Feeling restless at 4:00 am, I get out of bed and step on... a huge pile of grit. What on earth...it’s everywhere! It feels like kitty litter embedded on the soles of my feet...only...wait a minute! It’s cous cous! The floor is literally covered in cous cous. What??
Then I see our dear kitty, Raffaello dello Spillo, and he’s batting around an empty bag of fine grain cous cous. Could someone please explain to me why the cat felt the need to jump up on the counter, grab a bag of cous cous, bring it over to my side of the bedroom and empty it?
As I’m sweeping up the mess, I realize he also brought over the bag of medium sized Israeli toasted cous cous, but didn’t have time to completely shred and scatter his booty.
So, we’re down two food props and we haven’t even begun to shoot.
Saturday was a glorious day in NYC to get on our bikes and procure the food we’ll need. Armed with neatly detailed shopping lists, our first stop was on Lexington Ave at Kalustyan’s for spices, cous cous, nuts and bitters. Instant gratification was ours as we loaded the fragrant bag onto Jeff’s bike. Then over to Chelsea Market on 9th Ave., where we loaded up on fresh produce and some odds and ends from the Italian Market.
Despite the overwhelming humidity, we had a great time riding around and taking in the city. There’s a good feeling to having things organized and ready. Little did we realize we were about to be victims of kitten sabotage.
I suppose the moral of the story is to put all groceries safely out of the way of inquiring kitties and to have a sense of humor, because something is always bound to go wrong. We certainly learned that in Italy as lights blew, stick blenders wouldn’t blend, and the heat was melting.
Tonight we’ll set up for a tech check, and we’ll have everything in place for the first video tomorrow morning. I’m eager to get started but a little nervous about what other surprises are in store.
Stay tuned for the Aroma Cucina Adventures as tomorrow we bake brownies and roast a few birds. I mean really, what could go wrong?