6 months, no posts

It's nothing personal Blogger, I just have a life now!

Actually, I just have a different life now. Since I don't work in front of a computer anymore, it's not easy to respond to emails immediately and they tend to pile up. Also, since I have Alberto to hang out with in the evening, I tend not to log so much screen time in the evening either. All this adds up to a bit of anxiety over the people I should be writing to every time I open gmail, facebook or skype. Having an online life is work! 

Alberto and I have been in our apartment for 6 months now and things are wonderful. We have crazy neighbors, mosquitos and other insects that seem to find their way into our home in increasing quantities now that the weather has turned cold, and old appliances that sometimes give us a scare, but all in all we love it here.

The only real thorn in our side is my immigration status. As it stands, my residency permit expires at the end of December and, like all things in Italy, there seems to be no clear procedure for how to renew my status. We've logged countless hours trying to figure things out, running around to the town hall, the police station, the local immigration office etc. But this being Italy, when we finally figured out who I needed to speak to, we also realized that this this would be no easy task. The immigration officer I would need to talk to is never in his office! His colleagues say "He's not here because there are very few people with your type of request (the conversion of a permit for study into a work permit)" that he doesn't come very often.

"Does he respect any sort of hours?" I asked. If I knew he only worked from 9-10am, for example, I could pin him down.

"Hard to say, he kind of comes and goes as he pleases." responded one of the colleague of the illusive official.

Nice.

"So what are my options?" The confusion on their faces was priceless.

"Well, you could come every day until you see him." Yes, because I have hours and hours of free time on my hands to camp out in front of the immigration office in the center of Milan. Couldn't they just tell me which cafe this guy is at having his coffee so I can corner him out of the office?

"or you could try to apply for an appointment online." Yes, yes yes... tell me how!!!

Well it turns out that the requests for appointments for my exact status are not excepted after June 30th.

Damn!

But wait! The immigration officials told me "that deadline doesn't count for Americans, Japanese and Swiss."

Great!

BUT....there is no online procedure for the Americans, Japanese and Swiss to follow.

Booo! It seems I'm back to the "stalk the immigration officer" option.


Given the fact that I work in most stalkable hours, Alberto and I decided to do what all good Italian beaurocracy savy individuals would do. We applied for a different type of appointment, just to have a way to meet this guy face to face. This is something that I would never do in America. Back home there is a clear and specific procedure for everything. You follow it, or you are not served. Here, beaurocracy is a jungle... and you need to know how to survive.They told us it usually takes 6 weeks before they give you an appointment. Sure, I can totally understand that seeing as how this man is so privy of appointments that he doesn't even bother showing up to the office. But I'll be a good sport. I'll give him six weeks to drink his coffee and smoke his cigarettes... because if you can't play the game in Italy, you will not survive.

Legal or Bust by January 1st! Let's hope for the best. 

back online, in more ways than one

This is the square just outside of our courtyard.
The door under that archway on the very left of the photo
 is the entrance to our courtyard.

 Alberto and I now have internet in the apartment! I'm also back on facebook by popular demand but against my better judgment. I'm a little rusty with this facebook stuff, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it again soon.

Things are going well here in Cinisello. We've been very, very busy getting settled and figuring out this new life. For the moment I'm playing part-time housewife. Alberto comes home for lunch every day so, like the good girlfriend that I am, I've always got lunch waiting for him when he gets home. I'm enjoying this role while it lasts, since I know it won't last long! 

I've started working already too. I'll be working part-time until September when I'll be able to get full time hours. Teaching English in Italy pays better than most jobs in this country, so we are excited for me to be able to pick up more hours in the fall so we can start saving money for things like trips home, trips to visit our friends all over Europe and a 2nd car. Speaking of a second car, I've been learning how to drive a stick shift since automatic cars are basically non existent here. Alberto takes me out every night and I'm starting to get the hang of it. I practiced getting going on a hill last night. I've still got some work to do, but I didn't kill the car nearly as often as I thought I would. We bought a bike too and we are working out our bike/car sharing schedule until we can get a 2nd car. 

Life is good and, as Alissa mentioned yesterday, I'm feeling very zen these days. It's a nice change of pace.

