Pandoro

I adore Pandoro, I love its texture and its flavour, I love it with very little icing sugar and with a lot of black and tiny vanilla seeds  sprinkled all around in its soft, yellow dough.
Before I started to bake it by myself I was very convinced that it is absolutely impossible to prepare it home-made. At least impossible for me, while I was admiring all those capable food-bloggers that were continuously surprising me with their perfectly raised Pandoro.
And I was wrong, I was very wrong, now I bake it year after year. It is so natural for me to take care of my Pandoro dough all day long. At the end only the time you need to prepare it is long, for the rest, if you are able to bake a brioche, or other yeast dough (bread for example) I'm sure you will enjoy preparing it.
I've found the recipe in the web, almost everybody is using this recipe to bake a classic Pandoro. It works perfectly and the quantity of butter in the dough is exact. If after reading the recipe you get a bit demoralized (it's a long reading after all!), don't give up, just remember the picture of my Pandoro and how beautiful your Christmas table would be with this fluffy and tall desert!

Kuglof od kestena - Bundt-cake with chestnuts- Ciambella lievitata alle castagne

I'm being away from this place for some time, but I have baked a lot in the meanwhile and one of my last autumn creations is this bundt-cake prepared with chestnuts we brought from our last excursion to near forest. It happens year after year, during October  we go to our forest when days are still sunny and warm and the forest starts to change its tunes, but still full of green leaves and summery perfumes.
Nostalgically thinking of another forest, when the time comes to visit the forest, I pack my rucksack, I put on my boots and I go to explore the richness of the nature.

Slatko dizano tijesto s nadjevom od rogača - Yeast dough sweet roll with carob filling - Rotolo dolce di pasta lievitata con il ripieno di carrube

The train started to slow down the speed, we are approaching the city. Arriving from the westside the city welcomes you with its magnificent white castle on the cliff above the sea. It attracts the gaze of travellers while hastily gathering their luggages from the overhead locker. Some of them are already waiting the arrival to the final destination in the corridor. Probably they must continue their journey and don't have time to waste. The view from the window is wide, but not clear. Dense sea fog is announcing autumn rainy day.

I don't mind the weather, nor other passenger's haste. I have enough time before my bus will leave the city. In about one hour I can go quickly to the city center and see if it has changed since I've been there some months ago. Suddenly even the weather changed a bit and a weak midday sun made the fog feeble and eventually it vanished.

Parmigiana s patlidžanima - Parmigiana with aubergines - Parmigiana di melanzane

Seasons changing are very confusing this year...Are we still enjoying summertime, or early autumn sunny days...I couldn't precisely decide which season are we experiencing, but I wish this Indian summer will last another while before we jump into moist autumn days.

It's not because if season changing, but because my thyroide gland got crazy again, that I feel so sleepy and I should even not think ablut my sofa, I fall asleep while simply looking at my soft and comfortable sofa!

Since I've discovered that my thyroide gland is dysfunctioning I blame it for all my health problems. Well, I should not speak about real health problems, I only get sleepy when I'm not doing something and I'm hyperactive all day long until I decide to stop and that the time to relax has come. Then I'm ready to fall asleep! But not before I see in my mind clear picture of what I'd like to prepare and photograph next.

And it works, I first create with my head, then it must look perfect to my eyes and finaly it must tast good!

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!

Sataraš - Sautéed mixed vegetables - Verdura mista saltata

I could tell you that I spend every holiday at home in Croatia, but you know this already...

And you also know how much inspiration I find in my parent's garden with the splendid sea-view...

Do you know what are emigrants craving for while they are abroad...their traditional food (parents excluded, of course)!

To make me feel longer at home, I pack our car with all possible home-made and home-grown stuff and despite the initial debate with the "car driver" about the best way to arrange stuff in the car, at the end of the story, every single vegetable and preserve arrive safe and intact to Italy. When we arrived to our destination, even the car driver was happy that we brought all that goodness from home, but only at the end and only after we unloaded our car, because then I took full responsibility of my vegetables and preserves. And then my activity in the kitchen started again...

