OK, who brought the monkey?

It's not really Thanksgiving tradition to bring a monkey to the festivities, but I can recall over the years sitting down to the table with a primate or two. Heck, I've brought a few myself to the family feast as dates, and it always ended reasonably well. No food being tossed at the other guests. Rarely a high-pitched shriek mid-conversation. And the kids seemed to enjoy their company.

So when we got a call this week from Simo to ask if he could bring a guest – a well-behaved simian, Toto', he informed us – to what's become an annual Rome Thanksgiving meal, I figured, myeah, why not? Xtina and I have become expert zoo keepers these days with our little duo. What could go wrong?

Then I had second thoughts. What if Simo is not speaking metaphorically. What if it's an actual monkey. That kind of primate we've never had at a Thanksgiving meal. Not that I know of, anyhow.

How'd it turn out? Judge for yourself.





Right. Not the worst-behaved primate at the party. Toto', you're always welcome to join us at Thanksgiving.

For those who are wondering: Toto' is a 6-month-old capuchin monkey.

Btw... the turkey/stuffing combo once again rocked! The trick to tasty turkey, I'm convinced: pack it with as much pork product as you can find.

What do Italian children eat?

If you're thinking home-made pasta, meat balls and gelato, guess again. Here's a public-safety-message-meets-modern-art-installation that hangs in the entrance of the pediatric surgery ward at Bambino Gesu, the children's hospital here in Rome.


These items were all fished out of the throats of Italian children after very delicate surgery. You can see for yourself that there's enough coins here to buy a nice dinner for two. But there's also:

• several crucifixes and charms
  
• a rubber eraser
  
• pencils
• the ink part of a ballpoint pen
  
• 1 metal pencil sharpener (the same child also ingested a button cell battery)
• a light bulb
  
• a monster fish hook (big enough to snag a sea bass, I'd guess)
• a 2.5-inch wood screw
• several clothes hooks
• a pair (!) of keys, still on the key ring
  
• a plastic lid (the size was roughly equivalent to the cap of a container of 35-mm film)
• a hollow metallic cylinder that looked a lot like a bullet casing
  

Here's a close-up of the fish hook (you can also see the eraser, light bulb, and, at top center-right that odd looking bullet casing thing), or as close as I could get with my crappy Blackberry:


If anyone else has access to the pediatric surgery ward in their area, I'd love to compare notes.

Arrosto di maiale all'umbra

What's this? An ISB blog post? Call it a special occasion. I've charmed my mother-in-law into turning over her special pork roast recipe, a perfect autumn dish.

Here it is:



Ingredients:
Pork roast
1 red onion
3 apples
1 garlic clove
apple cider vinegar
olive oil
prosciutto


1) Dice up the apples and onions and place in a frying pan with a spot of vinegar, garlic clove and olive oil. Fry into a mash.
2) Make a 2-3 inch incision in the roast and stuff well with the fried apple/onion mash. (Really stuff it well so this sweet center remains intact later when you carve the pork roast.)Like this pic? Was playing with a new app (for me), PicSay.

3) Place roast in a roast pan and brown it. After browning, cover roast with strips of prosciutto. Dump the rest of the mash in the pan (or keep it on the side if you don't want them to interfere with potatoes, etc). Soak roast with white wine, or vinegar. Leave under medium heat for 10-15 mins.
4) Place in oven at 180 C (360F) temp for 45 mins.

Buon appetito!

Thanksgiving turkey stuffing recipe

In the spirit of service journalism, I'm sharing our internationally acclaimed stuffing recipe from last year.

For a 10 lb bird
1 loaf of old, stale bread. A good loaf. Not Wonder.
A good clump of fresh parsley.
Celery
Onions
Carrots
laurel leaf
150 grams of sliced pancetta (or, even better, guanciale)
600 grams of chestnuts
1/2 kilo of "polpa di maiale e vitello" or minced pork & veal
4-5 eggs
a glug of milk
12 teaspoons of Cognac (yes, this is the secret ingredient!). For those of you wondering, yes, Armagnac works just as well.

1. Throw chestnuts into boiling water (30 mins). Afterwards, deshell and throw contents into a bowl. Chuck in the blender. Blend.
2. Cut your stale bread into cubes. Crack open the eggs and add the milk. Mix together to get a mushy mash of old yellow bread. Add diced parsley. Add the diced onions. Add the diced celery. Add the diced carrots. Mix more.
3. Throw the pancetta into a blender and whip up into a mash.
4. In a big bowl, add your mushy bread, your pancetta mash, the chesnut mash and the minced pork. Mix well.
5. Add your cognac.
6. Let sit for half-hour.
7. Turn your oven on.

Now, prepare your bird. (it really should be sourced from your local butcher and not one of those plastic, tasteless, Butterball creations, but even if it is, we've got you covered.)
1. Rub the outside of your turkey and in the cavity with a clove of garlic. Cover your bird with a few strips of pancetta/guanciale.
2. Sprinkle salt on same. Add laurel.
3. If you are feeling decadent, throw a tablespoon (or two) of the Cognac into the cavity as well.
4. Fill your bird with the stuffing. Place in the oven.

After 20 mins, drizzle a glass of white wine on the bird. Repeat after an hour. Keep covered (with aluminum foil or oven paper for duration of cooking.

Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Buon Ringraziamento!

Ao! 'Oppy 'olloween!

That's how the locals say it here in Garbatella. No pesky "h" to slow them down. I'm really pleased the Romans have adopted Halloween, or at least a number of the shops have here in Garbatella. It's always been a favorite holiday of mine. When else could you dress as a pirate and not get funny looks? (speaking of which, have the Somalis ruined that choice of costumes this year? Hope not.) Back in my London days (during the Bush Administration), the locals were hostile to Halloween. They saw it as some creepy American import and wanted no part of it. Sure, Halloween is a creation of the all-powerful rubber mask lobby, but as a form of cultural imperialism, it's pretty benign. I'm sure the local bakery feels the same way.

Why is Halloween so great? You get to carve up pumpkins. Lara, Stefano and I went to work on a real beauty after dinner last night. Here's our handiwork.



Boo!