dinner for one

i really like black pudding

2012-01-27T13:29:00.003+01:00

i handle my breakfast needs in ready to go portions now

2012-01-18T16:04:00.001+01:00

just like they suggestes the other day at apartment therapy.
it is a hearty, savoury oatmeal soup, by the way.

i think i am getting back in the mood for foodblogging

2011-08-20T18:23:00.002+02:00

curiosities

2011-08-03T20:09:00.001+02:00

tomatenraritäten, a photo by tschörda on Flickr.

i did not eat tomatoes for more than 30 years of my life. i can't even remember why.

spot the sorrel!

2011-08-03T20:00:00.001+02:00

spot the sauerampfer!, a photo by tschörda on Flickr.

in your FACE

2011-06-19T17:40:00.001+02:00

in your FACE, a photo by tschörda on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
i see a smiling frog.

cooking for one

2011-06-11T20:41:00.001+02:00

dinner for one, a photo by tschörda on Flickr.

fennel forever

2011-05-28T15:57:00.001+02:00

fennel forever, a photo by tschörda on Flickr.

growing stuff

2011-05-08T14:28:00.002+02:00

growing stuff, a photo by tschörda on Flickr.

dinner for one: spring edition

2011-03-21T19:54:00.002+01:00

odds and ends

2011-03-13T20:58:00.000+01:00

yes, soup

2011-02-04T19:04:00.000+01:00

white sugar makes way for brown cane sugar

2011-01-30T18:01:00.003+01:00

i am guessing cauliflower

2011-01-07T22:07:00.004+01:00

since i always have leftovers when i make a big pot of soup it is not so unusual for me to freeze the odd batch or two. every time. my little ice box is brimful with frozen blocks of soup! and i rarely ever label the frozen jars. this makes it kind of fun to guess what i am having for dinner when i thaw a container with a generic liquid and hardly any signs of ingredients.

recently i was kind of hoping for a leeky potato soup and it turned out to be cauliflower and dill.

not so bad either!

i really love chai tea lately

2010-11-21T17:37:00.003+01:00

i make myself a schnitzel

2010-11-14T17:42:00.001+01:00

start spreading the news ...

2010-10-23T14:36:00.012+02:00

well. i am not a globetrotting kind of person.

but when i look back at my year i am amazed that i have seen so many places and that i took so many nice trips in 2010 that lead me away from my regular paths. berlin, istanbul ... and guess what, i am practically on my way to new york city now. it will be a trip with my department from university and it is pretty well planned (they have a lot of arty and touristy stuff covered), but i also want to sneak off every now and then and do stuff on my own.

i especially intend to eat my way around new york. or maybe i should watch a few episodes of sex and the city in preparation for my trip?

or perhaps you want to help me fill my google map with personal tips off the beaten track? that would be really nice!

oh, and if you want to get in contact and maybe even join a little european girl wandering around manhattan - don't be shy! get in touch via email! it would be really cool to meet fellow foodbloggers!

... i am really getting excited now ... !

dish towel salad dressing

2010-09-19T18:17:00.010+02:00

i am a frugal person living on a budget and i just HATE seeing food go to waste. especially since i usually buy the more expensive organic version of things.

would you throw your money in the composte bin?
i wouldn't either.

so i was wondering how i could handle my "salad problem" better. i often ended up eating bigbig portions of salad because i would fear i'd have to throw out a half eaten lettuce a few days later. i had to throw out several half eaten heads of lettuce nonetheless!

thank the fsm for apartment therapy and their food section "the kitchn". i recently tried their method on how to store greens and i have to say this approach is just perfect for me.

you should check that method out too and have crisp and fresh salad all week long!

i need one of those

2010-09-12T22:52:00.000+02:00

restructuring. kitchen and life.

2010-08-29T11:27:00.013+02:00

a while back there was this problem with the plumbing behind my kitchen cabinets. i didn't realise the subtlie leakage at first but as a weird smell developed after a few weeks ... yeah, let me spare you the disgusting details. believe me, you don't want me to paint you a picture of half rotten kitchen cabinets!

so i called the people from my local bulk rubbish service to pick up half of my kitchen (i usually would not touch mould with a pole, but i just had to put on my work clothes and get this disgusting stuff out of my space), i borrowed a car, drove to IKEA and bought some new kitchen counters.

after giving my empty kitchen a good goooood gooooooood and thorough cleaning - several times - and also treating myself to a mini diswasher (the first diswasher i own! EVER!) i now can show you my brand new kitchen with optimised storage and way more space.

i have to admit it is a bit high for a short person like me but nonetheless i love my new space because i wanted open counters for like forever.

as you can see i don't have a built in oven, i just pull out my electrical appliances from underneath. i love to keep things flexible like that and cooking here also works perfectly for me.

if it only was that easy!

2010-07-30T22:07:00.000+02:00

Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.

my shiatsu guy said i should eat porridge in the mornings

2010-06-23T13:09:00.005+02:00

this is going to be tough because i am not a breakfast person at all. and with the gooey consistency of this meal ... is that really what a good start into the day looks and tastes like? though i have to admit, my porridge and fruit thing here did not taste too bad. i will certainly give this new breakfast ritual a try.

(happy) chicken wings and (fruity) mango dip

2010-05-27T16:26:00.011+02:00

silvana franco made something similar on "the best" (LOVE that show!) but since i can't quite remember the correct quantities or spices anyway i will do my take on this and make my chicken wings with a hint of tikka. this may seem like a fastfood dish but i am actually careful that i always buy free-range so my chickens are as happy as possible when they are alive. i firmly believe that it is better for me to avoid meat from facory farming! and it also might not be that fast before i can tuck in - i am sure this will need more than an hour before it is ready to eat! (edit: yes it did)

(happy) chicken wings

add one tablespoon of garlic salt, a good handfull of chopped koriander, three teaspoons of tikka seasoning and four tablespoons of flour to the happy chicken wings (i bought about one kilo, which easily serves two. or me, twice.) toss them around a little, making sure they're evenly coated. preheat your oven to 220°c and place the wings on some sort of rack on a baking sheet. the happy wings will take about twenty minutes to half an hour on each side, turn them over half way through!

mine were fairly large, so they took a while to roast all the way through. after i figured out that my oven has a grill preset and i switched that on everything went a little quicker. so i suggest you just trust your cooking skills on the right timing!

(not quite ready to turn)

a nice side dish for the chicken is a mango dip, especially if you have to rescue one overripe mango from going bad. chop a few spring onions and sauteé in a table spoon of vegetable oil over medium heat. roughly chop a mango and add to the onions. also add four tablespoons of brown sugar, four tablespoons of vinegar and one tablespoon of salt.

turn up the heat a bit and add one star anis. let the mango simmer until the happy chicken wings are ready! i wonder if this really is a dip, it might be more of a sauce or even chutney ... aaah, what to i know. i have no idea when it comes to culinary theory!

and there you have it! now go sit in front of the TV and open a can of beer for this dish.
and burp when you're done!

or better yet: dine in style! don't worry if it is just you having these perfect wings. pull out the good place mat and get out the good china. the happy wings deserve to be celebrated, so you might even light a candle!

go on, light a candle.
you know you want to!

(not really a whole lot left)

(that is going to taste so amazing when i reheat it at work tomorrow. wow. my mouth is watering. and i just ate! the happy chicken wings are just delicious!)

i like how they compare money to cake

2010-05-19T17:11:00.010+02:00

i will try this micro payment system here on my blog. it is a good idea but i wonder if it catches on. after all, it is still in beta. it might end up being bloggers shuffeling around really really small amounts of money. a "like" button like on facebook does show appreciation, but you can click it very recklessly. so how do i really show appreciation for a post that i consider worth something? by giving money, i suppose.

i will try that. but on the other hand: does it really make sense to show appreciation by giving away money, even if it is less than a few cents? oh, and one more question: am i really THAT much of a capitalist that i think i can make money off of a hasbeen weblog?

i will go do my dishes now and think about that for a while.

i am making bread again

2010-05-15T17:39:00.004+02:00

i used to be afraid of yeast.

i recently bought one of those "passion" notebooks by moleskine and my sister added the first recipe: sour dough and yeast bread. reason enough for me to start the breadmaker!

perfect shape.
perfect taste.

delicious istanbul

2010-04-12T20:50:00.006+02:00

i recently spent a week in istanbul on a university trip / vacation. i have to tell you that i could not get enough of the amazing food! boy oh boy, i could go back there right away just for the gorgeous simits alone! my local turkish minimarkt does not have them, so i have to go look elsewhere. i will have to check out the other turkish shops around town but i doubt i will find anything as fresh as the curls that were still warm from the bakery next to our hostel ...

i make sure there's always chocolate icecream in my freezer

2010-03-16T19:28:00.000+01:00

i think i may need that!

2010-02-26T20:53:00.003+01:00

oh wait.
i KNOW i need this!!!

culinary highlights of last week: tandoori plus coriander and tom ka gai

2010-01-31T20:13:00.005+01:00

what went wrong?

2010-01-06T14:15:00.005+01:00

when i was little, my grandmother always used to say "this is where the baker slept!" when we found a big "cave" like this in a bread ... to this day i cant get that image out of my head ...

i mixed two different kinds of flour. since i don't really know yet how that ancient wheat "purpurweizen" must be treated, i will have to experiment a little more. maybe more water? more time to rise? and definitely more kneading! yes, that's probably it.

present

2009-12-16T21:09:00.005+01:00

i am currently baking a prototype for a couple of christmas presents. i am giving away do-it-yourself-food this year :)

what's up?

2009-11-25T16:52:00.002+01:00

maybe i can resuscitate this blog by joining a foodblog event, just like in the old days?

but where should i start?

do something new every day

2009-10-10T14:31:00.009+02:00

i bought this steamer on sale a few months ago and i never had the nerve to really cook something in it. who knew that it was THAT easy and quick!

of course, ainsley harriott does it much better and if you want the exact recipe you probably should stick to his segment of the series "gourmet express"

to go

2009-10-05T14:33:00.011+02:00

the new semester starts today, it might be my last. honestly, i can hardly wait to be done with university, i am getting a little too old at (almost) thirty four! but there is one thing i still need to take advantage of: apparently i could get funding from university if i wanted to spend some time abroad doing research for e.g. a master's thesis.

hey wait a minute: I WANT TO DO THAT!

i spent a week in london recently, it was my second trip to this fabulous city in 2009. as i mentioned on this blog before i've lived in london for a year when i was younger ... and i think i need to go there again. it would feel right to spend some more time in london, and though i have absolutely no plan how to finance this, where to work, where to live ... i think a good start would be to do research for my master's thesis there and at least get a little funding!

one thing i absolutely adore about london is the vast variety of food you can get there. every borough offers its specialities and the various ethnicities just make london a neverending buffet for me! there is always something new to discover and i have to admit that i pretty much munched my way through hammersmith, shepherds bush and china town recently.

boy oh boy, and how much do i love the "to go"-mentality! street vendors even sell you soup, can you imagine that? i loved that. since i am pretty stubborn now when it comes to organic, local and healthy and i just can't get a big variety "to go" here in linz (or at university) i decided to make my own soup today and fill it in my thermos. woah, it was sooo good to have something hearty and warm! fellow students ogled at me jealously!

this recipe is loosely based on a creamy tomato soup recipe i once saw on a gary rhodes program. i think this soup can be as freestyle as you like, but since i haven't added a recipe in a while i'll just give you the exact measurements on my version:

1 tbsp sunflower oil
35 g leek
100 g diced celery
200 g grated carrots
50 g grated parsnips
50 g grated carrots, yellow
500 g diced tomatoes
parsley
1 liter of water
cream or cream cheese
pepper to taste

in a large pot, fry the leek in the sunflower oil over medium heat. add the diced celery and the grated vegetables and turn up the heat.

add one liter of plain water and add the tomatoes. throw in a good handfull of parsley and don't be shy here: it will all be blizzed later, so just cut up the stalks and add them to your soup as they are full of flavour and it would be a total waste to throw them away! let the soup simmer for at least half an hour.

now get out your kitchen gear and blizz the soup - if you want to add more creaminess you could add cream - i only had cream cheese in my fridge so i added a good tablespoon full of that.

a good overdose of pepper :D and the soup is ready for my thermos!

i think my two basils made love to each other! how naughty!

2009-08-19T21:32:00.004+02:00

you can totally see that the green one now has blossoms like the purple one has and the leaves of the purple one are speckled green!

they totally made out!

they even hold hands most of the time.
well, leaves.

now, will this even work?

