'Bagnet verd e bollito' aka boiled beef and authentic salsa verde

 

I found this recipe of mine in a folder. I used to write about food for a website and I created this dish to enter a competition (never heard anything out of it...). So here it is. This is a typical dish from Piedmont that I have adapted so it can be replicated if, like me, you live in the UK.

'Bagnet verd' e bollito (Piedmontese green sauce and boiled beef)

Serves 4.  

 

Ingredients for bagnet (green sauce)

1 small bread roll

3 tbsp wine vinegar (I used balsamic as it’s sweeter; if using other vinegar, add 1tsp of sugar)

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

half a chili pepper, finely chopped, seeds discarded

50g parsley

one anchovy fillet (I used one from a jar of anchovy fillets in oil)

a glug of olive oil

Unlike the salsa verde that has been widely adopted in the UK, the original Piedmontese recipe has an extra ingredient, chili. Although chefs keep adding other herbs, such as basil and mint à la Jamie Oliver, this sauce is based on parsley. And it certainly doesn't have capers or pickles. There is also a red version, where you add chopped tomatoes and half a chopped pepper. The red version is runnier in texture and is often served cold as a pasta sauce in summer.

Method

1. Crumble the soft, white inside of your bread roll (called mollica in Italian) in a bowl, add vinegar and marinate briefly. Discard the crust or keep it to mop up the sauce off your plate later on!
2. In a blender or mouli, add the garlic, chili pepper, parsley, anchovy and mollica (squeeze excess vinegar before you add it). Add olive oil. Blitz or puree it. Bagnet is not a runny sauce, but if your mix looks too dry, add more oil and combine.
3. Store sauce in the fridge in a jar, box or covered bowl.

 

Ingredients for bollito (boiled beef)

750-800g beef brisket

2 celery stalks with leaves on, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 carrot, sliced

1 clove of garlic, chopped

10g fresh parsley, whole

big sprig of rosemary, whole

big pinch of salt

To make the bollito

If you are having bollito in a restaurant you might find bollito misto, which is mixed boiled meat. This might include beef brisket, tongue, veal, chicken or capon and even pig trotter. I made a simple bollito as my mum makes, using a cheap but tasty cut, beef brisket.

 

Method:

1. Place the brisket in a tall saucepan. Fill with cold water till it’s covered. Add the celery, onion, carrot, garlic, parsley, rosemary and salt.
2. Bring to the boil then cover and simmer for around two hours. I had a 750g piece and it took 2 hours and 15 mins on a low heat. If you are unsure, fish it out, cut a tiny sliver and taste it. If it’s not cooked, place back in the pan.
3. Take the brisket out but don’t discard the water. This is good broth that can be reduced to make soups. I reduced it boiling it quickly and added potatoes and other veg, then liquidised the lot with a hand blender, getting an extra meal out of this recipe. You can pop the cooled and covered pan in the fridge and do it later or the day after.
4. Back to the brisket! You can eat this hot or cold. Slice the brisket and serve with bagnet. I like to have a fresh salad to accompany this dish, but you can have boiled veg if you prefer.

 

 

Growing up in Italy and living my life in the UK 

I was born in Piedmont, a region in the North West of Italy, renown for full-bodied red wines, such as Barbera and Barolo, and white truffles – and infamous for Asti spumante (which can be as good as champagne if you ignore cheap bottles). My village, Castagnole Lanze, is located between Alba and Asti. Visit http://www.lanze.it/ and click on English flag to read about the village and its Adopt a Vineyard Row initiative.

I grew up in a restaurant, which is still open under our family name but rented by another family - none of us children wanted to take it over. Running a bar and restaurant is really hard work and we found this out from an early age as we helped our grandmother as waiters and dish washers when they had big functions. I learnt to bake cakes quite soon but didn't do much cooking when I was younger as my mum and other relations were very good cooks.

Ironically I learnt to cook in London when I came over to practise English. I was renting a small flat in Bloomsbury with a friend and I did experiment with food using a double pan I had taken from my mum and packed in my case. I even took one of her wooden spoons! Fresh Italian ingredients were not as common or inexpensive as they are today, but we did enjoy a few good meals.