Chocolate plumcake with pears - Plumcake al cioccolato e pere - Plumcake od čokolade s kruškama

The night of full moon is magic. It's full of bright light, brighter then the brightest star in the sky.
If you take a walk in the garden during one of those nights, don't take a flashlight, you won't need it. Just let yourself be guided by the cold perfume of golden summer fruits. And the golden summer fruits will shine in the night. They will reflect the bright moonlight like the mirror reflecting your own image. 
What would happen if one of those magical nights bewitch your person  and keep it stacked to your unreal world in which you will fluctuate and observe the surrounding, motionless, speechless, invisible. Hidden inside that darkness.

DIY How I dye my fabrics - Come tingo i tessuti - Kako bojim tkanine

I have been dyeing fabrics ever since I started this blog. I prefer gauze tissue, for both, dyeing and styling. For stayling because I find it more appropriate for my photos. It's soft and light and I can give it voluminous shape that gives the sense of movement to the image.

During all these years and even before I started blogging, I have gathered plenty of kitchen towels, but I never used most of them for my photo sets. Now my kitchen drawer (not only one!) is packed with different kitchen towels and I'm thinking of giving them away as a gift. It happen sometimes, you accumulate things and suddenly it becomes a problem. Space is missing to keep all these stuff and you even might dislike some of them after some time...But it's normal, year after year we are all changing, our style changes and it's a good sign.

Omelette burger with aromatic herbs - Omelette burger con erbe aromatiche - Omelette burger sa začinskimo biljem

There is nothing better then cooking with aromatic and wild herbs. Of course, growing your own aromatic herbs in a vase is the best way to make everyday cooking more perfumed and flavourful, isn't it true?! Rosemary was the very firs herb I have planted in a vase. I've brought some branches from my parents garden many years ago and  now I have small rosemary bush that went through snowy winters of Italian Po valley. Because it happen that it bloom in December, just before it starts snowing. And it's surviving in spite of minus temperature and ice!
Basil is the one I love most of all aromatic herbs I have on my balcony. Some of aromatic herbs I have are growing on the huge and sunny terrace. Our terrace was already very big before we enlarged our apartment, now it is even bigger. Useless to say that we have more and more vases and new plants on our terrace-garden.

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.

Whole wheat bread with walnuts - Pane integrale alle noci - Integralni kruh s orasima

This time the story begins from its end. The story begins when the hot and sweet smell starts to fill my kitchen. Its sound is dull and echoing. The crust is rumbling and crisp. When all these things happen, the bread is ready. It doesn't matter if it's simple white bread, or some of those coloured strange breads that I like to bake when I find some inspiring natural dye, the most beautiful moment is when I divide the smoking and hot breathing bread. I look at it searching countless cavities that have trapped the air, same cavities that I was searching while it was raising, still and pampered under the blanket to warm its rest.
Because I like to spoil my bread, I gently place it in its bowl, I let him breath and grow. It has his special place protected from the wind and air flows. It has its own blanket and its feather pillow...

Pancakes with chickpea and buckwheat flour gluten-free - Frittelle senza glutine con farina di ceci e di grano saraceno - Palačinke s brašnom od heljde i od slanutka bez glutena

This kind a recipe was an experiment, I was not sure at all if it would have turned good or bad. Even the measures are in spoons, I did not weight the ingredients, for me pancakes are something you don't have to do following precisely the recipe. It is a kind of those home made, quick stuff that you can invent in a while and make it with ingredients we all usually have at home: eggs, flour and milk...but this time I've used different flours! My larder is full of flours of any kind. The last one I've bought is chickpea flour and I've never cooked anything with it before, so I wanted to try it immediately.

Nettle bread - Pane alle ortiche - Kruh s koprivama

I have three simple wood boards that I've brought home from a local carpenter. He wanted to scrap one old long board, so I asked him to cut it in three pieces, I removed all the dirt from them and washed them with water and soap. Now I can put all the food on my boards so that after shooting that food can be eaten. Wasting food, or wasting stuff in general is something I dislike.

My wooden boards are irregular and I always have some problems to arrange them in the proper way. Under every board I have to fit pieces of cardboard or newspapers to lift them up or down. In this way I get flat and almost equal surface, but they will never be totally aligned. This is the biggest problem I have when arranging the set. All the rest is pure fun and joking with light and shadows!

