Let it snow, Let it snow...or not.

Here in southern Italy, Christmas trees are up, balconies are loaded with fairly lights and supermarkets are filled with mountains of Panettoni. Like, literally. I almost got lost among the stacks of this festive Italian treat the other day. Although let's face it, I wouldn't have had too many problems with eating my way out of there. Anyway, what I'm trying to say, is that Italians really do get into the Christmas spirit. Christmas time in southern Italy is fun. However, at this time of year two things begin to bother me. These things are as follows:

1. Lack of mince pies and Christmas cake.
2. The fact that, for the best part of December, it's still around 18-20 degrees outside.

For my fellow British expats out there, I don't even need to explain the first one. A mug of hot tea and a mince pie or four whilst curled up on the sofa watching silly Christmas films on TV? There isn't a lot that can beat that. Let's focus more on number 2. For me, as a born and bred Brit, Christmas for me is cold. Christmas is woolly hats and scarves, frost on the ground and, of course, being incredibly grateful to finally escape said cold temperatures to curl up with a mug of hot tea and mince pie(s) and watch silly Christmas films on TV. Here, that doesn't happen. I'm desperately trying to recreate the cosy, wrapped up feeling by wearing a scarf and winter coat, but all that does is result in me getting very sweaty indeed. Even the Italians who, when mid-November arrives, usually automatically change from winter to summer garments, despite the fact that it may still be 25 degrees and sunny outside, are still in fairly light jackets.

Now, there have been murmurings (actually, more like loud proclamations to anyone who will listen, accompanied by exaggerated hand gestures- they are Italians after all) that January and February will be 'unbearably cold'. Now, what Italians consider to be unbearably cold is usually about 5 or 6 degrees C, which for a British person is described as being 'a little bit nippy but not too bad', yet who knows. Really, I shouldn't be complaining because I might be tempting fate. We could be buried under a mountain of snow come Valentines day. However, at least then I'll be able to wrap up, and then 'unwrap' and get my cosy, snuggly, winter feeling; with a mug of hot coffee and milk, a wedge of panettone and some silly Italian films on TV. That'll do I suppose.

Kinder Bueno Cheesecake

Hi folks! I hope you all had a great weekend. On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending my very first southern Italian wedding; my stomach is now in recovery, and I will be posting all about it in the very near future! For now though, check out this delicious (and very simple) Kinder Bueno Cheesecake recipe, which I recently made to try and impress my boyfriend's family, along with a couple of other calorific treats (have a look at that blog post here)

  To give credit where credit is due, I actually took this recipe from boutiquebake.com. I only made one little alteration: just a little extra butter. I found that the original amount didn't quite bind the biscuit together as much as I wanted.

Here's what you'll need:

For the biscuit base: 300g of digestives and 200g of butter

For the cheesecake: 350ml of whipped cream, 450g of cream cheese, 150g of sifted icing sugar and 6 single Kinder Bueno bars. You can obviously use more Kinder Bueno bars if you wish!

 First, place a sheet of greaseproof paper in a circular spring clip tip. You could use a normal tin, but it might be a little tricky taking the cheesecake out later. Melt the butter and then crush the digestive biscuits well. Then mix them together and press into the tin. Make sure they are nice and compact.

Whip up the cream, and in a separate bowl mix the cream cheese and icing sugar. You can do this by hand but I found it much easier using an electric whisk! Melt the broken up Kinder Buenos either in the microwave or over a saucepan of hot water, then mix all of the ingredients together. Spread the mixture over the biscuit base, making sure it's smooth and level.

Put the cheesecake in the fridge for at least 4 or 5 hours to set properly. I left mine in there overnight at this was perfect. I then topped it with chocolate sauce and some extra Kinder Bueno chunks.

The great thing about this recipe is that you can modify it easily. In the future I'm going to use the same basic recipe to make an Oreo or Snickers cheesecake. It's making me hungry just thinking about it....

Buon appetito! :D

A sweet success!

