La Cucina : everyone can do it if I can!

Courgettes, Roasted and Preserved

2015-06-12T12:42:00.002+01:00

Last week was busy.
Last week was an unbelievable week. We are back to normal now, the new Au Pair has arrived and seems to be really nice. Her name is Chiara and this cohabiting is going to be extremely interesting.
Chiara can't, at present, eat most foods. When I asked her if there was anything she did not eat, she said: It'll be faster to tell you what I can eat".
She is, for the moment, intolerant to many, many, maaaany things.
The first night we had dinner together, I kept asking her what I could or could not put in the risotto I was making.

So, get ready for some new, extremely healthy and cheap recipes here...

In the meantime, while we were busy looking for the new Au Pair and fixing the cars for the NCTs, some courgettes just languished on my kitchen counter for a few days... Finally, on Sunday, I was so tired of seeing them I had the idea of using them all, otherwise they would just rot. And throwing food away is NOT an option.

But, what to do with 6 courgettes all at once???

I decided I would roast them and keep them in sunflower oil, so here we go:

Remove the top and bottom of each courgette, wash well in lukewarm water and cut them in half.

Now, place each piece on the chopping board and slice gently:

The slices should be not too thick, so that they cook quite fast.

Now, place a few on a grill pan:

Turn them every now and then and, once nicely roasted, add to a jar:

On the side, have some chopped garlic ready and, if you like, some mint leaves.

I also added some rock salt every now and then, adding the oil bit by bit, you will see no air remains in the jar.

Make sure the oil covers all the courgettes before placing your precious jar in the fridge.

Mint gives preserved vegetables a very fresh taste.

Enjoy!

Vegetable Garden Risotto

2015-05-28T07:50:00.000+01:00

Yesterday afternoon, upon returning home, I found my little one still napping.

The perfect occasion to have a nice, quiet tour of my vegetable garden, look at the buds, the flowers, the well being of my newly planted basil...

I was delighted to see a lot of new basil "babies", peeking out of the soil for the first time!

Then I collected a lot of spinach leaves, swiss chard leaves and about 4 or 5 broccoli-rape tops:

These are delicious blanched and then fried with garlic, just like my mother does, but I don't have enough to do that.

So I added them to the spinach and swiss chard leaves and came up with this fantastic Green Risotto!

Soften half an onion in a small bit of olive oil, add a clove of garlic, chopped very tiny, and then, throw in your greens!

I used the swiss chard leaves, the spinach leaves and the broccoli-rape tops.

After less than a minute, add enough water to cover the veggies:

Salt to taste and let simmer for as long as you wish.

Once you're almost ready to eat, blend everything, as if there's no tomorrow!

Then throw in your risotto rice and, just a minute before completion, throw in some goat cheese:

It was a very tiny piece I had in the fridge, our good friend Alex brought that around some days ago.

Cook for another minute, turn once and serve:

The cheese will melt very quickly, that's why you want to add it at the end.

It was really yummy, and I was very pleased and proud to cook my own veggies :)

Spilling the Beans...

2015-05-17T12:39:00.000+01:00

My au pair, Dalia, had some intolerance tests done while in Italy, and she found out she must not eat too much gluten, yeast, yoghurt... So we are changing now the way we eat here, and hopefully this will lead to more inspiration for those who cannot eat those things.

Yesterday I cooked something very simple, but it's worth sharing because it tasted very very nice.

We made Beans with Rice.

Ingredients:

Soaked Pinto Beans
Water
Tomato Sauce
Sausages

A hint of Smoked Paprika
Turmeric

Garlic
Onion

Salt to taste

Cook the beans in water and salt for about 1 hour.

Drain the beans once cooked and set aside. In the same pot, place some olive oil, some sausage pieces, half an onion and a couple of garlic cloves.

Here, I added a few more sausages just so we had some extra for today.

Add the beans you has set on the side and stir.

Add enough water to cover everything.

Add a few spoonfuls of tomato passata.

Cover and simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes, just enough time to get a nice sauce.

Cook some basmati rice with salt and turmeric, so it is healthy and yellow :)

Once everything is ready, serve and enjoy!

Mother Yeast

2015-05-17T11:50:00.002+01:00

The holidays are now over, we got back home Thursday night at 4 am.
I brought with me many memories, pictures and a general feel of well being and happiness. Spending time with my family really fuels my soul.

I also brought with me Mother Yeast, or Pasta Madre, or Lievito Madre.

My mother got some from a friend who got it from her brother-in-law, who got it from a family somewhere else.

This is a dough which is usually passed down for generations in the households of rural Italy.

Some families had Mother Yeast passed down for the past 400 years. The older the dough, the better it works. It's something amazing to think about: you might be baking using a natural yeast your mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother used to bake.

You may be kneading the same flour they kneaded.

However, it is hard to come by because it's not sold in any shop, you must find someone who has extra and is willing to share it.

My mother has some now, and she insisted I take some.

It needs to be renewed every week, some people renew it every single day. In fact, the more you renew it, the better it works.

Some chefs say it is at its best after 3 or 4 years of "life".

Now, to the renewal process.

First, you get the Mother Yeast out of the fridge, where is kept in a glass jar with the lid on.

Then, prepare the tools: scale, spoon and a clean bowl.

Cover the scale plate with some tin foil, and lightly dust it with flour, so the Mother Yeast will not stick to it.

Place the Mother Yeast on the scale and weigh it.

Add the same amount in fresh flour.

Place both in the bowl.

Measure half the amount in water, for example you have 100 grams of Mother Yeast, so you'll add 50 millilitres of water.

Knead it well as if you were making a bread loaf.

Now, place it in the bowl, make a cross on it with a knife and cover the bowl with a clean cloth.

When it looks like this, it is ready to go back in the glass jar and in the refrigerator.

I have renewed my own Mother Yeast today, on a Sunday, so that each week I will make sure I do it, as Sunday is usually the day we bake. It takes literally 5 minutes for the renewal process and it is great to be able to bake without any store-bought yeast.

I will be giving it a try soon, and report back ;)

And Beauty is Around Every Corner

2015-05-10T08:23:00.001+01:00

My husband and I managed to go out on our own a few times, during this trip.
It is nice to be able to just sit by ourselves, with a nice drink, and chit chat like two adults.
It does not happen often, and so we cherish each and every time we can indeed leave the children with the grandparents and simply go out.
We went to Gaeta, a city on the Ulysses' Riviera. It is a wonderful place, it is also called the City of 100 Churches.
Around each corner you may put up your nose and find a real treasure of old architecture.
Sometimes I wonder how people managed to erect those impressive buildings all by hand.

Below are some pictures, taken at night. Go for a walk around this place, keep looking up and you will wonder too...

