It is true!!! Third time is a charm! At least for me. I just found out my CFA result and I passed!!!This is the format you get the results in...As you can see I scored above 70% in all areas except in ethics... Go figure!!! Am I not ethical? I always thought I was...

Ciao bella italia!!

My Italian sister
Luisa, Me and Mon

At the church - "everybody raise your hands at the count of 3!! " (in Italian) Me: "Heh?"

The groom (Andrea), Mon, the bride (Giorgia), Sue and me

Cutting the cake... It was yummy!

Having lunch at la nonna's (grandma's) place to have...

...delicious Italian Polpette (meatballs)

Last weekend I was in Turin, Italy, for a friends wedding and since my "Italian sister" Monica - my flatmate from Dublin - also was invited and is from there, I had the pleasure spend time with her and stay in her mother's place during my stay in Turin.

It was such a great weekend!!

Am I a master chef or am I?!

I meal I whipped up in a second
Kablam!! It's a beauty on the inside as well as on the outside. 4 words: home made lemon custard, baby!!

What makes a good cook? I think a good cook knows his/her groceries very well - not saying that you have to know many weird exotic groceries that almost nobody has ever heard of, but if you have decided to go for steak - it means you can taste and feel the difference between a well done steak and a poory done one. So at what stage can you start feeling confident that you are at least a half decent cook? I'd say, when you know enough to be able to experiment and make a good meal - but that is entirely my definition. Just following a recipe time after time usually become less and less of a challenge, unless you go for haute cuisine, I suppose... Although I find that it is a talent as well to follow a recipe to the smallest detail and also get the dish to look exactly as in the recipe book is a merit on its own - I never get it to be just like in the book, but I always put my own little twist to it. I trust my kitchen instincts. It took me a few years to realise, but I finally have the confidence to say that I'm a pretty good experimental chef!

Having read my own comments to the pictures, I almost feel a bit obnoxious, so enough bragging now.

Over and out.

Do you dare to try my food?

Some pictures from the trip

Washington Memorial

The Capitol building

D at Lincoln memorial

In the car spotting an Amish buggy in Amish country

Me with gigantic cookies

Jeana, Kaz me and D, all in the colours of the American flag - they got married on the 4th of July

Me on a Harley - suits me, doesn't it?

Washington DC

Washington DC is an amazing place! Me and D spent the whole day yesterday on a tour bus and boy are there many things to learn about the city and and it's history!! I'm sure we just heard a fraction of it! We have seen most of the famous monuments and buildings - Capitol building, the White House, the memorials and Arlington Cemetary with JFK's grave. The monument I liked the most was Lincoln memorial (pictured above).

Today we took it asy and just hit the shops in Georgetown. It was a very good day with sunny weather except when we had lunch (crab cakes) with my friend Jeana - then it was pouring down!!! Good timing!!

Tomorrow we are going to have to say goodbye to Washington DC, because we are heading towards Ohio. On the way there we will stop ove one night in Pennsylvania. Yay! My first American roadtrip - like in the movies! Just hope it's not in the movie "California" - (with a pshycho Brad Pitt and crazy Juliette Lewis!!)