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Vucciria market was recommended to me by my friend Judy to visit, then a local told me it was “over”, so I wasn’t sure I wanted to try to find it. Fortunately as we walked through the winding little streets and passages, all of the sudden, we came up on a nice little market square with folks selling sardines, bottarga (dried fish roe), salted capers, beautiful fresh and tinned fish, and, happily, more pancreas sandwiches.

I passed on a sandwich, but bought an old, metal gelato goblet for €2 and a horn for my bicycle for €1,50 made of green metal.

We had a final lunch at Trattoria Piccolo Napoli (Piazetta Mulino a Vento, 4), which was all I needed to feel completely better in the tummy department. Evidently some culinary luminaries had also recommended the restaurant, and I found out that Anthony Bourdain was there with Mary Taylor Simeti when he was taping a television episode on Sicily, and a few tables were obvious fans of his. And judging from the check, the restaurant knew they were a television star as well.

But it was still Sicilian with tables of men coming in for lunch. And locals definitely outweighed the two other tables of non-Italians. We had a tangle of wild greens sautéed with whole cloves of garlic, deep-fried artichokes, and sheets of fried chickpea batter, similar to panisses, but not quite as crisp.

Like the French, Italians also still eat in courses so after our shared starter, we dove into a platter of fried sardines with a delicious crust. Next up were bowls of pasta, I chose vongole (clams) because as a New Englander, I have a deep fondness for the little bivalves.

I slurped up the tangle of al dente pasta while a dining companion had squid ink pasta, which she pronounced excellent. (Although we both had a little bit of a tangle when I said I preferred dry pasta cooked, because it absorbs sauce better. I passed on tasting, but was intrigued when a man come in the door with a tray of goopy octopi.  

While I live in the middle of the midwest, I should be thankful I get to experience all four seasons. But to a girl that only likes to experience the snowflakes falling from the comfort of my home with my fuzzy socks, fire blazing and a warm cup of coffee in my hands.

I always have and always will take warmer days over those chilly ones. While I do enjoy cuddling up with my husband and chowing down on big bowls of comforting soup, I like to tell Mother Nature, “Don’t let the door hit ya on your way out.”

With our trip to Huatulco a few weeks ago, I am ready to say see ya to winter and welcome spring with open arms. I have had my fill of soups, hot cocoa and hearty dishes and ready for all things light, refreshing and fruity! Yes I know I have the worst of winter ahead of us. As KC is notorious for being destroyed in February.

To arm myself, I have made a drink to help bring on those warmer days and help remind me of our trip to Mexico. It is no secret I am lover of all things coconut so naturally I have a special place in my heart for pina colada’s! The fresh pineapple, the tropical coconut and the rum is just a perk. Rather than the pineapple, I swapped in tart raspberries which help make this smoothie not overly sweet. To keep it light and healthy, I swapped out coconut cream with cashew milk (as I have fell in love with Silks new milk! And no this is not a sponsored post. I just really love their products!) Feel free to swap your milk of choice though. Coconut extract is added to bring on the full coconut flavor without weighing the drink down. And lastly, I love adding a scoop of vanilla protein powder to give the drink extra body and a healthy protein boost. This part is optional but highly recommended as it helps contribute to the drinks smooth consistency and the vanilla enhances the sweetness! If you choose to not add it, vanilla greek yogurt would be another great option!

As the snow falls, I will gladly sip and dream of the tropics with my raspberry colada smoothie!  

Qonto launches its digital bank accounts for small companies
French startup Qonto has raised another $11.3 million (€10 million) from existing investors Valar Ventures and Alven Capital. The company is now also open for business. You can now create a French business bank account on the company’s website Miramar Travel.
Qonto wants to become the N26 of business accounts. While retail banking hasn’t changed quickly enough over the past few years, it feels like business banking is even worse and has been stuck in the past. Everything is too expensive and it takes too much time to tell your bank to do something.
Qonto wants to put you in charge of your account. It’s a web and mobile service like the ones you’re using every day, and you remain in control. So for €9 per month, you get a MasterCard, a French current account with an IBAN to receive payments and the ability to manage transfers and debits .
But as you can order new cards for €5 per month or create virtual cards for €2 per month. Qonto lets you manage your user base. If you hire a new sales person, you can give them a physical card and let them access their transactions in the mobile app and on the site .
  