2009-07-31T17:59:00.009+02:00

okay. this was an impulse purchase. i was at this little indian shop near my home and i bought about everything that looked good to me. but how do i open a bloody coconut?

no idea!

yes, i will get my hammer. that is never a mistake.

i better make a few holes and drain the liquid.
it will be messy anyway but it might be a little less messy if i bash in an empty coconut.

okay, this worked quite well.
i might even succeed with my coconut project!

how do i proceed now?!
aber "wie öffnet man eine kokosnuss?"
thank god for google!

after a few strikes i have a breakthrough!
a little less than 2 minutes!
it is a little skewed, i grant, but i am absolutely amazed!
that was so easy!

all in all it took me less than 5 minutes to tackle my first coconut!

some people are taken aback by the taste because a coconut is not as sweet as your regular bounty bar, but still - i should embark upon such culinary adventures more often!

i am very proud of myself for even buying such a little monstrosity ... bring on the plantain now!

is there even such a thing as fancy traditional fast food?

2009-07-13T18:26:00.010+02:00

we finally have a fine summer day here in austria after weeks of chilly weather, rain and even flooding. it almost felt like autumn already, so it wasn't all that strange for me to think of warming stew when i found cute little miniature cabbage in my organic delivery last week.

but how do i use those adorable tiny cabbages before summer hits us big time and all i want to eat is ice cream and stuff my bra with those fish fillets from my freezer?

i will go for classic bohemian utilization, krautfleckerl. i like them even better when they are cold, but that is just one of my gastronomical quirks. those mini cabbages will give me more than enough for lunch and dinner! krautfleckerl usually consist of classic head cabbage, onions and pasta called fleckerl. you could compare fleckerl to the italian quadrucci or farfalle.

but i need to improvise once again and use up my penne, my garlic and those three adorable bundles instead of the classic ingredients fleckerl, onion and cabbage. so technically this dish might not be krautfleckerl anymore ... let's call it an interpretation! lets call it ...

penne with braised baby cabbage

i cooked a good hand full of penne. in the same pot, i later fried 4 cloves of garlic in sunflower oil. i roughly cut those baby cabbage heads, all in all they where about 250 grams in the end. i added that to the pot.

then i added 100 ml of water, popped on a lid and let the cabbage simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes. the water had dissappeared by then and all that was left to do was adding the pasta and the seasoning. i am not supposed to eat too much salt because my bood pressure is going through the roof, so i only added fresly groud black pepper. i am sure caraway seeds would also fit perfectly (they are mandatory in regular krautfleckerl!) or you could even use vegetable stock instead of water.

maybe i should give my improvisations a little more thought, because caraway seeds would have been a great thing in there! but there you go. i spiced up something i've known and liked all my life and that is nothing special at all, just everyday food. i could cook krautfleckerl if you woke me up in the middle of the night :)

precision work

2009-06-26T11:23:00.005+02:00

the opening of my exhibition was yesterday.
it was just wonderful!
perfect!!

i also had a live stream running and it is now archived, if you want to check it out.
but honestly: you just had to be there!

and i'm still overwhelmed by the responses i got! usually i am pretty humble when it comes to me being an artist and i cant even imagine that people take an interest in what i do. though i am loudmouthed, i don't really have *balls* :D yesterday was the perfect mixture of the artsy-fartsy i want to be sometimes and the authenticity i stand for, generally. it was so great to see my friends there and my family too. my mama even made her delicious potato spread for the buffet, everyone loved it! it was a nice culinary experience, as i got a pot of meat from the local kebap vendor too. i want people to come together over food!

i can't even begin to describe how i loved that evening yesterday!

exhibitionist!

2009-06-11T20:32:00.009+02:00

*
now that food blogging has become very trendy and many of the bloggers out there are having book deals and all i am very proud to announce that i will have something pretty special coming up too!

i will be showing 40 of my food pictures in a gallery.

i am very proud that i have the opportunity to show my work in a friend's art gallery. though i am not a high-profile food blogger at all dinner for one has had a good run so far, don't you think? and i am in my 5th year already, can you believe this?

granted, i am not as active as i was in the early years, but i am sure i will not put dinner for one asleep just yet. somehow i think there are a few more years of munching ahead!

* i don't want to show you the pictures just yet, my friend! i'll post them here once they are up in the gallery, because i guess most of you will not be able to drop by in person :) so be patient!

the perfect egg. 4 minutes. timed.

2009-05-24T10:45:00.004+02:00

it is firm on the outside and still soft in the middle - who cares if there is a dent in it?

my life is upside down right now. but i will be back.

2009-05-19T18:30:00.005+02:00

help yourself to some fabulous hasselback potatoes in the meantime!

gründonnerstag

2009-04-09T18:54:00.004+02:00

maudy what?!

i never eat beef

2009-03-06T20:15:00.008+01:00

i mostly cook vegetarian now, sometimes even vegan. i don't really miss meat and going vegetarian/vegan is about as close as i will ever get to these special diets that would probably be a good idea for an ms-patient like me. i've made quite a few adjustments to my diet anyway since the diagnosis and i continue to do so, but i am not (yet) cut out for the strict regime that's necessary when you follow those specific diets. there are several diets too, which makes it even harder to find one that suits me.

ah, what the hell.

i never hesitate to eat meat when i feel like eating meat! i'm like "hey, my body wants it, my body probably needs it!" when i have that craving i always buy poultry. i haven't bought red meat in years, even before the diagnosis.

when i stumbled upon the amazing recipe for mongolian beef over at "the crepes of wrath" i not only licked my laptop screen, i also instantly wanted to try it.

well, i did. and i did not substitute the red meat with white meat on my first try. though the dish itself tasted incredibly hearty and savoury i wasn't too satisfied with my choice of the red meat.

since the recipe itself is pretty awesome and tasty i was willing to give the dish another try - this time with turkey (virtually the only kind of meat i eat these days).

so here is my (metric) approach to the recipe along with some pictures.

dice two turkey schnitzel and cover the cubes with two heaped spoons full of cornstarch. make sure to shake off any excess starch because it can make your sauce too gooey. set the meat aside while you prepare the sauce.

fry one tablespoon of grated ginger and six cloves of minced garlic in three teaspoons of sunflower oil.

now mix 150 ml water and 150 ml soy sauce with two generous table spoons of sugar and add to the pan [the original recipe calls for brown sugar, but i still have to get rid of a couple of sachets of plain old white sugar. so i used those].

now remove the sauce from the pan. fry the meat until it starts to turn brown.

now pour the sauce back in the pan and let it simmer over medium heat until the sauce has your desired consistency.

cook your favorite rice for this dish! i am totally into brown rice these days ...

garnish with a nice touch of a little green when you arrange the dish. you could use spring onions or salad or even swiss chard, as i did.

while i am all for experiencing new things and tastes i guess i'll resort to white meat in the future. turkey is just "my thing", i like it a lot and it looks like i just can't cook red meat anyway - it is never tender and yummie, it always has the consistency of the sole of a shoe. clearly, i am doing something wrong! i probably can't handle beef! [and i manage to screw up dishes with pork now too.]

what a fantastic dish! even the leftovers look delicious! [since i made enough to have dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow, technically those are not leftovers. this is my lunch for tomorrow!]

rosmarinus officinalis

2009-01-12T17:56:00.004+01:00

since it looks like my rosemary wants to go the way of all earthly things i have to act quickly: before the last green *leaf* of this baby conifer drops to the ground i'll stuff a couple of those *leafs* in a nice bottle and marinate my sunflower oil.

that should work, don't you think?

[laˈzaɲa] for my computer guy

2008-12-15T20:00:00.002+01:00

well, i am a computer girl myself. i don't mind to screw open a data processor and adjust hardware. in most cases i even adjust hardware sucessfully *lol*. my friend peter is hardcore though. he can do *everything* with a computer, may it be hardware, software, a network or whatever. no kidding. i bow before him!

peter drops by with a few ram modules for the server he gave me recently and therefor i will cook a delicious lasagna for him tonight.

when he presented me with the server a couple of weeks ago i was a geek girl in heaven! i hope tonight he'll be a geek boy in a lasagna coma :D. undoubtedly he *will* be, because i made my first lasagna in a cooking class when i was eleven years old and it was very good right from the start. now, 22 years later i still cook it from time to time. i don't need a recipe, i cook it slightly different every time and it still turns out ... well, pretty darn good! yes yes yes, i blow my own trumpet here, but believe me, my lasagna IS perfection! [but whose isn't?]

in a pan, fry one small onion in a little olive oil. add 500 g of minced meat and gently fry over medium heat. sprinkle in two stock cubes. add one spoon full of tomato paste and a couple of cherry tomatoes. add dried basil, cover with a lid, leave on medium heat and let simmer for half an hour. stir occasionally.

prepare béchamel sauce (or white sauce) once the meat looks ready by whisking 300 ml of scalded milk gradually into a white flour-butter roux (roux is equal part clarified butter and flour). the sauce should not be too thick! stir a couple of fresh basil leaves into the meat sauce and start to build the layers:

ladle enough meat sauce in a baking dish to cover the bottom and top that with non cook lasagna noodles. top with béchamel sauce, just enough to cover the noodles. add an even layer of your favorite cheese. now add meat sauce again, then noodles, béchamel sauce, cheese, meat sauce and so forth. make as many layers as you wish, i usually get to four or five. top with béchamel sauce and add some more cheese. for a fresh touch i like to add cherry tomatoes and fresh basil and even more cheeeeeeese :) bake in a preheated oven for one hour to 90 minutes and allow it to sit for a few minutes before serving.

i think peter enjoyed my dinner.

he even finished off what i did not manage to eat! good guy!

google friend connect

2008-12-05T09:52:00.002+01:00

so, i am just trying this new feature, google friend connect. i have no clue what it is all about yet, but since i am an early adopter as far as web 2.0 is concerned ... google says it will *enrich my site* and *attract more visitors* - we'll see about that!

[i'll try to make christmas cookies in the meantime]

my winter salad

2008-11-30T15:54:00.004+01:00

cook a few small (new) potatoes. wash lamb's lettuce and marinade in olive oil, vinegar and pepper. add a spoon full of sunflower seeds. toss. set aside. once the potatoes are done, cut them in half and fry them in a splash of olive oil. add salt and pepper and also rosemary. when the potatoes are nice and crisp add them to the lettuce and toss.

enjoy.

love food, hate waste AND save money

2008-11-19T19:03:00.004+01:00

a very inspirational website i just found:

http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

growing up in a working class enviroment i've learned to live a resourceful life at a very young age. i still am very aware of that today (i believe), but there is no harm in consulting clever websites every now and then. it's not only that i hate being wasteful, i also can't affort to pour money down the drain! really - who can, these days? while i try to be very aware of enviromental issues, i also am aware of my slender purse.

for the soul

2008-11-16T16:17:00.008+01:00

so, what do you do when this leek you've had in the fridge for a while seems to go the way of all earthly things? you suddenly are inspired to post to your foodblog again!

leek soup
wash, peel and cut three small potatoes into cubes. cut one leek into rounds. fry the potatoes in vegetable oil over medium heat. you only need to do this for a couple of minutes before adding the leek. put a lid on the pot and sauté the vegetables gently for a few more minutes [if you want to add any herbs, you can do it at that point. parsley, tarragon, whatever. chop a good hand full and throw it in as well! unfortunately the herbs on my balcony did not want to stay alive when i moved them inside to my windowsill ...] add one liter of vegetable stock and bring to a boil. reduce the heat and let the soup simmer until the vegetables are soft. arrange on a plate with a dash of pepper and nutmeg. since i had to get rid of some very frumpy rye bread i decided to toast some slices, break them up and make croutons.

now, this is really heart-warming ...

i am making bread on weekends

2008-10-11T12:12:00.003+02:00

no knead bread

fake it till you make it

2008-10-10T19:53:00.003+02:00

i've had a very rough time lately as you might be able to guess.

so today i am faking apfelstrudel because they now sell filo dough at my local grocery store for all my strudel needs. i suppose i'll keep a packet of this pastry in my fridge from now on ...

good work!

2008-07-19T20:44:00.002+02:00

how weird. that piece of stop motion cooking actually made me hungry!

snap!

