ST. DAVID'S DAY 2018

Yes, I've had a long break from blogging, for health and other reasons but I've never let a St David's Day go by without posting and I will not do so now.  So HAPPY ST DAVID'S DAY, wherever you are!

Over at London Town Modica - Centro Linguistico Internazionale we've been celebrating as usual and even the Queen popped in:

Later we decided we needed more cake:

Whatever is going on in her life, a girl needs to keep on trying, so here are my St David's Day nails and top:

Bertie-Pierrine had a St David's Day haircut and is feeling very waggy:

And finally, some St David's Day music. I love this version of The Ash Grove:

Stay happy. Stay Welsh, even if you're not and stay kind!

HAPPY ST DAVID'S DAY 2017

It's St David's Day and naturally, there have to be Welshcakes:

A girl also has to have St David's Day nails:

And there has to be this:

Only Men Aloud - Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau

To the Welsh everywhere, to those who wish they were Welsh and to all with a song in their heart,  Happy St David's Day!

IN HONOUR OF THOSE WITH NO TEETH - A "LET'S BLOG OFF" POST

Every two weeks, the blogosphere comes alive with something called a Blog Off. A Blog Off is an event where bloggers of every stripe weigh in on the same topic on the same day. The topic for this round of the Blog Off is "Cookies".


When I saw that the topic for this round of the Blog Off was "Cookies", I was first relieved that those whose idea this was meant the culinary and not the technological kind and then peturbed as I'm not sure when a cookie is not a cookie!  On this side of the pond we call them "biscuits", you see, but according to the dictionary a cookie can also be "a flat and crisp cake".  Does that mean that Welshcakes are cookies, then?  You'll be able to decide for yourselves by the end of the post!


Living in Sicily means being surrounded by cookies and their names and recipes vary from town to town and even from village to village.  There are cookies for every occasion and they are made on the premises of every pasticceria and self-respecting bar.


Why are the Sicilians so good at making cookies?  Well, the Greeks brought honey to the island, the Arabs sugarcane and the Spanish chocolate from Mexico.  Nuns in convents began to make pastries as a source of income and Swiss and French pastry chefs arrived in the nineteenth century.  With all these influences and the island's natural resources, successful pastry-making was ensured.


Then there are the wonderful names that Sicilians give their cookies [or little cakes]: among my favourites are "virgin's breasts", so -called because of their mounded shape and affogapreti or "priest drowners", crunchy little biscuits filled with honey.  These are popular at Easter time and get their name either because they are so hard that you can't talk and eat them at the same time, so giving some to a priest would cause him to stop telling you off or because if you ate them during a sermon the sound of your chewing would "drown out" the priest's voice.  

affogapreti

In Modica, the city of chocolate, impannatighe biscuits are especially popular and there are variant spellings - 'mpanatigghie, impanatiglie - of this dialect word which is a corruption of Spanish empanadilla, meaning a filling enclosed in pastry.   I promise you that if you make these and offer them to your friends, no one will guess that they contain beef!  Here is a recipe for them:

Pastry:

800 gr plain flour

250 gr sugar

200 gr lard

12 egg yolks [!]

a glass of water if needed

Filling:

350 gr finely chopped almonds

250 gr lean minced [ground] beef

400 gr sugar

90 gr bitter chocolate, grated

25 gr cinnamon

a few drops of vanilla essence

1 dessertspoon cocoa powder

grated rind of 1 lemon

4 egg whites

To make the pastry, rub the lard into the flour and sugar. Add yolks and a little water if necessary to make a dough. [It will be very sticky at first, but it gets better!]

Cook the minced meat in a little water and grind down in a processor. Add to the other filling ingredients in a bowl and mix all well together.

Let both the dough and filling rest in the fridge - for 24 hours if possible.

Roll out the dough and cut into circles using a coffee saucer. Put some filling on each round, then fold over to a half-moon shape. Stick the edges together and make lines with the prongs of a fork. Cut a slit in the top of each one.

Put the pastries on a lightly greased tin and bake at 150 C - 175 C for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them. Serve cold, dusted with icing sugar.

impannatighe

That's a recipe from Sicily; now, what of Wales?  I've mentioned Welshcakes several times in my Blog Off posts and some of you have asked for a recipe so here is how I make them in Sicily:

1 lb plain flour

A few drops of vanilla flavouring [sold in little phials in Italy] or vanilla essence [not an authentic ingredient but my Sicilian friends like the cakes better when I add it.]

