BBQ Week End!

So my parents are off on their sail boat to the Balearic Islands, and we got "stuck" house and dog sitting! ;)
I felt like I was 19 again and had a big BBQ in the back yard! I invited over 40 people, and had a good turn out of about 30! As soon as I get some pictures I'll post them! I was too busy hosting and I didn't have time to take any so I left the tasks to my friends!

Dance Recital

So my mom and Step-dad have been taking "ballroom dancing lessons". Their recital was on Sunday evening. It was fun to see them dance, but the other dances were a bit lame...... and the ladies competition dresses were a bit overboard for me (photo's will follow so you'll see what I mean) But it was entertaining!!! On the other hand, my mom and step-dad were very well dressed, classic!

My Step-dad Giovanni, My Nona Maria and my Mom.

The overboard dresses!

That's just wrong is what I think!

No coment....

Sunny Week End! It's fun to live on an Island!

So the weather is great and the beach is beautiful as ever! I'm such a beach bum! I could stay at the beach all day every day!We're not smiling that much the sun was glaring in my eyes, and our friend who took the picture wasn't really in the mood to take pictures... oh well!

The color of the water was amazing!

My Balcony

View of the lagoon and Gulf of Cagliari (Gulf of the Angels) From my Balcony you can actually see my mom's house from here!






My4 almost ready to bloom Sunflowers



Vases, I don't know what's up with my pink daisy bush, I guess it's just too hot! But the Dahlias and the purple daisies are just fine!

My beautiful Dahlias
This is all Stinky does when it's too hot........


My peppers & parsley

My BIG basil plant


Mint bush!

Trip Down Memory Lane!

So, I just read this on my friend Jamie's blog and totally stole the idea too. I just want to see the kind of response I'll get. :)

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

:)

Change of Menu!

Ok, so last night's dinner menu changed while I was at the supermarket buying the ingredients. First I realized that it's not fennel season, and here in Italy it's hard to get out of season veggies; Second, at the fish counter they didn't have fresh salmon fillets so I decided to change it all together!

I bought fresh tuna and swordfish. I cut the tuna and swordfish into cubes and marinated them in extra-virgin olive oil with a few cloves of chopped garlic and parsley for 45min. In the meantime that it marinated I prepared the side dish: I browned cubes of eggplant and chopped leek with just a touch of onion and topped it off with a dash of soy sauce (I use soy sauce with cooked vegetables as a salt substitute).
After marinating, I cooked the cubes of tuna & sordfish in pan. I served the tuna & sordfish together with the browned eggplant & leak .

I also made a smoked tuna carpaccio salad with rocket leaves, cherry tomatoes dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And just in case it wasn't enough, I made "patate al verde" (steamed potatoes dressed with fresh chopped parsley, extra-virgin olive oil and 1 crushed garlic clove) Oh yeah! And as an appetizer we had smoked salmon bits with butter crostini (toasted Italian bread with butter on top) .
We finished with watermelon slices and lemon sorbet.

It all turned out really yummy and our guests were happy and had a full belly! I love having people over and improvising recipes!

Our "cool friends" and week end!

So, we have some pretty cool friends but, Sandra & Seb are some of my favorite couple friends to hang out with! We always have fun with them no matter what! Seb is Italian-Canadian and is a chiropracter here in Sardinia. His parents are originally from a small town called Dorgali They decided to immigrate to Vancouver, Canada and that is where he was born. Nevertheless his parents stayed in Canada, he decided to come back to the "Island" (sort of like Lost) and pursue his career here in Cagliari. So Seb has kept to his roots and also has a home in the beach town nearby Dorgali, Cala Gonone.
It is about 2h 30 min drive from Cagliari. Anyhow, Seb & Sandra decided they wanted to go on Saturday afternoon and asked us to come along! Oh what fun we had! Seb has a bunch a "toys" and is a very generous person. He told us on the drive up that he wanted to play a bit on Sunday with his wakeboard, Enrico could not have been more content! Seb rented a boat for all of us (Sandra, Carla who is Sandra's sister, Enrico and I) and spent the first hours of the day wakeboarding. I decided I was too lazy and didn't want to try and just made do with taking pictures.
The coast along that area of Sardinia is absolutlety breathtaking! We stopped at a beach called Cala Sisine. We stayed there all day, and had lunch at a Restraunt that we had to "hike" to. I took a picture of the sign outside the Restraunt because it was funny how they wrote the English part of it!

Hope you enjoy our pictures!

Video Jug

I don't konw if any of you know about this web site; It's called Video Jug I use it mainly for recepies because every thing is explained by VIDEO! It's great! There are some other topics on this web site so I would not reccomend it for children but only for grown ups! You can find all sorts of things explained on here, even how to decorate a Christmas tree! Not that I like how they decorated it or anything but, it gives you some great ideas!

I'm going to try to make Poached Salmon With Green Beans on Wednesday for our guests. I'm pretty good at cooking, so I hope it turns out well!

Xoxo Tinabina

Here & There.....

So here are a few pictures of my travels through the last years, I can't find the ones of Budapest and Barcelona (that worries me, I'm afraid to have lost them....) But as you can see, We've been around From Berlin to London, down to Sicily and back.... So I don't only just go to Indonesia! We love to travel just about anywhere we can afford!