Friday 

I went with the parentals to Visions Electronics (so they could buy a new TV for their bedroom) and listened to them argue over 50 dollars. Mom wouldn’t give in and buy the TV Dad and I wanted her too. I became fixated on an 80″ TV, but I think that will be a little too big for the next place.

On the way home we stopped by my Zia Marias to show her pictures of the parentals trip to Mexico. It is always enjoyable visiting with Zia.

I caught an episode of Triple D (thanks to Marisa for the phone call) where they featured Vancouver restaurant The Red Wagon. Holy Mother it looked awesome. Claudia caught the episode too so now we have a date for some Pulled Pork Pancakes, Short Rib & Brie Sammiches and Pork Belly Confit.

Saturday

I went with the parentals to pick up my Moms sewing machine which had been serviced. Yes, I tend to get bored and tag along with the parentals a lot like I am 6 years old. I drooled over the Phaff industrial machine they had on sale. I totally miss sewing on industrial machines.

I then went through all of my 2008 photo albums (that I have saved on my computer) and put them in date order, which was painful because the dates on all the photos are screwed up and nothing say the real date on them. Thankfully I anally fill out my google calendar and was able to figure out the majority of them. Next I have to figure out what I want to print.

For dinner we participated in Dine Out Vancouver and went to the Poor Italian with Dario and Gina. The food and service were excellent. We even got a free lesson in cork smelling (our first bottle of wine was no good according to the manager). Gina is a foodie like me, so it’s great going out with someone who loves talking and eating food! Our dinner (and company) were so good I didn’t want the evening to end.

Sunday

We went and viewed 2 housed. The first we knew was too small, but it kind of looked adorable so we went to the open house. It was definitely too small and needed a lot of work. At the 2nd house there was a bit of a misunderstanding and we never actually got to go in it, we just got to walk around the outside. The whole situation put a bad taste in my mouth (along with the fact that street the house is on is way busier then I expect) so I don’t think we will be going back actually view it.

I still have a gift certificate to Pier 1 from our wedding. I only ever bought a couple of things with it and have had a balance sitting on it for 3 years. We stopped in on the way to the In-Laws thinking I only had $20 left or something. Turned out I had $65. I had no idea what to buy so I bought this because I have always wanted one. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what else to buy so I just left it at that. Save a little for the new house, when we buy one.

Dinner at the In-Laws was excellent as always. I need to get my hands on Mama Ciavarros recipe for Yorkshire Pudding. So.Damn.Good. We also took a stroll down memory lane. They are putting their house on the market so Papa Ciavarro has been working away in the basement organizing and getting rid of things. They put together a box of all of Chads childhood keepsakes and such. I will have to post some pictures of mister adorable.

Today

I thought I was going to lose my mind over all these inventory issues but I managed to actually solve them all on my own, which makes me feel so much better about the situation. I am going to meet with the big boss man tomorrow to try and find an easier way to manage the samples that I am in charge of and I think I actually have a pretty good solution that will make inventory a breeze from now on. This makes me so much happier then I was this morning!

Saturday was Pig Processing Day at the Perizzolo compound. Chad got up at 6am and headed over to help out. They started off with 2 pigs: one 215 lbs, the other 385 lbs, and 125 kg in pork shoulders. Out of that they were able to make 29 sopresse, 950 sausages, 45 musetti, 55 salami, 12 capicolli and 1 pancetta! Talk about a heavy work load.

I got there just after lunch. They had finished making all the sopresse and salami, and were working on the musetti (or Cotechino).

Chad was in charge of stuffing the meat cannon with musetto goodness (if you like boiled pig parts).

Darios Dad & Godfather are in charge of tying up the musetti. That is a very senior position in the hierarchy of Pig Processing.

On the table next to the musetto station the men were grinding up some pork that had been seasoned in preparation for sausage stuffing.

I don’t know if these boys are really working very hard.

This is why you never throw anything out, because long after the kids are grown you can still use their baby bath tub to bathe pork products.

Vintage Love

Gina got the exciting task of soaking and reconstituting the dried intestines for the sausages!

Sausage Delight!

I’ve missed the last couple of Pig Processing Days, but I’m glad I made it out to this one. Next year I need to go even earlier so I can catch the butchering of it all. Darios Mom posted a picture of the pigs hanging in their garage waiting to be sliced an diced and it got me so excited! I definitely want to venture into butchering next, learning all the different cuts of meat and how to carve them.

Such a great tradition that is slowly being pass on through the generations!

Sunday we made crostoli. We are a little early this year but our gracious hosts will be in Italy when the time comes to make them so we jumped the gun and got it done early.

