Just a quick post today, I've ended up with only a tiny window of computer time this afternoon. I spent a lot of time reading Suzanne's, Liz's and Susan's recipes. I've found a few I'd like to try. Zeno and I are always willing to try new recipes that catch our attention.

The sun is finally out again after a rainy night and a cloudy morning. Right now it's 9°C, can you see a big smile on my face? LOL! The weather forecast says sprinkles from tonight till Sunday. I sure hope not 'cos I'd like to enjoy a few nice day-trips with Zeno and his parents. My in-laws will arrive at the airport at 6:20 PM and my sweetheart and I will be there to welcome them.

I want to leave you with a bunch of gorgeous views of Scotland. Betcha want to see this beautiful country too. Click HERE and enjoy the video. The song is called "Caledonia" and is a modern Scottish folk ballad written and sung by Dougie MacLean.

Have a great day everyone! ...and thank you so much for your visits. It's always a pleasure to have friends stopping by and new visitors discovering my little webhome. Will be back later this week to catch up on comments and e-mails. Take care!

We had a very nice dinner at our friend Majid's house on Saturday. He sure is a perfect host. He cooked a delicious dinner for 5 that we enjoyed in a nicely candle-lit living room. His Lebanese aubergine dip was incredibly yummy and so was his Greek Moussaka. For dessert he amazed us all with a strawberry cake. We spent a nice evening eating, chatting and laughing till we realized it was 3 in the morning.

Sunday has been mostly sunny even though a freezing wind kept blowing all the time.

We made "vellutata di lenticchie rosse" (creamy red lentils soup) to warm us up. The recipe has already been uploaded in our Recipe Corner under "Primi piatti". BTW, thank you very much for the award, Cris! Thanks for your support.

Our friend Amanda is scheduled for a c-section today. We can't wait to see a photo of you and your little boy!

Earth Hour (L'Ora della Terra) is a worldwide event that encourages individuals to unite in the fight against global warming by turning off their lights and spending 60 minutes outside with friends and family. You can get more information about local events in your area by clicking on the logo below.

This event will take place in each country at 8:30 PM local time. It would be nice if such an event could push people in making a daily engagement in saving energy.

WWF's Earth Hour already has support in over 1800 cities in 80 countries. Here in Scotland, lights will go out in every major city and on some of the country's most iconic buildings including: Edinburgh Castle, the Forth Rail Bridge, the Scottish Parliament, Glasgow City Chambers, Stirling Castle... and many many more. Kia and I will participate going out for dinner and a walk with a few friends. Of course, we hope to see many stars tonight. What about you? Any special plan?

This weekend British Summer Time Begins and our clocks will move forward one hour. Have a happy and sunny weekend.

Thy name is... lazy! Hibernation is all I can think about right now.

Sometimes you just need a break, right? I'm not going to plan anything for a couple of days. I'm not going to worry about what's getting done or what's not getting done, so that I can keep a fresh perspective and I can totally relax and recharge before my in-laws visit. BTW, thank you Beppe for this adorable photo. I think the cute little fellow is a dormouse (ghiro).

The British government is proposing that Twitter and Wikipedia be taught in primary (elementary) schools in the UK. Children will no longer have to study the Victorians or World War II. You can read more about it HERE. No, it is not April 1st yet. LOL! What do you think about it?

Thanks to all of you, dear friends, for your sweet comments about our Recipe Corner. My sweetheart and I are so honored by such sweet compliments! They sure are an encouragement!

Buon Compleanno, carissima Cris! Tell your hubby he has to spoil you rotted today!

It's been rainy for two days here and temps have dropped once again. Hopefully the wet weather will help all the flowers poke their heads out faster. Flowers and trees need rain, so we're trying not to complain too much. Sometimes we forget this is Scotland, land of moody weather with sudden changes to rain, wind, hail or sun.

