Happy Holloween!

The celebrating starts early around here.

Autumn has hit

I took these on my walk this morning. Some places I go the leaves are vibrant. It seems that around my house there are only a handful of trees that have turned. But the ones that have are outrageous.

I heart autumn.

Pumpkin Scones

I've been really jonesing for pumpkin. Luckily this time of year a lot of other people are too. I snagged this pumpkin scone recipe from Ari of Baking and Books. I didn't make the glaze that she did with her's. I don't have an excuse why. I just didn't feel like it. Even without the sugary, goodness I'm sure the glaze has these scones were delicious. Excellent pumpkin flavor without going over the top.

I made these Sunday and was still munching on them this morning. I love when I can prolong the pleasure. These are perfect with coffee in the morning. They aren't too sweet which is good because I drink my coffee sweet.

Like Mr. Wolf on Pulp Fiction.

"How do you take your coffee Mr. Wolf?"

"Lotsa cream lotsa sugar."

Except I use Splenda. With fiber. We Americans need to eat more fiber.

Oh the fishes!

This is my husband's first little bitty fried fishy.

He has rosey red cheeks. I think he dressed up for his final occasion.

Taking the plunge.

I'm pretty sure that guy in the background is laughing at us and not whatever is going on at his table.

So is my life.

I love it.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

I think fall is finally come to stay here in Italy. I haven't even brought out any of my fall decorations for the house yet because it hasn't really felt real yet. That and I've visitors for 5 weeks and have only felt like hanging out in my room by myself. I know, I need to stop being such a grouch. But I am excited about hunting down some pumpkins and acorn squash to place around the house and getting some pumpkin spice candles to start burning. To start baking fall treats like pumpkin scones, apple dumplings, and homemade biscuits. I can't wait to start cooking chili and roasting chickens and potatoes.

Most importantly this fall I'm looking forward to spending time with my husband before he deploys to Afghanistan again. We get the whole fall together.

Have a good autumn weekend.

Happy, happy!

I don't know if they have this commercial in the States. But I freakin' love these commercials. They make me smile no matter what I'm in the middle of doing. I could only find the one in German and French, not Italian. So imagine this in Italian and you'll be seeing what I see.

I wanted to share a little happiness with you today. I'm happy because my man is coming home today from Germany.

Have a good hump day!

Typical Tuesday

This morning at PWOC my class was supposed to bring snacks.I've really been jonesing for pumpkin stuff lately. So I scoured the internet for pumpkin recipes with two important criteria: 1.) they must be delicious looking and 2.) they must be made up with things I already have in the house since the commissary is closed Mondays.

I came across the Pioneer Woman's recipe for pumpkin spice muffins. They fit the criteria, so I made them. They tasted delicious even though they came out a little... squat. I dunno why.
Once at PWOC I met up with Jocelyn. Jocelyn's been in the states for 2 months and I've missed her like whoa. She's one of my favorites around here.

Today we had a balloon release outside. Even though childcare is provided this little cutie snuck her way out somehow. I couldn't resist snapping her picture because she's wearing an outfit so cute I wish I had it in my size.

Seriously. Babies in hats. Maybe the cutest thing ever.

This is Rachel, our worship leader. She was a little confused as to why I was taking pictures.

It's ok, Rachel. I get confused sometimes about the things I take pictures of, too.

Ciao, ciao balloons!

5 things

Here's 5 things I'm excited about this week:

new charm necklace I ordered.making Baking and Books's pumpkin spice latte at home.

this handsome fella coming home to me this week from Germany

a pair of custom chuck's i made and am waiting on

seeing where the wild things are this weekend! We're so lucky to have a first run movie theater here on our little post and we usually get pretty popular movies for one weekend not long after they come out. I've already talked to the hubs about it and let him know the movie times. Poor thing had no idea what it was about. Hopefully, since he appreciates excellent cinematography, he'll like it on the basis that it's beautifully filmed alone. At least I hope it is!

