Sicilien i bilder

Come Yoda

So, nonna Nancy, Francesco’s grandmother is a very vivid, adorable and amazing person. She has more energy than most. When I told about her on a coffee break at work my colleague said that she sounds like Yoda, and that is actually a great way to describe her! She is maybe 1 meter tall, 90 years old, wiser than anyone I ever met, cute and adorable as a puppy and energetic, funny and simply crazy (in a positive way, obviously).

Nonna Nancy uses Skype, to start with. Skype! A 90-year old! She cooks the most amazing food. She dances! She actually danced salsa in a beach bar with me on Saturday! She writes all of her thoughts in note books and she hopes that as many grandchildren as possible would come to visit her so she could teach them everything she knows.

She sings and she tells jokes. And really funny ones! And she is not pretencious or shy at all, oh no, she told me that the secret to a good marriage is to feed your husband chocolate, because if men eat chocolate they make love with more energy! (She also had a body gesture for making love, hihihihihhi).

Here we dance in the beach bar :)

I also made this small series of pics of her talking:

Zibibbo for breakfast

Sicily is a very particular place. When you look at it from outside, it looks like a dry, yellow island with some poor cities and a lot of mafia bosses. If you think that Sicily is like this, you have probably never visited it. (At least this is how I thought of Sicily before).

Sicilians are a bunch of people (equally many as Finnish people by the way, 5 millions to be exact) that does not think life is given to you so that you can work every day from morning to evening in a high technology place, eat a salad, go to the gym, whine about timetables and work stress, and use entertainment (like TV and computers) as relaxing.

This does not mean that they are lazy.

But this certainly mean they like to enjoy.

One way to enjoy is tastes. Sicilian food is beyond. They have so delicious fruits and so delicious sea food and so delicious cakes and sweets all made of products that grow on Sicily. I mean, a real tomato sauce, a normal good tomato sauce, is so good that you want to dip your whole face in the plate! The hot sun makes the tomatoes so delicious and Sicilians boil them for a whole day to make the sauce good.

Almonds grow in trees here and there and the Sicilians make all kinds of sweets of almonds, things you couldn’t even imagine that exist and that is delicious.

Fra’s grandmother is also an enjoyer. If she can’t sleep at night, do you know what she does? She wakes up, takes a pint of ice cream and eats it on the balcony! In the night! Why not enjoy the moment instead of just rolling around in bed awake?

Hahaha. I need to tell you what happened on Sunday morning. Nonna Nancy (grandmother in Italian is nonna) was awake in the kitchen when we woke up. She asked “so, what shall I make for breakfast to my grandchildren?” (I love it and I adore her for also calling me her grandchild) I say “I would love some coffee” and coffee we make. “Is there any milk?” I ask. “Milk? M I L K ?” Says Nonna Nancy in schock. ”You would put milk in coffee? Disgusting! Saara, my lovely grandchild, you do not drink coffee with milk, you drink coffee black! Milk, buahahahaha, Milk! She laughes and walks around in her 1 meter high body in the kitchen. She scratches her head, takes out the milk from the fridge and laughs again “I know what we can do for you of milk! Milk pudding! Nooooooo, what do you do with milk pudding, when you can have chocolate pudding! Wippiiieee! Let’s make chocolate pudding!!

And chocolate pudding we made, for breakfast.

You think that’s all? Oh no guys. After eating chocolate pudding with savoiardi cookies and drinking coffee, we need water. Or juice. As at this point we are thirsty. “Water after chocolate pudding? Are you crazy!! You need zibibbo!” (Zibibbo is a very strong Sicilian wine) “Zibibbo! Nonna, it’s morning!” said Fra. “Morning or evening? Whats the difference? After eating sweets, you drink Zibibbo, because the sweet taste is then even better in your mouth! Then, then, you drink water”.

And Zibibbo we drink for breakfast. You know, to get out all of the sweet taste.

A typical Sicilian breakfast. Sweet ricotta filled croissants and granita of almond milk.

Francesco's aunts fish shop.

Nonna Nancy making pasta. It has to boil exactly so long that it is soft but not sticky.

We found bibs in the same drawer as the tablecloth and Nonna Nancy laughed and said, oh, we have to eat with these on, just because it is different and in that way more fun!!

 The best tomato sauce e-v-e-r !

The milk pudding that became chocolate pudding :)

I got to make pudding too, in my pyjamas :)

Sicilien

I spent my weekend in Sicily with these two (lovely but) crazy persons and I will this week tell you all about it.

About what?

Well, how you end up with your knees in a package made of red olive oil. How you end up eating dinner with a bib in the age of 25. How you end up dancing salsa with a 90-year old on the beach. And how you get chocolate pudding for breakfast when you ask for milk.

Jag spenderade mitt veckoslut i Sicilien med dessa två toskallar! Denna vecka kommer jag att berätta för er allt om det veckoslutet.

Ja berätta vad?

