SURPRISES

That's really likely to be one of the laziest Sundays ever.
I've had a brief sparkle of conscious life right after some amazing news, but thank goodness it didn't last much, and then I could fall back into my Sunday numbness.

After such a long time, I'm back with a magical surpise: I'm giving you one of those surprise packages you could buy when you were a kid, a big bag you could be sure was full of treasures, but you didn't know what you were about to get.
Here you go:

Any idea of what the flashy-green dish might be? Or what's boiling in the pot?
That's my present for you. YOU will choose the next recipe. You have a week to vote, and the one with the most votes will be revealed.

You might also think today I was SO lazy I didn't even feel like choosing something.
You malicious.

MONTHLY ROUND-UP JANUARY. CAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW.

Well, it might have been that, of those only three posts that were published this month, you missed one.
And that would be a real tragedy.
Because it's when things gets rare that you realize how amazing and essential they are.

Ok, truth is that I got I new job and, together with it, a new life.
This new life implies abandoning my old one in favour of my office. In other words, abandoning my life. Period.
Then I don't have much time anymore, which is a shame, cause Baby is growing and she is really healthy, if you were wondering.
Nevertheless, even if I don't have any time to write about it, I still have time to eat -most of the times- which is reasonably good.

So, in case you missed it:

 we started with a kicking breakfast, on the  day in which you need it the most.
The basic recipe for pancakes, that I keep on forgetting, so I thought you might as well. I know you do.

And them some burnt home-made granola. Yummy!

And some do-I-need-to-describe-it home-made bread.
Wait for the Baby version!







Happy february and happy eating.

HERE IT COMES

Here it comes!
And here I come, after a week of eating and... well, not much more actually - back in Italy.
Besides from the emotional breakdowns you have to go through from time to time, not to be home very often has also some positive side: your grandmas, for example, gathering to write down a cooking agenda - which is to say a plan structured in order to make sure they will cook everything I want without the risk of overlappings.
That's kinda good.
That makes it even more heart-breaking when I go. - Not because of the food, but becouse of how lovely they are, I meant.-

In any case, when I said IT comes, I meant this:

Do you see where all my emotion about bread came from?


INGREDIENTS (make one nice loaf):

• 500 gr/4 cups flour  
• 15gr yeast
• 2 half-glasses lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 ts salt
• pinch of sugar
• 3 TBS seeds oil (peanuts, sunflower, or also olive oil, actually. Of course each one will give a slightly different flavour. You just try and see which one you like the most.)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Put the flour in a bowl and make a hole at the center.
2. Melt the yeast in one of the two half-glasses of water, add the pinch of sugar, and mix everything with the flour.
3. Start kneading and do it for a few minutes, than melt the salt in the second glass and add it as well to the dough. Now add 3 TBS of the oil of your choice to the dough and keep on kneading for about 10 minutes.
4. Now, if you see your dough is kinda sticky, add some more flour. In case it seems too hard, add a tiny bit of water. If you think it has a nice consistency, but could be a bit more elastic, you might add a spoon of oil.
5. keep on kneading until you obtain a smooth, soft and elastic dough.
6. put it in a pot, cover it with a canvas and leave it rest in a place protected from drafts for 3 hours (or until when it doubles in volume.)
7. this time passed, take it off the pot, knead for a couple of minutes and give it the shape you like: you can divide it into smaller rolls, or leave it as it is.
8. Cover your oven plate with baking sheet while pre-heating the oven to 250°C/482°F a bake it for about 20/25 minutes. 

Or until when it looks like this.