Corner View: Table

What is the best thing about any table? Food on it :-)

Yesterday we came back from Italy. We had absolutely fantastic time with family and friends. We also ate lots of great food, as you can see on these few images above. My pregnancy appetite is really huge, my bump has grown visibly in the past week or so. But... could you really say no to such delicious dishes...? I couldn't...

For more CVs, please visit lovely Fancesca.

Sweet taste of summer.

There are many reasons I love summer for but one of the best things about this season of year is variety of veggies and fruits on the market. Having such a big choice puts me into inspirational mood and lets me enjoy my experimantal kitchen. I try preparing new things but I don't feel too comfortable in the kitchen and I always worry too much about the results of my work. Usually there is no reason to worry because my experiments turn out fine. They are edible. What's more, they are tasty.

Some time ago I made apricot jam. I's my very first jam; I wasn't sure if it was going be a success but I'm more than happy with the result.

I love its thick consistency and vivid orange color. The taste is delicious. Thanks to some lemon juice, it's not very sweet, it's just right. And a breakfast made of pancakes with this jam is a real heaven, trust me.

I think that making jams is a great way of saving a piece of summer for later, for colder and less colorful time of year. My mum used to make lots of jams for winter. Goosberries, black currants, cherries, plums, strawberries, any fruits we had in the garden were turned into little treasures of summertime, closed in jars and put away in the pantry for winter. When I was a child, we used to go to the forest to pick up blueberries and wild raspberries. The first ones were for jams, andf rom the second ones we made juice. I still remember its thick, sweet taste. My mum used to add it to my tea when I cought cold in winter.

To save some sweet taste and color of summer you need:
1.5 kg washed and peeled apricots*
330 grams sugar
half a cup water (around 100ml)
half a lemon

In a big pot mix apricots with water, sugar and juice from sqeezed lemon. Boil on a small heat, stirring from time to time, until the mixture gets jam consistency. Pour into jars and keep it safe. And enjoy!

*or any fruit of your own choice

Corner View #12

Theme: staple foods.

Mmm… Buon sapore di Liguria… What could I possibly write about? Walnut sauce..? Polpettone...? Minestrone..? Fried anchovies..? Farinata..? There’s plenty… but I know there’s only one thing I can share today and it’s pesto, of course!

I love pesto. In fact, pasta with pesto was the only food I tolerated during the first trimester of my pregnancy. I lived on it for few weeks. Some days I feared my baby was going to be born completely green; but somehow when I started the second trimester I developed a strong love for carrots and then I feared that my baby was going to be born orange; in the end she turned out pinky-blue as any other newborn (or: probably too much berry ice-cream in my third trimester ;) ).

I say it again: I love pesto. In fact, when I first started going out with C., he saw me eating pesto straight from the jar, spoon by spoon. Earlier that day I had ordered double espresso at the coffee shop. If you think that your love was written somewhere between the stars, our must have been written somewhere between that cup of coffee and jar of pesto, half eaten by me before pasta was ready…

Pesto originally comes from Genoa and it has a long history. C. makes his own pesto at home and it’s my favourite one. The consistency, the colour, the basil smell and the garlicky taste- it’s just perfect. It’s very easy to make and all you need is some fresh basil, olive oil, parmesan cheese, garlic and pine kernels. These days cooking recipes suggest to use electronic blenders to crush all the ingredients and mix them well together but C. makes his pesto in more traditional way, using a mortar.

Enjoy some more tastes from around the world:

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad, caitlin, joyce, ani, couturecoucou, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeanette, outi, schanett, ritva, dongdong, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemian girl, ruth, dianna, isabelle, amber, all the lovelies, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, jenna, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, mon, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, amy, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la luna dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, virgina, april, rebecca, b, sunnymama, kyndale, samantha, karen, kristina, angelina, juanita, pamela, emily, dorit, sophie, janet, mcgillicutty, desiree, travellingmama, aimee, mirtille, madchen, guusje, boise, daan, woolie, 2ndspring, jenell, tina, inna,

Corner View #6

This week subject is coffee. What can I say... I love coffee! I can have it at any time of day. Here in Italy espresso is the most popular and yes, I'm addicted to it. I've always been. I like its strong taste and the feeling when caffeine starts working. These days I don't drink that much espresso as I used to- I'm a breastfeeding mummy and let myself to have only one coffee a day.

