Yvette's Twistedvines

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Sisterhood

Published by Yvette

In the cookies of life, sisters are the chocolate chips.

I was over the moon, when my sister finally arrived from Australia to help me with my wedding plans. I was missing something, and when she arrived everything was easier,she made the long trip even 5 months pregnant.

There’s a four year difference between us, me being the eldest, but we have always been close. Sure I remember the childhood screaming and the pigtail pulling and scratching to get the attention. But we’ve grown a lot closer, now more than ever when “parent” family decisions have to be made.

She has her own loving family now, two children growing up fast, we mightn’t see each other , as we’re now living miles apart …but we speak to each other often.

We’ve shared good and hard times…laughed together, cried together, felt heartache together…

She helped make my wedding day beautiful with all her talented works,and I thank her for sharing this wonderful day with me…

My niece was flower girl, and just a little princess…

My sisters handwork embroidery initials on the back bow of her dress…

And every princess loves blowing bubbles…

Thank you for the great memories of my special day, Grazie 1000….a thousand thank you’s…xxxx

Mulberry Cream

Published by Yvette

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This was truly a colorful cooking experience. This cream is made with fresh mulberries, a little messy, but hey all in the fun of cooking.

Mulberries are in season at the moment,from May until September, a dark grape nearly black colour, shiny, with a mixed taste of sweet and sour flavour, wonderful for making jams, jellies and ice –creams. Always best to eat this fruit straight away as they’re hard to conserve.

There are many wild mulberry trees along the walkways around our place and our street at the moment is stained a dark violet colour. We have four large mulberry trees along the side of our house, planted nearly fifty plus years ago, they were planted to divide not only the vineyard, but used in silkworm farming.

Recipe: Mulberry Cream

Serves 4

300 grams fresh mulberries

2 tablespoons liqueur (optional)

3 tablespoons sugar

250 grams mascarpone

500 ml fresh liquid cream

Preparation

Wash and pat dry mulberries. Pass through sifter collecting the juice.

To the mulberry juice add sugar, liqueur and mascarpone, mix until creamy. It creates a wonderful lilac, violet colour.

Can’t resist but add another photo…

Beat the cream until soft peaks form, delicately add to the mulberry cream. Serve in glasses, and garnish how you wish…I used mulberries and mint leaves.

A great Summer treat. Enjoy!

Open garden visitor

Published by Yvette

I awoke this morning to the sound of a hooter. No, it wasn’t my alarm clock sounding sick from run down batteries..it was a hooter!

Coming from outside I went to investigate, we’re talking early here people, around 5.30am.

Obviously the early rays of sunlight encouraged the early morning walk to find something to eat. Yes, in my garden.

Here he is!

open garden visitor

He was happy to prance around the garden for about an hour, and very proud to have his photo taken.

open garden visitor

Hope you all have a Wonderful day today friends.xx

A memorable stepping stone Pt 2…

Published by Yvette

wedding - fairylight trees

The day of my wedding the sun was shining from early morning, it was an early start for me and the girls. My house was filled with warm wishes, flowers and bubbly.

wedding - flowers

My sister did an amazing amount of needlework, silk roses and ribbons for my wedding. She’s very talented and creative.

These are the cake knife ribbons…

wedding - cake knife ribbons

The ring cushion…

wedding - ring cushion

A hat box, for all those special trinkets and cards…

wedding - hat box

The marque was filled with fresh flowers, and fairy lights…

wedding - fresh flowers

It truly was a special day…

A memorable stepping stone…

Published by Yvette

wedding

One of the unfortunate things of living a long distance from home, is that my wedding day was only shared with my immediate family.Family and friends sent me warm wishes for the day, so I had everyone there in spirit.

As most of my family and friends, haven’t seen these memorable moments from my wedding day… leading up to our 6th wedding anniversary I’d love to share with you this special day in my life.

I had the blessing of my parents, sister , her husband and my niece making the long trip over to spend seven weeks before the day with me. I was so surprised when Dad said he was coming over. He’d never flown before and Australia to Europe is a long trip. But they arrived and the wedding plans went into action.

