Pumpkins are not just for Halloween… The days are quickly getting shorter, the air is crispier and the shadows longer. It is time for comfort food, warming and heartening: soups, stews and pies. Pumpkins are in season and while they come up in shops mainly around the feast of All Hallows (or Halloween, of course), they are a gorgeous ingredient all year round, versatile and delicious. I wanted to try and make a pumpkin cake, because I had never baked…
We love Bompas & Parr on this blog, and we’ve attended many of their quirky, original and thought provoking events in the past. Having just received the below press release, we thought it might be worth sharing as it sounds as intriguing as ever. This Hallowe’en, don night vision goggles, explore the darkness and embrace the fear factor. Abandon hope all ye who enter Library of Shadows: A Garden of Fear Set to appear at the RHS Urban Garden Show, Library…
Welcome Italia is the event organised by The Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the UK dedicated to all food lovers that wish to discover and explore the best of Italian Food & Beverage. For us expats in London, the fair has now become a yearly event to try out some regional food, meet friends and colleagues and feel a little bit nostalgic too, because we can find products that we only usually buy back home.. from groceries to pasta…
A late summer burst of colours Summer is when tomatoes are at their best, as they benefit from the warm sunny days to become red, intense, and full of beautiful flavours that those grown all year round in green houses could never aim to achieve. In Italy, we have some great tomato based dishes in the summer season, and this month’s recipe is inspired by one of those, precisely a Tuscan family meal called ‘pappa al pomodoro’. It could be…
Dog friendly cities: London As I am finally planning my first journey to Italy by train, with Amber of course (why else would I spend two days in the heat of August trying to reach the beaches of Southern Italy?), I found myself researching how dog friendly Paris is, as we’ll be spending a few hours lay over on the way down and a night on the way back. As it turns out, Paris is not that dog friendly (and…