Show Us Your Life - Favorite Vacation Spot

This is a hard one for me to answer! There are still so many places I want to go to on a vacation and exactly what is the definition of "vacation?" Is it just where you like to rest and relax, is it a trip somewhere, or both?

My favorite vacation spot, to a place I've been, where the sole purpose is rest, relaxation and fun, is the Outer Banks, North Carolina, specifically Corolla. My family has been going there for years and it's only 3 1/2 hours away, so you can even go for a nice long weekend.

Corolla is most famous for the wild horses on the beach. Whenever I'm there I can feel the stress melting away.

The Outer Banks is also where Blackbeard (the pirate) sailed and wrecked his most famous ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge.

My favorite trip/vacation that I've taken was to Florence, Italy in 2002, when I studied abroad there the summer after my sophomore year of college. I can't express how much I think everyone needs to go there, it will change your life and your outlook on it!

That's me buying some fresh produce at the market.

Cinque Terre

The Chianti Region of Tuscany

I've never been to Destin, Florida and it's the place I want to go to next on a rest and relaxation vacation.

Everything I've ever seen and read about it sounds so amazing.

And the water looks intoxicating! I can't wait to take Spencer one day.

I would love to hear recommendations about great vacation places! There are just so many things I want to do and share with Spencer, so the more ideas the better.
**See my other Show Us Your Life posts**

I Have a Child. The Jig is Up.
Here Comes the Maid Of Honor

After All These Years

When I was in Italy, I was only 20, so recipes and cooking weren't high on my list of priorities. But there was one dish that our host made for us that I loved so much, I had to get the recipe. Somewhere in the jumble of life post-graduation, I lost my Italy notebook that contained the recipe. (Remember, I keep everything!) I was really upset when I couldn't find it because I could not, for the life of me, remember what the name of the recipe was.

I even went to the Italian grocery store in town here and tried to describe the contents of the dish, but they had no clue. And I don't blame them- I was like "It has these things in it that are like nuts, but they aren't, I think, and it can go with pasta, and it's REALLY popular in Italy!" I finally gave up, even though it's irked me all these years. Every time I go to an Italian restaurant I would always check to see if it was on the menu, thinking that if I saw the name written out, I'd recognize it. But that never happened either.

So last night I went into the attic to put some things away (to keep them from Spencer) and I saw an old crate filled with my things. I know I didn't put it up there, so I was curious and started going through it. Most it was junk, an old hula man that sat on the dashboard of my car during high school- type things. But as I neared the bottom, I saw it! A beat up old black notebook that had Italian words written on it. I could the Hallelujah Chorus of the Angels!

I didn't look at anything else in it, I immediately went to the page where I knew the recipe was written. There it was- "Farro Con Pesto." It doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to remember, but it's name has alluded me all these years! It's supposed to be "Farro con il Pesto," but Italian grammar was never my strong suit! haha.


The funniest part of the whole thing is that I wrote it out in Italian and in the metric system! I guess I was trying to assimilate to all things Italian, but the first thing I thought to myself as I read it was "wow, pretentious much?!" Luckily I still know enough to understand the majority of it, so at least that part of my brain is working okay.

I know you're on the edge of your seats for the recipe, which is SUPER easy, delicious, and it will be a great addition to you Vegetarians out there.

Pesto

• A lot of basil, about 1 and 1/2 to 3 ounces, per your liking
• Handful of pine nuts, about 1.4 ounces
  
• 4 and 1/2 ounces of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 tsp. of salt
• Pinch of garlic- per your liking
• 1 and 3/4 ounces of Parmesan cheese

Directions

• Take the basil, pine nuts, and garlic mix them together in a bowl
• Crush them together and mix well
• Add oil, salt and Parmesan

Farro

• Cook 0.55 quarts of Farro (that's a little more than 1/2 of a quart, it's exactly 17.6 ounces)
• Use a lot of water and salt, and cook for 30 minutes (remember to stir!)
• Drain the water and refrigerate
• Mix the farro with the pesto sauce
• Optional - add 4 tomatoes chopped in small pieces

Buon Appetito!

Some of the conversions are a little wonky, due to the fact that it was in grams. In case you don't know what farro is, or if they tell you it's not at the grocery store, it is sometimes called Emmer Wheat, more specifically, Triticum dicoccon. Here is a picture of it.

