In italiano...

Buongiorno, i miei amici italiani!! Oggi, ho voglia di scrivere in italiano perché ho un esame lunedì!! Sono un po' nervosa ma spero di ricevere un buon voto! Incrocerò le dita! Anche, è divertente perché lunedì è Halloween quindi penso che molte persone saranno vestiti nella classe.  Io, non mi piace molto il giorno di Halloween e normalmente, non faccio qualcosa .... ma è interessante da vedere dei costumi.  E tu? Che cosa fai il trentuno ottobre? 

from http://www.chureport.com/events/halloween-in-italy/

Michael Bublé - Christmas!!

As you can probably tell, I'm already getting excited about Christmas and I've started the countdown!  It's my favourite time of year, and the other day my sister surprised me with Michael Bublé's new Christmas album!! :D  I've been waiting for it to be released, and I finally have it... I've been listening to the christmas songs everyday; they're so festive and I think they've included all the perfect songs for the holiday!

Pancakes on a gloomy day

It wasn't the sunniest day when I woke up on Monday, but these whole wheat pancakes definitely brightened the day!   Healthy and delicious; I don't like my pancakes as thick as traditional american ones... it's in between a crepe and a pancake, really.   I topped them with some strawberries, bananas and maple syrup :)

My sister also surprised me with a special christmas-themed gift - I've been waiting for it to be released for a while... you'll have to wait and see what it is in my next post! ;) 

Homemade Baked Mozzarella Sticks

This is what I made for lunch today!  I've been having a craving for mozzarella sticks, but the ones in the restaurants are always deep fried! So I thought, I'd make them myself :)

Ingredients:
- Good quality Mozzarella (either ready cut cheese sticks, or buy a block and cut them by hand) ; keep in fridge until ready to use.
- Bread crumbs
- Dried rosemary leaves
- Dried parsely
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 egg
- Salt & Pepper

Pre-baking

pre-baking

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. In a small bowl, whisk one whole egg with grated/crushed clove of garlic
3. In a separate dish, mix one cup of breadcrumbs with some rosemary leaves, parsely, salt and pepper.
4.  Take mozarella sticks and coat them with egg mixture first, and then roll in breadcrumb mixture until well coated.
5.  Place on baking sheet, and bake in the oven for approx. 5 minutes (but make sure the cheese doesn't completely melt out of the breading.
6.  Serve with marinara sauce, or tomato sauce.

Enjoy!

Also served with a layered vegetable dish (of course I had 2 helpings lol)

Salt Water Taffy!

I bought this box of "Fralinger's Original Salt Water Taffy" last weekend, since my sister wanted to try it.  It tastes so good and it's fun to eat because the consistency is halfway between gum and a chewy candy, but you do end up chewing on one piece for a while Lol!  Of course it's not something to eat on a daily basis, but it's a nice treat every now and then.

The history of saltwater taffy on the box says:

"An Original Seaside Souvenir:


Originally a fish merchant, Joseph Fralinger became one of the country's top confectioners in 1885.  Ad a way to make his "superior quality long kind" Salt Water Taffies even more attractive to beachgoers, Fralinger packed them in an easy to carry box - an oyster box as a matter of fact.  The idea caught on quickly, and so was born one of the world's first seaside souvenirs.  Thanks to his "invention", Salt Water Taffy became world famous in the 1890's, and boxes of these delicious confections remain popular keepsakes from visits to many seaside towns. " 

 There are several flavours in the box, and so far I've tried the white one (probably vanilla - couldn't tell!), pink (strawberry), and brown (which tastes like a chocolate and licourice).  I still haven't tried the green, yellow, orange, white (with blue stripes), and grey.... wonder what they taste like :)

Paramount Fine Foods

Yesterday we had lunch at Paramount, which serves middle eastern food.  Since we miss eating mana'eesh (which we did quite often in Dubai), we ordered some with a Cheese and Zaatar topping.  It was very good, but was made in a pizza style (unlike the original which is more like a sandwich).  Still, we enjoyed it with a side of stuffed grape leaves; and I also ordered a dessert called Knafeh, which was sooo good but soo stupid of me cos I ended up overeating again! haha

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pics of the food but I managed to take a few of the restaurant itself.  We sat on the second floor balcony overlooking the front of the restaurant.  (Sorry the pics were blurry when I enlarged them - again!)

From blogto.com - Wood ovens

From Blogto.com

Piano - Bebu Silvetti

This is a basic arrangement of Bebu Silvetti's piece called "Piano"... I learnt it when I used to take piano lessons, so this isn't a very advanced version, but I hope you enjoy!!

I also wanted to record another piece, but my memory card ran out of space!! So here's a teaser for you for the next video! :) 

Flowers & Random Photos