I'll try to post more regularly now that I'm back online.

The church in Piazza Gramsci

Piazza Gramsci

we can also get into our courtyard through a door
 at the end of this alleyway.

New apartment, new job, no internet

We are now fully moved in to our apartment and We LOVE it! We've met most of the courtyard neighbors now, all characters who make us feel as if we've stepped into a sitcom. I'll write more about them sometime soon. I've been playing housewife all week, cleaning and organizing and making our home super cute. Alberto comes home for lunch every day, so hanging out with him for an hour is a nice break in my day. The only little annoyance is that it might be 2 weeks before our DSL connection gets installed, so we are roughing it with internet for a bit. 

I've got lots of major job leads though, so things are looking good. I've got one interview tomorrow for a part-time gig. The interview seems to be more of a formality than anything else, since I was basically offered the job over the phone. The director of this school has one class that she needs covered, and promised that if it goes well, she'll have a lot more work for me in September. I've got a few more leads, so if I can piece together a couple of different part-time jobs to get me through the summer life will be grand. 

My annual springtime flu

I got back to Milan on Saturday after 4 super intensive weeks of teacher training. The good news is that I passed the class with flying colors and am now a certified English teacher. The bad news is that Monday night I came down with the flu. Like clockwork, every spring I seem to get sick.

Alberto and I move into the apartment this weekend. Iolanda has been hard at work getting it cleaned up and ready for us. I can't wait to move in, have my own space, and make it a little more me.

I've got a couple of leads on jobs here that I should know more about next week.

So, apart from this damn flu, all is good.

I forgot...

I forget sometimes how nice it is to have a musician in the house. My dad plays the guitar and I absolutely loved listening him play while I was growing up. That probably has something to do with why I can't get enough of Paula. If you've ever wondered what No Woman, No Cry sounds like in Portuguese, just click here.

I am alive

This course has been kicking my ass for the past two weeks. I'm sleep deprived and thinking of nothing but grammar these days, so I'm thankful for the moments of fun that we get to sneak in every now and then. My favorite moment of the day is usually in the evening when my Brazilian roommate Paula (I seem to love living with girls with some version of that name :-) whips out her guitar and breaks into song. It's the perfect pick-me-up after hours of teaching practice and lesson planning and grammar study.

They warned us...

On the first day of class, the director of the program told us "The first week is OK, the second week is challenging, the third week is extremely challenging and the fourth week is good". I can tell I've officially entered the challenging phase, and I'm terrified of what next week will bring. I'm spending hours every night on my lesson plans and grammar practice. I'm afraid my days of drinking beer in the afternoon sun are officially over. Thank god I was able to have an awesome weekend before "challenging" bore down on me. I'll post pictures whenever I catch up with my work.

Now the good news: teaching English is the most fun I've had in a long time. I absolutely love it so far!

This statue gets me every time

Perseus slays Medusa

My new crew

A lot of you have been asking about my classmates. Well, these are two that I've been spending quite a bit of time with lately...

Keri and Amanda

Keri (left) and Amanda (right) are both 23 years old. This is Keri's first time in Europe. I think she's an incredibly brave person, having decided to move over here completely alone without ever having traveled overseas before. I admire her so much for having the courage to indulge her curiosity. I love watching her smile and do her little happy dance as she takes in the sights. It reminds me of when I was younger and seeing everything here for the first time.

Amanda was in Florence once before, and she fell in love (in more ways than one), and she's back now to give love a shot. She and I seem to have a lot in common, and I like her a lot because she's just plain fun too!

My other two classmates are DeDe and Casey, but I don't have pictures of them yet. They are both great people too. I feel so lucky that I'm sharing this experience with these people, and that we've all been able to bond so quickly so that non of us feels alone. Plus, I have to admit that I'm having a blast hanging out with Americans again.

Afternoons in Florence

On Monday, I found out that I will be out of class at 3:30 pm at the latest. And sometimes, on very special occasions like today, I'll be done at 12:30 pm. I absolutely love that I'm living a student life again. I haven't had free afternoons since undergrad, and there really is no better place or time of the year to spend an afternoon than Florence in Springtime. I do have a bit of homework every night, and I've heard that things get pretty intense by the 3rd week of the course, but so far my classmates and I have been able to fit in quite a bit of sightseeing in the sun.

