What did you cook or eat today (October 2023)?

[PabloLerntKochen]

And there are tons of products with xanthan gum. You can live without, but it makes things easier

 

[LissaC]

Pork chops with onions, carrot rice, and stir fried brussel sprouts

 

[caseydog]

I baked up one of my mini pizzas last night.

CD

 

[Windigo]

First time baking Cinnamon rolls. I used a mix so it doesn't really count but it always helps me get a feel for the right dough consistency when I make it myself so I usually start by trying this stuff. The glaze is made with orange blossom water.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

TastyReuben would it be "none of my business" to ask if your posts in regards to your cruise could be placed into a thread of it's own?

To be honest, it is what he's eating at the moment and no different from me posting my hospital food in this thread, or what I ate on the airplane over, so I'm happy with it here.

 

[LissaC]

Forgot to add that last night we watched "Elemental", the latest movie from Disney Pixar. It was lovely and I cried so much.
I made caramelized popcorn for us.

And the dinner was fish roasted with corn bread and potatoes

 

[TastyReuben]

No pic, but mid-morning, we stopped for cappuccino and pastries/focaccia break, with two kinds of focaccia, croissants, chocolate croissant thingies, something with raisins, etc.

I had the distinct pleasure of peeing in a urinal while women cycled in to use the sit-down toilet, because the line for the women’s was out the door, and no one was sitting in the men’s.

The lunch we had:

Well, first was pesto, made fresh while we were being seated and served Prosecco, on some nice bread, no pics of that.

My pesto smells nothing like theirs did. She asked how I made mine, did I use a food processor, and I said yes, and she said, “That’s your mistake - the heat of the fast blade hurts the basil.” - she recommended putting the bowl and the blade in the freezer for 15 minutes…or just make it the right way by hand in a mortar.

Then we had this:

Focaccia formaggio - two paper-thin layers of dough, filled with a very mild cheese, eaten warm right out of the oven. Wow! I’m making that soon!

Followed by:

Homemade fresh pasta in a pesto sauce, and pesto-filled ravioli in walnut oil. I may have to buy some walnut oil now, because that was fantastic.

 

[MypinchofItaly]

Yes!

We started in Barcelona, we docked near Toulon today, and we’re currently en route to Genoa, where we’ll be when we wake up tomorrow.

We’ll make some other stops in Italy, and also Montenegro and in Corfu, finally ending in Rome, where I’ll use my powerful mental brainwave powers to signal a telepathic hello all across Italy for MypinchofItaly.

Oh nice! So you are in Genova now?
Genova it is one of my fave Italian cities. If you have the chance go to have lunch or dinner at Osteria di Vico Palla in Via Vico Palla, next to the Porto Antico. The food is authentic genoese and their focaccia is next level!
And if you have the chance to go for a personal tour, go to visit Boccadasse village, just 5 mins outside Genoa, along the Corso Italia

Anyway as you are in Italy, you have to practice with 'ciao' rather than 'hello'

 

[MypinchofItaly]

Oh nice! So you are in Genova now?
Genova it is one of my fave Italian cities. If you have the chance go to have lunch or dinner at Osteria di Vico Palla in Via Vico Palla, next to the Porto Antico. The food is authentic genoese and their focaccia is next level!
And if you have the chance to go for a personal tour, go to visit Boccadasse village, just 5 mins outside Genoa, along the Corso Italia

Anyway as you are in Italy, you have to practice with 'ciao' rather than 'hello'

Osteria di Vico Palla · Vico Palla, 15/r, 16128 Genova GE, Italy

 

[TastyReuben]

Oh nice! So you are in Genova now?

Yes…Si!

Who knows, we may be here a little longer - we’re getting all kinds of weather alerts, and at least one tour for tomorrow (Florence/Pisa, from Livorno, where we’re supposed to be tomorrow) has been cancelled.

We’re waiting to find out about the others, but I’m staying on the ship no matter what tomorrow, as I didn’t sign up for a tour, only MrsT. I will be “touring” the laundry facility at the other end of the ship!

Thank you so much for your restaurant and your recommendations - I know they’re good if they have your endorsement. With the weather, we’re likely staying on the ship, but I’ve saved the names just in case - grazie mille!

 

[MypinchofItaly]

Yes…Si!

Who knows, we may be here a little longer - we’re getting all kinds of weather alerts, and at least one tour for tomorrow (Florence/Pisa, from Livorno, where we’re supposed to be tomorrow) has been cancelled.

We’re waiting to find out about the others, but I’m staying on the ship no matter what tomorrow, as I didn’t sign up for a tour, only MrsT. I will be “touring” the laundry facility at the other end of the ship!

Thank you so much for your restaurant and your recommendations - I know they’re good if they have your endorsement. With the weather, we’re likely staying on the ship, but I’ve saved the names just in case - grazie mille!

