Breskve iz pećnice s čokoladnim filom - Baked peaches with chocolate and amaretti filling - Pesche ripiene con cioccolato e amaretti

Last three peaches were waiting patiently in my fruit basket since some time before I finally used them. They have lost their hard texture already and I've decided to bake them in the oven. I like fruits baked in the oven very much and these peaches were perfect to eventuallly try this recipe. I was always curious about it and I've thought that it is not so delicious at the end and even that ir is too simple to cook it. But my last three peaches were no more tempting us and they were sitting in the basked for days...their skin were slightly rugose, because their season is over for this year and I kept them in my fruit basket for too long. Nevertheless I still see plenty of big, ripe peaches in the market and it's hard to resist from purchsing those beautiful fruits, but I can't miss new very seasonal fruits that appear everywhere.

The recipe for this dessert is so quick and simple!

My first Pavlova with white peaches - La mia prima Pavlova con pesche biance - Moja prva Pavlova s bijelim breskvama

When I cook pasta alla carbonara, or I bake my fantastic brioche, I usually use only egg yolks, or I use one egg and one egg yolk and so I always have one or two egg whites to be used in a frittata or I prepare small meringues that are like cherries, one after another, me and Mr. M, we finish them in a moment. This time I've decided to try this famous, sweet and delicate dessert that I've never baked before. I always feared it, the great Pavlova. Well, I feared its preparation and the kind of fruits to be used and its size and thousand other details that disappeared when I realized that my meringues remained snow white and so delicate, apparently solid, but so friable and dry. I have not expected to succeed in this experiment, but when I broke my Pavlova while arranging it on the plate I was smiling joyfully! The sound was the original "pavlova cracking sound", so I broke this perfect, thin and well dried meringue and my fingers plunged into whipped cream, cubes of white peaches and mint leafs.

This is the very first Pavlova of my life, but I already have in mind another very special Pavlova and as soon as I will have some egg whites left I will prepare it.

Frozen yoghurt with white peaches – Yogurt ghiacciato con pesche bianche – Smrznuti jogurt s bijelim breskvama

Cicada's concert is live all day long. Until late in the night and I'm listening these summer buzz in the shade of my kitchen. Patiently, all day long, it relaxes me. During hot and humid summer nights it induces sleep. And it suddenly stops, around one o'clock every night. While hot breez cools the air before another shiny day make me craving more and more something refreshing, something soft and easy. And I'm back in the kitchen, in front of the open fridge, absorbing the chilliness that is flowing out from it. Some more seconds. I stay motionless, enjoying the wellness of my body. In that moment I fell very selfish, but I fell comforted, for a while I forget my green nature. I need to forget that I'm consuming energy and harming the environment. My mind is waking me up, I rapidly take a couple of things from the fridge and I close it, rapidly.
Peaches are ripe, perfumed and juicy. White peaches...I didn't like  white peaches when I was younger. Now I adore them, they are not too  sweet, their pulp is so fascinating, so white inside and pink near to the peel.
During one of those hot and buzzing nights I've dreamed about cold, thirst-quenching white peach ice cubes melting in my mouth. Fresh and juicy.
During one of those hot and buzzing days I made this frozen dessert and it turned fresh and easy, not too sweet and thirst-quenching like the imaginary ice cubes from my dream.

Unrolled buns - Danubio invertito - Otvorene buhtle

Great heat of these past days brought me so much exhaustion and lazyness. It interrupted every sign of thinking or writing, even taking new pictures were impossible. My eyelids were sweating, my palms were sweating, the camera got hot after only a while. So I stopped thinking and I decided to relax for a while, I took a break long all weekend. Nevertheless I couldn't find a peace of mind in anything, even baking didn't succeed during those days. I was continuously searching for some fresh place on the sofa, staying motionless and trying to stop the sweating, but all my trying were vain, there were no fresh place on the sofa. Air-conditioning is something I don't want in my house, I love to feel the air waving form room to room, I like the freshness and early morning breeze waking me up every morning. But in these last days even the breeze was hot and humid and the sun was shining so bright and it emanated unpleasant big heat from early morning hours.

Pears poached in pomegranate syrup - Pere affogate nello sciroppo di melagrana - Kruške poširane u sirupu od nara

I'm attracted by rubber boots, I may say I really want them! I mean the black ones and without imperfections. The ones that will last for years, even if you don't wear them every day! Usually after some time rubber boots get fissured in almost invisible point of the sole or on the bottom side edge, but this miniscule crack get the foot immediately soaked when you plunge in a cold and dirty water of the first puddle on your way!

When I went to the countryside last time, during one of those humid and foggy days, I was wearing my brown suede shoes. It was a big mistake. I really regret I haven't bought black rubber boots! When I was a child I did have them, ohhh yes, every child used to wear black rubber boots during rainy autumn days. Then we were free to jump in every puddle on our way to school...untill one small, quite invisible abyss started to filter the liquid and the puddle suddenly started to grow inside the boot!

