cappuccino foam

sometimes my cappuccino maker honors me producing a real cappuccino with a huge amount of milk foam on it :D i had some toasted bread slices, spread with butter and some kind of berries jam i love coffee+milk and i really like cappuccino..

it's hard to find a good one outside italy though. when i enter some coffee shops abroad i get dizzy just reading all those odd names of coffee drinks.. i despise them. i never recall what's the difference between a big latte, a caffè mocha and double cafè au lait.. all these words in italian and french, languages that i do speak properly but it seems not enough to get the point in front of a drinks menu O_o i'm awfully curious to find out how orange mocha frappuccino tastes like.. or maybe not. dont get me wrong, i like to mix coffee with something else.. as i said milk and sometimes i put a piece of dark chocolate on the bottom of the cup before pouring hot coffee.. but i need a sound limit to this absurd coffee drinks deviation, call me a coffee snob if you want ^^

pumpkin days

i'm a big fan of the pumpkin.

this week i've been sick with a bad flu and some few days ago i was wandering like a lost kid in the supermarket when i saw IT. a big chunk of orangish pumpkin was winking at me in the vegetables department.. it suddenly reminded me of pumpkin and rice thick winter soups, kinda warming childhood memory.. i couldnt help putting my paws on it :D

i've always liked this vegetable (or fruit, to be botanic) and its versatility..

i'm fascinated by the shades of orange and yellow it displays and the variated cooking uses it is suitable for.

i also remember eating the seeds like a parrot.. grandma has a nice vegetable garden and in the right period we've always had a good provision of fresh, not GMO, old school pumpkins ^^

too bad said chunk was pretty BIG.

result: in the last days i've been eating pumpkin in all the thinkable ways. i even made a rough chutney to slam on my white bread as take away sandwich for lunch.

of course i made the pumpkin and rice soup, taking care to make very thick it was almost risotto-like :D i also made a tasty, buttery pumpkin sauce to top my beloved angel hair pasta.. and i must admit it was simply amazing ehehehe

the luxury curd

well since it seems i cant keep a blog properly, i'll make it a bit different :) sometimes i would like to update with some writings, but then i think it's not something i would put on the net because it's just my opinions or maybe it's something i wrote for some friends.. moreover lately i cook improvising quite often and i should write down all the recipes. i've also been pretty busy in the past weeks and in the evening i've been too tired to sit down and think of an interesting blog entry, then write it, complete it with some nice pic and so on.

so for the moment my blog is going to turn into a photo report of what i make everyday, it will be quicker for me to update and will satisfy my food photography mania :D

i'll start with my sunday brunch.. small potato scones with luxury lemon curd and fresh cheese spread on them! i really love lemon curd and imo the best one is the the english provender co. luxury lemon curd.. i tried some others but they were too sweet or not creamy enough for me ^^

the first time i made them i followed a recipe of scottish scones i found on the net.. but then i noticed it was easier for me to measure ingredients just with a look, according to the kind of potato and such. anyway, here is the original recipe.

65g wheat flour
3tbsp melted butter
225g mashed potatoes
1/2 tsp salt

boil and mash the potatoes, add butter and salt. add in enough flour to make it a pliable dough. roll the dough on a floured surface and cut into circles, then into quarters.
prick all over with a fork and cook in a lightly greased pan. cook each side for about 3min or till golden brown. be careful not to burn the outside.


btw this is what i had for dinner yesterday.. hazelnut and bread crumbs coated veal sauteed with sliced potatoes :)