8 oz margarine, chopped into cubes

6 oz sultanas

6 oz caster sugar

2 eggs

1 teasp mixed spice  [Friends send this from Britain. It's similar to pumpkin pie spice.]

a little milk to mix the pastry

The easiest way is to just whizz everything together in a food processor, using as much milk as you need to make a firm dough.  On a floured board, roll out the dough to about 0.5" thickness and then cut into rounds with a medium-sized fluted cutter.  

Now, you really need a flat griddle to cook them on but you can use a heavy frying pan.  I use an Italian pan called a "testo romagnolo" and I found out that it was the perfect flat griddle substitute by accident! Grease the griddle or pan very lightly with lard and heat it.  Lift the cakes on with a fish slice and cook for about 1 minute on each side.  You have to watch them carefully and flip them over quickly! As soon as they are done, lift them out onto cooling trays.  [I always end up with some that are more "done" than others but it doesn't matter.] Sprinkle the cakes with caster sugar while they are still warm.  They are traditionally eaten warm with butter and honey but they are good cold too and can be eaten just as they are.  All my Sicilian friends like them and think there is ricotta in them! 

Last Christmas I used dried cranberries instead of sultanas in them and this was a success but don't tell any Welsh friends that!

Welshcakes at the front
of my St David's Day table

I cannot finish this post without quoting my favourite Sicilian proverb again:

" 'U Signuri runa 'i viscotta a cu' nun avi rienti - God gives biscuits to those with no teeth."

Below is the full list of blogs participating in this week's theme:

WHAT SMELL TAKES YOU BACK? - A "LET'S BLOG OFF POST"

Every two weeks, the blogosphere comes alive with something called a Blog Off. A Blog Off is an event where bloggers of every stripe weigh in on the same topic on the same day. The topic for this round of the Blog Off is "What smell takes you back?"

In the book Une Gourmandise [Gourmet Rhapsody] by the French novelist Muriel Barbery a famous but unloved food critic lies dying.  Before he shuffles off this mortal coil, he wants to experience a certain taste sensation again.  The trouble is, he can't remember what it is.....

I think it's often like that with smells.  They can be very elusive but also very evocative and, once we identify them, they can take us as far back in time as we can remember.  For a couple of years here I'd been sniffing numerous tester perfumes in an attempt to find .... what?  That's just it - I didn't really know what aroma I was searching for but my longing for whatever it was became like a thirst.  I have a theory that this is partly a result of not having been in my own country for a long time.  Then one day I realised:  as a child I spent my holidays on the beach in Paignton, Devonshire and my Dad used to buy "Devon Violets" perfume for my mum, whose name was Violet.

I was last in Devonshire as a teenager in 1964 but any smell that is similar to "Devon Violets" takes me right back there:

Me at the Model Village in Babbacombe, Devon

Most of you know that I'm an avid reader and the smell and feel of books fascinate me almost as much as  their content. At school and at university I loved the smell of French Livre de Poche editions and I still do:

Then there are the smells I miss on an almost daily basis and one of these, during this particularly cold winter even in Sicily, is that of warmth. [Not heat - we get plenty of that in summer - but warmth!] Houses here can be very cold because so much heat is lost through long windows and balcony doors which are not double-glazed.  Many Sicilians are reluctant to switch their central heating on, preferring to wear numerous layers of clothing even at home so it is often colder inside than out.  I miss the all-enveloping warmth of a well-heated British home and the welcoming smell of that warmth.

I can't say I miss the smell of Cardiff's black beer wafting over the city from the brewery, though and I'd much rather inhale the aroma of freshly roasted coffee beans which fills Modica's Sorda district on certain mornings - not for much longer, though, as Caffè Moak is planning to transfer its headquarters to Pozzallo.

The aroma of Welshcakes cooking on a flat griddle was the smell of home to me as a child, in an era when women had weekly "baking days" and there were always homemade cakes for tea.  Here I manage to make Welshcakes on a pan called a testo romagnolo and I'll be preparing my next batch on St David's Day [March 1st].

My testo romagnolo - take off the lid and rack
 and you have the perfect flat griddle!