The Land Where Food Is Sacred

2015-05-07T08:02:00.001+01:00

I'm not joking. Food, here in Italy, and, I believe, especially in the South, is indeed sacred.

Food has a direct link with the mothers of this Country, and we are known to be one of the population who live longer under the parents' roof. It is not by accident. We love Mamma's cuisine too much, we love the security of the family, but are often not ready to create a new family of our own.

Behind this, lie mostly economical reasons. Work does not come easy and often a full time job does not mean you can afford to rent your own place AND eat.

It is a weird Country indeed, extremely corrupt and in a deep, deep generational crisis.
However, it is also immensely beautiful and the food... Well, the food is awesome.

A few days back, we visited my auntie's home, she offered us coffee and placed this very simple sponge cake on the table. She's a very good cook herself, so after tasting the sponge I asked how you make it.

Easter Sponge Cake

She told me there is no need for a scale to make it. Fantastic, I thought.
You start by beating separately the yolk and the egg whites.
The whites must be beaten for a while, until they become nice and fluffy, as you would do to make meringue.
For each egg, she adds a spoon of regular white flour and a spoon of sugar.
She cooked it in the oven at 150 degrees Celsius until, on the top, a nice, light crust appears.
Done!

She told me, back in the days, for Easter, all the women would gather to make sponge. While the bread was cooking in the wood fired oven, each would be preparing the mixture for this. After removing the bread from the oven, which cooks at very high temperatures, they would put in the baking trays with the sponge mixture and let it slowly cook.

It was one of those events where women came together to cook. They would exchange news and gossip. There were no TVs... She also told me sugar was extremely expensive back then: to purchase 1 Kg of sugar, my grandparents had to sell 9 liters of cow's milk.

My mother, then, went to the polytunnel they build right behind the house. She came back with these:

In the picture above, courgettes flowers and rocket salad leaves, fresh from my Mother's vegetable garden.

The courgettes flowers are washed, quickly wet in beaten egg, then lightly dusted with flour and fried.

Needless to say, they are one of my favorites... This way, you can cook courgette and aubergine slices, too.

A variation of this recipe is to stuff the flowers with mozzarella. Yum!

I then spent a couple of days at my in-laws'. They are 60 Km away from my parents, they live on the coast, and they eat way different!

One of the things my mother-in-law cooked for us was Mozzarella in Carrozza, which can be translated in Mozzarella in a Carriage. Funny name :)

To make these, she uses toast bread, she removes the crust and places, in between two slices of it, mozzarella slices and cooked ham.

She will then bathe the bread in beaten egg, dust it with flour and fry it.

What you see above is the final result. Very very nice!

My mother-in-law also cooked something else I really like, Scapece Courgettes.

Scapece is a way of cooking vegetables, usually courgettes, which involves mint leaves.

These are thinly sliced, fried and then, once cool, dressed with vinegar, salt, a couple of garlic cloves and mint leaves.

Below, my Capricciosa Pizza, a take away from a local restaurant. Needless to say, it is cooked in a wood fired oven.

And this is what you can get for breakfast, if your barman likes you ;)

Come visit Italy, it's truly worth it.

Artichokes... stuffed!

2015-05-02T21:20:00.002+01:00

I am away from home, on holidays.

I am in my favorite place on Earth.

I am at my parents' house.

This is the valley where I come from. The food here is amazing and tastes like nothing else. All is home grown, or I can buy foods that are produced with such dedication and care, they taste like they were made especially for me.

The second day I was here, a trip to the local butcher was in order. They make their own Mortadella, Porchetta, Ham and many many more delicacies.

In the counter, under the glass, I saw it: cow's milk cheese matured in May hay... I cannot describe what I felt when the boy who was serving me gave me a tiny slice to taste it.

You may not believe it; however, it was like eating wild flowers, it was like I was able to eat a smell I remember from my infancy, from the Spring.

This cheese in particular comes from somewhere in Terni, I don't know exactly where but I will find out.

My father loves collecting wild things to bring home, this time of the year it's asparagus. They obviously look nothing like the ones we buy in the shop.

They are thin and long, very dark at times, and I cannot see them in the woods for the life of me. The few times I tried to go and gather the asparagus, I could not see even one.

You need to divide them in tiny pieces, starting from the tip, and stopping at the point where they don't "crack" anymore. That bottom part must go.

This does not mean my mother throws it away. Here is what she does; she will place them in a tray in the little glassed room outside the kitchen.

Once dry, she will grind them all and obtain a powder to use for risotto and other dishes. Imagine, asparagus-based dishes all year round. I said it before and I will say it again: she's a genius in the kitchen.

Tonight, for dinner, we had pasta with a cream of artichoke hearts and asparagus.

My mother cooked the asparagus and the artichokes hearts in a bit of water and salt, then blended everything and, in the end, added some cream.

The pasta was really good, and very light. Artichokes are known for their detoxing properties and eating them on a regular basis helps cleanse the liver and the kidneys. Even if they didn't really clean anything, who cares? They're yummy!

Now, finally, to the title of this page: Stuffed Artichokes. I love artichokes, and since they are not to be found in Ireland, I love them even more... That's part of the emigrant's curse.

Finally, the recipe for Stuffed Artichokes.

Ingredients:

5 Artichokes
3 Eggs
1 Dry Sausage
A Handful of Mince Meat
A Bit of Breadcrumbs
Parsley
A Garlic Clove
Salt to taste

Remove a small bit of the bottom and some of the outer leaves.

Place them in water while preparing the stuffing.

In a bowl, place the breadcrumbs and the mince meat

Cut the sausage lengthwise in two and then in four.

Then cut it in small pieces and add them to the bowl.

Now add the parsley.

Some garlic, in small pieces.

Add the first two eggs.

Mix and add the last egg.

Push apart the artichoke leaves and start stuffing it.

Once stuffed, place them in a pot, cover with water and a spoon of tomato passata.

On top, place some sticks to make sure the artichokes do not come afloat.

Place them on low heat and let them boil for about an hour.

And now, enjoy...

Hybrid Tacos Burritos Piadina...

2015-04-18T13:07:00.003+01:00

What we made instead of enchiladas, two nights ago, was this:

I had some dough for naan bread already made:

I worked it in this way, dividing it into 2 and then 4 and then 8 and then 16 parts:

With the rolling pin, I have made it nice and round and very thin and then cooked it on both sides, on low heat, in my cast iron wok.

These are the first 3 of them, nicely cooked. I finished cooking the rest and there I was with 16 naan breads, ready to be filled.