I'm sorry your tour to Florence/Pisa has been cancelled, but honestly better safe than sorry.
The weather here has changed for a couple of days and in northern and central Italy it is not the best. Only in southern Italy is it still summer at the moment.
Even here in Milan and the surrounding area there is a weather alert, unfortunately climate change is causing a lot of damage when it rains.
Water for water at this point take a trip to the Genoa Aquarium

 

[MypinchofItaly]

TastyReuben you can't miss to eat Farinata genovese. You really can't.
It is the famous thin focaccia made of chickpea flour and black pepper that you can find in every corner of Genoa. It is fantastic.

 

[caseydog]

Yes…Si!

Who knows, we may be here a little longer - we’re getting all kinds of weather alerts, and at least one tour for tomorrow (Florence/Pisa, from Livorno, where we’re supposed to be tomorrow) has been cancelled.

We’re waiting to find out about the others, but I’m staying on the ship no matter what tomorrow, as I didn’t sign up for a tour, only MrsT. I will be “touring” the laundry facility at the other end of the ship!

Thank you so much for your restaurant and your recommendations - I know they’re good if they have your endorsement. With the weather, we’re likely staying on the ship, but I’ve saved the names just in case - grazie mille!

Firenze (Florence) was very nice. I had a great meal overlooking Ponte Vecchio.

I didn't do ANY tours on my one and only cruise. I hate those bus tours. I just wandered around cities with my camera, ate at places full of locals, and tried to soak up the culture.

Will you be stopping at Napoli (Naples) for some pizza?

CD

 

[TastyReuben]

Oh, another thing that made my heart beat a little faster:

After the walking tour, we had about two hours on our own, so we went looking for a kitchen store I saw earlier. Along the way, we ran into our tour guide, by herself, and we started talking.

Turned out, she quite likes to cook as well, and when she heard we were looking for a kitchen store, she asked MrsT what she was looking for.

“You’ll have to ask my husband, he’s the cook!”

She seemed to really like that, and she asked what kinds of things I liked to cook, and I was telling her I make a lot of pork, and then I said I also liked to make pizza.

She replied I was a brave man to talk to her about pizza, so I showed her a couple of pics as we strolled along, and she was politely complimentary, which made me feel good.

Hours later, once we got back to the port and left the bus, she was standing outside to tell us all goodbye, and she thanked us and all that, and the last thing she said, when she saw me and MrsT was (were always last off), “…and I want to try this man’s pizza!” and she gave me a little hug.

I thought that was brilliant, and she got a really good tip from us.

Hey… …wait a minute…

Really, though, she was wonderful!

 

[TastyReuben]

Firenze (Florence) was very nice. I had a great meal overlooking Ponte Vecchio.

Besides the weather most likely killing everyone’s shore plans tomorrow, I was never planning to leave the ship tomorrow.

MrsT signed up for some extended 9-hour grueling Florence-Pisa thingy, and I opted out, preferring to stay onboard, do laundry, and drink a lot - now I’m betting that’ll be her plans to.

I didn't do ANY tours on my one and only cruise. I hate those bus tours. I just wandered around cities with my camera, ate at places full of locals, and tried to soak up the culture.

We did a 17-day coach trip all around Europe, way back when we were in our 20’s - it was our farewell to Europe tour, because it was before we were rotating back to the states.

It was fun, but a lot of it was because it was the second-to-last trip of the season, so it was two-thirds empty, and the other part was because we were by far the youngest couple on the tour, and all the older folks sort of adopted us.

Also, virtually everyone on the tour (the Americans, anyway) were WWII vets, and they had some real stories to tell, and they treated us really well because I was still military. I can still picture every couple on that trip.

But I can be the same way, I generally just prefer to walk around on my own, but I’m finding, the older I get, the less inclined I am to do that, unless I’m in the UK, just because that place feels so much like home away from.

Also, MrsT is no longer one to wander aimlessly. These days, she has to have a very structured plan (she’s flipping out right now because the weather is impacting her plan), and she also looks at everything through the eye of a self-employed travel advisor - so she sees a lot of this as work, and that she needs to take the tours, eat at every restaurant on the ship, attend all the activities on the ship, and all that, just so she knows whether to recommend/not recommend something.

Most of her clients want all that firsthand information, but they also want the “where’s a good local place to eat/drink/hire a tour guide,” and…then they book all the stuff on the ship, so she keeps info on both (and thanks again to MypinchofItaly for the restaurants and tour recommendations, I forwarded those to MrsT!).

Our two tours in Rome, those are private ones booked with someone like herself, a self-employed one-person business, whom she met at a travel conference and struck up a friendship with.

Will you be stopping at Napoli (Naples) for some pizza?

Yeah, that’s another day MrsT will be on her own, with another grueling 9-hour tour out to Pompeii, while I’ll be on a leisurely four-hour foodie walking tour, which will include pizza.