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Mamma Wears Prada December 1, 2014

My frozen cake pop Advent Calendar

Christmas, family Comments Off

Our Christmas countdown has started! Creating an advent calendar has always been a tradition in our family and I’m very keen to carry on with it as I love to see my children’s excitement growing daily!

This Christmas will be a special one! We are going to be celebrating with my mum and my sister who will come over from Italy! The last time we had Christmas all together in Scotland was more than 10 years ago so you can imagine our happiness!

In the meantime this week we have been very busy baking (and eating) many, many cake pops! I wanted to create a set of Christmas cake pops and then make a few more (well a bit more than a few) to use them for our edible advent calendar.

Last year, for our Christmas countdown, I made my first cake pop advent calendar and it was such a success so I decided to make another one this year.

To make the Advent Calendar I baked 24 cake pops using a cake pop machine (easy!). I coverd them in white chocolate, sprinkled with light blue sugar and placed on each one an edible number which is made out of light blue fondant. My husband helped me to create the actual tree where we inserted all cake pops and voila! A Frozen Advent Calendar was ready!

Last year we didn’t succeed to make it last till Christmas eve (not even sure if the cake pops last that long outside the fridge lol!) and this year will probably be the same as the kids have already asked to have “one, just one cake pop pleaaaase mummy”.

To be honest I have a backup plan anyway as we’ll actually be filling a second advent calendar, a red wooden one shaped like a house, with little treats and we have a “strict policy” regarding this one: Bee can only open one draw per day and if she opens more than one then the next day she’ll find the draw empty (it happened last year!)

I cannot wait for Bee to come home from nursery today and see her face when she finds out that in the middle of her toys, two treats are waiting for her!

Cake pops are well loved in this family so I guess I have started a tradition of edible Advent Calendars that will make it last in the years to come.

Mamma Wears Prada November 24, 2014

Enjoying a good Espresso coffee

Food, Recipe Comments Off

Coffee is so much part of our Italian culture and in our family drinking a good short Espresso is a daily tradition. My husband is proud of his ability to make a lovely cremina (which is a foam made by vigorously whisking a tiny bit of coffee and sugar), he really believes it’s a form of art!

For him a daily espresso coffee is a must, especially in the morning! So when we heard the news about Dolce Gusto launching a new espresso flavour we could not wait to try it!

The new Dolce Gusto Ristretto Ardenza is definitely a typical Italian coffee. It’s a so called “ristretto” coffee which is shorter than a normal espresso yet full-bodied with a velvety crema layer. In Italy we call it ‘corto’ (short), because it is a very short espresso shot made with less water passing through the coffee. It’s the Italian people choice when it comes to order a coffee as most Italians drink their coffee quickly at the bar before heading to their offices.

Receiving a Dolce Gusto hamper is always a pleasant surprise. In the beautiful wrapped box, these lovely glass espresso cups and saucers were an extra treat! The glass cups are the perfect size for an espresso or a macchiato (an espresso with a bit of foam yum!) and I love these ones in particular as you can see the different layers that Dolce Gusto machine naturally creates.

Being coffee lovers, I cannot help but think that coffee has other uses a part from giving you a big boost in the morning so I browsed a bit online and found many recipes you can make that have a good short espresso, like Ristretto Ardenza, as ingredient.

My mother in law arrived on Saturday and I thought I’d treat her with a lovely three layers Coffee panna cotta (I’m such a wonderful daughter in law! Haha).

This is the very easy recipe, it just takes a little of time as you have to wait for every layer of panna cotta to settle before moving to the next one.

2 cups of espresso Dolce Gusto Ardenza

10 gelatine leaves

600ml of double cream

1 vanilla bean (I used a tbsp of vanilla extract)

9 tbsp of sugar

shaved dark chocolate for garnishing

Soak 4 gelatine leaves in cold water. Put in a saucepan 300 ml of double cream with 3 tablespoons sugar and one shot of espresso. As soon as it begins to boil remove the pan from the heat, add the squeezed gelatine and stir until dissolved. Let the mixture stand for 5 minutes , then divide it into 4 glasses and fill them up to about half of their height. Cover the glasses with plastic wrap and place them in refrigerator for about hour.

Put another 2 sheets of gelatine to soften in a cold espresso coffee for 5 minutes, then add a small espresso cup of water, 3 tablespoons sugar and heat it on low heat until the gelatine is dissolved. Remove from heat, let the mixture cool and then pour 2 tablespoons in each glass on top of the previous panna cotta layer .

