Archive for the ‘life in calabria’ Category
a few stolen moments
I’ve been away from the blogosphere for an entire week, and believe me, it’s not by choice. Even now, I am typing from a work computer where I’m supposed to be doing some translation, but, well, there was a working Internet connection, and that’s all the window I needed.
Let me assure everyone that I am fine, P is fine, Luna is fine–the only thing that’s not fine is our damn phoneline (and accordingly, my Internet connection), which has been down since last Friday. It’s been rough, but I’ve learned several things through the experience, and I’m going to do a Friday Five, taking a page out of Stefanie‘s book.
You can’t imagine how long it just took me to link to Stefanie on this ancient computer that won’t even accept my memory stick, which would’ve meant that I could’ve just copied and pasted what I had already written last night.
Five Things I’ve Learned in a Week Without the Internet
1. I hate Telecom (the phone company). Yeah, I knew that one, but now I hate them even more. Most of my town is without phone service, but they don’t even have an estimate on when we might get it back. Ain’t that cute?
2. I can carry on a decent conversation in Italian over the phone with a utility company. Information I’d rather not know, but whatever. I’m most proud of the fact that I haven’t (yet) yelled or cursed in either language.
3. I spend a lot of time on the Internet. I knew this one too, but it wasn’t completely obvious until I was faced with considerably more free time this past week. I’d be lying to say it wasn’t nice to get other things accomplished too, so I think I can take this is a warning sign to re-balance things around here. See, it’s not all bad!
4. Murphy’s Law of the Blogging World: You may get writer’s block on a frequent basis while you have the full ability to post, but once you can’t, the ideas will abound. That said, rest assured, this last week was not completely wasted, blog-wise. I have at least a week’s worth of posts ready to pull out when I most need them. Again, trying to look on the positive side here.
5. And finally, the best of all–I have made a lot of wonderful blog/Internet friends. I’ve gotten emails from people who had never even commented on the blog wondering if I was OK. Wow. That is just awesome, and I thank you all for your concern. I promise I’ll get back to everyone just as soon as I’m up and running from home. It’s hard to even borrow computers to use around here, but perhaps I’ll splurge and hit the Internet café one of these days (but hopefully I won’t need to…come on Telecom!).
I, too, miss being a part of your daily lives, and I can’t wait to catch up on all that has happened in my absence. I wish I had a time frame for when I’d be back to the regularly-scheduled program, but, you know, since Telecom doesn’t know, I don’t know either. You’ll come back, though, right? I miss you!
P.S. I’m not sure how this post will look as this computer doesn’t even have the font I normally use. Bear with me, and say a little prayer, would you?
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[tags]telecom italia, life in italy[/tags]
What’s Cooking Wednesday Recipe: Calabrian Cuzzupa for Easter/Pasqua
OK, I know Easter has come and gone, but I promised a cuzzupa recipe about a week ago, and a cuzzupa recipe you shall have.
So this week’s What’s Cooking Wednesday is a recipe out of my friend Mary Amabile Palmer’s cookbook, Cucina di Calabria: Treasured Recipes and Family Traditions from Southern Italy. This is a wonderful collection of authentic Calabrese recipes interspersed with essays about the history and culture of this region as well as family memories.
Check out the book on Amazon, but if you’d like to buy it, please let me know as I can get you both a discount and a signed copy.
Cuzzupe di Pasqua*
4 tbsp butter/margarine (softened)
1/2 c sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1/2 c milk
1 tsp lemon extract
1 3/4 c all-purpose or unbleached flour
1 tsp baking powder
Preheat oven to 375°F.In a large mixing bowl, add butter, sugar, and salt. Cream until well blended. Gradually add egg, milk, and lemon extract. Mix well. Stir in the flour and baking powder and mix until smooth.
Shape dough into cakes as shown in the above picture, and brush with melted butter; you can also sprinkle some sugar on top as well.
Place cakes on lightly greased cookie sheet and bake until a light golden brown (about 15 minutes).
Note that you can make the icing as seen in last week’s photo by mixing 1/2 cup of confectioner’s sugar with 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of water. Rainbow sprinkles are a common addition once the glaze in on the cakes.
*I left out the instructions on making the ring or basket which holds hard-boiled, colored eggs as that’s not what’s made where I am; for more instructions, looks like you’ll just have to get a copy of the book!
Buon appetito!
And now, as a special bonus this Wednesday, a cooking meme that Shannon (the founder of WCW) tagged me with a while back:
1. Can you cook? If yes do you like to cook?
Why yes and yes again.
2. When does your whole family come together to eat?
Suppose it depends on how you define “whole family.” P and I eat together twice a day usually. With the rest of his family, we haven’t had a meal yet with everyone (he has 2 brothers and 4 sisters spread around Italy and France), but the closest we came was last summer when there were 2 sisters, 1 brother, and their kids in one tiny room. With my family, well, P hasn’t even met them yet.
