Questing for Food and Coffee and Fizzy Red Wine

Getting these kids on schedule is tough.  Last night Emily woke up about 2 o'clock and wanted to be held.  So Aaron did what any good dad would do and held her.  So when she was back up at 7 am, it was my turn.  We played with the mirror for a while, but then it was time to go shopping!

Friday we took our first trip to the Supermarket.  Here, when they say super, they mean SUPER.  It has everything!  It is like a Super Target crammed into a regular grocery store size building.  It was a little over whelming shopping for a completely empty kitchen.  We got a few staples and a few things to try, but one of the goals was to get ingredients to make Ryan's banana chocolate chip pancakes.  You would think that wouldn't be difficult because the recipe is relatively simple, flour, sugar, bananas, chocolate chips, etc.  However, the four things I forgot were sugar, cinnamon, vanilla extract, and baking powder.

We had been told that we could get most everything near where we lived so we thought it might be a fun adventure to explore some of the stores in search of these ingredients.  About half way through our search, Aaron commented it was a lot like a WoW (World of Warcraft for those non geeks out there) quest where you have to go talk to the villagers and they send you on to another place and so on until you get all the items that you need.  Only this quest was in Italian.

After a quick look up of how to say "baking soda" (yes, I know, I really needed baking powder but I totally had a brain fart and ended up getting soda instead) which is bicarbonata di sodia for those that wondered, vanilla extract (estratto di vaniglia) and cinnamon (cannella) we wandered into a frutteria and was told that a Pharmacia would have the baking soda and a Latteria would have the cinnamon and vanilla.

Unbeknownst to us, we had wandered into the Latteria the first day we were here in search of water.  There is no sign out front, you just know it is a latteria because it sells milk, cheese, yogurt and other milk products along with just about everything you need to bake.  It also had cookies, cereal, water, sodas, and fresh eggs.

Unfortunately for us, we did not know that was a latteria until Aaron saw the charge on his credit card statement.  After finding that out, I knew I could find the place again this morning.  Sure enough, they had cinnamon and vanilla.  After some difficult translations, the kind woman who owns the place told me that they did not have extract but only vanilla beans.  I guess beggars can't be choosers.  I also picked up some cheese for Ryan's eggs, some cheese for sandwiches, and sugar.  All in all, a successful trip.

On the way to the Pharmacia, Emily and I stopped for a cappuccino.  Tempted by the delicious pastries (called brioche even though they look like croissants) I went ahead and got one because I hadn't eaten yet and I had heard that they were basically made to go with coffee.  The one I chose had some sort of heavenly apple filling that was perfectly sweet and cinnamon-y.  The dough was light and flaky with a few nuts sprinkled on top.  It really did go perfectly with my coffee.  Emily made a few friends there, mostly older women who thought she was just the cutest thing ever.  A few people have asked if she is a boy or a girl even though, to me, she is wearing obviously girl clothes.

We also picked up a couple of freshly made baguettes at the bakery, some roast beef at the butcher, and then finally got our bicarbonata di sodia at thee Pharmacia.  By then it was time for Emily's nap and time to see if we could make some kind of pancakes out of this mess.

The pancakes turned out quite delicious.  The gluten free flour I purchased must have been made of tapioca or rice flour because they were a bit stretchier and gummier than usual.  I had to actually cut up a chocolate bar because I cannot find chocolate chips here. This made for larger than normal chunks of chocolate that kind of oozed out of the pancakes.

Ryan ended up enjoying a few and then when Emily woke up from her nap she had three pancakes for lunch.  Mission Accomplished.

Then, finally I got my wine.  Only, I didn't read the label so I ended up with a very dry, very fizzy red wine.  It is not one I would buy again but its not bad.  The fizzy sort of threw me for a loop.  It was on sale for 3 Euros so I can't complain too much. Plus, you know, its wine.