After I graduated, I moved to London and that's when I embraced international cuisine, learning to use a wok and appreciating curries. I worked for women’s magazines for several years as a subeditor and now live in Cambridge, working from home as a freelance writer and volunteering for local charities. The change of my career was due to having my daughter and not wanting to go back to commute to work inhouse as it would have meant not seeing my daughter much and giving up the charity work.

I have written a few food recipes for a parenting website and other sites, but I’m an amateur cook with no formal training. I tend to experiment, changing recipes and adapting them to what I have in the fridge or my equipment (at present our oven is temperamental so I’m using the slow cooker more). I cook Italian, Chinese, Indian, English, Japanese and even American food. I recently tried making a Vietnamese cake. My partner, who is English, does a lot of cooking and sometimes steals my family recipes.

The recipe I have chosen is a Piedmontese dish. I have followed the original recipe and asked my brother and mum for advice as it has been interpreted by chefs in ways that veer off our tradition. When we had a mouthful of this dish, my partner and I felt like we were back in Italy - the aroma and flavours are so strong and fragrant they remind me of my mum’s and grandma’s kitchen. Sadly my grandma is not with us anymore, she used to cook for the restaurant, so I couldn’t ask her input.

This bio was written in 2010. A lot has happened since then and it was lovely to find this file in my computer with this great recipe. 

Copyright Simone Castello

 

Easter weekend food - in lockdown

Sushi lunch for garden birthday - Friday

My daughter, now 13 and I made this sushi with very few ingredients since her favourite sushi restaurant is closed. All this food (including the little rice salad bowls) was made with 300g of sushi rice. I put the rice in a pan, cover it with water, put lid on and boil as instructed on the pack. The rice is soft and a bit sticky, we added sushi flavouring, which is basically rice vinegar with sugar and salt (you can use wine or apple vinegar and add a bit of sugar and salt). We used seaweed rolls to make those in the box. Fillings for all sushi was achieved with a small packet of smoked salmon, a red pepper and an avocado. I served a few slices of cucumber as we did not have any pickled ginger. Garnishes are parsley and chives, both from my garden. We made good use of an old trampoline... We used some plastic moulds to make the sushi rectangles (two soy sauce compartments from two takeaway sushi boxes I had kept alongside these pretty trays), which were pressed down and refrigerated so they stayed together.

Easter Sunday - a celebratory meal

The inspiration for the puff pastry spiral came from an Italian recipe which I have anglicised. In Italy torta salata (savoury cake) is traditional for Easter. You can find it here: https://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Girella-di-sfoglia-ripiena.html. I used bought puff pastry and made it smaller (there is only three of us) so there was enough to do the base of an apple pie (apples and dots of berry/quince compote with cane sugar on top). Back to spiral, I had four rectangle, two filled with ham and turkey ham and blue cheese, two filled with scrambled eggs and peas - this would down better than spinach and ricotta, which is the traditional filling. An alternative could be sausage meat (get the casing off some cooked sausages and perhaps boiled carrots)....

Charity shopping - creating my style on a budget!

Inspired by a troll who typed that charity shop dresses make you look shabby and down-and-out, here are a few photos of items I bought from charity shops in England, charity sales and second-hand/discount shops (leather jacket, spotty raincoat). 

Not only a bargain, but this second-hand fashion is environmentally friendly.

Finding my style after pregnancy and motherhood

Michela, 11

Michela, 12

Now my daughter is 12 and is finishing her first year at secondary school, I am suddenly feeling 'free' because she is more independent and my partner works from home so I can go to more networking events, work full time if I wish to without feeling guilty, work the odd weekend or treat myself to a non-family activity...

Looking back I did suffer post-natal depression, which made me hyperactive and then worked from home for three years to stay with Michela. I went back to work as a contractor when she was in primary school, starting part time, then full time for brief periods and doing volunteer work all along. I had my midlife crisis and a bout of severe depression, which was very similar to SAD but I refused to take antidepressant and tried other ways to pull myself out of it. Working and thinking of my daughter and partner who needed me did help, although I felt really dull inside and sometimes I had no feelings for my loved ones while I did not like myself one bit.

