Good Food in Ferrara

I was going to title this post "Fall in Ferrara," but realized that you'd expect a bunch of stunning leaf photos if I did. Although the stunning leaf photos are out there, I am not! It's just a little chilly out there without a coat, and ours are still in Vicenza waiting to be delivered Wednesday!

So instead, we'll regale you with tales and a picture of Italian homecooking! Today was our Branch Conference (the little congregation we attend here is called a branch -- although with such small numbers, it's more like a twig! Ha! Ha!) Anyway, with the extra leadership in attendance our numbers were nearly double. Since our numbers are so small, after the meetings, the whole branch went to the Relief Society President's house (she's in charge of the women's organization) and had dinner!  They told us it would be something like lunch...

After the blessing, we got in line and filled our plates with lasagna, salad and cold green bean-potato salad. It was delicious! But when I got up to get a drink of water, there was a sausage dish and mashed potatoes and 2 other kinds of meat...and then another roast...and 3 cakes...and a huge box of chocolates.

There was a woman there from Padova who explained to me that this is what Italian luncheons look like every day! First is the Primo Piatto (First Plate) or Primo (This consists of pasta or lasagna. Then it's Secondo --the meat and potatoes, followed by Contorno, which is salad. Then you finish up with Dolce -- sweets like cakes or cookies. I asked her how Italians eat like this every luncheon (following the pastries for breakfast) and all stay thin. Unfortunately, we were interrupted before I heard the secret.

It was all positively fantastic, and I hope to worm my way into some Italian cooking lessons before we leave here. The missionaries were telling us that the sister who hosted, makes her own noodles for the lasagna...yum!

Another interesting bit of news we heard is that there is an Italian-speaking congregation in Padova, which is only 1/2 an hour from here. They have all of the youth programs and have the translation sound system in their building. They were recruiting us pretty hard! They told us to let them know when we were coming, and they would conduct their services in English for us! We are considering it seriously, because it is so much closer than Vicenza, but would still allow the kids to have the Sunday School classes, etc. It's hard to decide what to do. We are starting to feel close to the people from our branch here in Ferrara, but 3 hours of church all in Italian is really hard for the kids.