I apologize for keeping all of you in suspense about how Easter went. And, after promising to take pictures of my first attempt at cooking in Italy, I also have to apologize that I completely forgot to take pictures.
The meal was a success, but what I went through to get it on the table is quite another story. I made sure that I found an Italian recipe for the lamb online; and last I knew lasagna is supposed to be an Italian dish. I thought the only new thing I was introducing was biscuits for the anti-pasta. Boy was I in for a surprise.
The week before Easter I tried to make sure that I had all the ingredients I needed. I had handed in a detailed list, but soon found out that because someone new was cooking, a few sisters were a little anxious that I would be able to deliver, mostly because I had told them I would be cooking the lamb on the stove top rather than baking it. It seems that according to tradition, the lamb is ALWAYS baked. But due to the fact that the ovens would be occuped with other things, I could not bake the lamb.... Even though I tried reassuring them that I knew what I was doing, they certainly did not have proof of my skills yet, right?
Saturday afternoon comes around and I joined Sr Ercolina from my own community, and a Korean student, Sr Ancilla, from the 1st flood student community. We rolled up our sleeves and got to work preparing the lasagna so we would just have to pop it in the oven on Sunday, and prepared all the vegetables I needed to stew with the lamb. With that done, I went to the Easter Vigil at the North American College at 8:30. Easter morning rolls around and I rolled out of bed and went straight to morning mass at 7:00 so I could be in the kitchen by 9:00.
Then it all began. I had never used the kitchen on the 1st floor, I don't have a vocabulary yet for things in the kitchen, and my assistant, Sr Ancilla, can hardly understand Italian. Great ingredients for a comedy of errors. Add a stove that desperately needs to be upgraded, and you have the makings of a very trying situation for any cook. Every time I lowered the heat on the stove, the flame would go out. And the flames don't go on automatically--you have to use a match to start them every single time. I had decided to stew the lamb on the range, rather than bake it..... Oh dear. So, Sr Ancilla became the flame starter of the day. I don't know how many times I asked her to start the flame again.
Then it was time to put the lasagna in the oven--Sr Ancilla, how does the oven work? Okay, she puts the oven on. Hmmm. 30 minutes go by and I'm still not smelling lasagna. I open the oven and it isn't hot at all. By that time, I was pretty exasperated to say the least. Thank God by that time there were other sisters in the kitchen helping with last minute preparations. They graciously agreed to watch the lasagna because I had to go to the third floor to use that oven to bake the biscuits! Whew!
Well, we got all the food on the table in time. The sisters loved the biscuits that I had baked for anti-pasta--hot biscuits with Italian cheese? nothing like it. I savored my longer than necessary so the lasagna could bake a little bit more. Then we brought out the lasagna. I don't know how many of them asked me what it was.... And to top it off I got a few blank stares when I told them it was lasagna. They had never had lasagna like that before. Needless to say several went back for seconds! Yes!
Then out comes the lamb. Most of them helped themselves to little bitty pieces. Then once they tasted it, went back for more. And I received quite a few compliments. So, my first cooking experience in Italy, while a bit nerve-wracking to say the least, turned out to be a good one overall.
Now on to my adventure. I had been invited along with the 2 Pakistani sisters in the student community to go out to a house we own along the beach where a group of sisters are preparing for final vows. There are three American sisters there. We set out at 7:00 and arrived at the end of the subway station to look for the bus that we had been told would take us to Tor San Lorenzo. We found a bus going there, but it didn't leave till 9:30. We had been told there was one leaving at 8:00. I reach into my purse, take out the community cell phone to call the sister who invited us only to discover that I had left her phone number at home. And, I haven't memorized my own home phone number to call someone to get the number for us. So, we came all the way back home, called the sister who was expecting us, went to Mass, got back on the subway, ended up back at the bus station. It's 11:30. The only bus with the name Tor San Lorenzo visible didn't leave till 1:30. But now I can call someone!
I get on the phone and tell the sister that the bus she told us to take doesn't leave till 1:30. But the information that sister Germana had found on the internet said that the bus we need leaves every hour on the hour and that the bus has "Nettuno" as the destination on it. There were at least 5 bus areas with "Nettuno" on it..... We finally found on that seemed to be the right one--it was leaving at 12:00 the next one was leaving at 1:00. It was the only one that seemed to have hourly departures. So, we're standing there for about 15 minutes, and Sr Fouzia says to me, "I think I see Tor San Lorenzo listed as one of the stops on the sign." At that point I look up, sure enough, in fine print on the sign 3 feet above my head I can fainly make out of the blurred letters "Tor San Lorenzo."
So we get on the bus, but still have no idea what the name of the bus stop is. Sr Germana will find that out for us as we are traveling out there. I agreed to call her at 12:30 for her update. 12:30 comes along and her phone goes to voice mail. So I text her. Then call her, still voice mail. Then text her. Then call her.... Thank God I had written my home phone number down on my earlier return trip. I can call home and have them call the land line to let Sr Germana know her phone is not picking up a signal! And, thanks be to God, my superior knew the name of the stop that we needed.
We finally made it out at 1:00, just in time to eat a feast that the sisters had prepared. And although it rained the entire time while we were out there, the company and the time that we enjoyed with them were certainly worth the "adventure" that accompanied our journey!
The moral of the story is, 1) always travel in the company of a 20-something who can read things you can't anymore; 2) it's time to get my own cell phone!
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