I want to show you my journey with photos and have picked the most unflattering one of my depressive months, although I am smiling you can see I am not really myself (I ate lots in summer as I felt happier and did not feel like eating in winter so my weight went up and down. This is a summer pic taken in Italy, in 2017, after I gorged myself for days in France - gorgeous, tempting food...).

Photo 1 and 2 is me in my 30s, before and during pregnancy (5 months, just before going to a swimming class); photo with green top is after pregnancy, I did manage to lose the baby weight. Jumping to my 40s... photo in the swimming costume, it's me looking happy on holiday after going through a difficult winter with SAD, surviving tennis elbow and set to face another awful winter and the onset of an eye condition. Small head and shoulder pic and picture in the orange dress is now... looking slimmer, happy and having found my style (not just hair and clothes but also a confident, calmer attitude). I am planning to write an ebook on how I conquered depression and how I manage it - it was there as a teenager, bit me really hard after pregnancy, but I am feeling good now...

PechaKucha: my impro challenge

It took me years to fight the fear of public speaking and this is the ultimate test: giving a presentation without having seen the slides. I survived!

Book review: Panda's Rule by Maria Abid

Order here: paperback, £18.99; ebook, £3.95

I don't do a lot of product testing any more (I have to earn a living after all), but the press release for this book caught my eye. A book written by an 11 year old? As it happens I have an 11 year old daughter who is also keen on writing. We have a project in the pipeline for a children's book too... a collaboration.

When I told her about this book, she wanted to read it. We love pandas, although she prefers penguins a bit more. When she was tiny we used to play a panda game, I was mama panda, she was born paw first, she fed on mama panda, mama panda climbed a tree to get her a bamboo stick, mama panda took a nasty thorn off her paw... I invented this game so I could laze in bed for a few moments at weekends. She is and always was very mobile and I just wanted to lie down in bed early in the morning on a weekend.

So two panda lovers. She read the book straightaway and gave me this honest feedback:

• A good book with a good amount of drawings and images.
• I wanted more description of the days the panda lives through. It rushed on and I wanted to know more.
• The book is a bit big in size but I prefer the book to an ebook.
• This book is suitable from birth to age 8. I am too old for this book. However I enjoyed it.

This is my 11-year-old feedback. I then gave her mine and she agreed on some of the points I raised.

• The book could have benefited from editing by an adult. There are a few typos and a lot of adjectives are used, sometimes they are not necessary. The best use of adjectives is on page 32 at the very top.
• The book is charming and I felt it was too short, but maybe it's part of a series.
• I agree that this book is for young children. Parents can read it to babies and continue reading it until the child can read it herself/himself.
• Some of the images are of not enough high resolution for print. They will be fine on the ebook though.
• I would have liked a bit more of a connection between the story and the Chinese creative projects. 
• Page 46, the song is close to the Disney one, even if some words have been changed. I advise caution, copyright issues are very intricate. It's always wise to seek permission or at least credit the original inspiration, even with a tiny note at the bottom of the page.

I think this is a great effort and creativity should be encouraged in children as much as possible. I am a professional writer/editor so pardon me if I was a bit too precise in my comments.

I hope my feedback is not taken the wrong way, it is meant constructively not critically. I do wish the author success and recognition. Keep writing - we would love to read more stories!

Sugru will fix it!

I have a warm relationship with Sugru's PR. I get their products to test now and then. I have been very busy with work lately, but could not resist when they emailed me to suggest I should try their child-friendly range. Before they launched this range, Sugru was for adults only. 

So I got some Xmassy stuff and decided to make a start with the red Sugru to fix a few things. Spot my broken things and my daughter's broken things... We did not need to be precise with a few items but the whisk and the bag's zip fittings were done with care. Why change the zip when you can fix it so easily? It's my fave messenger-style bag, essential for a cyclist like me. We are hoping to do some Xmassy stuff, but in the meantime, you can see how useful Sugru can be!

If you like what you see, you might enjoy reading the Get started with Sugru page, with basic tips and a few ingenious projects to get you started. I am not being paid for this post, I just get the Sugru samples and try to fix something.