Then I prepared a series of fillings:

About 800 grams of mince meat, cooked with just salt and a tiny bit of water

Shredded carrots

Shredded courgettes cooked with salt

A can of chickpeas cooked with a bit of green curry paste

A can of sweetcorn slightly cooked with a spoonful of butter

Then, everyone chose their fillings, topped it with some cheese and the hybrids were ready to go under the grill:

A few minutes for the cheese to melt and dinner for 7 was done :)

I had a great time cooking, trying to come up with filling ideas and obviously eating with friends and family...

Everyone was pleasantly surprised because nobody in the house knew exactly what to expect, including me!!!!

If you leave out the mince meat it becomes a vegetarian dish, fun to prepare and easy to put together.

Aubergine Parmigiana

2015-04-13T14:33:00.001+01:00

Aubergine Parmigiana is simply a sort of Lasagna made with aubergine slices instead of pasta sheets.

It's easy and, when made at home, very very enjoyable.

I made one last night for dinner. The oven was already hot because I was baking focaccia, so it took less than 30 minutes to cook.

I have reduced the amount of time it takes to prepare it by not grilling nor frying the aubergines. No fried aubergines also means less calories and virtually no fat.

So, for the Ingredients:

2 good sized Aubergines, sliced
1/2 a kilo of Mince Meat
2/3 of a litre of Passata
1/2 a litre of Besciamella Sauce
2 Mozzarella balls
Olive Oil
1 clove of Garlic
Salt to taste

First thing first, place the garlic clove in a pot with some olive oil and let the oil take the flavour. Remove the clove and add the mince meat, along with just a tiny bit of water and let it cook.
At this stage, I usually salt the meat.
Once is browned, pour over the meat your passata and let boil on low heat for about 10 minutes. Here it is, your sauce.

Second, prepare the besciamella sauce.
Place some olive oil in a small pot, add a few spoons of flour and then pour over about 1/2 a litre of milk. I usually use a whisk for the besciamella, so no lumps of flour remain in the sauce.

Now that everything is ready, place a ladle of mince meat sauce at the bottom of your oven tray and start placing the aubergine slices:

After each layer of aubergines, place some besciamella sauce and continue alternating mince meat sauce, aubergine slices and besciamella sauce.

On the very top, before baking in the oven, grate or slice a

couple of mozzarella balls.

Keep the tray in the oven for about 20-25 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius and, voila'!

Here it is! At the back, another Moussaka I made on the side.

Moussaka!

2015-04-10T13:32:00.001+01:00

I often stop and look at our lives: I find them full, interesting, rich, satisfying, dignified and happy.

A friend of mine always says happiness is a choice. And for all of us lucky enough to have food, safe shelter, electricity and clean running water every day, happiness is indeed a matter of choice.

I started thinking about enriching experiences when our first Au Pair, Giulia, joined our family. She was at the time 20 years of age, abroad on her own for the first time.
In a matter of days, we began regarding her as our daughter, although we are not much older than her, and certainly not old enough to be her parents.

However, and this is a big however, she brought a whole new set of feelings in our house. It was beautiful to realise how we started to love her almost immediately, how we were "warning" her before she went out at the weekends, how I worried when, at 3 am, she had not yet returned from the City.

We keep in touch; she would call and ask us for advice on her new job in Italy, ask our opinion on many things. Just like a younger family member who doesn't really want to discuss certain things with her parents... I can see her blossoming into a beautiful young woman and feel a certain pride. It is obviously not my place to do so, but I do!

Now a new Au Pair lives with us, Dalia. She is older, 28, so the relationship with her has been different from the beginning. I regard her more like a sister in my house, helping out with everything.

She carried with her all of her positive energy, her passion for movies and, of course, she is the reason behind my decision to take Tango lessons. We go to the lessons together and we love it!

At present, a very good friend is staying with us, looking for work. Him, too, meant a new wave of feelings kicking in.
He studied with me in college, and now that we have children, with him around, it feels like being back to that care-free life we used to live back then.
We do a lot of things together, we talk, we exchange opinions and experiences and, often, we cook.

He has the creativity and resourcefulness i appreciate in people. He will say: tomorrow I'll make Moussaka! Let me ask my Greek friend for the recipe.

And that's exactly what we (mostly him...) made!

The original recipe called for fried potatoes and fried aubergines, but to make it lighter, we boiled the potatoes and grille the aubergine.

Ingredients:

6 good sized Potatoes
1 clove of Garlic
1/4 of an Onion
1 Kg of Mince Meat
2/3 of a litre of Tomato Sauce, or Passata
1 Aubergine, sliced quite thick and briefly grilled
1/2 a litre of thick Besciamella Sauce (Made With: 5 tablespoons of Flour, Olive Oil and 1/2 litre of Milk)

First thing first, slightly boil the potatoes, peeled, adding a pinch of salt in the water. The potatoes should not be too soft, they should be hard enough to be sliced.

Next, Besciamella Sauce. Place some Olive Oil in a small pot, let it heat on low for a couple of minutes and then add 3 tablespoons of flour, do not stop stirring, and gradually add the rest of the flour. Once you get a thick paste add the milk and keep stirring. It takes very little time to do it, so no distractions or you'll end up with a messy messy thing.
Keep it on low heat and stir until you have the right consistency.
Once that's done, set it aside, possibly covered.

Now, time to make the sauce.
Place some olive oil in another pot, on low heat, and place in a garlic clove, skin and all.

Chop up the onion and put in in the oil. Let the oil soak up the flavour and then remove the garlic.

Soften the onion and then add the mince meat.

Cook, always on low heat, until the meat is nice and brown.

Add now the tomato sauce and let it simmer on low. Add salt to this sauce according to your taste.

Once the sauce is ready, turn off the heat and you are ready to grill briefly the aubergines. We had them grilled from the day before, because we had a barbecue in the garden. But they can be successfully grilled on the stove as well.

All set! Cut the potatoes and place them on the bottom of your oven tray to make the first layer.

Now place the mince meat sauce as the second layer.

Now it's the turn of the aubergines and the third layer.

On top, the fourth and last layer will be the Besciamella sauce.

Now, place it in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes, and when it comes out, it will look like this:

Slice it up and enjoy!

There is enough for 4 people in this recipe :) So invite a friend or two and have fun!!!

So Here We Are...

2015-03-20T18:03:00.002+00:00

... Sitting on the floor, my daughter plays with her dollies, and myself, updating the blog.

It was a strange week: my son was off school Monday and Tuesday for Saint Patrick's day, I took some days off work myself cause I was not feeling my best, yesterday and today my daughter has been kind of sick herself, my husband caught the flu... It sounds like a hospital, but I'm always grateful all our little diseases are ones we can, in the end, laugh about.

In the middle of all this, I've been working in the garden, which is starting to look like a proper vegetable garden, finally!