Welshcakes - Sicilian style

What are the smells I most closely associate with Italy?  The unmistakeable aroma of vanilla as you pass any pasticceria and, in Sicily, the lovely perfume of the jasmine flower - which is not unlike that of "Devon Violets".

Below is the full list of bloggers participating in this week's theme:

IL TE DI SANTO STEFANO

Welshcakes purists, look away now because I put dried cranberries instead of sultanas into this batch that I made for Boxing Day tea at Chiara's today:

I must say, the general opinion was that the experiment was a success so it's one that I'll be repeating!

Here are some of the other goodies that were set before us upon this pleasant occasion:

Grazie a Chiara e a tutti gli amici.

BAKEWELL TART IN SICILY

A rather British tea party took place in 36 Celsius in a corner of the Marina di Ragusa yesterday, when the "foreign legion" women descended upon Roberta and husband Roberto. It was nice and cool in Roberta's conservatory and the nationalities represented were British, Italian, American, Spanish, Russian, German, Danish and Bosnian. [Our Madagascan and Tunisian friends were unable to make it and where were the French?]

Roberta's table was groaning with goodies: she herself had made the brownies, sweet and savoury scones [I don't know how she gets them to rise in an Italian oven] Bakewell tart [she got the ground rice for this sent over from the UK] and the kiwi cheesecake [for which one day I am going to steal the recipe] plus lemonade [sublime when made from Sicilian lemons] whilst the apricots were from her garden. I made Welshcakes and Linda and Chiara made the fruit cake to an Australian recipe:





Below I am on the left and Roberta is in the centre of the picture:


We all had a great time and good old gossip and there was very little of all that lovely food left by 7pm! Grazie, Roberta!

MORE DAILY DOINGS

1. Found self-raising flour in one of the supermarkets - just in time to make Welshcakes for Saturday! [Of course I would have improvised but it's nice, sometimes, not to have to!]

2. Arrived at Raffaele the hairdresser's just 40 minutes before I was due at work this morning [my fault entirely as I had overslept, but I can't face a class, much less the world in general, without freshly styled hair]: "Can you do it immediately?" I asked, for you don't make appointments here; well, you can, but no one will stick to the time, so you might as well not bother! "Of course", said he and I allowed myself to be led to the basins still feeling somewhat dubious, for "immediately" does not have the same connotation in Italy as in the UK! However, he did start on my hair "immediately"; the only trouble is, he has the same problem as the butcher, namely that he cannot talk without gesticulating, so every time he spoke to me or one of his assistants, both hairdryer and brush were laid aside! I was so wanting to yell, "Stop bloody talking - please!" but refrained. I needn't have worried * for I was servita and out with a good 7 minutes to spare.

3. The daytime temperature has, again, been equivalent to what you would expect on a normal summer's day in Britain, but it plummeted this evening. The gas in the bombola had run out at work, so I was shivering. Then my last student of the day appeared, took one look at me and asked, "Would you like my jacket, teacher?" Reader, I fell in love with Italians all over again!

* FCE students of mine who are reading, please note: "I needn't have worried" = " It was not necessary but I worried". "I didn't need to worry" = "It was not necessary" [and maybe I worried or maybe I did not.]

Top Ten Places to Kiss

With Welshcakes on the move away from her beloved Sicily and with all of us missing her dearly, especially me, it's clearly time to get down to the real issue of the moment - where is the best place to kiss? Here is a collection of tips picked up many years ago:

1. On any beach, during a full moon, by a bonfire

Imagine the waves washing up onto the sand as golden flames and silver moonlight illuminate the face of someone very special. With so many beautiful beaches around the world, it's easy to find your perfect setting for this scene. You might try the famous Seven Mile Beach in Negril, Jamaica, with its seemingly endless white sand, warm turquoise water, and rhythmic beats of reggae wafting on the breeze.

2. At any airport, meeting your lover, getting off a plane

As anyone knows who has been separated from a partner for a long time, airport kisses are especially ardent. You can't help letting the sparks fly with that first kiss upon reunion, right in front of all the other travelers. Although no one would suggest that airports themselves are romantic, they do set the stage for some of life's most dramatic moments. Savor kisses here; they are the passionate punctuations of the comings and goings of love

3. In an elevator, with nobody else inside

The glass elevator at the famous Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco whisks you up and down its 24 floors. Share a special moment as you soar above the city's steep hills, Victorian houses, glittering office buildings, and arching bridges. San Francisco provides a romantic backdrop for every activity--especially kissing.

