OnThe Sunny Side Of The Street

Lavagna (Italy) 31/03/2013

Fifty shades of green... O Spring, Where Art Thou?

I was preparing vegetables for Chinese Pork-filled Wontons and the bowl in green reminded me of the missing Spring...

Pollyanna's philosophy

This week I'd a frequent pop-up in my mind. Do you remember this movie?

I grow up watching Disney's movies and this was one of my favorites. I read also the book many many times. It was a gift for a special occasion, I don't remember which one, maybe my tenth birthday. I still have it in my Billy bookcase, with "Little womans" and all Harry Potter books :-)

You know, I share pretty much the same way of thinking with little Pollyanna: think positive, there's always something good waiting for you! Yin and Yang. Balance of forces in the Universe... 

Evil part (of my week): 

• My washing machine is broken and it can't be repaired immediately, because we're waiting the pieces that have to be changed. Life without a washing machine, is hard as a single (At least it was for me when I was alone), but when you have two Kids things tend to go little crazy. 

• Kid1 is ill again, an other nasty virus. No fever, fortunately.

• I've cabin fever. The weather is horrible! It's raining and raining and raining. Sunny days are rare this month.

Good part (of my week):

• I met virtually new interesting people. Nice, kind and inspiring.

• I read, I reread and I will read amazing *romantic* books

Samantha Stroh Bbailey

 This book was a real surprise. I buy Indie authors books for my kindle often. Sometimes they're delusional, but not this one :-) Read it.

 Forever and a Day

Jill Shalvis

I reread this book, because I simply love it, there's romance and a lot of fun :-) The pug Tank (aka the Antichrist) is hilarious. However the whole Lucky Harbor series is amazing.

The Best Man

Kristan Higgins

I'd to buy the paperback version, because the publisher didn't allow Amazon to sell the Kindle version outside the US, but I couldn't wait longer... I like this author for the same reason I like Jill Shalvis, in their books you can find the prefect fusion of romance and humor :-)
I'm waiting the TNT guy with the little box, delivery is scheduled for this afternoon :-)

A Mom has to develope Linebacker skills

Spring arrived with one day delay and carried warm temperature and clear blue sky. So, today afternoon we had a lot of company at the playground. The Kids were in Heaven, I was on a NFL playground! 

Kid2 is now 18 months old and doesn't know what fear is. The more action he sees the more excited he becomes. And I've to run behind him trying to avoid contact with children the double (even triple) his size, or swinging toys, or whatever could hurt him... Today a boy (quite MY size) crushed over my shoulder falling from a Tibetan bridge, fortunately Kid2 didn't even notice the danger and looked puzzled at my grimly face o_O

Daddy's cake :-)

Today is Father day (March 19th) and the kids and I prepared this cake using whipped cream and sponge chocolate cake.

For the sponge chocolate cake I used the recipe described in Nigella old fashioned chocolate cake 

Ingredients:
200 gram(s) Plain flour
200 gram(s) caster sugar
1 teaspoon(s) baking powder
½ teaspoon(s) bicarbonate of soda
40 gram(s) cocoa powder
175 gram(s) unsalted butter (soft)
2 large egg(s)
2 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
150 ml sour cream 

Take everything out of the fridge so that all the ingredients can come to room temperature.
Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C and line and butter two 20cm sandwich tins with removable bases. Or use a 20cmX30cm rectangular tin.
Now all you have to do is put all the cake ingredients - flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarb, cocoa, butter, eggs, vanilla and sour cream - into a food processor and process until you have a smooth, thick batter. If you want to go the long way around, just mix the flour, sugar and leavening agents in a large bowl and beat in the soft butter until you have a combined and creamy mixture. Now whisk together the cocoa, sour cream, vanilla and eggs and beat this into your bowl of mixture.
(If you use two tin, divide this batter, using a rubber spatula to help you scrape and spread, into the prepared tins)

Bake until a cake tester, or a thin skewer, comes out clean, which should be about 35 minutes, but it is wise to start checking at 25. Also, it might make sense to switch the two cakes around in the oven halfway through cooking time.

Grissini alias Breadstick

Today Kid1 and me had a little fun baking breadsticks.
We used some pizza dough and spices (sesame, dried onion, oregano, ...) . So they aren't the originals, but the boys loved them :-)

Brunch or Little American Breakfast?

Happy Birthday Granny :-)

Chantilly and wild Berries cake

Kids and Veggies

Kid1 is 5 years old and has his first Veggies' problems. He can't stand spinaches (Dunno why) or sliced zucchini (Dunno why), but he still loves green beans... However I'm trying all the cook's professional techniques to rearrange Veggies in a edible form for his health and the one that passed the exam was cooking in little cubes (Dadolata di verdure)

You can use whatever you want, in this case I chopped: 1 big tomato, 1/2 small red pepper, 2 small zucchini, 1 big potato and 1/4 onion.