Familie Floz!

This weekend the mask theatre company, Familie Floz, came to Verscio for ONE NIGHT ONLY!  They performed their show, Ristorante Immortale, which was delightful!

http://www.floez.net/floez/index.php?id=34

It truly was masked clown theatre at its best.  The masks formed a cohesive whole, although each was an individual.  There was a story that I could follow (for EVERYBODY - the show had absolutely no text at all!  Hooray - no language barrier!)  There was plenty of sound and music and rhythm as well as moments of silence, though it was by no means a silent mask show.

And it was funny!  Their many entrances and exits provided for countless opportunities for sight gags, surprises, and magical moments.  The actors were present in their masks, their bodies, and with the audience. 

I went to see their talkback this morning, which was informative (a mix of Italian, German, and English, so I understood a lot of it).  Got a closer look at the masks, which are very sturdily built, and have ears on them!!  I also learned that many of the original company members trained with Pierre Byland, whom I also met at the performance last night.  We are going to meet for a coffee later on this week to talk about masks - the Fasnacht larvals in particular.  I can't wait!

Meals in Milano!

The weekend in Milan was fantastic!  Not only did I get to catch up with my friend from grad school, Lilla, and her family, but I relaxed in a truly Roman fashion at a spa in the middle of Milan, and enjoyed as many homemade Italian meals as there was time to eat them.  Hey.  Playwriting takes a lot of energy - I have to keep my strength up!

Glowing Post-Spa



I have never experienced so many different ways of throwing water around in one place at a time!  There were outdoor jacuzzis, jacuzzis with music therapy pumped into the tubs, jacuzzis with color therapy pumped into the tub, tiny bubble tubs, waterfalls, things that looked remarkably like showers, a steam room, and 2 kinds of saunas.  And herbal tea and fresh veggies.  A great way to spend the evening, and prepare for more eating!

Lilla made us pasta all the time in grad school, and I've tried to recreate some of her dishes at home, but I'm never sure if I'm doing it right!  I paid close attention and took notes this time (and reciprocated by making apple pancakes with NH maple syrup, which everyone enjoyed)! 

Here are some of Lilla's yummy recipes for pasta and veggies!

Zucchini-Mint Pasta

This was one of my favorites that I remembered from grad school.  I have tried to recreate it at home,  but I can never remember whether or not to use balsamic vinegar.  The answer is yes.  How much?  "a little if it is not strong.  More if it is strong."  So there you have it.

Ingredients:

zucchini - sliced very thin

garlic - minced

mint-chopped

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

parmesan cheese

pasta - a chunky kind

1.  Slice the zucchini paper thin.  Dice the garlic, and chop the mint.

2.  Saute the garlic lightly in olive oil. 

3.  Add the zucchini and saute until they are translucent.

4.  Meanwhile, boil the pasta with some salt in the water.

5.  While the pasta is cooking, turn off the heat on the veggies and add the balsamic vinegar (more if it's not strong, less if it's strong). 

6.  Add the fresh mint.

7.  When the pasta is cooked, drain it and add the pasta to the pan with the veggies.  Mix it all up.

8.  Add shredded parmesan directly into the mix.

9.  Eat it!

Baked Treviso

Treviso is a kind of radicchio that has large leaves and looks kind of like a red napa cabbage.  You can make it into a pasta sauce or prepare it as a side dish.  This is the loose recipe for the side dish.  I'm curious about trying it with regular radicchio instead of the Treviso because Treviso can be hard to find in the US.  However, that is the same reason that I won't try that experiment until I get back to the States, where I won't be able to find Treviso anymore!

Ingredients:

a head or two of Treviso (depending on how many you're feeding - this cooks WAY down, so I would use at least 2 heads of Treviso for 4 people).

balsamic vinegar

olive oil

salt

pepper.

1.  Wash and separate all of the leaves of the Treviso.

2.  Prepare a glass baking dish with olive oil.

3.  Layer the Treviso one layer at a time:  Treviso topped with a sprinkle of salt, a bit of balsamic vinegar, and a dash of pepper.

4.  Press the layers down as you go.

5.  Top the whole dish with foil and bake for about an hour, turning evey once in a while.

6.  Note that the Treviso should turn brown as it cooks.

Broccoli Orecchiette

Broccoli Pasta.  Can't go wrong.  Orecchiette means 'little ears' in Italian.  They are a chewy, solid pasta, actually not difficult to make by hand, but you can buy them at the store as well.