Hur man hamnar i en situation med knäna i en inpackning av röd olivolja. Hur man hamnar och äta middag med hakklapp i 25-års åldern. Hur man hamnar och dansa salsa med en 90-åring på stranden. Och hur man lyckas få choklad puddig till frukost då man ber efter kaffemjölken.

Dagens Outfit

I går träffade jag mina Belgiska och Holländska kolleger. Vi var ute i Dornbirn för att ha lite middag och en mysig pratstund. Ania hängde med och vi var ett roligt gäng i så olika åldrar och av så olika kulturer.

Jeans: Only
Urgammal topp (men en favorit): Vero Moda
Tröja: Zara
Smycke: Bijoux Birgitte

Dagens Outfit

Jag hatar så vädret i Dornbirn. Det är alltid lågtryck och regn. Molnen är på berstopparnas denna sida och det är bara dimmigt och grått överallt. Och detta väder har vi nu haft i många månader. Så liksom inspirationen till att göra något är ganska noll. Idag morsse klädde jag på mig detta:

Kavaj: Sand, Scarf: urgammal minns inte, topp: Vero Moda, Jeans: Only

Men så tyckte jag att 2 grejer var alldeles fel. Grej 1: ville ha håret fast eftersom vid lågtrycksvågor får man alltid hett och grej 2: skulle ju bara sitta vid min dator idag utan att träffa kunder mm så böt om kavajen till en tröja. Mycket skönare.

Tröja: Zara

Det är inte bara vädret som är omöjligt just nu; att hitta bostad i Stockholm är inte något lättare.

Så om någon vet någon som vet någon som kanske skulle ha en bostad att hyra ut ett tag, kontakta mig :)

Santa Margherita Ligure

On Sunday Fra and I helped his nonno and nonna. They went to Liguria for some weeks, to enjoy the beach and have a little vacation. As their son is a priest they can stay in this really beautiful and nice house for priests in Santa Margherita Ligure (just 5 km of the known posh place Portofino).

We helped them to carry the bags, set the beds and then they took us out for lunch as a thanks. Isn't Fra's grandfather a very handsome man? I love this picture! He is also a real gentleman, always kissing me on the cheeks and always wearing a suit and a hat :)

Here, in the shaddow, we had a nice lunch.

Nonna Rosa, the grandmother, is one of my favorite persons on earth. We became best friends after she had had a few serious conversations with me to check what kind of girl I am. It was a bit weird for her in the beginning, this nordic girl who just comes to study to Italy, not going to church every Sunday and living without her mother and without helping with household works back in Finland. Actually, thinking back... I think she approved me after she saw the winter hat I knitted for Fra. "Are you able to knit???" she said and gave an approving face.

She also has the best manipulation skills. We had a bit of a cocky waiter in this place but nonna Rosa handled him so well. She grabbed his arm and touched it and asked with this angel face for her special order.

Anyways, Santa Margherita is a beautiful sea place and it was nice to spend a few hours there on a Sunday afternoon.

Robertos och Lauras bröllop

Laura och Roberto gifte sig på lördagen. Det var soligt och fint väder och vi hade alla en festlig stämning då vi tog oss till kyrkan. Kyrkan ligger vid en av Milanos kanaler och är väldigt vacker.

Jag blev tvungen att byta om min outfit i sista minuten eftersom klänningen jag ville ha på mig var för stor. Allt annat var okej, utom att jag hade då svart kavaj och bruna skor. Men det var ju bara i kyrkan, så under resten av festen matchade det :)

Roberto var väldigt glad över att han hade gift sin Laura:

Och Laura var just så underbart vacker, som en brud skall vara!

Efter riskastandet körde vi i en klunga till festplatsen, vilken låg nära Pavia. Där drack vi skumppa och åt tilltugg och gratulerade paret. Vid ena väggen fann vi ett träd med bordsplaceringen.

Och på borden fanns det ett vackert ros-tema.

Maten gick också i samma rostema :)

Efter maten fotograferades paret lite till...

Och vi andra festade på, som ni kan se på Francesca:

Bambi och Christian hade en diskussion om bröllopet och wedding plannern...

Och så retade de henne med Giacomo lite grann. Sådär som pojkar får retas med flickor.

Fra pratade med Ilaria undertiden:

Men sedan ville Ilaria och Christian pussas, så de måste sluta för ett tag. Ilaria och Christian gifte sig i början av sommaren, om ni minns. Då var Laura brudfrämma till Ilaria och Ilaria var nu för Laura. De hade också samma wedding planner.

Ilaria och Giacomo kramades också lite grann.

Sedan blev det dags att skära kakan. Den var alldeles supergod med choklad mousse och vaniljkräm och en underbar glacyr. Mums mums mums!

Lika som på Ilarias och Christians bröllop, så fanns det här också underbara skålar med frukt. Så gulligt!

Sedan kastades buketten. Jag står just är bakom klungan. Försökte mitt bästa men Lauras lillesysters kompis fick den istället.

Ett underbart bröllop var det. Roligt och med en massa romantik. Just så där som det skall vara.