Zucchini & shrimps

Another cold day. I was coming home from my errands wondering what to cook to have lunch ready in less than half an hour for my hungry Ds, and I noticed my lovely thyme.
In our garden there are different fresh erbs (in season): sage, rosemary, chives, laurel, arugula (that is roquette or rucola), lemon balm (melissa in italian), alecost (St. Peter's erb in italian, used in omelette), but the one I prefer is thyme. I find it perfect with zucchini: there are no leftovers when I cook zucchini with thyme.

So I decided we would had

ZUCCHINI & SHRIMPS PASTA/RICE

You need



Zucchini, thyme, shrimps (I used the frozen ones) and pasta or rice. I used those rice noodles, but almost everything else works fine.

1. slice the zucchini, put in a big pan with oil, fresh thyme and a pich of salt. Put a lid on it and forget it on low heat. They should not fry, but simmer in their own juice till tender
2. put the rice noodle in fresh water according to the directions on the packaging, or cook the pasta/rice to the point
3. put the shrimps in boiling water for 2 minutes and than drain
4. when zucchini are done put in their pan the shrimps and after a while the noodles/pasta/rice and stir for a while
5. if you want you can and some soya sauce. I didn't because it's not gluten-free

Buon Appetito

pied-de-coq scarf

This year, for Christmas, we decided to make our gift. D1 made tshirt with our names on them, as football teams. H gave me coupon for piano lessons, and so on.
I decided to make scarves. For H I made the "love scarf" pattern, that you can find here.

I was in trouble for my Ds, there where so many patterns I couldn't decide.
One evening I came across a nice stitch in a french book of mine, titled "250 Points de crochet". It is called pied-de-coq, that means hen's foot.

I tried to take a picture of the page explaining it, but with poor result. So I serched in the web and I found what I needed in another blog called "Learn to Crochet" It has also a link to Youtube channel devoted to crochet, even for left handed.

So, here's the scheme and what I did.





The stitch is multiple of 4, and I repeted it 57 times, using a size G/4 mm hook.

The colors used were white, light blue and green.
And here's D1 with her brand new scarf, about 120 x 25 cm

Now I'm working to second scarf in white and rose, the one you can see in the first pictures.

Have fun!

Sunday at the GAM

I live near Turin, in Italy, and many museums have activities for the children. One of our preferred is the Modern Art Gallery.



The activity start always with a small guided tour of the museum, focusing on four or five pieces only that are related to the activity theme.

We have found it interesting too, no doubt due also to the communicative skill of the girl leading the group.


This time it was "Clothing in art". So about 30 children aged 6-11 are here discussing about materials, skirt lenght and formal clothing.


After the tour we went downstairs, where there is the craft classroom. It has been completely renewed in october and now there's plenty of space for children and their parents.


During the week teacher can bring their class to do similar activities that cover different topics and age groups.
They are very popular among kids.





The kids spent a wonderful afternoon pretending to be stylists. Have a look at what they have done.

Let it snow

This morning it's snowing again. Not so much to go skiing, but enough to freeze.

So I decided to go for one of our favorite comfort food: rice-peas-and-cheese (almost all my recepies are gluten free).
So head to your stove and in 20 minutes you'll have something yummy.

RICE PEAS AND CHEESE

1 cup frozen peas
2 cups rice
cheese

bring water to boil, add salt and frozen peas, when it start boiling again add rice and stir, cook according to its cooking time.
Meanwhile open your fridge find some cheese (different types are ok) and cut it in small pieces, as big as 3 peas max.
Drain, add some oil (not so much) and the cheese.

Note: the water in which you cook the rice can clog your sink, to prevent this fact just pour fresh water while draining the rice (not on the rice!)


Eat some fruit as tangerine or kiwi and you're done.

In my kitchen ...

... I write letters, I make phone calls, I have coffee with friends, I help my kids with their homeworks, I laugh, I think, I cook. Most of the times I make two or three things at the same time.

In my kitchen I live