oh June!

It has been a while since my last post here, but I’ve been extremely busy working and, well, living. The summer is finally come and June has always been my favourite month of the whole year – it seems like a new beginning full of hopes and joy. Now I want to share a couple of food pics that I took last Sunday while I was in Genoa visiting part of my family who moved there – such a lovely place, especially during early summer!

this is the uber-famous focaccia genovese, plain or with onion slices – it’s amazing!

these are called “cuculli”, a genovese starter that you normally have while drinking fresh white wine – so cute and delicious too!

Sunday lazy Sunday

Today’s breakfast – happy Sunday everyone!

Last week review

These have been very busy days – we moved house, I had to work a lot, my birthday came and pass, a lot of friends visited us and so on – busy, but only dealing with pleasant things – and I feel so lucky for this.

This is sample sales time, and every single day at the office we receive invitations for at least two showroom special sales. Of course I avoid to attend all of them, otherwise I  will be totally broke way before the end of the month, but sometimes I just can’t resist. This is my very last purchase, a Stefanel bag in an amazing turquoise that I got at the sample sale today.

I also ate a lot of great stuff

These are some Chinese rice gnocchi with vegetables that I had in a new Chinese restaurant I tried last week, close to the main Central Station in Milan. The place is called Chekiang, is in via Giovan Battista Pergolesi 19, it’s cheap and oh so good. Highly recommended

This is a delicious king shrimps & zucchini pizza that I had on Sunday evening, in a family dinner out with my bf’s parents and mine. Amazing!

And could I have missed the dessert? Of course not!

A tiny chocolate fudge cake with vanilla sauce. I wish I can have another one here in front of me right now!

Last but not least, the dadaist breakfast that I arranged for us on a lazy Sunday morning. Coffee, bananas, pink grapefruit juice and pain au chocolat – simple but tasteful, indeed!

 

Lasagne!

Just a couple of pics of the homemade fresh lasagne we had today

cooking in the oven…

…and ready to be eaten!

as Garfield used to say…

well, he was totally right!

Cookbook and memories

These pics are from the cookbook that my boyfriend’s brother gave me as a present for my birthday. I literally can’t wait to try some of the recipes – it’s all about salty&sweet cakes – by now I’m happy just looking at the pictures, there’s nothing I love most than well done food photos.

this is a pizza called “sardenaira”, tipycal from West Liguria region and South of France – I love it, it tastes like childhood to me

it’s an only-tomato pizza, with anchovies, black olives and raw onions – fresh and tasteful!

this one reminds me of “Green fried tomatoes at the Whistle Stop cafe” written by Fannie Flag – I’ve adored both the book and the movie

this is a blueberry cake and reminds me of our tiny house in the mountains

we used to go pick up berries during summer, then in the evening we ate them just with lemon juice and brown sugar – one of the best guilty-free dessert I’ve ever had!

25th April and birthdays

Today in Italy it’s National Feast: we celebrate the release – and relief – from Fascist regime by American and British forces on the 25th April 1945. It’s one of the most important feast that we have and nowadays it’s still deeply felt by a lot of people – including myself.

In my family there’s another reason to celebrate: my dad’s birthday! We had lunch all together and my mom made this amazing cake

[pic taken by me]

it’s a pear&chocolate cake with a Sbrisolona-inspired dough. The Sbrisolona is a traditional cake from Mantua area – in the South of Lombardia – and its peculiarity it’s being made with a mixture of yellow & white flour plus grated almond. It’s not so easy to make and definitely not a light dessert, but it’s really delicious!

Artichokes for you, my darling

a bunch of artichokes instead of flowers?

A quite funny solution for the kitchen!

(Instagram by me)

Karakorum – Mongolian restaurant in Milan

Two dear friends of us from Zurich are in town for Salone del Mobile – and yesterday evening we had dinner out all together. We went to Karakorum, a Mongolian & Japanese restaurant in via Tadino 4, just round the corner of Porta Venezia tube station on the red line.

It’s a place that I definitely suggest cause the food is good and the bill is more than affordable – and is not so easy to find these two things combined together. I used to go there at lunch time – they have an all-you-can-eat menu for just 11 euros! – but in the evening it’s even better. They have several Japanese from-starter-to-dessert menus for around 21-22 euros, but you can also choose à la carte. I had a yaki udon with shrimps and vegetables that was the end of the world! My bf ate Mongolian spaghetti with shrimps and chicken and that was delicious too. I really adore Asian cuisine!

This is the map to reach the place – pay attention, at dinner time it’s always very crowdy – especially on Friday and Saturday of course – and you may have to wait for a while

Welcome you, new kitchen

this is part of our new kitchen – still a work-in-progress

it will stay this clean not more than…erm, 25 minutes?

Crème caramel and childhood memories

picture from my Pinterest, via buttersugarflour.com

What do you think about crème caramel? It reminds me immediately of my childhood. It’s apparently a Portuguese dessert but, as far as I know, it’s extremely popular in Italy too. I remember that when I was little and me and my parents were having a pizza out, it was always part of the dessert list, no matter how short it was – crème caramel was there, indeed.

Also, we used to buy it already made at the supermarket, just like yogurt – you had to put it upside down on a dish and eat it – that’s all. It has been the snack of a gazillions afternoons for me – how many memories

it’s also one of the most simple dessert to make on your own – here‘s a quick recipe!