Cooking in Orvieto

When I discovered we were going to Italy, I had less than a week to make arrangements.  It was a little crazy.  Among a million little things, I also purchased my tickets, found my passport, made menus for the kids (including dairy free/gluten free options for Eva), shopped for groceries for those menus, made lists of the kids' important information (e.g. doctor's office, insurance information, poison control, their regular routine, etc.), cleaned my house, arranged for my ride to the airport, tried to brush up on my basic italian, packed, and rented an iPhone.  I also tried to think about what I wanted to see and do in Orvieto.  I decided to google "cooking classes in Orvieto."  I found out about an italian chef named Velia de Angelis who taught private cooking lessons in her family villa in Monterubiaglio. I sent her an e-mail and arranged a private all-day cooking lesson.

Our original menu included zucchini flowers fried in a vanilla batter and filled with cheese; fresh parmesan eggplant roll with cherry tomatoes, dried ricotta, and fresh basil; ciabatta bread; umbrian flatbread stuffed with spinach, onions, and olives; fresh tortellini or gnocchi if the tortellini was too time consuming; a dried pasta; chicken thighs filled with bacon and green apples; and either a chocolate parfait with passion fruit or a lemon tiramisu for dessert. Sounds mouthwatering, right?  We were also supposed to visit the olive oil mill Cecci. The Umbrian region is famous for black truffles and for olive oil, so I let her know that I wanted to learn how to select a good olive oil, and I wanted to taste really good truffles.

We arranged for the lesson on Friday.  Her sister and brother-in-law picked me up in Orvieto and drove me the 15 or so minutes to Monterubiaglio.  The family villa was a bit of a mess when we arrived. It turned out that Velia and her husband had just moved from their apartment in Orvieto to the family villa to save some money.  They were still getting settled in. She slept in that morning, and had just woken up when we arrived.  She said she woke up in a panic because she wasn't prepared for my visit.  She didn't have all of the ingredients we needed, and hadn't been able to get the internet to look up what we agreed to make together.  We also weren't able to go to the olive oil mill.  Needless to say, I was a bit bummed.  To make up for it, she did invite me to her champagne bar in Orvieto to cook the zuchinni flowers in the vanilla batter.  I appreciated that extra effort on her part.

Despite the fact that she didn't fully deliver what she promised, she did give me a full day of cooking, a cute little apron, 50 pages of recipes, a trip to her family villa (which really was quaintly set in the country), and some good cooking tips.  Probably the best was learning how to make, roll out, cut, and cook tagliatelle.  I also learned that I love the flavor combination of chocolate and figs. 

We made eggplant rolls with cherry tomatoes, dried ricotta, and arugula; rolls stuffed with dried ricotta, red onions, and green olives; rolls with cherry tomatoes and olive oil; a loaf of bread with toasted almonds rolled into it; fresh tagliatelle in a tomato and arugula sauce; pasta carbonara with artichoke hearts; chicken thighs with bacon and arugula; mini crostate with figs and chocolate, and a large plum preserve crostata.   I was very busy cooking, so didn't get to take many pictures.  I did, however, get to snap a few when things were prepared. 

The mini fig and chocolate crostata.

The three types of rolls we made.

The eggplant rolls with cherry tomatoes, ricotta, and arugula.

The pasta carbonara with artichoke hearts.

The fresh tagliatelle (doesn't it look so beautiful?)

Velia tossing the tomato sauce we made into the tagliatelle.

Some of my tagliatelle on the plate with one of the stuffed rolls with green olives, red onions, and ricotta.

The chicken thighs with bacon and arugula on a bed of lettuce.



Ciao from Italia

On May 26th I was lounging around in my jammies and checking e-mail.  I spotted an e-mail from one of Chris's acquaintances entitled "Ciao from Italia."  I opened it and read "This may be the strangest question, but what are you doing for the next three weeks? . . . . Want to come to Italy and sing Giovanni?"  WHAT?!!   I ran into the family room and handed my laptop to Chris.  I said, "Is he kidding, or is this real?"  Sure enough it was real.  Less than a week later Chris had a new passport, round-trip tickets to Rome, and a gig singing Don Giovanni in Orvieto, Italy.  A few days later, I joined him in Orvieto.  It was wonderful!  Many thanks to my sister, her husband, my parents, and my neighbor who helped take care of our children and our home so Chris and I could share this adventure.

I have hundreds of pictures and a few fun stories to share, so you can look forward to some upcoming blogposts on our trip to Italy.  Here's a quick sneak peak of Orvieto.  I took this in the countryside outside of the city.  Orvieto is the city in the distance, set atop the hill.

