drei weihnachtsmänner

Have you ever heard of SantaCon? I hadn't until two weeks ago, when Stephen brought to my attention that we should try to get one together in Frankfurt. What is SantaCon, you might ask? Dressing as Santa and going around town drinking/eating/making merry, naturally. We were a little last-minute about it all and so didn't achieve the heroic numbers of some other Santa events, but we and our friend Jill still got plenty of delightful comments. Particular favorites: "Three Santas? I thought there was only one!" and "But Nikolaustag (St. Nicholas Day) was two days ago!" -- because clearly Santa only appears in public on one day in Germany, the land of Very Specific Traditions. Fun things to do while dressed as Santa: drink Glühwein, take pictures with your adoring public, eat Kartoffelpuffer, ride a carousel, be turned away at the door of a bar (!), go to a different bar and lend the bartender your Santa beard so he can terrorize his coworkers. Pretty solid work for just three Santas.

capri II: water

     
Capri might not have beaten out Cala Gonone and environs for the most gorgeous water I have ever seen in my life, but it made a valiant effort. Careers I would not mind one bit: the hunt for the place with the most beautiful sea water.

capri I: land

  
Parts of three days on Capri was just about right, especially since I went swimming every one of them. Neither Capri nor Positano knocked Sardinia out of my "favorite part of the Italian coast" slot, but as you'll see in the next post, Capri's coastline made for a nice runner up.

Capri Town and Anacapri were both a little too posh for my taste (with the prices to match!), but Lonely Planet really came through for us on one restaurant recommendation: Buca di Bacco, on a tiny medieval lane just off the main square in Capri Town. The smoked mozzarella and sweet peppers pasta (pictured above, short tube pasta topped with basil) was so good that after going for dinner we immediately went back the next day for more, AND I inquired after the list of ingredients. I still haven't perfected a home version of the recipe, but give me time.

This is where we stayed, by the way: La Minerva. It was delightful. How delightful, you ask? They folded our pajamas and left us a rose on the bed, together with a copy of their hotel daily news. That delightful.

*

Edit, Sept. 5, 2013: I more or less nailed the home version of the smoked mozzarella and sweet peppers pasta the other night. Recipe follows.

Smoked Mozzarella & Sweet Peppers Pasta

4 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
3 bell peppers, roughly chopped (we used 1 each of red, yellow, green)
1 cup heavy cream (we used soy cream)
1 ball smoked mozzarella, grated (seems to be sold in a standard size, at least in Germany -- approx. 1/2 lb.? this looks about right, in terms of size/price)
salt to taste
optional: liquid smoke to taste
1/2 lb. pasta of your choice (we used spirals)

If you haven't already, before you start cooking, chop your onions and peppers.

Bring a pot of water to boil and cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onions and peppers and cook until soft (approx. 15 minutes), stirring occasionally to ensure even cooking. While onions and peppers are cooking, grate the mozzarella cheese.

Once onions and peppers are soft, remove frying pan from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Transfer onions and peppers to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth (should not take long). The mixture should appear quite thick.

Return onions-and-peppers puree to frying pan and cook until warmed through. Add 1/2 cup of heavy cream and mix well, adding more to taste until it hits a consistency you like.

Begin adding grated mozzarella in small handfuls, mixing well until each handful of cheese is melted before adding more. Once all of the cheese is melted, taste the sauce and add salt to taste. If you feel it could use a little more smoky flavor, add liquid smoke (one or two squirts of a spray bottle or up to 1/2 tsp. should do the trick) and mix well.

Add drained pasta to sauce and stir until well mixed. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

positano

  
You might get the sense that I didn't hate Positano. That would be an accurate sense.

città del vaticano

  
The best bit of planning we did for visiting the Vatican: booking our tickets online in advance. We could have probably done without the tour -- most of the Vatican Museums was just sort of interesting for me, but the Sistine Chapel was flat-out stunning -- but definitely, definitely book in advance. The people who were waiting to buy tickets were standing in the longest line I have ever seen in my life, longer than the line to see the David in Florence or anything I've seen at Disney -- easily half a mile long, if not longer. I don't have any pictures of the Sistine Chapel because you are actually not supposed to take any pictures in there (flash would damage the delicate priceless art, which is understandable, though cameras don't require flash in daylight, even somewhat dim daylight; whatever). Our tour guide got very upset with Ann for taking pictures. But it is so beautiful; so easy to want to risk getting hollered at if it means you get to take a piece of it home with you. The Pietà: also gorgeous. It's hard to give a sense of scale for St. Peter's Basilica, but it's huge, like remove a few columns and you could fit a football field inside it, huge. And stunning.