Here is the new look:

This is our dog, Billa, loving the sunshine, next to the brand new raised bed I made with 6 cinder blocks. They will eventually be painted and look way better, but for the time being they serve the purpose just as they are. Tulips, and artichoke, a daisy plant and a tiny raspberry "bush" which cannot yet be seen, in the corner next to the compost bin.
Next to the compost bin used to be two absolutely useless and ugly trees, I hated them with all my heart, I could not stand them any longer... They took up a lot of space exactly where I always wanted a kitchen herbs bed. I finally managed to uproot both of them and could not be happier!!!

Here instead, I have extended the existing raised beds, moving and replacing the blocks I had from last year. Strawberries in the holesunder my home made mini tunnel I have tiny swiss chards and spinach. I still fear a late frost which would definitely kill them, so I have "invented" this small tunnel, which is made of leftover garden net and plastic from the previous polytunnel which was destroyed by a storm. I am glad I kept some pieces of that sturdy plastic, they always come in handy :)

Today is the beginning of Spring, we had a magnificent sunny day and the morning came with the gift of a spectacular solar eclipse...

The sunrise of Spring 2015

This is the best picture I managed to get of the eclipse I am definitely not equipped for this kind of events...

A quick update on the windowsill: cucumbers growing fast on the left, rocket not showing up as of yet, perennial spinach just planted and more pop corn plants on the right :)

Lavender, geranium who survived the Irish Winter, and newly arrived primulas :)

The strawberry pallet moved from its south facing spot to a west facing spot. Paint, paint, paint is needed!!!!

And More Gardening...

2015-03-15T12:27:00.000+00:00

We had some beautiful sunny afternoons in the past few days, so the chance to transfer some plants in the garden could not be missed!

These were sunflowers, when they had just decided to pop up from the soil :) As you can see, my non conventional pot follows the golden rule: Reduce Reuse Recycle.

This is my daughter watering the spinach, the day before we could see them coming out!
The next day, she was thrilled to see all the little plants :)

These are runner beans, peas, borlotti beans and pop corn ready to be placed...

And here they are in their definite home :) Runner beans on the left, borlotti in the middle and peas on the right.
Here too, the garden net I used has been repurposed so it will help the plants in their climbing job.

I had to place these in the tunnel because the risk of frost is not behind us just yet, and last year I have learned is not something beans, and legumes in general, enjoy too much... There is still room for the tomatoes, which are still about 5 centimetres high. I have consulted my gardening advisor this morning (my mother), and she recommends to wait until they are at least twice this size before transplanting them outside.

The strawberries are all in their place, some in the vertical pallet, some in the cinder block holes, ready to make us happy again during the spring.

The pallet will get painted at some stage...

Upstairs, I have noticed last night, finally a courgette is sprouting! I can't wait to taste my home grown courgettes! Pasta with zucchini sauce is one of my favourites, and when the courgettes will be ready it's going to be the first thing on my list!!!

And this is the windowsill downstairs!

Cacti, rocket salad, swiss chard, more pop corns and... cucumbers!!!

They are the ones on the left, next to the rocket which has not yet sprouted...

These above, instead, are the spinach, where my daughter worked her magic :)
The pot will stay in the polytunnel for a good while, so they are protected.

Gooseberry on the left and raspberry on the right :)

I am delighted so far, there's still a lot to do! I need to plant the potatoes as soon as possible but a place for them is not ready yet.

Enjoy your gardens!!!

Bread Beautiful...

2015-02-23T10:35:00.003+00:00

This is nice: I managed to make one of those flat loafs of bread we can buy here in Ireland which are half way between a focaccia and an actual bread loaf.

The recipe is simple:

800 Grams of Flour
450 ml of Water
90 ml of Olive Oil
2 Teaspoons of Salt
7 Grams of Yeast
1 Tomato
Basil, either dried or fresh

I placed everything, except the tomato and the basil, in the bread machine. If you don't have a bread machine, knead by hand.

This is the dough I got:

I placed it on my (best friend) and gave it a shape.

Then I have transferred it on the baking sheet, brushed with olive oil and slices of tomato, sprinkled with dried basil:

This was at 11 am. I have put it in the cold oven, and by the time I got back home last night it had trebled in size.

So at 8 pm, I switched on the oven to 220 degrees Celsius and waited until it was nice and crusty.

And here it is, splendid!

This morning my husband demanded a panini for work :)

This recipe is easy to replicate and shows that bread needs patience and time...

On Saving as a Fine Art

2015-02-19T13:14:00.000+00:00

This is a difficult topic for me. First of all, I don't like money. I don't like the system it created, I don't like the fact that people would do anything to get it: stepping over any principle, killing, starving others. I don't like it. I deeply despise it.
In fact, I believe one day we (or, more likely, our children and grandchildren) will live in a world where money is regarded for what it is: a waste of paper.
I believe a society based on resources instead of money would work way better, and that's why I support The Venus Project.

In the meantime, we have to do with what we have. And make sure we are not wasting, not wanting what we don't need; reducing, reusing and recycling as much as we can.

Moreover, I want to make sure I am not wasting my time in the office just to buy things I don't need or just to pay the bills.
That's not our purpose in life. Our lives should be lived to their fullest potential, we must make room for love, laughter, hobbies and passions.

However, and this is one big "however", I find myself in the position of not yet being able to leave my full time job to be a home maker. I would just love to stay home, raise my children, sew, cook, volunteer and have time to write and read.

This is why saving is important. Saving means we'll be able to pay off our mortgage sooner that the (scary!!!) 35 years we signed up for and retire to live somewhere sunnier and brighter when the children will not be children anymore. At least, this is the big plan.

I know life is long and mysterious, and no plans can really be made, but I feel I have to do my best to try and make it easier for us all in the years to come. Even if one of us (myself or my husband) dies tomorrow, my children will still have a roof on their heads and food on the table. And that's another thing that makes me sleep well at night.

Now, back to saving, which is where I had started my post.

Before I buy something, I ask myself a few simple questions: Can I find it cheaper? Can I find it second hand? Can I do without? Do I really like it?

Can I Find It Cheaper?

In the last few days I have been pondering and caressing the idea of making a quilt out of a bunch of old jeans pairs I have stored from many closet spring cleanings. A friend of mine also gave me a bag of old jeans because she knows I am always looking for fabric.
Searching online for quilting tutorials, I found a very good website with a great tutorial for beginners, which seemed written just for me.
Awesome! But hey, I don't have the cutter... nor the mat... I thought: I'll go get the cutter and the mat in the craft shop close to my office straight after work!
Wow, the prices put me off. What's the point in paying above 20 Euro for the Cutter and above 15 Euro for the mat? I want to make the quilt from old jeans, originally purchased in second hand shops and given to me by a friend... It is my first try at quilting, the quilt itself will probably look like crap, if I have to spend over 35 Euro just to begin???
No! In the evening I went on eBay, found the cutter and the mat and I spent all together under 10 Euro. They are probably not the best quality tools, but, seriously, how many quilts am I going to make in the next few years?
So, with some patience, on the 4th of March my cutter and mat will be here, and I can then start my quilt. I will have to wait, I know, but I'm busy in the garden now after work, so I'm not pressed for time. And those extra 25 Euro are still in my pocket :)

Can I Find It Second Hand?