Every year it gets a little more fun and little more crazy. White wine drinking, sugar pouring, deep fried, lard melting good times.

This year we decided that my Mom and Darios Mom should start a show call the Comares Kitchen (The Godmothers Kitchen) because the two of them together with a little wine and an Italian Man Servant is friggin priceless. And these days, every Tom, Dick and Harry has their own cooking show so why not these two!?

Tomorrow we are back again at the Perizzolo Compound for Sausage & Salami making. The men will be up early and get to spend the whole day with their hands in pig guts. And of course, I will be there to document the whole thing.

Yummm…fresh Italian sausages. I can’t wait!

Just after Christmas Shazzi was sent a bunch of Lightsaber Chopsticks. With too many to keep for herself, she graciously handed them out to friends so that we could be as cool as her. So, this past Friday, with Lightsaber Chopsticks in hand, we all met up for some all you can eat Sushi!

I’ve never had all you can eat Sushi before, mostly because I get so full so quickly, but with the variety they had at Shabusen it made the eating and sharing worth it. Plus, you could order pieces instead of giant rolls, so it worked out quite nicely.

Chad and Dario do not eat sushi, even though Gina and I LOVE it. Someone should invent a restaurant that is Half Japanese and Half American. Burgers for the boys and sushi for the girls. Despite his disdain for seafood, Dario got on the All You Can Eat bandwagon and ordered some Korean BBQ and veggies.

Chad ordered a plate of spicy pork so that he could Korean BBQ it. He gets annoyed that people assume ‘Oh, you are a boy, you like to barbeque, so come for Japanese food with us and just eat the Korean stuff’. Yes, well, he doesn’t even really like Korean BBQ, so he was quite the trooper sucking it up and getting Asian with us.

All the food was quite tasty. I enjoyed the experience because people ordered things I had never tried before, but since we were all sharing everything I was able to try a few new dishes. Everything was quite good. I have been to a LOT of Japanese restaurants, all around the world actually (I had Sushi for Thanksgiving dinner in Genoa, Italy. I still need to blog about that) and so I have had some really simple experiences and some really fancy and expensive experiences. I guess because of that I have started to become a bit of a Sushi snob. Because I have been exposed to amazing sushi, which came with a price tag, the $2.50 California roll down at Fujiya just doesn’t cut it anymore. Shabusen was great for all you can eat sushi, and I would go back again for it. The variety of items they had made the price ($24) worth it.

The sticks, in all their glory! One of the men working there said he had seen people come in to use these chopsticks before!

We taught Dario how to use Chopsticks, though he looks more like a crane trying to pick up heavy loads, than a man trying to eat food.

It was a great Friday night! So glad Shazzi organized it. I was also very glad that the boys indulged us despite even though they aren’t fans of Asian food.

I smell like bleach.

We did the laundry last night and Mom told me to put in too much bleach. Clearly that is why everything smells like bleach. Thankfully the office is half empty today because if not everyone would probably have to stand 10 feet away from me in order to not be annoyed by the smell. I don’t know how I am surviving right now. I just want to rip this damn tank top off! Blah.

Chad ordered me the KitchenAid Pasta Maker attachment for Christmas and it arrived last week. I took a swing at making ravioli again. Same recipe, but with much thinner dough. I also made some pan fried Chicken cutlets and a Caesar Salad as Dario and Gina were coming over for dinner. Small and simple, unlike my usual dinner parties. Everything tasted excellent and I feel much more comfortable in the ravioli making department now which is good. This has caused Chad to become obsessed with freshly made pasta and he now wants me to make it when every possible. I might try Fettucine with his Moms famous meat sauce this Saturday.

Sunday the four of us helped out at the Befana event that our Italian group puts on every year. It was Ginas first time being introduced to the ‘Italian Witch’. The lady you ‘plays’ the Befana is like the cutest Italian Nonna of all time. She reminds me of my Nonna on my Dads side. ADORABLE. We get free pasta and sausages out of the deal, and really, that is reason enough to volunteer. We ended up watching the last 10 minutes of the Broncos vs. Stealers game on Darios android phone, including the insane over time finish. Where were you when Tebow threw a pass to beat the Stealers? Oh, we were in a Gym with a bunch of Italians eating pasta and watching the game on a cell phone. Random but true.

Claudia is in Chile for another week, which makes the office very lonely.

Tonight we order sushi for dinner. This makes me very happy. What makes me even happier is that on Friday we are all getting together for sushi again, but this time we are going to use light saber chop sticks. Oh you just wait for those photos!

I’m half Japanese and half Italian, didn’t you know?