2008-07-03T14:17:00.006+02:00

i am not big on impromptu action. i need to plan ahead, i need to set things up properly, i need to be prepared. i've always been like that, but ever since i have to be on a schedule with my medication, it became even worse. i wish i could be impulsive, but i am just not. having a plan calms me down.

recently i learned to let go a little, don't ask me why. maybe it comes with age. maybe it's because it occured to me that i don't even have a "plan b" as far as my life is concerned. maybe it's because i realized that i can *not* controll everything. and i don't even need to be able to controll everything!

i spent a few days in berlin the other week *just because*. a vacation (or even a daytrip) usually is a HUGE thing for me. and guess what, not everything was planned out and not everything i had planned went according to my neat and oh so clever schedule. gosh, i even forgot my towel at home and to my big surprise, this was not the end of the world! omg, and the foooooood in berlin is awesome! what a great cultural diversity, and how cheap and amazing it is! so authentic, i can't even begin to describe the enjoyment!

but i am getting off the point!

i actually wanted to show you a few pictures of an impromptu beach-dinner-thing i organized yesterday. I ORGANIZED IT! well, there wasn't a lot to organize, those things usually organize themselves. i just brought the food and the forks and i called a few people.

it was awesome, to say the least!

i made some bbq pasta salad that was kind of mediterranean. i don't have a big recipe for this, though. i grilled a few vegetables and halloumi and boiled a substancial amount of pasta. i let it all cool a bit and combined everything with 125 g crème fraiche, herbs and garlic.

summer has never been a friend of mine, i get a sunburn and a million freckles only *thinking* of sun (though i use baby sunlotion spf 50+), but as far as the summer food is concerned ... oh, how i love it!

how sweet, more *nockerl ... !

2008-06-19T14:33:00.004+02:00

i guess you are aware of my love for *nockerl*. i adore those tiny pillows in every shape and form, no matter if savory or sweet. luckily my heirloom recipes offer many variations, they all are easy, quick, filling, cheap and above all delicious. the little dumplings really are a staple of the regional cuisine and i think that their biggest pro is that you can so easily adjust servings to your desire.

if you feel really hungry just go ahead and load a whole plate full to the brim! if you come home from a loooong day and you still have left over *nockerl* from the day before, just nibble around a bit! grab your fork and plunge into the pot!

it also comes in very handy that you can so easily freeze a batch, if they are still undercooked or half done it's even better. you can get very inventive with your additional ingredients when you fancy *nockerl* the next time and take a batch out of your freezer.

but i am going for freshly boiled today.
and i am also going for sweet!

topfennockerl / tiny curd cheese dumplings, nockerl, or gnocchi

with a fork, thoroughly mix 250 g curd cheese, one egg, 25 g (2 tablespoons) of semolina, 20 g (2 tablespoons) of flour and a pinch of salt. you might need more flour, this really depends on the texture of your mixture. you might even need less than i used here, just try it out!

set the mixture aside and let it rest for about half an hour. the dough should not be too soft, so you might even add more flour at this point.

bring a pot of water to the boil. now form little *nockerl* with two spoons. once you throw them into the water, it should only simmer (this is VERY important!) the *nockerl* are done when they start to float to the surface.

melt a knob of butter in a pan. stir in 15 tablespoons of breadcrumbs and two packets of vanilla sugar. roast the crumbs until they turn brown. my mum usually makes them much sweeter and adds like 4 times as much (regular) sugar and also cinnamon. you see, it just depends on your taste!

when your *nockerl* are done, remove them from the water, place them in the pan and turn them a little to coat them with the crumbs.

it turns out that the specifications above make exactly 13 nockerl. too much for me to eat in one sitting, so this actually serves two. or me again, in the evening.

the other day my mum suggested to coat those *nockerl* with poppy seeds. that's also a fine idea but since my pantry is not as well stocked as hers i'd need to do some more grocery shopping for *nockerl* improvisation extravaganza.

am hungertuch nagen

2008-05-26T18:30:00.003+02:00

if you literally translate that german expression it says something like *nibbling on the hunger cloth*. that saying always annoyed me, as long as i can remember. because no matter how little money my family had or how bad things where all around, there was always food on the table.

i think i might have jumped the gun with my last post and my recent comments probably led you to believe that i am actually more than broke and everything is going down the drain. no, i can't affort a new computer right now. but this one might work just fine for a couple of more months! hey, and i wouldn't be a *glass half full-person* if i let a silly computer problem get me down, right? if life hands you financial lemons ... take a stroll trough your neighbourhood and look for delicious rambling weeds you could cook for dinner!

... uhm ... say what?! is the [dinner for one] lady a bag lady now??

no, i am not completely coo-coo. well, at least not yet! but my current *misery* (is it, really?) made me think. how did my mother and my grandmother do that? how did they feed a busload of hungry yaps several times a day with delicious, filling and above all cheap meals? how did they creatively alter recipes and just make the most of the produce from their own backyard? well, i don't have the luxury of a backyard, but i do have a lovely neighborhood where interesting *things* grow wild. interesting things i used to eat when i was a child! that's not weed! that's not worthless green garbage! when i was strolling my block the last couple of days, the delicious smell of elderflower tickled my nose i immediately thought of those amazing fritters my grandmother used to make. they where merely fried blossoms dipped in pancake batter, and they where unbelievably delicious.

elderflower fritters / elderflower pancakes

first, gather a couple of elderflowers. you don't need to wash them, just make sure that you remove any insects from the blossoms or the stalks - we want the fritters to be vegetarian, right?

[ since i worship mister anthony bourdain and his approach towards food around the globe i might even fry me up some high-protein bug, what do you think? na, just kidding! ]

now mix 125 g flour (i used half whole wheat and half regular white flour), one egg, 250 ml milk and a dash of salt and leave it to rest for at least half an hour [or make *your* favourite pancake batter, i am sure it will work just as good!]. make sure the batter is really thick, because it needs to cover all the blossoms in the end. too runny is not good!

in the meantime heat a knob of butter in a small frying pan. dunk the flower heads in the batter then place them flowerside down in the pan.

if your batter is too runny you can spoon some more over the flowers in the pan. you only need to fry one side, just wait until the batter sets. if you want the fritters more pancake-style you can cut off the main stalks and flip them over. if you deep fry them in hot oil, they probably look a little more appealing, but i totally like them pancake style! i even had so much batter left at the end that i made a regular pancake that covered the last floret entirely ... yummie too! [see the rest of the pictures here]

dust the florets with icing sugar and eat while still warm! vanilla ice cream on the side is also a very very good idea :)

while i never was a fan of those elderflower drinks that became so popular over the last couple of years as a fizzy refreshment throughout the summer i just love love love compote of ripe elderberries. it was my grandmother's trademark dessert and my mum makes it equally well. i guess this autumn it is finally time for me to tackle this heirloom recipe! i'll still have some time until then, so i better not munch away those bushes lining the streets in my neighborhood!

great. now my laptop breaks down.

2008-05-22T13:51:00.006+02:00

fantastic.

now that i finally manage to scrape the money together for my recent dental work (the option was *NO FRONT TOOTH!*) my stupid laptop breaks down! so i might be offline for a while. and i even made pictures of a recent meal for [dinner for one], damn!!

do you have too much money?
do you want to buy me a pc?

yes?
cool!

it's pretty shameless to pump you for gadgets, i know.
but i am also broke and a little sad right now.

oh, i love denglish!

2008-05-20T18:09:00.006+02:00

question mark! exclamation mark!

i tend to intersperse my sentences with english words, which must be pretty annoying at times ... when i spottet this book "cook it vegetarisch" i thought i'd just go ahead and buy it! as you might imagine, i am also very susceptible to denglish!

it might help me to get things going again, huh?

and i bought alphabet soup.

top 10 pictures

2008-05-15T11:25:00.009+02:00

celine of black.salt tagged me! sure, she is totally stroking my ego, because she's actually inviting me to show off my top 10 pictures ... "yes of course", says my ego, "we'll do that!" so i head over to my flickr-account to check out what other people think are my best pictures. most of them are my fav's also! wow, i already forgot so many of the delicious foods i made! and i feel a little bit stupid for abandoning my blog for so long ... plus, my ego just tells me: "gerda, we will *never* narrow our favorite pictures down to just ten!" ;) well, i'll give it a try, okay?

10 hokkaidokürbissuppe mit zucchini

09 würzig marinierte sardinen

08 buckwheat
(i'll always love this photo. my foodblog started out with these buckwheat-pix!)

07 rindsuppe mit grießnockerl (semolina dumplings in broth)

06 australische nationalfeiertagscookies ... oder so

05 orangenmarmelade

04 putenschnitzen / bauerntoast-style

03 crumpets!

02 knoblauchcremesuppe

01 ricotta pancakes with fruit on top

wow, that's really tough! i can't decide, i cant't decide!! now:

1. post 10 of your own favourite food shots
2. pass the opportunity on to others by tagging 5 fellow food bloggers, leaving a message on their comments page just so they’re aware of it. after my absence i might be a little out of touch with the foodie world, so i leave this tag open. feel free to show me your top 10 pictures, my friend!

please leave a comment here if you like to join and show off!

maybe tomorrow?

2008-04-07T13:11:00.003+02:00

brewing cough medicine

2008-02-29T14:58:00.003+01:00

i might not be the only person having a cold these days and while i managed to steer clear of nasty cough-germs for a couple of years (i never cough!) it finally hit me last week. phew, i even have a mild fever!! and that's really nasty, let me tell you!

it's a good thing i consider myself a little witch and i can brew myself all kinds of remedies!

;)

ah, not really.

but i always rely on household remedies if an illness is somewhat harmless ... this one is, i feel a little weak, i want to stay in bed all day - and i do!! the coughing is just bugging the hell out of me so i need to drench myself in vitamins despite my current state of appetitelessness (is that even an english word?)

so before i officially freak out of cabin fever i pull myself together and turn on the stove. a sick girl needs to eat, even if she's not that hungry!

peel and cut one large carrot (150 g), one large parsnip (130 g), one small onion (55 g), one green bell pepper (90 g), one yellow bell pepper (117 g). put the veggies on a baking tray, sprinkle with a little olive oil and fresh pepper and roast on 180°C until tender.

(i thought i could use the cabbage pictured above too, but i actually didn't. too bad i can't go back in time to rearrange the pic! even when i am sick i am a controllfreak / perfectionist ...)

now grab your immersion blender and mash everything up real nice! the roasted veggies need a little more liquid, so i sprinkled them with a stock cube and poured over 250 ml of hot water. i also added 125 ml of rama cremefine.

looks like i am living on the edge with all the additional cream! i even drizzled a little over the soup when i decorated the plate ... use some more pepper to season (it'll also clear your sinus!)

whoa, i feel better already! watch out nasty germs, tons of vitamins coming your way!

isn't the romanesco the most beautiful vegetable in all the land?

2008-02-04T18:23:00.000+01:00

i mean, isn't this the most beautiful thing on the planet?!

Fibonacci sequences appear in biological settings, such as branching in trees, the fruitlets of a pineapple, an uncurling fern and the arrangement of a pine cone. In addition, numerous poorly substantiated claims of Fibonacci numbers or golden sections in nature are found in popular sources, e.g. relating to the breeding of rabbits, the spirals of shells, and the curve of waves. (wikipedia.org)

the most perfect vegetable on the planet! nerd that i am, i lovelovelove fractals, especially the mandelbrot set, the julia set and the fibonacci number (golden spiral).

c'mon! how could you not ABSOLUTELY ADORE something so clearly structured, logical and easy to understand for a non-mathematician (but somewhat nerdy girl) like me?!

i don't even have a recipe for this parboiled romanesco plus shrimp, i just wanted to update again with a few pictures ... i have been relapsing like crazy for a few weeks now - but don't pity me, i'm already on the road to recovery.

so here it goes: another photo-lovestory!
well, at least i can offer you a tiny sign of life out of my kitchen :)

(... and it was delicious!)

tiny little pillows

2008-01-08T18:05:00.000+01:00

when i got back on the blogging wagon late last year i was combing through my favorite blogs instead of posting a dish myself. you gotta begin in a small way, right? there was one recipe in particular that would not let me go ... i bookmarked it back then and always always always wanted to try the gnocchi over at tuna toast myself.

well, folks - today is the day!

when i was going over the recipe it occured to me that the bohemian cuisine has something very similar (again!) and that i already had my mum cook those "potato noodles" for me to showcase here - which of course, as i was busy busy busy back then i totally forgot to do!

so let's proceed with the gnocchi instead, right? and though the italian approach over at mizz tokyoastrogirl's looks rather tempting, i decided to keep it short and simple in the end (man, was i hungy!!). i fried the little pillows up with garlic, onions and basil. besides, how should i ever make up my mind and choose only one way to prepare the gnocchi since there are like a gazillion variations of these nockerl in bavarian, austrian, hungarian, slovenian and italian cuisine?!