3. What do you have for breakfast?
On colder days, something warm to drink (coffee, cappuccino), but in the summer iced coffee. Sometimes I have toast, other times a cornetto, sometimes a banana. Depends on my mood.
4. When, where and how do you eat through the week?
Breakfast either at home or at the bar any time between 6:30 and 9:30 a.m. Lunch at home at 12:30 on weekdays, later on the weekends. Dinner at home anytime between 7:30 and 10:00 p.m.
5. How often do you eat out?
Not very often, although more frequently in the summer. Food’s better at home!
6. How often do you order in or get take out?
Not a common occurrence, but P will sometimes go and pick up pizza on Saturday nights.
7. Re: 5 & 6 – if money were no object would like to do it more often?
Nah. We’d just buy a lot of really good ingredients–and probably eat a lot more seafood.
8. Are there any standards that make a regular appearance at your table?
Um, you could say pasta is a frequent visitor.
9. Have you ever tried a recipe from another blog?
Not yet, but that’s mostly because I can’t find the ingredients I need to make the things that look so yummy. I’m storing them away, though, for when I go to the States.
10. Are there any quarrels because of food?
Not anymore. P likes to cook, but he basically likes to do it alone (no problem there!). Once I understood that, I just learned to make myself otherwise useful when he’s cooking. When I’m cooking, I’m much more relaxed in the kitchen, so I’m easy to get along with when I cook.
11. Are you a vegetarian or could you imagine living as a vegetarian?
I’m not a vegetarian, but I could imagine doing so–the biggest stress would be going to people’s houses for dinner and finding something to eat. I already have problems with that if all they’ve made is frittole (boiled pig parts)….
12. What would you like to try out that you haven’t dared yet?
I’d try sushi just to see what all the fuss is about, but that won’t be happening in southern Italy anytime soon.
13. Would you rather cook or bake?
Hmm…probably bake because I’d probably rather eat baked goods than real food. Sad but true.
14. What was the most terrible mess you’ve ever made in the kitchen?
Thanksgiving last year. That was something.
15. What do your kids like to eat best? What would your kids never eat?
N/A, but I can almost guarantee any kids I have will like pasta. Or at least will be forcefed it.
16. What do you dislike most?
Wow, those boiled pig parts come to mind again. Then there’s “suzzu” (spelling?) which is (again) pig parts mixed with gelatin so that it’s a pudding. And then there’s ghiro (dormouse). I’m gagging just thinking of these things.
I won’t tag anyone, but you foodies out there should feel free to play along!
Still Celebrating: Pasquetta
Last we left off, I promised that I would make time to eat and relax on Pasquetta, as Easter Monday is called here. P and I ended up spending the day with some of his friends and their wives, and now I have photographic evidence.
There was eating:
There was drinking:
There was singing:
There was bocce:
Oh was there ever bocce.
And there was even playtime with Luna and my friend Helen:
Then today, I continued the Pasquetta celebration by turning an annoying work obligation into a fun time by meeting up with Cherrye in Catanzaro for some cappuccini with the stars (and she didn’t even mind her drink getting a little cold while I took a photo or ten):
And then, for the first time in a year, some McDonald’s, including a chocolate milkshake (woohoo!), with an Aussie friend who has a house in my village. Sometimes you just get cravings, you know?
*sigh*
La vita è bella.
Pasqua (Easter) in Calabria: Sabato Santo Photos
And so here we are at Pasquetta (Easter Monday).
Many people down here take the day to spend with friends, relax, eat, and whatnot, but since I’m a dedicated blogger, I’ve been going through the hundreds of photos I took this past weekend. Don’t worry, I’ve also made time to relax and eat too.
For a fuller description of events, check out my previous Easter post here.
Some quick background. I had, essentially, an all access pass to the behind-the-scenes events because of P. You see, he’s been involved in this forever and directs traffic so to speak at various parts. He kept telling people I was covering the whole thing for the BBC, so you can thank him for giving me the courage to get in the way of Jesus and co.
Ahem. The photos.
Starting at about noon on Saturday, the soldiers got their gear ready.
P and I headed down to where Jesus and the other two that would be crucified were getting ready. This happened inside a cantina while the soldiers and the penitent got in position outside. I thought the grated window would be a cool shot, and just as I snapped, a soldier walked by.
Here is one of the two to be crucified alongside Jesus waiting to exit the cantina.
And here are the sinners waiting to self-flagellate.
The two to be crucified and Jesus are being led down to one of the village’s thirteen churches, from where the procession will begin.
Jesus rounding the corner to go down the path to the church.
The path to the church.
The area behind the church where Jesus is tied to the tree and beaten.
A brief pause in the festivities to give you an idea of how many people participate.
One of those people is P’s nephew Vincenzo.