Ingredients:

broccoli - chopped

orecchiette

about 6 whole anchovies

garlic - chopped chunky

olive oil

salt.

1.  Bring a pot of salted water to boil.

2.  Add pasta and boil for about 5 minutes.  Then add the chopped broccoli to the cooking pasta.

3.  While the pasta and broccoli are cooking, lightly saute the chunky garlic and the anchovies in the olive oil.  The anchovies will dissolve.  Pick out the garlic chunks (the olive oil will absorb the garlic flavor)

4.  Drain the pasta and broccoli and add to the pan with the olive oil.  

5.  Toss it all together.

6.  Enjoy!

For those of you who are interested, I am actually getting a lot of writing done.  But it is good to take a break and cook something that I can really appreciate in reality rather than in theory (I can theoretically imagine that I understand parts of string theory and black holes, the origins of the universe, etc..., but I can really enjoy some broccoli pasta!).

The end of the month brings my mid-grant report.  I won't include the recipes, but I think I have done enough research to count for something!!

In the meantime, buon appetito!

Basel Preview!

I realized last week that if I wanted to find any authentic Basel masks, that I would have to go up to Basel BEFORE the festival and get them before they sold out!  So I did an economic, mad dash to Basel to get some masks!  It takes about 4 1/2 hours to get to Basel by train from Intragna, so yesterday was really all about the train.  I got up at about 5:30, and then caught the 7:30 train from Locarno to Basel.  And I was delirious when I ran into some friends back at the Locarno train station later on last night.

I am so glad I have to go back there, because it is a beautiful city, on the Rhein, filled with museums and cheap places to eat!  After devouring some fried noodles, I was on my way to hunt down some characters!

All of your Fasnacht needs, it turns out, are available at most department stores.  I guess it's like going to JC Penny's for your Halloween costume.  But the masks in Manor and Pfauen were a.  finished (I was looking for the unpainted kind) and b.  really expensive.  It was still lots of fun to look around and see the excitement of the city getting ready for this festival!

Fasnacht display outside Pfauen

Wall o'Waggis



The Waggis masks are the ones that will come and attack you with confetti during Fasnacht (I think - more on that in March!).  You know it's a Waggis by the big hair, bulbous noses, stripey socks, and wooden clogs!  Clogs, socks, little hats, confetti, plastic wigs, etc... All sold in a special section of most deparmtment stores.

Clogs.

I didn't purchase anything at the department stores, but then I couldn't find any of the other shops I had written down, either.  I was starting to worry that I wasn't going to be able to find what I was looking for.  Which would mean that I would make the masks myself, which I will probably do anyway, but I really wanted to find these unpainted masks.  I decided to walk towards the airport, which is where another shop was supposed to be.  While I didn't find that shop, I did find:

A fabric store selling 'stoffe' for Fasnacht.  Sometimes I love Swiss-German!

No masks for sale in there, though.  I kept walking.  And found:

Spalentor!  One of three medieval city gates to Basel.

Eventually, I did find some unpainted masks in an art supply store.  I bought two and also some supplies (I haven't been able to find the art supply store in Locarno) for making more! 

Fasnacht itself is less than a  month away.  I cannnot wait!

Possibly the best meal ever

I love the market in Bellinzona.  Because of this delightful place, in spite of the fact that I failed to accomplish my financial tasks, I was able to assemble the ingredients for a really yummy Swiss Italian meal!

Doug and Krista!  Once you're ready to give your collective (and impressive) brainpower a break, here is your next baking challenge!

Delicious bread in the shape of an alpine peak that has a a sturdy crust and a soft, chewy bread that pulls out in spirals on the inside.  So good.

So good, especially when used to sop up the extra sauce (which is really just heated up sundried tomatoes and garlic) on these tasty little ravioli!

al funghi!

The greens are steamed.  I finally figured out what they taste like - Swiss Chard (duh!  it only took two weeks of eating them to figure that one out...)!  Everything from the market.  Yum!

Buon Appetito!

Ok.  Back to the physics...

CERN!

Finally!

I don't even know where to start.  All I know is that I need to go back!  There wasn't enough time to absorb all of the exhibits.  Plus, the physicists don't really hang out with the tourists all that much.  I am trying to get into a class at the end of the month.  Not much luck yet.

Still, my head is swimming with ideas and I've been spending most of today playing around with them. 