A funny story here. A couple of years back, some friends were complaining Christmas is expensive. No surprise there, they complain all the time they have no money.
They complain children are expensive, food is expensive, clothes are expensive... That's an awful lot of complaining.
We are talking about a couple where both work full time, with 2 young kids.
We all know how expensive childcare is, but that is something we should not be complaining about. Before you have children you know you are going to spend money in childcare, and a fair amount that is.
I raised my first son exclusively with second hand clothes. I had to buy them in the charity shop back then, because I had no friends that could give me their kids clothes. We were new in Ireland, no family close by, no close friends, it was different.
My son was always well clothed and warm. Saving on clothes meant I could afford the best shoes for him when he started taking his first step, and those are way more important than clothes.
My daughter too, she always wears second hand clothes, however now I'm lucky to have this friend who has two older girls and passes on to me everything they outgrow. That's even cheaper. Again, I can get her good shoes and boots because I don't spend anything on clothes.
Sometimes I feel bad, I feel like I never buy anything for her, so I'll get her a hat or something she will like, like a tiny handbag.
So, for me, second hand is always the first choice. For myself and my husband too. I bought all his winter jackets second hand, otherwise they are really expensive. All my clothes are second hand and all my shoes are second hand, except my runners, purchased on sale because I wanted a particular kind and could not find them in good enough condition in the charity shops.

Can I do Without?
The answer, most of the times, is YES. Look around yourself, you more than likely already have everything you need. Someone once said, a woman never has enough shoes. I don't agree. Of course we like shoes, we like handbags and nice clothes. But really... Do I really NEED that extra pair of blue jeans? Probably not. Do I really, really NEED another set of plates for the kitchen. No, I don't.
If I put aside the want, I can save money to get something I really need, or something that would make my life easier. Like a steam mop. Which I recently purchased on sale. I have done without so far, I could keep it that way. However, I have not purchased useless clutter so I have room for the steam mop and money to invest in a model that better responds to what I want.
Why did I get the steam mop? Because it's great, it also has a part that detaches so it can be used as a handheld steam cleaner. It means less and less chemicals in the house as it eliminates the need for the floor cleaner. It also means I don't need to boil the water to mop the floor anymore. I plug it in and the steam is ready in a few minutes. The plan is to eliminate all carpets from the house, so that is going to be very handy upstairs as well in the coming years.

Do I really like it?

When I want to indulge in something I might fancy to have, then the hardest of questions comes in... Do I really like it? I might. In fact, if it catches my eye, I kind of like it. Is it worth throwing out something else to make room for it? Probably not.
Will I like it once I get home? If the answer is not a definite YES, then I don't buy it.

The habit of questioning myself before I put my hand in the pocket to reach for my hard earned money has saved me a lot so far.
I have to provide for two young children and they are learning themselves that a present doesn't always come in a box. Sometimes Santa Claus will get things second hand just to make sure they are tried and tested ;)
The fact that we don't watch tv plays a huge part in the saving, not just because we have one bill less to pay each month, but because we don't get to see advertisement. The ads are written to make you want things, and rightly so, but I'm happy to avoid that.

All in all, we are doing fairly well, there is no stress in our house since we both work and do without a lot of silly things we don't really need. We are not pressed by fashion, trends and the likes. We live simply, we enjoy just being together without the need to go out and spend money on entertainment.
We live altogether, a very fulfilling life. We are always busy and try to involve the children in everything we do inside the house.

We tend to try and fix something ourselves before we hire someone to do it.

What we save by fixing things ourselves we can spend on weekends away and holidays.

Garden - Ready for Spring!

2015-02-17T08:00:00.002+00:00

Yesterday, in the office, I kept thinking that, by the weekend, I should buy the cinder blocks and give the polytunnel a new "look". The project has been in my mind for a while now.

I kept thinking I would go to the builder's shop on Saturday, then, as soon as I got home, I saw the shining sun in the crispy air, and could not wait any longer.

I ran to the shop and got 12 blocks and 4 bags of topsoil.

So here they are, after I carried them from the car, to the front door, and through the sitting room... My back hurts, my arms hurt, but it's a great feeling. I've made it!

Then I told my kids I found a guest in the polytunnel, and they both came to see her.

That's our new garden pet, a little green frog, scared to death by us.

After clearing the polytunnel from weeds and rubbish, I placed cardboard on the soil, and placed the blocks as I wanted them. I have abandoned the romantic idea of wooden raised beds, they rot and must be fixed or replaced every year.

In the left corner, I placed also a piece of garden net, shaped as a cylinder, that will aid the growth of the beans and peas. I made sure is nice and firm in the soil.

On the right, a terracotta pot that will probably house the melon plants and maybe a strawberry or two...

And there, in the green coat and lilac hat, is my little daughter, emptying the little pots into the raised bed we just built. She loved the task and she loves the frog. She kept talking about the little pots and the little frog and it was just awesome to involve her in the work. Last night, at the dinner table, she could not stop telling she had worked with Mamma in the garden and there was a little frog that kept climbing and falling... The smile on her face was the greatest reward I could possibly ask for!

The layout is not complete yet, there will be more net and more pots and I'm glad I also managed to sort the seeds I have at home, so I can plan what and where to plant.

Last night then, I dreamt of my Grandmother. She worked the land and raised cows, chicken and rabbits all her life. There was no choice for her. It was either that or starvation.

The way this kind of hard work reconnects me with where I come from it's amazing. I feel closer to my ancestors, closer to my parents than ever when I get to put my hands in the dirt.

This year we'll hopefully have a better organised garden, every year it gets better, and finding this solution with the cinder blocks it's a great achievement for me. It means I won't have to start from scratch every single Spring and we are ready to go in no time.

We will get there, slowly but surely.

A Busy Saturday

2015-02-15T08:03:00.000+00:00

It's early morning, and I am taking advantage of everyone else's sleep to have a few minutes of quiet. Writing should be done this way.

I came downstairs and found the coffee machine ready, prepared by my lovely Au Pair. She loves me very much. She loves all of us.

I think we are indeed very lucky to have her in our life. We share many things, above all the love for children and cooking.