wash, boil and peel 800 g potatoes. mash them with a food mill if you have one, or just use a potato masher like i did. make a mould in the middle and add a knob of butter, 100 g flour (i try to use spelt flour now and i avoid white flour alltogether) and one egg.

work the dough with your hands and knead it well. add more flour if necessary but be carefull - the dough should be fluffy!

cut the dough in several large pieces and roll the first piece into a long stick about as thick as your finger. cut the stick into little pieces.

usually you should give the gnocchi an oval shape, but this is a step i left out. rolling the pieces with a fork and your finger is another interesting way to shape them a little concave, then again i figured i'd go for little pillows instead. it's much too much work to individually shape them! I WAS GETTING REALLY HUNGRY BY THEN! i might want to try the "pretty version" of the gnocchi next time. i was getting crankier by the minute (did i mention just how hungry i was?), so i figured i'd go for "tasty" this time!

bring a pot of water to the boil and add a pinch of salt. when the water is at a boil, put in the little gnocchi. after a couple of minutes the gnocci will rise from the bottom of the pot to the surface - they are ready now! take them out with a large strainer, be careful not to squish them!

in a skillet heat a little olive oil and throw in one sliced onion, basil and garlic if you like. gently fry for a little while. transfer the gnocchi to the skillet and gently toss them until covered. continue stirring the gnocchi.

serve them hot, you can even add some grated cheese if you like!

i figured that i could easily prepare those little babies when i am in a hurry, so i made the whole recipe and froze three batches. phew!! much less preparation time on the next gnocchi-lunch!

ps: did you notice, i got a brandnew camera! i bought myself a belated christmas present, a sony α, one pretty fine dSLR-cam! i still have to get used to it, sooo many buttons to push, sooooo many adjustments to make! i might stick to my little digicam for my food-pix though. i hate to see this precious baby covered in flour!

hm, did i ever post a picture of myself in this blog before?

whoa, i am stuffed! and you?

2007-12-27T20:39:00.000+01:00

the 2nd day of my time consuming christmas baking

2007-12-20T20:34:00.000+01:00

lets start the second day of this overnight adventure, shall we?

now, while the dough must be chilled thoroughly i left mine out on the deck overnight - silly me - and sure, it was frozen. -3°c out on the deck does not equal "chilling", it equals "freezing", stupid! it's not intended to end up like that and i had to thaw the lump of dough for a couple of hours inside before i proceeded with the recipe. what an unnecessary step, right? plus, it added a couple of more hours in this loooong baking adventure to begin with ... i suggest you handle that one differently. i don't think there was any harm done to the dough, but according to the recipe you need to only chill it overnight. i will definitely use the fridge next time too.

i rolled out a few smaller portions to about 3 mm thickness. i cut with christmas cookie cutters and placed them on a cookie sheet before baking the cookies at 175° c for about 10 minutes. i finally put them on a rack to cool. you have to work quickly when you roll out and cut the dough because it is very crumbly and handling it can become somewhat nerve-recking!

the last step of assembling the cookies is easy but somewhat time consuming (aaaaw, again?): spead black current jelly on a flat and round cookie and put a zig-zag one on top. coat the cookie-stack with melted chocolate and decorate with half an almond.

as you can see, i used different shapes too. i was assembling only equal shapes though you're supposed to put a smaller cookie on top of a big one ...

mh, nevermind. they still taste perfect this way! i might do a little more "mix and match" as far as the shapes are concerned the next time. no, wait, next time? there is no way in hell i am going to make such sumptuously cookies again!

yes, i took pictures. so here is my fotolove/hate-story:

too much of a hassle, let me tell you!
don't try them at home!

time consuming christmas baking

2007-12-18T18:07:00.000+01:00

in my venture to make traditional christmas cookies with healthier ingredients i took on österreichische brabanzerl today. neither do i have a clue what brabanzerl actually are, nor have i ever heard the word brabanzerl itself. it might be something from tirol or vorarlberg or even switzerland ... some similar christmas baking originated here in the bohemian forest, but we use ground hazelnuts instead of the almonds, we don't add chocolate either and we don't have to store the dough overnight (huh, it looks like our recipe is totally different after all!) ... we simply call those cookies biscuits that are stuck together. sounds equally silly - i don't even know if they have a real name. they probably do, but we've never called them anything else than zusammengepickte kekse. i am really curious if the original recipe will taste any good with spelt flour and brown sugar ...

150 g spelt flour (original ingredient: wheat flour)
50 g ground almonds
50 g brown sugar (original ingredient: white caster sugar)
50 g melted dark chocolate
150 g soft margarine (i suppose you could substitute margarine for butter)

mix all ingredients together and store overnight in the refrigerator. out on my deck it's minus 3°c so i'll store the dough outside overnight.

now stay tuned! while my cookie dough rests outside in the cold i am in here with a nice cup of tea waiting for another update tomorrow with baking, glazing and decorating ... oh, and eating!

crooked hazelnut macaroons drowned in chocolate

2007-12-11T19:03:00.001+01:00

beat one egg white with a pinch of salt until stiff. gradually add 30 g of sugar, keep beating constantly. fold in 30 g ground and roasted hazelnuts. spoon on wafers on a baking sheet and bake in preheated oven at 180 °c for about 20 minutes. place on a rack and let the macaroons cool.

i am steering clear of many processed foods these days. the (radical) changes in my diet with a focus on MS-related nutrition had a pretty positive effect on my body. i feel stronger and more active and i lost quite a few inches around my waist - i had to buy an entire new wardrobe this winter because not a single pair of pants from this spring fits anymore. not keeping groceries like white sugar in my pantry these days (if any, i use brown sugar instead) is quite a handicap when it comes to christmas baking. i still have to figure out how to make all those gorgeous and sugary xmas-kekse without going completely overboard on the healthy ingredients.

lots and lots of sugar, chocolate and grease are mandatory in xmas-keksen, i could never abandon that! as you can see, my new nourisment is not completely radical! using only spelt, whole wheat or/and honey would probably be a mistake - as a child i could detect "healthy" christmas candy blindfolded - and i would never eat it! healthy baking still tastes good, but i didn't quite get the knack of that yet. so i better stick to what i know and love!

but this first attempt in christmas baking was almost a disaster, mostly traditional ingredients and all ... my macaroons where pretty asymmetric and much too brown when i pulled them out of the oven so i decided to cover them in chocolate - entirely - instead of just the bottoms. tastes yummie and covers up my botched work - what more do i need? turns out, only a good cup of tea! thank god i bought a tea-advent calendar again this year, how kitschy am i?!

yes, very.

it looks like life has its own way of taking care of things

2007-12-11T11:24:00.000+01:00

let me give you another quick update, since once again things have turned around pretty unexpectedly for me! your comments and emails gave me so much perseverance and hope and it looks like this stamina paid off!

yes, i am still single. while i was heartbroken for quite a while it turned out to be okay in the end. life goes on. after all, i am used to function better on my own because i am not so distracted! more room for food-blogging and adjusting my camera while munching my food! after all, this is dinner for one!
i also found a very cool job as a marketing assistant (where i am mostly pushing around pixels in graphic programs) and i am also back at university, and that is the most unexpected thing of all!
when i applied for a student grant in september things where not looking good at all, i honestly thought i will never again go to university because i simply can't afford it. i had already made my peace with it, i was looking for full time jobs - and two days after i got this incredible part time thing in marketing i got the news from my advisor that she recalculated my file again ... and it turns out that i actually am eligible for a scholarship after all! i tell you, this truly is a miracle!

while all these thoughts about my uncertain future at first caused quite some inner turmoil and quite some sleepless nights with the disease flaring up again too it finally looks like i hit the ground running!

look forward my friends, this will not be my only post today! i will go grocery shopping after university later today and i plan to treat myself to some christmassy sweetness!

a quick update

2007-11-05T12:42:00.000+01:00

things have not been going smoothly for me lately.

i am now on medication and it is back to "for one" - two major changes that pretty much suck most of the time. and though i also finished my bachelor's degree i am still looking for a decent job. no idea yet how to make rent next month!

but i am sure i will get through all this.
i know i am strong.
and i hope to get this foodblog back to life too!
thanks for your patience anyway!

fingerfoodfish

2007-08-25T11:14:00.000+02:00

i am always looking for cool ideas to cook fish these days. so when i found this recipe for sardines as fingerfood / tapas i ripped it right out of the magazine. sardines? sure! i tried several kinds of fish in the past weeks and i think i am already tasting differences. so today i'll buy myself some sardines and quickly fry them up for a nice lunch ... or so i thought! can you believe i did not find one single fishmonger in linz who could sell me fresh sardines?! yes, okay, after half a day on my bike on tour through the city i finally found a shop that would sell frozen ones (which i bought anyway). but i wanted to cook them straight away! i would have to thaw and gill them - and that is something that i am not really curious about. i never gilled a fish and honestly, i don't ever want to. i confess that i prefer my meat clean and cut into handy pieces in a styrofoam box. see no evil, hear no evil, don't think of the fact that you actually eat something that was alive once ... yesyesyes! how naive ... don't judge me!

so what is all that about?! are there really no fresh sardines available in this city?!

of course there are. somebody hinted that i could order them in a local eurospar and they would have them available cleaned and gilled the next morning. this is exactly what i wanted! i stuck the frozen sardines in my freezer compartment - they can wait until i am ready to actually gill an animal ... and then i ordered fresh sardines from the eurospar at the city's (only?) shopping center.

[stop looking at me like that!]

rinse 500 g sardines (15 fish) and pat them dry. dredge in flour, shaking off any excess.
heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. when the oil is hot, fry the sardines until brown and crispy. remove to a large serving plate, and keep warm.

add four chopped cloves of garlic to the pan and cook until brown. add one tbsp of paprika powder, one bayleaf, 100 ml balsamic vinegar (the original requires white vinegar), 100 ml white wine and 100 ml water and allow the mixture to simmer, stirring occasionally. when the liquid has reduced by about half, pour the sauce over the sardines. you can sprinkle the fish with chopped herbs too - i used chopped basil. the herbs are optional. let stand for at least two hours to allow the fish to marinate.

serves 3

while looking for other recipes about sardines i found a similar one here. apparently those sardines are called "naples style". who knew!

i also strained and reduced the marinade by two thirds and it makes a wonderful and glossy dip / sauce for the filets. though there is 1/3 of balsamic vinegar in this sauce, it is not acidic at all. it actually gives the fish the final kick!

all in all it took me half a day to cook plus two days to actually obtain sardines, but it really was all worth it!

the best thing since sliced bread!

2007-08-15T13:02:00.000+02:00

with the crazy weather here in austria it almost feels like summer is gone already. that sucks, let me tell you! because it has been a marvellous summer so far and i still want more of it - and yes, sure, i almost collapsed a few times when we had 40°c and sometimes even more - but the summer of 2007 will always be remembered as the summer of bbq and chill out afternoons on the deck ♥.

don't get me wrong - i barbecued before. i used to throw the odd cutlet or a hamburger on the grill, a few times every summer, i was experimental enough to grill a pineapple once. it actually became quite a ritual in my circle of friends in 2003, but that bbq never was more than food that was bound to be digested.

that changed this year. i can't even put my finger on it. i don't know what's different now - maybe because food is not just food anymore. this summer was very different in so many ways, and my different approach towards nutrition really might have something to do with it :) i am much more aware somehow. i enjoy every second with my friends and my ♥ out on the deck and i soak up every last sunbeam. and i am even more experimental as far as the food is concerned!

in order to preserve a little of this bbq spirit on a very cloudy lunchbreak i decided to make myself a tasty (and handy!) little sandwich with the ingredients i loved and discovered this summer. that's the best thing since sliced bread! nonono, let me rephrase that: it is the best thing between two slices of bread, baby!

i grilled different vegetables i found in my fridge, basically a tricolour of zucchini, tomatoes and garlic. i also grilled a few cloves of garlic and - the main ingredient now - halloumi! i discovered this unbelievable cheese in early summer and i am hooked ever since. i still like grilled cutlets and grilled hamburgers today, but actually i almost always chose halloumi over meat when we fetched the grill!

when your veggies and the halloumi are done just do this:

i don't want to brag, but this has been the most satisfying lunch i've had in months! now let me get back to the second half of my summer bbq sandwich! you definitely should make yourself one too!

four, encore!

