Rugby

With friendly matches being played all around europe, we decided  - 1 aussie, 1 american, 1 italian, 1 polish & 2 british to take ourselves down to Firenze for the Italian vs Australia game.
With kick off at 3.00pm there was time to have a couple pints enjoy a much needed hotdog and remind ourselves of why we love the game of Rugby!
We had such a fun day, the company wonderful, the game ok...the thighs BIG, the food always delicious.

At the game

The 2nd Sunday of the month takes us to Villa Franca flea market a 20 min drive from Verona, we can go there and back and still be home for lunch. The choice here isn't great, it's definitely better for smaller finds, glassware, buttons, the stamps featured above were beautiful but the price point too high for me. The furniture is over priced and over refurbished.  We did find some great pieces which I will post this week.

Bread & Butter Pudding

After a shaky start with my bread maker, things have settled down in our relationship...at least 2 loaves a week & possibly one for the freezer. This week I ventured a little too far though...I went XL! so come today the bread is going stale, not wanting to waste it an Emergency Home dial is made..."Mum I need your Bread & Butter pudding recipe" As a child and even up until the point of making it in my adult life, baking always seemed like such a fiddle...I also associate yummy food to being complicated to make...how wrong could I be.

Sunday Roast

I miss England, I miss the the USA, I miss my friends, I miss my family, but mostly I miss living in a country where the language is my mother tongue. It's easy for Italian speakers to say you should live in Italy with Italian friends...its hard...really hard. So your natural instincts kick in...find others like me.

We all do it, I don't know if it's some sort of homing device but we find others like us. I'm not saying my Italian is non existent, I work in Italian I've lived here for 3 years! but sometimes all you need is a simple, fun conversation where the intricacies of a different culture & language are not disabling.

So Sunday was a day for Roast dinner with 4 lovely friends, it all went amazingly well,  I however unfortunately I do not have the skill of cooking a Roast dinner down to a fine art like my Mum. It takes me all morning to prepare, there is a little stress, the oven is on for what seems like hours, only having a one door oven didn't help the timing situation...but we made it and having friends over is always the best way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.

the table

the flowers

LUNCH

Roast Beef - bought at Butchers YUM!

Yorkshire puddings - not so successful, but nothing was left over.

Brussel Sprouts - don't think you can go too wrong.

Carrots - simple is best.

Roast potatoes - roasted with garlic, rosemary, thyme & slices of lemon...Delicious!

Cauliflower cheese  -  cheat use Besciamella sauce & adding  Parmesan/Provolone cheese mix.

Butternut Squash - Roast with rosemary, garlic & oil.

Horseradish sauce.

Rhubarb crumble - rhubard from my parents garden & my Mums recipe

Baked Apple with mince  - Mums recipe, got slightly burnt....

but all whoopsies were hidden with lashings of CUSTARD!

Flowers - probably the 2 most expensive twigs/stems I have ever bought (the roomie helped out) but they are oh! so pretty.

Wine - 2005 Chianti, Colli Fiorentini, Riserva - bought on our trip to Tuscany in July.

tom tart

I love halloween...

this love of halloween really came when I moved to the USA, they LOVE it!! I don't really have any memories of really getting dressed up on Halloween as a child...it was all about Guy Falkes Night in our house, and I loved it! Off we'd go all bundled up to the fireworks display possibly having a few sparklers in the garden before we went. But not having lived in the UK for a number of years now and Halloween going global it's all about the 'Jack o Lantern'. After several trips to various shops in & around Verona I finally found my pumpkins! they maybe small but the excitement in our house last night when they were lit and put on the window sill...size really didn't matter. I have one more to carve, hoping for a flash of inspiration for that one. 
Doesn't look like I'll be getting dressed up this year, Italy just isn't the place to find good Halloween costumes or parties for that matter, so next year hoping that we'll be in a bigger place I'm gonna bring halloween to our house.

sunday

                                                         lunch

For my second trip to the garden centre this year I was definitely feeling a little more confident and prepared.

I've had great success with my Basil & Sage this summer and will hopefully get one more batch of pesto made before it dies off.

With the enivatible about to happen to the basil I needed some new colour for my window sill...

Mum inspired me with the planters she'd just done for The Cottage with some winter heathers - I'm slightly nervous about how to care for them...but right now they look wonderful, we also picked up 3 new herbs which seem to be a little sturdier for the winter months ahead. We found a super red container for them.