After making chocolate wagon wheels, yo yos, matchsticks, hedgehog slice and ginger crunch slice for the blog I got thinking about other Australian baked sweets. If I were going to compile a list of my Aussie favorites, neenish tarts would definitely be on it. I don’t eat these very often as I find them quite rich. On the rare occasion that we go to a bakery for a treat I will nearly always go for a light fluffy, cream filled lamington or a chocolate éclair FSDU(drooling a bit now!:).
So what are neenish tarts? Neenish tarts are an Australian pastry that frequents nearly every bakery in Australia. The earliest record of these tarts is from a Western Australian newspaper the Bunbury Herald in 1913. They are made up of a base of shortcrust pastry, filled with mock cream and jam and topped with icing. Traditionally topped with half chocolate and half white or pink icing. I decided to make these pink and brown so not to be confused with black and white cookies . It seems that the filling has changed over the years from a custard, cooled and then butter and vanilla whipped into it make a rich sweet filling to the present day where most bakeries use a commercial mock cream filling which can be super sweet. There is a variation that has a lemon flavoured filling mostly found in New Zealand but that is not how I remember neenish tarts. With regards to the name ‘neenish’, I think it’s like ‘snickerdoodle’, no one really knows where the name came from veuve clicquot.
I have made the mock cream filling so that it is not too sweet – not like the commercial stuff. To make these a bit easier you can use store bought frozen sweet shortcrust pastry or premade tart cases instead of making the pastry electric dc motor.

  

Growing up, I loved to read. My dad and I would read out loud together, and I thought that was just the best thing ever. I especially remember reading The Neverending Story, whose title became a self-fulfilling prophecy because we never, ever finished it. That is a long book for a child.
But despite not finishing that book, we did get through several others, and there were certain books I loved and read over and over. Ella Enchanted? The best book in the world to 9-year-old me. I wrote a letter to Gail Carson Levine and she wrote me back and I thought I was the most special child to ever walk the Earth.
As I got older, my love of stories did not wane, but I had found different sources for obtaining my stories. Television. The Internet. Video games. These all delivered stories much faster, and they were flashy and vibrant. I became a TV junkie, and reading fell by the wayside, much to my father’s dismay. “TV will rot your brain!” he often lectured. “Let it rot,” I droned, zombie-like, while flipping back and forth between Disney and Nickelodeon.
One day, he handed me a bootlegged copy of Gerry Turner’s Stranger from the Depths that he had printed off from the Internet. “I’ll give you $20.00 if you finish this book,” he told me. I read 20 pages of this fascinating book, wished it was a movie, got distracted, and never touched it again. Money clearly had very little meaning to me back then, in an era I like to call The Time Before Utility Bills.
As a teenager, English was always my favorite class, but due to my 100% legitimate diagnosis of Cantfinishanythingitis, I never did find out how Jane Eyre and Oliver Twist ended. But I passed the tests, so I figured I’d call it a wash. I was too busy buying band T-shirts at Hot Topic and putting on excessive amounts of eyeliner to worry about reading. To be fair, all the eyeliner I had caked on may have made my eyelids too heavy to read for any sustained period of time.
By the time I was a senior, I felt like I was literally too cool for school, and barely read anything. I couldn’t be bothered with Holden Caulfield’s ridiculous hunting cap. Wearing something as a protective shield? What a load of crap, I thought, slathering on more eyeliner .
Then I went to college. The social pressures of high school, while not completely evaporated, dissipated significantly in a school with 50,000 plus students. My schedule was my own. I went in as a business major, but instead of taking any business classes, I took Intro to Fiction. For the first time in my life, not only was it okay to talk in class, but it was encouraged, by my professor and by fellow-students. I tore through Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, and Jhumpa Lahiri’s A Temporary Matter. By the end of winter quarter, I was officially an English major. (This was still in The Time Before Utility Bills.)
The Book of Salt. Mrs. Dalloway. The Brief History of the Dead. The Berlin Stories. Dracula. Corregidora. Middlemarch. Countless poems. I wrote paper after paper of analyses. I loved the way my brain would click into place when I “got” a deeper meaning from the book. How closely linked motherhood and horror are in these books. How forgetting begets anxiety in that one. How the female characters found subtle ways to enforce their power in a world where there is little power afforded to them .
And then I graduated. I had a full-time job and a part-time job and a wedding to plan. I would pick up a book before bed, only to have it drop to the ground from my limp hand as I drifted off to sleep. I always plan to get back to reading, but it has become the lowest priority on my list. The Picture of Dorian Gray stares sadly out at me from the mantel, barely half-read after two years’ time. The Unconsoled languishes in my bed side table, never once opened, the price tag still on the cover.
Last night, I read nearly to the end of The Road, a book so grim and desperate it makes me question my faith in humanity. But it has restored my faith in reading Backup and Recovery.
  