2007-08-14T10:20:00.000+02:00

trig tagged me for a meme which sounded pretty familiar to me ... so i grabbed my shovel and started to dig through my archives - indeed, i had done this one before a year ago! so today you'll get an updated version of this meme:

4 jobs I’ve had in my life:
no changes here, though i could add call center agent (*ugh*) to that list now!

secretary
programmer
barkeeper
artist

4 places I have lived:
wow, no changes here either!

one year in london, england right after i graduated from commercial college
two years in wels, upper austria because my first job was there
a month in vienna, austria because i did not know what to do with my life
and now for the last three years in linz, austria

4 places I have been on holiday:
cool, this question is new but ... uhm ... i have to admit that i am not a big holiday person. holiday means "relaxing at home". so, have i done anything spectacular? i don't really think so, what a shame!

i was in praia da rocha near portimão in portugal right after graduation. a typical austrian ritual called "maturareise" where the only goal is to booze the time away with your soon to be ex-classmates. i remember the delicious food though since i was not into heavy drinking at all - okay, the odd beer every now and then, but mostly i remember avoiding the sun (my fair and frekled skin does not respond very well to hot hot heat!). so a few of us where always looking out for cheap places to eat delicious regional food - oh, and i remember drinking quite some port wine!
alright, the flagship europe trip on the river danube two years ago was pretty cool. my class at university chartered and renovated a cargo ship, and went 2000 km on the river danube from linz to the black sea. i recently (re-)uploaded a few pictures, maybe you want to check them out?
last year i spent a few days in london - a decade after my year as an au-pair i found that trip pretty spectacular too! a very nostalgic trip indeed!
looks like i don't even have a 4th trip to share! sorry, that's it as far as big holidays are concerned! i've had lovely day trips with my ♥ though and we where talking about a longer getaway this summer ... gosh, i am a couple now ... and i am just starting to realise that!

4 of my favourite foods:
hey nice, that one was not in the meme last year either! i hope i can narrow my favorites down! they have changed quite a bit over the last couple of weeks since i completely altered my diet.

one of my favorite foods still is roasted potatoes in every way, shape or form. i constantly invent new variations. actually, i just love love love anything with potatoes. really a-ny-thing!
blueberries! i ate them a lot as a child and i sort of rediscovered them this summer. i always had some in my fridge the last couple of weeks - i just love fresh fruits and veggies now and always have plenty in my fridge - but blueberries are my favorite. they are just perfect for nibbling!
just like trig before me i'd have to add our christmas meal to this list. it is not very spectacular, not even christmas-y, but totally loaded with memories. mama tried to make something different once, we all where devastated.
a brandnew favourite is fish! it is not easy to get quality fish at a reasonable price here and i am just learning about various types of fish and preparations. i am sure i will get better at this, a few of my fish dishes have been merely disasters!

4 places I would rather be right now:

it is not so much about "where" these days ...
... it is more about being with my ♥. that's about it, really.
but he is out of town for another week.
i am not a clingy person but i'd rather have him here right now.

since i am not up to date with who had done this meme already i'd like to leave an open invitation - if you want to join in and do this meme too: go ahead, i'd love to read your answers!

trig, thanks for tagging me!

stuff my belly? yes! and stuff the bell pepper too!

2007-08-12T12:48:00.000+02:00

see that? i am really back to foodblogging now - with all that implies! only a few days into the rekindling of this foodblog-romance and i have quite some unpublished posts piling up on my blogger dashboard! i just can't make up my mind which one to finish first for crying out loud!

but i will definitely show you the yummie, the not so yummie, the experiments and the failed attempts ... and today, ladies and gentlemen you'll get another issue of the popular category "an attempt to (once again) save my precious organic produce from going to waste" ... that started out a little half-hearted but turned out surprisingly yummie!

thus said: i don't like bell peppers. i don't know what it is, because i don't hate them, i actually don't mind if i accidentally have a bite or two of a bell pepper. so i technically don't even dislike them ... i just don't eat them. whenever i find one in my farmbox i try to get rid of it as quickly as possible. i either give it away to my mum or my neighbours/friends or i boil it to a pulp and add it to my tomato sauce. i just can't put my finger on why i don't want to eat them. i try to figure that out every once in a while ... just like with this recipe here, that turned out surprisingly delicious, considered the unloved ingredients.

bell pepper stuffed with rice and mushrooms
since i am not eating much meat anymore i went for a vegetarin yet somewhat "meaty" version of the stuffed pepper.

cook 30 g of rice. you should end up with about 100 g to stuff the bell pepper with. set the rice aside when it is done.

you end up with about 4 times as much rice once you cook it. interesting! i didn't know that!

cut the top of a bell pepper off and clean out the inside. this one is fairly large, so if you stick to the measurements i used you might as well be able to fill two regular sized peppers.

rinse the pepper. in a saucepan, sauté some leek in a tbsp of olive oil. cut up 100 g oyster mushrooms and add them to the pan. fry them a little.

add about 100 ml of cream or rama cremefine.

now add the rice and mix well. season to taste with salt and pepper. fresh herbs would be nice too!

stuff your pepper with this mixture. but would you look at this mess? i am sure you can do this way better than me! place it in a fireproof dish and bake it for about 15-20 minutes on 180°c.

i did not make any sauce for that dish, because i simply had no idea which taste would go nicely with bell pepper and mushrooms. i remember that we always had tomato sauce with a regular stuffed bell pepper when i was a kid. then again, those peppers back then where stuffed with lean ground beef.

do you have any suggestions on a nice sauce that would suit that recipe?

update: astrid suggested to enter this recipe in a foodblog event and i love to do that!

the mother of all foodie blogrolls

2007-08-05T23:16:00.000+02:00

since my foodie blogroll and its ~400 blogs seem to be quite unmanageable now and i don't find the time to regularly check on who is still posting and who is on hiatus ... well, thank goddess i stumbled over the left-over queen and her ambitious project! come and join me over there, won't you?

this and that ... and a few more things

2007-08-02T19:34:00.000+02:00

first of all i want to thank you for your overwhelming support.
i honestly don't know what to say.

healthwise i've had some very troubled times lately which i announced on this foodblog to a great extent. it almost seems that this is not a foodblog anymore, this might be a chronic ailment blog now! what a shame, don't you think?! no, i don't want that. i need to turn things around again and this little hiatus has to stop.

now.
like, right now.

because i feel so much stronger! i am getting in shape, i can feel that my body is changing because of my much healthier lifestyle and a very balanced nutrition. i have the feeling that a healthier body might even give me the strength to overcome bad times more easily. i don't want to be weak when i have to face bad times again! and not-so-funny-times are straight ahead: i will start with medication in a few days. i basically had to make the decision to either go ahead with orthodox medicine or rely on alternatives. and while i am not opposed to complementary treatment in general i don't believe in an esoteric approach at all. so i decided that i will be on meds for the rest of my life.

the.
rest.
of.
my.
life.

sounds so ultimate, doesn't it?
i have to admit that i am scared.
like, really really scared.

but actually, it is not so bad ...

... because, uhm ♥ love is in the air ♥ frankly, that's the other reason why i did not blog that much in recent weeks. i did not expect this at all - honestly, i was expecting quite the opposite because i tend to shut down in troubled times ... but this guy, oh, this gorgeous guy ... with his split-second timing! he managed to catch me off guard and just stole my heart - and now we're two enamoured geeks, how cool is that?! and we cook and eat together ... he seems to be a little concerned about my deserted foodblog too, because the other day as we stood by the stove he asked why i was not taking any pictures of the things we cook together ... aaawww, need i say more? i am one very happy gal!

one happy gal that can offer you another austrian dish today:

marillenknödel (apricot dumplings)

cook and peel 200 g of potatoes. though i am not particularly messy in the kitchen i always need a lot of space for making the dough. so i place my potatoes on the clean kitchen counter when they are cool enough to handle and i thoroughly squish them while they are still warm. use a fork or a potatoe masher, either would work. add a pinch of salt. hollow out a little hole in the middle of your pile of potatoes and crack one egg into it. it really depends on your potatoes how much flour you need, for my dough i added a little more than 100 g of flour. now knead the mixture well until it is compact and smooth. it should not be too moist!

slice open 4 apricots and remove the pit. my mom always slices them almost half open and replaces the pit with a sugar cube. since my apricots are really ripe and sweet i did not do that.

in the meantime bring a pot of water to a boil.

now roll out your dough a little and cut it into 4 pieces. flatten one piece with your hand. now hold this fairly round thingy in your hand and place one apricot you prepared earlier in the center. press the dough around the fruit to seal the edges together. make sure there are no leaks!

repeat with the other three pieces of dough. now place your dumplings in the water and let simmer for about 10 - 15 minutes. check back often, when your dumplings rise to the top they are done.

melt a knob of butter in a pan. stir in 8 tablespoons of breadcrumbs and one tablespoon of sugar. roast the crumbs until they turn brown. again, my mum makes them much sweeter and adds like 4 times as much sugar (which, honestly, every austrian chef would do. but i want to stay away from too much calories, so i cut out white sugar whenever i can).

when your dumplings are done, place them in the pan and turn them a little to coat them in the crumbs.

garnish your dumplings with a tablespoon or two of the roasted breadcrumbs.
by the way, you can also use plumbs or other stone fruits for that recipe.

thank you for bearing with me

2007-07-09T08:01:00.000+02:00

things are more difficult than i expected them to be so soon after the diagnosis. so much is changing, i have to figure out my every day life all anew. that's pretty exhausting, much more exhausting than i ever thought it would be.

still, as a glass-half-full-person i am positive and hopefull, it's not that i mope around the house and cry all day ...

it sucks that i hardly read your lovely foodblogs these days. that's a major downer, because digging around in the foodie community was always the most inspiring thing. the major downside (besides the meds and the numbing fatigue) is that foodwise, i am not really touched by the muse and that's clearly slowing down dinner for one.

i am sure that will change again and i definitely don't want to go on a hiatus or close this blog alltogether! i know you are patient and supportive, and i will surely keep posting. i will post less, but i will keep posting.

and i will also put my laptop on my belly while i rest on my couch, i will crawl through your lovely foodblogs and leave the odd comment here and there ... your inspiration will have me back jumping around in my kitchen in no time!

thank you for being here and dropping mails and comments that you are worried.

you have no idea what that means to me.
you rock!

and thanks for the fish

2007-07-05T14:11:00.000+02:00

i am having a rough time healthwise right now and i am not in the mood for anything at the moment. i just finished cortisone iv treatment and i am slowly getting back my sleep-wake rhythm. it sucks to be totally off my game! i was not even in the mood for eating or cooking, but i had some zander in my fridge which really had to be prepared. while it might be best to cook this fish in the oven or fry the battered fish i was going for a different fish in the pan - situation. accidentally, actually!

i removed the skin of a zander filet (the european version of walleye) and i fried it in a little olive oil over medium heat. once the fish was done on one side i tried to flip it - what a disaster! it totally broke appart! well, i am not that experienced with cooking fish, but i should have seen this coming. oh, nevermind. i sprinted to my fridge in search for further ingredients for a fish-stew-thing that would cover up this flipping disaster. luckily i found some fennel and green beans which seemed to match perfectly. i kept frying the fish for some more while i was cutting up the fennel. i added it to the pan and also added some cremefine and a spoon full of capers. i put a lid on an let the rescued disaster simmer for a couple of minutes. in the meantime i prepared the green beans and cooked them for about 10 minutes.

i might need a little more experience with cooking fish but i will work on that. the dish itself tasted fabulous, by the way. fennel and fish seems to be a pretty nice combination!

a colorful mix of vegetable deliciousness

2007-06-22T14:34:00.000+02:00

when it is hot an humid outside i tend to stop cooking altogether. cooking always means turning on my stove, and during summer i am clearly moving towards fruits and raw vegetables.

i just can not bring myself to eat something hot or even warm so dinner for one could easily come to a complete halt during a heatwave because tossing salad does not really qualify as cooking in my (narrow?) humble opinion. or at least it does not seem like something worth putting on a foodblog. most of my cold food is awfully simple and quick and putting something like a dip or spread on dinner for one almost seems like an insult to those aspiring chefs out there that are dropping by my little corner of the www.

so, cold food.

nothing wrong with that! as a cook i should really be more openminded here, huh?

what about all those marvellous salads that take ages to chop and prepare?
what about gazpacho and antipasti?

i thought a cold and yummie noodle salad might just be the thing to make and wrap up in another blogpost during those hot hot hot days. it is not fancy, i did not even go shopping for this salad - all i did was i raided my fridge.

but beware! this recipe clearly does not qualify as "for one". i just know i will dine on this for at least 3 days ...

