Postcards from Europe: Isle of Skye; Venice, More

"The most beautiful destinations in Europe"
opentravel.com / Travel Blog Magazine (July 31, 2009)

"This is a very tight and subjective selection of the most beautiful places in Europe. Some will agree, others may find different locations more worthy of honors, but without dispute, these places deserve to be called the beauties of our Mother Nature. Besides, you can drop me a note of your favorites anytime...."

Keep scrolling down, past the advertisements. This post has some pretty good photos. It also lists the Isle of Skye. Scotland, Sicily (shown in the thumbnail) and Italy, the Swiss Alps and Switzerland, Venice, and Iceland as "The most beautiful destinations in Europe".

The writer, "chili," obviously doesn't mind places that don't look much like downtown Hong Kong or Times Square in New York City. I think the places look fine, but as the post indicates, individual tastes will differ.

There are 20 photos - pretty good quality - showing the places at (I suspect) their best.

The Isle of Skye, in some of those pictures, looks a bit like western North Dakota - but that's another topic.

Pizza? Man, That is So Square!

"Sicilian-Style Square Pizza Pie"
Serious Eats (August 8, 2009)

"Note: You may know foolishpoolish from the comments on Slice, where he dives in with abandon—particularly where pizza-making is concerned. Yesterday, he shared this recipe with us. I'm putting it up today, as it takes a while. You should go grab the ingredients and start today. You'll be enjoying this delicious-looking pizza by Monday. —The Mgmt.

"- makes two thick-crust 14-by-10-inch pizzas or three thinner pizzas -
Sicily
"Notes

"Time: 2 days (first day making the sauce and mixing preferment, second day mixing the final dough and baking the pizza). Three days if refrigerating the dough...."

With a preparation time of two or three days, this definitely is not fast food.

On the other hand, it looks like it might be worth the wait. Definitely not something I should have looked at on a day where I'll be eating an hour or so later than usual.

I think those are basil leaves on top.


(from Serious Eats, used w/o permission)

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A tip of the hat to williamcooks, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this recipe.