My other love is cappuccino. A cup of cappuccino and chocolate croissant = perfect beginning of a new day. To me, coffee is all about pleasure.

Please, have a cup of coffee in other corners of the world:
jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad, caitlin, joyce, ani, couturecoucou, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t., jeanette, outi, schanett, ritva, dongdong, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemian girl, ruth, dianna, isabelle, amber, all the lovelies, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, jenna, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, mon, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, amy, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la luna dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, virgina, april, rebecca, b, sunnymama, kyndale, samantha, karen, kristina, angelina

Corner View - Week 4 /Genoa

This week subject is shopping.

Shopping in Genoa is easy. The city offers everything what a city can offer. There are shopping centres and supermarkets but I really like all those little independent shops hidden in the maze of narrow backstreets of the historical centre of Genoa. My favourite shops are the ones where you can buy organic clothing for babies and organic products in general, old fashioned wooden toys, knitting yarns and tea shops.

I also like markets in Genoa. Here are some photos that I took at Mercato Orientale- the biggest every day market in Genoa, I guess. It's located on Via XX Settembre- a very busy streets that goes up to Piazza De Ferrari. Many high street brands have their shops located on Via XX Settembre. C.'s father calls it "Regent Street of Genoa".
Mercato Orientale offers a big variety of fresh veggies and fruits, cheese, fresh meat and fish. The best time to go there is at around 7-8 o'clock in the morning as they have the best stock. You can also get there lots of herbs and spices as well as other Italian specialities: wines, olive oil, pasta etc.





For the list of all Corner View Project participants please visit lovely Jane at Spain Daily.

Have a great Wednesday Everyone :)

Corner View- Week 2

Thank you all for such nice comments on my last post. It was a pleasure to share my lazy Sunday breakfast with you and today I'm happy to share some more delicious things. I'm one day late with my "Corner View Project" pictures because I was away and had no access to the Internet. We went to Siena for three days and it was just wonderful. I'm going to write some more about our spontaneous trip and upload some photos later. Now, let me share our Italian breakfast...

Typical Italian breakfast is cornetto and cappuccino. Usually it's just a plain croissant but of course you can get croissants filled with marmolade, cream or chocolate. I always go for the chocolate one...

To be honest, we enjoy our croisants only on weekend days. During the week I start my day with bowl of musli with milk. But on Saturday morning we go to the nearest panificio (bakery shop) to get some croissants or we prepare our own sweet breakfast. C. usually makes pancakes (as you could already see in my previous post), I usually bake some scones. I use the basic recipe as I am really hopeless when it cames to baking (I enjoy cooking much more).

We always have our scones with jams or just with butter or, like here, with fresh strawberries. And we always have cappuccino. I must be a cappuccino freak, I can have five a day...

And here is my breakfast that I had this morning at B&B in Siena where we stayed: simple piece of cake and some home made jams.

I hope you like my Italian sweet breakfast. Now, with mug of coffee in my hand, I'm going to enjoy treats from your corners.

Granita is a semi-frozen dessert, similar to sorbet. It comes from Sicily but you can taste it everywhere in Italy. It's a mix of water, sugar and fruit flavourings. The most popular flavours are lemon, orange, almond, mint and coffee but you can actually use any fruit. The one I tasted was just ice crushed with blackberries and it was so delicious. Granita is very refreshing so it's perfect for all hot Italian afternoons.

Happy Easter to everyone!

C. is preparing la torta pasqualina and I am fooling around with my camera. We're having very lazy and relaxing Easter Sunday and I hope you are all enjoying your day :)

Torta pasqualina is a traditional Easter dish from Liguria. It is made with pastry and special stuffing: a mix of ricotta cheese, parmesan, onion, olive oil and bietole (or spinach). The characteristic thing about torta pasqualina is that you bake whole eggs in it. It's considered as an appetizer on Easter Sunday and it's very tasty.