MN Little Italy 18

[DemonBradleySlaysPippi]

Where are you????

I am with you all! I should be tidying up!!!

I did, I did!! [portinaia emoticon]

Siblings' rivalry. Oh dear, that's really tricky

I think parents are usually scared by their dc's feelings of jealousy. Probably the best way to approach them is to be very understanding and trying to give the oldest child some space.
Or, to put it better, finding a good balance between them spending time together and learning to share, play and coexist more or less peacefully and giving them some privacy/time off from one another.

I know I always bang on about nursery, but it certainly helped ds having his little, different world a few hrs a day to cope with the arrival of his sister.

Or maybe he was just too much of a simpleton to be too jealous, as he has never been particularly so

They have both become more competitive between each other in the last yr. Also because they do play a lot together and therefore can get on each other's nerves.

As for tantrums, your dd is certainly going through that developmental stage where tantrums can be quite typical. She might also be upset of the changes going on in her/your life?
MY advise would be: pick up your battles and try to be understanding.
It's easier said than done, though. I find tantrums really hard to cope with, to be honest.

mmm love bollito. love pasta in the brodo as well. I am very excited as for the first time in what seems like months I have taken ds out, we have gone into a shop and conversed with real people . I have been calling dp for the last few weeks due to ds being ill telling him what to pick up from the supermarket on the way home, never as nice. I am in the middle of eating the freshest mozzarella di bufala, the softest, sweetest prosciutto and some lovely pizza bianca from our lovely alimentari and all is well in the Gio household. Have also bought a huge chicken which seems more like a turkey! Can you meal plan for me -I want to use every bit as cost a fortune!Am going to do roast tomorrow and brodo with the bones. What can I do with remaining meat?
Anyway enough about food. MM sorry dd being a nightmare . Rosa why are in laws so bloody awkward! Agree with suggestion to keep one at her house! Franca I love that website- am going to have a browse before starting work again.

at mozzarella di bufala and prosciutto... Ah, Rome. I think it is still possible to find fantastic food there. (in Milan too, but getting a bit more difficult and expensive!)

What about a curry with the left overs? Or polpettine?

Hey everyone.

I was on a non-self-imposed MN strike. Just too busy, or tired, or occupied with poor DD who has a chesty cough and was up, like, a gazillion times last night with it.

On the up-side, I have now watched Romanzo Criminale on BBC iPlayer. I was a bit about the film - felt a little, err, confused to me. But hubba hubba hubba that Kim (WTF! ) Rossi Stuart is buff and studly. Phwoargh. Am a bit underwhelmed by Scamy, I'm afraid, franca , but he didn't get much screen-time, so perhaps I will warm to him. And that Accorsi bloke: well, admittedly, he wasn't very well served by the moustache , but to my mind he is a bit boring looking, rather like Ioan Gryffud (sp?). A bit bovine looking.

Anyway, I am now keen to read something that might really teach me something about 1970s Italy. Any recommendations?

Sorry about DD1, MM. No advice, I'm afraid.

Oh, and HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, miniRosa!!

I stayed in a lovely place not far from Gloucester road but I can't recall the name it was many moons ago so it is probably an Indian restaurant now....
Keeping a table at MIL is not an option as she doesn't have the children. DD1 has been for lunch twice there but only in the last month as MIl is terrified they will choke, fall, anything - she will push the buggy outside a shop for me but not if MR is eating bread etc. Mind you having 2 has helped with MR development as she walked 2 steps between them and also it means that dd1 will play with 1 so they won't fight !!!!!!!!!
I make brodo in the pressure cooker with pollo ( If I recall that is how we all met !!!!!!!) But I draw the line at boiling pork or beef. I also do vast quantities and freeze it in blocks - One christmas I was in my pumino and scarf in the kitchen doing brodo with all the windows open as the stench is too much. Boiled meat and salsa verde BLAH BLAH BLEUGGGH.
Gio a real pollo, Roast, then curry / chicken and veg pie with flakey pastry. ( bought obviously !)Chicken mayo sandwiches. Bung some cold bits in the freezer.
re teaching I was / am planning on doing teh TEFAL one simply as a starter - I have no intention of going and teaching in a school full time but private lessons and small groups so I figure it will help. Heaven only knows when I can do it though as minirosa has other plans!!!
Rivals - dd1 is far more paitient than minirosa try to take something off her ans she throws a wobbly she will also climb , pull , bounce over anyething and everything to get what she wants and as for taking a bit of food out of her mouth ( like when she crams in half a banana or a huge bit of bread so her cheeks bulge ) you need riot gear as she throws everything at you to stop you getting it !

Sorry read and spell check before posting...and I want to teach English !!!!

Lol at smell of boiled meat. I am not a fan of that either but then I loooooove pasta in brodo, especially with Barilla midolline. Bollito is fine - as long as it's white meat only (although DD will happily eat anything that's not too chewy). With leftovers I make chicken salad, with giardiniera, peppers, red onion and a mix of mayo and grainy mustard. Or polpettone if I have a mix of leftover meat.

Methinks I should be watching ROmanzo Criminale...

Rosa you made me laugh. Your post sounded like mine - trying to say everything in 5 second, possibly before minirosa/minipippi jumps on the computer headfirts.

I must say minipippi has improved so. She listens a lot more and is a lot less agressive, mind you have not been to playgroups much. I suspect is the lack of ability to communicate as she so does everything like big children but is unable to intercat and express herself. Her vocabulary is so impressive though compared to big pippi! Daily fight to make her say "si" instead of "yea!" or "scusa" when she's done something wrong. It is a battle of two wills! Atm I win as I she will not get what she wants if she doesn't say it [Rottermeier emoticon]. Not sure it will last long.

