Baked Feta Cheese ~ my recipe

Hello everyone!!

It's been a crazy year....maybe the longest break I ever had from my blog. Many things have happened, I'm now back in Colorado with my family probably for good. I will always keep California in my heart as well as all the wonderful places and people I've encountered these last 11 years. My new daily routine helps me now to go back to writing and posting things I like, here on my blog. 

As you already know, cooking is one of my favorite hobbies, I love to share my recipes and try new things. Yesterday I tried a NEW one!! It's a Greek dish. I've never been to Greece, I've seen many pictures of the beautiful sea, which reminds me of the sea where I grew up in the South of Italy.. {it's only 300 miles from my hometown...}

Milos, Greece

Gorgeous, isn't it? So...with images like this in my head, dreaming to be floating on those crystal waters, I decided to cook one of their typical dishes: Baked Feta Cheese.
It's incredibly simple and so delicious!

This is the one I did

All you need is this {it serves 1 or 2 people} :

• FETA cheese, 8 ounces (not crumbled)
• Extra Virgin OLIVE OIL, a generous drizzle
• Kalamata Olives, a handful (I used green olives, they were also good)
• 1 Red Onion, thinly sliced
• 2 Ripe Tomatoes, sliced
• Salt
• Oregano

1. Drizzle a baking dish with the olive oil, add the sliced onion, tomatoes and olives. Add a little salt and oregano.
2. Add the whole piece of Feta cheese on top of the veggies. Sprinkle some oil and oregano on top.
3. Bake for 1 hour in oven at 350 degrees.
4. Enjoy with a piece of bread!

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Buon appetito!!!

Let me know if you try this dish and how it came out! I'd love to hear!

Love for now.

xoxo,

Cross-Stitch Love

First of all...thank you to all who entered my Giveaway!!! I've contacted the winner and sent her the Pumpkin Spice Cup Cozy! I can't wait to hear from her and see if she likes it.... :)

In the meantime I've been cross-stitching a lot!!! Yesssss!!! It has been such a long time... I used to cross-stitch more often when I was younger {before having sweet little babies}, it was my favorite hobby, it relaxes me and gives satisfaction once the work is done. I remember, while studying at the University, I had a little project waiting for me after every exam.. I couldn't wait to finish to study just to be able to cross-stitch without any worries! 

I would have liked to share pictures of my last work... but I'm not done!!! That's why I checked online for beautiful works made by other people.... I picked a few to share with you:

Look at this amazing girl.... isn't she so pretty???

www.crossstitchingart.com

...and Super Mario!!!!! This was the game I spent hours playing when I was little! 
www.momcents.org

This is an incredibly cute Hoop Art work.. I like the simplicity of the stitches..

www.craftsy.com

These little mice are just so adorable!!!!!

www.bolitadepapel.wordpress.com

This one also reminds me of my childhood!! Iridella {her name in Italian...}

www.rosaka.deviantart.com

I could go on and on and on... there are so many great cross-stitchers out there!!!! 

I also found many web-sites where you can buy patterns... my favorite is DANCE NEEDLE on Etsy, they have adorable kawaii style easy patterns. 

If you are looking for something FREE there's always Pinterest!! That's where I found mine... click HERE to display a lot of free patterns!

There is also another interesting web-site called MYPHOTOSTITCH.COM , where you can upload any picture {for free} and it will transform it in a cross-stitch pattern!! Isn't it cool?? 

Well, that's all I have for now!!! If you are a stitcher like me, I hope you will enjoy a nice cup of tea sitting in your favorite spot on a chilly afternoon, with in your hands your favorite work ready to be stitched.

Happy Fall to you All!!!

xoxo,

編みぐるみ or.. Amigurumi :)

I've always liked the cuteness of the so-called "amigurumi" and I've always wondered: What does it mean? Maybe you already know, but I had to go check on Wikipedia and the explanation is this:

Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, andnuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll. Amigurumi are typically animals, but can include artistic renderings or inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features,as is typical in Japanese culture.

Now it makes sense!! :) 

I recently bought a pattern on Etsy. The owner and designer happens to be Italian! Her name is Ilaria, she's incredibly good! Her SHOP is beautiful! I also explored her BLOG.. she has some free patterns (I just started to create a little Matryoska doll.. too cute!) and she shows many of her creations. Everything is so adorable that makes me want to crochet all day! and it's exactly what I did today, forgetting a little bit about my messy house...

The pattern I bought from her was very well explained, step by step, with a lot of pictures. I have to confess that the initial request to look for Amigurumi patterns came from my husband {I taught him how to crochet one day, when he was really bored.. and now he became better than me!!}.. he's the one who made Ilaria's Teddy Bear, I just gave it the final touch. 

And these are a few of Ilaria's works of art!!

kokeshi

yummi donuts

cute lemur

It's all for now....until next time!!

xoxo,

Tomato Harvest

It seems like Fall is never gonna come. It's still very hot outside.. but I have to say that I'm enjoying these last days of Summer. I can still dry the clothes outside, before the rainy days come... and I like watering the plants everyday, especially my tomatoes!! It's the first time I have my own tomato-plants! Yesterday I picked and ate the first one... so good! 

Speaking about pomodori reminds me of something fun I did last summer.. I gave a few Italian Lessons to a sweet Denver girl who wants to learn my beautiful language! I don't know how much she learned in the end, I wish I had more time to do more lessons, but time really went so fast. During my lessons I taught her also some simple recipes {we cooked pasta with tomato sauce... and Pizza with Zucchini Flowers.. everything from scratch of course... }. It was fun!!! The best way to learn a language is to be somehow part of the culture and that's what I tried to do. ♥

my student showing off our Pizza! Buonissima!!!

...the blessings of my garden...