about half of a large bottle of tabasco sauce).
Pour the sauce mixture over the cooked wings.

You either cook the wings now or let them set for a while ... either way works.

Line a shallow pan with foil (believe me, you don't want to try and clean the pan .... been there, done that ... I ended up tossing the pan) and spread out the wings and the sauce in the pan.

Put n the oven at about 350 - 375 degrees F and let cook until the skin is cooked to your liking.
I like my wings crispier than DH does so we pull out his share and then put the ones for me back in the oven to finish crisping up the skin.

Yum! 

"Cookie Dough" I sent my son for Christmas

A friend of mine sent me a photograph of a variation of this ...
 that one used a deep picture frame to hold the "cookie dough". 

I found this plate (started looking around for one with writing in Italian .. no joy.. oh well, so life goes sometimes) in a euro-store
 and decided I would rather use it to hold the gift.
Modified the wording of the original tag ... not totally satisfied with the wording ... will play with it some more to see what I can come up with.

I think it turned out pretty cute.


Late note:  At some point, it may be a good idea to let the recipant know the money is real ... my son didn't realize that until we talked on the phone some days later.   He thought it was a joke gift until we talked.

a bit out of season ...

Thursday night, DH stopped by our favorite bakery and picked up some bread for dinner...
this was the bag the bread was sent home in ....
a bit out of time ... but I think it's a charming bag.

gifts for the single mechs

At Christmas DH and I give "care packages" to the single mechanics who work with us ...

some soups or chili to keep in the freezer until a day comes when it's too late or much effort to cook  (at least one eats out just about every meal) that they can just pull out and heat up,

some cookies and sweet bread,

a few pieces of fresh fruit from the market

... and this year, we found chocolate "tools"

the pefect sweet ending for a mechanic.

Forgot to share

Our landlord's grandson likes to bake ... here are some of the Christmas cookies he made for us.

more rolls

More rolls she has shaped ... check out the purse on the right side!

Fancy rolls

Fancy rolls being hand shaped by a baker in Monterosso Almo, Ragusa province, here in Sicily.

A wee bit late ... but Happy New Year!

Welcome 2013! 
Some of the fireworks my husband and a friend set off on New Year's Eve from the top of Motta by-pass road. 
 I have a new camera .... think the camera is winning the contest to learn how to use it.

Putting away the holiday ....

Tomorrow is Three Kings Day ... and I started to put away most of Christmas today.   We didn't put a lot up ... mostly on the sideboard n the living room.

Only put one tree up this year ... a small two-foot one DH got for me in a local store.
Since it is small ... I used many of the keychains and other items acquired during our military years that normally go on our travel tree.

Here are the new items we got this year...
-a suede angel and devil keychain was found in Rome when we were up there one weekend
- the bear is from Berlin, Germany
- a doll from St Petersburg, Russia (has a similar doll on the other side in red) and
- a "happy bird" refrigerator magnet also from Russia (each feather is carved separate from the others)

Christmas ornaments can be pricey or hard to find in many places (seasonal at best) and often are of the mass-produced, made in "---" variety, with nothing unique about them to show where they were found ...
keychains on the other hand are just about everywhere and the touristy ones can be reflective of the area.


Bye bye key chains until next year .....

Happy New Year 2013!

Welcome to another year!   I had to work yesterday (ugh!) but we spent part of the evening at one friend's home watching movies and having dinner ... then we all went to another friend's home for more food ...a  bonfire and to set off some fireworks.
Left just before midnight to go to the top of a hill near-by to watch the surrounding towns set off their fireworks ... don't know how well my camera picked up the pictures... new camera - still playing with how it works.  A friend got a video ... if I can figure out how to copy his video on Facebook, I'll post it.

Our oven is out... so we are doing a lot of crock-pot and top of the stove meals...

Tried this the other day ... really good and simple to toss together.

Fantastic Pork Tenderloin

2-lb pork tenderloin
1-envelope of dry onion soup mix
1 cup water
3/4-cup red wine
3 TB minced garlic
3 TB soy sauce
fresh grd pepper to taste

Put tenderloin in a slow cooker with the soup mix.  Pour water, wine and soy sauce over the pork and turn the meat so that it is coated on all sides.  Spread garlic over the top of the meat ... you want to have the garlic on top of the meat while it is cooking.  Sprinkle with pepper, cover and cook on low for about 4 hours.  Once done, the cooking liquid can be served as au jus. 

We had baked potatoes topped with au jus. 

Good stuff!!