750 g penne rigate (cooked)
100 g carrots
100 g green bell pepper
100 g cucumber
100 g cherry tomatoes
125 g mozzarella
1 big tbsp capers
2 big tbsp mayonnaise
cook the penne and rinse under cold water. set aside
dice 'em, slice 'em, chop 'em - just make your veggies as small as possible. you actually could throw in every vegetable you can find in your fridge

tear or cut the mozzarella into tiny little pieces

in a bowl combine the pasta with the veggies and the mozzarella

sprinkle over one big tbsp of capers and two tbsp of mayonnaise. my capers are marinated in white wine vinegar which adds a lovely and subtle note to the salad

mix well and season to taste with salt and pepper.

let rest for at least two hours in your frigde or preferably even overnight

there you go - a delicious vegetarian salad that tames my growling belly! i don't even eat big servings at once, i just take my tiny little bowl, go back for seconds and munch away while i take a siesta and hide from the heat.

in other news ...

2007-06-17T12:51:00.000+02:00

i have to admit that i am an impulsive person.

right now i am really angry about what is going on over at flickr. have you heard? at the moment there's a pretty heated discussion going on about my (formerly) beloved flickr cowardly giving in to yahoo's weird policies ... i just knew that something was up in the air when they anounced that flickr was now part of yahoo a while back ...

please watch this and tell me what you think:

while i am impulsive i am not a stubborn person that wants to be in a riot as a matter of principle. i really think that it is an easy way out to blame all this censorship on "law and legal matters", because it is simply not true that you're not allowed to show a little skin in germany, austria and switzerland (i am not sure about singapore, hong kong or korea).

"If your Yahoo! ID is based in Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong or Korea, you will only be able to view safe content based on your local Terms of Service, and therefore won’t be able to turn off SafeSearch."

i thought of withdrawing from flickr alltogether but then i figured: "wait a minute. i used to loooooove flickr! and i paid good money for that account, i might as well use it." so i want to add my 2 cent to this debate. as long as it may take.

this picture does not even qualify for a "dinner for one" post. it was a "lunch and dinner for four to six people" - thing *g*. we had a lovely little bbq out on the neighbour's deck yesterday and i can feed on all the leftovers for a couple of days now. as a quick lunch i opted for "halloumified chicken breasts on a bed of vegetables".

there you go. this is what my pictures will look like from now on. as long as it might take.

yummie pictures might not look that yummie anymore, but this matter is really important to me. i want to do everything to make the censorship visible and to raise awareness. and hey, deep down in my heart i am still a rrriot girl!

i hope you understand my point of view and maybe support me a little ...

veggie patty thingies

2007-06-08T16:40:00.000+02:00

man, i tell you: the amount of information regarding healthy life with ms is overwhelming! i am sure 80 percent of what i read and researched already is utter bullshit, but it seems that almost all physicians agree on the importance of diet and nutrition to maintain a balanced lifestyle with multiple sclerosis.

i discovered some interesting facts about the occurrence of ms. it seems that countries where butter and meat are a staple food ms is four to eight times higher than in regions with mainly fish and olive oil - and japan does aparently have only 29 documented cases, can you believe that?! along the equator are less cases documented. colder countries seem to have more cases. the disease seems to have a lot to do with our modern way of living. processed food, canned goods, long work hours, stress and too little sunlight seem to be a factor as well.

who honestly believes crouching in a cubicle for 8 hours a day can be healthy?
raise your hands please!

allright, you might not get ms by working long hours, but it seems to be a fact that once you are diagnosed with it you can steer in a healthy direction and slow down the disease by simply changing your lifestyle.

simply.
we will see about that ...

well, i don't want to bug you too much with all this stuff, i just want to tell you this: the sooner you take countermeasures, start a healthy lifestyle with lots of sunshine and vitamins and good food that is preferably not processed at all, the slower the disease will apparently progress and the longer you can live without being bugged by that stupid malady.

right now i am reading an interesting book by christine wagener-thile about alternative therapies. i am not at all against orthodox medicine, after all this is what will slow down the progress of my disease.

but hey, when i can help to slow it down even more - why shouldn't i?

people who stick to a certain diet religiously can live up to 36 years without any troubeling symphtoms. now, that sounds promising! having my next attack at 76 would be pretty cool, huh? though i have to admit it seems unlikely ... i am a weak person, i am sure i will not be able to obey the strict regime of a certain diet. i am still smoking. my belly is too big. i don't work out at all.

the good thing: you should think about changing your lifestyle after the first attack and not just two years later when another attack hits you. since i am at the very beginning of my life with multiple sclerosis i should really be able to implement some changes that help me with my wellbeing.

so let's talk about a recipe now, shall we? shunning preprocessed food should be an easy task. i just make the burgers myself. all vegetables of course!

grate a zucchini (250 g) and a few small carrots (100 g). put them in a bowl and set them aside.

in a pan, heat a tbsp of vegetable oil and fry a diced onion, a clove of garlic and some chopped parsley. dice a bell pepper (100 g) and throw it in the pan too. add 50 g rolled oats to the pan and keep stirring. when the oats start to brown, add 150 ml of vegetable stock and let the mixture simmer for a while. once the oats have absorbed all the liquid let the mixture cool for a couple of minutes.

pour over the grated zucchini and carrots and mix very well. add one whole egg.

the mixture is rather runny now and to compensate that add three tablespoons of flour and three tablespoons of breadcrumbs. you might need a little more / a little less.

season to taste.

heat a knob of butter in a pan and make litte patties with your spoon. fry them for about 3 minutes on each side.

serve the veggie-thingies on green salad or stick them in a burger-bun.

yes, i like that!

now, if i only could quit smoking and loose 10 kilos this second.

to poach or not to poach, that is the question

2007-05-31T11:31:00.000+02:00

the temperatures have dropped significantly around here and we are going from cool ice cream straight to heart warming soup. global warming is really springing surprises, weather-wise.

when i saw the recipe of the week in one of my food newsletters i was intrigued.
they want me to poach an egg!
i've never done that, how on earth do i do that?

the recipe itself is rather simple: a few ingredients and a stock cube, that does not sound to challenging, right? lacking coriander i opted for parsley and since i was out of garlic i obviously did not add garlic either.

i diced a slice of bread and put it in a soup dish. i chopped a handfull of parsley and added it with a drizzle of vegetable oil to the dish as well. i also added ground pepper, one of my favorite seasonings lately ... i let the mixture rest while i was bringing 300 ml of vegetable stock to a boil.

while all that is doable and does not require any special skills whatsoever, my attempt to poach an egg was ... a mess! look at this, it really is a mess!!

tell me: are there any tricks to poaching this little squishy bastard?? as far as i know you are supposed to wrap the eggwhite around the yolk and the water should be brought to a boil beforehand and not boil anymore when you throw in the egg. it looks like i did not wrap the eggwhite around quickly enough ... but other than that i don't know that went wrong! any suggestions on why about half of my eggwhite was bustling about?

though it looked rather odd i can assure you, it tasted amazing!

do you fancy some icecream?

2007-05-22T18:51:00.000+02:00

it is sooooo hot and humid outside today, i am this close to running around in my underwear!

i was dying for some icecream all afternoon and yet i could not bring myself to quickly rub some sunlotion on my freckled skin, jump into my brandnew crocs and run to the grocery store - yes, run. that's how bad i wanted icecream. my spirit was really willing but my flesh was sooooo weak ...

i was so terribly powerless because of all that humidity that not even my craving for icecream could drive me out of my shady flat. so i had to come up with another idea for sweet and cool relief. i stuck my head in the freezer compartment and found the answer in a pack of frozen berries in the very back:

put 300 g of frozen fruit and 250 g of cremefin (maybe even yoghurt will work here) plus one tablespoon of your favorite sweetening (i took agave syrup) in a food processor and blizz for a few seconds

et voila!

makes two people incredibly happy within 3 minutes (or makes yourself happy twice if you freeze half of the icecream)

this might not be the most sophisticated way to make icecream, but it sure is a darn good quick fix! oh so yummie!!

back in the saddle again

2007-05-20T12:46:00.000+02:00

hey there!
how have you been?

can you believe i left this blog deserted for almost a month? that certainly wasn't planned, and i honestly wonder how i would neglect something so important to me for such a long time! thanks to a lovely yet distinct kick in the butt by a fellow foodblogger (yes, i mean you) i pulled myself together and got back to blogging.

so why was i that absent?

i could tell you now that i was in hospital for a few days. oh my god, did you ever have a lumbar puncture? they totally lie if they tell you "this is going to hurt a little" - i am not a wuss, but i actually passed out because of the pain! i think giving birth one day might be out of the picture. i am not as pain resistant as i thought!
since some of you sent me very kind mails worrying about my deserted blog - let me assure you, i am okay. i have to get treatment started as far as the ms is concerned, and the sooner i start the better.

i also could tell you that i really need to finish my bachelor's degree and university is virtually killing me right now. i have no idea if i can / will push through with a master's degree. another two years? meeeeh ... i feel i can not plan that long ahead right now, you know? but a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, right? so i recently quit my job to focus on this goal right in front of me. i have never lived on a scholarship alone, i always had several jobs when i was going to university. this will be a drastic change. actually, i now live way below the austrian poverty level. that sounds really weird ... i don't feel poor at all! i am a very low key person, i don't need much (my dictionary says i am "frugal"). i make rent, i can afford bandwith, i have enough to eat - what more do i need?

speaking of which ...

i would feel poor if i had to eat potatoes all week long, instead my potatoes are accompanied by a lovely turkey steak with a herb crust. not too shabby for a penniless student, huh? sure, a regular schnitzel is a dull (yet famous!) dish in austria, but with a little sugar&spice you can really pimp this baby ...

four tbsp of bread crumbs
mixed herbs (i used 20 g fresh basil, 20 g fresh parsley and 20 g fresh tarragon)
one egg
one tbsp flour
salt, pepper
three small turkey steaks (i suppose you can use any meat suitable for schnitzel)
one tbsp vegetable oil
one orange
a little sugar
new potatoes
in a food processor, mix breadcrumbs with herbs and put them on a flat plate

season the turkey schnitzel with salt and pepper and lightly dust it with flour

pull the schnitzel through the whisked egg then coat it with the breadcrumb and herb mixture on both sides. make sure to firmly press on the last layer. this breading is very moist and will not stick as easily as it would on your regular viennese veal cutlet. if you want, you can use dried herbs and avoid all the moist roundabout :) i usually stick the bred+herb-mixture in the oven for a couple of minutes to dry it a little and make it easier to handle

in a pan, fry the schnitzel for a minute on each side
put on a baking tray and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes on 180°C
slice an orange and season it with pepper

put a little sugar in your pan, let it caramelize and quickly fry the sliced orange as a nifty garnish and side-dish for your turkey schnitzel. also give your potatos a quick toss in the same pan! they will taste sooo yummie and orangy ... "orangy" ... is that even a word? i don't know ...

if you want a nice orangy gravy you can add a knob of butter and a litte stock to the pan after removing the orange slices and the potatoes. go ahead, you can even use white wine here! whisk in a little flour until the gravy thickens.

voila, there you have a nice exotic finish to a rather mundane dish!

i do think that my leave of absence is over ... ;)

a mexican kick!