What are you excited about this week?

German Jump

Who's that over there at Zia's house in Santa Flavia?

Oh, that's my husband.

My extremely, good looking husband.

We got back from Palermo on Monday at 8 pm and he left for Germany at 2 am the next morning. Then he did a jump into Germany while it was hailing.

He jumped in the air with the hail.

Don't worry, he said it's ok because he earned his Germany jump wings since he jumped with the German army.

In case you were wondering, no, that wasn't ok with me. It was ok with him.

He comes home tonight. Can't wait! Have a good weekend.

Out to eat in Sicilia

Last time I was in Sicily we went out to eat once to a "fast food" place. It was hot, sweet buns full of prosciutto and cheese and rice balls filled with chopped meat and peas. Best fast food of my life.

This time we went out to a sitdown restaurant. Our table was especially set with a rose. My husband's zio and zia have lived in this town forever. So when they called to make a reservation and dropped their name we had no problem getting a specially set table.

As soon as we sat down the courses started coming without us looking at a menu. Zia explained that they only serve what they think is best at this restaurant. The freshest food. The best prepared. We started with plates full of sword fish and onions, eggplant stuffed with cheese, filet of fish, crochettes, and fresh bread. Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph these things.

I wised up with the risotto (pictured above) full of baby shrimp.


After that was pasta with tuna and eggplant. When these people say tuna they mean fresh tuna from the sea. The stuff tuna steaks are made from. It had a light tomato sauce, cooked eggplant and fresh mint. A combonation I wouldn't have thought of but were perfect together. I'm drooling just thinking about it. And I'm at work. So maybe I shouldn't being drooling here. Ok, I stopped.

Finally was the platter o'fish. I only had a bite of everything because I was so stuffed. I wish I would have paced myself. Now I know for next time.

I was embarrassed by having the only clean plate on the table when this course came. So my loving husband smeared some of his food on my plate and left a bite or two so it looked like I ate something. That's true love right there.

Palermo Preview

I had a romantic weekend. And when I'm done with all the unromantic stuff (like sorting the house out) I'll post some stories. That's the fun stuff of life: other people's stories.

Buona notte, bloggers.

I'll post when I get back... promise

I kept meaning to post. Honestly I did. I was earnest in my WANTING to post. But it just hasn't happened.

I still have so much to tell you.

But tonight I'm getting on a plane to Palermo. I'll be back Monday. Columbus day for all of you Americans out there. I'll have pictures. And stories about food. And hopefully and book review. And CD review (it's downloading as we speak).

Please continue to love me until I return.

always yours,

Nikkilooch

Butter bretzels

We went to Oktoberfest this weekend.

We being my husband and his parents. Can you tell that my husband are related to these people?

No?

He says he doesn't see the resemblance.

I drank 3 of those glasses. They hold 1 liter of German beer. For my American cohorts I will do the math for you: that equals 9 American beers. Three per glass. I was feeling very good in the Paulner tent.

I'm pretty sure my mother-in-law has video evedence of how good I was feeling.

Mamma mia...

Oh, and when we weren't drinking beer, we were eating big German sized bretzels.

Let's just say that Oktoberfest 09 will not be soon forgotten.

Guten tag, Munchin!

Oktoberfest, originally uploaded by Mark Tomas.

We're headed up to Munich this weekend with the in laws to celebrate Oktoberfest. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and bring back some excellent stories.

I'm taking along The Monster's of Templeton by Lauren Groff, which I picked up the last time we were in Milan. I'll be taking my itouch of course and hope to find some wifi to keep everyone updated via Twitter.

Have a good weekend!

Fall is coming

CIMG1935, originally uploaded by nikkilooch.

This is what I woke up to this morning. Where I live in Italy we have foggy, rainy winters and autumns. I love it.

I think that the sun will probably burn off the fog and still make for a pretty warm day today. But I'm still getting excited about making apple cider and breaking out the boots.