Gooooooddddd Mooorrrrnnnning saturday!

Beautiful day today, sunny in florence in my little brother’s house. When we were having breakfast, I found out I forgot to put the butter back in the fridge last night, so it is kind of softened. So, why not make cookies? :) This is kind of spontaneous cookies, made without sugar (could not find a pack of brown sugar I bought some days ago), throwing whatever ingredients I could find in my brother’s kitchen cupboard. It turned out so delicious, perfectly sweetened by the barley malt, dried apricot and white chocolate, and the smell woke up the rest of my brother housemates…sorry I,Y and A! :)

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It is around one o’clock in the morning and I am writing this post with a dim light, relaxing mood and listening to the cinematic orchestra’s latest album. I have been busy (new design project) and around (milan-florence-rome). During the travel, I ate good food in good places, but I missed home food, as always. I made this few weeks ago, before things started to get too busy and it was just so comforting. I will make this again tomorrow, and now I will just share it with you :)

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If I have to put the feeling of the weather outside today into a bowl, this would be it, don’t ask me why, this is just it :) After a busy week of freelancing for another industrial design project, my fridge is kind of full of leftovers. I kind of want something with a kick, so I chose the simple boiled rosso selvatico - it is a beautiful Italian red rice from the Perinotti family who grow this rice at the Grange Vercellesi area of Italy - and the leftover of curried tofu I made on Thursday. When I was mixing them, it kind of missed a fresh kick, so I ran to Gerardo’s shop to get some fresh rucola and (as always) also attracted by other green beauties, so I got a fresh bunch of basil, marjoram, some salad mixed salad leaves, a bag of pear and (I just could not resist) strawberry (again)

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Part of my strawberry madness few weeks ago, when I bought a crate full of sicilian strawberry :) Marco was looking at me horrifyingly when I returned from the market with a big big smile on my face and this three and a half kilos of strawberry. It was kind of hard to finish them, we turned into strawberry victims :) I made: strawberry smoothies, ate them with aged balsamic vinegar, made them into macedonia, turned them into jams, compote, syrup, ate with pancakes and finally made this pannacotta. Uffffff…Here is the photo of THAT crate of strawberry :)

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Of course, a photograph of flower, however pretty, is not enough to thank all mothers for everything, but if we add love, I think that will do just perfect :) Just want to say I love you Mom, and sending love for all mothers! Happy mother day! Buona festa della mamma! Selamat hari ibu! Lovelovelove!

I have been so lazy too cook these days, and fortunately all I want is simple meals, something I can make in 30 minutes or less, from scratch. One of the lazzzy lunch I made was this crema di cucuzzi. Cucuzzi is Sicilian gourd, pale green in colour and looks like a long zucchini, if you can’t find one, you can replace it with zucchini. One cucuzzi is like half kilo in weight, I only use 1/3 of it in this recipe :)

Then I saw a bag of a bit sad salad leaves, that I forgot about it. I am not so in the mood of salad, so I just sliced them very thinly and turned them into…okonomiyaki to accompany the soup :) (more…)

Two weeks ago, I was trying to make Marco’s favourite jam: pear and chocolate, I did not really know how to make it, so I just did some trials and errors, and this came from one error that I made: the jam was too thick and have texture like black olive pate, but we really liked it so we decided to call it pate di pere e cioccolato - pear and chocolate pate :) We have just opened our second jar (the first one finished within a week) and have given some more to friends and family.

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I am writing this in a super relaxed mood after a super relaxing late lunch, smiling as I think that when I woke up this morning I did not even imagine that I would end up with this beautiful bottle of wine that led to buying beautiful cheese to accompany it that led to a beautiful lunch. I woke up at 07.30 this morning, sleepily riding my bike to take some fresh bread from panetteria pagani and apple brioche from pasticceria cimino for our breakfast. Then having a quick breakfast and prepare one for Marco (guilty act as I had to go early in his birthday morning with my friend A to buy some fruits and vegs). Then I left to accompany my friend A to the orto mercato. (more…)