Ciao Conference

Last Friday I attended the annual Ciao Conference for Army spouses. What a wonderful, classy, fun, enlightening, entertaining day. The Ciao Conference is hosted every year by the Vicenza Community Club (which I am going to join). They put together a wonderful day of classes, a beautiful breakfast and an Italian style lunch that went on for hours! We also had an amazing speaker and tons of amazing items that were raffeled to the ladies.

Luckily I got in most of the classes that I wanted. I attended Italian Cooking Class, Day Trips of the Veneto Region, and Italian Dessert Class! Needless to say, I had a very filling and yummy day!

My first class was the Italian Cooking Class. In my class the Italian culinary experts taught us how to make Antipasto. I learned how to make mini pizzas with delicious Italian ingredients. I also learned to make several different sandwich rolls with prosciutto, salami, mushrooms, asiago cheese, rucula and some other amazing ingredients. We also made a Brescola and Rucula rolls with cream cheese. The yummy antipastos were delicious and not difficult to make. My friend and I attempted to make the sandwich rolls for our FRG meeting and they didn't turn out the same as the culinary experts, but I think we know what to do differently next time.

My second class taught me about neat day trips that we can take in our region. There are so many vineyards, cheese factories, olive oil and vinegar manufacturers in our region. Most of these places are available to be visited by the public and are open for tastings. These vineyards are mostly family owned and the tastings won't be a big production (like you would see in Napa Valley etc...) but the wine is to die for. One thing thatI learned about and am very interested in is Agriturismo. In Agriturismo, they must serve only things that are produced on their land. This is taken very seriously here and it sounds like it will be an amazing meal and a great experience. I learned too much in this class to share on my blog (the info is overwhelming). When we visit these places I will have to write some more about what is available around our area.

My third class was the Italian dessert class! I learned how to make Tiramisu' and Salame al Cioccolato. They were delicious! I will post the Tiramisu' recipe on my next blog for the aspiring chefs that would like to give it a try.

We were served an amazing lunch with all of the traditional Italian courses. It lasted for hours. During lunch we had "the Date Doctor" as our speaker. He is the "real" Hitch! (you know, the movie that Will Smith was in-- "Hitch"!). He was very entertaining and extremely motivational. Check him out at http://www.datingdoctor.com/ (p.s. he looks nothing like Will Smith!)

What an enjoyable and enlightening day! I can't wait to do it again next year! Ciao!!