If you’ve already mastered the basics, they post weekly projects on sugru.com. They also have a newsletter. You can sign up if you click this link. There is a discount for your first order too.

Long time no see: achieving work-life balance

I have not posted in a long while. Here I am, trying my hand at punting (I resisted long enough to get a pic then got worried about my balance!).

I have been working in paid and voluntary jobs so there is little time to continue blogging... Yesterday I wrote this article on LinkedIn about achieving work-life balance. I think I might have succeeded, if you are still trying hang on and do not lose hope, it has taken me years....

Frasier the English way: a berry custard sponge recipe

I saw a wonderful cake on a French website and decided I had to make it. The original cake, a Frasier, it's a strawberry cake made of sponge and filled/covered with custard that requires 8 eggs. I wanted to make an English version without the butter, so here it is, with less eggs and ingredients that are found here. I also added blueberries, why not?

Strawberry & blueberry custard sponge

Ingredients

• For sponge: 3g baking powder; 63g white flour; 46g sugar; 2 eggs; bit of oil for the tin
• For custard:1/2tsp vanilla extract; 27g cornflour; 2 yolks; 50g sugar; 250ml milk
• To decorate: a punnet of strawberries and one of blueberries

Method
Start with sponge. Separate the eggs and beat the whites until stiff, as if you are making a meringue. Add sugar gradually, yolks, flour and baking powder. Oil your baking tin and pour in the sponge mix. Bake at 180C (gas mark 4) for 30 mins or until it's cooked. I use a toothpick to find out if the inside has cooked. Let it cool.

While the sponge is baking, you can make the custard. Boil the milk with the vanilla extract and half of the sugar. Let it cool. Beat the yolks with the other half of the sugar and add cornflour. Add the yolk mixture to the cooled milk one and place on the hob. Cook, stirring often, until it thickens (see pic for consistency). Cool the custard. 




Cut the sponge in half with a bread knife. Sandwich with fruit and custard. Keep some fruit and custard for the top. Voila' a frasier with an English twist!

Back to school... already!

Mural at Michela's school

As soon as the school finished, the uniform offers arrived. Some shops cunningly discounted their old stock and pushed the new stuff out. Michela, aged 10 and looking forward to be a 'senior' in primary school, was outraged. "It's too soon, I have just finished Year 5," she complained.

Michela stays the same size for ages and then grows in the summer months, so I am not that tempted to buy ahead. I bought a few bits in size 11 years because I know she will fit them come the autumn. However there is the issue of the handy-me-downs, which I am grateful to receive but do not meet uniform guidelines... 

What to do? An email from Dylon's PR pinged into my inbox and asked me if I wanted to try some colours from the new range. I jumped at the chance and selected three shades of blue, all compliant to the school's guidelines. I put selected handy-me-downs, added an acqua pashmina of mine that looked a bit faded.... I was very pleased with the results. I followed the instructions carefully and no dye remained in the washing machine's drum, my partner's main concern (if something breaks or malfunctions in our house, it's my fault). See for yourself.... I am pretty chuffed.

Before Dylon

After Dylon, perfect uniform hue!

As you can see, even my pashmina looks great! These were not new clothes and they do look new now (I have not ironed them yet, sorry). In the bundle there are tops, shorts and tees - ready for school... My daughter likes them so much she wants to wear the shorts (previously pink and purple respectively) in the holidays.

How to make Sushi my way...

Sushi, crudite', flowers...

I make sushi now and then. My teenage niece is here and it's the school holidays so I thought I'd make some. It is Michela's favourite dish, too. This time I decided to use flowers from the garden, some are edible (borage, pansies, daisies), others are there for show. I boil sushi rice with little water (covered with a lid) until it is soft and sticky. I take it off the stove and stir in sushi dressing (it's sold in supermarkets). 

Then I get a large tray and place my seaweed sheet on it, spread the rice on it thinly, add the filling in the middle and then roll it. I end up with a long roll, which I cut. Unfortunately I could not find a decent knife so they ended up a bit rough at the edges and of different heights.

