Clicking My Ruby Slippers and Heading Home

Tomorrow I end my month on the road, and head home.  This has been a great trip with awesome students, classes, visits with friends, an IU home game win, 5 days with our granddaughter, and lots of cold weather!

One day Dr. C. and I experienced, rain, sleet, and snow all within 6 blocks in NYC.  This photo was taken in New Jersey on Friday as I was driving from La Guardia to Carlisle, PA.  It took 90 minutes to go about 20 miles in New York, and then I was driving in near white-out conditions west of the city.  When I reached Bethlehem, PA the snow stopped, the sun came out and there was no snow on the ground. Today in Carlisle, when I left,  the thermometer in the car registered 65....think I'll mail my down coat back to San Diego!
I'm so grateful for the opportunities I have to teach, and to meet with the people who buy my books, and come to my classes.  Over the years I've formed very special relationships not only with the cooking schools, but also with their students, and I am humbled by how blessed I am.  Thanks to all who came out to attend a cooking class, and to the staff(s) at each cooking school for their hard work, and dedication to serve their communities.  I often tell people that my mission field is the dinner table, and that's not a bad thing.  I hope you have a wonderful week, I'm very happy to be heading home tomorrow.  Watch out San Diego, I'm coming back!

Eataly!

 

Dr. C and I are in New York City for an overnight before he goes home and I go on to Pennsylvania to teach Friday and Sunday.  This morning we took a field trip to Mario Batali's Eataly, a huge complex of Italian gastronomy on Fifth Avenue.  This is like me going to a culinary Disneyland!  Everything is beautiful, the space is enormous, and even with loads of tourists on a bus tour, and my enormous down coat we were still able to navigate well.
Eataly began in Turin, Italy, and has spread through Italy, as well as Japan.  This is the first emporium to be established in the US, with Chicago coming on in 2013, only 1700 miles from San Diego!  The philosophy is fresh, and regional Italian foods.  

There is a lot of cheese!

The salumi area

This month they are celebrating my favorite area of Italy: Umbria and featuring Sagrantino wines (it's about time!)

Too good to be true, but it works!!

She trimmed the artichokes into hearts, then stored them in acidulated water (I could get used to this!)

Sumos!!!

Dr. C.. perusing the greens

Sweet baby cauliflower

Cooking School

Featured wines from Umbria

Hand made pastas

Butcher shop---amazing!

Dry pasta

Olive oil

Even the signs are fun!

The wine store, Vino Eataly

I recognize this case!

I

pillows of pasta stuffed with mortadella, pork, spinach and served in a veal reduction---oh my!

Pasta filled with mushrooms and served in Umbrian truffle butter--yep, it was delish!

Dr. C. got the pizza of the day---tomato sauce, cherry tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, and Prosciutto di Parma--another winner! We drank Barbera di Alba and a Montefalco Rosso

My boys, thanks for the field trip Eric and Dr. C.

If you are in New York City, this is a destination.  All regions and foods of Italy are represented here, and the space is amazing to walk through.  There is a LOT to see, and it can be overwhelming, but the staff are terrific, they all know their stuff, and are incredibly helpful. I'm ready to get out of the snow/rain and cold, but have a few more days till I head home.  I'll post more from the road.  Until then, buon appetito!

Check This One Off the Bucket List

 

Our son Ryan graduated from Indiana University in 2006, and lived in Bloomington, IN for 9 years.  In all the time I visited him at his condo there, I never got to a game at Assembly Hall.  It was on my bucket list, since I'm a college basketball fanatic, and have followed Indiana, the Bob Knight saga, and then the ugly years after he left.  I've watched the movie Hoosiers any number of times, and have read the great book Season on the Brink.  Now ranked in the top 5 this year, Ryan said this was the year to go--this team and their coaches are special.  Of course he doesn't live there anymore, so getting tickets, and hotel rooms was a bit of a flail, but worth every minute!

We began our pilgrimage at Nick's English Hut, a place where Ryan lived for most of his years in Bloomington.  We could tell the waitresses missed him--treating him like he was family!

The only time I'd been into Assembly Hall was to watch Ryan graduate, from the nose-bleed section.  This time we had pretty good seats, but the tour was pretty special too.  Basketball in Indiana is like an alternative universe--these people live and breathe it from the cradle.

When Ryan toured IU in 2002 they were going to the Final Four.  This was after Bob Knight was fired.

He's still here, even in some people's hearts 

We got to our seats, and I was like a kid on the edge of my seat; I know these kids' as if they were my own, follow Tom Crean on Twitter, and am generally obsessed.  I love college basketball because the games matter, the kids play hard, and the coaches (for the most part) mold these young men into better young men.  Not everyone will play in the NBA, and places like Indiana put a premium on graduating their players.

As Ryan said, those banners are looking lonely!

Oh, I forgot to say they were playing Iowa who had won 4 of their last 5 and IU had just lost a terrible game to Wisconsin.  Fortunately I was teaching and didn't have to watch that one!

IU won this game, but it wasn't pretty; but a win is a win!  I'll not complain!

John Mellencamp is a fixture at the games, this time without Meg Ryan

Dr. C. and Ryan celebrating a win!

I'll leave you with this video which is called the best time out (under 8) in college basketball.  This was a great trip, I loved being there, and sharing it with Dr. C and Ryan.  Dr. C. had been to a game when Ryan was the basketball columnist for the Indiana Daily Student at IU.  Read this to find out what happened.