The first time we baked together, a few weeks ago, she said: "Vanessa, this is like being back home with my Mum, on a Sunday we would always bake biscuits and cakes".

Her mother will always send us recipes to try and I am more than happy to. My mother does the same, mothers who raised children always have good tips and tricks to make life easier for younger mothers. It's like a network of knowledge and love and care that beats any physical distance. It makes us all feel together and working for a common goal.

Yesterday I was cooking all day. Well, cooking and baking!!!

So the first recipe that comes to mind is a bit of a classic in Southern Italy, Ciambelline al Vino, or Wine Donuts.

The base of the dough is made with white or red wine, and they are indeed a sweet treat for everyone to enjoy.

Ciambelline Al Vino

Ingredients:

750 Grams of Flour
250 Grams of Wine
250 Grams of Sugar, either white or brown
One sachet of Yeast, 7 Grams
200 Grams of Vegetable Oil
50 Grams of Olive Oil
A Pinch of Salt

The funny thing is, all these are staples found in every house, so to make these you don't really need to go shopping.

Mix all the ingredients together until you get a nice, soft dough:

Once done, divide in little balls and flatten them a bit

On the side, have a bowl with brown sugar ready

Make a hole in each ball and there you have a donut!

Place the donut in the sugar on one side only, and lay your creations on a baking tray lined with oven paper

Here is what you get after baking in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15-20 minutes.

When you pull them out they will still feel a bit soft, but they become crunchy when cold. Yum!

Egg Free Savoury Cornetti

These can be made sweet, or salty. Here is the salty variation.

Ingredients:

500 Grams of Flour
250 Grams of Milk
250 Grams of Butter or other cooking fat (olive oil, vegetable oil, coconut oil, soy spread...)
A Pinch of Salt
One Sachet of Yeast, 7 Grams

Filling of your choice

Place the flour in a bowl

Place in it the melted butter and the milk

Work the dough and then divide in 4 parts

With the rolling pin, make a circular shape out of each part of dough and divide in 8 slices

Here, I have chosen to fill them with soft cheese and cooked ham, but really, the possibilities are endless :)

Roll each cornetto starting from the outside

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes and here is what comes out!!!

School lunchbox sorted for over a week :)

Risotto alla Milanese

2015-02-09T20:08:00.001+00:00

In the last couple of years, I have crowned myself the Queen of Risotto.

I always thought it would have been hard to make those creamy, delicious, wintery risottos I saw in the Italian Restaurants.

Tonight I have proven, once again, it is one of the easiest dishes one could make in about 10 minutes.

To that time, you need to add the actual cooking time of the Arborio rice, which is on average 14 minutes.

Well, it cooks itself, so I'm only going to consider the 10 minutes it takes to:

1. Chop a large white Onion and place in a non stick pan with about two tablespoons of Olive Oil.

Soften the onion and add a spoon of Vegetable Stock paste, then add about half a cup of Water and blend it all. You should get a cream that looks like this:

Then add a few filaments of Saffron. It is very expensive so use only a little.

Here is the little jar my mother sent to me a couple of months back. There is about 200 Euro worth of saffron in it, and it comes from her garden, from the bulbs I bought for her two years ago. At present, the price per gram is higher than that of gold...

Stir in now a couple of tablespoons of Turmeric Powder. It will give the rice the yellow colour and a nice taste. Plus, it's a super good food :)

Now put in about 6 cups of Water.

Stir and bring to the boil, adjust the Salt and let boil for a few minutes.

Add 3 cups of Arborio rice

Stir a bit, cover again and let cook on low to medium heat for 14 minutes, stirring every now and then.

Once the timer goes off, add a dollop of Butter and grate some Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese on it, stir again and serve. And, more importantly, enjoy!

The doses above will be enough for 4 adults, plus you'll have a bit left over for your lunch box...

Coconut Oil... what else?

2015-02-09T09:46:00.000+00:00

It's been a long, long, long time since I posted on my blog.

Life has been busy, the little one turned 2 years old and I have been cooking, cleaning, working and doing everything else on full throttle. Especially, being a mother. The hardest job of them all :)

A friend of mine recently told me about coconut oil. He uses it for his wonderful hair, black, curly hair, and for his skin.

I have read online for a few days and then I told him: Ok, you sold me coconut oil!

Great. In the past few days I've been experimenting with this wonder of nature. I bought two jars of coconut oil (it is, in fact, below 25 degrees Celsius, a solid, white paste).

My son has eczema quite often behind his knees. Coconut Oil!
My husband suffers from psoriasis since he was 7 years old. Coconut Oil!
My hair look a bit unhealthy and have no volume. Coconut Oil!

I've been spreading it, melting it, rubbing it... The benefits of this oil are endless.

I have been cooking biscuits and egg-free snacks at the weekend, and in the place of the butter I have used coconut oil.

It is truly marvellous. It gives a great taste to many different things and it has now earned a spot on my kitchen counter. Since it is something you can both eat and use as a cosmetic, I have placed it next to the stove and that's its spot. I never want to run out of it now that I have tried it!!!

I am also reading the book The Coconut Oil Miracle, by Bruce Fife. It is in fact a very interesting read and I also recommend reading online about the benefits of this oil.

Below is two simple recipes for the beauties in the picture: Coconut Oil Egg Free Cornetti and Coconut Oil Biscuits

On the left, Coconut Oil Biscuits

Ingredients:

125 Grams of Coconut Oil

Melt the above in a saucepan

80 Grams of Dark Chocolate
80 Grams of Walnuts or Hazelnuts

Shred both the above in tiny pieces and add to the melted Coconut Oil

2 Eggs

Beat them and add them to the Coconut Oil and Walnuts and Chocolate mix

7 Grams or one sachet of Yeast, stir in the mixture

400 Grams of Flour

Fold into the mix above until you obtain a smooth ball of dough

Once you have the ball, start taking little pieces of it, roll them into tiny balls and flatten them a bit onto a baking tray lined with non stick paper.

Cook in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

When you take them out, they might seem soft, but they will become nice and crunchy as soon as they are cold.

Lovely and easy.

On the right, Egg Free Chocolate Cornetti

Ingredients:

100 Grams of Coconut Oil

Melt it in a little saucepan

125 Grams or one pot of Yogurt, I used chocolate flavour but you can use vanilla or white yogurt, they'll be just as nice

Add it to the melted Coconut Oil

250 Grams of Flour

Fold into the mixture above

1/2 Sachet or 3.5 Grams of Yeast

To be added to the mix

Once you have worked the ingredients together, divide the dough in two parts. With the rolling pin, form a circle and divide as you would do with a cake, in 8 parts diameter-wise.