After Jesus is given his cross down there, the procession moves through the village and up to another church, formerly part of a monastery. This photo is taken from my balcony and is hazy because my neighbor decided to heat his house (read: smoke got in our eyes).
From here, the procession arrives at another small church in one of the tiny vicoli, and some of the major players hand off their robes to different participants.
From there, the procession moves to yet another church, where we await the arrival of the Madonna, but not before some further punishment of Jesus.
I don’t have a photo of the arrival of the Madonna as I took it all on video, which I haven’t been able to upload. Boo.
From that church, the procession goes all the way back down to the church where everything started, and we wait for the next day’s events.
FYI, the procession of Sabato Santo takes between 8 and 9 hours.
Then on Sunday morning we have A Cumprunta where the risen Jesus is met by the Madonna. Again, I have this all on video, but here’s a shot of the two statues together.
And one of the a guy dancing while balancing his church’s flag in his mouth.
And that’s all from this pretend BBC correspondent for today.
Pasqua / Easter in Calabria
Many people who haven’t visited Italy often think that Christmas is the big holiday here–Catholicism equals Jesus equals Christmas, right? Well, Jesus’ birth is most definitely celebrated (amazing presepi are everywhere), but in fact, Easter, the day Jesus rose from the dead after being crucified, is hands down the most important holiday in Italy.
I’m not religious (although I was brought up Catholic), but it’s easy to get caught up in the emotions of the Pasqua (Easter) season, particularly in this village.
The festivities begin on Palm Sunday with the blessing of the palms; see Cherrye for more about this tradition. Since I don’t participate, my neighbor makes sure I’m not a complete heathen and always brings me some; this time she also brought me a Calabrian cake traditional for Easter called “cuzzupa.” They are kind of crumbly with a slight lemony flavor, not too sweet and perfect with espresso.
If you’ve been around Italian neighborhoods, perhaps you’ve seen such cuzzupe twisted and shaped into baskets and cradling hard-boiled eggs, but here where I am, they simply make small, glazed cakes usually with rainbow sprinkles.
And, yes, they are delicious. I’ll post a recipe later this week.
Then from Monday through Friday, every morning there is a small procession through the village with a drummer and a small group of male church members dressed in the robes of their brotherhood; each of the village’s 13 churches has a corresponding brotherhood, or organization that keeps its name and activities going. The groups change each morning, and the songs are in a mix of Italian, Calabrese, and Latin–which means I understand precisely nothing.
But you don’t need to understand the words. It’s enough to hear the wails of mourning that their Savior is about to be murdered, martyred. They stop in front of several churches to sing, and are accompanied by a steady, slow drumbeat as they walk through the village.
All of this leads up to grand procession of Sabato Santo (Holy Saturday), which lasts for approximately nine hours, starting at one in the afternoon and ending when the last mass is said in the main church sometime around 10 p.m. People come from all over the area to take part in this special tradition as this village is one of the few around here that still does it.
Participants dress in costumes representing the major and minor players of Christ’s crucifixion, including Christ himself, who is given his cross at one of the lowest points in the hilly village and carries it on his shoulders for the rest of the procession. There are soldiers, penitent sinners, the other two who were crucified with Jesus, the Madonna, and so many more–and then there are the regular folk who are welcome to walk along the path, which touches most of the villages churches, including one on the site of a former monastery.
Then on Sunday is the “Cumprunta,” which is the meeting between the risen Christ and the Madonna on a small incline leading up to one of the churches. Onlookers line the street for a glimpse of the reunion as between them younger boys from the congregations run up and down the hill, accompanied by frantic drumbeats as back and forth, back and forth, they wave their churches’ flags–which are at least five times the size of them.
The statues of the Madonna (dressed in black) and Jesus are on separate platforms carried by groups of men from oppositely situated churches. As the statues get closer and closer, the men run faster and faster so that the statues meet, and at that exact moment, the Madonna’s black clothes are stripped to reveal a beautiful white, celebratory dress–her son has risen.
It is beautiful and moving and wonderful and *sigh.*
I think it’s my favorite moment of every year.
Afterwards there is spontaneous dancing in the street as the drumbeats continue, and the strongest men balance the wooden poles of the enormous flags in their mouths, holding the strings of the flags with their outstretched arms to keep everything in check. And so they dance, looking up at these flags now as high as the houses for as long as they can stand until passing it to the next willing taker.
The other day in the piazza, I saw a little boy practicing with a push broomstick in his mouth, preparing for his future day in the sun. Oh, why hadn’t I brought my camera?!
I give you these tidbits now, but if all goes well with the weather, there will be more information (i.e., photos) to follow later this week. So let’s pray for good weather, shall we?
Michelle Kaminsky is an American attorney-turned-freelance writer who lived in her family's ancestral village in Calabria, Italy for 15 years. This blog is now archived.
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