Best offbeat views of the Dingle peninsula

| Eva

The tip of the Dingle peninsula is Ireland’s westernmost point. If that was not enough to make you want to go there, wait until you see my photos of that part of the emerald island. Less popular than the Ring of Kerry, Western Ireland’s most famous drive, the Dingle peninsula is rising in popularity. Two are the main reasons behind this. First, it’s a shorter drive than the Ring of Kerry. Second, despite being shorter it still encompasses some of the finest views of Ireland. Continue reading →

Three meals in Northern Ireland

afternoon tea
| Eva

Northern Ireland revealed itself as a food paradise to me. There hasn’t been one meal that I did not deeply enjoy while there. I only spent three days in Northern Ireland and I tried to eat out every time we could. Even when we had a lot of driving ahead and not enough time to fit in a proper lunch. This is when we usually make our sandwiches and eat them on the go. Even then I loved the local food. That cheddar, that bread… what’s not to love there? Continue reading →

Nutella panna cotta with hazelnuts

Nutella panna cotta recipe
| Eva

Panna cotta is a recipe that comes from Piedmont, and so does Nutella. Combining the two should have been the most logical thing to do, yet for some reason I had never come across Nutella panna cotta until a couple of months ago. When I visited home in August my parents took me out for lunch to a restaurant that makes authentic traditional cucina piemontese and Nutella panna cotta was my dessert of choice among those they had. What a delightful experience.

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Asparagus pistachio risotto

Asparagus pistachio risotto
| Eva

I recently had some friends over for dinner and decided to treat them to risotto. Pasta and pizza, especially when home-made by an authentic Italian cook, are always a good option, and no guest will ever frown at this choice of menu. But there’s so much more to Italian cooking than pizza and pasta. Rice is, in fact, a very popular food in the north, together with polenta (cornmeal). Coming from northern Italy myself, I consider risotto one of the finest expressions of northern Italian cuisine. Continue reading →

One autumn morning on the Giant’s Causeway

Visiting the Giant's Causeway one autumn morning.
| Eva

A deserted beach made of massive basalt columns disappearing into the sea: the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. It was my favourite picture in a folder named “Ireland” in my old desktop. Many, many years ago, I was completely in love with Ireland. A genuine teenage obsession with the emerald island and its music, traditions, history. Out of all of the beautiful landscape images that filled that “Ireland” folder, the Giant’s Causeway one was by far my favourite. I dreamed about going there one day. Continue reading →

A distillery tour of Ireland – exploring the world of Irish whiskey

| Eva

There was a time in my life when whisky was just whisky. Actually, as the hibernophile that I am, I used to spell it whiskey, with an e. Even scotch or bourbon, it was all whiskey to me. In fact, I didn’t even know the difference between a scotch and a bourbon. Then I met my boyfriend and he happened to be a whisky person. A big whisky person (and notice the lack of the extra –e- I loved to use). One who will describe his favourite kind of whisky without even saying the word whisky (“Peated single malt”. Okaaaay.). Continue reading →

Mini tarts with mushrooms and parmigiano

Mini mushroom pies recipe
| Eva

I’ve been an advocate of shortcrust vegetable pies for years. I started making them when I didn’t even have a tart pan but was using a springform pan, instead. It works, and it can look pretty, too. Then I started going smaller and made them finger-food-sized baked in the muffin tin. Also something to be proud of. Until I finally got myself a proper tart pan and started producing the real deal. My favourite? Definitely the mushroom tart.

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Szarlotka, the Polish apple juice and vodka cocktail

| Eva

Szarlotka is the name of Polish apple pie. There is another item in Polish cuisine that goes by the same name and that features two of the same ingredients – apples and cinnamon. The third igredient is Żubrówka, probably the most famous Polish vodka out there, the one with a leaf of bison grass in the bottle. When szarlotka doesn’t refer to a pie, it is a drink, Poland’s favourite way of drinking Żubrówka when used as a cocktail ingredient and not enjoyed alone.

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Easy sponge cake recipe

The easiest recipe to nail a fluffy sponge cake.
| Eva

Remember the baking powder I brought back as a souvenir from Iceland (if you don’t, you can read about it here)? Well that tin can is just too beautiful to sit in my cupboard, unnoticed by the world. But I can’t just use baking powder as a random prop for any photo shoot, right? Well, it (finally) dawned on me that I had never featured a sponge cake recipe on this blog yet. How was that even possible?  Continue reading →

The art of fika, a reunion in Stockholm

The art of fika in a Stockholm café
| Eva

The first time I travelled to Stockholm with my boyfriend was during a long weekend in December some years ago. The city was packed with snow and Christmas lights and it was utterly romantic. It was also very cold, so cold that every now and then we felt the need to enter a café and order a hot drink to warm ourselves up from the inside out. What we did out of necessity, we discovered later to be also a very cultural thing in Sweden: the art of fika.
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