That weird looking title there is Maltese for what I had for lunch today.

Bread with oil and with tomato, is what it means and it’s the best part of Maltese cuisine. Talk about simplicity.

I’ve been reading a lot about Italian cooking, and it seems no one can stress enough about the importance of fresh ingredients when preparing a simple meal. Hobz biz-zejt is an excellent example of this. I’ve made it over and over again in Toronto, but it’s just not the same. Even benefiting from living in a city where I have an abundance of markets and European style bakeries, it’s still not fresh enough. But if you can find a market, or your own backyard, THAT’s THE WAY TO DO IT.

I’m talking about basil, thyme, rocket, mint growing in your back garden in the rich soil, or walking across the road to the farmer in the valley and shaking the soil from the leaves and carrying those precious red jewels called tomatoes in crinkly paper bags.

A MALTESE TOMATO, IS SOMETHING ELSE.

FORGET ABOUT IT.

It is kissed with so much sun and blessed with so much vitamin C. It is fleshy, and its flesh is full of juice.

The beautiful thing about hobz biz zejt, is that it has a million different versions of itself and everyone will tell you what the right way is. Sometimes it can be as simple as tomato paste and olive oil. Usually it’s got tuna in it, and fresh tomato, fresh herbs like basil and mint. Capers. White beans. Maybe some good briny olives.

When I was in school, we didn’t have pizza day or a hot dog day. We had hobz biz zejt day. And we fed the whole damn school from our kitchen in the Home Economics class. We had delivered, huge bags full of Maltese bread called ftira. Ftira is a round, flat bread, a little bit equivalent to ciabatta. It is made so that the maximum surface area is crust. This is perfect for stuffing all sorts of things in between, and all dripping with olive oil because the crust holds up.

The best ftira, is made in a fire oven in the village of Mosta in a little shop near the dome church. In a fire oven, the crust bubbles and gets blackened like a really good Italian pizza crust. Those bubbles create lovely craters in which olive oil and herb can sit in. The shop is one of those soccer club holes in the wall, I’ve only seen them in Malta and Sicily, and there’s a name for them, but I forget what they’re called. You always see old men hanging around outside smoking cigarettes, but there’s always a line up during lunch time. For the hobz biz zejt, of course.

THE BEST WAY TO EAT HOBZ BIZ ZEJT:

GET OUTSIDE.

1. on an anchored boat with a Cisk (a Maltese golden, hoppy lager), in a bikini and sea salt drying on your skin

2. on the beach. sitting on a rock like a lizard in the sun

3. in the car on the way to the beach, with your hair whipping around your face as your crazy Maltese driver zips by at a million miles an hour.

4. after a long hike in the countryside, on a hill thick with the aroma of wild thyme heated by the sun, overlooking the bay. Drunk with a glass bottle of Kinnie (similar to the Italian Brio)

5. in the early evening around 4:00pm on the promanade by the sea (a pre dinner snack because you’ve been swimming and running around all day enjoying yourself).

HOBZ BIZ ZEJT:

(note: get your hands dirty. Be at one with your sandwich. This is a sensory experience)

1. Slice in half, an Italian ciabatta or Maltese ftira. Please don’t buy it from the grocery store. Hopefully you are near a bakery.

2. Liberally drizzle with olive oil

3. smash a garlic clove and rub the oiled bread with it. Put aside the clove for another use.

4. spread the bread with tomato paste

4. grab a hunk of vine ripened tomato and anoint the bread with its juices by sort of rubbing it in there. Add a few thick slices and sprinkle with sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

5. now start piling it all on. Fresh basil, fresh mint, fresh rocket, a good canned tuna, white beans, pit your olives, capers, what have you.

6. Mum, dad, have I left anything out?

**an important note. I have concluded that buying cheap canned tuna on sale doesn’t work. Buy the good stuff. Cheap canned tuna is dry and tasteless (unless you count tasting of CAN).

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© Therese Neelands 2012, watercolour, ink

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© Thérèse Neelands 2012 watercolour, ink

Trying so hard not to try so hard today.

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© Thérèse Neelands 2012 watercolour, ink on paper

Lately I’ve been quitting the day and everyone early,

curling up in bed and reading Calvin and Hobbes comics with a glass of beer,

and all the stuff around me disappears.

It’s unsettling how much I relate to a 5 year old with an imaginary live tiger.

And Bill Waterson is an amazing artist.

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Detail, Work in Progress, watercolour, pencil, ink © Therese Neelands

Cold, cold, cold today.

Keeping warm by the heat of the desk lamp.

Even the dog can’t withstand the dog park,

she hops around on 3 legs,

her little belly quivering.

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Staying here for as long as possible.

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How many times can you say,

Pink Peppercorns, pink peppercorns, pink peppercorns!

I am ridiculously excited about these. And yes, I feel very silly doing a peppercorn photo shoot.

But hey! They’re PINK peppercorns!

I’ve been wanting to buy these for years, but they’re rare to fall upon and can be a bit pricey.

Today I was on a search for instant espresso for a Mocha cake, but would you believe it, it’s like it doesn’t exist.

I traipsed around in the rain all afternoon and didn’t get my espresso, but fell upon these.

Pink Peppercorns.

Oh, I got them at House of Spice, in Kensington Market.

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I wanted to show you something.

It’s a King Penguin Classic, and it seems that this edition is from 1956.

It was purchased by my sister when she was living in France, and given to me in memory of a time when we used to read this story together every Christmas under twinkling lights and with steaming cider.

But never mind, the point is, I’ve just finished reading it for the first time in years, and it suddenly occurred to me that it was Charles Dickens (particularly this book) that kindled a love for storytelling at a very young age. It started with A Christmas Carol, and moved on to David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickelby, A Tale of Two Cities and on and on. They sit on my shelves looking very worn and loved.

And sitting with them, is this edition with original illustrations by John Leech.

**Charles Dickens bi-centenary is coming up February 7th, 2012**

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Quote of the day:

“They [children] accept, almost without question, anything you present them with, as long as it is presented honestly, fearlessly, and clearly.” E.B. White

I came upon this excellent quote when reading a guest blog post by Iain Reid (One Bird’s Choice) on Kristen den Hartog’s “Blog of Green Gables”  (She has a series of posts about when writers read children’s books)

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I’m so excited about these! They’re cute and tiny!

I was feeling guilty about all the off-cuts of paper knocking around the studio, so I made these itty-bitty 3 1/2 inch thank you cards. I’ll be selling them as packs of 8. I’ll be off to the Paper Place soon to buy a supply of itty-bitty envelopes to match. Will keep you posted.

what’s on my desk? Carol Shields “Various Miracles” (there’s a short story in there I want to illustrate), Roald Dahl’s “Matilda”, “Extraordinary Chickens” (AWESOME, you can get it at Type Books), “The Book of North American Birds”, “The Pidgeon Finds a Hot Dog!”, Sendak’s “The Griffin and the Minor Canon”, various Calvin and Hobbes, and various Oliver Jeffers.

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