Family Pictures

It's been two years since we last blogged?!  Well, since a former student of mine and a colleague of mine did some research on how blogging eases the transition to parenthood for new moms, I decided I ought to try blogging again--not because I'm a new mom (Christopher's almost 4!), but because it's linked with a host of great benefits including closer connections with friends and family, increased feelings of social support, decreased depression, and better marital satisfaction.  You can read about it at this DOI.  (I can't get the link to work, so google this DOI and you'll find it: DOI 10.1007/s10995-011-0918-2)

I suppose I'll start with some new family pictures so those who are far away can remember what we look like.  We rarely get family photos taken.  I'm not sure why they end up at the bottom of our priority list--our kids are adorable! Our wonderful neighbor, Nickell Blair, is a fabulous photographer. Here's the link to her website: http://nickellphotography.blogspot.com/.

She took some great pictures of us, and I wanted to share them with you all.  I updated our profile picture with one of my favorite family photos, but here is another.

Here's my favorite picture of Christopher.  Didn't I say our kids are adorable?

Here is a great photo of Eva.  She was feeling sad during the whole photo shoot, but she managed to muster this genuine smile for one great shot.  When she smiles, she radiates joy, doesn't she?

 Here is a beautiful photo of Elena.  It was hard to choose which to share because every picture of her looked glorious.  She is so photogenic, just like her dad.

Rosie and Cupcake

The past two weeks included some ups and downs for our family. We acquired a goldfish named Rosie, but she died in a little over 24 hours after moving to our house. We were stunned and saddened by the loss. I had to wake Chris up to decide what we should do. We decided to wake Elena up and ask her if she wanted us to take care of Rosie's body, or if she wanted a chance to say one last goodbye. She wanted one last goodbye. Then Daddy did the honors of flushing little Rosie down the toilet. I had to go give a lecture on statistics, so Chris, Elena, Eva, and Christopher all got in the car and went on a search for a new Holmes Family goldfish. Elena settled on a beautiful goldfish with a bright orangish-red upper-half, and a white lower-half. She originally named her "Daisy" but has now settled on the name "Cupcake." We're happy to report that Cupcake is still alive and well after 3 days of living with us (now 10 since I wrote this last week, but didn't get to post it until today!).

Aside from the goldfish, we're all just beginning our summer vacations (except I'm not really supposed to begin until my students take their final on June 16th). Part of summer break has included cheerleading camp at Springville High School for Elena and Eva. This Wednesday they will perform in the Cheer Spectacular at the high school. Then, on Saturday, they will get to ride in the Art City Days parade.

Summer break also introduces the commencement of many family get-togethers. Rich and Maren (Chris's brother and sister-in-law) came to town for a visit this week. We enjoyed dinner with them three times this week. It was nice to learn a little bit more about their career plans, and their lives in Trinidad. I was sad to see them go. We also enjoyed a Kramer family Memorial Day barbecue, and an extended Kramer family get together for my cousin Kaitlyn's baptism. I have thoroughly enjoyed so many wonderful opportunities to be with my family these past few weeks. When I sat down in the chapel for the baptism yesterday, I was overcome with deep gratitude for families. It is wonderful to be connected to and supported by so many people in my life.

Eva would like me to tell you that I love her. And it is true. I love her very much. This week, Eva says she "goed to primary, and goed to church, and it was so fun." She also wants you all to know that she likes my shirt and my earrings. Can you tell that she is in a wonderful mood right now?

Christopher is adding a few words to his repertoire. He now says "taco, kitty, choo choo, bowl, and here-you-go." This week he kept saying "lellow" and pointing to one of our kitchen cupboards. I finally realized that he wanted me to get out the strawberry quick syrup which happens to be in a yellow bottle. I don't know if he always recognizes the color yellow, but I was impressed. He also did well in nursery today.

I (Elena) have been thinking about auditioning for the Springville community talent festival, but I want my friend to do it with me and she gets kind of stage fright, her name is Sophia. And I will probaly perform the song "Too Cool" from Camp Rock. And I have been visiting my aunt Maren and my uncle Rich a lot because they came to town.

I (Chris) manage to always have some singing project in the works, which is nice because it is nice to put something on its feet instead of just singing for the walls of our music room. Last night was the Art City Days Talent Festival. I sang the "Toreador Song" from Bizet's Carmen and Clara Hurtado Lee joined me for a couple of duets, "People Will Say We're in Love" and "One Hand, One Heart." It was also an opportunity for me to give a shout for the Utah Lyric Opera and the major events we have planned this year.

Another Weekly Update

It's time for another Holmes update. Since no blog is complete without a photo, we've opted for this choice photo from the Holmes family archives :)

This past week, I (Erin) attended the Mormon Scholars in the Humanities conference (http://www.mormonscholars.org/sections/news/files/MSH%20Program%202010%20final.pdf) in Claremont, CA. I went to hear my dad speak on "Marriage and Redemption." I haven't stopped thinking about his ideas since he delivered his paper on Saturday. I look forward to reading the essay when he completes it. The whole conference theme was about families. It was interesting to hear how scholars from different disciplines than my own think about and write about "family."

After the conference, my dad took me to the Norton Simon Museum (here's a link: http://www.nortonsimon.org/collections). It was fantastic! I forget how easily you can get lost in art. We thought we were moving quickly, and ended up spending almost 3 hours!