Yesterday, my classmate Amanda and I went for a walk down the Arno and then sat in the Piazza di Santa Croce and drank a beer as the sun slipped behind the buildings. Then, last night, I impressed two of my other classmates, Keri and DeDe (who is also my roommate) with my cooking skills. I made Risotta alla Milanese, and I'm happy to say that they both told me they loved it.

So far, so good in Florence... I love the class and the teachers, and my 4 classmates all seem to be great people. I hope the trend continues!

La chiesa di Santa Croce

love locks

By the way...

I'm in Florence now!

I had forgotten that rich, leathery perfume this city wears, but my senses quickly jogged the memory back as I walked down the street to what will be my new home for the next month. The city market, where they sell all sorts of things, including the typical leather purses and leather-bound notebooks and leather jackets and wallets and belts that are so characteristic of Florence, is literally just outside my door.

Here are some shots from my bedroom window, those white tarps are the ceilings from the market stalls:

To the left, the big building with the archways is the Mercato Centrale.
I can't wait to go check it out, I've never been inside on any of my previous visits to the city

 

To the right you can see the top of the Basilica di San Lorenzo

I was a bit tired today from the bachelorette party last night so I didn't do too much except take a short walk to find a grocery store. Then, just as I was preparing to go for an evening walk, it started raining and my plan was derailed. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good pictures later this week.

A Happy Coincidence

happier now than we ever were during our PhD days

I've known for a while that I would have to arrive in Florence on the 27th, so when one of my best friends, Flavia, told me a few weeks ago that she was having her bachelorette party on the 26th in her home town of Castelvetro near Modena, I figured I would just leave Milano a day early to fit in a 20 hour stop-over in Modena for the party. Best decision ever!

Now that Flavia lives in Germany, I don't get to see her as often as I would like, so it was great to spend an afternoon with her relaxing at the spa and then an evening eating some amazing food and then dancing the night away, and all in good company, of course. Flavia has some wonderful friends, and I am very proud to be among them.

Lambrusco and Lasagne

Flavia and her groom fell in love in Hawaii, hence the hula theme

 Flavia, we've come a long way since our days of crying in our office together :-) ti voglio tanto, tanto bene!

Au revoir Bruxelles

You'd think that I'd be good at goodbyes, having moved around so much in my life, but leaving behind a city, the friends I've made and a whole slew of memories from a place where I've had all sorts of experiences is never easy. The only thing that keeps me from crying over my departure is the fact that I've learned that no goodbye, save for death perhaps, has to ever be final, and life can work out in incredible ways to keep you close to those that you want to remain close to, even if the physical distance may be far.




The past week has been full of goodbyes and last visits. While Alberto and Claudio were here last weekend we paid a lot of last visits to our favorite night spots in Brussels. We bought drinks for the last time at Booze and Blues from the seemingly 60-year-old barman who can't add well and always undercharges you for your order and serves you with an unintelligible grunt as you pray that the ashes from the lit cigarette that dangles precariously from his mouth don't fall in your beer. We also spent some time at Goupil Le Fol, the place where the crazy Tunisian owner, who's bar is really just some old grandpa's house filled to the brim with curiosities like stuffed foxes and old vinyl records, once held me hostage and force-fed me his home-made organic cognac for 30 minutes while Alberto ran around the city looking for a cash machine that worked at 2am. And so our weekend went... revisiting our favorite drinking spots and enjoying the lively Brussels night life. The weather even cooperated. It was perfect.

Before that though, my wonderful colleagues planned a going-away dinner for me last Thursday at our favorite restaurant in Brussels. I can't even begin to describe how much I'm going to miss having these people, including those who left the lab before me, as part of my daily life. Not only are they all great scientists, they are also amazing people, many of whom have become dear friends, and I consider myself lucky to have met each of them. It's not always so common to be able to work with people that you really get along with. We've traveled together and had fun together and experienced frustrations together. We've fought and gossiped and been the much needed lunch-break company for one another. The people in the lab feel more like family to me than colleagues and I'm going to miss them, and the atmosphere we created, a lot. I'm really going to miss Goedele and her encyclopedic knowledge about... well, everything, and our amusing lunch-time chatter. And I'm going to miss Adriano, who feels like the cool and somewhat crazy kid brother you always wished you had.

