Saturday, July 17, 2010

Back from Europe


My husband and I just got back from a 2 weeks long trip to Europe, mainly to visit family and attend one of my best friend's wedding and also to sight-see.
Marvelous time and such wonderful memories !!!
We went to Romania for about 1 week, then left for Italy for the rest of the vacation time - where we saw a few small towns, then Bergamo, Venice and Milano.
From Italy we also went to St. Moritz in Switzerland, which has to be one of the most beautiful countries scenery -wise.
And the 4th and last location that we had on our go-to places was Monte Carlo in Monaco, where we saw the famous Casino which appeared in one of the James Bond movies.
A true art masterpiece, but unfortunately we do not have pictures of the inside as we were not allowed to take our cameras or video cameras inside.
Here are a few pictures of the food items I brought back from all the vacation locations.

Semolina flour and alphabet soup from Romania...



From Italy I got some soup mix, truffle risotto mix...and authentic artisan pasta...







A bag of 500 gr (just a little over 1 lb) was 5 euros. 
In my mom's yard there was a rosemary bush and also brought a few rosemary sprigs - wrapped in a napkin and kept in a ziplock bag.



 

When I got home I put it in some cold water


to rinse it and now it is in the fridge wrapped loosely in another moistened paper towel.
It will keep green and fresh longer.
Do I see a rosemary chicken dinner recipe coming soon ? Maybe.
From St. Moritz, Switzerland bought some of the most amazing chocolate there is; the picture of the back wrapping also has their prices in Swiss francs, which are almost at the same value of US dollars.






 





Jeff chose this strawberry one as his favorite. Yum !


 
From Monte Carlo, Monaco we brought Cappuccino mix and sun dried tomatoes...




 While in Monaco, the country that is only spread on 2 square km, we found a chain store called Carrefour where among other oddities, other 5 bilion cheese specialties (literally) and other mouth watering pastries, there were morel mushroom sold in dry form, in 75 gr bags.
One bag that wasn't bigger than 1-2 handfuls cost $ 25....and the price tag also displayed the staggering per kilogram price : 750 EUROS !!
The sun dried tomatoes however, was reasonable: 2.5 euros per bag.



 And this is the first dish I prepared when we got back : sauteed garlic green beans with grilled turkey breast.

Finally, this is the chocolate covered marzipan I found in Frankfurt, at the airport, on our way back.



This is it for now, but as soon as we back-up the pictures and transform them from raw format to jpg, I will post some more.
Cannot wait to show you the fancy dessert I got at the restaurant Cafe du Paris in Monaco, right in front of the Casino.

3 comments:

  1. On Friday we came home as well from a 3 weeks trip to Hungary and Romania. It was awesome!
    Glad you had a great vacation!

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  2. It all looks great! Sounds like you had a marvelous vacation too! I've been all around Europe but never to Italy, lucky you!

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  3. Thanks Judy ! Hope you had a wonderful time and I'm glad to have you back as well !

    Pam - my mom lives in Italy and therefor we went there to visit with her mainly.

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