Last night Roberto and I slept on the balcony.
I am serious. We wanted to sleep in a tent, near the swimming pool.
But I finished working at 10 pm and by the time we arrived home we were already too tired. Therefore we just slept on the balcony to see the stars.
It was wonderful but I fell asleep immediately and I dind't see any shooting star.

This morning we went picking strawberries, raspberries and redcurrant, and then made a huge bowl of fruit salad and druk a cappuccino.
Such a great morning!!



This is "What breakfast means to me" summer edition =)
Breakfast means beginning the day with something special, with a smile and some nice ideas for the day.


PS(I wrote this post yesterday, so "Last night" is "Yesterday night" and so on).

This period isn't the most easy for me, but I this little blog is a peaceful, lovely place, where I don't want to put my problems in.
Soooooo, I made Strawberry Jam with real real Strawberries from my mother's garden!
Only with strawberry, sugar and lemon zest. So easy and so quick!



Strawberry Jam.

600 gr Strawberries
300 gr granulated sugar
zest of one lemon.

If you want a fluid jam without pieces of fruit, you have to wash the strawberries and put them in the blender until a soft strawberry cream has formed.
Note: your jam will not be very consistent, as you are not going to add any pectine.
Otherwise you can just cut the strawberries in halves.
Put the three ingredients into a big saucepan and bring to boil.
Don't stop mixing with a wooden spoon, in order to save your saucepan and yourself from a long night washing up.
You will see when the consistency is that of normal jam, you can pour the jam in a jar, let it cool for at least an hour.
Keep refrigerated, or use the jam on fresh-baked bread. ^^

Yesterday, Roberto and I went to a market, where we found a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, AND a stall of bioproducts. I bought Tofu (going to eat it today!) and 100%spelt pasta!



Today, we went to San Lorenzo al Mare, a little town on the coast. It's the town I dream to live in: no cars, a lot of colours, and a place I would love to bring up my children.



We had a coffee and then, after a walk and a look around, we decided to have something to eat in a cute little restaurant (the waitress wasn't cute or little at all, ahah!).
Look who's dreaming while waiting for his Spaghetti:


Bye my two readers!

HappyFroggy

Did you notice that Summer really really arrived?
I am so happy about it!
I love swimming in warm water, seeing the dawn without trembling, going on the bike with Roberto, going to the beach and sunbathing (even if I cannot stand it for more than 2 hours), etc.
And most of all I love fruit.
My mum and I decided to pick the cherries from the tree. This year hasn't been a great one for the ripening of fruit, poor trees, they have gone through snow, wind, warm and cold, hail and so on.
The nature surrounding us is beautiful, and I had to take some pictures to show everyone where I live: in paradise.





Some days ago I was reading this post written by Vera, and I thought it was a cute idea to make some jars. Yesterday Roberto and I had one hour before I had to go working, so we made three jars.


It took just ten minutes, so they aren't the most beautiful, but I think they are pretty.

Yesterday I went to Alassio, a little town on the coast, to enjoy the sunny weather with Jobby and his brother, Marco.
Walking through the "carugi", i.e. small streets typical of Liguria, we ate an icecream and took a look around.


I was planning to write a post about the summer, but today it's cold and rainy. I just drinked a cup of warm green tea. But, in order to think a bit positively, I'll just post some pictures of the garden I made about a week ago.
Summer is here, and even if it's playing hide and seek today, it will give up and show again, hopefully.


Taking advantage of the weather, I thought "Let's bake something tipical". So I found the recipe of Ciappe.
Ciappe are so easy!! Just four ingredients which everyone has in the pantry.
You can eat them with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, or with pesto or every sort of cheese.

Ciappe di Taggia.

(source)

500 g "00" flour
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
water

Preheat the oven at 180°C / 356 F.
Mix the flour and the salt, add the oil and then water until you have a firm dough.
Make little balls of the dough.
Spread them with a rolling pin, it has to be very very thin in order to become very crispy.
Place baking parchment on a baking pan and place the Ciappe on it.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until they become a bit hard and brown on the edges.
Let cool on a rack.

HappyFroggy

Smarties Cookies.

It has been so sunny here in Italy, lately. Summer is finally here!
And summer to me means: Colours!
Having to bake something for my mother's friends I thought it would be nice if I made something easy, quick and colorful.
So, I chose this easy recipe from Sophistimom, and changed it a little to make Smarties Cookies.
I think my mother's friends of Joga will appreciate it after a one-day long Joga lesson.



Smarties Cookies.

375 g all-purpose flour
180 g unsalted butter, room temperature
350 g sugar
2 eggs
10 g vanilla extract
3 small packages of Smarties (I think they were 50 g each)
a pinch of salt

Preheat the oven at 190 °C.
Beat he butter until fluffy.
Add the sugar slowly, until well blended.
Add eggs and vanilla extract.
Slowly add the flour and the salt.
With a tablespoon place little amounts of dough on the parchment paper, place them at some distance because they will expand in the oven.
Then press the dough a little with a glass (I used a coaster, I recommend to put some flour on it, in order not to make it stick ), and press some smarties on it.
Place the cookies in the oven for about 12 minutes.
Let them cool before moving them from the parchment paper.