Nettle pancakes with wild strawberry and rose petals jam - Crepes all'ortica con confettura di fragoline di bosco e petali di rosa - Palačinke od kopriva sa slatkim od šumskih jagodica i ružinih latica

We always had in our garde-manger some medicinal herb my mother used to harvest in the meadow or in the bushes at the edge of the forest. I don’t remember we have ever used infusion bags to prepare a chamomile tea or other herbal teas, like lime or rose hip tea. My mother used to cook various dishes with first young spring herbs and she still does it, she knows very well when to collect different herbs and wild plants and how to dry them and preserve them in the best way. Our family loves the nature and every time we went somewhere for a picnic, we returned home with paper bags full of plants, fruits and flowers. If you picnic in the wild nature, you need to be well equipped, we never went picnicking without the pruning shears or  the knife,  or without the basket and paper bags. At that time plastic bags were not so common as they are today. Think about it, there was not all that dirt around and our land was not so polluted. Sometimes we got the baskets as present from my uncle, he used to do basketwork at home using the elastic willow branches he gathered from the trees that were growing between different lands and properties. Other times some neighbor brought us nice baskets as present. In all these years we have gathered a small collection of baskets. Once upon a time there were many people able to create these simple woody wonders...

Pistachio cake with apricots - Dolce al pistacchio con albicocche - Kolač od pistacija s marelicama

Sometimes I feel blocked inside and I can't find the words to express myself. It take days, or even weeks before the right moment arrives and I decide to fill the blank paper in front of me. I would need another me, more strong and daring to tell all those feelings that are captured inside of me. Instead, I continue taking pictures, baking, inventing recipes and experimenting...trying to imagine in advance new and even bizzare combinations of flavours and perfumes. The beauty of creativity gives me so much good vibes and even if I dissapear from the world for some time I'm usually back with new interesting experience. This life is so fast and I have already spent my best years in this world. This life sometime offers happiness, you only need to discover it. It happens each day. Happiness simply happens! Go ahead and search for it in any possible way and in every moment.
Sometime I miss my old memories, I miss people and events that made me as I am today. My birthplace is faraway from where I live now and every time I go back home I feel some kind of unrest, because eventually I will have to leave again and go back where I now belong. I have two homes, I have two families, all is duplex in my life. Although I like both places and I feel at home in both countries, I always miss something. That strange sense of not belonging to no place is my faithful fellow since many years. All I have left behind in my homeland is no more familiar to me, all I have in my new country is still unknown to me.
It's like discovering new flavours, but if you don't taste them, you will never know how good and inspiring they are.
Today I have some unwritten recipes and some new pictures and all those things can't be put aside for long time. But in last days I had an urgent idea to be transformed into this cake and some old recipes have to wait patiently another perfect moment to be discovered.

Tarte tatin with pears and cardamom - Tarte tatin di pere e cardamomo - Tarte tatin s kruškama i kardamomom

I'm still craving for winter flavours! Because I love winter and I love when it’s raining in summertime. I love the nostalgic atmosphere during summer storms and the perfume of water all around in the air and evaporating from the moist ground.

These last days were absolutely crazy, no rest, no breath, no sense of time passing by. The only thing that remained in my mind are powerful storms and heavy rain and thunders. It always happen so suddenly, the sky gets grey and blurry. No time to search for the shelter, only the desire to run away!

Now I’ve finally finished what I’ve started few weeks ago. Even if I’ve promised to myself to slow down, I’m not keeping my promise, I’m still exaggeratedly fast, but I must admit that I feel the weakness and fatigue. Thanks to heaven it’s weekend again and I will recover, because I need time, more time to be alone with myself!

Tarte tatin is my favourite cake, I bake it often, me and Mr.M. enjoy its spicy taste. This time I’ve changed completely the recipe, I wanted to try something new, fresh and full of flavours.

Gluten free tartlets with strawberries - Tortine senza glutine con le fragole - Bezglutenske tortice s jagodama

This is the story about a kettle full of wild strawberries and the forest near to my grandparent's house. I still remember the perfume of ripe wild strawberries fluttering in the air and the light green kettle hung on my grandpa's belt. We often went for a walk in the forest, we only needed to cross the road and the big and shadowy forest embraced us in all its beauty. And we walked and walked until the stream, we crossed the stream and continued till the large meadow in the heart of the forest. The grass was so green and the flowers so white and yellow. The air was hot and mild wind was moving rhythmically big oak's leafs . Beneath these big trees and all around in the meadow small, bright, red fruits were waiting for us...Ohhh what a joy, ohhh what a splendor, I will never forget these feelings. I craved all these tiny fruit and suddenly I found myself with the mouth full of sweet strawberry flavour! I couldn't go back home walking, I was too tired and too sated. My grandpa used to carry me on his strong and scrawny shoulders and I was almost touching first tree branches with my head. Grandma was waiting for us on on the doorstep and lukewarm smell of fresh baked bread was tempting me. The bread was ready to spread on it some fresh strawberry mash.
I stil adore strawberries and the sensations of lights and shadows I've met in that forest.  Forest is the place I'm searching for wherever I am.