WHAT'S COOKIN'?!

Today I made Gnocchi! It was a cheats recipe. Like this:

* 50g (2 oz) instant mashed potato
* 225ml (8 fl oz) boiling water
* 1 egg, beaten
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 200g (7 oz) plain flour


1. Place potato flakes in a medium bowl. Pour in boiling water; stir until blended. Let cool.
2. Stir in egg, salt and pepper. Blend in enough flour to make a fairly stiff dough. Turn dough out on a well floured work surface. Knead lightly.
3. Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a long thin roll, the thickness of a breadstick. With a knife dipped in flour, cut into bite-size pieces.
4. Place a few gnocchi in boiling water. As the gnocchi rise to the top of the pot, remove them with a slotted spoon. Repeat until all are cooked.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!

I'm not exactly sure what she's saying... Or who she is... I really hope she's not a right-wing politician...But with the innocence of the language-barrier, I'm enjoying her swagger!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY today, to my Italo-Stallo Dream Come True! <3 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

WORSHIPPING THE VOLCANO!

Leaving the island today. For our last night, we went for a drink at a sea-edging cocktail bar. These cocktails were ridiculously good! The bar is known as the Island's best vantage point for seeing the neighbouring Island's lava displays! YES! The whole of the nearest island is an active volcano, which erupts every 15 minutes. Always. So we sat and watched it again and again, showering it's distant but unmissable orange-red glow into the blackness. Today I looked at the volcano again, its lava bleached from sight by the bright sun, and I thought about negative space, and light and dark, and what colour is!
And then I had to go and pack!

IL POSTINO!

Ending the holiday on Salina, at a too-swanky hotel! We are still eating the best food ever, and having funny adventures and rambles through rocky dusty terrain! Today we hired a car (littlest one, Alessia, had to sit on a knee so we all fit. Oops!) and all went out to see the mountainside house where the fantastic Italian film "Il Postino" was filmed! I LOVE this film, ever since my Dad bought me it on VHS, so was very star-struck and excited!
Me and Gia walked up the side of a vast, cloud-skimming mountain overlooking the house deciding to head back, only when it got too steep to carry on, and we realised that the two huge screeching birds of prey 30 ft above us were definitely sizing us up, and would probably win in a fight!

BLISS IS THE LIFE!

Holiday is located in heaven! I have turned into the Eliza Doolittle of the party, merely for the fact that literally EVERYTHING around us, and the beauty and luxury we have been living in, excites and enthuses me, and brands me with a permanent silly grin, and a hundred thankyou's! The rest of the family have enjoyed it all, but it has been taken very much more in their stride! Soppy-Enthusiastic-Overexcitable English Girl, anyone?! ;-)

VACANZA A FILICUDI!!!

Mr G's Dad has brought the family on holiday to the Eolian Islands- a small row of rugged, arrid islands off of Sicily, with pebble beaches and the clearest sea water I have ever seen. So much Sun, and Realx, and gooood food! Apart from being stung by a Jellyfish yesterday within 3 minutes of entering the sea, I am in heaven! Infact, I even quite enjoyed that experience as part of the adventure!

BRAMBLING ROMAN STYLE

I did so much Blackberry picking when I was a kid. Free stuff, doomed to dry out and fall off it's tree-perch, unless you, the hero picks and eats it! And weren't they ALWAYS growing in abundance in some walled off wasteland, or bit of somewhere that you couldn't quite get to?! We went picking in a big wasteground by the American School today, and in Roma they get to pick wild figs too!!! Really! We got a ton, and they were the best fresh figs I have ever tasted! YUM!