-an OD of Love-

The recipe is simple, fix a day at least three months before. Start sending as many emails and smses, (as much as you can afford timewise) and just hope that at least ten friends turn up due to other commitments that funnily enough always pop up around that day. One of the funniest answers I received this time was that “I’m sorry Chal, but I’ll have the painter coming in that day so I will not be able to do it.” The Fenkata happens after eight in the evening and keeping in mind how hard working the local painters are I have trouble driving at night since all roads are usually jam-packed with ladders with men dressed in white dungarees all painting in the middle of the night. So once I get the idea of how many people will turn up (usually a couple of days before) I book a table at our favourite snack bar in Zebbiegh which is called the Farmer’s Restaurant for what the locals call a Fenkata (A night in a plain, simple and clean workmen snack bar eating a local delicacy which is rabbit t...

Halloween is not a popular feast in Malta (although some children are now very fond of this feast). On the eve of October 31st one tends to see a couple of children going from door to door dressed to scare asking for sweets in return. When I was younger I never knew about Halloween but I still looked forward to the feasts of all saints and all souls celebrated on Nov 1st and 2nd, first because on these two days we were off from school and the other reason being is that mum used to prepare the ‘Ghadam tal-mejtin’ (dead men’s bones). These are traditional Maltese large almond filled pastries that are baked in the shape of bones to remind us that in November one should remember the people we know who have died and pray for them so they can go to heaven. This year it was my turn to prepare them since funnily enough I was the only person who remembered doing them so yesterday I went to Cilia’s in Hamrun to buy the ingredients and as I am writing this blog I’m also keeping an eye on the oven...

The Culture Committee within St. Catherine's Musical Society of Zurrieq are extending an invitation to all Maltese and Foreigners to be their guests for a typical Maltese wedding of the past, which is being held in the picturesque narrow roads of Zurrieq on Sunday 20 th May, 2007. The activity will commence in Republic Square, which is the Main Square of Zurrieq, at 10.00am. There, everyone will accompany the bride and groom in their traditional wedding march through Carmel Street. Various installations of traditional Maltese workmanship and crafts will be exhibited on the way. All of this will be enjoyed along with the sound of live music and Maltese folklore singing. ( Ghana Malti.) The wedding ceremony will be held on the pave of St. Andrew's Chapel where it can be followed closely by the crowd. This Chapel was built in the same era, thus making a perfect venue for such an activity. A reception will be held after the wedding ceremony, in the most wonderful environment, uniqu...

Well, well very busy end of march, start of April and regretfully I have to say that I did not manage to make any kwarezemal (I'll make some soon), but with the help of my dad for decorating I managed to make 13 figolis with the recipe I gave you earlier and here are some pictures of the process...don’t they make your mouth water, mmm? (Today the 4th of April there are only two left because they were demolished by my family) pic 1,2,3, just baked pic 3, dark chocolate coating pic 4 and 5 my dad being creative!! and the final product ready to be demolished after 5hours of hard work

Easter’s almost here and since days look like have become just numbers I better look for my family’s figolli’s and Kwarezimal recipes which I will share with you. Today I went to buy the ingredients and I will prepare them tomorrow since today I promised not to have any sweets and second reason is no sugars since I’m back on the low-carb diet. I usually prepare the figollis first since they take most preparations to make whereas the kwarezimal, take much less time to do them. This year like the last three I will also be preparing the chocolate eggs as well. So let’s start from the figolli and for the foreigners who pass by my blog, Figolli are two pastries sandwich filled with pure almond filling cut out to represent symbolic figures, then covered with icing or my favourite decoration melted chocolate preferably the fondente type the higher to cocoa the better. I bought the metal shapes around ten years ago but one can easily use a cardboard shape but I would like to recommend a large ...