But after the fare-well dinner, I still had goodbyes to say.

Bruno and I had one last goodbye drink on Wednesday. He's been a superb example of a dedicated, passionate scientist of the highest integrity, and I feel honored that I was able to work with him and absorb even a fraction of his knowledge.

My friend Delphine and I had a goodbye dinner on Wednesday evening as well. She's been a great source of non-academia related friendship for me. I met her through Meike, and I must say, Delphine is an awesome sport about taking my and Meike's bitching about all of the frustrating things in Belgium! But more than that, I've loved our conversations about life in general, about what's important in life, and how people find a balance, as well as our conversations about culture and how our different backgrounds have shaped us and how we can learn and grow from other cultures we've experienced. I love contemplating these things, and there's no better partner for contemplation than Delphine.

And tonight, well tonight will be the hardest goodbye yet with the three girls who have become like sisters to me here in Brussels: Ola, Esther and Sanni.

Ola and I met in French class a few months after I moved to Brussels and it just happens that she's an academic too... a real scientist... a biologist. She's been an amazing friend, the kind that accompanies you to not-so-pleasant hospital visits, and enjoys it because she's a biologist! And with her dry humor and call-it-like-it-is approach to life, she's an awesome reality check, not to mention a source of constant entertainment.

Esther and I became close about a year and a half ago when she was going through a rough patch. I was lucky enough to meet her mother too, la mamma Cubana! Esther has taught me a lot about Cuba, a place that is usually either completely revered or vilified on the international front, depending on which country's opinion you want to consider, and a place that I had no real previous knowledge of. She's also taught me a lot about love and life from a different cultural perspective, and one that will probably help prepare me for life in Italy!

And finally, Sanni. Sanni is an amazing woman with whom I wish I had more time to spend. I met her too recently, but she's one of those people with whom I was able to fall comfortably and almost immediately into a deep friendship. I consider myself extremely lucky that she was around when I had some tough decisions to make this year. She's the type of person with whom you can laugh one second and cry the next and know that you will never be judged.

Of course, I can't not mention Meike. She left Belgium a few months before me so it's not officially a goodbye but my own departure makes me feel that I'm leaving behind part of our relationship, and she was probably the most important person for me here. We met in the lab, and somehow became instant friends...it's weird how these things work sometimes. My drinking partner, my Belgian beer and fry and waffle buddy, my hair stylist and my best friend in this country, she's the person that I could talk to about anything and everything.  For me, my time in Belgium will always bring back memories of Meike and I, whether it be singing Bon Jovi songs at the top of our lungs at 3am on the empty streets of the city, preparing an overambitious Thanksgiving dinner, or just watching bad American TV as we prepare for a night out. Belgium hasn't been the same for me since she left.

Of course, there are many, many other friends and acquaintances and colleagues and classmates and teachers who have made my stay in Belgium an unforgettable experience. So to each and every one, I choose to say an Italian "arrivederci" or a French "au revoir" which both translate to "until we meet again", rather than goodbye, because I truly hope we will meet again many times.

The move has begun!

All of my worldly possessions fit in a compact car, and they are currently on their way out of Brussels. Alberto and Claudio drove up from Milan this weekend and they left this morning with a car loaded full of my stuff (with room to spare for a few bags of Paola's things as well). I'd say that having only a car-full of material things is a pretty good accomplishment for a 30-year-old woman. We all know how easy it can be to accumulate unnecessary junk. Alberto, on the other hand, seemed to think that with all my stuff there won't be room in our apartment for anything of his! Really? I don't think I know many 30 year olds who have less stuff than me, although I probably could get rid of a couple of those pairs of shoes that I never wear...

Only a few more days before I depart as well. I'm going to really try to enjoy Brussels while I'm still here.

Did you know?

Campari fountain in Brunate, Italy.
It would be cool if Campari flowed from the taps,
but alas, it's just water.

