Rome

The Pantheon

Interior of the pantheon

Getting a fruit pot from the market for breakfast

The Colloseum

Inside the Colloseum

An amaretto bellini - my new favourite drink!

You know what they say, "when in Rome..."!

We had a wonderful time in Italy this summer, and finished off our trip with a weekend in Rome. We stayed in a small apartment and spent our days wandering around all the sights (which are surprisingly close together) and taking far too many photos. In the evenings we sat outside restaurants and ate - and boy did we eat a lot!

Everything about our stay was amazing, the weather (43 degrees anyone?!), the architecture, the people, the markets... sigh!

Umbria

Viw across the bridge to the town & castle from our house

Evening over Spoleto

You can't go without ice cream in Italy! This one was English trifle flavour...

At the cathedral

The only way to travel in Italy!

The Roman ampitheatre

We were lucky enough to spend our summer holiday in Italy this year. We had a week in Umbria, followed by a weekend in Rome before flying home. It’s safe to say that we both fell in love with Umbria, and could quite happily get used to the laid back lifestyle out there!

We rented a beautiful restored artist’s house just outside the town of Spoleto. The town itself is a walled medieval town, with a castle, a cathedral, a roman amphitheatre and lots of pretty squares hosting markets and open air cafes.

Using Spoleto as a base we did day trips out across Umbria, or just spent our days potting around the winding roads of the town.

If you get a chance to visit Umbria, do it, it is just the most beautiful place!

Peri Peri Haddock

2 x 150g haddock loin
50g philadelphia light
1/2 red pepper, finely diced
1/4 red chilli, finely chopped
2 tbsp red wine vinegar

Preheat the oven to 190c. Place the haddock in an ovenproof dish. Mix the philadelphia, red pepper & chilli together & spread over the top of the fish. 
Spoon the vinegar around the fish and then cover the dish with foil.
Cook the fish for 10 minutes, remove the foil and cook for a further 10 minutes until the fish is cooked through

Home-Made Butternut Squash Tortellini

Our hand-made tortellini (spot Ash's ones in the bottom right corner! He delegated the rest of them to me after these deformed efforts!)

The finished dish

This recipe is really yummy & also good for you as the gyoza dumpling dough is lower in calories than fresh egg pasta. I promise you won't be able to tell the difference!

Ingredients:

Dough:
300g strong white flour
1/2 tsp fine salt
200ml boiling water

Filling
500g butternut squash
1tsp olive oil
1 red onion
3tbsp quick-cook polenta
25g parmesan
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
salt & pepper

Sauce
3 tbsp half-fat creme fraiche
handful basil leaves
2 big handfuls of baby spinach leaves
Chilli flakes

First make the dough. Sift the flour & mix in the salt & then stir in the boiling water with chopsticks until a ball forms. If the dough seems too wet add a bit more flour. If it's too dry add more water. Cover the dough & leave it to stand & cool for an hour. 
Preheat the oven to 200c. Peel the butternut squash & cut it into 4cm chunks. Toss them in oil, season & then roast in the oven for 25 minutes. Finely slice the red onion. Toss it in the remaining oil & add to the squash after the 25 min cooking time & cook for a further 10 minutes. 
Allow the veg to cool for 5 minutes, then add to a blender with the polenta & blitz it to make an orange puree. Set aside to cool for an hour, then stir in the parmesan & nutmeg. 
Place the dough on a lightly floured surface & knead for 5 minutes until it is very elastic. Roll the dough out very thinly & cut out circles using a pastry cutter - you can't re-roll this dough, so get as many as you can out of it in one go. 
Take a disc of dough & lay it flat in the palm of your hand. Place a heaped teaspoon of the filling in the middle, dip your finger in water & brush it around the edge. Fold the pastry over & press the edges firmly to form a semi-circle. 
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Drop the tortellini gently into the hot water & cook for 5 minutes until the pasta is tender. Drain & then tip the pasta back into the saucepan. Add the creme fraiche, basil & spinach leaves. Season well, add chilli flakes, then toss together over a low heat until the spinach wilts. 

Moroccan Blue



The bunting is homemade, the string of solar lanterns came from Asda, £10



Old furniture being given a new lease of life in the garden! This is a great storage solution for me, and looks pretty too

Table and chairs from B&Q. Cushions homemade

As the weather was glorious this weekend I spent the whole of it in the garden, getting all those annoying little jobs done. I painted all of the fence work – while I know the vivid blue is not to everyone’s taste, I love it. It reminds me of being in Morocco & the wonderful gardens there.

I also moved some bushes that were threatening to take over the flowerbed after being left to do their own thing for four years – and of course that left gaps, so I just had to go and get some new plants to fill them!

It was hard work, but I love how the garden looks now – as you can see Bronwyn approves too! I even managed to enjoy Sunday evening, sitting beside the fire pit with a book and a glass of wine – that’s the life!

Pirate Weekend!

Last weekend in Plymouth was Pirate Weekend - oh yes, no shying away from any cliches in my hometown! Ash & I took his niece Isabella to Plymouth Hoe to enjoy the fun & luckily for us it was a beautiful sunny day.

We went on a pirate ship, did treasure hunts and met 'Jointy Depp' - Oh yes, you did read that right! Isabella had her face painted with a beautiful butterfly, as you can see from the pictures. She's a real stunner and lucky for me she's happy to be photographed!

Red & White (On Blue!)

I've not done any sewing for a week as I've been on half term holiday in Plymouth. However, the week before that I made another version of the 1950s dress I posted before - this time with a plain neckline instead of the cape collar, and 3/4 length sleeves. I love this fabric, but as it's very thin cotton I'll need to get a fabulous net petticoat to go underneath - oh what a shame!

I managed to bring quite a lot of fabric back from Mum's house with me as she was getting rid of perfectly good curtains & bedding, so I'm going to have a think and then reinvent them into something pretty. I'll post pictures when I'm done.

Hope you're all enjoying the sun!