Bloglovin'

Sitting here on my sofa in front of the TV-as I do every evening- surfing the net, I came across a few blogs that I thought looked interesting and wanted to follow. Well these blogs didn't seem to have the normal  'follow' button. I found that I could only follow the blog by using Google connect or other similar options and to be honest, I hate following blogs that way. I like the easy 'follow' button when reading blogs through Blogger. As usual I went to Twitter and vented my little frustration and sure enough I got my answer. Jess, a fellow Canadian living in Malta- you can check out her blog here, suggested that I use Bloglovin'.  I've heard of it before but didn't realize what it actually was. I thought it was just another site similar to Blogger that you could use to publish and follow blogs. I was wrong. I think. I've only been fidling around on the site for about 15 minutes so I don't exactly know all the in's and out's of the site yet, but so far I'm lovin' it. Ha see that little play on words there. Yeah I'm lame I know LOL.

Anyhow, Bloglovin' is super easy to use and I've already started adding some of the blogs that I follow using Blogger. I'll be making the switch over to follow blogs there now I think. So if you use Bloglovin' already be sure to look me up! See the icon at the top right hand side of my blog. And if you don't use it, well maybe take a few minutes and check it out.

Pear & Goat Cheese Ravioli

This past weekend I went to Gozo with friends. It was the first time I had been to Gozo and I have lived in Malta for a little over two years now! Bad I know. I'll be sure to do another post with a few photos later on but for now I wanted to share with you a recipe.

While in Gozo we stayed in a flat overlooking Xlendi Bay. It was a perfect location for us, quiet and beautiful. There is a restaurant that we went to for dinner our first night there called Churchill. Right along the water, very quiet and picturesque. I definitely recommend going if you are ever in the area! So that evening I went with a half bottle of Rose and for my main course, had the goat cheese & pear ravioli which had a garlic oil drizzled over top. YUM!  It actually had a much fancier name, one that I could not even pronounce then or will try to now since I will butcher it horribly. Unfortunately I didn't even think to take a photo before I devoured it that evening but thinking about it this afternoon- as my mouth waters in remembrance- I went to Google and tried to find a recipe.

Now I have not tried this out (yet) so I'm not sure how it will turn out or what it will taste like but this recipe seems fairly simple to follow so I thought I'd share it with you. I stumbled upon it on a blog called The Grains of Paradise.

Pear, Goat Cheese Ravioli

-makes about 25

-fresh wonton wrappers and small bowl of water 

-5 oz of fresh but firm goat cheese 

-1 firm pear ( or apple ) minced 

-1 Tb finely cropped walnuts 

-1 Tb minced fresh thyme 

-pinch of cracked black pepper 

-pinch of sea salt

1. Mix cheese, pear, walnuts, thyme, salt and pepper in a med size bowl. 

2. Arrange wontons on a cutting board and place 1 tsp of goat cheese mixture onto each wonton. 

3. Fold, pinch and seal the wrappers using water.

*You can place all the ravioli on a cookie sheet and then put them in the freezer. Once frozen place them in a zip lock bag for later use.

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Weekend Plans

So its Friday and that means its finally the weekend!! So what are your plans? Anything special and exciting? Or perhaps you are just staying in, lazing around the house all weekend. Well I suppose my plans are sort of in the middle of the two.

Nothing huge planned for me. I have a hair appointment tomorrow morning, followed by some sun bathing while listening to music and reading a good book in the afternoon.The time has also come where I need to go through all my clothes and do another clean out. Time to switch out my wardrobe and pack away the 'winter' clothes in order to bring out the summer ones. The nice warm weather is finally here and has been steady for a couple weeks now so I think its safe to say that summer is upon us. And next weekend I'll be traveling over to our other island Gozo with a couple friends for a short weekend break. I CANNOT WAIT!! haha. One- I need a break, really bad. I need to get out of here and off this island even if only for a couple days which will be spent on the beach! And two- after living in Malta for two years I have yet to ever see Gozo other than from a boat. Sad I know. Especially since its only about a 30 minute or so ferry trip. Yay for mini vacay!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Just a Random Sunday Post

Summer has finally arrived here in Malta- better late than never right? And if you can predict anything from the weather, so far I think that this summer will be a hot one! And trust me, last summer was hot enough. Since I work in an office all week and am stuck staring out my window at the marina below with bright blue waters (see pic below) I don't get much time in to work on my tan so on weekends I try to get in as much as I possible- or at least as much as I can stand. Over the years I've seemed to have lost my patience (unless at the beach) to lie out and soak up the sun. Though today while engrossed in a good book on my Kobo eReader, I accidentally stayed out a little too long, oops! Translation: my back is a little red right now. First possible sunburn of the season :(

Today I met up with some friends for ice cream in Bahar ic-Caghag (spelling?) who recently got a large salt water fish tank and needed to get more water (from the sea). So I went with them and we then had to carry 4 very large heavy awkward containers up from the beach to the car. You know that saying- 'lift with your knees not your back'?  Yeah I did the reverse. So now my lower back is killing me! I have a feeling that it will be hard for me to get up in the morning :(  But still a good day. Though I'm very tired now, too much sun I think, so it will be an early night for me.

I know this post has not exactly been very organized and is just some random thoughts- but I'm tired and wanted to just share a few thoughts and pictures. 

So that being said, here's a few recent-ish, pics I've taken. Hope you all had a good weekend!

My dog Shane, stealing my spot to sunbathe this morning.

The balcony off my bedroom. Peaceful and relaxing

 

 

View from my office- tortures me every day

A cemetary that I walk past daily on the way to work in Pieta. I love how it looks through the gates in the morning sun.

This pic of Shane was taken almost 2 years ago but I love it

The Cool Hunter

I recently found a cool website called The Cool Hunter. There are so many amazing photos on this site. Everything from travel, architecture, art & design to urban living, gadgets and fashion. I thought I'd share some with you now that I found so enjoy!

The Gardens of Marqueyssac

Pongua Falls Vietnam

Petra, Jordan at night

Restaurant near Sanyou Cave Chang Jiang river, Hubei Chinga

Lucca, Tuscany, Italy. Doesn't everyone picture this when they think of Tuscany

http://www.thecoolhunter.net/article/detail/1768/castello-di-vicarello--tuscany-italy