Whole spelt Paradise cake on berries

I had way too many eggs leftover after Easter. With their expiration date approaching fast, I decided to make Paradise cake, or Torta Paradiso in Italian, with 8 eggs, butter, flours, sugar and lemon.

Where the river meets the sea in yellows and reds

...is where we live. Just a few steps outside our door and we are on the breakwater that also guides ships in and out of the port. Obviously, a great place for a walk. Preferably late, late afternoon when everything looks and feels better. When everything is covered with a gray tint but some things stand out. Like...

Crisp cauliflower soup

I added the florets just before the soup was ready. The cauliflower turned out just tender and definitely tasty without the bad cabbage smell.

Tagliatelle with asparagus and Pecorino

I didn't want to look for a better background, napkin, pot, light or angle. All I wanted to do was to sit down and eat a bowl of this pasta...warm, now.

Forget-me-nots

I'm slowly getting into the habit of carrying my camera with me. And I capture things I have never seen before...

Mazurek with dolce de leche

Can I squeeze in one more Easter recipe...? I made it Saturday afternoon as the last thing on my Easter baking list.  Last because it is the easiest. You can mess it up a bit here and there and it will still turn out irresistible. 

Colomba w/whole spelt

And while my babka was in the oven, I was already working on Colomba (a traditional Italian Easter cake). I fell in love with it last year. I think this Italian love story is going to last...

Mrs. Irena's Easter Babka cooked in water

So, this year, I'm making it. It's been in my mom's recipe notebook for 40 years now and there is no Easter without it. The sad thing was, that my parents were moving last year and my mom threw the special babka form away... I don't know, maybe it was leaking or something.

Easter wishes, eggs and schedules

Easter egg crafted by Hania

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To make Polka dot Easter eggs:
things: 

egg shaped styrofoam, two different types of fabric (one with Polka dots), ribbon, pins
steps: 

1. using a nail file, make 4 cuts in the styrofoam (like you'd cut an egg into wedges); 
2. cut 4 pieces of fabric, bigger than the egg, ellipse shaped; 
3. with the nail file, insert well the fabric into the cuts you made; 
4. cut off the excess fabric;
5. wrap the egg with ribbon, make 4 loops on top + one bigger one for hanging; pin the top of the egg;
6. pin the sides and the bottom.

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My little Easter schedule:

• Thursday: shopping and cleaning;
• Friday: baking and cleaning;
• Saturday: baking, cleaning, egg coloring, my parents arriving; my sister went to Venice;
• Easter Sunday: eating and thinking about eating;
• Easter Monday: eating and thinking about stopping.

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View from my kitchen: 6:05 - 6:10 am

This morning's sunrise...

Pizza with black olives and red radishes

The inspiration came from two bunches of red radishes in the fridge that were calling my name and an open jar of the Italian black olive spread I didn't want to go bad...

Millet pizza with black olives

A pizza..? I don't know...I cooked the groats, went away, came back. The groats cooled down and firmed up that I could cut it with a knife.  

Hania and a daisy

The other day, Hania came back from roller skating and brought this little flower with her. She picked it along the path, carried it all the way home in her hands and gave it to me.

Focaccia quasi genovese w/whole spelt

Made by Gabriele Bonci (and then me), a very handsome Italian pizza/focaccia expert whom I can regularly see on RaiUno, in La Prova del Cuoco TV show. He is tall and big and his hands are like two loaves of bread and his fingers are three times bigger than mine.

Breakfast with the crepes

Julian grabs about a dozen of them at once, puts butter in between and syrup or preserves on top. Hania covers hers with Nutella, preserves and sprinkles it with brown sugar. I put Nutella and jam.

Rosti (Swiss potato dish)

We are really not a potato family but then we are a potato family. That is, if I cooked potatoes every day or, let's say, every other day, I would always have willing takers.

Plum banana cake

I keep digging this recipe. When I had that celery root left over, I even thought about using IT. Maybe next time or year...Then I thought about bananas I bought for banana cake. But I was too impatient to look for a suit-my-day-perfect recipe and I went for one that I already had it in my head...always makes things easier. Knowing that those other cakes ( Very apple and Very carrot cake) incorporated a lot of fruit/vegetable puree beautifully, apart from 2 bananas, I added a whole jar of plum preserves, the tart and dense type (and my very favorite).