Whoa! These last two months have flown by, literally! I feel like I need to try and explain where I have been these last few weeks and the reasons behind my absence, but all I can say is that work has been the main priority for most of June and July and I’ve decided to take a couple of weeks off too. I’m working at a couple of projects I am planning to launch this Autumn which make me very excited, so I somehow found myself neglecting this little space a little bit just to make sure I could make the most of the time I had to work and tick some to-do things off my list!

On other news, we weren’t sure until last week, but we finally decided to go on our first proper holiday after a very long time made of summers spent at home. I can’t really remember the last time I got this excited to see a beach and the sea in my whole life, which makes me realize, as much as I like to type words and codes at my laptop all year round, I definitely need a vacation too. Hopefully a few blog posts will be uploaded in the next couple of weeks, however, if you’d like to follow our adventures in real time, you should totally check us out on Instagram!

Here is a list of highlights from the past two months…

1 :: Remember when I said we got a little red canary a few months ago? Well, things evolved very quickly! We decided to get him a female friend, a bright yellow slim canary named Anna, only a month later, and passed another month, they started building a nest and just a few days later four small blue eggs appeared in there. Even more exciting, only 14 days later I’ve seen the smaller little canary coming to life on a dark dreary day of June. It was one of the best things I’ve seen, following him growing up day after day, from when he was a pink ball of flesh and big black closed eyes, to when he started putting on his first plumage, be fed from his young mum and, the most exciting day, to see him flying out of the nest for the very first time!

2 :: Mexican dinners. They make me very happy! And homemade dinners made of tortillas, guacamole, spicy peppers and beans have become quite a habit in the last couple of months!

3 :: Our day trip to the lake. More about it very soon (we have some pretty nice postcard-like photos), but I’m so glad we decided to take a day off and step outside toward a place we’ve never visited together, and simply enjoy a day of relax and wandering around, enjoying the view.

4 :: Impromptu Cinema nights. We’ve build a few nests made of pillows and soft blankets on the floor a few times this month, add a couple of bowls of homemade freshly popped butter popcorn, a good amount of movies and TV series to catch up on, and you pretty much have a picture of a standard week night at our place!

5 :: Bikini shopping. I can’t believe I’ve been adding this to a happy list as I’ve always thought at bikini shopping as something stressful and enervating, but I’m actually finding myself enjoy it quite a lot. Finding the perfect bikini for my body type is more a challenge than everything else, and it’s always been, but I’m so glad high waisted bikini has been invented… really!

What’s on your happy list this month? x

* visit my Instagram for more 1:1 snaps! *

Some recipes have been handed down from generations to others, some others you just spot them on the internet on a random day and somehow they become some of your favourites too. This is the actual story behind this black loaf. I spotted it on Pinterest and found something fascinating and attractive about it, so much that I found myself noting down the ingredients on a small piece of paper I had on my desk, and that piece of paper with a few edits from yours truly ended up to follow me around to the kitchen a good amount of times ever since.

If you didn’t know it already, I have quite a thing for chocolate cakes, especially everything that involves gooeyness and moist. And this loaf. AH, this loaf. It’s the most perfect combination of moist and simplicity, with a crunchy top but a delicious full gooey heart. It totally tastes like you’re eating a big cube of chocolate in cake form. Amazing!

Print

The most perfect chocolate black loaf

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Serving Size: 3 to 5 serves

Ingredients

• 100g plain flour
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 70g dark chocolate
• 60ml boiling water
• 180ml seed oil
• 130g raw brown sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 1 tsp coffee powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• A pinch of salt

Instructions

1 :: Mix together the seed oil and raw sugar into a big deep bowl using a wooden spoon.

2 :: In a heat-resistant bowl place the chopped dark chocolate and carefully add the boiling water. Use a teaspoon to stir the chocolate in the water until it's all melted down. Add the cocoa powder and mix well again.

3 :: In a bowl mix the dry ingredients together: flour, salt, baking powder and coffee powder. Give it a nice stir and then take the big bowl where you mixed the sugar and oil together and start adding the dry ingredients a little bit at a time stirring in the meanwhile.

4 :: Add the eggs one at a time and stir nicely until smooth. Lastly add the chocolate and cocoa mixture and give it a nice last stir.

5 :: Place the batter in a loaf tin lined with parchment paper, smooth it down and tap it on the top with a spoon to remove bubbles.

6 :: Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes at 180°C until a wooden toothpick inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out with still a few wet crumbs on. Then remove from the oven and let it chill for a few minutes before cutting it into chunky slices and serving with a big spoon of ice cream or whipped cream (why not?!) on top.

3.1

http://www.miel-cafe.com/2015/07/chocolate-black-loaf-recipe.html

As usual let me know if you try this recipe and how it turns out, and, of course, I’m always on the lookout for new chocolate recipes, so if you have one, please share it in the comments 😉 x

Anyone after the perfect summer picnic recipe? Truth is, comes summertime, and I truly wish my oven could go on holiday. Don’t know about where you live, but here in Italy the weather is being crazily hot lately, and the last thing we’d like to do is heating up our kitchen even more with a hot oven. But it’s actually very rare we quit the oven anyway, even though salad dinners are becoming quite a habit.

A recipe I’ve been playing on repeat lately is this amazing cheese + vegetables tart, that truly makes for the perfect summer picnic or dinner outdoor main or side dish, or, even better, the most delicious appetizer! It would probably look pretty good next to a big cheese tray, if you ask me! Or slice it up and serve at a summer picnic lunch on the grass. It all started as an impromptu recipe (aren’t they always the best anyway?) but it has quickly become a favourite of ours, so savoury, rich and tasty!

Print

Cheese + Vegetables Tart Recipe

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Serving Size: 2 to 5 Serves

Ingredients

• 1 circular rolled puff pastry base
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 250g soft cheese
• 2 handfuls grated parmesan + more to top
• A pinch of salt
• 1 courgette
• 1 (or 2 if small) red/yellow/orange pepper(s)

Instructions

1 :: Preheat the oven to 190°C.

2 :: Wash and cut the vegetables into small cubes. Unroll the premade pastry base, place it in a circular tart tin, and arrange the vegetable cubes on it equally.

3 :: Melt the butter in a small saucepan on a low heat, then add the soft cheese of your choice and melt it down completely. Once all liquid, add the grated parmesan and give it a nice stir with a wooden spoon.

4 :: Pour the cheese mixture over the pastry and vegetables equally - don't worry too much about leaving some parts out, the cheese will melt in the oven and spread all over the pastry!

5 :: Top with more grated parmesan to your taste and add a pinch of salt on top. Then place in the oven for 25/30 minutes (or as suggested on your pastry base packaging) or until the pastry turn golden brown and, helping yourself with a fork or spatula, raising up the pastry, the bottom looks golden too.

6 :: Remove from the oven and allow to cool down for 5 minutes before cutting it into slices and serving!

3.1

http://www.miel-cafe.com/2015/07/cheese-vegetables-tart-recipe.html

Baked treat served, anyone has an extremely good salad recipe I should give a try instead? 😉 x