Roman Holiday: Day Two: Trastevere

The little neighborhood we stayed in was called Trastevere, meaning across the Tiber river. We did not stay in the heart of Rome with all of the ruins and big flashy buildings and sculptures. Instead we were located near the botanical gardens in a more eclectic and and quaint neighborhood. This area is full of colorful shops and restaurants with narrow, winding streets and smaller, but just as beautiful town squares and fountains. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, we went to bed very early due to jet lag and in turn woke up very early. So early, that we were able to watch the Monday night football game via the internet. The sun was not due to rise for another couple of hours, when we decided to take an early morning walk through Trastevere and into the heart of Rome. I highly recommend this since you can see the beauty of the city without all the foot traffic and people shoving scarves and "selfie-sticks" in your face. 

Empty streets of 5 am Trastevere

Beautiful square, church and fountain in Trastevere

As the sun rose on a foggy morning in Rome, Bryan and I went to a market at Campo di Fiori, or field of flowers. It's a famous market that sells fresh and local produce and goods. So as the vendors were setting up for business, Bryan and I sat at the adjacent Obika for a cappuccino and pastry. 

Our first cappuccinos

As the sun rose the market came alive. Local restaurateurs and tourists scoping out the fresh produce, cheeses, truffles, olive oils and other items. The colors were so vivid and the produce came in shapes and sizes that were striking. 

A couple of years ago, a good friend of mine went to Italy and told me about her new found obsession with figs. This tickled me curiosity. I had never had a fresh fig before, only in jams and jellies. Luckily, my culinary to-do list was about to have another box checked, as we bought a couple of figs and ate them while sitting on the ledge of a nearby fountain. 

After our appetites were appeased by cappuccino, chocolate and fig, we stepped into a local meat and cheese shop where Bryan tested out his basic Italian to request coffee, crackers, Pecorino Romano and prosciutto. With our newly acquired snacks, we headed back to Trastevere for an afternoon on the patio. By this time it was about 8 am and the city was awake and the morning fog was lifting.

Waiting for our prosciutto and pecorino

Morning fog

Making espresso in the apartment

Roommates trying to steal our snack

Outdoor patio snack

Story time: the archaeological site that Julius Caesar was assassinated is known as Largo di Torre Argentina. It is a preserved area that is surrounded by busy streets just a few blocks away from the Pantheon. It is now the site of a cat sanctuary. Random. We visited the sites and all of the kitties. Again: random.

Largo di Torre Argentina

One of the cats from the sanctuary doesn't seem very happy with me

More espresso from Tazza d'oro

We thought it would be a good idea to take a food tour of Rome. It would give us a chance to sample many signature dishes without the hassle of researching multiple locations. Plus, this would give the opportunity to learn a little about the neighborhood of Trastevere and have an English-speaking guide. Eating Italy took very good care of us and we loved our tour guide, Anna. 

First stop: Da Enzo al 29 for some prosecco and fried artichokes

Round 2: Spirito di Vino for wine and more food in an underground wine cellar

This wine cellar is 160 years younger than the colosseum, crazy

Dried sausage, meatball and cheese with apricot jam

barley, pea and sun dried tomato salad

walking tour

Next: Innocenti for some cookies aka biscotti

Eating lemon sandwich cookies

Getting some fast food at I Suppli

Suppli: fried risotto balls with a mozzerella surprise

Taking a gander at La Renella's pizza oven that predates Italy

Margarita pizza

Family style dinner at Enoteca Ferrara

Gnocchi, ravioli and caccio e pepe, YUM

Final stop of our food tour: Gourmet gelato at Fatamogana... Mint, almond and ginseng with lemon curd

One thing I love about going to new cities and taking your preconceived ideas of the location and comparing it to your hands on experience. I never knew anything about Trastevere and yet it seemed like it was so familiar, like how I imagined Italy to be. The narrow, winding roads, cobblestones streets, laundry hanging out to dry, flower pots on balconies, etc. It seemed so right and made us feel like we weren't in a touristy area, even though we probably were. 

The next day our adventure took us to the places that Rome is known for. Ancient ruins, up next. 

-Akemi-chan

Roman Holiday: Day One: Heart of Rome

Bryan and I were wrestling with honeymoon destinations for a few months. At first, I wasn't sure I could get the time off to go on a honeymoon. When I finally traded my shifts away, we could not decide what to do and where to go. 