Finally our Recipe Corner is on-line. Yes, we know, it took us a long time to set things up, but better late than never. We hope you like it, even if some of the links are not active yet. Translating our recipes is taking us longer than we thought, so we'll do it little by little. We called this corner Pomodoro & Basilico that means Tomato & Basil, which are very common ingredients in the Italian cuisine and a must in our kitchen.

We'd like to hear what you think about it. Thanks in advance for your comments and/or suggestions. Good night & sweet dreams.

Wordless Tuesday… well, almost. I just love this quote, it's brilliant!

Happy Birthday to Jessica and Åshild! Have a fab day!

Another week gone by. I didn't realize it's been so long since I last posted an entry. Days and hours have been flying by in a wink of an eye, busy doing what needed to be done but also enjoying spending time together. A few crappy stuff have been going on too, but I am not going to write about them. They have passed and I am only going to think positively now.

Spring is in the air even if it's still chilly outside, and when we wake up at 6 in the morning we can hear birds chirping among the tree limbs.

I've got a few e-mails lately asking if I am on Facebook, which I'm not. Or if I'd like to join, which I don't. Or f I've considered joining Twitter or Plurk, which I haven't. I like blogging (and by that I mean both writing in my blog and blog-hopping), it is a lot of fun and I've met a lot of amazing and creative ladies this way. But it's also time consuming, and I'm already bad enough at updating this site, as you all have already noticed, LOL! That's why I don't think Facebook & Co. are for me.

About a week ago I received a "Berry Sweet" award from Marge and Kathy. This award is given to those blogs who show kindness and sweetness in their entries. Well, I truly appreciate you both thinking about me, dear friends. I'm so sorry it took me so long to post it. Almost everyone has already got it, so I want to pass it to all the kind and sweet ladies on my blog-roll that did not receive it yet (left click to grab it).

My apologies to all of you for not keeping in touch lately. I hope that I can be more regular next month, after my in-laws visit. Fingers crossed! Tomorrow after work my sweetheart will go out with his colleagues (dinner and bowling) and won't be home till around midnight, so I should be able to return all your visits. TTFN!

Today it has been a pretty unusual day for us. The makers of the BBC lottery quiz 1 versus 100 were making a pilot (non transmission) version of the programme in Italian for Canale 5 (one of the major Italian television channels) here in Glasgow this Sunday, and they needed Italian speaking people who could take part, either as participants or spectators. Maybe you know this quiz show; it is a general knowledge type of quiz. Canale 5 has flown over the Italian presenter Marco Liorni to host the afternoon.

Anyway, we found out about it thanks to our neighbors, so the four of us participated as part of the "wall" made of 100 challengers. It has been fun, unusual, but also very tiring. Spending 5 hours under the spotlights is not so easy as one can imagine, especially if you don't have the chance to go to the loo or drink anything. We also had to skip lunch and then got home quite hungry and totally thirsty. Not to mention clapping all the time until your hands turn red. We have been told that next weekend the BBC is going to make a pilot version of this show also for the Swedish television.

Time to go to bed now. I better join my lovely wife who was knackered and is already tucked in. Have a good night and a nice week ahead! Happy Birthday to our dear Brazilian friend Wanda Lucia!

This past weekend just snapped away. It has been not quite the weekend we had planned, but it was good, none the less. On Saturday, a strong cold wind kept us company for hours, so we took just a short walk in the late afternoon.

We spent a lot of time in the kitchen, cooking together. We are trying to test a few recipes we might want to prepare for Zeno's parents. They are coming to visit us at the end of this month and will stay with us for a week.

Sunday has been a nice day, mostly sunny and with temps around 10°C. We spent most of the day walking around enjoying the beautiful flowers.

It really felt like spring was on its way! We saw many beautiful daffodils and crocuses here and there in gardens and parks.

My sweetheart spent several minutes trying to take a nice picture of the tender sprouts that start appearing on some branches, which reveals that nature is waking up.

