Mmmmmm.....olives...!

The title of today's blog was obviously inpired by Homer Simpson. The photo, however, was inspired by the movie Frida, about the life of Frida Kahlo. I saw it again recently on TV and was reminded again how much I love the bright colours of the Carribean and of Latin America! They are so vivid, so full of life. Finns tend to use very light, neutral colours in their home. Mine is no exception, but I am trying to add at least touches of colour here and there. Bright blue in the living/dining room, fuchsia in the study, pink and blue in one bathroom and muted green in another.

As I mentioned before, I adore olives. I live to eat olives!! The ones shown in the photo are not the ones I really love, the big, marinated, gourmet olives. The ones in the photo are the normal ones from a jar. But they're still OK! In the immortal words of Brigitte Bardot: "Sex is like food; when it's good, it's real good. When it's bad - it's still pretty good!". ;-)

However, note how I serve my olives: the beautiful, oval olive dish is from Stockholm. I now regret not having bought the whole set - there were bigger ones too and I only got the small one. If I ever find the others, I'll surely buy them. Actually, I am going to Stockholm next week.....hmmmmm....

And note also the handy olive spoon that lets out the extra brine or oil (as the case may be). So cute!

The tablecloth is Indian, from a Swedish store called Indiska - that sell Indian stuff. The place mats (as mentioned before) are Vietnamese, from Ikea.

I love to set the table with nice stuff. I recently even bought all white 100% linen napkins (they're quite reasonable in Tallinn). They are a pain to wash and iron, but I find that it's worth it for a special occasion. Otherwise I use paper ones from Marimekko. They have great designs.

Today, we had fondue for dinner - yum! And a lovely vinho verde that tasted almost like sparkling wine. Yes, I do live to eat! But to me it's just one of life's esthetic pleasures. I want "beauty" for all the senses. I heard that Italians say "Que bello!" also about food, i.e. they call it beautiful. Why not? Music can be beautiful eventhough we hear it, so why can't food? I recently read a fun novel called The Food of Love by Anthony Capella. It's quite a mouth-watering little book. It's about a man who is in love with his best friend's girlfriend. He cannot show his love in any other way except through his cooking. A somewhat similar theme can be found in the absolutely lovely, lovely book (and film) Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) by Laura Esquivel. Now there's a book I'd like to re-read. Magical! It's also one of those very rare cases where the movie is as good as the book it is based on. I highly recommend both.

In short, the pleasures for all the senses: good food and wine for the palate, music and good conversation for the ears, beautiful colours for the eyes, perfumes for the nose - and good books for the mind - this is what happiness is composed of!

Take Care!