Too many options flooded our realm of possibilities. Domestic vs international? Cruise vs land-locked? On our own vs all-inclusive? Hot vs cold? The possibilities were only limited by flight loads. We felt bombarded by so many great choices, we had a hard time deciding. 

After many visits to online travel forums and travel magazines, we spoke to my sister-in-law and she asked us a really good question, "Where do you want to go?" 

A honeymoon is a (hopefully) once in a lifetime opportunity to splurge on a trip that you would not normally take. We we thinking about going to the Grand Canyon or on a cruise or to somewhere in Central America. After she asked us that question, we realized we wanted something grander.

We decided to go on a trip we had both been dreaming about for many years. Italy here we come! We planned a four-night trip top Rome in a little apartment rental for our Roman holiday. Here are some pictures from our first day in the Eternal City. 

Got our Roma Passes to avoid long queues at train stations and attractions 

Roof-top patio of our apartment came with some roommates

Trees draping over the Tiber river walk

Pantheon, one of the few standing buildings from ancient Rome

Giant columns

Taste the rainbow of gelato 

Lunch of pizza...

...and arancini 

Fountain of the Four Rivers, representing the major rivers of the Roman Empire

Beautifully carved columns

The Trevi was under construction, no coin tossing today :-(

Cobblestone streets 

Spanish steps, where's Audrey Hepburn?

Looks like Charlie

Circus Maximus, where they held the chariot races

As you might have noticed, we only had one meal and gelato during our first day in Rome. That's because we were so tired from the red-eye flight and the sight-seeing, that I fell alseep at 6pm and did not wake up until 4am the next day. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I slept through a meal. That's what happens when you are up for 30+ hours.

Our next day started very early thanks to my marathon sleep-fest... and more eating, I promise.

-Akemi-chan

A Simple Roasted Garlic Spread

Time for my debut on the Food & Travel blog! I figure that since Carly and I are married now, we're basically the same person, and I can start contributing a little around here.

That's right, it's Bryan Dannowitz here, and I'm here to share with you an easy people-pleasing recipe that's sure to satisfy the taste buds. It being almost Halloween time, it's also sure to repel those glittering, blood-sucking vermin; those long-toothed night walkers. Yes, this is going to be pretty much pure garlic.

My father once told me "Son, if you find yourself with a woman who doesn't like garlic, then find a new woman." I always thought that this 'Dannowism' was cute, but then I grew up and remembered that my mother didn't like garlic, and, well... we all know how that went. Needless to say, that saying lost a bit of its charm. Regardless, I find myself lucky to be married to a woman that embraces the all-empowering flavor that is garlic.

So, we begin with raw garlic heads. My dad has begun growing his own garlic in his oversized backyard garden. He also buys artisan breeds of garlic from a co-worker who is a garlic enthusiast. Lucky for us, he will often generously send us home with a bag of 10 to 20 heads of garlic. The only issue is: for a household of only 2 to 3 people who cook maybe one meal a day, how do you use 20 heads of garlic?  An easy answer is to make yourself a roasted garlic spread.

All you'll need is:

• 4 heads of garlic
• 1/8th to 1/4th cup olive oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 tsp minced rosemary, or your herb of choice
• (optional) a glass of bourbon and a sweet funk playlist to kill the 45 minutes this will take to cook

First off, preheat your oven to 375°F.

Take your garlic heads and a nice sharp knife and cut them a little higher than their mid-height point.

Now, just nestle those heads in a little square of aluminum foil and drizzle some olive oil over the cut tops, just enough to coat them nice and good. If you accidentally pour too much, don't worry, I'm pretty sure it'll only end up tasting even better. Then, wrap them up nice and tight in that foil.

I always think that in this state, they look like robot heads of garlic, don't you think?

In the rare case you actually find robot garlic, do not ingest.

Now, here's where you're going to get the good stuff. The advice that goes above and beyond. You see, if you're working with more than two heads of garlic, it's but a fool who throws away the tops of these heads. My friends, there's gold in them hills. Go back over them and pop out the nuggets of garlic that you've cut off. We're going to use those puppies, too.

Yes, all this goodness is left in the tops!

Wrap up your aggregated left-clovers into some foil, add some oil, and add it to the bunch. Then, throw it into the oven and set your timer for 45 minutes.

While you wait, I recommend throwing 2 oz. of bourbon and 1 oz. of sweet vermouth into a tumbler with some ice, stir till mixed and chilled, and then add a few drops of angostura bitters, and enjoy while you wait.