Never mind the imperfections if you can decorate your sushi rolls with flowers, mint leaves and chive. The fillings were avocado, avocado and salmon, fried peppers and carrot sticks and a combination of all the above. The square sushi is made with a rice cube (I have the one in the picture). I chose only to decorate the top of the cube but as you can see, you can try different options. I then mixed some wasabi with dark soy sauce. I also chopped some carrots and peppers. The hummus comes from Aldi. This is a lovely summer lunch spread... no meat in sight!

My journey towards positive thinking

Did you know that we have 50,000 thoughts in a day and in most people 70% of these are negative? I share my journey towards positive thinking, discarding toxic emotional baggage while trying to relax and enjoy life. Click here to hear me speak about my journey.

Straw bear workshop: beer-infused poems and prose

Pic: Kev747 at Wikipedia, 14/1/2008

The Whittlesey straw bear festival happens in January. Banned due to public order issues in the first part of the 20th century (the ritual involves beer and some rowdiness), this tradition was revived in the 1980s. Leanne Moden, a performing poet I met on a Michael Brown's poetry walk here in Cambridge, led a workshop at the Cambridge Museum yesterday, part of a UNESCO project that wants to make heritage (and specifically museum collections) come alive through their stories...

Pic: Museum of Cambridge (Facebook page)

So here is what I produced yesterday at this inspiring session...

First draft with keyword exercise:

Bountiful bales
Blonde, brittle and wirey
Sun drenched compacted blocks Scents of summer and wild rabbits

These first verses were then transformed into bear-related ones - these were shared with the group aloud:

The bountiful bear
Blond, brittle and wirey
Sun drenched, merry dancing
Scents of summer, whiffs of beer and wild rabbits
Then I wrote this poem, inspired by an object on this table of artefacts:

A post shared by Simone Castello (@simonecasuk) on Jun 28, 2017 at 10:02pm PDT

Whittlesey here I come
Bear beer bottle in careful hands
A heirloom that comes out but once a year
then retires to dust-free darkness
After some more creative exercises, I came up with these two prose pieces...

The blind bear
I can hardly see as I am led into the crowds. It's thirsty work being a straw bear. My mouth has dried up. It might be winter outside but I am stifling inside. I do a merry step and groan, the straw suit is so heavy. Someone passes me a beer, God Bless, I pour it into a slit and smack my lips, bliss! My stomach grumbles. I can smell sausages grilling, spicy chicken wings... this brings me back to my village, the summer BBQ after the cricket match on the green.

A cool breeze tickles the straw, a gentle caress on my grass armour. My face feels prickly but I can't scratch the itch so I nod happily when another beer comes my way and skip merrily ahead. The costume feels less heavy now, I walk faster and I stumble. Oh dear, but everybody is laughing with me and strong arms are helping me get back on my feet in a jiffy.

Bear necessities
Yesterday I saw the straw bear at the Coop, led by a young man with tattoed arms. He had a shopping list in his hand, tattoes even on the knuckles.

"Do not forget the beer, Dave!" Said the bear.
"Don't worry, mate, it's all in hand," Dave replied.

He winked at me while he picked up three bottles of ale from the alcohol-free shelf. Poor bugger, I thought, that is vile stuff, he is no mate of yours, that Dave.

And that is all folks! For someone who does not drink much, there are a lot of boozy references... lol. If you want to see more of my creative writing, visit https://creativewritingcambridge.blogspot.co.uk/ or www.simonecastello.co.uk if you want to see the commercial stuff.

Father's Day sorted! Eating at Prezzo & a Sugru kit for the 'difficult' dad

It has been a busy time. As the academic term concludes my inhouse contracting work is over and I am back working from home. I am currently writing an article on branding for SMEs and looking for more writing opportunities. So this blog is a refreshing oasis where I can leave business at the door...

This post is an entry for the BritMums #PrezzoLaFamiglia Challenge, sponsored by Prezzo. 

Family dining - Prezzo style

With Father's Day approaching, it was really lovely to be offered a chance to sample a family menu at Prezzo. I am Italian by origin and grew up in a restaurant run by my grandmother so I do have high expectations... I had tried Prezzo before with work colleagues, if going to an Italian restaurant I usually order pizza as I can make pasta at home (and my British partner can after stealing my recipes). We do not eat pasta often because Michael is a meat and two veg man and he is the cook in our household to the surprise of friends and family.