Put on each part a teaspoon of your filling of choice, jam or chocolate spread, and roll them, starting from the larger side of each "slice".

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius, and, as for the biscuits, they will become crunchy once they cool down.

I have been placing them in my son's lunchbox for the past week and he loves them :)

Egg Free Biscuits

2013-03-10T12:09:00.004+00:00

Looking for something to prepare for my (egg allergic) son, I came across a recipe that is as easy and tasty as can be.

These biscuits remind me of pasticcini, a kind of biscuit in Italy is usually served with coffee after a Sunday meal.

All together, it takes around 1 hour of time, and if you make the dough and then don't have time to bake, not a problem.

Ingredients:

200 grams of flour
200 grams of soft cheese (such as Philadelphia)
100 grams of vegetable spread or butter
4 grams of dried yeast
a bit of jam

Work together, in a mixing bowl, the soft cheese, the vegetable spread, the flour and the yeast. You will obtain a ball of sticky soft dough which has to be wrapped in cling film and placed in the fridge.

Let the dough rest in the fridge for as little as 30 minutes or as long as 2 days. When you are ready to bake, turn on the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and take the dough out of the fridge.

With a rolling pin, evenly work the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut out your biscuits.

You should aim for a 3 millimeters thickness.

Move the cot outs on to a sheet of baking paper and add the jam on the top of each biscuit.

Place the biscuits in the oven for about 20 minutes. They will be light and yummy :)

Oil Bread, or the soft dough bread

2013-03-06T10:28:00.003+00:00

Bread, the staple food that we used to buy at the "end of the day" reductions. Problem is, is full of anti fungal, alcohol, weird kind of fats and other stuff you would not really want to eat, I think.
Now, I bake my own bread in the electric oven, and we always have it in the house to accompany our meals.
The recipe I use now will give you an elastic dough that is easily stretched to make focaccia, which is a kind of pizza, filled with mozzarella and ham, usually, and covered with another layer of dough. It is lovely to eat, it keeps for a few days and is good eaten hot or cold. My husband takes it to work for his lunch almost every day.
Now for the recipe and procedure.

Ingredients:

500 grams of plain flour
300 ml of water
60 ml of olive oil
1 sachet of dried yeast
salt to taste

Mix everything together, adding nuts, olives, turmeric, anything you fancy really in your bread. Or just stick to the basic and enjoy :)

I let the bread-maker do this part of the work for me, I've already said my bread machine is worth her weight in gold and I'm not exaggerating.

Anyway, once you have a nice soft ball, place it in a bowl and cover it with a clean tea towel. I place it then in the cold oven, so it is away from temperature change that may occur in the kitchen.

After about 2 hours you will see the ball has almost doubled in size and so is ready to be baked. Take olive oil and brush your loaf with it. Now, if you are lucky enough to own a cast iron pot, place it in the pot with the lid on and in the oven.

Switch the oven on to 200 degrees Celsius and let cook for about 30 minutes, or until you see the crust is starting to form.
At this stage, take the loaf out of the pot and place it on the oven rack and let cook until you are satisfied with the crust outside.
And here it is:

Baking your own bread will save you about 30% on the shop bought one, and most important, will spare your body the added crap ;)

Sweet and Sour Sauce

2013-03-06T09:58:00.005+00:00

Chinese... we love Chinese! My only problem is the Mono sodium Glutamate, or MSG, abundant in all Chinese food we can purchase at any take-away.
I wrote about this scary "ingredient" before, here. I have since learned how to make at home two of our favorite sauces, the Lemon Sauce, and the Sweet and Sour sauce. They have entered now our regular menu and my son jumps around and celebrates every time I make it :) He is an easy please child, I admit it!

Now, the Sweet and Sour sauce I've made many times, hence I have found a beautiful balance with the ingredients to make it just as we like it best.

Ingredients:

60 grams of tomato sauce
200 grams of water
120 grams of white vinegar (I've used the Apple vinegar and the Pineapple vinegar I made myself)
90 grams of sugar, possibly brown
1 tablespoon of corn starch, not essential but it will thicken the sauce if you like
1 slice of pineapple if you have, cut in small chunks, it gives it a superb twist

There are no pictures for this because it's so easy to make.

Add all the ingredients to a small pot and bring to the boil. Turn the heat to a minimum and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Ready!

Rice Krispies "Bars"

2013-03-06T09:40:00.000+00:00

Wondering the aisles of a supermarket, I see so many "products" ready made, full of sugar and preservatives that, inevitably, damage our bodies (and I believe our souls as well).
Having a child in school age, means everyday I must fill his snack box with... something!
I used to buy for him the puffed rice bars, more than 3 Euro for a pack of six. Money is not the issue here, but reading the ingredients label I was quite amazed. They are supposed to be made with rice krispies and chocolate, but the ingredients list goes on and on... That's not good.

So yesterday I made my own puffed rice bars. The result was very good, although I will need to increase the chocolate part so the rice can stick together.

Ingredients:
200 grams of chocolate: white, milk or black depending on your taste
50 grams of butter: it can be replaced with vegetable spread as well
125 grams of puffed rice
3 tablespoons of honey

Melt separately the butter and the chocolate.

To the melted chocolate, add the honey, then the butter.

In a large bowl, mix the puffed rice with the melted mixture and make sure it is evenly distributed.

Place everything in a tray lined with oven paper and level with a spatula or a spoon. I have added some coating sugar on top, because my son loves it, but it is not essential.

Place the tray in the fridge for a few hours and then cut out the bars with a good knife.

This is what mine look like, cut and wrapped in film:

Today is test day, my son took one of them to school along with other things... Let's see if he will eat it ;)

New Life

2013-03-03T09:25:00.002+00:00

I have not touched this blog for a very long time. I've missed it, I must say. We have a new baby, a girl. I am happy and all my energy and time I dedicate to my children. But I miss writing, I miss having the time to do something just for myself :)

Well, in the last 3 months I've gone through a lot, emotionally speaking. We were told we were going to have another boy, and I was really really happy about that. But I must confess, when I saw my little girl emerge from behind the curtain in the surgery room, I was overwhelmed, I felt over the moon. We now have a wonderful 5 year old boy and a little girl of 3 months. They are everything to me and I am focusing on their well being from the moment I wake up until I go to bed in the evening. As any other parent in the world does :)

I have not stopped cooking for a minute, I have been trying many new things and I want to share these new recipes on the blog as soon as possible.

My son liked the sausage rolls some dear friends brought here one day, so I made him something similar the very next day. That means I've learned to make a sort of puff pastry, it's a version that only takes 5 minutes to prepare and needs to sit in the fridge for 2 hours. It was my first try at puff pastry, while everyone tried to scare me away from it! The results were amazing and today I will make a lighter version of it, substituting the butter with a vegetable spread.