Well well. As I sit here typing this I am feeling pretty darn chuffed with myself. Why? Because, dear readers, I happen to have demonstrated that my baking skills are, in fact, not bad at all. As you all know, I am fan of eating dolce. A big fan. A massive, super sweet-toothed fan. And yes, every now and then I do get involved in a bit of cake making and sometimes I even share my little sponge cake or cupcake recipes with you. But this time, this particular weekend, I think it's fair to say that I just about surpassed myself. As it was my boyfriend's birthday, I calmly volunteered to make a birthday cake. Momentarily forgetting (great big face palm) that 'making a birthday cake' here in southern Italy does not involve wedging a couple of sponge cakes together with some nice chocolate icing. Oh no no no no.

Firstly, there can't just be one cake. Absolutely not. There must be a 'selection' of treats, as every person's plate must contain at least 3 or 4 different types of dolce. Now, this is not an 'official' rule, but it may as well be. Previous birthday ''get-togethers' that I have been to have left me with a tummy full of 5 or 6 different cake samples. Secondly, in our list of 'cake requirements', the standard of the cakes must be no less than excellent. There's no 'Oh-it's-the-thought-that-counts' mentality here. It has to be bloody brilliant. And finally, he or she preparing said cakes must be able to deal well with stress. The thought that it may all go wrong, or that the standard of the cake won't be up to par, or that people will passively insult your cakes by leaving big slices of them uneaten on abandoned plates...in other words, get ready to put blood, sweat and tears into your dolce if you're cooking for a load of fussy Italians.Especially a good 25 of them.

So you can imagine that, after uttering the words 'sure, I'll make your birthday cake', my world started crashing around me. OK, I'm exaggerating a bit. But only a bit. Even deciding on which dolce to make was a trauma. Cream? Chocolate? Fruit? Oh why are there so many options. Anyway, in the end I decided on the following: A vanilla, two-layer sponge cake decorated with crema pasticcera, crema Chantilly , fresh strawberries and grated white chocolate. This was to be the 'main' cake. The piece di resistance. I would also do two Kinder Bueno cheesecakes and a plate of fairy cakes topped with crema Chantilly. For several hours, my kitchen turned into a pasticceria and I turned into a mean, cake making machine. Once the process was finished, and I realised that I hadn't sat down in over three hours, I stepped back and surveyed the situation. The cakes looked pretty darn good. All had gone to plan. But my kitchen? It looked like a great big bomb of cream, strawberries and Kinder Bueno bits had gone off in it. Dirty pots and containers had been abandoned all over the place and the electric whisk looked like it had had better days. All of this didn't bother me so much however. As the party was drawing nearer and it was almost time for my cakes too be judged by a ruthless panel. I mean, eaten by my boyfriend's loving family. Ahem.

Fast forward to several hours later, and the fruit had just been devoured. (The order of food here goes like this: savoury, fruit, dessert, liqueur. Always.) My heart was actually pounding as I brought out the dolce and presented it on the table. Nobody said a word. And it wasn't that sort of 'stunned by the beauty of it all' silence. No. They just weren't really fussed. Buuuuh. It's OK, I said to myself. Clearly the presentation isn't so important. Wait until they try it. Slices were plated up. Said plates were distributed. And I waited. For a while, nothing. Munch munch. Chew chew. Then suddenly:

Excellent...delicious.

Really nice Amy.

I had started to breathe again.

Is there any more? I'd quite like another piece.

YES. Fist pump.

At this point I was grinning like a loon at my little success. Plates were being finished! People were asking for more! My man beamed at me. But then I heard this:

Very nice Amy. Yes...can we book you for the next birthday party?!

.......*Amy shaped hole in the wall*

The goods.

Recipes for these cakes to be published soon!!

More documents please!

As I'm sure you know, I'm not usually one to rant and rave on my blog; preferring to focus on the more positive elements of life- peaceful southern Italian living, delicious dolce and...more delicious dolce. But today is different, dear readers. Why? Because today's topic of conversation is the infamous Italian bureaucracy.

Recently, I have found myself in the middle of a bureaucratic nightmare. Not only do I need to renew my passport (a UK passport obviously) and therefore require Italians to take care of translations, photos etc, but I also need to renew my driving licence. Oh, and I recently got my official residency here too. Like I said: it's a true bureaucracy-fest, and here, you either sink or swim. I'm swimming...but only just. I won't bore you with all the gory details, but I'll tell you about a few 'special occasions'- where the Italian bureaucratic system has really demonstrated how fabulous it really is (yes yes, that's sarcasm.)

