Mini cherry tomatoes and scamorza cheese frittata in whole wheat flour crust - Frittata di mini cherry pomodori e scamorza in crosta integrale - Omlet od mini cherry rajčica i scamorza sira u kori od integralnog brašna

Birds are still not on the wire, trees are still full of green leafs and these last summer days are still hot and bright! Last weekend I spent with my family again and I fully enjoyed these free moments. I  walked in the forest and enjoyed the generosity of our garden. It is so full of plants and trees, but I like it this way, wild and free. 

Before first September rains ruin all green shades and leafs become soggy and loose their form, the garden is still offering all its richness of colours and flavours. This year the production of tomatoes was enormous, even these small cherry tomatoes continued to ripen day after day and while walking in the garden it was impossible not to eat some directly form the plant.

These little red balls are so interesting and decorative and their intense redness gives warm touch to every dish. Some of them are already frozen and I will use them during winter months added to a vegetable or legume soup. What I have prepared now is a kind of union between frittata and quiche with some cheese, little mint and greek yogurt. Practically I have opened my fridge and invented something that turned good and tasty.

Scrambled eggs with mini cherry tomatoes and chives – Uova strapazzate con pomodorini cherry e erba cipollina – Kajgana s mini cherry rajčicama i vlascem

I’m so lucky to have my parent’s garden (I use to call this place “the garden with the view”, because we have this beautiful bird’s-eye view to the Kvarner Bay!) full of fruits and vegetables during all year long and every time I go back home I bring to Italy some fresh produces. Some means plenty! No need to go to the market several weeks upon my return! But this is part of my travels and being emigrant. I’m also lucky because I have now two homes, I belong to two countries and two different ways of living. Even if my two countries are “neighbours", there are so many different habits and customs and I definitely needed to get used to many new things. After all is said and done, I like all the changes I did and all new changes that still happen day after day. This is life!

Speaking about vegetables again, I must admit that tomatoes are my favourite vegetable (or fruit?!), so I don’t mind if my refrigerator is still full of tomatoes of all sizes. This is the only vegetable that I buy during winter months too, I really can’t resist to it…and I really love, love, love tomatoes. When I was still living in Croatia I used to eat the tomatoes picked directly from the plant. I can remember the sweetness of cold and juicy tomatoes…I assure you, it is heavenly good.

Frittata with artichokes – Frittata con i carciofi - Fritaja s artičokama

When I decided to cook my very first artichokes I was little scared. I didn’t know how to start cleaning these so big and so dangerous vegetables. My first artichokes were the Sardinian artichokes with so sharp thorns that can terrible hurt your fingers! So I spent my first half an hour for cleaning just four artichokes and then I do it again and again and it became so natural to me. Now I need less time to do it, but I’m still very careful when I do it, especially until I cut the thorns from the leaves and the petals.

Here are some advices for the beginners:
When buying artichokes choose the ones with the petals well closed, this is the sign that artichokes are fresh. The stem should be long and wide, so you can use it, because it’s edible too.
To avoid hurting yourself, start with Romanesco artichokes that have no thorns.
Before you start cleaning the artichokes prepare the large bowl with cold water and 2 -3 tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar. Put cleaned and peeled artichokes into the water to avoid that the vegetable oxidize.

Use gloves if you don’t want to get your hands dyed.
Cut of the stem about 1cm under the globe and peel it with the knife. Put the pieces into the water.
Remove the external petals and peel the globe with the knife until you remove all hard parts of the globe. Cut it into two halves and remove the internal hair and thinly petals, because they can also have some small thorns. If you need entire artichokes, gently open the petals and remove the hair and central petals with the teaspoon. Fresh artichokes should have very short hair or even no hair at all. Put clean artichokes into the water.

It will take more time to clean the artichokes, then to cook them. This is incredible, but it’s true! These big vegetables are so delicate and tender inside!

Coloured Easter eggs – Uova di Pasqua colorate– Ofarbane Pisanice

What do you say...do you like them?

How to dye Easter eggs – Come colorare le uova di Pasqua – Farbanje Uskršnjih pisanica

When I was a little girl, my mother taught me how to prepare beautiful coloured Easter eggs. This is another traditional Croatian recipe (or folk custom). She learned this art from her mother. I remember my grandmother also painted eggs with the beeswax and special writing tool, but unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to learn it from her. Modern times brought us to very fast way of living and some long makings didn’t survive, even some products disappeared, because old fashioned. But we continued to maintain the tradition at any cost and every year the eggs we made were more beautiful! I always keep few most beautiful eggs in the coffee cups until next year Easter as souvenirs (warning: it might happen that the egg explodes after few months, so handle it carefully).
Another amazing thing is that the colour I’m using is fully natural. I use onion skin to dye Easter eggs. I collect it all year long, because you will need a large quantity of it to get the beautiful dark brown colour. The decoration is made with plants and herbs, you can choose whatever you like, from clover to parsley. I found the print of darnel very charming. No problems if eggs get cracked during cooking and some coloure dye the egg white. You can eat your eggs anyway, as you have not used artificial products!
Take all time you need, handle your eggs gently and decorate them patiently.
Let’s create the art!