I have finally managed to get my hands on a cast iron pot, it was on good offer at a supermarket and I just could not miss the opportunity to have it for less than half the normal price. I bought it mainly for one reason: baking bread!!! It is a magical pot, because it turns my electric oven into a real oven where the bread cooks slowly and does not dry too much. I've baked bread loafs since I got the pot and I've added to it seeds and nuts of all kinds, olives, turmeric powder... My creativity is exploring all the possibilities and I really want to share the recipe for this wonderful bread as soon as I can.

My mother, 2000 kilometers away, saw the picture and immediately inquired about the pot :) This week I'll buy another one for her and take it with me when we will go visit them in less than 20 days. I am amazed that I will be teaching her how to make that bread loaf.

I've also been making marmalade, or better, jam. Every time I had some fruit too ripe to eat raw I turned it into a jar of sweet goodness. It's easier than I thought and I froze the extra jars to make sure they do not go bad. There is no artificial preservatives in my jam, such as pectin: only sugar, fruit and a secret ingredient that gives it a completely unexpected twist.

Let's say my main efforts have gone towards the baking, lately, as I bought a bread machine that is worth her weight in gold: she will make the dough and I turn it into pizza, bread, focaccia, panini rolls and the like.

This post is just an update to myself, mainly, to look back a few months and see all the important things accomplished so far and the new challenges ahead. I just want to remind myself to take 5 minutes for me every now and then and write. It's my medicine for the soul and it makes me feel good.

The little one is already 3 months old, I cannot believe it. My son will be 6 years old in no time and I look back these years and I say to myself: wow! you've come a long way!

The changes that happened in my life thought me a lot and I am grateful I have been able to adapt to all the good and bad things life threw in my direction. I can't wait to start cooking for this new baby too! And that is something I would never have imagined myself doing only 7 or 8 years ago.

She is so much part of this family already, she will happily sit in her baby chair and just look at us moving about all day. When we eat, she will be in her chair, "talking" to us. We are now a complete family, we will not have any more children for many reasons and I am loving each and every second of this slow, strange life I am living at present, where my whole world starts and ends in my house, with plenty of things to do, nappies to change, bottles to boil, meals to imagine and prepare, homework to do.

I am grateful for all I have, I believe we all build our lives with our actions and decisions, even with the wrong ones.

This is a promise to myself to get back to writing, one way or the other. This is a pin pointed on my imaginary board reminding me to make room in the daily routines for me, me and me.

Rice Gnocchi - my style

2012-10-15T11:05:00.000+01:00

It's been a long time since I've posted a recipe, I've been experimenting a lot lately, not only in the kitchen but also with paper and scissors and my son is turning into a crafty little man with his enthusiasm. He loves now to make things, mostly tridimensional things, with paper and glue and glitter and any object he can find loose around the house.
The main experiment in the kitchen has been in the bread compartment. I have succeeded using a US recipe posted by an Italian friend on facebook... That says it all. The recipe is super easy, especially for me. I cannot knead too much now, being 7 months pregnant and a bit short of breath at the moment. The bread made with this recipe came out very well, and I will definitely be posting it soon, because it is super easy and it worked so well for two times in a row, without any "first time failure".

Today I'll be posting about a special kind of gnocchi, Rice Gnocchi. In Italy, we used to have them often in the CHinese restaurant, however I've never seen them on any menu here in Ireland and I know my husband loves them. He didn't eat them for the past five years, but now I know how to make them myself so he's a very happy bunny :)

Ok, the word gnocchi is not too accurate, they look like slices of rice dough, but in the Italian Chinese restaurant that is what they are called, so we'll stick to that.

Ingredients:

100 grams of rice flour for each person
50 grams of plain flour for each person
100 millilitres of water for each person.

Measure the flours.

And place them in a bowl.

Mix in the water and knead until you get a nice dough ball. If needed, add a bit of water.

Let the ball rest for 30 minutes or more in the fridge, so it firms up a bit. I left it for over an hour and it was a pleasure to work with when I took it out.

Cut a thin slice of the dough and press it down on a wooden board, then cut it in the desired shape. It should look like an ellipse, bit I didn't have any elliptical cookie cutter at hand so I just cut them in stripes.

Place all the stripes obtained on the side, and do not flour them at all, otherwise the gnocchi might be a bit harder than what they are intended.
Prepare your condiment. For us it was chicken breast, slowly cooked with some olive oil and soy sauce, along with mushrooms, peppers and courgettes pieces. It is important that the condiment cooks slowly, so it can release the juices needed for the gnocchi.
Once the condiment is ready, put on some salted water and cook the gnocchi in batches of maximum 10 for two minutes in boiling water.

Remove with a strainer after the 2 minutes and place over the condiment in the pan.

Once all the gnocchi are in the pan, stir fry everything for a few minutes turning and turning the contents so all the gnocchi get the chance to come in contact with the sauce.
Serve warm and enjoy. They are not heavy to digest and needless to say my 5 year old son loved them!

Filled Aubergines

2012-09-24T16:27:00.001+01:00

It's been a long time since I last posted a recipe. We have been busy with the beginning of our son's school career :) and I have enjoyed playing with my sewing machine more than with pots and pans for last few weeks. We are also... well I am also preparing everything for the new baby that will complete our family, hopefully in December.

So, filled aubergines. I love aubergines, my son a bit less, but he needs to taste things before he can say he doesn't like them. So I tested the aubergine.

Ingredients:

3 Aubergine's halves (I used a 4th half to cook Pasta alla Norma)
1 Breast of Chicken, cut in small cubes
1 Small Onion
10-15 Black Olives
1 glass of White Wine

Remove the inside of the Aubergines and cut is small pieces. Place them in a non stick pan with some Olive Oil and let them cook for about 5 minutes. You will see a bit of liquid will come out. Add the Chicken pieces and the sliced Onion and let the aubergine's water evaporate for a few minutes.

Add salt and pepper to your taste and make sure all sides of the chicken are white. At this stage, add the Black Olives and the glass of White Wine and let cook on medium heat, covered.

When you are satisfied the chicken is properly cooked, remove the pan from the heat and fill the Aubergines halves

Place the filled Aubergines in the same pan with the juice left from the filling cooking and let simmer on medium heat, covered, for 20 minutes. Check that the juice is still there from time to time. If it dries out during the cooking, add a bit of Wine or water.

Serve and enjoy!
This is a very versatile recipe, meaning that you can cook any filling you like and the aubergines will still absorb the taste of it and be super yummy. You ca blend the filling so it becomes an even mixture, add cheese on top, tomato sauce instead of the wine... it's up to you, and the contents of your fridge :)