1. It took at least 20 minutes for the man at the local town hall to decide what to write as my place of birth on my identity card. Great Britain? United Kingdom? England? I insisted, he didn't listen, instead preferring to call two other equally as clueless colleagues for help.

2. I had to go to aforementioned town hall at least 5 or 6 times to do various, rather useless things. The man who works there grabbed my arms and told me 'not to be scared'. I was.

3. The local Motorizzazione (Driving Licence agency) is a terrifying place, where everyone is angry and shouty. EVERYONE.

4. At said Motorizzazione I was given completely the wrong information and told that I could not convert my licence to an Italian one. After several phone calls, Internet searches and a lot of time wasted, we realised that this was not the case and actually, I COULD convert my licence. Now I understand all the shoutyness.

5. With all the necessary documents, I arrived at the local court to do my translation (traduzione giurata), just to be told that the judge who usually deals with these matters wasn't available and I should return the next day. Any advice on what other supporting documents I might need? I asked the man hopefully. Unsurprisingly, he didn't have a clue.

6. When I returned to the local court to do my translation, there was nobody waiting in front of me and the judge was available. Result! It was too good to be true however, as I had to wait 20 minutes just for her to finish her coffee/rant at her colleague.

These are just snippets. And they are pretty tame ones at that. There will undoubtedly be huge numbers of other expats who have felt the wrath of the disorganised, nonsensical bureaucratic system here in the Boot.To all of you, I offer my sincere condolences for your wasted time. To those of you who are considering diving into this mess, my advice to you would be this:

1. Take a patient, real-life Italian with you when you have meetings and appointments to go to. Any linguistic issue you may have, they will take care of. And the person who you are dealing with may have issues about your foreign-ness, so the real-life Italian may help to cushion this too.

2. Do your research online (there are lots of sites and forums- just google 'Italian bureaucratic nightmare' and you should get something) and get as prepared as you can. There will ALWAYS be something else that they need though, so just try and control your anger when they make you return 2 more times with other useless documents that were not mentioned on said online forums.

3. Have a nice glass of whisky/glass of local red/big bar of chocolate/tranquiliser ready for you when you return home. You will need it.

Good luck to you all, my fellow expatriates!

May days

So far, May has been a pretty good month (apart from the bureaucratic nightmare that I have been struggling with...more on that in the near future). Not only has the warm weather finally decided to arrive (it was taking its sweet time...let's hope it sticks around) but I have also managed to meet up with a very special friend of mine. Valentina and I have been friends for about three years now, and she was the first real friend I made here in Italy. Every time she's around in the city, we make sure that we can squeeze in a good gossip.

As well as this lovely meet up, I received a very special gift from my aunt in the UK: a beautiful painting done by her own fair hands. And the Italian courier didn't make so much as a smudge on the package- hooray! Isn't it fantastic??

And finally, (as all good things come in threes) I had the pleasure of sinking my teeth into this very sweet treat:

What you can see here, dear readers, is a strawberry tiramisù. Words simply cannot describe how delicious it was, so here are a few more photos for you to enjoy/salivate over.

Have a great day!

Easter treats

Well would you look at that. Easter is almost upon us! It's almost time to start scoffing chocolate eggs, which makes me very excited indeed. What makes me even MORE excited than consuming vast quantities of chocolate however, is that soon my parents will be arriving. It's been several months since I've seen them, and so it's about time that we saw each other. There are already several family meet-ups organised, the majority of which involve lunches or dinners (of course), and I'm once again looking forward to witnessing the (amusing) reliance on non verbal communication. Mine don't speak Italian, his don't speak English; you get the idea. In all seriousness though, it's amazing how much a big smile and a warm embrace can show affection and can create bonds. My boyfriend's dad does have one token phrase though; the ever-useful 'WHAT TIME IS IT?!'. I'm quite sure he doesn't know how to actually tell the time in English...but at least he's making an effort.

