Happy Valentine's day!

Though I am not a big fan of valentine's day, or all heart's day (alla hjärtans dag) as it is called in Sweden, I felt I had to get into the spirit and send you a virtual cute little valentine's card. (In fact I am not a big fan of February at all, let's just get it over with and have some spring instead.) Anyway here it is, from me to you, with love.
XO XO
Helena

A very cold but beautiful weekend

I spent a few days in Venice, and it was beautiful. In a way it is much nicer in the winter, without the crowds. The carnevale started this weekend, so of course there were a few tourists, but not too many. We  toasted to the carnevale with mulled vine at the fontana di vino on Piazza san marco, had some really nice meals, and lots of stops for hot cocoa and tea. There were not that many people dressed up, maybe it was too cold, or they are waiting for next weekend.

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Already February

Please forgive me, for being such a useless blogger, it's already February, (where did January go?) and I have not written anything here since halloween. Anyway, here I am again.
Christmas was spent in Sweden, and new year in London, with friends, family, lots of good food and some sightseeing. In January I was busy with my shop, it is really going well :D And today, February 1st, we finally have some snow here in Milan. Not a lot, but it is still snowing, hopefully it will stay a few days.

Halloween

Being a Swede, I never celebrated halloween when I grew up, the only time we got to dress up was at easter when we dressed up as witches, and pretended to go to "Blåkulla" a tiny island on the west coast of Sweden, where the witches go on maundy thursday to have a party. It was a bit similar to halloween, since you went to the neighbors to beg for candy, but only witches could join in, and the dress-up was just borrowing an old skirt of you mother and paint red dots on your cheeks.

Then, when the kids were little, in Italy, in February, there was carnivale, that was much more fun. They could dress up as anything they wanted, and went to the village square to throw confetti and show off their costumes, with hordes of other little princesses and action heroes.  My kids now goes to an american school here in Milan, so I realize that halloween is a big deal. There will be a huge party, and everything is really spooky. I wanted to do something "halloweenish" in my Etsy shop, so I decided the hungry cats are going trick or treating. This year they are going as a ghosts. I even made special halloween spooky black cat packaging.

Hungry Cat, Halloween edition

Spooky Halloween packaging

Simba, not very impressed

My son, at Carnevale, many years ago

Sicilian Inspiration

I am back from a lovely few days in the south of Italy. I fell in love with Sicily, Catania must be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Amazing baroque architecture, wonderful food, and friendly people. There was even an angel looking down on us from the ceiling above our bed.

Goats cheese, pesto and cherry tomato lasagna

One of the great things about living in italy is the food, maybe because food is so important to Italians, the quality and selection of groceries is amazing, and so much cheaper than both Japan and Sweden. In my little street alone, I have three fruit and veg stores and two bakeries.

We had friends over today, and I made this lasagna, it was the best lasagna I ever made, so I just have to share it. Trust me, If you try this you will not be disappointed. I wish I had some leftovers but it was too good, all finished.

Ingredients for 4

• 150g fresh pasta lasagne sheets (If you can't find fresh pasta lasagne sheet, use the dry ones, check if it need precooking though)
• 200 g caprino, which is italian for fresh goats cheese. Maybe you can't find that outside Italy, but French fresh goats cheese would work as well.
• 5 dl of béchamel sauce. I use the ready made one they sell here, but you could use any recipe for béchamel sauce.
• A few table spoons of dry white wine. (If you happen to have a bottle open, if not it is good without the wine as well)
• 2 table spoons pesto. (If you are ambitious, make your own from basil pine nuts and olive oil, or just use the one you buy in a jar)
• 200g cherry tomatoes, In italy they have a kind called Datterino, little oval tomatoes which I love, but any cherry tomato would work.
• Salt
• Olive oil, one or two table spoons
• Grated parmesan cheese

Cut the cherry tomatoes in two and fry them for 10 minutes in the olive oil. Use a larger pot, since the rest of the ingredients will be added later. Add the béchamel sauce, the pesto, the wine and the caprino (goats cheese), stir until it is all mixed. Add salt to taste.

Smear some olive oil in a casserole, add a layer of lasagne sheets. Spread a layer of sauce on top. Sprinkle some parmesan cheese. Repeat you are out of sauce and lasagna sheet. The last layer should be sauce, sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese. Bake for half an hour or until it looks done in 200 degrees Celsius.

Biennale

As I promised, here are some photos from the Biennale di Venezia. It is so big, so we saw nowhere near all of it, I will go back and see more after the summer. This year 89 countries participated, so it takes more than a few days to see it all. Next to our house, was the Bangladesh exhibition, and they had an amazing bar in the courtyard, with live music at night and sand on the floor, that was fun too.