One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating

That's something the great Luciano Pavarotti said...

I have to say, I may have bored some of my readers of late, but not like I'm gonna bore you today because yet again, I'm gonna do a post about one of my favourite topics (and obviously Luciano's!), a topic that comes just after music and nature for me. That is, food.

I mean, I can't help it. I just love to eat. I know that if Moliere were around, he would be laughing his head off saying "That Knitting Songbird is a prime example of what I've been talking about all this time, she is definitely someone who doesn't eat to live rather lives to eat." I can't say that that's entirely true. But almost. I guess I'd have to put it down to the fact that I'm a Taurean. We just love our food! Here's an abstract of what I found on the net regarding us bulls:

Although their physical appearance may belie it (what are they trying to say - we're ugly???), they have a strong aesthetic taste, enjoying art, for which they may have a talent, beauty (recoiling from anything sordid or ugly) and music. They may have a strong, sometimes unconventional, religious faith. Allied to their taste for all things beautiful is a love for the good things of life pleasure, comfort, luxury and good food and wine and they may have to resist the temptation to over indulgence, leading to drunkenness, gross sensuality, and covetousness.

True, true, very true, just not quite certain about the drunkenness part. Although I do like a nice (small!) glass of French, Italian, Spanish, Australian or Croatian wine once in a while, I've been completely and utterly "off my face", as we Aussies like to put it, only twice in my life and vowed the second time never to do it again. I'm proud to say that I've kept that pledge for the past 3 years (not including Paris with Davor - but that was being tipsy after having had only two glasses of champagne, for God's sake! I don't think that counts as being drunk!). But not giving into the temptation of just one more piece of Valrhona's finest, well, that is simply too much for me. Or one more sliver of gorgonzola dolce. Or just a soupcon of creme brulee. No, for me, life is too short to withstand the pain of not giving into those temptations. I have to say that I've been relatively lucky thus far but have to keep an eye on the size of my portions as the derriere has started to look somewhat rotund of late.

I do go on...but like I said, that's me and food. But I have to share a recipe with you that I found on the net the other day by none other than Jamie Oliver, the only other person besides my dear friend Irina to have made me really think about what I put on my plate. I love him to bits because the man really does make an effort to get people out of the take away shop and into the kitchen more often. So kudos to him.

I just made this recipe today and have made been making countless trips up the stairs to my kitchen to take just one more little handful to keep me going for the next hour or so. It's Jamie's granola and it's just delish. And like most of Jamie's recipes, a cinch to make. And honestly, it'll knock your socks off and make you never want to buy that cheap (or expensive!) shop bought granola again. Another of the beauties of it is is that you can add as much or as little honey/maple syrup as you like, making it suitable for all diets including macrobiotics (have to ask Irina just to make sure) or sufferers of diabetes (you'll have to get back to me on that one Ross!). By the way, I didn't add cinnamon, don't like the taste of it too much, but you're more than welcome to add some if you like! Now that I come to think of it, could've added a handful of Valrhona chocolate chips...maybe next time...

Jamie's granola

200g rolled oats
150G mixed nuts
50g mixed seeds
50g desiccated coconut
1 tsp ground cinnamon
150g dried fruit
5 tbls honey or maple syrup
5 tbls olive oil

Preheat oven to 180c/350f/gas 4. Put your dry ingredients, including coconut and cinnamon but not the dried fruit, on a baking tray. Stir well and smooth down with a wooden spoon. Drizzle with the syrup or honey and oil. Place the tray in the oven for 25 to 30 mins. Every 5 mins or so, take the granola out and stir it, smoothing down before putting it back in the oven. When it is nice and golden, remove it from the oven,mix in the dried fruit and let it cool down.

Serve with milk or yogurt.

A bon appetit il ne faut point de sauce (a good appetite doesn't need sauce)

Now, anyone who's a serious foodie knows that French cuisine is the greatest in the world. And who am I to disagree with them? But I'd never really experienced true French cuisine up to now. Yeah, I've been to Paris before and some of the food I had was truly exquisite (creme brulee in particular!). And I like to cook the occasional French specialty. But Paris and my kitchen ain't France. If you want to really experience the country, you gotta get out of the city and go to the sticks. And that's exactly what Davor and I did.

So after an exhausting day and night of travelling (we left Zagreb at 5am and arrived at our first hotel at 2 am the next day. It was almost as if we had travelled to Australia!), we hopped to it and went to Dinon, Bretagne. Dinon is a charming place, one of my favourites on our trip, and we had a lovely time there, walking around, taking photos, breathing in the atmosphere. But as the day went on, we began to get the munchies. So we went to the nearest restaurant that had a spare table (we had to go to at least three before we found an empty one!). Now, Bretagne is not only home to the most marvellous seafood in the world but also to crepes. So while Davor ordered a seafood salad, I ordered a crepe with, what else, but cheese. And man, was it good!

But the best part (for me anyway!) was dessert. You all know I have a very sweet tooth and love my chocolate. But there's a whole plethora of sweets that I love, and I would have to say that macarons are in the top 5 (my friend Davor will never understand why...). I felt like a schoolkid in a candy store when I saw that myriad of colours staring at me from the pattisserie - white, cream, brown, pink, purple, red, blue. How could I choose??? So I did the typical Mary thing and had a chocolate one and a raspberry one. Mmm, my mouth is watering at the thought of them...

Like I said, Dinon was one of my favourite places that we visited in Bretagne. Here are some snapshots to show you why. Hope you enjoy them: