Monday 27 May 2013

Liebster award!

Yeeeeey!!! I have received one more award for my blog! This time it´s the Liebster Award and for it I have to thank Anna from Granelli di Zucchero. Thank you sooooooooooooo much!
This award is - as its motto says - a great way to discover new blogs and for bloggers to recognise other good bloggers. The rules are easy: name the blogger who nominated you, answer his/hers 11 questions, share 11 facts about yourself, nominate other 11 blogs with less than 200 followers, ask them 11 questions, and inform them about their nomination.


So here are my answers to Anna´s questions:
1) How is your passion for food born? I was on holiday in London, and my friend Teresa took me to the Hummingbird Bakery in Notting Hill. There I fell in love with cupcakes.
2) Do you prefer to prepare salty or sweet dishes? Sweet of course!
3) What would you prefer for a candle light dinner? Fresh fish courses on the seaside.
4) What is the ugliest dish you ate? A huge paella with snails in it. I tasted it (leaving aside the snails) to be respectful but it was actually disgusting too.
5) Is there any dish you associate to a nice experience? Chicken cooked in milk reminds me of my  early childhood in Milano.
6) Which is your favourite cocktail? Pimm´s with strawberries and cucumbers.
7) Who is your favourite chef (or pastry chef)? Maxine Clark.
8) Which is the most representative dish from your city (specify which city)? My hometown is Trieste (Italy) and it´s quite funny but our typical dishes resemble the Austro-Hungarian tradition rather than the Italian one. So we have: gulasch, cevpcici, jota, pinza, putizza, presnitz, apfelstrudel. But also a lot of fish dishes such as: sardoni in savor, baccalà mantecato, granzevole alla triestina. 
9) How do you recognise a good restaurant? It has to be small, few tables, not pretentious, possibly family owned, creative, and unique.
10) Which spice do you consider indispensable in your kitchen? Cinnamon and pepper.
11) If you were a dessert, which one would you be and why? I would be sugar so I could come in all desserts!!! Hahaha!

Now 11 facts about me:
I have a wonderful Terrier named Bubu, who wears a bow-tie.
I like to fall asleep with the sound of pouring rain outside.
I constantly say I am on diet, but never really am.
I work in a flower shop, but I make coffee.
I have a cat, who likes to groom my brother´s hair.
I hate microeconomics.
I never wear makeup.
I have a blind neighbour who feeds crows on his balcony. WEIRDO!
I am taking salsa classes and laugh all the time.
I collect modern versions of Swedish Dala horses (because I love horses).
I want to end my life in Kenya.


My nominees are:
The 11 questions for you:
How does your ideal Sunday have to be?
No one cooks better than...
Nothing tastes better than...
Which is the next present you would like to receive?
Which is the best day of the year and why?
What does your blog mean to you?
Which kitchen tool do you use the most?
The one thing you could never eat is...
The one thing you could always eat is...
Which is your favourite ingredient?

Enjoy and congratulations
♥ Martina 

Sunday 19 May 2013

Spread the love

I love having brunch and I love having bread spreads for brunch so... spread the love for brunch!

Sunday is always a great day to relax, take it easy, lay down, read a book, go for a walk, sit in the sun, and have brunch. Today I had a lovely day: the weather was really nice this morning so I went with my brother Umbo, my dog Bubu, our friend Silvie, and her French bulldog Giulietta for a long and beautiful walk in Salzburg´s nature. The dogs played wild and we enjoyed the sun. So which better way to end a great morning than with a great brunch?! 

What was on the menu? Well well well, lots of good and healthy stuff: breakfast tea, kiwi-raspberry-shake, prosciutto with melon, boiled eggs, whole wheat bread, and three different types of home-made bread spreads. 








What about the spreads? Apart from Nutella, I made the other three myself. One is with eggs & pepper, one with yogurt, orange & herbs, and one with tuna & basil. They are all really easy to make, it really takes only a couple of minutes. Freshly made they are delicious and if you put them in a tupperware you can store them in your fridge for about 5 days.



Eggs & pepper
Ingredients:
2-3 eggs
120 gr. philadelphia cheese
pepper
salt
Boil the eggs for 5 minutes, let them cool down, then mix them with the remaining ingredients until you get a smooth cream. Ta daaaa! Ready to eat!

Orange, yogurt & herbs
Ingredients:
the juice of a small orange
1 tsp of mixed herbs
1/2 tsp olive oil
150 gr. plain yogurt
Mix all the ingredients together et voilà the spread is ready to meet the bread and your palate!

Tuna & basil
Ingredients:
80 gr. tuna
120 gr. philadelphia cheese
5 basil leaves
salt
Put all ingredients in a mixer and mince till smooth and creamy. Finish! Finito! Fertig! Fini! 

Nutella is Nutella! I also tried to make it (have a look here), but the original one is simply inimitable, so I just could not leave it out of the menu. Hehehe!

Las but not least the kiwi-raspberry-shake. What you need is 10 kiwis, 2 handfuls of raspberries, about 100 ml. of milk, and 4 to 6 scoops of vanilla ice cream. Trying to be as quick as possible mix all ingredients together, pour in a glass and serve with fresh or frozen raspberries.

Enjoy your brunch 
Martina


Sunday 12 May 2013

Mmmmmmm...mom!

To all mothers of the world and especially to mine I wish a lovely mother´s day! I dedicate to you these crumbles with wild strawberries and vanilla ice-cream; delicate and sweet as you are.

With lots of love
Martina







Friday 10 May 2013

Draw me a cupcake

Besides baking one of my other hobbies is drawing. I am not a master at it, especially when it comes to people, but I am always quite happy with the result. When I was in school I used to win the "artist of the year award", the "creativity award", or the "most likely to build a bridge to the moon award". Boy, I felt proud back then! Anyways, cupcakes are also a very easy object, even more if i create them in my fantasy, draw them, and then bake them, rather than the other way round. As a matter of fact I have baked all of these and I have posted some of them too.

Hope you like them, soon I´ll post more baking.

Enjoy 
Martina









Tiny Hand With Heart