In other 'news', it has been a while since I've posted some pics of delicious dolce, so I thought I'd better deliver. The other morning, myself and my man went out for breakfast, and instead of a nice healthy colazione, we went for nice and unhealthy instead. Cappuccino? Check. Crostata alla nutella? Check. Small, cream filled croissant? Ohhh yes.

As I was enjoying my sweet breakfast, I also snapped a few pics of the cream cakes on offer at the bar. Sunday is the day of dolce, and so the counter was filled with all sorts of tasty treats.

And finally, a little while ago I discovered a cute little bar which serves great cocktails. Not only this, but their aperitivo is also pretty impressive.  And all for €6, cocktail included? Yes please! I recently went there with a friend and we had a very nice evening indeed.

Have a happy Easter folks! :D

More food please!

Good afternoon from wet and windy Puglia! I hope you are all having a nice, relaxing Sunday so far. This blog post is, surprise surprise, a food one, and also provides further evidence of my ongoing culinary development. This week I made some nice little vanilla cupcakes (the icing didn't turn out perfectly, hence a photo senza drippy frosting mess) and, with the help of my incredibly patient man, I assisted in preparing a traditional Pugliese Sunday lunch. I have been told that, even if you are rubbish at preparing other dishes, the Sunday lunch is one that you must perfect. Best get to work then...

I used a recipe from the BBC website for these moist, tasty cupcakes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cupcakes_93722 

 

This is definitely a Southern delicacy: the Pancotto. I tried this one at La Locanda di Hansel in Foggia (Trip Advisor reviews here)

The Pancotto had to be followed by dolce of course. This was the torta Kinder. One word: YUM.

Couldn't have put it better myself....

Yes, all of this went into making a delicious sugo for our Sunday lunch

We also made involtini using beef, parsley, Parmesan, a little garlic and salt.

Sugo in progress

Meaty sugo plus traditional pugliese orecchiette makes one happy Amy.

Buona Domenica!

Post Office? I think I'll pass....

Good morning from cloudy Puglia. (Yes, that's right, the sun doesn't ALWAYS shine here...)

The thing that I'm going to talk about today is one that I have almost certainly mentioned more than once in the past. The topic in question is the quick, efficient, helpful organisation that is the Italian post office. In case you didn't quite pick up on it, those three preceding adjectives were positively dripping with sarcasm. I'm not what you would call a 'fan' of the Italian post office. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I have a EXTREME dislike of it (I don't like using the word hate. Except when talking about One Direction of course. Anyway.) My reasons are numerous: slow service, lack of efficiency in any shape or form, slow service, largely unhelpful staff (in my local branch anyway), slow service and disrespect for customers. It is the latter that I wish to draw attention to today, as I recently witnessed something really quite surprising, even by Italian post office standards.

The story played out something like this: Bumbling my way into the packed post office, I saw an old guy waiting to speak to someone in the back office- I guess he wanted to discuss his account or something similar. Seeing that another guy, who also wanted to speak to someone, was about to push in front of him, he (rightly) said 'I'm the first one. But the customer service man has gone for a coffee. He'll be back soon I think'. Right. Other guy retreated and seemed fine with this. OUT FOR A COFFEE though? It was heaving in the post office. But, whatever. Italians like coffee. They clearly need it to get through a morning of pushy post office go-ers. I get it. Five minutes later the customer service guy returned, but didn't call in the next customer.  Oh no. He proceeded to stand outside and chat to other colleagues while this poor old guy was just waiting. Then, THEN, the second man in the queue goes out to the customer service man and starts talking to him, clearly about his own post office issue. The cheek! The man obliges and seems to be serving him first. Still with me? Good. By this point, the old man was getting pretty irate. Grumbling (and rightly so) to everyone who would listen. He then went outside to this guy, shouted a bit and made some hand gestures. Ten minutes later, when I left the post office (thank God), he still hadn't been seen. (His  hand gestures may not have helped...)

Sometimes, I just don't get it. I love how laid back southern Italians are, but when it becomes disrespectful? No thanks. All of my correspondence will definitely be in electronic form from now on methinks. And let's hope that the old guy isn't still waiting for his turn.

