Hannah

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lots of cherry tomatoes

basil, julienne cut

1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated

salt and pepper to taste

Directions
In a pot, heat your choice of cooking fat on medium-low, medium. For real yumminess go with butter but I did a mix with olive oil because that's what I felt like at the time. Add the shallots/onion, the garlic, and the chili flakes and let it cook until the onions are slightly transparent and soft (but don't let them get brown!). This takes about 2-5 minutes.

Once the onions are soft you can add the arborio rice. Mix it around so it is covered with the fat and then let it cook (don't let it burn to the bottom!) until also the rice looks translucent. Add your cherry tomatoes (depending on size you can either cut them in smaller pieces or leave them whole) once this stage is reached.

This is when you can start adding water. Measure up how much water you need and every time you pour in water, only pour so much in that it just covers the rice. Make sure to give it a good stir every now and then, you don't want it to burn. When the liquid looks like it's getting low, simply add more until it just covers the rice again.

It will take approximately 20-30 minutes until it is done. With risotto, you have to stick around the stove and make sure that things don't get burnt. While you are doing this you can julienne chop some basil and grate some parmesan cheese.

Once the rice is done (test it, if it's soft then you're good) take the risotto of the heat, add the basil and the parmesan and mix. Add as much salt and pepper as you want to and voilà! You have a delicious bowl of tomato risotto in front of you. Serve it with meat or chicken or just as is.
This is a pretty shitty picture but whatever. It was delicious.

Good luck with your risotto!

Invite me over if you do decide to make it.

Until next time,
Hannah

This recipe is adapted from Yammie's Noshery, which is one of my favourite food blogs. Go check her stuff out. She's adorably funny and has great recipes too.

The great thing about granola is that there are really no rules. You can use the following ingredients if you want, or substitute them with something else! Be free, be creative and put whatever you like in there. But I'll put some suggestions at the very bottom if people need suggestions.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 cup coconut flakes

1 cup of nuts (of your personal choice)

1 cup dried fruits

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 cup honey

1/2 teaspoon salt

Optional: 1/4 teaspoon spice (I used cardamon, but cinnamon is another alternative)

Directions

Mix all your ingredients in a big bowl*. Put them on a piece of parchment paper/baking sheet/something they won't stick on and then bake for 1 hour on 250°F (120°C), stirring every 15 minutes. Store in an airtight container. Eat!

Suggestions

• This particular time I used pecans but other nuts you can use are almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts, brazil nuts or any other nut you may like in your granola. 

• I used dried cranberries and raisins. Next time I am going to use dried apricots. Basically, whatever you want!

• If you don't like coconuts/are allergic to nuts/hate raisins/don't want something in your granola, just leave it out. This recipe is super easy to adjust.

• If you have a gluten-free diet remember that oats are not gluten free. I tried to look up a substitute but I got bored so... yeah. I'm confident you can figure it out.

Good luck!

For those who don't care about food I will still be doing regular posts about whatever I fancy at the moment. Look forward to it! 

/Hannah

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Wednesday, Feb 20th

I arrived at Becca's apartment at 2.30am on Wednesday and went straight to sleep. When we woke up next morning I met both roommates, Laura and Carla. They live on the Plateau, which is a cool neighborhood close to down-town Montreal. It is also walking distance from McGill, where all of them are studying.

I went with Becca to her first class of the day, which was Organizational Behaviour. We built a marshmallow/spagetti tower and although our tower sadly fell over we still had a good time. After this I left McGill for adventures on my own.

At the tourist office I got a map and some tips for what I could do in Montreal. The lady helping me told me about her favourite café and I decided to go there. It's located in Old Montreal so I took the bus there. The name of the café is Olive + Gourmando and it's an adorable little café with a great atmosphere. I had a panini called "le chèvre chaud" and it was so delicious.

This panini was stuffed with caramelized onions and melted goat cheese. It was perfection. On the side there was some house made ketchup, which was spiced in a very interesting way. I can't say that I loved it but it might be because I have a slight aversion towards a few of the ingredients. The spices used were cinnamon, clove, garlic, ancho chile, pepper and bay leaf. Despite not liking the ketchup I would definitely recommend this place. The people working there are wonderful and endured all my questions about various things. Make sure to stop by if you are ever in Montreal. 