4. Floating in the 80-degree waters of the South Pacific

You and your lover cling gently to one another as the glimmering blue water of the Pacific calmly rocks you. Here in paradise, you have all the time in the world. Reenact our number-five smooch on Bora Bora, in the shallow, brilliantly-colored lagoon that surrounds the island.. A ring of islets and coral reefs around the lagoon ensures smooth water, and the beaches are made of snowy white sand. Fascinating sights like ancient temples and colorful villages might prove tempting enough to get you out of the water. Then again, maybe not. Book a flight to Papeete, Tahiti, the capital of French Polynesia. From Papeete, you'll take an enchanting boat ride to Bora Bora.

5. In a boat off the Isle of Capri in Italy

Get ready for a kiss as deep as the azure water of the famed Blue Grotto off the Italian island of Capri. Only very small boats, holding two or three people, can fit through the narrow opening of the cave. However, once you pass through the entrance, you will be astounded. Sunshine slants into the wide cavern, reflecting the iridescent blue of the water onto the walls and ceiling and turning the chamber into a magical place where light and water merge. There's plenty to do in Capri during your stay. Explore ancient churches, 19th-century houses, and the rest of the lovely coastline. Book your flight to Naples. You'll take a hydrofoil or a ferry from there to Capri.

6: At Niagara Falls, enveloped by the mist

Echoing with the enthusiasm and wonder of new love, these awe-inspiring falls have been a favorite destination for newlyweds since the 1800s, when Napoleon's brother Jerome Bonaparte reputedly spent his honeymoon there. The beauty of the water pouring over the 170-foot drop, the mist swirling up to envelope observers, and the surrounding forests and picnic areas make Niagara Falls a wonderful spot for lovers. The atmosphere of Niagara Falls has been soaking up romance for decades. If you have not experienced this landmark of love, you should consider visiting Niagara Falls for a vacation on your next anniversary. Be sure to take the legendary Maid of the Mist boat tour; helicopter tours are also available. Choose a romantic B&B or small hotel on the Canadian side of the Falls.

7: In Venice, riding through the canals on a gondola

Your boat carries you past magnificent palazzi, thousand-year-old churches, and inviting courtyards as you're lost in admiration. Ah, Venice--a city for lovers. And what better place to lock lips than on its renowned canals? Venice is worthy of a visit for much more than its gondola rides. With a rich history stretching back to the 400s, distinctive architecture, and fabulous art, this city beckons both the sophisticated traveler and the dreamy lover of beauty. A word to the wise: gondola rides are fairly expensive (usually around US$40). It's a good idea to negotiate a definite length and price for the ride, or you may be shocked at both when it's over. Extras such as serenading are often available upon request. Book your flight to glorious Venice.

8: In Central Park during a snowfall, New York City

Above you, two rows of elms arch upwards and form a cathedral ceiling, through which the snow slowly falls. The dark limbs above The Literary Walk in New York City's Central Park are lined with white--and the city, for a moment, is pristine. You squeeze each other's gloved hands and hug to share your warmth. The air may be cold, but your lips stay warm. Wander north to the grand Bethesda Fountain, featuring the sculpture "Angel of the Waters" as a backdrop for embraces. Though it will not be flowing in winter, it is still well worth the walk. Nearby, Strawberry Fields draws nostalgic Beatles fans to pay their respects to John Lennon, to whom this section of the park is dedicated. To add the finishing touch to your winter city stay, find a cozy B&B or hotel hidden in an intriguing corner of uptown Manhattan.

9: In Paris at the Louvre, surrounded by the most glorious art

Walking slowly through the labyrinthine halls of this great museum, you pause before Antonio Canova's sculpture of Eros and Psyche. Eros, the messenger of love we know as Cupid, holds Psyche tenderly and revives her after she's been lulled by a sleeping potion. Their embrace is paused in marble forever, inches from a sweet kiss. Life emulates art as you reach toward your mate and draw close together. This kiss is a work of art. Of course, Paris's many sights will beguile you for as long as you're willing to spend--Notre Dame, the Sacre Coeur, the Eiffel Tower, the Pantheon, the cafes along the River Seine, and the jazz clubs are but a scant list of its most famous attractions. And many of them are also great places for romance.

10: Anywhere else

If you’re in the mood to kiss, any place is the right place for you.