On one of our first dates, Alberto mentioned to me that the office he works in is just down the street from the Campari corporate offices in Sesto San Giovanni, a town on the northern edge of Milan. I'm not sure how this came up in conversation. My memory often fails me for details like this, but there were probably cardboard Campari coasters sitting under our beers, or those small cocktail napkins with the Campari logo on them on our table. These things aren't so uncommon in Italy.

On one of our subsequent dates, similar circumstantial settings prompted Alberto to again mention that the Campari headquarters were near his office. Maybe he forgot he had already told me. Perhaps he was nervous and grasping to make small talk with this foreign girl that he somehow ended up taking out for drinks on Saturday nights. I probably nodded politely and smiled. I probably didn't say something along the lines of "why yes, I believe you have mentioned that" until the third or fourth time he told me, and my response didn't border on something like "dude, you've told me that about 100 times already!" until we'd been dating over 6 months. I'm still not exactly sure when he picked up on the fact that he had already made this point clear and it became a joke to him, telling me again and again, just to see my reaction. He's really good at playing jokes and he often gets people to believe even the most absurd fictitious stories he's telling. So when I finally realized the joke was on me, Campari became our joke, and has been ever since. Now I can't see anything with the Campari logo without a bemused smile crossing my face. And truth be told, Campari makes a damn good drink.

Publish Post

Food and Neuroscience, two passions collide

By now, I’ve made my love of food clear on here. But making delicious things to enjoy with my friends isn’t the only reason why I’m interested in food.

Lately, I’ve become increasingly interested in the nutritional content of certain foods, and I think it’s something that I’m going to start blogging about from time to time, even if Alissa may be the only one who cares:-). I’m really interested, or perhaps concerned would be a better word, in how our modern diet (especially the diet of an average American) is so off-balance with respect to our nutritional needs, and I find it intriguing that our diets have evolved to this state despite the fact that our ancestors frequently relied on foods that were nothing short of nutritional powerhouses. I’ll write more about the interaction of my anthropological and nutrition interests another time, but today there is something else that my nerdy self finds super cool that I would like to share.

Given my background in cognitive neuroscience, it should be no surprise that I’m fascinated by how certain properties of foods can affect our neurological health. Heavily in the spotlight lately are Omega 3 fatty acids. Found perhaps most commonly in salmon, walnuts and flax seeds, these acids have been known for some time to be good for our cardiovascular health, but recently their importance has been implicated for our mental health as well.

This past weekend I happened across this article.  

Basically, Dr. Hibbeln believes that the excessive levels of Omega 6s (found in processed foods made from soybeans and corn and their oils and safflower oil, as well as in the meat from animals fed soy and corn based diets) in comparison to the low levels of Omega 3s in the modern western diet could be the cause of some of our most debilitating psychological afflictions.

Although it seems that Dr. Hibbeln has some strong beliefs that may or may not turn out to be fully backed by the data, I think that he is spot on in getting research moving in this direction. I really believe that we need to be more aware of how the things that we put in our body are influencing our brain because, let’s face it, our brain controls everything in our lives.

I think this also begs the obvious question from somebody who’s been doing developmental cognitive neuroscience research for so long. How does exposure to certain nutritional properties, at certain stages of development, influence our long-term neurological health? Are there sensitive periods during development in which the consumption of certain properties may offer long-lasting neurological protection?

More specifically, could early exposure to a healthy balance of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids, for example, provide long-term protection against mental illness, such as depression, addiction or even dementia? If so, wouldn't you like to know?

On a more societal level, arguments like these have even broader reaching implications. How does a person living in Minnesota, for example, who is devoted to living a “green” lifestyle, incorporate enough Omega 3s into their diet to balance their intake of Omega 6s?

First, Salmon is far from indigenous to the Great Plains and  importing goods from far away is known to produce those huge carbon footprints that people are ashamed of these days.

Salmon farms are also notoriously non-environmentally friendly. Read this if you have your doubts. 

So are Midwesterners, or anybody else living far from a natural wild salmon habitat for that matter, doomed to make Sophie’s choice?  Do you want dementia and depression and cardiovascular problems or do you want to destroy the world that your grandchildren have to live in? And even if you don’t care about the world, getting Omega 3s into your diet is expensive, be it from salmon or other sources, and we all know how tight money is for the average American lately.