Geneva was great.  The weather was beautiful.  The train ride was long, but I got to see so much of the country on the way that it was worth it!  I guess I took the long way - via Olten and then down to Geneva.  Olten is practically at the top of the country, so my trip made a Swiss triangle between Locarno and Geneva.  Next time, I think I'll go through Italy, which is more direct, but takes as much time because you go over the mountains instead of around them.

I checked into my hotel, which was very close to the train station and within walking distance of the Old City.  They 'upgraded' me to a room with my own bathroom -woohoo!  In the penthouse!  An odd little place, but I called it home:

With a nice view of Genovese rooftops...

It was quite cozy.  I had seen the Jet d'Eau from the train anyway, and I was very happy to have a shower all to myself.  I arrived early enough to walk around a bit in the Old City, which was beautiful.

I found some gargoyles!

And then had some delicious mussels and white wine at a place called the Pig's Foot.  The mussels were really good.  I didn't try the trotters.

And then began the CERN immersion.  Like I said, I need to go back.  I think I imagined that there would be physicists crawling around every corner of the place, eager to answer questions at a moment's notice, showing off their 2-d hologram experiments to anyone who wanted to see them.  But they keep the physicists and the tourists pretty well segregated.  I did get lost on my way to the visitor's center. It's easy to do because the place is mostly a conglomeration of warehouses and portable trailers with numbers that don't make any sense at all.  And just as I was about to start taking pictures, my camera batteries died!  What luck!

Halfway into our tour, I remembered that my phone took pictures, so I was able to get some shots.  But really there hadn't been all that much to record anyway.  The tour was mostly videos and a powerpoint about the ATLAS project, which is the experiment closest to the Swiss CERN facility.  It was very interesting, but we didn't get close to any of the big machines. And we stayed above ground the entire time.  It's mostly shut down at the moment, anyway.  I think they're going to turn it back on in March to smash some more protons together and see what happens.

Here are some of the pictures I was able to catch with my phone:

Rrrgh.  Pictures too small!  This is the outside of the ATLAS building.  It has a mural of the detector painted on the side of the wall.

The CERN Globe is made entirely of wood and houses a neat planetarium-type show, as well as a space upstairs for special events.

Monday is going to be dedicated to pestering my way into the class at the end of the month!  I'll be sure to charge my camera batteries next time!!

Castles!

I took a much needed break from notes-transcription/cooking-experimentation in the cute little apartment.  I realized that I haven't really taken any time to just do some sightseeing.  So sightseeing I went this morning!  I went to Bellinzona, in search of Castles (it wasn't hard to find them -well, two of them anyway - the three castles of Bellinzona are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and in addition to the castles, I found...

The Saturday Market!!

I'm still experimenting with the video part of my camera, so apologies for the shaky footage.  I was wondering where Switzerland was hiding their bustling marketplaces (Locarno doesn't have one and Lugano is a fairly long haul), and so I bought some honey!

After I looked at the castles.

If I had the castle of my choice, I think it would be the Castello de Montebello for creature comforts, trees, drawbridges, remaiins of moats, pets, vineyards, etc... but I would have to have some good friends at the Castelgrande for when the invaders attacked.  Which one would you pick?

Wall of Castelgrande through another wall in Castelgrande

Entering the Castelgrande from below.

And then up and around and up and around and...  Until you get to the top!

Is anyone else having a Dark Crystal moment?

Castelgrande from across the way

Castelgrande from Castello di Montebello.

You live over there.  I'll stay here, and we can communicate by pigeon.  It'll save us all the up the hill, down the hill, up the stairs, down the stairs involved in a cross-castle alliance.

Castello di Montebello from Castelgrande, with crane.

Castello di Montebello

a. Who parked their scooter in the castle?

b.  HOW did you do it?  Did you come up the same little path I did?

Lizard!

What is this?  I promise not to make spaetzle out of it!

That's it for castle pictures!  It was a gorgeous weekend and I'm glad I got to enjoy some of it outside!  Tomorrow I go to Geneva, got to check the weather. 

Snow boots?

P.S. Add lemon

I think I forgot to say, about the Lentils, squeeze a little lemon into the soup at the very end. 

OK.  Going to see some castles in Bellinzona!

A presto!

Add Lentils!

OK.  Just had my last serving of the spaetzle, which was actually, after the first day, delicious.  The recipe itself said that it would be better on the second day.  And then my old friend from college recommended frying it and topping it with beef stew (that's what she does with her spaetzle, which she rolls and cuts by hand instead of using la machina!).  Having no beef, but having lentils, tonight I fried up my leftover spaetzle and topped it with some red lentil stew.  And it was really good!