I wish we could have a rain-free weather for at least 4-6 weeks now. Well, a girl can dream, right? LOL! In fact, it's raining right now. Anyway, what do you look forward to in spring?

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. Are you celebrating it? We usually celebrate it only online, but this year I thought it could be nice celebrate it also on our table. On our menu tomorrow we'll have rice with spinach and a sandwich made with Irish Soda Bread (from the bakery) which we will fill with fresh spinach leaves, tomatoes, cream cheese and ham.

RISOTTO CON GLI SPINACI

Ingredients:
360 g Arborio rice (or Carnaroli)
500 g fresh spinach
1.5 liter vegetable broth
1 shallot
20 g butter (unsalted)
1/2 glass white wine
4 tablespoons Parmigiano, grated

Wash thoroughly the spinach leaves under cold running water. Mince them finely on a chopping board and put them in a big pan. Cover it and let them cook for about 5 minutes. Do not add water, the moisture on the leaves will be enough. Add a pinch of salt half way through cooking.

In another pan melt half of the butter and add the shallot finely minced. When the shallot has lightly browned add the rice and let it toast for about one minute, until it becomes translucent, stirring constantly to keep it from sticking. Stir in the wine and once it has evaporated completely, add a ladle of simmering broth.

Keep cooking, stirring and adding broth as the rice absorbs it, until the rice reaches the "al dente" stage. Five minutes before the end of the cooking, add the spinach and stir well.

When the rice is ready turn off the flame and stir in the remaining butter and the grated cheese. Cover the risotto and let it sit for a couple of minutes before serving.

Note: if you want a richer and smoother risotto, stir in 2 tablespoons of double cream in addition to the butter. After this procedure, risotto is called "mantecato".

Have a good evening/night and, if you are celebrating, a fun St Patrick's Day! You can find our wishes for you under "Gifts for you" (menu on the right). Time for bed, this entry took me like forever to be written! I'll be around to visit and catch up on what's going on in your life tomorrow. Until next time, keep smiling!

INTERRUPTIONS: I've started a post many times but never got the chance to finish it, let's see if this is the right time.

FRIDAY THE 13TH: I have always felt lucky on this day. Here in the UK the number 13 is unlucky and Friday the 13th is a very unlucky day. Friday is considered to be an unlucky day because Jesus was crucified on a Friday. A fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskevidekatriaphobia (paraskevi = Friday, dekatria = thirteen, phobia = fear). Is Friday 13th considered in the same way where you live?

TODAY QUOTE: I've found this brilliant quote I want to share with you: "Don't let the excitement of Tomorrow diminish the importance of Today" - I dunno about you, but it often happens to me to spend a lot of time looking forward to something new or different to do. I should concentrate more on the fun of the day.

RED NOSE DAY: it's a UK-wide fundraising event organized by Comic Relief every two years. Everyone is encouraged to cast inhibitions aside, put on a red nose (or at least wear something red) and do something a little bit silly to raise money, celebrities included! You can read all about it HERE. It's a pity I just found out about it.

FABRIZIO DE ANDRE': I'm glad you liked his poem "Le nuvole". He sure was a great singer-songwriter and poet. If you want you can read more about him HERE. In his works he often told stories of prostitutes, marginalized and rebellious people. His lyrics are considered actual poetical compositions, so it's not surprising to find some of them included in Italian literature school books. My Dad used to sing "La canzone di Marinella" as a lullaby (ninna nanna, in Italian) for me when I was little. You can hear it HERE. A good number of his songs has been written in his native Genoese dialect. For this reason these songs are tough to understand even for Italians, but I think that everybody can appreciate their musicality. Please, find below a bunch of my favorites. You can click on the name of the song to hear it: Crêuza de mä, Volta la carta, Dolcenera, Via del campo, Bocca di rosa.