More personally, last night, as Paola and I gorged ourselves on salmon and tuna rolls from our favorite sushi shop, we wondered how a gluten-intolerant person like herself, whose bread and pasta are corn based, could ever take in enough Omega 3s to overcome her obvious Omega 6 imbalance. We were trying, but the fact is that Omega 6s are everywhere, and we can’t afford sushi every night.

I really believe that these are going to be big questions in our immediate future. It's going to be exciting to see where science takes us, and how public policy responds.

Risotto - the ultimate comfort food

Creamy, gooey, and gluten-free, it doesn't get much better than Risotto. 

My love affair with Risotto started almost immediately upon moving to Italy. My PhD adviser often invited me to dinner, and she often prepared the same dish... Risotto alla Milanese, which is Risotto with safron. I learned by watching her, and I've made it one of my go-to dishes.

The great thing about it though, is that you can dress it up any way you want. A few months ago a tried a new take on risotto and my friend and most frequent taste-tester, Ola, has told me that it's her absolute favorite dish that I make.

So when Ola needed some comforting this weekend, I knew exactly what to make her for dinner!

pay no attention to my photography skills, it tastes much better than it looks!

Risotto with sausage, tomato and spinach

1 medium white onion
a couple tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil  (or butter if you want the added richness)
about 300 grams of any kind of ground meat you want (I use sausage)
Risotto - I just eyeball it (I do that with a lot of things actually) but it's probably about 3 cups of rice that I use
some white wine
1 can chicken (or vegetable) broth
one can diced tomatoes
a cup or so of shredded parmigiano
2-3 big handfuls of fresh spinach
I also add some hot pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Combine chicken broth and diced tomatoes in a saucepan and heat until simmering.
Saute the onion in the oil or butter about 5 minutes or until the onion is translucent in a nonstick pan.
Add the rice.
Add a bit of wine.
Note: I don't really know how much wine, I don't completely cover the rice, but I add enough to cover the entire bottom of the pan. But heres a confession, I often don't have white wine at home, so I use red, and when I don't have red wine at home, I use beer. It sounds weird to cook with beer, but I actually love the taste that it gives the rice. However, beer will make this dish not safe for somebody with a gluten intolerance!

When the wine cooks off, start to add the chicken broth/tomato mixture one ladle at a time (once every 2-3 minutes or when you notice that the previous ladle of liquid has been completely absorbed). It's very important to stir the rice frequently while it cooks. It's also important to not add all the liquid at the same time. The starch needs to be coaxed out of the rice slowly to get the creamy texture that makes risotto so great.

I add the hot pepper flakes sometime after I start adding the tomato/broth mix.

When the rice is almost finished cooking (probably about 20-25 minutes into the process, but I always taste a grain to decide if it's ready), add the Parmesan and spinach. I mix it all in and then let it sit for a couple of minutes on low heat to let the spinach cook. Then I give it one more stir, and I add some salt and pepper to taste.

Done. A warm, gooey, creamy, bowl of heaven!

Home sweet home

Could my new apartment be any more Italian? Alberto and I will have Mary and baby Jesus greeting us when we get home every day...not something you typically see in Minnesota.

Alberto went and took some pictures of our new place for me this weekend. I'm excited, it looks like it will be the perfect little starter apartment for us. Our landlady is a friend of a friend of Alberto's mom. She just happened to have this little gem of a place sitting around, all closed up and un-lived in. Money isn't an issue for her, so our rent is dirt cheap.The location is perfect for us. And, what I'm happiest about... tons of counter space in the kitchen! I can't wait to move in!

GLUTEN-FREE CHOCOLATE-ALMOND CUPCAKES

Today we had a strike day! A strike day in Europe is the equivalent of a snow day in Minnesota. Since all of the public transportation operators were striking (and this happens at least once every 2-3 months) Paola and I were forced to "work from home" today.

Of course, when we work form home we obviously work so quickly and efficiently that we have tons of time to spare. And what better way to kill that extra time than making a batch of cupcakes?

