Merry Christmas!

What a great morning!
Started with traditional opening of the presents followed by a steamy hot cup of chilly hot chocolate!
it screams Christmas to me :)not so traditional, but very invigorating to say the least;)
I want to share it with you,so next time on a cold winter day when you need a cup of comfort in your belly, you can make this beauty!

to make 2-4 mugs (depending on the size of it) you'll need:

400grams of milk
200grams of cream (if you like it less fattening, use milk only, but I discourage you from that;)
150grams of chocolate of your choice (I use Hersheys, it doesn't overpower with choco flavor too much)
pinch of salt
and 2-3 chillies (depending how hot you can handle, I use 2) seeds removed, leave the stem on, so you can easily get them out of the pot

heat milk and chillies in the pot, let simmer for a minute or two, move off the heat and let infuse for 10 minutes.
add chocolate, cream, salt, bring back to simmer, stirring constantly. I remove one chilly and leave one in until we are finished with the drink ;) it gets extra spicy at the end!!!

it will look smth like this, do not get alarmed, it might have little lumps, they don't bother me but you can always strain them ;)

pour into your favorite mug and enjoy!!!! Promise, it will be the best cup of hot chocolate you ever had ;)

Off I go to make some cookies ;)
Merry Christmas!

yours truly,

Julija

feeling Christmasy ;)

My dear friends,
I am being a tad bit lazy with blogging, got a lot of things to do before Christmas Eve!
but this I had to share!

Wish you all cuddly and giggly Christmas!
With the loveliest people around you, warm hugs and yummy food!
Tis the season to be JOLLY ;)

with love,

Julija

Snooooooow!

I don't know what it is about waking up and seeing the first snow, but it always gets me. Remember how when you were a kid, first day of winter you're wishing for snow, so you can go and play and you finally see it when you wake up to go for school? what an overwhelming feeling! it's dark, and cold out, you're barely awake, but that white fluff just changes everything!
You know you'll fall on your butt a few times on your way to school, you know some mean kid will throw a snowball straight in your face, you know you might be made into a live sleigh by older kids during the break, but still... that white does something to you, it's too special to let anything ruin it for you!

well...I am not going to school today ;) and I got to sleep in till it was actually light outside, thanks to the outside shutters, I was blissfully unaware of the white surprise outside. So when I go to let my white and fluffy RoRo out (it's his new name for now ;) I gasp in absolute awe! there it is! ;) everywhere!!!! sooo delightfully clean! I squeak like a pet toy and grab my camera, of course ;)

how gorgeous is that?! it's not too thick, so I can't compete with any other 'cold' country that's drowning in  it, but I can tell you I was not hoping to see it this year, and here it is! made my day so much brighter, I am sitting and grinning typing this ! ;)

Speaking of school days, did anyone ever get turned into a live sleigh? I know I have,. lol

Imagine,a frail little blond kid, with blue eyes and funny white rabbit fur hat (camouflage really, so I blend better with the snow :) getting tossed in the snow. Now that I am remembering this, makes me wanna think why would somebody do that???  grab a piece of cardboard you bastard! LOL ;)

aaaaand just like a real sleigh, they drop their fat behinds on your back and ride you down the hill...

What a delight that was! I can't help but laugh now, sadly back then you had to get back to class, all soaking wet, with funny snowy dreadlocks on the insides of your boots and gloves. Desperately trying to get warm, while some boring, mean teacher is working hard on pasting some knowledge into your frozen head.

Thank goodness for sophisticated means of enjoying snow, snowboarding and skiing ;) where you get to return to your fancy hotel room and thaw out in a nice bubble bath , and nobody's using you as a impromptu sleigh and there's no Russian Literature class to get back to...

Let's have a nice day ! ;)

Julija

Bellini

Salve!
I was talking to my friend online, and we both shared our foul Christmas mood.
She's packing, I am unpacking ,she mentioned the drink she's planning on buying while snowboarding in Italy, and I remembered I have a whole bottle of gorgeous Bellini in my fridge!

and since I had no clue what to write about today, the idea came in a beautiful martini glass ;) I know, I know, Italians are very particular about what they pour into what glasses, but I am in the middle of unpacking, that's all I could find.so mi dispiace, both for the martini glass and bad Italian;)

If you buy into the Bellini hype that I am poorly attempting to start and decide it's a drink you want to try, here's how you make it at home :

Bellini
(it is aperitif and it is served before the meals to make you want to eat A LOT;)lol
made me want to drink more )

1 fresh peach per drink, skinned, pitted blended into mush
1 bottle of white sparkling wine (chilled)
1teaspoon of lemon juice
blender, champagne flute
decorate it with a slice of peach
i put sugar on the rim, it's just sooo yummy!

spoon peach mush into the champagne flute, pour half or the amount of
wine into it, stir, add the remaining wine, repeat as many times as you wish! ;)
one thing's for sure, one glass is never enough! ;)

it's a girly drink ;)boys can make em for their girls on special occasions, yumm! ;)

and here's what happened next :
I was looking for better light to take a picture and i spilled my drink :(

but since I have an ECO friendly cleaner at home I didn't get too upset, he rushed to help me out, lol, such a star he is ;) lol and a snooper...

I was fast enough with both camera and shooing him away! I got a shot and my drink remained untouched by his nosy nose ;)
cin cin!!!

I guess drinking cocktails at 3pm  makes me a lush lol, love that word ;)

that's it for today, off I go to continue with unpacking and getting into Christmas mood.

truly yours,

Julija and snoopy Rocco

my first one!

Hello hello ;)
I have succumbed to the trend and started my blog.
I am new to this, so be nice, please ;)
I will most probably end up sounding really random later in the blog, but I start here with the intention of sharing
a bit of my life, love for photography,(self-portraiture mainly, so maybe love for myself ;)lol),
definitely love for making, taking pictures of and eating food, some crafts perhaps?maybe music? and here and there travel .
Sounds lame? maybe,but that's what I do, I am unemployed at the moment, so I have loads of free time, might as well make best of it.

So welcome to my blog, hope it will be a nice one :)

p.s to the very eloquent, pardon my rusty writing, I've been mostly watching TV after college, lol
really miss my creative writing classes at the moment ;)

ttyl,
yours truly Julija