In other post-related news, I had the joy of receiving (albeit a good two weeks late...again, thanks Italian post...) a wonderful card from my friend in Canada. This friend runs an absolutely wonderful bike tour company (see my write up of the tour I went on HERE) and is one of the most positive, inspirational people I've ever met. And doesn't she have great taste in greetings cards?!

karamiaitalianadventures.com

 That's all for now folks. Over and out.

Changes.

When a new year begins, it's a great time to make some changes. Whether it be something important like your job situation, where you live or even your general outlook on life; when January rolls around, what better time is there to change it up a little.

Now, before you think this is going to be a wonderful, positive thinking, inspirational blog post, you are a little mistaken. Because, dear readers, I'm going to write about my HAIR.

One of my changes this new year, is my hair colour. Now, men, you may not quite understand this, but you ladies out there certainly will; a change of hair colour is a big thing. Last April, I went from brunette to blonde. I liked it, it was fun and interesting, but there was a drawback. Yep, you guessed it: ROOTS. My hair grows like weeds (what a nice image) so even after two weeks, there would be a dark line ruining my barnet. So, this year I have returned to brunette. It's easier to manage and there are no pesky roots to speak of. However, it seems that (Italian) public opinion is somewhat divided. 'You looked better as a blonde!' 'Why have you changed?' 'You've ruined your whole life!' OK, the last one is made up, but you get the gist. Anyway, my point of writing (yes, there is a point...at least I'm sure there is...) is to emphasise the fact that Italians simply have a habit of TELLING THE TRUTH. If they don't like it, they'll say so. See here for a post that I wrote after having turned into a blonde. You will see some similarities. 

Anyway, here are a couple of  photos of me and my deliciously dark hair. You may think that I DID look better as a blonde, but personally? I prefer the dark side ;)

selfie.

not selfie.

OK, I know, that last one isn't of my hair but I just HAD to include it. Last night's indulgence: chocolate and pistachio cake. Erm, yes please.

Buona domenica!

Freddie, Food and Festivities....

Well dear readers, I feel I must chiedo scusa  AGAIN for not writing for a while! I have been far too busy for my liking recently (bring on Christmas!) and haven't had the chance to write! When I did check my blog page however, I saw a new comment and two new followers, so I am absolutely chuffed that people are still reading! Thanks so much :)

So, what's new here in the south? Not a lot to be honest. The olive harvest has taken a bit of a hit due to some TERRIBLY English weather (ie a massive amount of rain) that we've had recently, so I have yet to get my hands on a bottle of the yummy green stuff. However, despite my lack of oil, I have still been stuffing my face (sorry, what an awful image) with lots of yummy Italian treats. While I may not have been writing lately, I have got a nice little collection of images to share with you....

Ahh, everyone needs a winter warmer...

This calorific cake is made from pan di stelle cookies and a whole load of cream and nutella. HEAVEN.

The classic brodo (broth) and pasta. Looks simple, tastes amazing.

Our local town hall, all festive and whatnot.

I ordered this from Amazon a little while ago. I had a bad cold recently so got all snuggled on the sofa and read about fabulous Freddie. 

A new local Enoteca in San Severo...

...where we ate these delicious treats.

They may like serving lemon with their tea (sacrilege!) but at least you get a nice selection of biccies.

Buon Natale indeed.

Cook in ten minutes with five ingredients. This book is on my Christmas list.

The panettone and pandoras are flooding in....

And today's lunch? Tortellini with butter and parmesan. Simple. Easy. Yummy.

Back soon folks...have a wonderful weekend!

Have a (hot?) Halloween!

Buongiorno a tutti!

This Brit is now back from being a curator for the Twitter account @I_am_Italy. What an amazing experience it was to be in touch with and reach out to so many people about what it feels like to live in Italy, and what Italy means to me. I tweeted a lot about the wonderful region where I live, Puglia, and of course, Italian food was a big topic of conversation. No surprises there! :D

But now your blogger has returned. What's new in Italy? I hear you ask. Well, dear readers, it seems as though the Autumn is yet to take my little southern town in its grasp. During the late morning and afternoon, you would be forgiven for thinking that we were still in August, as temperatures have been reaching 30 degrees C. However, everyone here is just waiting for the day where it all changes....from summer to winter in one fell swoop. We will go from wearing a t-shirt to a heavy jacket in the space of 24 hours. So I'm enjoying these last drops of sunshine while I can...

