Porto Santo Stefano – Italy
Bee and I enjoying freedom!
Long jump
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Come to Italy with me!
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Ahhh summer! What is better than enjoying a meal made of fresh products and with plenty of taste like aubergine parmigiana!
Every time I cook “melanzane alla parmigiana” that how we call it in Italy, I remember when I was young (oh gosh did I really said that?!) and still living there. I used to go in my kitchen garden and walk in the middle of rows of tomatoes plants, cucumbers, courgettes… big plants of basil and rosemary… I still remember their strong lovely summery smell! aaawww good times…
Life in Edinburgh is a bit different, at the moment we have no garden SO I created a bit of Italian country side… in my kitchen! I periodically buy pot of fresh basil, mint, thyme, parsley – I say periodically as most of the time they die after 6 weeks 🙁 – no much of a green thumb am I? –
I created my own little corner of fresh herbs and every time I can, I add them to my dishes as I strongly believe fresh herbs make the difference. Plus if I feel nostalgic of my Italian life , I take few leaves of basil… I smell them with my eyes close… and for few minutes (or until Beatrice interrupts the dream by demanding “succo” – juice -) I “go back” to that garden.
Aubergine parmesan is a very easy recipe and although the traditional recipe instructs you to fry the aubergines, I personally go for the lighter and less smelly option for your flat, to grill them.
First gather your ingredients which are:
2 mozzarellas around 125 gr each
2 medium size aubergines
plenty of grated parmesan
lots of fresh basil
700 ml of tomato salsa (sieved tomato passata)
1 basil stock cube (if you can’t find it then just use fresh basil)
salt and pepper
First thing to do is slicing the aubergines up, the slices should be around 1cm thick. Get your griddle pan and when it is really hot you can start placing the sliced aubergine and grill them on both sides until lightly charred. Once you have grilled all of them just put them aside.
Cut the mozzarella into 1 cm thick slices or you just torn them up in pieces. By leaving them aside you make sure they loose some of the excess liquid which will avoid the dish from getting soggy.
To prepare the tomato sauce the original recipe instructs you to chop some onions with garlic and cook them in a pan with some olive oil until soft. Because I’m a busy happy mom I tend to skip this part and just pour the tomato sauce into a pan, add a basil stock (which you can find in any supermarket) and I let it simmer slowly for 10 minutes. Then I add lots of fresh basil which will give the unique fresh taste of summer and let it simmer again for another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
In an oven dish start pouring a small layer of tomato sauce, then cover it with a thin layer of grated Parmesan, spread some of the mozzarella and finally place a single layer of aubergines. Repeat these layers until you’ve used all the ingredients up, finishing with a little sauce and a good, very good sprinkling of Parmesan so once the dish is cooked the top will look crispy and golden.
Place the dish in the oven and bake it at 180 degrees for around 30 minutes or until you see the top of the dish golden and bubbly around the edges.
I would suggest that, once the dish is out of the oven, you leave it to cool down for around 10 minutes as this will make the whole dish settle a bit. If you use a particular watery tomatoes sauce or you notice that after 30 minutes the dish has still too much liquid salsa in it, then you can lower the oven temperature to around 140 degrees and leave the dish settle in the oven for a bit longer (10 minutes will do).
It will be so yummy, you will love it!! And your kids will love it too! And your husband will love it! And your friends will love it… do I need to say more?
Enjoy!
Because I am a working mom
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You know you are a working mum:
- When after having offered a lift to a colleague, he/she enters your car and looks totally shocked by the amount of biscuits crumbles on the seats
- When you drop your colleague off and notice that he/she has got biscuits crumbles attached to his/her bum
- When you arrive at the office ½ hour earlier because you have been awake for the last 3 hours and you didn’t know what to do in the house any more
- When your colleague asks you for a chewing gum and from your handbag you first pull out few nappies, a packet of wipes and few (again) broken biscuits before finding that last piece of chewing gum at the bottom of your bag
Poor mommy…
- When you look worried after having received a phone call and everyone in the office know that it was the nursery (obviously calling to say that your baby is sick/fell over/bumped head)
- When you pull out your laptop from a Disney carrier bag which was the only “laptop bag” you found in the house
- When your tweets switch quickly from SEO topics to the latest on breastfeeding
- When in the office lift you press your phone password to choose the floor
- When at work you hum “The Little mermaid” theme song
- When you don’t look forward to payday as you know that most of the money will go towards the cost of nursery
- When you clock out on the dot, full of excitement because you cannot wait to hold your baby again!!