Prezzo Cambridge is located by Magdalene College near the waterside. It was not a sunny evening so it looks a bit glum in the picture but it's a lovely location. When we arrived, Michela got stuck into the kid's activities, printed on the children's menu.



This is a very clever thing to do as children are not as patient as adults so keeping them occupied when you order and wait for the food makes for a relaxed family table. We are not the sort of parents who let their child ran around the restaurant hassling other customers or making a huge amount of noise... so if she is busy we can ditch our supervision role. We were sent a voucher to try La Famiglia sharing dish.


The voucher entitled us to a starter of garlic bread, soft drinks, La Famiglia sharing pasta bowl and ice creams. My partner went a la carte drinkwise and ordered the Peroni beer, I had Panna still water (not many restaurants in the UK serve it) and my daughter chose Sprite. Here are Michela and Michael stucking into the garlic breads, which were more like pizza. My daughter was not as keen, the issue is the added ingredient of caramelised onion. She does not mind fried onions now she is older but the overpowering sweet taste of those onions put her off. I liked the variation but I agree there was too much onion on it, which had a kind of chutney, jammy appearance. But moving onto the main thing.... the huge bowl of yummy pasta! There was general consensus here that it was al dente, with generous amounts of meaty Bolognese sauce. We are a family of three but I think it would serve four or even five. It is bigger than it looks in the photo. We were defeated by it...

Michela brushed up on her fork skills. She is half Italian, but we do not have pasta often enough - as I said the cook is British. But of course the highlight has to be the ice cream... There is a choice of chocolate, vanilla or strawberry - we ordered one of each.

Here are the ice creams in their dinky bowls. Michela is taking her reviewer's job very seriously, savouring slowly with her spoon. Our spoons visited all the flavours. Personally I think chocolate came top. Michela thinks that the strawberry flavour tastes like Chewits.

During our meal the service was attentive and friendly. Here is our main waiter, Ziko, who posed with us. Michela thinks he is very nice.

 Father's Day... what to give to a 'difficult' man?

Michael is the man who has everything, with few hobbies... a right nightmare to buy presents for. I give him a cheque at Xmas so he can buy what he wants. For the other occasions we go out to a restaurant or we buy him funny gifts. We have already tested Sugru and he liked it, so I was delighted to receive this Sugru kit. Retailing at £10 online and at high street retailers, it is perfect for the Father who likes to fix things. The kit comes with an idea booklet to stir those creative/practical juices...

For those who do not know Sugru, it is mouldable glue - available in many colours - that turns into rubber. It bonds with wood, glass, metal and ceramic. Some people even used it to fix waterproof shoes.... It is also electrical insulated...

How to make a Pandan Chiffon Cake the easy way...

Pandan chiffon cake in star paper mould

A slice of Pandan cake

I just love chiffon cake and have managed to work out a recipe that has not too many eggs and works well with ingredients you can buy in the UK. Here it is... As you can see it was tried and tested. I made this many times....

Happy Easter!

If you want to avoid cracking, you have to handle it very carefully when you put it upside down to cool. Better still, use a ring cake pan.

I love this cake, it's so soft, like a sponge, so light and the amounts of fat and sugar are not high.

Pandan chiffon cake easy recipe

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
50 g sugar
75 ml vegetable oil 
70 ml coconut cream (you can make it with dried grated coconut)
100 g cake flour
3/4 tsp of pandan paste 

1.5g salt (optional)
½ tsp of vanilla essence
1 tsp baking powder

For the meringue mixture:
3 egg whites
50 g granulated sugar
1/2 tsp of cream of tartar


Heat the oven to 170 C degrees, gas mark 3. In a small bowl, mix the baking powder and flour. Set aside.

Make the meringue by beating egg whites and tartar with an electric whisk. Add sugar gradually.

Beat egg yolks, add sugar and continue until they reach a pale yellow colour.

Add coconut cream, oil, vanilla, pandan paste. Combine the flour gradually and stir with a wooden spoon. Fold the meringue into the green mixture carefully.