Soften other 4 sheets of gelatin in cold water . Heat other 300 ml of double cream with 3 tablespoons sugar and a vanilla bean ( I didn’t have it so I used a tbsp of vanilla extract). Bring to a boil , add the squeezed gelatin and let it dissolve . Remove from heat, allow the mixture to cool , divide it into glasses , cover again with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Using a vegetable peeler, create some dark chocolate shavings and sprinkle some over the panna cotta glasses.

Buono!

Mamma Wears Prada November 17, 2014

Nurturing our children’s skin

baby products, family Comments Off

I have to admit, I’m not the best person when it comes to be consistent and look after my skin. I never remember to mosturise it, I hate the feeling of a greasy cream on my skin and I just don’t have the patience to wait for the cream to be absorbed.

BUT when it comes to my children then it’s a totally different story.

I remember since Leonardo was born I’ve always had to use a moisturising cream on his skin, especially on his legs which showed many dry patches. The doctor adviced us to try Aveeno and we have used it ever since because it made the difference.

It’s really heartbreaking when you see your little one bothered by dry or itchy skin so I think it’s quite important to find the right product that actually works in relieving the symptoms of a sensitive skin.

We were very excited to receive a parcel with many Aveeno products and the new AVEENO^® children’s book! The book which shows the dry-venture of Ellie and Eddie, a girl and her bestfriend geko, was created to help parents and children address and manage the difficulties of having dry eczema prone skin in a fun and easy way .

Beatrice loves it and we often read it together and talk about the importance of keeping our skin mosturised especially after a bath and during these cold months. In the last few weeks Bee has been spending so much time outside and as temperatures drop, the tendency to develop a dry skin is higher.

This book has helped us making moisturising time a fun moment. It has become a daily routine and while we apply our moisturiser, we usually talk about the little girl in the book and how she enjoys, like we do, the feeling of a smooth and soft skin.

The Aveeno dry skin range includes the Aveeno cream, the Aveeno bath and shower oil and the Aveeno lotion. They all include naturally active ingredients that help to effectively soothe and comfort a sensitive skin. If you or your children have a dry eczema-prone skin I’d definitely recommend these products.

Mamma Wears Prada November 11, 2014

Children’s freedom

family, Health Comments Off

We are finally settled in our new home in the countryside ( I’ll soon write a post about it!)

I still cannot believe it, everything happened so quickly! We were looking to move to this area because we know the schools are really good and this week we have to enrolled Bee to Primary School, (eeeeek) but we never expected to find a house straightaway.

With the thought that Bee will soon go to school and the just heard news that my friend’s daughter at 2 years old is already wearing glasses, I started to think if Bee will be short-sighted too.

I found out I was when I started primary school. I could not read properly the letters on the wall. My husband is myope as well, so what are the odds that she will be too?

When I was little glasses didn’t really bothered me much: they were so colourful and they looked like fun. But when I grew up I started to hate them… for instance all my friends could go to the beach and swim freely in the sea, I had to swim with my glasses on because if I chose to go without them I could have never gone back to my towel on the beach.. yes that bad! I think I was around 16 when I started wearing contact lenses and seriously what a change! I could see everything clearer, no frame which limited my view, it really was amazing. When I think about Bee, who is now 4 1/2 year old, I wonder if she’ll have the same vision problems…

But then I went to Britmums live, met the fun team of Johnson & Johnson ACUVUE and I discovered something that totally relieved me. I was talking with them about short sighted issues related to children and I actually found out that now kids can start wearing contact lenses from the age of 5!

Great!

This means not only that if we find out (hopefully not!) that Bee is short sighted, she won’t have to wear glasses BUT and most important, she will be able to carry on playing and running without any problem, or riding a horse (it’s in the list after we moved to the countryside) without worrying she can lose her glasses. She’ll be able to do any activity which could potentially be affected by wearing glasses. I think it will make the difference especially for a girl so active like Bee is!

I daily wear contact lenses and most of the time I forget I’m actually short sighted. Hopefully we won’t need to look into contact lenses for our children for another while but if we were at least I know that their life won’t be much affected by wearing them.

Now off to feed (my neighbour) chickens!

I wrote this post while participating in a campaign on behalf of Johnson & Johnson Vision care and received a symbolic gift to thank me for taking the time to participate.

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Mamma wears Prada

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My frozen cake pop Advent Calendar

Enjoying a good Espresso coffee

Nurturing our children’s skin

Children’s freedom