Learn Italian This Winter!

After a very successful fall semester at Rec & Ed, I will be teaching two Italian classes next semester: Italian 1 and Italian 2.

These evening, adult classes are fun and help you to learn useful phrases, grammar and vocabulary. I speak as much as possible in Italian and create an immersion environment. We always end the semester with a festa!

Not sure if you should take Italian 1 or Italian 2? The Italian 2 class will be a continuation of last semester’s Italian 1. We completed the present tense and useful vocabulary surrounding greetings, hotels, directions, trains/planes/buses, and eating. We will be reviewing, of course, as we move onto the past tense. If you spoke some Italian at home growing up or have taken a course or two before, Italian 2 is for you. If you’ve never taken Italian before, I recommend that you start with Italian 1.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me: ChloeMiller{at}gmail{dot}com. You can register online! Scroll down on this page for information on the classes and links to register.

Here are the details:

Italian 1

8 Wednesday nights (January 27 to February 17 & March 3 to March 24)

6 to 7:30pm

Price Resident: $115.00

Non-resident: $129.00

Class will be held at Pioneer High School 

Italian 2

8 Wednesday nights (January 27 to February 17 & March 3 to March 24)

7:40 to 9:10pm

Price Resident: $115.00

Non-resident: $129.00

Class will be held at Pioneer High School 

*If you are interested in learning Italian this winter but can’t make these classes, I am available for private tutoring. I have a very flexible schedule: we can meet in the mornings, afternoons or evenings. I can suggest texts and provide handouts for our private lessons based on your interests, skills and needs. I am happy to work with individuals and small groups.

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Chilean Chocolate Treats in A2

I first came across Maitelates (my-tay-lah-tes) at Comet Coffee  (in the Ann Arbor Arcade) with a friend who had spent some time in Chile. She had a huge smile when she saw the chocolate dipped alfajors. She said she’s never seen them available in the USA.

I had never tasted anything like these treats. The caramel-filled shortbread-like cookies are delicate, sweet and delicious. You can buy them on Wednesdays and Saturdays at the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market in Kerrytown or online at Foodzie.

My parents were recently visiting and they were kind enough to buy us a sampler box. My favorite flavor – so far – is the Michigan cherry.

For more information about the cookies and the woman who makes them, Maite Zubia, I encourage you to visit her online diary.

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Cooking and Eating for a Good Cause: Raising Money for the Greenview Hepatitis C Fund

**I wanted to remind everyone about this opportunity to share recipes for a good cause. I submitted three recipes the other day. Have you submitted yours yet? **

Debbie Green is calling for recipes and tasters for a second cookbook to support the Greenview Hepatitis C Fund, a nonprofit. The Fund raises money for Hepatitis C research at the University of Michigan.

As avid writers and chefs, I thought I’d share this with you. 

The cookbook will focus on special diets (think: allergies, glutton free, low carb., etc.) I look forward to contributing some corn syrup-free recipes for dishes that are impossible to order in a restaurant without being saturated in it. The first two that come to mind are pecan pie and meatloaf, but I’m sure I’ll think of more.

When you are thinking of recipes to share, keep in mind that Debbie prefers recipes that are easy to prepare and don’t have too many hard to find or unusual ingredients. Also, she prefers things that are made from scratch. 

To submit your recipes, send them in a Word document or regular email to Debbie(at)hepcfund(dot)org or mail to:

Debbie Green

2773 Holyoke Lane

Ann Arbor, MI 48103 

Be sure to include and check:

1. correct measurements (T=tablespoon, t= teaspoon, c=cup)

2. oven temp.

3. cooking time

4. nutrition info if available

5. clear and precise instructions

6. ethnicity of dish

7. if this dish is for a special diet (gluten-free, vegetarian, allergy, etc.)

8. any suggestions for accompanying dishes

9. your name and contact info

10. any comments you wish (Try to keep comments to 4 lines, unless it’s a really good story!)

Through the Fund, Debbie has raised a total of $30,000 so far. One of her best fund raisers is her first cookbook, Cooking Around the World, which sold over 1,000 copies. (This cookbook, along with a few free recipes, is available from her website.) Help make this next cookbook just as, if not more, successful!

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World AIDS Day and Day With(out) Art

According to the World Aids Campaign: More than two million AIDS related deaths were reported globally in 2008; two million children under the age of 15 now live with HIV. New figures released by the World Health Organization and UNAIDS estimate the number of new HIV infections have declined each year by about 17% from 2001 to 2008, but for every five people infected, only two start treatment.

The numbers remain high. Protect yourself and help others. I strongly believe that through comprehensive safer sex classes in the schools, young people will learn how to better protect and care for themselves. We cannot teach abstinence and expect our children to be safe. 

We often return to art on December 1^st. I look forward to hearing the poet Donald Hall talk and read his poetry at the University of Michigan Museum of Art tonight.

You might be interested in listening to this piece from NPR in 2006: Tory Dent’s Poetry on Life with AIDS. Tory Dent wrote poetry about the experience of living with AIDS, most famously in her collection HIV, Mon Amour. She was 47 when she died after being HIV-positive for 17 years. On the website, you can read sections of from Dent’s the title poem of her recently released collection, Black Milk.

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Tonight! Reading at Sweetwaters in A2 on Tuesday, November 17th

I will be reading at Sweetwaters as a part of the Writers Reading at Sweetwaters series tonight (Tuesday, November 17th) at 7 pm. The room is a bit small, so please arrive early for a seat. Don’t forget to bring work to share at the open mike.

The reading is hosted by the lovely Chris Lord and Esther Hurwitz. Thank you again for the invite!

You are welcome to RSVP on the Facebook Event page (or just check it out to see the other cool people who are coming.)