Put into a greased tall ring cake pan, around 23cm diameter (this is the best shape, as you can see in the picture, if you use another type of cake tin you risk cracking)... Bake for 55 or 60 minutes. 

Place a sheet of foil on the shelf above the cake, a nifty tip I learned online but remove it for the last 10 minutes. When cooked, you need to turn the cake upside down. You can use the neck of a bottle to cool it without ruining its surface (it is rather sticky when warm).

Cool for an hour and the cake will detach neatly from the tin. Use a serrated knife for cutting the cake.

What is success?

I wrote an article on LinkedIn summing up my careers so far (marketing and journalism) as fruit of persistence, willingness to learn new skills and not listening to negative people. It has not been easy as English is not my first language and have encountered discrimination as a woman and foreigner. But one has to soldier on because otherwise you go nowhere...

I have been battling with SAD for a few years, seasonal depression, and keeping busy helped me. I had a horrible year where RSI took away one of my coping mechanisms, gardening. I am back to my old self now and accepting that ageing is happening but I am still a fighter and won't accept ageism in the workplace. I am encountering this in marketing and did encounter it in journalism only aged 37.

I think I am successful, despite the dark moments when I doubt myself or succumb to negative vibes from other people, which are getting rarer because I have learnt the hard way that you must please yourself first - trying to please everyone does not work.

This does not mean being selfish, it's making yourself more secure so you can then help and support others. I still do a good amount of volunteer work and do turn down paid work to continue doing it because I have realised that it makes me happy. So for me success is to have finally achieved a level of financial comfort (not being rich) that allows me to work and volunteer, learn and improve myself.

Learning makes me happy too, so what if I have too many skills in some people's eyes? I enjoy the challenge of mastering something new and if you cannot get it, you are narrow minded and I do not care about your opinions any more. Find another victim to pour your jealousy and bitterness on - and that is very true in the workplace too. If you are miserable, keep it for yourself and don't ruin it for others. I have had enough of being a nice mouse, I might be small but I have teeth.

Homemade pizza, what is not to like?

The last slice of my homemade pizza

Yesterday I invited a vegetarian mum and her little girl, who goes to the same school as my daughter for dinner. They are vegetarian so I thought of making pizza and fritters. The savoury fritters were such a pretty starter with the vine tomatoes in the middle (sorry, I forgot to take a pic as I was busy serving). 

The pizza was very tasty, again, I did not take a photo of the lush platter but here is the leftover slice that is going into a lucky girl's lunchbox tomorrow. I do this pizza a lot because it's also tasty cold and perfect for taking to events, especially those with kids. So below is my recipe for the pizza. I have got a feeling I posted a recipe of the fritters before (rice fritters and spinach fritters), if not I will share the recipe again.

First of all, I have a shocking confession to make, actually two. I use a breadmaker to make the dough and I use cheddar to accompany the mozzarella, sometimes I just do cheddar and blue cheese... the sacrilege of it!

If you do not have a breadmaker, here is the recipe for the dough:

1 cup of water (use a cup or if you like numbers, a cup is 4oz
1 tbsp of melted butter (I actually use extra virgin olive oil... shush...)
2 tbsp of sugar
1 tsp of salt
2 3/4 cups of white bread flour
1 tsp of dried fast action yeast

Mix these in a bowl, knead and let to rise covered with a cloth or oiled clingfilm. I even prepared the day before, stuck it in the fridge and made the pizza the day after.

For the sauce, boil some chopped toms from a tin to let the water evaporate, add 1 or 2 tsp of sugar to get rid of acidity. Yes, shock horror, sugar.


To make the pizza, oil the baking tin (the thinner, the better) the spread the dough to cover its base. With a spoon cover the base with the thickened tomato sauce. Add cheese/s grated or cut into thin slices. Sprinkle some mixed herbs on top. Bake in warmed oven for 20 minutes at gas mark 6, 200C.

Get the pizza out and enjoy! If the cheese is not melted, leave in the oven for a bit longer. Also ensure the base is cooked underneath. A soggy bottom is just yucky!

How to make snow ice cream or granita

Snow ice cream

This recipe, tried and tested back in 2010 when we had massive snow fall, will make four generous cups of ice cream. 