After the museum closed, we drove to Bakersfield to join my mom, Uncle Doug, Aunt Gayle, cousin Andrew and his wife Yanna. I hadn't been to Bakersfield in 7 years. It was wonderful to be there again. I also appreciated the opportunity to visit with my mom and my dad in the car to and from CA. We talked the whole way there and the whole way back. I missed my family in Springville, but the trip to CA was very rejuvenating for me.

It is Elena speaking! I have been playing with my friend Sophia all week, and I Elena Holmes am getting a goldfish tomorrow! My dad has been telling me..................... I can NOT HAVE A DOG!
but................ thanks to school I will get a goldfish! Now my dad will be typing.

We are very excited to have Erin back home after her extended weekend trip. This, because, not only do we love having her around, but because, we appreciate the contributions to family work she makes. Our hearts go out to all the single parents when one of us goes out of town.

Eva: I want to say, I love you daddy. I love you Crittefer. I love mommy. I love Elena. Preschool is a little bit fun because it has toys, a play house, and we like to do crafts, and we like to do tracing, and we like to do toys, centers, draw, and that's the rest. And they have newspapers and magazines, and lion, and animals in their bathrooms (small ones), and elephants in their next bathroom. That's all. In the front they have a door. In the back... They have chipmunks on a sticker on a really big tree...it's wall paper...Alvin and the Chipmunks. That's all.

This week Christopher has learned to be aggressive. Unfortunately, he is pinching, pulling hair, and biting. He is also practicing many iterations on the word "No." Thus, we are working hard to practice "soft touches" at our house. On a happier note, we hired someone to build a railing on our back porch so Christopher can now safely move back and forth between the backyard and the kitchen (too bad it SNOWED in Provo today!). We are also in the process of finishing a bathroom in our basement, and sheetrocking the rest of the unfinished rooms downstairs. We'll take some photos when it's all done.

Our Weekly Blog

Holmes Family January 2010

My sister Megan and her family recently started writing a family update on their blog each week. We love reading it, and we have decided that we would like to do the same thing. We hope this new routien will help us stay better connected with all of our friends and family.

We'll begin this week with Eva. Eva would like to post some pictures of our family. This is what Eva says about this picture: "It's Christmas and Daddy is giving a blessing to Christopher." Then she pointed to me and said, "Who's that?" It's nice to know my children know who I am ;)

Here is a photo of Eva with Santa at our Ward Christmas party in 2009. Eva says about this photo, "I want walkie talkies." I think she's reminding me that one of the things she told Santa that day was that she wanted some walkie talkies for Christmas. Santa will have to remember that for next year. . . Here is the last picture Eva wants to share today. "There is Christopher all by himself. Look, there's your big foot!" Eva is always quite observant. I forgot I took this picture, so I'm glad Eva saw it in our picture file. One Saturday afternoon, we were all quite busy focusing on lots of things that needed to get done. Somewhere in the middle of the day Chris and I lost track of Christopher. I went hunting for him and found him fast asleep on the bathroom rug, with heaps of bathroom objects in a circle around him. We usually keep this door shut since he LOVES to empty out all of the drawers. I guess that day, we forgot to shut the door.

Now, it's Elena's turn. She'll be typing on her own: I would like to share a picture of my most recent birthday cake, if you think it's amazing then just tell my mom she's the one who made it.

Okay, so here's a little about my week. I had my dance recital on Saturday (May 15). And here is some things to come. I am starting cheerleading in June and I'm also having my birthday. This is a picture of some pretty flowers that I want you to see.

Pretty huh? and this is a tinkerbell poster. And i also had a sleepover on Friday(may14) with my friend Sierra. And school is almost out so i am excited. Bye bye here is my mom she will be typing on her own.

My week started off with a wonderful Mother's Day. Aside from the great gift of Chris being home after a long 6 week absence, I think my best Mother's Day gift was Elena getting me a bouquet of my favorite flowers: white lilies. I appreciated the extra thought she put into choosing my gift. My second best Mother's Day gift was sharing a brunch with Karin and Margie on Saturday. It was wonderful to spend some time with each other before Karin and her family moved.

This week I helped two students with their theses, wrote revisions of a paper I hope to see published soon, and taught my research methods students about research design (experimental and correlational). In my methods class, we had our big Coke/Pepsi (caffeine free of course) challenge, where I use an old Coke/Pepsi rivalry to teach students about matched random assignment to groups, and counterbalancing in experimental design.

Yesterday Elena performed beautifully in her dance recital. Miss Mary Linda, Elena's teacher, invited one parent to dance with each girl. Chris got to dance with Elena. If we can find a way to post a video of the dance, we will.

Last night Chris and I were also able to see Utah Opera's production of Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, two one act operas by Puccini. We had a nice time together, and it was also nice to have Chris's vocal coach/accompanist Larry along with us.

Some Adorable Pictures

These photos were taken by a student of mine last August. We were unable to upload the pictures from the CD on our home computer (it's just a temperamental old computer) but now that I have internet access on my laptop, we can post these pictures!

ELENA

EVA

CHRISTOPHER