Sweden is fattening me up. Ever since my first winter here, when in autumn nature dims the lights, my body starts demanding more food and I put up a couple of kilos. Then in the spring it’s all about getting rid of that winter fat. I must admit that I succeed pretty well at that, and the fact that in the spring I start biking everywhere again certainly helps. What does not help is the amount of delicious cakes and the overall fika culture that Sweden boasts. Continue reading
For our soon-to-be-celebrated anniversary, I got a new tart pan from my boyfriend. We picked it on our most recent trip to the Åland islands in a shop that is an amateur baker’s paradise and one of my go-to places whenever I happen to be visiting the Finnish archipelago. I decided not to wait for our anniversary to use it, and since we have a guest right now I thought this would be the perfect excuse to inaugurate it. Continue reading
As autumn is slowly rolling in, these days I am enjoying the company of a dear friend of mine visiting us in Sweden. Coming from Italy, she is finding the crisp air a pleasant reward after a very hot summer. She has posed for me in the past, when we were both living in Poland and also the first time she came to Sweden, in the middle of the winter, wearing lace on a frozen lake (yes, I like my models crazy), so I just couldn’t miss the opportunity for a photo shoot also this time. Continue reading
There is only one thing that can beat the good feeling of finishing a book you’ve enjoyed, and that’s finding some reference to it in real life. Reading a novel set in India leaves you with a desire for some nice spicy food and finding Indian recipes in the book came as a great surprise when I turned the last page of the novel and found there was more content. The novel was Ladies Coupé by Anita Nair and it was the spring of 2011. Continue reading
There is a dish that I have loved ever since I was a kid, and it is shrimps drowned in creamy cocktail sauce. I made some research and realised that what I have always known as “cocktail sauce” in Italy is not the same as cocktail sauce is usually intended in the English-speaking world. Cocktail sauce, or rather salsa cocktail as I know it, is a beautiful blend of mayo and ketchup, plus a couple of secret ingredients here and there.
Baked cheesecake is one of my favourite desserts. The first version I have tried in my life is the Polish sernik, often made by my mom (in Italy with ricotta cheese). The Polish version of the cake, at least in the area where my family is from, often features raisins inside; a more appreciated (by me) variant is with pieces of canned peaches in the filling. I personally prefer it “bare” – just cheese. My favourite version is definitely the cream cheese-based American variant, also known as New York style cheesecake.
Avocado is one of my favourite foods. My love for it started from sushi, then further developed from there. My latest favourite way to enjoy this fabulous pear-shaped Mexican green gold is in smoothies. Probably my favourite combination in a smoothie is together with banana – another favourite fruit for smoothies (I could add a banana to every blend. Every-single-fruit-blend). Continue reading
Since I recently gave up on store-bought pesto and started making my own, I decided it is worth at this point getting a little more creative and going beyond fresh basil. Another type of pesto that is quite popular in Italy is pesto rosso, which literally means red pesto, whose main ingredients are (cherry) tomatoes and ricotta cheese. Another variation is sun-dried tomato pesto. I decided to go for a combination of both. Continue reading
As a person who loves to travel, I have logged a considerable amount of hours spent on a plane, especially over the past ten years of my life. Since I have mostly traveled around Europe, most of my flying experience is short-haul on planes no larger than a B737. Despite my irrational fear of takeoffs (I really dislike that feeling of weightlessness as the plane breaks the laws of gravity) and the uncomfort of the occasional light turbulences, I can say that I actually like to fly and have enjoyed every time I have been airborne. Except for one time, when I got seriously ill in the middle of a six-hour flight. Continue reading
