Please pass the martini and diet pills now....

...because I feel like I'm in the 1950s.

Some of you may remember the origin of this blog's name, "Liggiland." It came about when I announced to my then husband-to-be that I wouldn't be taking his last name, but that I was more than happy to meld our last names into one and then we could both change ours. After some initial strife, he doesn't seem to mind anymore. No one in my family minds it. But my mother-in-law insists on referring to me as "Mrs. Liggio." At first it was "Mrs. Erin Liggio." I asked Mr. L to talk to her about it, but mostly I bit my tongue and sucked it up. And then this arrived in the mail today.

The offending article.

Mrs. Dennis. Liggio.

Apparently, I don't even get to have my own first name anymore. Now, I know that in the past, and probably still in some parts of the world today, married women considered it a privilege to be able to call themselves "Mrs. Huffington P. Nobgobbler." I'm not one of them. I love Mr. L, and most of the time I'm perfectly happy to be his wife. But I didn't change my name when I got married for a reason - I'm still the same person I was before I said "I do." My fundamental personality didn't change. One of my core relationships did, but who I am didn't. And so I didn't change my name.

The replacement of my first name honestly feels like a smack in the face. It feels like to my mother-in-law, I have no first name or last name (or identity) of my own - I'm just "his wife." I find it maddening. I know there are women who don't mind this, who embrace it even, and I'm fine with that because it was (presumably) their choice. What's infuriating to me is that my mother-in-law insists on continuing this even though she's been told repeatedly that it doesn't just bother me, it offends me. I worked hard in school, in my career, and in my personal life to build a personality and identity I'm more or less proud of. I don't want that erased or replaced at someone else's whim.

Okay, that's enough venting on that. Lighter notes in the days to come, I promise.

Signing off,

Not Mrs. Dennis Liggio

Dennis & Erin's Excellent (Italian) Adventure - Part 1

I know, I know, I've been slacking. It took me a full week to get back into my normal routine, then a couple more to post pics to Facebook and Flickr. But I'm finally back to normal and all the photos are posted, and now it's time to make you jealous with all the little details.

Day 1 (Tuesday, October 13)
We flew Delta (which I refuse to hyperlink to), which I wouldn't recommend to anyone. Our original flight departed Austin around 1pm, connected in Atlanta, and then continued on to Venice and arrived at about 10:30 the next morning. Two weeks before our departure, Delta canceled our original flight. Our new itinerary departed about 6 hours earlier, at 6:45am, but only arrived in Venice 1 hour earlier. And we had stops in Atlanta and JFK. Delta FAIL. The only redeeming qualities were the unlimited free wine and beer on the transatlantic flight and the free Bejeweled I played the entire flight on the screen embedded on the seat in front of me. Oh, and I watched "Night at the Museum 2", also for free. Awesome.

Day 2 (Wednesday, October 14)
We arrive in Venice, and I am totally excited! Why? Well, first, I'm in Venice. But also because Mr. Liggiland had a 50/50 shot at getting arrested at immigration. You see, one of his brothers signed him up for Italian citizenship when he was just a teenager (their grandfather immigrated from Italy, so they were eligible), and Italy has compulsory military service. Not knowing this, Mr. L didn't know to file the requisite waivers until after the fact, which is when the Italian consulate promptly lost them. Maybe. We don't know. It seems that Italy has yet to enter the 21st century, because they still do everything on paper and don't digitize any of their records. Suffice to say, I spent months telling Mr. L he better be on his best behavior or else I might turn his AWOL butt in at immigration. My threats turned out to be completely empty though because Italian immigration consists of one guy who takes your passport, gives the photo a cursory glance, stamps it and sends you on your merry way. That's it. Thoroughly disappointing for me, but a big relief for Mr. L.

