My Roman Easter

I had plans to do all the festive things one is suppose to do it Rome the week of Easter. However, I had a TON and a half of school work to do and everything fell through. I almost didn't even have time to spare for a real Easter dinner. But luckily I busted my butt and got to have a really awesome potluck dinner! My friend Victoria decided to have it in her apartment which is directly underneath mine. The people that came were Victoria, obviously, her roommate Nicole, my roommate Ashley, Nat, Holiday and her Italian friend Alessandro. Kate was away that weekend in Sorrento and Capri.

So the main course was baked ziti that Victoria made which was sooooo good. Holiday made her grandmother's soup which was also really good. Ashley made a Jewish dish that I can't remember the name of! Ah! But I really really liked it and want to make it for my peeps at home. So good. Nicole was studying at school (which I should have been doing too haha) and came a little later but she had some dessert cookies and nutella for after dinner. The boys, of course, brought the wine. And what did I make? Hrudka. I cold have easily gone out and bought something but no. I was determined to bring something Slovakian. The processes was totally ridiculous and I was certain it wasn't going to turn out but by some kind of miracle it did. And of couse I took pictures throughout the process to show you all:



I made the unsweetened kind because I couldn't find vanilla extract in the grocery store. I want to try it sweetened maybe next Easter and see if it tastes like a dessert or something. Anyway, so it called for a dozen eggs, salt, and milk. You mixed it together and put it into a double-boiler, which I kind of made my own with the very few kitchen things we have. And it's suppose to release whey from the curds and basically look like scabbled eggs:



Then the fun part comes. It said to place the hrudka onto cheesecloth and fold it into a ball and tie it over the sink to drain for 4 hours.... So cheesecloth was not the easiest thing to find in Italy so instead I bought knee high stocking and put my hrudka in one of the knee highs and tied it to the drying rack over the sink and...well:



Hey, it worked. haha. So I let it drain for like 6 or 7 hours and it never released enough of the whey to firm up so I eventually untied it and put it on a bowl with paper towels underneath and stuck it in the fridge overnight. The next morning it really wasn't much better. So I cut it out of the stocking and let it sit some more. Then I read that someone would brown it a bit in the oven so I stuck it in there for like 15 minutes. That seemed to dry it out better. So when it was time to get things ready and head over to Victoria's, I knew it was the moment of truth and had to cut the hrudka...



Luckily, it stayed together!



I cut up as much as I could fit on the plate. Success!



This is all the food we had, minus the soup that was still on the stove and the cookies. I added a little espresso cup full of salt to the plate so people could spinkle it on the hrudka.

And of course I didn't take pictures of everyone so I'm stealing this picture from Victoria. haha. Thanks Victoria!



This is everyone except Victoria who is taking the picture. From left to right it's Sandro (as I called him), Holiday, Nat, Ashley, Nicole, and moi.

And here is a picture of me and the lovely Miss Victoria while we were out one night watching a live band at a bar called Rebel Pub or something like that.



So although I was annoyed that school work managed to ruin one of the most important holidays ever to see in Rome, I was happy that I got to spend my Easter with awesome people and have a chance to relax a bit before being submerged back into research...