Malta at Home

It's been a minute, but I've had a really busy month, and I'm finally getting back to my Destination Date Nights. Our last one was to Malta, because I knew that summer deserved some actual summer destinations. As you may know, Malta has been a destination on my wish list for quite some time, and we'll be heading there in the future, if we ever get out of this pandemic.

Things look to be doing better and then everything goes to hell again, so I don't expect regular leisure travel to really be back until probably mid-2022. What does that mean? More staycations for you and probably more time to plan a big, awesome trip when we finally come out of this. I'll still be doing some travel in the next year, though probably not as much as I hoped for, because it will have to be careful and safe and responsible. For now, let's look at how we traveled to Malta while staying at home.

Because of where it's located, Malta is influenced by Greece and Italy and northern Africa. This is shown in the architecture and foods. Malta doesn't have much that seems uniquely Malta, but the combination of other countries makes it interesting and a clash of cultures makes for a feeling of being in many places at once. 

We made this a simple Destination Date Night. We had dinner, we listened to some Maltese music and we just enjoyed each other's company. I used the look and island vibes to set my table. Malta is a beautiful, breezy, fishing destination, so I used my striped tablecloth and added a fish vase with poppies (a flower is grown in the area), and topped it off with one of the Knights of Malta. 

Because Malta is such a niche country, there aren't any Maltese restaurants around here, so, like I did with Mongolia, I found a restaurant that had items that were close to what is popular in Malta and then filled in with other foods. I found that the place I wanted to order from actually charged LESS if you purchased a meal kit and assembled/finished the food at home, so I ordered and picked up a seafood stew and a beet salad. I felt that the stew was close enough to Aljotta, a Mediterranean fish soup. Cod is a native fish there, so I chose a stew that also included cod (and also shrimp and clams). 

Everyone has salad, and it was an easy thing to include and put together from the restaurant. I always like to have some sort of vegetables with dinner, and this was a perfect fit. It was beets, gorgonzola, and pistachio brittle with a champagne vinaigrette. Malta has a bread that is similar to focaccia - Ħobż - which I thought would go really well with both the salad and the stew, and I was right. 

While we did some sightseeing via our backdrop ("That lady down there is taking a photo of those people with an iPad!") and chatted about the food and what we would do in Malta, we listened to some Maltese pop music. Then we busted out the dessert.

I wasn't sure I would be able to find cannoli in our local bakeries (it's not really that popular), so I decided to fake a Maltese dessert called imqaret. They are sort of like fig newtons, but flaky, so I baked fig paste in croissant dough. Then I did find cannoli at the bakery down the street, so we had both. Cannoli is an Italian dessert, but it's frequently served in Malta as well. Both were delicious, so I guess I'd be into visiting some bakeries while in Malta. 

Malta is a very interesting and beautiful country that I can't wait to actually travel to. I admired the scenery while watching an annual World's Strongest Man competition and have been thinking about it ever since.  Here are some ways to recreate Malta at home:

•  A Malta backdrop
• Here's my seaside one
• And here's the colorful door I purchased as a second viewpoint
• A simple striped tablecloth or a fish motif
• A fish vase (also comes in clear and blue)
• Poppies for your vase
• A Knight of Malta
• Malta flag
• Find a good travel tour video or one on the Malta catacombs
• Get your kids to play some old Malta street games
• Cook your own food with a Maltese cookbook
• Watch a food tour or learn about Malta's culinary culture
• Plan a trip with the help of a local

There are plenty of other ways to make this a fantastic staycation and to immerse yourself in the culture as much as possible when still at home. Take a stroll through a museum, learn a new language, find out about famous Maltins and how they contributed to the world and Malta itself. 

Unfortunately, between being so busy and our heatwaves, it's been hard to plan another one, but I have a new one coming up. You'll be seeing us visit Chicago soon, and hopefully, also Reykjavik. We'll also be actually traveling to Reno and Vegas on a road trip soon-ish. You can see photos of all of these as they happen on my Instagram. Cheers to more staycations while we're waiting to safely get back out in the world.

Have you done any fun staycations over the last year and a half? Tell us about them in the comments!

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links, and I may be compensated should you choose to make any purchases through them. This allows me to keep this blog running for you. Thanks in advance!

Happy Birthday, Harry!

So, as you know we usually do a big party to celebrate Harry Potter on his birthday, but last year we had to do it virtually, and this year we're waiting to see how things go and have already moved it to September and turned it into game night instead of the usual big do up. We'll be celebrating Harry and the return to Hogwarts for wizarding kids. 

