Sunday morning fratata

This morning's fratata... and with no kids about (as they all slept over at the grandparents - god bless them) we could enjoy coffees and discussions about Friday's debate. 

Red Pepper Fratata

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1 clove garlic

1 potato

half a red onion

few leaves of Basil

1 red pepper (or leftover peppers from you salads)

3/4 eggs (organic preferably)

Shavings of Romano cheese (or what ever hard-cheese you have - the saltier the better)

salt pepper 

parsley

cook on stove then end with grill top in the oven

  

The Wire it is (and probably Mad Men too if I can convince A that it will be a long wet winter and this will best get us through). Am interested in some of the other suggestions so perhaps next year (or come summer) I will give Carnival and Weeds a go....thank you for all the feedback!!!

Yes- wee bit obsessed lately

with ice cream

(it is still warm enough for sleeveless shirts and flip flops here- so hot enough for ice cream in my book).  

After the successful venture of banana chocolate ice cream (with additional chocolate bits) which they (children) lapped up, believing it was chocolate ice cream (sadly they are not big on fruit in the raw- yes crazy  and terribly humiliating for me).  Luckily little Stella is the exception- the girl LOVES eveything.

I was itching to make a proper chocolate ice cream (adult very dark sort) so trekked around Zabbar looking for single cream (which is not easy to find- is everyone on a diet here?! I had the same trouble when looking for just straight butter). Anyways have made some dark chocolate ice cream... with orange zest, bit of vanilla and using muscovado sugar instead of white (because that's all we had) real tempted to add something else ... something crazy like nutmeg but no could be terrible and I got carried away last time. Will include a photo and verdict tomorrow. 

And so as not to bore the life out of anyone reading this who does not particularly like ice cream- 

this site is EXCITING 

(if you are into discovering new music)- kind of like Pandora but I think Europe based.... 

Deezer.com

Verdict on Chocolate orange ice cream--good creamy texture, liked the hint of orange rind but the chocolate didn't turn out dark enough- will be forced to do my Dads famous dark chocolate hot fudge sauce to save the day. No more baking with that Cadbury cocoa.  

Back to Basics

So check out this piece of local equipment , I trekked my lot down to Birgu (no easy feat) as there is more than one odd five way intersection with no attention to pedestrian needs between us and this play ground I had spotted. After a long slow 35 min journey there, the park appeared completely closed and locked which was really a disappointment especially as I didn't quite know how to keep the gangs spirits up with this end goal now just beyond reach. Had some kind of an odd interaction with an old man who shrugged and said tomorrow 8 or something to that effect to finally realize that if we just lifted on one lever and pushed hard against the other door it slid open- (was wrapped in a chain with a locked padlock on one part of it) did still appear locked from the outside. What a nice mix of very old school (but newly painted) metal kids play equipment, particularly liked this horse- it kind of swayed back and forth in a galloping way. And you could fit five little ones on it at the same time- brilliant! My three did have a go all at once but sadly no hand to take a photo as Stella needed some stabilizing.

So the park trip was quite a long trek before dinner time but ended up bringing loads of giggles and shrieks of excitement. So nearly worth it.

On my mind-

Not so into the RAI Italian Tv shows here  and thinking of investing in a tv series to get me through cold damp winter nights here- so as I am pretty out of the loop on whats on in America (am just now getting into Lost here on DVD) what can anyone out there advise... am thinking maybe Weeds or something called The Wire? Or Mad Men? 

sorry- am totally open to a British series too

 

Went a little wild

With the ice cream maker that is- was a little excited what with eggs, cream and dried figs in the house- made an ice cream with figs, walnuts and chocolate (note the figs were cooked down in orange juice with a wee bit of cinnamon till carmely). Yes, I strayed from the usual keep it simple approach so it is one rich desert. The chocolate was a nice very dark Italian sort- just some small shavings (love the choices at the stores here). A photo to follow once we serve it up tonight!  

--- texture and taste turned out really well- just in case anyone out there is into making ice cream will write down the recipe as I am sure by tomorrow I will forget what I did. 

Fig and Walnut Ice cream

2 eggs yokes

3 Tbs sugar

mix with a whisk

add 400 ml of single cream

200 ml whole milk

add pinch of cinnamon 

set in pan and let simmer 3-4 minutes

set aside to cool 

 chop 3-4 dried figs

add with 100 ml water

juice of half an orange

1 tbs sugar (could do without it but this is the version I made)

cook down till there is a syrup (15-20 min)

set aside

when milk mixture and fig mixture is cool start up the ice cream maker- add the cream mixture and the figs then a small handful of chopped walnuts and a small handful of finely chopped dark chocolate.