What a glorious sunny day yesterday has been! We kept the windows open the whole morning to let the sun in, even if it is still kind of cold outside (6°C, about 43°F). Days are getting longer and longer (Sunrise: 6:44 AM; Sunset: 6:12 PM).

Ready for another sky watching post? We have seen the prettiest, puffiest clouds here. We like clouds; you can often see us with our nose up in the air! LOL!

Don't worry, we won't post other sky photos tomorrow, LOL! We just wanted to finish to translate the poem by Fabrizio de André. "Le nuvole" (The clouds) is a poem recited by two female voices (Lalla Pisano and Maria Mereu) with a slight Sardinian accent, on a background that starts with cicadas and then evolves in a symphonic crescendo of strings. You can hear it HERE. Enjoy!

Happy Monday, dear friends! We have been sky watching again...

Here I am with a cake recipe. You know that I have a physiological need to bake sweets. This is one of those recipes that has been waiting to be tried for many years. It's perfect for breakfast or for an afternoon treat with a cup of coffee or tea.

CIAMBELLA RUSTICA

Ingredients:
120 g of fine corn flour
120 g of wheat flour
200 g of natural sweet corn, drained
60 g of sugar
2 eggs
2.5 dl of milk
40 g of butter
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 pinch of salt
icing sugar (for decoration)

Sift into a bowl the two kinds of flour, the pinch of salt and the baking powder. Add the well-drained corn, the sugar, the butter melted in bagnomaria style, the beaten eggs, and the milk poured little by little. Blend thoroughly all the ingredients to obtain a homogeneous batter.

Pour the batter into a well-greased bundt pan and bake into a pre-heated oven at 180°C for about 50 minutes.

Let the ciambella cool down into the pan for 5 minutes then flip it onto a cooling grid. Serve dusted with icing sugar when completely cooled down.

Hope you are having a lovely Sunday. Hubby and I would like to wish a Happy Women's Day (Felice Festa della Donna) to every woman out there. Obviously, we should be celebrated every single day, LOL! I love this quote by Charlotte Whitton: "Whatever women must do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.". Do you celebrate it in a special way in your country? Usually in Italy women receive a little branch of mimosa as a gift.

I'd love to write that Spring is on its way, but there were big fluffy snowflakes falling as we woke up this morning. Then a heavy rain with a strong wind right before noon. And now it is sunny and dry and we just saw a faint rainbow. Come on Glasgow, make up your mind!

Hubby went grocery shopping this morning (how sweet of him!) and we are finally able to play "What's your price?" again (see menu on the left). Did you notice any increase in prices in the last few weeks/months? We noticed that the price of milk didn't chance since last October.

Ok, time to dash away, but first: Happy Birthday, Terry! Oh, boy! It's snowing again! What can I say? Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! LOL! If it has to be freezing cold, at least I'd like to be able to make a snoman!

What makes a great day?

1) Waking up to a lovely and colorful dawn.

2) Enjoying my first cup of fresh coffee while looking at the sun rise behind the trees.

3) Checking my mail-box/tag-board and see that many of you were thinking of me. Thanks! So sweet of you, dear friends!

4) Dreaming of a long trip all around Scotland while looking at the charming photos of "Scotland. Landmarks, landscapes and hidden treasures" by M. Kerrigan, D. Hardley and V. Guy. As Thoreau said: ""Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined."

5) Baking a "ciambella rustica" (bundt cake) with an old grandma's recipe.

6) Postcards from Italy and the USA in my letter box. I love snail mail, don't you?

7) A phone call from my Mom and Dad.

8) The rainbow after a rain storm (especially when the rain doesn't stay long). I saw two rainbows this afternoon. Maybe that's the way Scottish weather tries to apologize for all the rain. LOL!

9) Laughing while looking "Bewitched" ("Vita da Strega", for my Italian readers) HERE and HERE. I've never seen these episodes before. Listening to the original voices for the first time gives me a strange feeling 'cos they are so different from the voices of the Italian dubbers.