2007-04-30T13:41:00.000+02:00

hey there! it has been a while, hasn't it? just to give you a quick update: i am still alive and i still cook!

i told you about the texmex/austrian food swap with the lovely kate in america, right? well, the other day her parcel arrived at my doorstep and i almost hugged my postman, though it was only 6.30 in the morning and i am usually pretty grumpy when he wakes me up like that on a day i could sleep in ... i totally forgave him - can you imagine a more cheerful wakeup call than with a parcel full of goodies?

so for a few days now i have the salsas, the seasonings, the sweets, the beans and that chili covered pineapple that looks like a lolipop (how weird/interesting is that!) lined up on my kitchen counter with me going all *sigh* when i pass by! i figured it is time to stop gazing at the goodies and at least crack open one of the salsa cans to prepare a texmex-inspired dish!

how about polentaschnitten (roughly translated to "a slice of polenta")? though i never made them myself i've enjoyed them various times on my visits to styria and carinthia. polenta is not very common north of the alps, but they are definitely a staple in the southern regions of austria.

in a saucepan, bring 500 ml of vegetable stock to a boil. whisk in 100 g of cornmeal (polenta) and immediately turn off the heat. stir in a handful of chopped basil, season with salt and pepper and set the saucepan aside for about 20 minutes (until the polenta is thick)
spread the polenta evenly in a casserole (or a baking tray) and refrigerate until totally cold
prehead oven to 220 °c
cut the cold polenta into 4 large pieces, put them on a baking sheet and bake at 220 °c for 10 minutes
spread a thin layer of your favorite salsa over the polenta (and this is where i used the mexican salsa kate sent), put two roughly chopped tomatoes, 125 g of diced goats cheese and another handfull of the chopped basil on top
put in the oven again and bake for another 30 minutes.
season with pepper, spoon over some more salsa and serve immediately!

whooooo, i tell you, that dish is hot! all the salsa spices up the rather subtle taste of the polenta a notch or two!

think globally, act locally

2007-04-22T08:53:00.000+02:00

the austrian public service broadcaster finally figures out what "foodies" are! you can not really call us austrians "early adopters", we have the image to be rather cranky, stubborn and a little backwards ... too bad, because i myself like to dive into every new online trend and i like to keep informed about every new digital gadget on the market. hell, i even hop aboard a fashion trend every once in a while (though i am not a girly-girly) which might have my peers raise an eyebrow or two, but sooner or later they all chime in ... i sometimes can not hold back that proud "i told you so!" - feeling ...

you see, the austrian broadcaster is a little like me. when i tell my friends about brand new online things (like flickr back then or twitter now) they shake their head in disbelief, worry about my sanity ... and open an account on these services about two years later. am i really this ahead of my time, folks? because in the digital age two years seems like forever!

man, i should really work for the ORF. they get loads and loads of money from us austrians (about 20 euros per month) in fees and you better not get caught with an unlicensed tv-set - as far as internet phenomena or trendy hightech news they seem not to use that money for the most competent people in their online research. sure, they need to be neutral and they don't want to confuse their old fashioned and backwards readers / viewers (please don't quote me on that) with spooky new trends.

yes, they do say some nice things about foodblog-celebrities in the usa in their article (bravo! good work guys! did you google the word "foodblog" or what?!? too bad they once again concentrated on the international scene and their foodblog-celebrities and did not even bother to check out the few austrian foodies ...).

and yes, the also highlight the lively debates that go on in foodblogs regarding controversial gourmet topics like foie gras.

but they also say in their article that most foodbloggers are merely hobby-gourmets with the power to put a small or medium sized restaurant out of business with one bad review (does this really happen?). to them, (american) foodies (in new york and los angeles) (*sigh*) that concentrate on reviewing new restaurants are critics without morals.

yes, i am a hobby gourmet, there is nothing wrong with that! i actually really like that expression. man, but check out my statistics: would i really have the power to put a restaurant in linz out of business? i highly doubt that ... hardly anybody in austria even reads this thing!! no austrian foodie could ever put a restaurant out of business, believe you me! because nobody in austria reads our austrian foodblogs (don't quote me on that either)! there is a reason why i don't write in german.

what am i saying with this rant? the austrian public service broadcaster, this teeny-tiny broadcaster in this teeny-tiny country in the heart of europe definitely should focus on a trend/hype and get their clientele acquainted with international topics! nothing wrong with that! but they definitely need to think globally and act more locally ... sometimes they really seem like globetrotting wannabes, that lost touch with their real crowd ...

now let me get back to my morning coffee.

aaaaaahhh!
that's what they mean! foodies are impulsive brats that blog before they think!
now i get it!

巻き寿司

2007-04-15T18:38:00.000+02:00

yes, i admit it, i looked that up on wikipedia.

i walked by that japanese restaurant in my neighbourhood the other day (who knew there even was one this far away from the city center? i certainly didn't!). i desperately wanted to go in and order their food up and down the menue, but i didn't want to go have dinner in a restaurant alone.

i am working on including more fish in my diet, so i figured buying all the utensils for making sushi myself was the solution! the beautiful pictures of hero on tv the other day further inspired me to try myself in the art of rolling the perfect japanese sushi ...

but honestly, i have no idea what i am doing here, i ate sushi only once in my life before. but i am relying on all the sushi fridge magnets i've seen to get my homemade version just right.

what am i making? wikipedia tells me that apparently i want to make 太巻き - futo-maki, a combination of fish and vegetables.

salmon filet
cucumber
avocado
wasabi
yaki nori
rice

soy sauce
pickled ginger

looks about right, hm? and it certainly tasted really good with soy sauce and pickled ginger ... one thing though: my little futo-maki might not be the "mostest prettiest" sushi ever, and this is mainly because rolling the sushi felt so ... so darn awkward! i could never really press it together propperly, it always felt a bit loose while i was rolling. and opening the roll up again and starting all over was out of the question once i started. i made 5 rolls and my rolling skills did not improve at all ... in fact, i thought that my first attempt was the best and all the other rolls got more and more loose ..

am i doing something wrong here? and more importantly: is there a trick to rolling the perfect shushi roll?

and another thing: i ate only half of my produce. how long can i leave it in the fridge? can i maybe just freeze one roll and cut it up upon defrosting?

well, i hope somebody can help me out with all my rookie sushi questions ... so long, and thanks for all the fish!

strudel, the sequel

2007-04-13T16:34:00.000+02:00

apfelstrudel

2007-04-12T21:58:00.000+02:00

i have made a couple of strudel's here, but i never managed to make a decent apfelstrudel before. finally i have an excuse for making one: i am currently collecting austrian goodies to send of a parcel to the lovely kate in america. she kindly offered to swapp food and i could not be more thrilled about that. kate, if you read this: i know you sent off the parcel already and i should have mine ready over the next couple of days. just in case you want to make an apfelstrudel when the austrian parcel finally lands on your porch ... here's a recipe! i just phoned my mama to get the recipe for my grandmothers strudel dough.

strudel dough
250 g flour
salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
150 ml lukewarm water

these measurements actually yield one large or two small strudels. i divided the large ball in two small balls, using one for my apfelstrudel. i store the second one in my fridge (wrapping it in plastic wrap) and make a savory strudel tomorrow

filling
400 g peeled, cored and thinly sliced apples
4 tbsp of sugar
2 teaspoon of cinnamon
a hand full of raisins (my mama never uses rasins, she hates them!)
sift the flour into a large bowl
add a pinch of salt
pour in the oil and lightly scramble with a fork.
slowly add the lukewarm water (you might need less or more than 150 ml, it depends on your flour)

knead until soft and smooth

brush with a little oil
cover the bowl with a towel and let the dough rest for at least one hour
my mama always lets the strudel dough rest for a couple of hours. i think that does the trick, because elasticity is developed by all the gluten, and that takes a little time! she often makes the dough in the evening and prepares the strudel the next day.

when you stretch your strudel by hand it should be paper thin! my grandmother always said "you should be able to read a newspaper through it". the best way to stretch it is if you put a large towel or an old table cloth on your table and you should be able to easily move around the table to stretch it evenly on each side

apparently stretching strudel is an art of it's own. don't worry, mine always has some holes in it on the edges ... only my mama can do that propperly (and my grandmother could, of course), i am just not that experienced yet :D my sister is also mastering this art quite nicely. she made a strudel the other day when i visited, check out the pictures i made that day:

brush the stretched strudel dough with melted butter
add the filling but leave some space on the edges
sprinkle apples with sugar, cinnamon and raisins
some recipes also require toasted breadcrumbs. if you want to add that, just toast 50 g of breadcrumbs in a little butter and sprinkle them over the filling too
lift up the table cloth to roll the strudel

make sure that you roll the first layer pretty tightly, otherwise it will get bent out of shape
put your strudel in buttered a casserole, the seam should be on the bottom
brush with melted butter again

this one looks a bit like a catterpillar, don't you think?

put in the oven and bake at 200 °c until the surface is golden brown. the apples will be tender then

i let the studel cool down completely because i had to leave for work while the strudel was still in the oven. and coming home to a nice plate of this delicious treat is indeed very lovely!

a sparse meal on a holy day

2007-04-06T17:45:00.000+02:00

it might be a catholic guilt thing or i might not be as agnostic as i like to believe, but on high catholic holidays like today i celebrate a day of abstinence. i even avoid to eat meat, mainly because this dogma has been rammed down my throat all my life. i have to admit that i bought and ate a turkey bacon sandwich today before i remembered it was good friday. and i felt a tiny bit guilty because of that too. again, this must be my catholic upbringing :D

i was not allowed to eat meat on good friday growing up and i was always pretty upset about this. as i might have mentioned before i only know the bare necessities of my faith. apart from an extensive interest around the time of my confirmation i just never was a very religious person, i was not raised that way. but i highly admire people with a strong faith, whatever faith that is. and i am really interested in various different religions.

so while we where not raised particularly religious i found it always pretty strange that my mother was so strict about those specific days of abstinence.

over the years i found my own meaning in those days: serenity. i try to reflect and recollect. and i try to reinforce my state of mind with traditional food i know from my childhood, a very sparse meal of topfensterz for example.

it is hard to really describe topfensterz. a sterz is similar to polenta, it is a very simple dish, very rural and very austrian. it has probably been eaten by farmers and servants out on their fields for a few centuries. many variations exist, it is mainly made of buckwheat in styria, made of cornmeal in carinthia and known by the name of frika in slovenia. it can also be made of potatoes.

our family sterz is made of curd cheese though. i have never seen anyone prepare this sterz just like we do, but apparently it is heavily influenced by bohemian cuisine. it seems that up to this day my family is deep-rooted in rural history, and i really like that idea.

topfensterz

500 g curd cheese
500 g flour
1 egg
salt
3 tbsp of butter - usually 5 tbsp of lard are used here, but i don't have that in my kitchen and 5 tablespoons would be way to much for my taste ...
melt the butter in a casserole - put it in the oven while you preheat it to 200°c
crumb together the curd cheese, the flour and the egg

add a pinch of salt
make sure that the mixture stays crumbly
pour it in the casserole and give it a quick stir
put the mixture in the oven and bake until the top starts to get brown
turn off the oven. tear up the crust and stir the sterz
leave in the oven for another few minutes
serve with a glass of milk - the sterz tastes best (in my opinion) if you dip a spoon full of sterz in the milk and then eat it .... mhhhh!

my sterz looks a bit different from the sterz my mother makes.
but still, it tastes the same

the 5th day

2007-04-05T12:27:00.000+02:00

this has been my traditional maudy thursday meal for the last 30 years ... well, this is how i remember it anyway. and i think everybody in austria is eating this today. you see, in german maudy thursday is "green thursday". and though i am not particularly religious in a roman catholic way the holy week leading to easter has always been one of my favorite catholic holidays. to me, it still is even more special than christmas. maybe it is because of all the spring awakening and nature getting back in bloom ... i always especially liked that all the bells of a church are rung for a last time on maudy thursday and they then remain silent until easter sunday.

because what i really liked about those few days was that there is this very rural tradition of "ratschen" where i was brought up. it pretty much translates to "rattle". a ratsche is a very noisy (not quite musical) instrument and it is used during christian processions from maudy thursday to easter sunday. little kids make as much noise as possible with this instrument in order to replace the bells that have flown to rome. as a child, i always thought that was literally true. but how could bells fly themselves, i wondered ... i think i was a naive child :D (or maybe i was just plain dumb back then!)

up to this day i really like the rememrance of us kids running around the village where my grandparents lived and being as noisy as we could. most of the time we where told to be quiet and behave well ... around easter we where told to run around and be noisy - how fun is that, huh??! very often we even got easter eggs and chocolate from the neighbours ... it was a bit like going trick or treat-ing, now that i think of it ...

though this tradition is not practiced where i live today (after all, this is a city and not a village or a small town) i fondly remember it and i can't wait to get home this weekend and admire the noisy children all around town ...

on the more culinary subject of gründonnerstag i think i am going to eat what has been on my plate for 30 years on that green day: spinach, fried egg (sunny side up) and fried potatoes. it is a lovely culinary tradition, so why break with it? one exception though: instead of a frozen cube of creamspinach i am going to use fresh spinach this time. i have some lovely spinach in my farmbox this week, so i just go ahead and use that to make the cream spinach myself.

i blanched 300 g of spinach and let the water drip off completely
i put the blanced leaves in a food processor and mashed them up
i made a roux / bechamel sauce:
i melted 50 g of butter
i added 2 tbsp of flour
i poured in 250 ml of cremefine
(the sauce will thicken as you bring it to a boil, just like a bechamel sauce)
i added the minced spinach and i was bringing it to a boil again
i seasoned it with a clove of garlic and some nutmeg

voila, home made cream spinach!
nothing on earth is better than that.

hello sweetie!