Voilà!
Going back to the books, and to the sun!
Bye!
HappyFroggy

Normally in March, or at the beginning of April, I would already have gone once to the seaside. At least to lunch on the sand and enjoy the first rays of the sun.
This year has been completeley different.
In March it rained, the same goes for April, and well, now it's May. May has been cold and rainy this year, with some days of sunny weather, but never too much.
Fortunately, my mood doesn't go along with the weather. But after these months, I just needed the sun to shine.

So,
Why am I saying this?
Because today was the first wonderful, sunny, pleasant, warm with a bit of cool summer breeze day of 2010. And I am so happy!
Ok, I have been studying. But studying on the balcony, with a cup of tea and sunglasses, isn't the same as studying in a cold, dark room.

(this is a detail of my mother's little tomato plants)

And obvioulsy I wanted to bake something. Given that Summer is here (I'm not saying it will last forever..) I thought of making some fruity tartelettes (tartlets, or?).
I have no tartelettes moulds, no similar kind of mould, nothing of that kind, so.. well I tried to make something similar from scratch.

Ok, stop talking and talking.
Here's the recipe:

Fruity tartelettes (with yogurt pie crust)



Dough

250 g all purpose flour
150 g yogurt (you can use both whole or low-fat)
65 g granulated sugar
65 g cold unsaltened butter
a pinch of salt

Mix flour, salt and sugar.
Cut the butter into little cubes and add it to the flour mixture. Mix and slowly add the yogurt until it becomes a consistent dough.
Wrap it into a sheet of plastic and place into the freezer for 3 hours.

Filling/Topping

1 apple
1 banana
10 strawberries
1 orange
70 g sugar
1 Tbs flour

1 egg

Cut the fruit in pieces/dices. Blend all the ingredients together.

---

Preheat the oven at 180 °C.

Now, after the 3 hours have passed, I rolled the dough out, cut big circles of it (7cm or so) (the dough was 2-3mm thick). Then I placed a tablespoon of fruit in the middle and wrapped the dough around it, just to make the borders, and not to let the fruit flow away.
Beat the egg and brush it onto the crust. (I haven't done this as you may see from the pictures)
When I used all the dough (and fortunately also all the fruit), I baked them in the oven for 20 minutes.
Let it cool on a rack for 10 minutes.


Today was a good day.
I hope the tartelettes will be good as well.

Have a nice evening!

HappyFroggy

Uff.. It's exams-time over here.
And I have something like 10 exams in these two months. They haven't even started and I'm already stressed.
But, in weekends I always find a second or two, that then become 3 hours, to prepare something for my bofriend or my family.

I thought it would be nice to make more typical product, not only from Italy, but especially from the area I come from: Liguria.
A coulple of weeks ago my bf and I went for a walk in the little town we live in, and I took some photos.



It was very interesting because I discovered things I didn't know.
But, let's talk about the traditional dishes. I think I will write about it more often if I have the chance, because I'd love to make and learn more of the typical dishes. (My bf's grandma is going to give me some recipes!)
There are some bread-ish products, I like a lot. There's one called "Ciappe di Taggia" or "Ciappe della Liguria", there are "Canestrelli" (oh so yummy!), "Torta verde" (a sort of veggie pie, delicious) and then ..."Focaccia" (I think Focaccia is known around the world, isn't it?)

That day, the day of the walk, we made "Focaccia ai pomodorini" (i.e. "Focaccia with Cherry tomatoes") together. It took a while, but it was very tasty!
The recipe:


Focaccia ai pomodorini.


Ingredients
500 gr flour
300 ml lukewarm water
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
25 gr yeast
4 tablespoons + 1/2 cup olive oil
oregano
500 gr cherry tomatoes

Dissolve the yeast in a cup lukewarm water and the sugar. Let it in a warm place for 10-15 minutes until it becomes bubbly.
Put the flour in a large bowl and add the yeast, the remaining water and the olive oil.
Let the mixture stand for 2 or 3 hours in a dry and warm place.
After the 2 or 3 hours, spread the dough out until it's 1cm-thick, shed it with a bit of olive oil, and let it stad for half an hour.
Meanwhile, wash the tomatoes, cut them into slices (I cut them into halves) and remove the seeds. Salt them, and put them on the risen dough pressing a littlebit.
Pour another bit of oil on the dough and add the oregano.
Let it stand for another half an hour.
Preheat the oven at 190 °C and bake the Focaccia for 30 minutes (the cherry tomatoes have to be wrinkled).

I hope I'll have the time to write these weeks, and maybe to try some more typical recipes.

HappyFroggy