I will try to make brodo too.

Methinks I should go to Rosa's or MI's house to be given private cooking lessons to what to do with left overs. I always put everything in the fridge then I found them green a fortnight later....

hi everyone

been to the doc, chest infection, so on antib, if don't work then xrays and inhalers.

I hate boiled meet, especially the smell of boiled chicken after FIL did it once when he was visiting, bleurgh. but spezzatino or gammon boiled in bier doesn't smell the same, so I don't mind

sibling rivalry - ds gets a bit jealous s.times I think, he said the other day I'm always saying brava to dd so explained that it's because shhe's little an d learning so much every day, then DD is always in mezzo when he's doing s.thing, but no major problems

Penthe, no, don't be scared of my wrath . I'm glad I don't have to share him . Yes, he gets only a handful of scenes... but I find he is particularly ahem fit in romanzo criminale... with those raybans... (and I feel a bit guilty in fancying someone who looks so fascista... it's perverse )

Camo, I hope you get some rest over the weekend, you poor thing!

Lol at rosa in piumino boiling meat

(he looks fascista in RC. In reality he is not. At least I hope so)

Oh, poor Camo. Can you get some rest? Bed & chocolate, I think.

LOL @ fascista.

oh, I wish, but with the two devils rest is impossible, just hope they go to bed early.

btw, what is the traditional italian xmas meal? I really don't know as my mum was born and brought up in france in an area ful of italians/algerians/polish, so I think it's very mixed (for example we always have turkey but also lasagne)

I don't think there's one traditional meal... but 1000!!!

Traditional Friulian Xmas meal is bruade e muset (to you that is a kind of cotechino with sauteed grated turnips marinated in vinacce or vinegar for a looooong time). Give me turkey any time!!!! or nice sirloin in herbs crust... mmmm - I may try to convince my mum to have that this year.

Pippi - I have to make interesting stuff with lefotvers otherwise DH moans (childhood scars, I believe). On a scarier note, my Xmas pudding smells a bit like boiled meat at the mo so I am worried. Will see - hopefully I will not kill anyone!

Franca, I am still not sold on Scamy. But then I am the one with the thing for Fini.

MI, to me it's still bruade e muset

yes, you're right franca, it's more of a regional thing... so many english friends and colleagues ask me every year and I can never give them a straight answer.

Rosa, the cakes queen (or anyone else that knows), recipe for a nice crostata? just feel the sudden voglia (not that I'll be making it tonight!)

Poor Camo . I hope you manage to get some rest over the weekend. Chest infections can make you feel so low and miserable!
Penthe hands off K Rossi Stuart . Am a big fan and in the past was known to hang around a location in Rome that dp spotted him at in the vain hope.... 38 going on 14 methinks! Actually have a dvd of his DP bought me as part of birthday present not seen yet. May watch that tonight along with my chinese takeaway dp is bringing in. Bliss!
We do the cappelletti in brodo and bollito for our Xmas dinner the year we are here as that is what dp was bought up on and turkey and the works at my Mums when in the UK.

As a child we used lunch at my maternal grandmother's and we had:
insalata russa (homemade.)
Ravioli in brodo (homemade by my grandmother)
bollito misto with salsa verde. Everything home made by my grandmother, who was a great cook. She was the queen of spezzatino.

Now it's a different menu, but mum always brings her superbe insalata russa and my aunt her equally superb pate' di fegatini di pollo.

Btw, Penthe I agree with you on romanzo criminale. It is very glamorous and totally lacking of subtelty (does this word exist?)
I mean the links between banda della magliana, the mafia, the kidnapping of aldo moro, the p2 etc have been proved, but it is too obvious in the movie. It should have been more gloomy.
Still, the actors were fit.

Penthe, you might be interested in the controversy on the imminent release of the movie La prima linea here in Italy here

hello sorry yesterday i disappeared again. really bad day with the dds, dd1 tantrumy and clingy and not napping, dd2 feverish and clingy and not napping, i seem to have spent the whole day fighting them off the tv, it was a constant "mamma tv tv tv" and i was feeling really bad myself so i lost my rag a few times am afraid. then i took dd1 to her swimming class and almost crashed the car on the way back (rainy dusk- i couldn't see a thing). anyway, i put them to bed at 7 (unheard of in the masseuse household) and had a stiff drink and felt better afterwards, but then i made the mistake of checking my emails before going to bed and discovered i have been rejected for yet another job . i don't think i can take it, am so used to being "prima della classe", and now i just have to admit no one wants me. [wailing emoticon].

i will download romanzo criminale now to watch next week. Penthe, have you seen La Meglio Gioventu'? granted it's something like 6 hours long but it is absolutely awesome and i think it will give you a good idea of 1970s italy and how we went seemingly smoothly from terrorism to 80s corruption to Berlusconi..

christmas food- well in terronia it's pesce on the 24th then honestly i don't know, the 25th always feels like such an anticlimax after the feast of the vigilia... we normalli have tortellini in brodo but it's the legacy of my uncle's MIL who used to be romagnola and made them by hand... heavenly. although Giovanni Rana is not too bad himself.

Just a quic before dh and I run away for our day out.

Camo I have a great crostata recipe if you can wait till tonight.

No one has answered my question about Videocracy .

ask again Pippi i missed your question!

MM I onlu wanted to know if anybody had seen it and what they thought about it.

Here is a thread I have started, looks like it might turn all nasty.