In Vino Veritas

One of my favorite blogs, Lilly's Life, really got me thinking the other day. She wrote about Erma Bombeck's If I Had My Life to Live Over after finding out a friend of hers had Ovarian Cancer. "What Are We Waiting For?" was the question she asked.

I don't think of myself as overly morbid, although I do think about death a lot more since becoming a mother. I have a living will, but I did that after the Terry Schiavo debacle- as I knew/know my mom would NEVER pull the plug on me and frankly, I don't want to be a vegetable or live in a vegetative state. But I don't have a Bucket List, or anything like that.

As I read some of things Erma Bombeck would have done over, it got me thinking about what I would regret if I died today. Since I know I wouldn't change any of the choices that led me to being Spencer's mom, most of the things were fairly trivial. But I knew right away what I would really regret- and that was saving my all my Italian wine I brought back with me from Italy.

I wrote about it here, but briefly- I brought back seven bottles of wine and gave away five of them. The other two I was saving for the right moment. Well, that was in 2002 and there have been plenty of great moments when I could have poured myself a glass of my GREATLY anticipated vino. But each time, I would say to myself, "No, wait for something even better, you'll be glad you waited!"

One of the bottles is a reserve wine, in a special box with a silk label- it's beautiful. The other is just a regular bottle of red, nothing fancy- I think it cost me 3 Euro. So last night, after seven years of waiting, and for no particular reason, I poured myself a small glass of my Italian wine. And I have to say it was worth the wait. I savored each sip. I swirled and sniffed and did all those things that fancy wine people do. Since I'm no fancy wine person, I felt a tad ridiculous, but who cares?


I'm still waiting on the other one, I'll probably be 60 before I can bring myself to open it, haha. But I'm proud of myself for finally being able to enjoy and savor the moment, for no other reason than living for today and not for an unpromised future. Gilbert Parker once said Tomorrow is no man's gift. And that is so true.

I have a really hard time living in the moment- I'm always waiting for the future or looking at the past. So that's one of things I'm going to work on, enjoying today instead of dreaming about tomorrow.


I'm still not going to make a Bucket List, yet, but I will try to stop waiting and start doing. If you get a chance, read Erma Bombeck's article (I linked to it up top). It's short and really gets you thinking about using the nice hand towels for yourself rather than your guests!

More Italia Pictures

I hope I'm not boring you with my Italy pictures, I'm just so excited that I have them on my computer now! Here are a few more, a little less exciting pictures.



This was the doorway to our house. All of the doors are like that- this one had a really cool wind-up locking mechanism.

Cinque Terre, Italia. This was one of the most beautiful cities on the Italian Riveria. Five cities make up Cinque Terre, and this is Vernazza.

Steph and me, again. Vernazza is known for their Limincello, which is what's in the yellow box/bag. I brought home 8 bottles of wine with me, and I still have two. I'm waiting for the right moment to open one of them- I'm not sure what I'm waiting for, but I think I'll know when it's the right time!

Sienna, Italia. The castles here were amazing, as was the hour drive from Florence. You can't beat Tuscany when it comes to breath taking, beautiful countryside.



The singing gondolier in Venice.

There are always people selling roses in the bars and restaurants, and one night one of our friends bought us these beautiful roses. I don't know why he isn't in the picture, haha.

Caio Italia

After my sophomore year at W&M, I spent my summer studying abroad in Florence, Italy with my best friend from college, Stephie. I just found my negatives from some of the pictures (yes, this was before the digital era) and I'm getting all nostalgic looking at them. I had such an amazing time on that trip, I really don't have any words that could do it justice, so I'll just post a few pictures instead.

You're not allowed to take pictures of The David, but I was able to get this shot before my camera was taken from me.



Vino with lunch in Sienna

Seriously, the smallest shower ever. I didn't even like to shut the door when I was in there, I'd always keep it cracked a little, just in case.

Ciao Italia!

Wine Country

I didn't actually drive this, it was parked on the street and I climbed on- oh, the days of my carefree youth.

The air conditioning on our bus broke down on our way home from Venice during a massive heat wave. It was 101 degrees outside, but inside- it was like being cooked to death in a massive oven!

Gondola Ride in Venice