10) My beloved hubby's hugs. They are a perfect way to the end the day.

Sky watching is a hobby we always had, which we are practicing even more since we moved to Scotland.

We woke up with a flame-red sky…

Enjoyed a (partly) sunny afternoon…

… and a pink sunset.

Mahatma Gandhi was a wise man: “When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator”.

Happy Birthday, Isabel! My little sweet cousin is 4 today! She will be a teen before I realize it.

Like many people who live in Scotland, I am obsessed with the weather and fascinated by how frequently it changes. Temps dropped down yesterday and we interrupted our Spring wishes for snow… in March!

We didn't get much more than a dusting that quickly melted away during the sunny morning, but both hubby and I enjoyed looking at the fluffy snowflakes before going to bed. Snow showers are predicted for tonight too. Right now it's freezing (-2°C/28°F) and windy outside. Perfect time for a good book and a hot chocolate.

I just finished "Got You Back" by Jane Fallon and "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie. Both charming books, in a very different way. I don't think I need to say much about the brilliant Agatha Christie, right? The other book was an easy read, no thinking required. Perfect for sick-y me! LOL! Anyway, it was witty, funny and entertaining but I hoped for a different end.

Wait! It's snowing again! Whoa! It's just beautiful! Big soft snowflakes! And lots of them! I just love when it snows, its magical.

Labyrinth (directed by Jim Henson, 1986) is one of my favorite movies. I've been watching it ever since I was a teen and it has lost none of its timeless, captivating magic. It's a beautiful piece of film-making. You can see one of my fave scenes HERE. You gotta love this li'l worm! LOL! In the Italian version the worm has a French accent, you can check it out HERE.

David Bowie as Jareth, the Goblin King, is not bad either, cruel and handsome. My fave scene with him can be seen HERE. Ah, and "Within You" is a great song, isn't it?

I love the Escher-inspired wacky room. It seems like being into the famous painting with the stairs, perfectly recreated and made even more suggestive by the presence of the actors moving on all the three dimensional planes. I don't understand why this movie turned out to be a failure at the box office. It's simply a masterpiece of fantasy and surrealism, made in a time when computers didn't rule yet and special effects were handcrafted.

Your turn now. What's your all-time favorite movie?

Another month bites the dust! Where did February go? Time is splipping away. It has been a long time since my last entry. I didn't fall off the face of the Earth, but when I'm sick I always have trouble remembering what day of the week it is because all the days seem the same. Yep, I have been sick with the flu for about two weeks. I'm feeling better now, but not 100% myself yet. My nose is still running and I am still coughing, especially at night, so you can imagine how tired and dizzy I feel now. If I carry on at this rate the bags under my eyes are going to engulf me!

I don't think I can get my train of thoughts focused long enough for typing something smart, so this post won't be very long. LOL!

I kept meaning to post yesterday, but I got distracted. Last night hubby and I watched Being Human (the pilot) on YouTube and it was too late by the time it ended. Zeno and I like this TV show 'cos there is never a dull moment. It's a British comedy-drama about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost who share a flat in Bristol. It has the perfect blend of drama and humor. George, the caring but neurotic werewolf, is our fave character so far. You can read more about it HERE and see the pilot HERE (it's a total of 6 parts).

Zeno and I had a nice time surfing the site of the First ScotRail Press Photography Awards. Last year won this amazing photo of an Highland cow in the snow.

You can see the beautiful shots from last year's competition and also vote for this year's Open Category.

Our inspiring and crafty friend Sonia of Cozy Homemaking honored us with the Lemonade Award (for blogs which show Attitude and/or Gratitude). Thank you, Sonia! What a sweet and wonderful surprise!

Better log off and make myself a cup of tea now. I will write more later. Before I got sick I had a lovely four-days-weekend with hubby visiting Edinburgh, Ayr and Glasgow. But this is all another story. More to come! Cheers!