One of the staff at Kennedy School, dressed as a House Elf

That doesn't mean we didn't do anything for Harry on his birthday. We did. The week before his birthday I helped run the PDXpelliarmus Harry Potter Activists' booth for Wizarding Weekend at a local hotel that was once a school. For 3 days we have magical vendors, the movies going, themed food, and games. Considering we had to skip last year and we weren't sure how well received this would be with everything going on this year, we were blown away.

Usually, this weekend is the end of our back-to-school supply drive, but we pivoted this year to end Accio Books with this big event and were overwhelmed with book donations. With the money we made from selling our buttons, bags, and other HP-related goods, we were able to cover our entire book list for a charitable organization that works with the houseless, so we can provide them with young adult and adult books. 

Here are some pictures of our table, Diagon Alley, kids dressed up for the costume contest, and my own outfit. (Yes, this was an event where we encouraged masking and all volunteers had a mandatory mask rule.)

My last-minute, weather appropriate garb, as a Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes employee

Our 3 costume winners: Seamus Finnegan (complete with soot-covered face, Dobby, and Professor Trewlawney)

Putting together our gear for Wizarding tea

On Harry's actual birthday, Eric and I convinced some vaccinated friends to go to an annual Harry Potter tea near to us. We have gone every year except last year, where everything was still shut down for indoor dining. This year they had welcome cocktails, tea leaf reading (a must for every year), and a Muggle magician. If you've seen my IG reel, you can watch me volunteer. I wrote my name on a piece of parchment, we set it on fire, and then it reappeared inside of an orange. Amazing! Here are some of my favorite pics:

Channeling our love of Ron's love for the Chudley Cannons Quidditch team

Reading our tea leaves. I see a crow and a crown in the middle, and what might be a squirrel - I see a llama - over on the right. What do you see?

There was a Muggle magician!

Dobby follows me everywhere, I guess. Here's Eric and I with some fellow Potter friends

Cocktails: Butterbeer, Golden Snitch, Invisibility Cloak (color-changing gin drink)

There will be more photos to come once we have had our game night (with costumes!) and probably Rose City Comic Con (where I will volunteer with PDXpelliarmus again) and then Yule Ball. Cheers to August! 

How is your summer going? Did you do any Harry Potter activities?

How To Get $25 for Saving for Vacation

Do you like free money? I mean, don't we all? Well, right now you can get a free $25 for doing almost nothing! Who's giving all this money away? Qapital! (use code rt7pa62x)

Photo by Vitaly Taranov on Unsplash

Normally, when you sign up using a referral link, you get $5, which is still pretty awesome, because that's five more dollars than you didn't have before, but right now, when you sign up through my referral link, you get five times that amount! 

Maybe you're thinking "what the heck is Qapital and why would I sign up for it?" That's valid. Qapital is an awesome app that helps you save for things in life you want, like that amazing trip to Greece you've been thinking about. Signing up is easy. You choose your preferred membership level, link up your accounts to it, create "rules" for yourself, and then start saving! Membership starts at just $3/month, but you will save much more than than in the long run.

Photo by Kody Gautier on Unsplash

Some of my favorite rules are the Round Up, the Payday, and the Spend Less Rule. Round Up rounds up all your purchases to the nearest $2, so if you spend $23.45, $.55 will automatically go to your Qapital account. The Payday Rule gives you a way to put aside a set amount of money each payday. The Spend Less Rule has you set a budget for certain things and if you come in under that budget, the remainder gets saved to your Qapital account. It's super easy to save, but also super easy to move your money back to your bank account (or your spending account if you use the Qapital debit), so you can use it on your goals. 

Photo by Katie Harp - Pinterest Manager on Unsplash

What if you don't have any money in your bank account? That's okay! Qapital monitors your accounts and pauses your saving when you get below a certain threshold so you don't end up in the red. They look out for you in all the important ways, and before you know it, you've got money for those things that are on the top of your list. So....not overlimit fees. 

There are TONS of rules you can set up, so there's always something that's going to work for you, plus you can pause savings when you need to, or you can add a little extra to your savings when you have extra to put away. When you make a milestone, Qapital throws you a little party on your phone to let you know how you're doing and make you feel good about yourself. I love it. I've been using it for 4-5 years now and have saved over $4,000 just by rounding up my purchases with my debit card. 

Start saving now (use code rt7pa62x) and soon you'll be planning that trip you've been dreaming about! What are you saving for right now? 

Disclaimer: When you sign up and get money, I also get money. Once you sign up, I encourage you to refer all your friends and make even more free money from Qapital!