Having fun hosting

The past few days have been a lot of fun here. Since the rains came for a quick blip the other day, it’s been nothing but sunshine and humidity. Everyone keeps talking about the intense heat that is coming, but looking at the forecast the highest temps are farther inland. I’ve been spending the afternoons at the beach, working the past couple of mornings on hosting people for pranzo (the main meal of the day at lunch time). This past Giovedi (Thursday), I hosted Zia for a quick bite of leftovers. We finished the brasciole I made earlier in the week, and had some turkey cordon bleu with roasted peppers. That afternoon, we had the annual homeowner’s association meeting, in which Zia was serving as president. Apparently she was selected as president at the meeting last summer. I will say, she definitely took the position seriously and was excited to serve. That night I started cooking for today’s pranzo. Having a small oven half the size of my one back home, and only two working burners, cooking needs to be done in stages. This afternoon, I hosted Zia, my cousin Valeria, and our friends Janette, Monia, Omar, and Ada. It was quite the spread with a lot of American foods. We had hot dogs (which surprisingly doubled in sized when I boiled them), costine di maialle (pork ribs), ali di pollo (chicken wings), patate arrosto (roasted potatoes), insalata di patate (potato salad), pepperoni e cipolle (peppers and onions), finocchio arrosto (roasted fennel), and zucchini fritti (fried zucchini). Everyone was filled to the gills, and the food was delicious. The ribs and wings were tender, and the sides all came out perfect. Monia and family brought the dessert tray which was sinfully good. It was a lot of work, but totally worth it for the great time we had. It was really nice to have a patio full of people again. After lunch, I spent a few hours swimming in the Adriatic and relaxing on the chaise lounge at the beach.