We got to skip baggage claim because we managed to fit everything into 2 carry-ons, thanks to the magic of Space Bag Travel Bags, which may be the best invention ever. Using these awesome instructions, we purchased our tickets for the water bus from the airport to old Venice and found the bus stop (which is a long, chilly walk from the airport terminal). I was a little nervous about trying to communicate, but it turned out pretty much everyone could understand my broken Italian (and the guys on the bus were more than happy to correct my pronunciation of the stop we needed) or, more often, spoke enough English to get by. The bus ride was a long one, over an hour, but it gave us an opportunity to take in some nice views of the lagoon and Venice from a distance.

We got off at the San Zaccaria stop, named for a little church nearby that's dedicated to John the Baptist's father. After getting slightly lost, we finally found our hotel, Hotel Fontana, which turned out to be right around the corner from the church. Lesson number one in Venice: what they call "streets" we call "alleyways," so take that into account when trying to navigate.

Our hotel, Hotel Fontana, seen from the street.

Even though we arrived a little early, our room was ready so they let us check in. While the room's decor wasn't luxurious, it made up for it with the most picturesque view of the Venetian street below.

See? Picturesque.

After a much-needed nap, we headed out to wander Piazza San Marco.

Piazza San Marco, with the Campanile (Bell Tower) on the right and St. Mark's Basilica in the background.


Detail of St. Mark's Basilica.

Detail on one of the buildings lining Piazza San Marco.

After a bit more wandering around the Piazza area, we headed to dinner at a restaurant near our hotel, Trattoria da Roberto. We each had pizza - I had pizza capricciosa, which had all the usual yummies as well as artichoke hearts, and Dennis had the "house special," which had pepperoni, olives, mushrooms, and "wurtzel," which looked like a sliced up hot dog. All tasty enough, though, to satisfy us at the end of an exhausting first day.

Day 3 (Thursday, October 15)
While I slept well our first night in Venice, Dennis did not. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we headed out see the interior of St. Mark's Basilica (no photographs allowed) and the Palazzo Ducale (aka Doge's Palace, also no photographs allowed). While neither of us was terribly impressed with the Basilica (we're just not church people, I guess), we did like the Doge's Palace. My favorite part was crossing the Bridge of Sighs and touring the prison.

Exterior of the Doge's Palace, sometimes called "the wedding cake" because of all the ornamentation on the building.

Detail of the Doge's Palace.

The Bridge of Sighs is undergoing some restoration work, hence all the sky-and-cloud-covered scaffolding surrounding it. Dennis commented that it looks like the windows of the new store going in at the mall.

Next up was a wander through the streets of Venice, courtesy of our fabulous Rick Steves guidebook. We got to see the former Nazi Party headquarters in Venice (which is as ugly a building as you might expect) and the La Fenice Opera House before finally making our way to the Rialto Bridge. We had a quick lunch in a cafe (where I first experienced an involtini - a rolled up, toasted warm pizza), then went to see the bridge. While the bridge itself was lovely, the view from it was much, much better.

We wandered the area surrounding the Rialto Bridge, which is known for its fish and produce market, and saw some gorgeous things, including this amazing spice shop.

After our mini-adventure, we headed back to the hotel (stopping for gelato along the way, of course!) and took the a short afternoon nap. Afterwards, we got up and headed back to the Campanile di San Marco for some gorgeous sunset views of Venice.

A rainbow over Venice at sunset.

To finish the day, we headed out to dinner. Dennis had what he called the second best calamari of his life, whileI had some very tasty spaghetti alla carbonara. We finished it off with what I would eventually decide is the perfect Italian dessert: tiramisu and caffelatte.

Coming Up Next: Murano & Burano, then on to Florence!

Italy Sneak Preview

I've been meaning to blog about our trip to Italy, but I've been working hard to get all our photos up on Flickr first. I promise to get you all the play-by-plays soon. In the meantime, check out our photos from Venice, Florence, and Rome.

The Arch of Constantine, viewed through one of the Colosseum's arches.

Ciao!

Happy Birthday Dennis!

Today, Mr. Liggiland turns 33.