These turned out better than I ever could have expected. Most gluten-free cakes turn out a bit too dense for my taste. I think it's because people often try to just substitute gluten-free flour for regular flour, but you can't really do that due to the differences in the chemical composition of the two types of flour. Since gluten is a type of protein, I've heard that you need to make sure to add more protein to the mix when you use a gluten-free flour blend (e.g. you need to add a bit more milk, butter, or egg). So, I'm always a bit skeptical, being unsure as to whether each gluten-free recipe has made the adequate adjustments. But, I think Paola and got it right here. These were amazing... fluffy and light and perfect. Well, perfect except for a slight deformation. The came out cone-headed! I think we over-filled the cups and I remember my mom telling me when I was a kid that if you over-stir muffin batter, they will come out like this. Luckily, the taste and texture was so good that our cone-headed cupcakes were just endearing, rather than monstrously disfigured.

We contemplated frosting them, but then we got lazy and decided against it. Besides, we ended up liking their cone-heads too much to cover them up!



GLUTEN-FREE CHOCOLATE-ALMOND CUPCAKES

250 grams gluten-free flour
80 grams butter
5 tablespoons pure cocoa powder
2 eggs (room temp)
150 grams sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
150 milliliters milk
2 tsp vanilla
50 grams of slivered almonds


Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
Cream butter and sugar together, then add the eggs one at a time and blend thoroughly. 
Add vanilla.
In another bowl, stir together dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt).


To the butter mix, alternately mix in dry ingredients, milk, then dry ingredients, etc.
Mix in almond slivers last.
Fill 1 dozen cupcake cups and bake for 18-22 minutes or until tops are just dry on top.

Adventures in the kitchen

Before I moved to Europe, I didn't cook. Period. Sure, I would throw an occasional Hot Pocket in the toaster oven, or fix myself a box of mac and cheese, but like most of my twenty-something college-attending peers, I relied heavily on take-out and bar food and frequent visits to my favorite Mexican restaurants. Embarrassingly, fast food was even a regular staple in my diet. When I think back to my old eating habits, it's no wonder that I was a bit heavier back then. If I would have kept that up I would have been fast-tracking myself for a season on The Biggest Loser (which I've become completely addicted to watching, by the way).

But luckily, moving to Italy saved me from a life of over-processed gluttony. It just wasn't possible anymore. First, I had to live on a grad student stipend of about 200 Euros a week, and eating out is expensive in any country. Second, Take-out isn't really part of the Italian culture. Third, I lived with a Sicilian... need I say more?

So, slowly but surely, I began to cook. At first Silvia, my Sicilian roommate, would do all the cooking and I would stand by, peering over her shoulder in awe. But as I grew more confident, I would make my own attempts, and things didn't turn out so bad. In fact, I realized that I really liked to cook.

Then, when I met Alberto, I was horrified to cook for him. He was Italian, with an Italian mother. How could anything I ever make measure up? But you know what... he actually loved what I made him... well, most of it. And I realized that cooking for other people is a really rewarding experience.

Since I've been living in Belgium, I've taken my kitchen skills to new levels. I scour cooking/baking blogs like they hold the secret to life, and I'm always inviting friends over to taste-test my new creations. Amazingly, these friends keep coming back for more, so I must be doing something right! Recently though, I've been called to a new challenge. My roommate Paola, who moved in with me in September, has a severe gluten intolerance, and she hates cooking. I take pity on the girl as I watch her eat tuna and corn straight from the can, and I just can't resist making her something warm to eat! Together, we've explored every kind of risotto possible, and her dietary restrictions have pushed  me to expand my repertoire to include things such as quinoa and chickpeas, things that I had never really thought about before, but that I've come to love. I think she's even starting to like cooking a bit, at least when we do it together.

But here's my problem. I make these great things, and I don't write down the recipe, and the next time I make them I have to look up the recipe again and try to remember what substitutions I made. I also have to reconvert all of the measurements to grams (I don't have American measuring cups or spoons here). Alissa, one of my best friends, has convinced me that it would be a good idea to blog my recipes, as a way to have an easily searchable index, and to share the goodness with anybody else who may be interested.  So, I'm going to give it a try. Next post, Buonissimi gluten-free chocolate cupcakes. Yum!