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Thursday, Feb 21st

First half of the day was spent just hanging out and relaxing. After lunch we headed towards McGill again where I stayed at a library reading for a while. Then we met up with Carla and Becca headed to class. After we had read/slept for another while Carla took me to meet her friends and we stopped by something called Bar des Arts. Every Thursday you can have $1 beers/snacks and hang out. This is just too cool.

We only stayed for a short while though, because we were heading towards a free showing of the movie Persepolis. It is a French movie, based on the autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi. It is about her life after the Iranian revolution. I thought it was a great movie and I would definitely recommend watching it.

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Friday, Feb 22nd

Friday started with Becca and I walking around in Montreal. We were headed to Old Montreal, but first we stopped by this really cool store called Eva B. which has a lot of second hand clothes. I bought a really cute dress because I am so ready for summer and in denial that it is not dress-weather yet.

We then kept walking, through Chinatown and eventually ended up in Old Montreal. We walked along the water, saw some nice architecture and enjoyed some sun. On our way back to the apartment we stopped by Complexe Desjardins where a cheese festival was going on. We bravely decided that we would try every single cheese. Which we (almost) did. After this we walked to Juliette et Chocolat where we died a nice chocolatey death.

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July 15th

We were staying at a place 5 minutes outside of Lucca, a town an hour from Florence. (Sidenote: Florence in Italian is Firenze. Can't help but think about centaurs.) The whole day was spent in the pool  and in the evening we walked around Lucca. In other words, a day for relaxation.

It was my Dad's birthday (happy birthday!) and we decided to do something special. We drove to a place called Cinque Terre. It is five villages by the Mediterranean Ocean which you can walk in between. We only walked from the first village, Monterosso al Mare, to Vernazza, which is the second village. Not that it is very far, less than 4 km, but when it's 30°C and you have walked hundreds of stairs in the sun you get tired quickly.

One of the coolest things about this whole hike is that my parents walked the same hike but 30 years earlier. Apparently there were no tourists, no stairs or railings and definitely no fee to enter the park. How times have changed!

When we got to Vernazza we were so warm that we quickly jumped into the ocean to cool down. After lunch we took the train back to Monterosso al Mare and swam in the ocean there too. Even my mom swam in the ocean (and she's really wimpy when it comes to cold water, so you know it must be really warm. Mom, if you're reading this, no offense!).

July 18th

Still exhausted from our adventures the previous day we spent the day relaxing at the house and then had dinner (and ice cream) in Lucca again. I probably read a book or two. (During the week in Lucca I found a pile of books and decided to read as many as possible. I think I read eight or nine books.)

July 19th

We did a day trip to Florence where we walked around, looked at buildings, shopped and ate. We did not go to any museums because it was "too hot to stand in a line-up". I had the best pasta ever. The sauce was just tomatoes, olive oil and garlic. But it was so good. I can't even...

The reason I am putting these days together is because I don't think we actually did anything special or noteworthy. Swam in the pool and ate (delicious) food. But that is probably all.

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All in all it was a great trip and if you ever go to Italy my tips are: eat lots of food and ice cream, enjoy the sun, don't be too hard on the locals they're nice, drink lots of wine and most importantly enjoy yourself! (That's a great clichéd ending to this post) 

Hope you enjoyed reading about this trip! Next entry will be about my trip to Stockholm. Exciting, I know.

Ciao!

Today I will write about the trip me and my family had in Italy a while ago. A long time ago. Less than a month though. Here it goes! 

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July 10th

Our first destination was a small village where we stayed at a really cute place called Ca dei Maghi. Giovanna, the boss (I don't know her actual title but she was there all the time and seemed responsible for things), greeted us when we arrived from the airport at 9 o'clock. In the evening. She was so sweet, I think they had kept the kitchen open just because they knew that we were on the way. When we went to our room she asked one of the guys working there to help us carry our bags. She then hinted that he needed a wife. 

July 11th

No trip to Italy is complete without visiting a vineyard we decided to get to it our very first day. Fumane, the village we were staying in, is in the region of Valpolicella which is a region well known for its wine. It is especially famous for its Amarone, a strong wine made from partially dry grapes. Giovanna gave us the tip to visit a vineyard a couple kilometers away which we also did. It was run by a very nice lady called Valentina Cubi. Another wine from this region is the Recioto, which is a sweet wine. Valentina told us that Amarone actually was an accidental discovery from making the Recioto wine.

