Garden progress and Bruschetta

So despite having no job and no car (I have inquired about both though), I have been up to a lot lately.  I planted my garden, made my own laundry detergent, got a new iPhone 6, cooked a few new dishes and even made up one of my own.

Peter has been busy beautifying the outside and has done hours of yard work.  Just tearing down stuff and bagging leaves and cutting hedges.  Everything looks really nice.  All of that below was overgrown with vines and leaves and you couldn't even tell that there was brick there.

I'm thinking about planting something in the corner, but I'm not sure what to put there because that area gets little to no sun.  I'll figure it out though.  I made my own laundry detergent out of Borax, Washing Soda, Baking Soda 2 bars of soap and essential oils from THIS "recipe" that I found on Pinterest.  When you do the math, it ends up costing only 2 cents a load of laundry.  The recipe makes a HUGE amount.  If I were to do this again, which I probably will, I would add more essential oil because my clothes come out clean, but they don't smell like anything.  I guess that's not a huge deal but I like it when my clothes smell good.

Also, I finally got around to filling in my raised garden bed.  I seriously think that using an old bookcase as a raised garden bed is the best idea ever.  It is perfect for the lazy or carpentry-challenged gardener! All you have to do is reinforce it if it's a little bit wobbly and you are good to go!  I feel like it my responsibility to inform everyone in the world about this so I'm going to pin this on Pinterest.  There isn't really a "how to", you just rip off the back and the shelves and put it on the ground.

You can see from the picture that I have kale, spinach, basil and tomatoes growing.  I bought all of those plants because I wanted something to take care of.  But what you can't see are the onions, garlic, arugula, carrots and green peas.

The carrots and green peas poked out of the soil today and I think I got more excited about that than I have about anything in a very long time.  Look at them! Aren't they cute?!

If I was to ever describe a plant as "adorable" this would be it 

Eeeee they're so cute and small

I put the tomato in the ground two days ago and it's already grown a pretty decent amount.  I am a proud plant-mother.

In other news, I came up with a recipe for bruschetta.  If anyone knew me in Naples, my favorite pizzeria that isn't Da Michele's or Di Matteo's is Panda Pizza.  It is a 2 minute walk from my house and I've been eating there for years.  The only thing that they do better than pizza (in my opinion) is bruschetta.  I compare every bruschetta that I have to Panda's bruschetta.  There are a few that come close, like Cerbero's or Old Friends and there are some that taste like garbage... I'm looking at you Fratelli la Bufala.

I always say that I'm going to try and come up with something similar, but I never actually have.  This is my attempt and it was pretty darn good.  It wasn't the same as Panda.  But let's be honest, nothing will be the same as Panda.  Their bruschetta has a zing to it, that I have determined to be white vinegar.  

Bruschetta alla Pomodoro 

A few tomatoes - diced (I used 5 plum tomatoes)

A loaf of crusty bread cut into slices about 1 inch thick (I prefer sourdough)

a bunch of fresh basil finely chopped (I used the plant from my garden... so fancy) 

1 clove of garlic, halved

1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano

EVOO

3 tablespoons white vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Mix the tomatoes, vinegar, basil, about a table spoon of olive oil and salt and pepper in a bowl.  Let the mixture marinate in the refrigerator for at least two hours, stirring occasionally.  I know this isn't how you make traditional bruschetta but it's worth it! Trust me.

When you're ready to serve, toast the bread on both sides.  Rub the clove of garlic on the side that you will be putting the tomato mixture on, then drizzle with olive oil.  Spoon the tomatoes on with a slotted spoon and you're done!  I like to splash a little bit of balsamic vinegar on it.

very sharp and new knife!

Peter did this. So fancy.

I can't wait until I have my own tomatoes to make it with! Enjoy!

Ciao ciao
xo Katelyn

A Very Vegan Day in Sorrento!

On Thursday, Peter, my new friend and coworker, Tasha and I went to Sorrento for the day.  It was amazing.  I just planned on doing the usual down there, see the views, try the free limoncello in every single shop, pet some puppies, but Tasha found this wonderful store/restaurant conveniently located by the train station near the center of Sorrento! So we had to go.  I'm going to take you through our day.

We got a late start in the morning so we decided to drive.  My car has seen better days, so let's just say after the windy, twisted roads on the about 1.5 hour drive to Sorrento, I needed a big old glass of wine. 

When we started our walk, we ended up near this giant lemon grove in the middle of a city block.  It was a pretty long walk through the grove, and it ended at a limoncello tasting-station.  Unfortunately, around then, the weather started to get bad so we were running from raindrops for a bit.

Tasha took this in the lemon grove

Then we get to Mondo Bio (click here for more info), which is the sixth ranked restaurant in Sorrento, to find that it's also a store and that the restaurant doesn't open up for a few more hours so we decided to walk around and see the shops and the views.  When I go to Sorrento I like to do this thing where I get a free sample of limoncello at every shop that I go to.  You usually end up hitting about 5 shops.  Worth it. 

There were a bunch of old men zesting the lemons to make limoncello, it was pretty cool.  

Soooo muchhhh limoncello and meloncello.

We all made some purchases and went on our way.  We decided that we were too hungry to wait for Mondo Bio Cafe to open and that we would be totally fine with eating a second time in like an hour and found a cafe to sit at.  We asked for the Vegetarian menu, and ordered a LOT of bruschetta, some grilled vegetables, french fries and a bottle of wine.

Yummm bruschetta

 We still had a little bit of time so we decided to go out and see the view of the coast.  Even though it was a little rainy, we were not disappointed!

The church courtyard right before the view of the coast

A pic I took before the weather started to get bad

Finally it was time to go to Mondo Bio and purchase tons of vegan items!!! I was super duper excited.  So was Tasha.  I think we both spent like 45 euro, which is basically like 65 dollars.  We got there at around eight, and the store closes at eight and the restaurant closes at like 8:30 so we had to make it quick.  It had everything I wanted!!! TEMPEH, SEITAN, NUTRITIONAL YEAST, all sorts of vegan lunch meats, some vegan cheeses.  It also had a very large selection of organic produce for sale.  Safe to say it is one of my favorite places in the Naples area now.

About half of their refrigerator selection after Tasha and I cleaned them out

A few of the items I picked up! Check out the basil tofu and rice milk mozz.

Then after we finished up with our shopping, we sat down to have a nice meal, even though we had eaten about an hour previously, but whatevs.  Tasha and I both got gnocchetti alla sorrentina with vegan mozzarella and Peter got an organic egg omelet.  The gnochetti were pretty great!! The tomato sauce was obviously fresh and I can't wait to go back and try their seitan-stuffed ravioli!  They also had an extensive selection of vegan wines to choose from but I had to drive back in a few, so I abstained.  

 I already started to make tempeh bacon and I have a feeling that I'm going to be making a few more trips there in the future!! Also, on the way back, my data was used up on my phone so we had no GPS and all of the streets that we needed to take us home were closed because of a Holy Thursday procession, so we had a pretty rough time getting home, but we made it eventually! 

Here are some pics from Tasha's camera!

Sometimes we are just awkward

To any vegans/vegetarians living in the Naples area, I HIGHLY recommend checking out Mondo Bio Cafe! The address is Via Degli Aranci, 108-110, 80067, Sorrento, Naples.  There's parking up the street that isn't too expensive.  Maybe a 10 minute walk.

Overall, it was a great day.  I love showing people around the Naples area and I am SO glad that Tasha looked up this restaurant/store.  I will probably return as soon as I use up all of my tempeh and once the weather gets perfect it'll be an even better day trip!!

ciao ciao! xo - Katelyn