A Meal Out, and a Garden Catch-up.

[curiouswombat]

Last night I went out for dinner with one of my favourite authors! Diana Xarissa writes 'cosy mysteries' set on the island. She lived here for some years when her children were little, before her husband's job took them back to Buffalo, and the island inspired her to start writing

Comments

[petzipellepingo]

Is that Buffalo New York?

I'll have to see if her books are available around here.

[curiouswombat]

It is Buffalo New York. this is the first Aunt Bessie story on Amazon US.

There are other stories set on island as well - but those were the first ones I read. They are set in the 1990s because she wrote a book about an American girl inheriting a small cottage on the island in 2013 (Island Inheritance) and decided the back story she had come up with for the person who had left the cottage when she died made her want to explore that character in her own right. But, of course, they needed to be set some years earlier - hence the time frame of the Aunt Bessie series!

[ysilme]

That sounds like a lovely meeting and outing! And how awesome for her to also meet the fans there, too! XD

What is French style garlic bread? I only know the Italian variety, I think, as it's served in our Pizzerias who usually do authentic Italian (as they're usually also by emigrated Italians), but I can't remember to ever have had anything called garlic bread in France, not during my three years there. ;o) Perhaps it's the generic garlic bread made with baguette cut open diagonally; that one you'll often find home-made for barbecues or sometimes in restaurants, but never in anything Italian. I've never seen this kind in France either. Some Italian places offer Bruschetta made with baguette since baguette is available everyhwere, but garlic bread has to be on pizza dough.

[curiouswombat]

I was using French style as a short cut to mean with bread rather than a pizza crust, because we get garlic bread made in quite a few ways - so Italian restaurants, and also supermarkets, sell the version made on pizza dough - our favourite is from a local pizzeria who do a version on sourdough and also has parmesan on it - Paparazzi also do 'garlic bread with cheese and tomato'.

Then there are the baguettes cut diagonally available in some restaurants and also supermarkets, Domino's pizza (who I think are probably American) do a stuffed garlic bread, I have also seen it made with ciabatta, and also small bread rolls!

[spikesgirl58]

Sigh, rain. We can only dream of it here. Everything looks great.

[curiouswombat]

We rarely go more that a week without rain - it is part of being a small island surrounded by cold ocean water.

But then we rarely get temperatures in the summer higher than 30C, and it is much more likely to be around 18 -20C on a lot of summer days... which is also part of being a small island surrounded by cold ocean water.

[heleninwales]

Your climate is pretty much like ours, though we're not an island, obviously, but we are only a few miles from the coast. Hence we have a wet week ahead of us which will actually be very nice after that ridiculous heat.

[curiouswombat]

Yes - we are usually similar - although we had less of the heat; it hasn't gone above 20 here for a good week now, and this is the third day when there has been some rain. This was, of course, caused by Tynwald introducing a hose-pipe ban a couple of days ago...

[shirebound]

I enjoy wandering through your garden and hearing about tiny apples. :)

What a delightful evening! Now I'm hungry for chicken parmagiana.

[curiouswombat]

The apples will grow to almost full sized by the time they are ready to pick!

I had fusilli with tomato, basil, and chicken. Chicken parmigiana is not common on our Italian restaurant menus :(

[kathyh]

That sounds like a lovely evening. What a treat to meet a favourite author in such a relaxed way.

Could you send some of your rain our way please. Everything here is completely parched.

[curiouswombat]

It was - a real treat!

You would be welcome to a bit of rain. You could try Tynwald's version of the rain dance - they declare a hose-pipe ban and we have had some rain every day since :)