El-Jubble..Huh???

Have you ever read a book and in your head pronounced a character's name extremely wrong, only to find out how off you are when its been adapted into a movie? You kinda feel like your whole life's been a lie. Anyways, I first heard of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, when I had to learn every country's capital in my college Geography class. Like any rational human being, I pronounced it el-jubble-jannah, but luckily never had to say it out loud. Fast forward to my first year living in Europe where I somehow read something about Ljubljana and asked D a question about the city. He bursts into tears saying "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST CALL IT"?  D (and the rest of Europe) are always making fun of Americans for our lack of Geographical knowledge, but honestly I felt like he should be impressed I had heard of the place to begin with. Besides, how was I supposed to know have of those letters were silent? Anyways, the correct pronunciation is lube-lee-annuh and ever since that day, whenever I have a "blonde moment",  D refers to me as an "el-jubble-jannah".

Naturally since this word has become such a household name of ours, I looked forward to the day I could travel to this mystical city. I had heard amazing things about it and now that we're just two hours away we made sure it was on our bucket list this year. 

I love getting to see cities before they become huge tourist destinations. Tourism in Ljubljana is on the rise and in five or so years, I'm sure it'll be a completely different city. We stayed at the most gorgeous hotel and paid a fraction of what it would cost in a major European city. Gotta love that.

The main square

Love locks on one of the many bridges

D and I 100% judge a city on how good its food is. Slovenia has amazing Mediterranean cuisine with Italian influences. They really pride themselves on their olive oils and we tried some of the best I've ever had (In fact it took everything in my power not to steal every restaurant's olive oil off the table and stash it into my purse). We were blown away by how good the food was. 

Ljubljana is a small city and everything is easily accessible on foot, which is so nice. The main center is situated around a river with the city's old castle on a hill perched behind it. Its beautiful and reminded me of a mix between Prague and Vilnius, completely different from anywhere I've ever been.

On top of Ljubljana Castle

The city center with the castle behind

If you ever have a chance to go to Ljubljana, jump on that!  I had hyped this city so much in my head after using its name so often, and I'm happy to say, it did not disappoint! I will continue to (proudly) call it el-jubble-jannah and encourage you to do the same. 

Fish En Papillote

Fish en Papillote

When I'm looking for meal ideas, I usually require they hit a few of these categories: easy, inexpensive, healthy and fast (with bonus points added for  using the least amount of dishes as humanly possible). This recipe is a big win because it fits all five of these criteria. Being from Florida, I'm a huge seafood fan and living in northern Italy, where seafood is EVERYWHERE, has only grown my love for cooking fish.

This dish probably takes a total of 20 minutes form start to finish and its super easy to make for one person or a large crowd. It's become my go-to meal for when D's on the road and I need to cook for just one. 

Besides being ridiculously easy and yummy, this recipe has a very chic French name that makes it sound much fancier than it really is. So you can invite someone over for dinner and tell them you're making "Fish en Papillotte" which really just translates to "fish cooked in paper". I usually use Salmon for this dish but lately I've been sending D to our favorite local fisherman's shop to pick up the groceries and he came back with some mysterious (and amazing) white fish that worked out just fine as well. 

Fish en Papillote

Ingredients:

• 2 Fish fillets of your choice (one per person)
• 2 Zucchinis, sliced (one per person)
• Half a red onion, sliced thin
• A handful of fresh basil, chopped 
• A couple handfuls of Cherry Tomatoes, halved
• One lemon, sliced
• 4 Garlic Cloves, peeled
• Olive Oil
• Dried Rosemary & Thyme or Herbs de Provence
• Pesto (store bought or homemade), find my favorite recipe here: Arugula & Toasted Walnut Pesto (OPTIONAL) 
• Parchment Paper

Directions:

• Take a large piece of parchment paper and fold it in half. Channel your inner Kindergarten-self on Valentine's Day and cut a half heart shape into the paper. Repeat for however many servings you're making.
  
  
  

  

  Pathetic attempt at a heart.. I know.