In other news, it is of course Halloween, so I will leave you all with the trailer for the classic 1977 Italian horror film Suspiria by Dario Argento (in both Italian and English).....have a good one!!

Peace and tranquility..or perhaps not.

Ahh, the southern Italian, small town lifestyle. Calm, quiet and peaceful, right?

Well, not where I live it isn't. I have come to realise that Italians are not quiet people (well, duh). Nothing they do is done with low volume. And so when you live in a tiny little street (honestly, I can almost reach into my neighbours house) and are forced to have the windows open during these sticky summer months (yes, even September is warm), you have the 'pleasure' of hearing even the softest exclamation of 'mamma mia'. Not that that phrase is ever used softly, but hey.

Let me show you a little photo of my humble street:

And now let me inform you of some of the sounds that bounce around on a frequent basis in said humble little street:

babies screaming

children screaming

adults screaming

dogs barking

cats meowing

geckos...geckoing?

the jingle of the national weather report on tv (which goes something like this: duuum, du du du duuuum)

the 'glop' of pasta being served onto plates

women arguing

women shouting at each other

women shouting at men

men running away from the women

Gangnam Style

cars revving

motorbikes revving

one of those battery powered jeeps that kids have. I'm not saying I want to (I totally want to) but I may be forced to don a balaclava and remove the battery during the small hours of the morning. ('It was during a period of mental instability, your honour...')

hammering

power tools

power tools

more power tools

 every single word of every single conversation that happens within 20 metres of my house


So yes, you could say that I'm not exactly living in the quietest area of town. However, there is an upside.

Yes, definitely an upside...

Not quite sure just yet what that upside is, but I'll be sure to let you all know as soon as I think of it. I suppose you could say that I'm getting a very realistic insight into how the southern Italians live. In all their shouty, power-tool abundant glory.

Have a great day folks! :D

You can't find THAT in Italy!

Recently I had a conversation with one of my Twitter friends about tea. Yes, see how British we are; even our conversations revolve around our national beverage! Anyway, needless to say, this conversation about tea soon led to a conversation about biscuits (we both bonded over being chocolate digestive fans), which then led to an idea. And then subsequently to True Blood and Alexander Skarsgard's perfect body...but that's another topic entirely. But back to that idea. How about finding out (via some lovely fellow expats on Twitter) about the foods that we really miss while we're in Italy, and then writing a blog about it? Well, here is that blog. Be prepared to get really hungry. And possibly even book that flight back to the UK asap. Yes, we may have incredible gelato, delicious pizza, creamy mozzarella and tomatoes to die for here in Italy, but let's face it...everyone needs a good pork pie every now and then...

Behold, dear readers, the definitive list of food we really miss (in no particular order). Yes we know, you can get substitutes here, or put something together yourself but...well, it's just not the same is it...

• crisps: cracked black pepper and sea salt, roast chicken, prawn cocktail and sweet chili, in particular
• beans on toast
• fish, chips, mushy peas
• Assam tea and Tetley tea
• crumpets (this is also one of my personal choices)
• pork pies
• fish pie
• mint Aero (yes!)
• real bacon with brown sauce (it'd be ketchup for me!)
• steak pie
• saveloys
• English sausages
• cheddar cheese and Wensleydale cheese
• raspberry and white chocolate biscuits
• cinnamon bagels
• jam doughnuts
• Thai curry
• Greg's sausage rolls and Cornish pasties
• Cadbury's chocolate
• Ribena
• Marmite
• Galaxy chocolate
• Irn Bru
• orange Club biscuits
• chocolate hobnobs

Any other expats out there, what foods do you really miss while out of your home country? And here's a tip from us: try Lidl! Sometimes you can find a sneaky packet of cheddar cheese lurking in the fridge section...

I'd like to thank my wonderful Twitter followers for helping me with this *super* important research, in particular the #britpack. Read more about this excellent little group here, over at my friend Ali's blog.