The Birthday Boy chows some pizza in Venice.

I think it's going to be a quiet birthday, seeing as we're both still exhausted from our trip to Italy, I seem to have picked up a touch of food poisoning on our last day in Rome, and last year we pulled out all the stops with the Firework-Erin-Mistook-for-a-Candle-and-Almost-Set-the-House-on-Fire Incident.

On the menu: Black Bottom Peanut Butter Mousse Pie from Bon Appetit's Fast Easy Fresh cookbook and dinner of some sort. We'd previously discussed going out, but we also talked about frozen pizza (we might cook it, we might not - we're wild and crazy like that). There will also be presents and plenty of time to snuggle with the Julie. And probably a trip to HEB and some laundry too. Fun times.

Happy Birthday Dennis!

And the Geek of the Day Award goes to....

Check out the awesome feat of bakery geekery my friend Katherine of Not by Chamomile Alone shared today. A Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite Birthday Cake!


Click on over to her blog to learn more about the day-long team effort that went into making this cake. And Katherine, mad props on your baking and decorating skills!

Hats Aren't for Every Day...

Sweet baby kitty Juliette learned this lesson the other day when I bought my very first bottle of gin (more on that coming soon). I was standing in the liquor store on Saturday, staring at an entire wall of gin and completely confused, when a liquor store guy took pity on me and offered to help with my selection. He rattled off a few different brands, but when he mentioned that the bottle of Broker's came with a freebie, this Jewish girl knew it was for her. And just what was this free gift, you ask?

A plastic hat!

Doesn't Juliette look posh with her wee plastic bowler hat? Now, I won't name names, but one of us wants Juliette to wear the hat all the time, and one of us thinks her mommy is insane and doesn't want to wear the hat at all. So, we've come to a compromise: hats aren't for every day, just for special occasions.


And whenever her mommy wants her to wear one.

Bites: Chocolate Chip Scones with Ginger Glaze

A couple months ago, I wrote about my favorite scone recipe for Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze. I mentioned I was pondering other flavor combinations, and I gave one a try on Sunday afternoon. I replaced the blueberries with mini chocolate chips, and lemon with crystallized ginger in the glaze. They turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. The chocolate flavor doesn't overpower the buttery richness of the scone dough, and the ginger gives the glaze a subtle spice.

Chocolate Chip Scones with Ginger Glaze (adapted from Tyler Florence's Blueberry Scones with Lemon Glaze)
Makes 8 scones

For the scones:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into chunks
1 cup heavy cream, plus extra for brushing the scones
1 cup mini chocolate chips

For the glaze:
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/3 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

The raw materials.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, sugar). Using 2 forks or a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the center and pour in the heavy cream. Fold everything together just until incorporated; do not overwork the dough. Fold the mini chocolate chips into the batter.

Light as a cloud and studded with mini chocolate chips.

Press the dough out onto a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 12" long x 3" wide x 1 1/4" tall. Cut the rectangle in half (so that it forms 2 rectangles, each 6" long), then in half again, so that you have 4 (3-inch) squares. Cut the squares in half on the diagonal to give you 8 triangles.

Cut like so.

Place the scones on an ungreased cookie sheet and brush the tops with a little heavy cream. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes (this batch took me about 19 1/2 minutes) until lightly browned. Transfer to a rack to cool slightly.

While the scones are cooling, make the glaze. I've found that this recipe makes about twice as much glaze as I need, and I apply it pretty liberally. While I usually make a half recipe of the lemon glaze when I make the blueberry scones, this time I needed about 2/3 of the full glaze recipe.

Combine the cream and powdered sugar in a microwave-safe bowl, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Stir in the crystallized ginger and butter. Microwave on high for 30 seconds. Remove from the microwave and whisk the glaze until the butter is melted and glaze is smooth. Spoon the glaze over the scones. Let sit a minute before serving (if you can).

Can I resist the awesome power of crystallized ginger?

No, no I can't resist.

Bon appetit!