In loving memory of George and Fred

Ciao!

Sorry to just run out on the blog yesterday. 5 p.m. snuck up on me and I had to leave the school. Anyways, back to my Easter weekend. I hope yesterday's blog adequately described the procession and the town. The name of the winery we visited on Thursday is Caruso & Minini by the way. We started off Friday on a great note with some pancakes, something Clay and I have been craving since the first week. Then we headed to Selinunte, which is one of the ancient cities in Sicily. Now the place is full of ruins, which is nifty.

Friday was extremely windy, and we were near the coast, so I was certain I might just blow away. Thankfully, we all made it out alive, although cold. First we visited the ruins from the temples. I say ruins, but really one of the temples is standing, looking pretty impressive. Saying the temples were large is a bit of understandement. In fact, one of the temples, which is now in shambles from an earthquake, was the largest temple in the world before it fell. Even after seeing so many ruins in the past two months, I just don't understand how these people built such colosseul buildings. They didn't have the same technology we had. In fact, in illustrations at the ticket office in Selinunte, we got an idea of how the temples were most likely built: using lots of men, giant, strong poles, and large, healthy oxen. Yeah, I still don't get it.

After walking around the temples, we had lunch in the car so we could warm up a bit! Then we headed over to what was the residential area of the city. There weren't really as many things standing, but we could see more of the layout of the city. We walked down what was one of the main roads to the outer portion of the city, where the fortress walls are still slightly there. Apparently (this information comes from historian Jay), the location of the city made the place too difficult to defend, and Selinunte was constantly at war with nearby Segesta. So, the people of Selinunte picked up and moved to Marsala. Before the Selinuntites (probably not the right word) left, though, they practically destroyed the city so it couldn't be taken over by anyone else. The four of us had an interesting conversation about what it must be like to be told that not only will you have to leave your home and move your family, but you must destroy your home before you go. I realize that houses are just possessions, but still, I think I'd be difficult to torch my own house, even if it was for a good cause.

After Selinunte, we headed back to the house to relax and cook. We had a wonderful time Friday evening cooking and eating! First Michelle and I made a typical Sicilian pasta with clams. Actually, I mainly watched. I did learn faster, better and safer ways to do just about everything with a knife. We had a fantastic time eating and enjoying good wine. After our first course, we headed back to the kitchen to cook George, our very good friend from Nino, Michelle's fish guy. George was a pretty orange color (although not Auburn orange, or Gator orange - Jay is a Gator - so he was college-neutral), and I actually forgot what kind of fish he was. George was quite delicious, and you can see pictures of him at dropshots.com.

After our big dinner, we headed to bed happy! Saturday was a day full of cooking and hanging out at the house. We played Guitar Hero III and we got to see some March Madness games. Before all the cooking began, though, Michelle and I went into town to pick the lamb for Sunday's Easter dinner. I have been kicking myself all week for forgetting to take my camera for this momentous occasion, but I'll do my best to describe everything in detail here. You can find anything fresh in Sicily. In fact, you probably have to really try if you ever wanted to buy something that wasn't fresh. Marsala, like all cities here, has a fish and meat market (in addition to a produce market as well). Anyways, Michelle has a meat guy there where she gets all of her cuts, and everything is fresh. Michelle had ordered the lamb ahead of time, so I thought we were going to just pick it up. Not so much. When we got there, the meat guy took a whole lamb out of the freezer. The lamb had been skinned, but it was completely in tact still. It's head was in a bag to keep the dripping blood from going everywhere. So the meat guy (I can't remember his name, maybe Maurcio?) hangs the lamb up by its legs in the doorway. This about the moment when I said, "I can't believe I didn't bring my camera. I will never get to see this again." We hadn't ordered a whole lamb, so obviously he needed to cut some up for his. First, Maurcio pulls apart the lamb from the middle, and you can hear all these bones breaking. Then he takes out his knife, which didn't look that big; it was just really sharp. And he just slices straight through half the lamb, so when he finished, we had a nice pretty cut, and the other of the lamb was still swinging in the doorway. Needless to say, we had pretty fresh lamb. We named him Fred, and you can pictures of him at dropshots.com, but sadly, you can only see our half of Fred - not the part where he was getting carved up.

We went back to the house and spent the day cooking. We made two different tiramasùs, homemade tortillas, and a rolled and stuffed pork roast with roasted potatoes. Michelle was so kind to share her tips, secrets and recipes. I just hope I can replicate it when I get home. As a sidenote, I did finally get to weigh myself on an American scale at their house. The final verdict is that in two months here, I have gained a little weight; however, I also finally got to wash my clothes at their house, and after putting on some pants that were dried in a dryer, I realized the weight has primarily been deposited on my backside. I am a firm believer in Sir Mix-a-Lot's buttocks theory, so this really doesn't bother me.

So after a fabulous Saturday evening, we slept in on Easter Sunday. When I finally woke up, though, the Easter bunny had put a little bag of chocoloate eggs on my door! I was so excited! Sunday was also full of cooking. Michelle cooked a phenomenal egg dish for breakfast, which we ate with the homemade tortillas. We then made homemade pasta, which was a long process, but really fun. Michelle had given Clay and I matching Sicily aprons! I think Clay might wear his a little better . . . Anyways, so we made cannelloni with our pasta, which was really delicious! I then got to call my family and talk to all of them for awhile, which was nice. Normally our calls are short, and I usually just talk to mom because of the time difference and cost of calling. Michelle and Jay have unlimited calls to the U.S., though, and were gracious enough to let us use the phone, so I got to talk to everyone for awhile.

Then we ate Fred! He was so, so good. It was probably the best dinner we had the whole we were there, which is saying a lot since every meal was absolutely outstanding. Fred was accompanied by some incredible Gorgonzola mashed potatoes. I love potatoes, and I really love gorgonzola cheese, so this was basically the best invention ever. We of course had more excellent wine with Fred, and it was really the perfect Easter dinner. We had on some Christian music in the background to accompany dinner, and it was really the perfect soundtrack.

After dinner we went downstairs and watched an Easter service from their home church back in Las Vegas. I was really glad we got to see a service on Easter, since that's what Easter is. After service, we went back upstairs and finished with our tiramasù!!!!

Monday was the sad day we had to leave. After we packed, we watched the highlights from some March Madness games - I did get to see Davidson upset Georgetown. Of course, sometimes instead of watching the games, which had already finished, we would just look up the scores online. Michelle and Jay drove us back to Taormina, which was really nice of them since driving takes about half the time the train does. Unfortunately, the weather was rainy and gross for most of the drive. We all hung out together for a little while in Taormina, and we went to Martina's. I still haven't figured out how Martina always remembers Michelle's name, but doesn't remember ours, even though we have gone to her place about 3 times a week since January.

It was so sad to have to tell them goodbye, but I know we'll still be in touch! Michelle taught fourth grade back in the States, and well, I'm about to teach soon (and possibly fourth grade, who knows), so I also got some advice there as well. All in all, it was a perfect Easter and easily one of the main highlights of my entire time here. After talking about all this food, I'm really hungry, so I'm off to lunch. Ciao!