Also, while you pace in circles, you can prepare the last major ingredient of the mix. In my case, I want to use rosemary, because we paid like ten dollars for this plant in the spring and have barely used it. Feel free to use parsley or thyme or whatever herb you needlessly spent money on. 

  

For a powerful substance like rosemary, I recommend 1/2 tsp per 4 heads of garlic. If you use something else, you're going to have to come up with your own rules, you rogue.

Now, that ear piercing oven alarm goes off, and it's time to pull the garlic out and let it cool a bit. When it's cool enough to handle, peel the foil back to find the cloves of garlic nice and browned and soft like this:

Should be as soft as smelly mashed potatoes at this point

Go through and squeeze out all the roasted cloves of garlic into a bowl. Oh yeah, and if you decided not to wear gloves for this recipe, your fingers won't stop smelling like they do for the next 12-24 hours.

You'll end up with a bowl that looks like this:

Not shown: the rainbow that ends just above this bowl

All that's left is to mash it all up with a fork and add the rosemary, salt, and cracked black pepper.

Serve it however you want, on whatever you want. On a cracker, on some bruschetta bread, add it as a garnish to some appetizer, or, heck, put it in a popsicle mold and freeze away for a delightful summer treat.

Cheers.

And if anybody is upset about me making a blog post about something as simple as roasting garlic, think to yourself -- shouldn't we take it upon ourselves at every opportunity to raise awareness of the effortless delight that is roasted garlic? Yum.

Now, if you don't mind, I will welcome my wife home with a garlicky fresh kiss, as I relinquish back to her control over her blog.

See you next time, everyone!

- Bryan D.

Our Travel Themed Wedding

I've been married for a little over a month, and yes I know how 8th-grade that sounds. But now that the dust has settled I decided to document my thoughts on the whole wedding planning process and the emotions that come along with it. Here are a few pictures from our big day, along with the story of how we got there. Be prepared, this is a long post. 

Homemade wine for the hotel rooms. The crane is a nod to my Japanese heritage

Bryan and I had been engaged before, and we broke it off. There were many contributing factors to this decision, and one of them was the stress of wedding planning. We were ambitious enough to think we could pull off two weddings, one in each of our home states. This way those who could not travel could still be a part of our big step without spending 8+ hours on an airplane. So much for that idea. 

Our ceremony site with origami crane altar pieces and wine box

The second time around I was very anti-wedding. The anxiety and bad memories of wedding planning the first time around were enough for me to swear off the project. Not to mention the financial obligation that comes along with weddings. Long story short, I wanted to do a destination wedding. But we bit the bullet and decided for something traditional with a few simple modifications. 

Our sweetheart table was framed by a window overlooking a grassy knoll of the Arboretum with our altar pieces on either side of the table

Drama: It is incredibly difficult to plan a wedding, stay on budget and get everything you want. It is even more difficult to not get swept up into all of the drama. Some couples have family drama, some couples have friend drama, but I can almost guarantee you that if you have a wedding you will get caught up in silly-insignificant-detail drama. Such as the shade of roses on the corsages or the size and shape of the centerpiece vases or the amount of tomato on the hors d'oeurves. 

It's all silly and just makes you stressed out for no reason. You don't even notice it on your wedding day, or at least, you shouldn't. But when you're planning, you get into this mentality of, "If I'm paying for it, it better be what I want." My husband introduced a saying to me that he adopted from his mother: "This is not a hill that I want to die on," meaning, it's not that important and it's time to move on.

In the end, all you can do is prioritize and downsize. Find a few things that you truly care about and simplify the rest. Like get a great photographer and nix the three foot tall centerpieces. Get the good suits and opt out of garters and cake knives. 

Card box

Theme: One thing I am very proud of was our theme. I wanted something that summed up our hobbies and lightly incorporated our personalities. Originally, I wanted to get married at a vineyard and have a wine theme. But when we visited the Morton Arboretum, I fell in love with it's beauty and decided on a different approach.

If you haven't guessed, we went with a travel theme. Thanks to my job, we have blessed to see the world and we take full advantage of it. Our love for travel preceded our relationship with trips to California, Nevada, Washington DC, Florida, Colorado, even Europe. We had seen so much of the world and there is still so much left to see. Now we get to do it together.

Centerpiece with table number and favors

We added little touches of flair to incorporate our theme. I didn't want our wedding to be a huge production. More like a classic yet causal gathering with hints of personality. We kept most things neutral and let the colors and vintage items speak for themselves. 