My images in my mind were simple, elegant and of course no meringue dresses!

I didn’t want the confined atmosphere of a restaurant, set time limits or set menu’s. So the decision was made to have a garden wedding, not a common thing here in Italy. Our space, no time limits, just a party atmosphere. So ahead went the plans. I have to admit here is where the language barriers were stretched to extremes. Thinking about it now, it was a real challenge…setting my pace, I managed my time in between work commitments, family outings and every spare minute I had, I think I was even going through every step in my sleep. Was this nervousness? Not for the actual commitment of marriage, but the acceptance from Silvano’s family and friends and a personal challenge to myself that I could achieve that magical memorable fairytale wedding. Myself and my sister did all the decorations – we work well together, we’re not wedding planners but have organised a few in the past.

This is a fresh daisy heart I made with our initials in pearls.

wedding - daisy heart initials

One of my themes that I wanted to carry through the wedding were our initials, Y & S. From table settings, place settings, bombinere, invitations and decorations.

This was our table placing ladder. The ladder, for the day had a face lift, otherwise it’s usually lying around in the shed.

wedding - table seating ladder

With a garden wedding even the obvious is needed…w c tags…

wedding - wc tags

wedding - wc

My colour theme was a rich burgundy, with white linen and flowers.

wedding - table settings

The marque was constructed in our backyard, with the wonderful backdrop of our vineyard.

wedding

Our initials were on the centre pieces I designed and also our bombinere, instead of sugared almonds, my sister organised custom made rock candy, what a delight, something different and chic!

wedding - bombinere

A look at my flowers tomorrow and my sister’s talent…

Work in the vineyard

Published by Yvette

vineyard

It’s full steam ahead with the workload of the vineyard, now until harvesting time around August. There’s the general cutting of grass, keeping everything neat and tidy. Spraying of the vineyard.

vineyard

The pruning of overhanging vines.

vineyard

The grapes and just starting to peek through and grab some sunlight and enjoy their micro – climate, of warm sunlighted days and cool evenings. The perfect balance .

vineyard

#2 Yoghurt Cake

Published by Yvette

#2 Handwritten Recipes

Last weekend while sharing my zucchini cake with a new group of friends. I met a lovely lady who lives in my area close to home. After trying my zucchini cake she was happy to disclose a few recipes to me…hence #2 of handwritten recipes. I thought she would write for me one of those traditional Italian Torte, or biscuit recipes, instead she gave me this recipe of a yoghurt cake, light, delicate and soft as fairy floss.

yoghurt cake

The fun part about this cake is that all the measurements are used with the tub of yoghurt. She was so enthusiastic about telling me about this revolutionary measuring method I wish you could have shared the moment with me. As she lived across the road from where we were, she dashed across the road, grabbed the recipe at hand with note-book and pen and wrote down this recipe for me. A great moment, and one to remember. It’s been difficult “fitting” into the local Italian community of traditional ways and customs, and believe me it’s hard as a “stranger” not only communicating, but being accepted into the community. It was a touching moment for me to think that this lady opening shared with me one of her beloved recipes. I had touched common ground, the kitchen chit-chat. A bonding of ingredients. A mixture of friendships.

Recipe: Yoghurt Cake

Ingredients:

Pre – heat oven 180° c.

125 g tub of full cream natural yoghurt (can use fruit flavour)

2 yoghurt tubs flour

1 yoghurt tub potato starch flour * translation of this is fecola di patate in Italian..I’m not sure what it is in English, I think corn flour would be too heavy..any suggestions?

2 yoghurt tubs of sugar

3/4 yoghurt tub of sunflower oil

2 eggs

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 teaspoon lemon essence

Preparation:

ingredients - yoghurt cake

Place yoghurt in mixing bowl. Sift the two flours adding to yoghurt, add sugar, sunflower oil, vanilla essence, lemon essence. Divide eggs, add egg yolks to this yoghurt mixture and mix well. Whisk egg whites until forming stiff peaks.Fold through yogurt mixture.

yoghurt cake

Grease a 20 – 24 cm round cake tin.