The wine cellar

The wines we tasted.

After a delicious lunch at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere we decided to go to Verona. It was about 30 minutes from our hotel. We explored the city, discovered that the commune of Verona's flag looks like the Swedish flag, took pictures of buildings and other touristy things.

July 12th

The morning was spent at the pool (I think. There are no pictures and I can't remember exactly so we were probably at the pool. Or sleeping. Who knows) and we had a delicious lunch at yet another place in the middle of nowhere. We kept driving towards a village called Garda which is right by Lake Garda. It was steaming (oh yeah I forgot to mention, it was like 30'C every day) so it was really nice to cool down in the lake.

Sweaty in front of Lake Garda

The only other exciting thing that happened that day was the we tried a new (for us) drink which was called Aperol spritz. Or something. Although the poisonous orange colour makes the drink look sickly sweet it is actually quite bitter. 

Sister, mom, Giovanna and I. And the Aperol.

July 13th

I just realized. This was a Friday! Friday the 13th. Scary.

Anywaaaaaaay. We went back to Verona to do some shopping and after that we returned to the hotel to rest/swim in the pool. This means that I took a siesta and the rest of the family were in the pool. After a few hours of relaxation we headed back to Verona, again, because we were going to an opera.

About 45 minutes before the start of the performance. Stage and audience.

The opera was in the open air coliseum and we saw Carmen. It was pretty amazing. First of all the stage was so big that there were probably a hundred people on stage. They also had live horses and donkeys. There was a live orchestra and of course everyone was singing as well. Unfortunately we were sitting so far away that it was a bit difficult to hear everything very clearly. It was also difficult to figure out what was happening since don't know Italian and didn't know all the details to the story.

The picture is from the website and from 2010. But you can see there's tons of people and a horse as well. Unfortunately we missed the last act because at midnight we were all too tired to stick around for another hour. SPOILER ALERT: We all know she dies anyway.

July 14th

It was time for us to say goodbye to the Province of Verona and move onwards. We were headed to Tuscany. On the way we stopped for lunch in Parma. We ate some parma ham. It was the best we've ever had.

Antipasta

After that we finally arrived at our final destination. Lucca, Tuscany. You can read more about those adventures in Part II.

Ciao!

Last weekend I had a serious craving for Swedish style cinnamon buns. Except I wanted to make them with cardamom. I made a lot of them. Unfortunately I was feeling lazy (and I also had a midterm the next morning. I'm an expert in organizing my time) and therefore I didn't take any pictures. 

Sometimes you have absolutely no plans for the day (apart from studying). And sometimes, those days turns out to be wonderful, fantastical and adventurous days. Like today, when I tried being hipster.

Mid-afternoon I met up with Axel (who I've written about before) and our friends Blair, Hunter and Cathy. They are all coffee fanatics and were going to a so called brew bar and I decided to tag along. Not because I like coffee, I don't, but because of the lovely company.

Well there, I couldn't very well not have coffee, so I did. I will be honest with you guys. I am probably the first person to walk into that place and (politely) say, 

"Hey, I'm actually not a big coffee fan, so which coffee would you recommend to someone who doesn't really like coffee? And I realize I am probably in the wrong place..."

However, the man was nice and told me which coffee to get. It was... ok. 

Hipster activity #1: Coffee shop Brew bar

Next, we walked to a thrift shop because Blair wanted to buy some clothes. Unfortunately he didn't find any he liked so we moved on pretty quickly. Most exciting things at the store: big "diamonds", expensive vintage Chanel purse and Axel almost making a mannequin fall over. 

Hipster activity #2: Thrift shop. Vintage!

We said goodbye to Blair who wanted to go home and headed towards a restaurant for dinner. We went to The Naam, a totally vegetarian restaurant. We discovered that Hunter was impatient and didn't want to wait in line, but in the end the food was worth waiting for. We all had a delicious meal and to finish it of me and Cathy shared a yummy chocolate dessert. I do love chocolate.

If I had to give The Naam a review I'd have to say it's NAM NAM. So if you're close, make sure to stop by. By "stop by" I mean sit down for almost two hours to savor and enjoy the meal. 

Hipster activity #3: Vegetarian Restaurant

Then I took the 99 home. We were packed like sardines.

End of day, time to study!