Italian Pumpkin Soup

I love soups in the winter and I'm a pumpkin maniac. In Italy pumpkin is considered a vegetable so we don't eat it in cakes and sweet things, only with savoury stuff.
This is one those soups I make up when i have nothing planned and very few ingredients. Infact I had a little brown rice that my baby did't eat, and some cooked canellini which are small white beans, very tasty. Half of a nice pumpkin in the fridge. So i thought: soup! I put all ingredients together and added water, a very little salt (i like to add soy sauce at the end, because I never use stock), a quarter of a pumpkin cut into chunks and a lot of dried rosemary. I cooked it a few minutes in a pressure cooker and stirred it to melt the pumpkin, there is no need to use a blender. This soup is delicious, but I like to make new ones depending on what I got left!
I think I could be a friend of these people from New York called Freegans... LOL I found their website this morning and I must admit I'm fascinated! LOL
See their website and you'll know what I mean:
www.freegan.info

The Green Apple now sells Tippitappi!

The Green Apple online Store now sells some of my design Tshirts! Take a look!
The Green Apple sells lovely organic and ethical stuff, from clothing to bathroom, kitchen, office, gifts, toys, games, lounge... almost everything!
PS: the owner is vegetarian! :)

Tomato Focaccia

These are the last tomatoes from Sara's garden, my neighbour. Autumn is here and Tomatoes are all going yellow... I usually make a wish in the spring with every fruit I eat for the first time each year, perhaps I should make one also when I know It's the last? Anyway, these are my last fresh tomatoes for this year, I don't like buying off season stuff, coming from Spain or Argentina, I think it's ridiculous. So here's my wholemeal focaccia with slices os tomatoes, oregano, salt and some good olive oil, I think some olives would be nice here too, but then it will become more of a pizza, focaccia should be more like a bread, which is what it actually is, a flat bread.
I am getting lazy with this blog, but I also have been quite unlucky, I made a cake yesterday following an american recipe called blondie something and it was with chocolate and peanut butter, uuuhh I felt like it so much, but it came out like ... I don't know, I couldn't even slice it, it is too crumbly, but the taste is nice. Because I don't like to throw away anything, I had a cool idea I think! :) This mixture could be a fabulous topping for a soya icecream or vanilla icecream, so what I'm doing today is buy some icrecream and try the combination. Simone is away all week for work and of course he's got the camera with him, so I'll have to use the little one, hope it works! I'll have to enjoy it on my own. I hate to be on my own!
vegan

Fair of the ancient fruits at Paderna Castle

This is where we went on saturday, it was a nice day and we enjoyed it so much.
I was astonished by the beauty of the castle, it's near Piacenza in the north of Italy, It's dated ninth century and it's an organic farm today, somehow...
Look at the pics, click to enlarge.



The flowers that I bought, amazing colours!

Spelt salad with capers and olives .... VEGAN! Incredibile.

Date and Macadamia nut Tart

Even if these dates and nuts were bought from a Fair Trade Shop, it's not the perfect organic stuff I could have bought locally, but Simone loves brazil nuts so I thought it would have been nice to give him a treat. This cake is 100% vegan, of course!
Ingredients
flour 250 gr.
margarine 100 gr.
sugar 100 gr.
a small glass of milk (rice, soja...)
pinch of salt
grated zest of two lemons

three cups of dates (one package)
one or two cups of brazil nuts

Method:
Lets make the pastry. Put all ingredients except the milk in a large bowl and combine with both hands. Add enough milk to form a nice ball, keep it in the fridge or cool place while you prepare the rest. If you accidentally add too much milk, add a bit of flour to balance the dough.
Soak in a little hot water the deseeded and chopped dates. Wait until they go soft and blend into a cream using a blender. It will become like a date jam, but with no sugar added!
Place the pastry in the tin and spread the date mixture. Place the chopped nuts on top. Bake in a fairly hot oven for 40 minutes or until golden. When it's cold brush with honey or maple syrup to give it a nice shiny effect. Enjoy! :)