Just Add Oil

I'm pretty sure that's the recipe for everything here in Siena. When in doubt add oil. Even when you think you don't need oil, you should probably add oil anyway. My cooking class began last Friday and it has to be one of the better things in this world. The teacher is a famous cook in both Rome and Tuscany. He doesn't speak English so we have another teacher there to translate. We were each given a book with all the recipes we will be making while we were here and then we got started. I think that taking a cooking class in Italy should be on everybody's list of things to do. I am also required to spend a certain amount of time cooking with my host mom each week for my cooking course. This is quickly becoming a very entertaining and enlightening activity. Seeing as Antonella doesn't speak any English we speak very slow Italian and point a lot. Thank goodness that I at least have some idea what I'm doing in the kitchen or else I'd be in a lot of trouble. It has been so much fun to cook with her though and I've learned a lot. I have yet to make anything with her that doesn't involve olive oil, and when I say olive oil I'm not talking about small amounts. I am amazed by the amount that is in every recipe. I can't even imagine how fast Italians go through it, but so far the food has generally been amazing so they must be doing something right. The other trick is that she doesn't ever use a recipe. She has never ending knowledge about cooking or something. Maybe she just studies the recipe a lot right before I come in so she looks impressive. Regardless, we make good food. Here are a couple of the things we made in my cooking class.

This is Scaloppine and Zucca Gialla Alla Griglia. We also made ravioli ricotta e spinaci al pomodoro which was great. It was definitely a positive eating experience.


If you haven't ever had panna cotta, I will have to make this for you when I get home. It was divine.


This is how I've spent most of my weekend. It has been pouring rain for four days. Initially it was nice because it cooled things off, but now it's just outright cold and we are all a bit sick of the rain. At first we stayed inside thinking that the rain would stop soon, but apparently not. We finally just got over it and wandered around Siena anyways. My rain coat has been a life saver.


I realized recently that I didn't have a single picture with my roommate in it so we took one the other night in the piazza. This isn't the best picture, but it'll have to do for now. Her name is Anna Hawkins and she's a costume design major and BYU.