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Donald Hall on Teaching Composition

I am very much looking forward to Donald Hall’s reading at the University of Michigan on Dec. 1^st.

I’ve been reading his memoir Unpacking the Boxes and want to share what he wrote about teaching composition at the University of Michigan.

 

When I took the Michigan job, I made it a condition that I teach no creative writing. Every term the department gave me a section of freshman composition. It is the hardest class to teach. Twenty students are twenty different sets of difficulty and the difficulty is only partly with writing. My freshmen were away from home for the first time – few came from boarding schools – and struggled with loneliness and liberty. In their essays they expressed or evaded their confusions. Language explains us to ourselves and conceals us from ourselves. Teaching prose style became exploration of the psyche, and I went home from conferences and office hours vibrating with the discomfort and distress of my composition students. (There were contrary elations. When a boy from a northern town suddenly brightens up and understands, or a girl from a high school in suburban Detroit takes first, the hard class becomes satisfying.) Eventually debilitated by teaching composition, I volunteered to teach creative writing. To my surprise I liked it – one class a year, ten or twelve people. I could choose the students after checking out their work, and take only those with some facility.

 

Thanks, Donald Hall. I’ll try to remember these lines the next time someone says, “Oh, you just teach composition?”

 

 

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La Bella Vita – here in Ann Arbor!

I teach Italian through Ann Arbor’s Rec and Ed program. Next semester I will be teaching Italian I and Italian II on Wednesday evenings. Recently, students have been asking me for more local resources. I thought I’d share a few with you:

The Dante Alighieri Society offers children’s language classes and various events, like an annual spring film festival. Last year I enjoyed a few free movies hosted by the University of Michigan.

The Michigan Italian Tribune  is published weekly. I enjoy reading about local events, from religious festivals to cheese sales.

These two restaurants in town that have some language-related events:

Silvio’s Pizzeria  – look for Silvio, the chef and owner from Abruzzo. Don’t miss the Sweet Dreams dessert pizza (a stuffed pizza with nutella and cream. Wow!)

Paesano’s Restaurant  – see Isabella, the chef from Venice. She periodically gives cooking presentations through the Ann Arbor library. You can also pick up a copy of her cookbook and try the recipes at home.

 

The University of Michgan’s Language Resource Center pairs tutors and conversation partners via the internet. This is a great resource.

If you are interested in private tutoring, please contact me directly (chloemiller(at)gmail(dot)com.)

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Kelsey Museum Opening

We attended the opening of the Kelsey Museum of Archeology at the University of Michigan opening yesterday.

As an art lover, I was happy to see that it was crowded with guests of all ages. The museum has an amazing collection, from the largest collection of Latin inscriptions in the west to a beautiful and accurate (watercolor) replica of the Villa of Mysteries from Pompeii. See it being installed in this Youtube video. We look forward to returning to the museum at a later (and less crowded) date to better see all of the pieces.

There was live music and historically accurate food for the opening. Check out the pictures of the bread created by specially by Great Harvest Bread.

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Boo!

Happy Halloween! My husband and I had fun dressing up like a bride and groom for a Halloween party last night. With my veil and his bowtie, we joked that perhaps we had more bride/groom accessories than we did when we got married a few weeks ago!

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Dinner in a Meat Market? Yes!

Sparrow Meat Market in Kerrytown (Ann Arbor) hosts a semi-secret monthly feast. They take over the supermarket and Sweetwaters Café area with long tables covered in white tablecloths. They serve multi-course meals and guests share their BYOB wine with each other. The entire complex is closed except to those who made a phone reservation and know to enter through the only open door (closest to the parking lot.)

I’d seen flyers for it when I looked for it on meat counter after browsing the Saturday Farmer’s Market outside. There are no ads and no mention of it on the Sparrow website. Friends have raved about it, but mostly because they heard great things, not because they’d ever gone. 

After eating in the packed rooms filled with the aromas from the five dishes and the live music by Douglas and Andrew Brown, I understand why they don’t advertise. They don’t need to. Through word of mouth, this dinner is “legendary,” as one friend described it to me in an email.

Here was the menu:

1^st course

Baby spinach with dried Traverse City cherries, toasted pecans, crumbled blue cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette. 

2^nd course

Marinated tomatoes and zucchini served alongside a selection of Italian salamis.

3^rd course

Seared scallops with cream sauce over roasted garlic and pumpkin polenta. 

4^th course

Pork loin stuffed with fresh herbs, garlic, and grated pecorino cheese slow cooked in marinara served over braised escarole greens.

5^th course

Fresh prepared Amaretto cannolis.

My favorite part of the meal was the pumpkin risotto. I don’t care much for scallops in general, but this polenta was perfectly seasoned. It wasn’t sweet or spicy. The pumpkin flavor was appropriately slight and complemented by the creamy sauce. This is something I want to try to recreate at home. Minus the cream sauce, this Epicurious recipe sounds about right.

The fresh basil on the zucchini in the second course helped to bring out the fresh flavor of the vegetable. The salamis were room temperature and their fattiness (a positive!) was offset by the light vegetables.

The salad dressing on the first course was a bit heavy for the light baby spinach leaves and the pork loin would have benefited from just a bit more spice (salt and even hot pepper), but considering the large numbers of people being served, I don’t think it should be held against them.

This dinner was something we’d like to repeat. And repeat.

If you need more convincing, you might enjoy this review on AnnArbor.com by Jennifer Shikes Haines. 

The menu changes according to the seasons. Be in “the know” and check out the flyers on the meat counter. The cost for the five course dinner is $45.00 and you can call for reservations/information at 734-761-8175.

 

 

Thanks to the Ann Arbor Chronicle for linking to this article.

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