125ml of milk

60g of sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups of fluffy snow (preferably not compact if you do not want it slushy like in the pic - a cup is about 4oz)

Mix milk, vanilla and sugar in a bowl or jug, then slowly spoon in the snow, stirring carefully. Enjoy! My photo shows a slushy mixture as the snow I used was a bit compact, but it was tasty. 

In Italy we have a simpler version of snow ice cream, just get the snow in a cup with a metal spoon, add lemon juice and sprinkle with sugar to your taste. It's just like a fluffy, lovely granita from the sky....

Festive wishes from me

Pics from Creative Commons...

No snow, so these pics are not recent. Happy Xmas!

Merry Xmas PLUS two festive recipes, 1 sweet, 1 savoury!

Ready, steady, bake!

This elf was helpful as I had to roast and shell
 lots of hazelnuts for this recipe. I paid him in kind
and the recipe's credit of course!

Hello, Thank you for sticking around as I have not posted
much this year. Lately I have been working four days a week and volunteering in the community on the 5th so it has been busy. My volunteering commitments included manning the blog for a community garden (http://emptycommongarden.blogspot.co.uk/) and its members' list, doing careers fairs for kids and teens (media and marketing), looking after Spanish and Italian newcomers for a University organisation (http://www.nvs.admin.cam.ac.uk/) and other bits and pieces (daughter's school, community talks, storytelling, etc). So my blogs have suffered. But I am off work now until January so here are two festive recipes to cheer us all up!

This is a festive treat for Santa and friends... the brownish top
 is not cinnamon but a dusting of mild chilly powder...

Festive bites & Elf on the Shelf's hazelnut brownies  

(Yes, he also wanted the recipe's credit, the little bugger)

Chocolatey & Nutty

O Come All Ye Faithful!

Festive Bites
I used the transparent cup from my breadmaker (see pic above, it's behind the blue bowl), a cup is about 4oz. Here we go...

2 cups of plain flour
1tbsp baking powder
2tsp mild child powder (extra for dusting if you wish)
2tsp mixed herbs
2tsp poppy seeds
1/2tsp salt
50g of butter
2tbsp olive oil
1 cup of grated cheddar (or more if you like)
1/4 cup of grated Parmesan (optional)
3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to gas mark 6 (200 degrees). In a bowl mix flour, baking powder, chilli powder, herbs, seeds and salt. Add butter and oil. Mix with your fingers until you get the consistency of bread crumbs. Stir in cheese and milk.

Turn dough on floured surface (I use a big IKEA plastic tray as I dislike messy surfaces). Roll or pat your dough then use cookie cutters to make shapes. If the dough dries when you re-roll it, sprinkle a bit of water and knead it a bit. Or you can add a bit of oil if not sticky enough.

Place your shapes on a tray (I use baking paper on the tray). Bake until golden (about 13-15 minutes). Serve warm. Using a tea colander, dust your bites with mild chilli powder as it looks very festive... (bright red not brown as in my pic).


Hazelnut Brownies à la Elf
Still using the breadmaker's cup (washed of course) for measurements...

11/4 cups of plain flour (you can also use self-raising if you like)
1/2tsp salt
45g of butter (it won't hurt if it's 50g)
50g of good quality dark chocolate (more if you want it very chocolatey)
100g of marshmallows
3tbsp of good quality cocoa powder
2 cups of white sugar (or brown if you are pernicky)
1tbsp of vanilla extract
100g of hazelnuts (roasted, shelled and chopped - more if you want it very nutty!)
5 eggs

Preheat oven at gas 4 or 180 degrees. In a big bowl, mix flour and salt. In a decent pan (not the ones where stuff sticks) melt butter, chocolate and marshmallows, stirring so it's smooth. Remove pan from heat, stir in cocoa powder, sugar and vanilla. 

Beat the eggs well in a separate bowl. Add the chocolate and butter mixture to the flour mixture. Add the nuts. Stir in beaten eggs and combine. Spread the mixture in the baking tin (you can line it with baking paper if you like). Bake for 30 minutes and check with a toothpick. If you do not want any gooey inside, bake for further 10 minutes.

Happy Xmas everybody!