• Toss your zucchini, red onion, basil and tomatoes in a bowl with olive oil, salt, pepper and some dried thyme & rosemary (or Herbs de Provence)
  
• Unfold your parchment papers (noting how awful your heart shape looks), and divide your vegetable mixture evenly onto each sheet. Add a couple garlic cloves to each portion.
  
• Top the vegetable mixture with a few slices of lemon
• Season your fish fillets with salt, freshly ground pepper and the dried herbs & place on top of your lemon slices
   
  
• Top with pesto (optional) or a drizzle of olive oil or white wine if you'd rather
  
• Fold the other half of your heart piece on top of the fish and seal the sides making small, overlapping folds until the entire side is closed up (Click Here for a much clearer instruction of these steps) *it's important each pouch is sealed well so the fish will steam properly
   
   
   
  
   
• Bake at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes depending on the thickness of your fish  
•  

  

  I love to serve it left on half of the parchment paper

  

  Yummy!

Recipe Notes: If you don't like zucchini, asparagus works really well with this dish! I love doing a Mediterranean style en Papillote with asparagus, capers, olives, tomatoes & feta :) There are tons of different combinations that will work with this same technique. 

Please give this easy recipe a go and I promise it'll become a part of your dinner (or lunch) rotation! 

XOXO

A Night in the Italian Alps

Pre Snow Storm in Cortina :|

I've been so busy launching the Saule Boutique Spring Line that I've completely been neglecting my blog! Last month, D had a couple days off and we decided to take an overnight trip to the mountains a couple hours away. One of the most amazing things about living in Italy, and Venice in particular, is how close we are to so many amazing places. We're three hours from the hustle & bustle of Rome, just over two to the art haven of Florence, half an hour away from some of Italy's biggest vineyards, and under two hours from the Italian Alps! Being from flat & humid Florida, I'm always in awe of anywhere mountainous and on a clear day here in Venice, you can actually see the Alps in the distance. Cortina is one of the main ski villages of Italy and it's about an hour and 45 minutes from us. I've been wanting to go all Winter so it was a no brainer when we actually had time to do so. 

So Saturday morning rolled around and D told me to pack my things and we'd take a road trip there for the night. I checked the weather on my iPhone Weather App and was surprised to see it would be 50 degrees. I shared the weather report with D and we both packed accordingly. Imagine our surprise when we arrived to Cortina to find ourselves amongst a snowstorm with under 30 degree weather. Growing up with snow and severe winters, D is very cautious about driving in the snow and being prepared with winter tires, so he was less than thrilled about the surprise conditions. Moral of the story: the iPhone weather app is BS.

Tucker checking out the view from our balcony

Cortina is a cute, small ski village with an adorable downtown area. The mountains are absolutely beautiful and according to our friend, it's the "Vail of Europe" which we continuously (jokingly) referred to it as all weekend.  There were so many Americans on vacation there that I couldn't believe I had never heard of the place before. We stayed at an adorable hotel with a huge balcony that overlooked the mountains and it felt unreal that we were just two hours from Venice.

The only two idiots not in ski gear in Downtown Cortina

As neither D nor I ski, we decided to take the gondola up to the top of the mountain for the view. Of course when we finally got up there, it had turned into a full blown snowstorm and was too foggy for me to see my hand in front of me. "50 degrees my ass" my dear husband said to me and after debating stealing people's ski equipment for a photo opp (we were the only losers on the mountain not skiing, I of course was wearing heels), we decided to all it a day and head back. 

So.Much. Snow.

Little chilly..

I feel so lucky that we've gotten the opportunity to experience so many cool places in Italy thus far and for a relatively small country, it has so much variety to offer. D's team is still doing great and remains in second place in the standings. We're excited for some visitors in the Spring and for the warmer weather to start coming around.

Beautiful ride home

'll have a new Recipe coming on the blog this week, I couldn't believe how many people wrote me that they tried my last one! So cool! Hope everyone has a wonderful March <3

XOXO