Champagne, rings, bouquet and "guestbook"

Our guestbook was my Mother-in-law's vintage childhood globe, and guests could sign on any state, country or body of water they wished. Our centerpieces consisted of purple and ivory flowers in square vases, including a Japanese style mum. Vintage postcards of places we traveled to together acted as table numbers. Guests received luggage tags as place cards and favors. Our card box was a vintage luggage set with luggage tags / favors that read, "Just Married." Finally, our cake was in the shape of a suitcase with a more traditional cake sitting on top of it. It was finished with a simple monogram and I felt is captured the feeling of our event perfectly. 

Cutting the suitcase cake

Maids and Men: For the bridal party, I wanted things to be intimate and practical. Two groomsmen, two bridesmaids. My girls were beautiful in their floor-length aubergine dresses with a lace shoulder and back. The boys wore classic charcoal grey suits, white shirts and purple ties to match the girls. Everything we bought for the bridal party was classy, elegant and completely reusable. No rentals, no "bridesmaid" looking dresses. My motto for attire was, "This is a wedding, not the prom."

My lovely bridesmaids and myself waiting to walk down the aisle

Gifts: I tried to keep many gifts sentimental and intimate. Nothing to bulky or fancy. After all, everyone was traveling several miles to get to the wedding, nothing could be perishable or fragile. To keep with the travel theme, maids received necklaces with pendants of their home states with a heart over their home town. For my groom, I gave him custom cuff links with a map of Chicago (where he grew up) and Central Illinois (where we currently live). 

Home state necklaces for the girls

Cuff links for the groom

Brunch: Our decision to have a daytime wedding was three-fold. Firstly, the venue was booked for that night, so only Saturday afternoon and anytime Sunday were available. Secondly, the wedding would have cost twice, if not three times as much if we had booked it for nighttime. Lastly, everyone likes brunch. When you are combining a large group of people from all different parts of the country, it can be hard to please them. But we figured most American people eat the same kinds of breakfast foods. 

We had people that were gluten-intolerant, vegetarians, carnivores, fish eaters, non-fish eaters... you name it, we had it. Our menu was a balance of different items that could accommodate even our pickiest of guests. Yet it all remained cohesive thanks to the brunch blanket.

We served fresh fruit, spinach salad, roasted potatoes, bacon, Eggs Benedict, smoked salmon and bagels, and the hit of the day crème brûlée french toast. Something for everyone.

Noms

Bringing two families together: I wanted to bring some ethnic traditions into our wedding. After all, it's tradition. We didn't want the traditions to be ignored or to be overwhelming, just a little dusting to make the day more personal. 

I folded 1,000 golden paper cranes and strung a few of them on thread to create a garland. Our florist then draped these cranes onto our altar pieces and they shimmered in the sunlight. Other touches included Japanese mums, and a Hawaiian Koa wood mirror my dad handmade. We also did a Japanese-Hawaiian traditional toast known as the Banzai. Everyone was great to participate and the enthusiasm was much appreciated. 

 

Toasting during the Banzai

Thanks to the love and support from our families we were able to pull off an amazing day full of love and laughter. That sounds kind of like a Hallmark card, but it's true. Despite crazy airport drama, hours of organization, and hectic planning from a distance we managed to pull it off. 

Me and my new husband and new siblings

Bryan handing the paper crane garlands to the little ones

Combo Father-Daughter, Mother-Son dance

Grandma and all of her grandchildren

Swing dancing with Grandma

I want to thank everyone who came to our wedding and a special thanks to everyone who helped make our day as smooth and as stress-free as possible. I've heard many horror stories of couples who could not enjoy their day because they had to micromanage, wardrobe malfunctions, had bad vendors, or who didn't get to eat. I was hesitant at first, but we were lucky to have a wedding that can only be remembered as the best day of our lives. 

Don't forget that first selfie as a married couple!

-Akemi-chan

Month long break

We're back from our honeymoon. So basically a took a month long break from blogging. I'll be up and running in a few days, but until then, I'll just have to get used to being a Mrs. Wedding and honeymoon posts soon to come.

Mrs.

I'm getting married tomorrow! This is my last post as a single girl and I wanted it to be short and sweet. When you find someone that respects you and cares for you and will do anything for you, all you can do is hold onto them. We may not be perfect, after all no one is, but life is so bright and hopeful with you in the picture. I promise you forever and all that I am.