Gardens everywhere are still producing summer vegetables while coaxing in fall varieties. Locally-grown bell peppers, zucchini and tomatoes along with fresh herbs are still available at area markets. Most of us are still not ready for anything heavy Ergonomic Chair, so this light vegetarian casserole is perfect to enjoy right now .

I have loved this recipe for many years. It’s inspired by one that first appeared in the classic Moosewood Cookbook published in 1977. The author, Mollie Katzen, reissued the cookbook in 1992 with lighter versions of all the dishes from the original that were heavy on eggs, cheese, dairy and other calorie-laden ingredients. The updated version of the recipe kept the cheese (which I also did), however feel free to substitute light or fat-free versions mortgage calculator.

Her version was called “Bulgarian Pepper Casserole” and it wasn’t exactly a big seller with my clients. Bell peppers, especially green bell peppers, can be a little difficult for some people to handle. Once I changed the name to be more descriptive and swapped zucchini for the green bell pepper, it became a hit.

My favorite way to cook brown rice is to get a large saucepan of water boiling, add some salt then the rice and simply boil it until it is tender—I don’t even measure. Drain thoroughly in a colander and the result will be beautiful, fluffy brown rice. When I cook brown rice at home, I cook extra so that I can freeze it and have it available when needed.

Pitting Kalamata olives can be labor-intensive, but they are available pitted. When purchasing “pitted” Kalamata olives, I treat them as though they still have the pit. I never take for granted that the mechanical pitting process got all the pits—I look each one over.

This casserole is easily prepped ahead of time–up to a day before serving. Place the tomatoes and olives over the top just prior to baking.

A light soup or crisp green salad pairs perfectly with this tasty casserole bvi offshore company.

  

An easy and delicious recipe for lightened up cheesecake bars using light cream cheese, yogurt, egg whites, and a touch of raspberry jam.
Kevin and I just got back from vacation and making a skinny treat to start off a new week just sounded right. We spent the week enjoying s’mores, peanut butter pies, and delicious fruity sangria. A LOT of sangria. ;) I am welcoming a lighter dessert option with open arms today .
Skinny Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Bars - these cheesecake bars taste like the real thing! Except they are made with light cream cheese, yogurt, egg whites, and little sugar.
(1) These lightened up cheesecake bars are GOOD. Better than a full-fat version. Seriously.
(2) This is my first photo shoot with my new camera lens. I updated my photography page with the current equipment I am using. I am in love with this new zoom lens! It costed quite the pretty penny, but it is worth every cent. Paired with my Canon 5D Mark III camera, I find my images are tack sharp.
If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you must know how much I love cheesecakey things. If i had it my way, dessert would be all cheesecake – all the time. However, we all know cheesecake isn’t the best thing for our bathing suits or skinny jeans.
That’s why I created a lightened up cheesecake bar yesterday. I used light cream cheese, Greek yogurt, egg whites, and a touch of flour. The flour is used for thickening the cheesecake mixture since you are not using full fat ingredients. You cannot leave out the flour; the cheesecake will not set up properly. The protein-packed Greek yogurt makes these cheesecake bars SO creamy. I used nonfat plain Greek yogurt, but you may use low fat and/or a flavored kind like vanilla or raspberry. Today’s dreamy cheesecake bars aren’t as thick as my full fat cheesecake bars, but they sure are creamierElectronic Bidet.
1/4 cup of sugar sweetens the bars. That’s only 1/4 cup of sugar sweetening 12 servings. There’s no way around it, you have to sweeten the bars up unless you want them tasting like… cheese. I tried my hand at using honey or maple syrup, but the bars did not set up properly. I got away with the least amount of sugar I could and 1 teaspoon of added sugar per serving is heaven sent for dessert! (1 tsp does not include the sugar in the cream cheese, jam, yogurt or crust).
The crust is made from graham crackers and a touch of melted butter. There is no way around a killer graham cracker crust. I just made the crust a bit thinner and used less butter than I normally do. The crust is SO good and you won’t even miss the extra fat PSVANE.