My props collection is poor (don't say this to Mr. M, he definitively disagree with me!), better to say, I use poor collection of props. Glamor is not my thing, I prefer empty scene and a lot of air all around.

Brioche

Carpe diem! Do it right now, before the time takes away all petals from cherry trees.

First quarter of this year ended in a heartbeat and summer heat confused the normal season exchange. Yes, summer heat, becuase last week the sun was shining so bright and the air was so hot like it happen in summertime. I miss crisp spring breeze and white and pink fruit trees vibrating and slowly losing their gentle petals. I went out to the park last sunday to take some pictures and thanks goodnes I did it. All blossoming are over already. Dense green shades have covered the very last petals and we risk to have ruby red cherries on out Easter table, cherries from our farmers, not the ones arriving from some other part of the world. I'm exaggerating a bit, but how wonderful it would be to have right seasons at right moments again.

Now it's time to be amazed by the beauty of the awakening, to step barefoot on young, green grass. It's time to smell fresh and delicate fragrance of spring air. It's still time for some rainy days, but it's not raining since some time. The ground is arid, it's weeping for some water and the air if dry and dusty!

All has been accelerated, it seams that this year we will have eight seasons instead of four!

Boiled artichokes with lemon drizzle and olive oil - Carciofi sbollentati con una spruzzata di succo di limone e olio di oliva - Kahane artičoke poškropljene limunovim sokom i maslinovim uljem

I'm more able to express my thoughts with images then with words. There is a plenty of things I would like to say, there are many stories to tell, sometimes I even start writing and suddenly I stop, I interrupt words creating the sentence and I go backwards cancelling letter by letter the whole text. Then I open my photo catalogue and I start thinking about the story. The story that I'll tell with the pictures more then with words. Simple story with the simple recipe. Like the one I have prepared now.

I always try to find compromise and to put myself behind my wishes and needs only to fullfil all possible and impossible expectations...crazy me! Trust me, it's insane, I hate myself being like that, but I can change my nature. The spiny one, like these beautiful artichokes.

Orange cake with cornflour and almonds - Dolce all'arancia con la farina di mais e mandorle - Kolač s narančom od kukuruznog brašna i badema

I'm winter-like person, probably because I was born in December, at its very beginning and like every winter does, I've learned to wait silently the arrival of every new change.

Winter days are firm, the ground is closed and frozen, nothing's changing with all speed.

Winter days create long black shadows and during foggy days it seams to be lost in a big white and humid cloud. Cold sticky air dampen the hair, rest down on waterproof jackets and tiny drops look so gleaming on dark winter clothes. Coloured clothing are not usual during cold winter months. People need to appear more wisdom and calm, so they wear dark clothing, don't they?!

Only the bright and sunny winter days make the difference. They happen from time to time to drive away the blues. All that light during those precious clear days, it's beautiful, soft and sparkling. The best light for taking pictures...and here we are...since I've started to write this blog the photography captures more and more of my time. It's the continuous exploring and experimenting, learning and discovering. Means waiting for the best light and rather cloudy afternoons. You need a lot of patience during long waiting for the right light, for the perferct moment to arrive, for the tasty and well prepared dish you have to cook and arrange on your favourite plate, or wooden board...a lot of patience and commitment indeed.

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!

Fragrant cookies with cinnamon and orange peel - Biscotti profumati con cannella e buccia d'arancia - Mirisni keksi s cimetom i koricom naranče

Even if holiday baking should be over since some time, after a few very lazy weeks and a lot of sweet stuff of any kind, I would have never said that I could still desire something sweet. But it happens over and over again, especially in the evening, when the daylights fade and I just need to relax with a cup of steaming tea in my hands. I close my eyes, because I don't want to see that we still miss so many things to be done in our renovated apartment and I begin to dream about my next cookies. I didn’t bake much this time, but my mother did it instead. I was to busy running here and there trying to finish all commitments before the year ends and catching the final deadlines. While all the rest of blogosphere has been so active around holiday season, I was just observing all those beauties and thinking about my messy December. It all remembered me how good it is to be back home…it’s the best place to calm down and to forget for a while the craziness and the haste of our lives.