Red Lentils Soup is really yummy and super easy to make.  Again, I'm sure I'm borrowing heavily from many cooking shows and cookbooks, but here is a general way to make it that I use. 

1.  Chop up some onion and/or garlic, fresh ginger, cilantro, and a vegetable like a carrot or a potato.  Rinse your lentils (about a cup).

2.  Heat up some olive oil in a saucepan.  Add salt and pepper.

3.  Saute onions and/or garlic until fragrant.

4.  Add your vegetable and saute it for a while (maybe 5 minutes).

5.  Add the lentils and saute them for a minute or two.

6.  Depending on how thick or thin you like your soup, add water.  I usually add three cups of water for one cup of lentils for a thick red lentil soup.

7.  Bring it to a boil.

8.  Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. 

9.  Take it off the heat and add the chopped cilantro and ginger.

10.  Pour it over spaetzle, brown rice, or eat it plain.  (But it was yummy over the spaetzle.)

For those of you thinking, "You went to Switzerland to write a play!  What are you doing posting so many posts about cooking?"  I can only respond, that good plays require good food!  And I'm going to Geneva next week, so really, life should get a little more interesting.

In the meantime, I am reading lots of books about particle physics, transcribing my notes into my computer, writiing a bit, sketching a bit, but mostly trying to wrap my brain around the particle physics so I can understand what I see at CERN next week!

I did go to Lugano earlier in the week...

And had my first Swiss-Italian gelato (hazelnut flavored), which was marvelous, particularly while resting on a bench and enjoying the sun by the Lago di Lugano.

Again with the food, I know!  But not only does playwriting require calories, so does getting around in Switzerland.  Look at the steps I had to go up and down before even getting to my meeting at the University in Lugano: 

Down the steps from the train station to the city.

Up the steps, back to the train station.

Piece of the cathedral, halfway up the steps.

The funicular was not in operation.

Residents of the Lago di Lugano

And I haven't even added the steps that go from the train station in Intragna up to my apartment!  It's Switzerland!  Every direction is uphill both ways!

So eat your spaetzle.  It'll make you strong!

Spaetzle! A Swiss Culinary Odyssey

After receiving an email from a dear friend who not only identified the strange kitchen implement posted from my apartment, but confirmed my timing instincts regarding the soft boiled egg (yes, five minutes.  No on toast, but to be eaten with a spoon with salt and pepper - if you have any other recommendations regarding the eating of the soft boiled egg, please post them!).  So, the thing is NOT a meat grinder but a ricer or a food mill, and it is used in this part of the world to make spaetzle.  It seemed like a simple enough kitchen challenge.  Why I chose to experiment with spaetzle before trying the soft boiled egg, I will never know, but I did meet that challenge this evening, and here are the results.

Carol?  Lan?  Heather if you're out there?  Do you remember the time in college, when we were living at Ludwell, when I decided it was a good idea to try to make seitan from scratch and ended up filling our kitchen sink with an enormous amount of wet flour, waiting for it to turn into something nutritious and delicious?  It never did.  Making spaetzle, unless you happen to be a Swiss German grandmother, was a somewhat similar experience.

Mom?  Is this the same thing as rivvles that you tried to tell me about once?

So, I didn't fill the sink with flour this time (although clean-up entailed a little more elbow grease than usual...).   After looking it up on www.allrecipes.com I found a recipe for German Spaetzle with Sauerkraut that looked somewhat authentic.  Here's how it went...

First, I assembled my ingredients, pretty simple:  flour, eggs, water, olive oil, salt...

Then, I got my water boiling, in my cute little Swiss pot!

I made my well and filled it with eggs...

Added some water, mixed, and then the fun began...

Not a meat grinder

Waiting for the spaetzle to float to the top

Then there is layering.  Who knew that spaetzle was like lasagna?  Only with sauerkraut instead of cheese.

Draining (sink not so full of flour)

Layering.  Unfortunately there's not much color contrast between the sauerkraut and the spaetzle, but that doesn't mean it's not delicious!

And then top with fried bread crumbs.  How could you go wrong?

Mmmmm.... Fried bread!

Assemble...

Needs more fried bread!

Enjoy!

Spaetzle!



OK.  The spaetzle was ok.  For all of the effort (in prep and clean up) of 'Jutta''s recipe that I halved (the original would serve many, many people PLENTY of spaetzle), it was ok.  And I will be eating it for quite a while.  So if you have any tips on how to eat leftover spaetzle, please let me know!