Roast Courgettes and Tomatoes

I am feeling better today, enough to be able to sit for a while at my desk editing a bunch of photos accumulated on my camera during March. There were quite a few and thought I would post one of my favourites. I have been absent from C&T and have missed blogging a lot. I find myself constantly thinking about how I can improve my writing and perhaps upping the frequency of posting new content. My cooking style is simple, the simpler the better, for various reasons. I don’t like to send people browsing for strange ingredients which are hard to source. The litmus test for this is myself. If I can’t find something at my local supermarket/grocery shop I discard the recipe. Running all over the place for a handful of ingredients is not my thing. So I try to find ways to make easy-to-find ingredients as interesting as possible.

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White Chocolate and Strawberry Muffins

I cannot really remember the day I baked these lovely goodies. Most probably it was sometime around mid-June, but somehow I never managed to write about them until now. Things recently have been busy and complicated, and now I’m dealing with grief. I wish the temperatures were still in the decent 20s. Celcius that is. It would have been easier to bake because I know that being in the kitchen often is good for me. If you set aside the eating part, which is something I love most obviously, the act of measuring out the ingredients, putting them all together and waiting patiently for the result takes away a big load of stress and anxiety which unfortunately has lately become part of my life. I am still cooking, well, somewhat; I don’t really know if making myself a green salad is actually cooking but baking is another matter and it’s what I like to do best.

Broad Bean Risotto

When I woke up this morning I kept reminding myself that it’s Thursday (not Sunday) and a public holiday on the rock. It’s not as quiet as one might hope, and to type this I had to close the window in my study. It’s easy to focus now and I *am* calm. Which brings me to a recipe made best when you have a good thirty minutes of peace. So tell your partner in life to babysit the kids and the pets for a little while and spend some time in the kitchen with me.

One of the things I love about Malta is the fruit and veggie trucks you see dotted around the many towns and villages on the island. I love going to the one near to where I grew up in Birkirkara. I love visiting my mum too which goes without saying and of course, going there brings back good memories. I have been meaning to post the following recipe and the above photo for ages so here it is. It’s starting to get warmer here now and we’re already finding plenty of spring and summer produce. I’m finding good quality strawberries too which I macerate in lemon juice, some sugar and pepper too. Delicious.

Some fruity photos, a little chat and a strawberry and banana milkshake.

So I have some time to myself on this lovely Sunday morning and thought I would drop a few lines. This week has been quite a hectic one. What made it worse was another little round of the flu. It’s easing a bit now all due to some rest I had yesterday. J wasn’t feeling too good either and after a bowl of minestra (the Maltese version of minestrone) we had a delightful movie afternoon. My feather blanket and hot water bottle became my best friends. I still managed to bake chocolate cookies *just got up and having one right now*. The Sun’s out today and that makes me happy. (Is Spring around the corner?)

Raspberry Eton Mess

This week is turning out to be a good one, which considering the circumstances of the previous weeks and days, this in my eyes is quite an achievement. One of the highlights is that I managed some baking. Big whoop you say. Well for me it is. The real kind of baking – the one where I creamed sugar and butter, and mixed in eggs and flour. Not all baking has to be like that mind you, and I sure am a massive advocate for simple bakes. (I have such a great recipe coming your way in the coming weeks which is the personification of simplicity. Watch out for that. Hint: you’ll get so many brownie points if you make it for your friends, you wouldn’t believe.) Baking makes me feel cozy and makes the environment more familiar. I need that in my life right now. It’s as though I’m making friends with my old kitchen again. Not a bad thing. Not a bad thing at all.