Why the blog name change?

Most Italians I've met can't point to Minnesota on a map, but every single one of them, upon hearing where I come from, seems to light up with recognition. "Min-nay-zoe-tah" they say, "like Brenda and Brandon!" of Beverly Hills 90210 fame, of course. Every time they remind me that B and B moved to California from Minnesota, I ask if they also know that Bob Dylan was from Minnesota. They never do. At least we know that America is not the only TV obsessed nation.

My visa was approved!

I often forget how not normal my life actually is. Working in a University in Europe, it’s easy to think that everybody moves around to different countries, learns new languages and deals with immigration hassles on a somewhat regular basis. After all, most of my current colleagues and many of my friends are living immigrant lives, just like me. Being in the capital of Europe, with the Parliament, where hundreds of people from every European nation work every day, literally right in front of my living room window, probably only enables my “my x-pat life is totally normal” perspective. But every once in a while something throws a reality check my way, and I realize that I’m not really all that normal after all. This week’s reality check: Only 30% of Americans have a passport.

Let’s put things in perspective.

If less than 1 in 3 Americans actually have a passport, and an estimated 50% of those were only obtained after 2007 when a passport became necessary for travel to Canada and Mexico, that means that less than 15% of Americans are traveling to another continent. And of the people who travel to Europe, I would assume that most only come here for a vacation. Then I begin to wonder how many Americans are actually living, long-term, over here, and I’m not talking about just a semester or a year abroad for school. If I think about it that way, I realize that although I consider myself nothing but American, I’m definitely not living a typical American life.

In Brussels it’s easy to not feel foreign. Everybody here is foreign. Going back to Italy is going to throw me back into the role of the crazy foreign girl. I always liked that role. Things are about to get fun again!

Revise; Resubmit

Way back in 2004 I picked up and moved from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Milan, Italy. I went there because I was young, not to mention naive, and I wanted to see the world and challenge myself to learn a new language and explore a different culture. Officially however, I was going there to study and get my PhD. Of course, there was nothing stopping me from pursuing that goal in the US, but after living in the dead center of a continent for so long, immersed in a vast expanse of flat prairies, miles and miles from any ocean or mountain range, I was dying to get away, and the farther, the better.

A person learns a lot of things on their way to earn a PhD. For example, you learn that you can spend hours planning and analyzing and writing up your work for publication, thinking that you've overlooked nothing, only to have a group of anonymous reviewers tell you (in a best-case scenario) to reanalyze your results in a different way and to rework your conclusions acknowledging a different theoretical approach. And sometimes different reviewers will want such entirely different things from you, that the only thing you can do is strip your work back to the basics, focus on the strengths, and revise from there before resubmitting your manuscript for a second round of scrutiny.

A few months ago, I felt like I had been dealt a revise; resubmit recommendation with my life. I planned and I analyzed and I worked hard, but sometimes life, like our data, doesn't turn out the way we hypothesized. And when that happens, everybody seems to have a reviewer's opinion, telling you to take this and that and your grandmother's dog into consideration before you make your next plans. In the end though, there are no editors or reviewers who need to be happy with my life... there's just me. So, I did what I've learned is best in these situations. I stripped things down to the basics by asking a few simple questions. What are my strengths and what makes me happy? What are my weaknesses and what causes me unnecessary anxiety? On which parts of my life do I want to focus? What things could I gladly do without in my life and what do I need to keep? What skills have I acquired to help me focus on the good things and eliminate or improve the negative aspects of my life?

And so, after three years of living and working in Belgium, and seven years and one month after receiving my first immigration stamp, I'm headed back to Italy. Older and wiser now than ever, this time around I'm determined to make things work. Knowing Italy as well as I do, I'm prepared for the fact that this move definitely won't come without a few challenges. But no risk worth taking ever does, right?

I know this is just the first of many revisions in my life. I've been known to be a critical reviewer, so I'm sure I'll have lots of changes to make as I proceed, but as long as I keep the basics in mind, I'm confident I can turn my life into something I'll be happy submitting, to myself of course, for another round of reviews.