Boobs out
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I’m not gone mad, I mean not this time, no… and all the men who came to read this post attracted by the title will probably leave soon as we are actually talking about Breastfeeding!
I just read that World Breastfeeding week starts today and, as I always wanted to talk about this topic, here is my personal opinion and experience.
I come from Italy where the general position of women is to take pride in breastfeeding their babies, I don’t even think it is a decision but a natural instinct. When I say this obviously I don’t refer to women who cannot breastfeed their babies because specific physical problems.
When I was around 5 months pregnant I remember talking to a friend of mine and she was so concern about me feeling the pressure to breastfeed…I did not get that.
The first time I went to an antenatal class I understood what she meant .
Love this picture that model Miranda Kerr posted on her twitter account
Quite a few women in the class were, I would say, embarrassed to talk about breastfeeding (like if it was a disease!) and they clearly stated that they didn’t feel like trying to breastfeed their babies due to the fact that they would feel left out at family reunion (why?!?!) or just stared at in restaurants/public places. I really didn’t get it , in my little world I thought “Tutto il mondo é paese” which means that some habits are common all around the world and to me the natural act of breastfeeding was obviously been practised in every country. I couldn’t be more wrong.
I started reading various articles online, doing some researches and noticed that lots of people referred to breastfeeding as “the issue“… issue, why? Again I can understand if a woman has physical problems that don’t allow her to breastfeed, but choosing not to breastfeed, or choosing to not even try doing it for me it would be like proving that you don’t love your child. Yeah it is that bad! I would fight everyone, anything who would make me feel uncomfortable about doing that as to me it’s just so inconceivable not giving the best for your baby.
By stating this I am not saying that a woman MUST breastfeed, as it is not a duty, I would say it is more like a pleasure. I am a firm believer, like my mum says, that breastfeeding is the best bond you can have with you little baby, it is something so natural, so unique that every new mom should experience in her life.
Stunning picture of Pink finding the time to breastfeed her baby while working. From Pink Twitter account
I personally get mad when I see people referring at breastfeeding like if it was a taboo or they think about it like an embarrassing moment if you are in a public place or around your family. They way I see it is the same as if people would get shocked seeing an adult eating his food in front of other people, so why cannot a baby eat his, by the way, “organic” food in a public place? To me it’s the same concept.
Having personally experience breastfeeding I can openly say that it was not easy at the beginning and it could take some times but the reward that you get at the end is priceless!
Angelina Jolie was the cover of the W magazine.
Just to mention a few, here is my list of benefits of breastfeeding:
- It’s much easier to breastfeed than give your baby formula milk. For example during the night you don’t need to wake up, go to the kitchen and prepare the bottle, you just need to lean over (in case you have adopted co-sleeping) or pick up the baby and gently attach it to you and I will assure that you will even fall asleep while he/she’s eating .
- Breastfeeding saves you money as you don’t have to buy any formula milk (which by the way can be harmful in some cases – please read the article I came across few days ago China baby formula ). The only thing you have to do is just eat healthy and drink plenty of water and your body will do the rest.
- Brestfeeding helps you loosing weight. Promise it is not a myth but a pleasant reality. After few months of breastfeeding my weight was lower that before I got pregnant *wink*
- if you plan a road trip you don’t have to worry where you will warm up the milk as if you breastfeed your body will always keep the milk at the right temperature
- you don’t have to sterilized any bottle before every feed.
I hear people saying that if a mom wants to breastfeed in a public place the least she can do is doing it in a discreet way but honestly I’ve never seen any mum trying to show off her boobs unlikely most women do on Saturday night and they don’t even have “the excuse” to having to feed a baby.