I used my rose cake tin, another one of those favourite things I carried back in a suitcase. Bake in oven for 35 minutes. Serve with a dusting of icing sugar.

A great surprise, light texture, a touch of lemon fragrance.

yoghurt cake

Enjoy!

What’s happening in my kitchen?

Published by Yvette

After following Celia, and her marvellous blog, Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, her link can be found in my blog roll, she asked

” What is happening in your kitchen this month”

Well, already half the month of June has flown, and my kitchen has been a buzz. The vege patch is overflowing with fresh greens, a few bbq’s have been had with beautiful spring days, and this weekend will be the same…heading towards the end of the month is our wedding anniversary..and little old me celebrates another 40ish birthday.

In my kitchen…

On the bench top there’s always a vase of fresh flowers…my personal touch for me, that the house is complete. At the moment I have roses in full bloom and lavender. No commercial fragrant sprays, these roses leave their perfume throughout the whole house.

vase of roses

In my kitchen…

I always have a cookbook out for inspirations, my favourite at the moment is Seasons by Donna Hay. It’s a beautiful cookbook of recipes, the best from her magazines…complete with beautiful photographs of the changing seasons…a real “escape” cookbook. I bought this on my last trip home, actually leaving behind clothes to fit this in the suitcase, I’ve yet to try a recipe from it , but when I do I’ll let you know.

cookbook - Seasons

In my kitchen…

The coffee is always hot, freshly ground and ready to go. I love the aroma of the lingering early morning espresso…a wake up call on its own…The sad thing about drinking coffee here in Italy is that it’s always a grab and dash affair, grab an espresso ( lukewarm), drink it while you’re standing and dash off out the door…oh how I miss my coffee – cafe breaks with the “girls” and those long chatty afternoons.

coffee break

In my kitchen…

I’ve only just discovered this product on the market. It’s coloured flavoured icing sugar…great for a bit of variety in the decorating department. There’s pink coloured strawberry flavour, yellow coloured lemon flavour and green coloured mint flavour. An eye catcher and great flavours for cupcakes, cakes and biscuits.

coloured flavoured icing sugar

So that’s what’s happening in my kitchen at the moment, thanks to Celia for your inspiration for this blog, and check out Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.

Pucker up – Hot Lips

Published by Yvette

Spaghetti with Garlic, Oil and Peperoncino* Aglio,Olio e Peperoncino

Red Hot Peppers, Hot Lips, Hot mouth, sweating brow, flowing nose and crying eyes.

Yes, I think I put in too much peperoncino. But I adore this classic and way too easy pasta dish, and yes, the tri-colori * three colour banner is flying all Italian.

This is one of those dishes where the temptation to eat another serving, if your flaming lips can handle it, you just can’t resist. Each mouthful of spaghetti is like a heat bomb of taste, a fire cracker of heated sparks of peperoncino, a tingling sensation , feeling like you’ve just had a quick silicon lip enhancement.

Yet another four ingredient recipe, Spaghetti,garlic, oil and peperoncino.

ingredients

Recipe -2 servings

300 g of spaghetti ( dried pasta, good quality)

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, grated

1 tablespoon peperoncino-I use dried red chilli flakes (use less for less heat)

Preparation

Cook spaghetti as instructions on the box. Boil water before adding the salt, try not to over cook the pasta and save a spoonful of this starchy water for later.

I like to infuse the oil with the garlic and peperoncino, and leave it to rest for about 10 minutes before using. Making one of those perfumed flavour clouds hanging over my head in the kitchen.

This part is really quick….Heat a heavy base pan, add the infused oil mixture, cook until the garlic sizzles, watch the peperoncino sparks fly and believe me the perfume will take your breath away. Add the cooked and drained spaghetti, add a spoonful of the starchy water, stir the oil throught the pasta and wow, you’ve done it.

Most restaurants will have this classic dish on their menu. I can’t resist the heat of fresh red chillies, but if you like it extra hot go for those.