ITALIAN FOODIES

                                  
                                         

How nice has this weather been and it's coming back on Sunday - yahoooo!! It's been a pretty hectic week here, we are finally moving in to our new house next week so it's all about the final touches now, going accessory shopping the weekend, Bru is very excited as you can imagine - cushions and candles are his favourites;) I will probably have to watch extra football as punishment:)

The new place is also keeping us busy, how nice to be moving house and opening a new business and running the old business at the same time, I'd recommend it to anyone, no stress involved at all - I DON'T THINK SO!!:) I think there is so much going on that I actually am not getting stressed at all but then me and Bru are pretty laid back, probably a bit too much sometimes but it helps in times like this!! I hate this stage of the new business as it's all the legal and engineering stuff which I'm a bit allergic to, I prefer the nicer stage of doing the menu, design, PR, sourcing wine etc etc but it has to be done! We met with the engineer last week and one thing I'm really bad at is reading a plan so I was so confused by the end!! The thing is they think you understand all the architect and engineering jargon so I had to tell him to stop him at one stage and explain what the hell ME was as he kept saying it, for anyone who doesn't know it's Mechanical Engineering. He thought it was funny so I asked him what were the ingredients of pesto????? he got the message:) They are doing the plans for the layout of the kitchen, toilets etc and the main specs for the fire cert!! When opening a new restaurant the Fire Cert is the most important part in the initial stages and it takes 2 months so the pressure is on!!

We also met with the solicitor yesterday for the initial reading of the contracts so that's all been sorted out next week, once that's through I'll start posting some pics so you can get an idea of the place. We also met an Interior Architect yesterday as we are going to need some help with the design as it is such a big space, we will bring all the furniture and bar from Italy but we need someone to put it altogether and make it look good and not something we threw together ourselves!!

With the busy week we've had and the lovely weather there hasn't been a huge amount of cooking but we had this bruschetta the other day as I got some lovely bread at the french market and really good sliced gourmet mushrooms in Superquinn.


                                           

what you need:

 - 400g mushrooms - sliced

 - 250g sliced gourmet mushrooms(optional)

 - crusty bread

 - 2 tbsp flat leaf parsley finely chopped

 - juice of half lemon(optional)

 - 2 garlic cloves finely chopped

 - half white onion finely chopped(optional)

 - olive oil

 - sea salt and black pepper

 - 50g unsalted butter (about 2 tbsp)

 
what to do:

 - toast your bread under the grill on both sides.

 - melt your butter over a low heat, add the onions and garlic and cook for a few minutes until softened. Add your mushrooms and cook for about 10 mins. If you like cream you can add some here if you like but I'm watching the hips;)

 - add your lemon juice and parsley and season well. 
 
 - serve the mushroom mix on your toasted bread and dine "al fresco" with a glass of "vino bianco"!!!

                                         

You can vary this recipe by adding some pancetta, parma ham or a poached egg on top!!

buon appetito!!!

p.s. there is something wrong with blog.com so apologies for the layout and to anyone trying to use the tag list or read older posts!! I have to move but I don't even know where to start, a friend of mine has promised he's going to move me to wordpress so hopefully it will happen soon!!

                                          

I thought it time for a recipe after all this talk of Italy so something simple and very easy and in season on the cards today. I ventured into the market on Saturday and picked up lots of veg, cheese and duck eggs. I often make this recipe but normally with free-range eggs so I thought it perfect for my first experience as a duck egg virgin!! I'm plagiarising from Taste Italia again to bring you some of their seasonal selection but I'll add in my own recipes just to give it the Italian foodie stamp!

lamb(agnello) - I've talked about lamb numerous times on this blog:

 - noisettes of lamb with rosemary and garlic

 - roast lamb with anchovies and herbs

 - rack of lamb with a mustard and rosemary crust

 - lamb chops with rosemary and garlic

carrots(carote) - tbh I rarely cook carrots on their own, I mainly use them in soups or the base for tomato sauce or bolognese.

new potatoes - roast potatoes feature quite regularly in the italian foodie house.
 
asparagus(asparagi) - another fave in our house even if it is from Peru and the likes most of the time:(

 - asparagus and parma ham

 - asparagus bruschetta

and today's recipe:

                                 

I'm loving Channel 4 at the moment with the amount of foodie programmes they are showing!! The big food fight is proving to be one of the most informative pieces of TV I have ever seen about food and the direct relationship with our bodies and health. I thought I knew a lot about the food I eat but after watching "Chicken Out" and Jamie's "Fowl Dinners" I realise I still have so much to learn. I know we all hear about battery raised chickens etc but it's not until you see it in real life do you realise the extent of what goes on. I couldn't believe the factory where all the little chicks were processed like cans of beans along a conveyor belt. In my innocence or ignorance I presumed they were all born on farms with their mothers and everything was natural and as it should be. I even shed a little tear when the little male chicks were gassed on Jamie's show because we are so far removed from the whole meat process that we have no idea what actually happens. The chicken out campaign is continuing and you can sign up here

                                          

Jamie's "Eat to live" programme last night was another informative piece of TV with lots of shock value with the corpse being cut up but if that's what it takes for people to wake up and start questioning what we are eating then so be it! Ready meals and convenience food seems to be the biggest problem today, I can't believe that some people never cook and only eat junk food all the time and most of the people on the show seemed to do this. It was interesting as well that the thinner guy was actually the least fit and had a much higher body fat ratio than the heavier guy who played rugby and who was considered obese. This kind of fits in with my last post, we all focus on weight so much and although it is very important I think what we put into our body is of greater importance. I couldn't believe the amount of sugar and salt that was in a simple jar of tomato sauce, a lot of people would probably think they were being good by having pasta with a jar of tomato sauce and not realizing that there was 8 teaspoons of sugar in it so once again the message is make your own and he demonstrated how easy and fast it was using a recipe very similar to this one. There is another programme on tonight about eating out and what the food contains so I'll be glued to the telly again with a bottle of water and an apple;)

I saw this recipe in Taste Italia magazine recently, it's a great healthy snack that takes 5 minutes to make and is delicious. It's great to have in the fridge and use with crostini, grissini or some veggie sticks.

what you need:

 - 400g can of cannellini beans drained and rinsed

 - 2 sprigs of thyme, leaves picked.

 - 1 small garlic clove.

 - olive oil

 - juice of 1 lemon

 - sea salt and black pepper

what to do:

 - put everything into the food processor and mix together!! It's that easy:)

                                     

buon appetito!!