• Posted on:July 3rd, 2008
• Comments:2 Comments
• Category:Eat and Be Merry
• 

We said goodbye to our friend Alessandra last night. She’s moving back to Italy to put her newly attained grad degree in Industrial Archeology to work and live for awhile in the real world. Houghton is no place to accomplish that.

Dinner turned out to be quite the production, and I don’t think we’ll have to cook for a week. Pork Loin with mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, a variety of cheeses, fruit, wine, freshly baked bread, and dessert. Ah, there was dessert.

We talked for hours on end, covering everything from politics to American and Italian culture. I asked Ale what her impressions of American food were, specifically when it came to grocery shopping and dining out. She pointed out differences in portion size, and in Americans’ need to have everything covered in cream or cheese. “Not as many processed foods, not as many preservatives,” she added. Ah, America. You are the queen of excess and alfredo sauce.

The dinner — our should I say, dessert buffet — was out of the ordinary for us. But after we’d driven Ale home, we realized that everything we prepared that night had been from scratch. No potatoes or rice from a box, no dessert from a can. And that’s one of the things I love about cooking at home, the control over what you’re eating. I’m not saying we make the smartest choices all of the time, but we’re trying to make smart decisions regarding keeping processed food to a minimum. We don’t have the ability or budget to buy strictly organic yet, but I think that time will come.

Speaking of organic, Ale mentioned that in Italy, food that has been genetically modified must be labeled as such. “It’s the opposite here,” she pointed out. “If I want something organic, I need to look for that label.” Interesting.

Perhaps one of the greatest compliments we’ve ever received from a dinner guest was that we’ve made them feel at home. And to hear that from Ale, whose home is thousands of miles away, made us happy.