2007-04-01T19:56:00.000+02:00

boy oh boy, i feel like the energizer bunny today!

i did tons of laundry (ooooohh, i am so looking forward to "clean sheets night" !!!). i cleaned my fridge and defrosted the ice compartment and currently i am in the middle of re-organizing the shelves in my living room. i will also totally tidy up the bedroom today!

i think i deserve a little reward in the middle of all this spring cleaning mania ... so i sit down for a minute and browse through those amazing cheesecakes from HHDD#10 because some of those recipes (actually, *all* of them) caught my attention and are on my "to do" list ...

but you see, i bought this fabulous cake tin the other day and while a cake from this silicone thingy would look really cute ... stupid me! did not realize at all that i'd have to fill this mould upside down, which is kind of a handicap if you prepare a cheesecake ... how on earth should i prepare a cracker crust that way?

so what now? i really like the soft / crumbly combination of most cheesecakes, but i have not found an "upside-down"-version of the cracker crust yet ... so should i just ditch the crust? i think i should! because i need something cute today - and my pretty mould will give me a cute little cake anyway!

all the pictures are really stunning! they all make my mouth water ... instead of flipping a coin i guess i should just go check if i have the ingredients for one of these gorgeous cakes in my fridge!

... i swear, i shrieked when i saw this one over at "the garlic press" - and i am oh so happy that i actually have what it takes to reproduce it (ingredients, that is!).

so here's my twist on the recipe! as always, i took the original recipe as an inspiration rather than something i must religiously obey. especially because the capacity of my mould is only 3 cups, so i need to do some scaling as well as higher mathematics ... you know by now that all these ounces, gramms, cups and what not always have me confused ... (though i have some nifty online tools by now!)

(would you stop taking pictures?!? lick that bowl already, you fool!!)

chocolate truffle cheesecake
inspired by this one by sarah at "the garlic press"

200 g 4,5% cottage cheese
200 g cream cheese (philadelphia)
100 g sugar
50 g unsweetened cocoa powder
25 g starch
2 large eggs
30 g chocolate, melted
pinch of salt
1/2 tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tbsp of hot water

(these ingredients yield exactly 3 cups)
preheat oven to 200 °c
puree cottage cheese in a food processor until very smooth
add cream cheese and blend
pour into a bowl and whisk in sugar, cocoa and starch
add the eggs, the coffee, the pinch of salt and the melted chocolate

pour in a little silicone baking mould

bake the cheesecake until the edges are set (about 45 minutes)
let cool and garnish with chocolate drizzle ...

actually, i have no idea how to get this cheesecake out of the mould! so far it looks really stuck ... i thought you don't have to grease a silicone pan! i might have to scrape it out with a spoon! but hey ... if i really have to destroy a lovely little cake because i can't get it out of the mould i can finally host that "kitchen disasters" - foodblog event i am dreaming about ...

update: look how pretty!! it slipped out of the mould just like that!

... and it is soooo good!

ps: thanks for the tip, zorra!!

a bit fishy, don't you think?

2007-03-28T15:15:00.000+02:00

the past few days have been a little confusing for me, but i am also totally overwhelmed by all the support that has swamped my mailbox. your lovely comments and your encouraging emails give me lots and lots of strength and i want to thank every single one of you who has thought of me and/or dropped a line!

actually, i feel pretty healthy at the moment, only a little exhausted. the immediate cortisone treatment was not really a blast (eeeeeek, i don't like needles in my arms!) but the weird symptoms have totally disappeared. my sense of balance has improved drastically and my fine motor skills are totally back to normal. this was the reason i got checked out in the first place - if things slip out of your hand for no reason or you can not tilt your head without loosing balance and feeling disoriented ... well, that's a pretty good sign that something's wrong, right? suddenly i feel really stupid that i didn't see a doctor much sooner ...

i usually don't even take painkillers, i prefer to slow down and take it easy for a while, lay in bed and "cure myself" ... yeah well, that seems to be out of question right now :D ... i took it very easy over the weekend and i started to do some research on MS. i currently don't feel sick or weird, so i can not really embrace that i am in fact sick. all those super-clever webpages only make me go "huh??" at the moment. some suggest an immediate change of lifestyle, diet, workout and what not while others suggest to carry on as always and slowly adjust to this life changing disease ... i am pretty straight forward with my diagnose and not hopeless at all (aren't there supposed to be five stages of ... well, something?) so i think i just take it slow and see what's going to come ... i did so well with going all organic over the past few months, so i think i am heading in the right direction anyway. i don't want more adjustments in my diet right now. so before i get caught up in all these horror scenarios i decided to just take it easy for a while ...

and in my attempt to take it very easy i fell asleep while watching "finding nemo" on my laptop last night. it seems that springtime lethargy has slammed big time! can you believe that when i woke up all i wanted to do is eat fish? now, i am just cruel, right? i see this charming little movie and all i want to do is to have cute little nemo fried up on my plate!

so i am totally going for fish today. i am not at all experienced with cooking fish, because i usually eat tuna out of a can or i buy a smoked trout on the local farmer's market every once in a while. and i totally crave fish sticks once a year. yes, fish sticks! i am really scraping the bottom of my culinary barrel when i think about cooking a fish ... i am a bit scared to cook a whole one, actually ... so i decided to go for an über-expensive tuna steak from the local store.

tuna steak with a pepper and fennel seed crust

one tuna steak
one teaspoon of ground pepper
one tablespoon of fennel seeds
butter
salt
rinse the fish and dry it on a paper towel

grind a tbsp of pepper and a tbsp of fennel seeds - i used a mortar for that

pour the spices on a cutting board and coat the tuna steak on one side

put another board on top and weight it down with a bowl of water or the mortar you used earlier ... let the fish rest like this for 20 minutes

in a pan, melt a knob of butter and fry the tuna steak over medium heat on both sides, the coated side first. i am always going for a well done piece of meat, but if you prefer you can have your tuna steak medium rare too :)
season with salt before arranging on the plate
you can make a nice gravy for your veggies if you pour a little cream in the pan and bring it to a boil once more. add some of the ground spices too, it'll be delicious!

the tuna goes well with vegetables - in my case steamed swiss chard and boiled potatos

wow, i tell you, i don't want to blow my own trumpet here, but this late lunch was absolutely fantastic! i did not think that the combination of fennel seeds and fish would work so darn well! i am totally satisfied with this fishy creation ... maybe i'll try to get my hands on some good fish more often!

balinese rice with peanuts, pork, oranges and bananas

2007-03-22T21:10:00.000+01:00

a little extravaganza, anyone? well, I absolutely feel like it!

one orange
200 g pork scallops
one tbsp vegetable oil
50 g peanuts
salt, pepper
120 g rice
one banana

cut the orange in half, squeeze out the juice of one half and cut the flesh of the other half into pieces
cut the pork scallops into stripes (or buy pre-cut gulash meat if you like) and fry it in a tablespoon of vegetable oil
add the peanuts and fry them for a while too
remove from the pan

pour the rice in the same pan
add water to the orange juice, it should make 0,3 l in the end
pour over the rice, add a little salt and bring to a boil

turn down the heat again and let simmer until the rice is tender
dice the banana and add to the boiled rice. add the flesh of the orange, the meat and peanuts to the boiled rice as well
turn up the heat again and season to taste with chili pepper and a little salt. decorate the dish with parsley if you like ...
adapted from here

now, that tastes just amazing! i've never added oranges or bananas to a rice dish, let alone a rice dish that has meat in it! i have never tasted something so full of flavor! that recipe is definitely a keeper!

so there you go

2007-03-21T19:36:00.000+01:00

i was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis today.

i wanted to tell nobody about this at first, but now, a few hours after the diagnosis (and the immediate start of treatment with IV-cortisone for any current symptoms) i feel the strange desire to post it on all of my webpages.

like, really ALL of them.

i marked some recent photos on flickr with MS, i made an entry in my private german weblog where i tend to blah-blah-blah most of the time ... and i want to tell you people here too. your support over the last few weeks was truly overwhelming.

thank you so much!

i just love the show "scrubs" and i want to post a quote from S06E01 "my mirror image" that fits quite well today: "it's not like i can change what's already happended. the only thing to do is move forward and deal with it" ... this picture is very inspiring too ...

oh yes and spring starts today too (although a cold wave brought chilly temperatures and snow a few days ago - can you believe that?! virtually the first "serious snow" we had here this "winter") ... "springtime is seen as a time of growth, renewal, of new life being born, and of the cycle of life once again starting. It is also used more generally as the start of better times ..."

pampering myself

2007-03-17T18:03:00.000+01:00

now this one was really close! i barely made the deadline for hay, hay ... i decided to give our heirloom birthday cake a twist and throw in something other than pineapple for a change ... i asked my mama, and though we've had this b-day cake several times every year since i was a little kid she had actually never used any other fruit than pineapple for this cheesecake before.

i on the other hand took the bold step of changing a recipe that has travelled from australia to austria 30-ish years ago and has not been changed since.

i decided to submit a cherry cheesecake to hhdd#10:

250 g graham crackers (just take plain butterkeks, it's the best!)
125 g melted butter
250 ml cream
250 g curd cheese
1 small can of pickled cherries, drained (about 300 g)
3 tbsp of vanilla sugar (you can even skip this!)
10 g gelatine
crumble the crackers in a food processor and pour the crumbs in a cake tin
melt butter and mix with the cracker crumbs. press firmly in the tin until the cracker crust is very solid. chill until topping is ready
in a bowl, combine cream and curd cheese until smooth, add sugar if you like (though it is not really necessary)
fold in the drained cherries. add some of the liquid for a nice pink colour if you like
let gelatine soak in a little water for a few minutes. drain exess water and let gelatine dissolve completely over low heat
combine gelatine with the cream and cherry mixture and quickly pour topping onto the cracker crust
cover the cake and chill for at least 2 hours

that oughta cheer me up, dammit --- actually, it does a little, because it is just delicious!

[roundup]

real life is catching up with me. not in a good way

2007-03-15T20:06:00.000+01:00

i want to thank everybody so much for your concern!

my mind has been a little distracted over the past weeks, because it seems that i might have the same chronic autoimmune disease that my sister has been diagnosed with seven years ago.

it is not a death scentence, but it certainly is life changing. i have not been diagnosed with it yet, but i have been seeing many doctors over the past couple of weeks to figure out what is wrong with me.

and i don't like to go to doctors.

i tried to "ignore the symptoms away" for a few months now, but now i felt weird enough to have the thing checked out. and ignoring symptoms that i know all too well from my little sis is not really wise, after all. it might be another couple of weeks though before i get a definite answer. i am really afraid, to be honest.

i don't plan to go on hiatus here, but i might cut back posting over the next few weeks simply due to a lack of time. cheers again for your support!

yeah, i am done

2007-03-03T20:32:00.000+01:00

how lame is this?

recipe # 10: bean soup

one small onion
1 tbsp of vegetable oil
75 g (5 tablespoons) of white beans (from a can)
150 ml water
parsley
salt
over medium heat fry the diced onion in one tbsp of vegetable oil
add the beans and stir for a while
add the water and bring to a boil
cut the parsley and add to the soup
season to taste

that's weird - i see an inflationary trend, soup-wise. the more i think about soup the less i crave soup. my recipes are becoming more and more plain though i want them to be more unusual and unique.

it sucks if you promise to make a different soup every day during lent and you are already out of ideas and out of motivation - only 10 days down, 30 more to go. i have never been good at resolutions, so i hardly ever make some. why on earth did i think i could stick to my vow this time?

i might be done with the soup thing. it bores me.

another quickie

2007-03-02T20:27:00.000+01:00

it is not really the french onion soup, it looks like i just have the time for fast food soups these days ... but i keep my fingers crossed for a very high profile soup tomorrow ...

recipe # 9: onion soup

1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp oil
300 ml of vegetable stock
1 tbsp flour
one slice of bread
brown the onions in one tbsp of oil
sprinkle over the flour and stir well
pour in the vegetable stock and bring to a boil
toast a slice of bread and cut into 4 pieces
pour the soup in a dish and arrange the toasted bread on top

red plate day

2007-03-01T20:49:00.000+01:00

don't you think all the green in my soup dish is getting boring?

it bores me a little, so i thought the only thing green added to today's soup will be the fresh herbs and as a contrasting colour for the soup itself i'd totally go for RED. instead of chopping the tomatoes in my farm box, i thought i'd make a much quicker soup if i finally used up those canned peeled tomatoes in my kitchen cupboard.

recipe # 8: very fast tomato soup

1 can of peeled tomatoes (250 g)
1 tbsp oil
3 cloves of garlic
fresh herbs (i used oregano and thyme)
1 tbsp crème fraîche (i take the lean rama cremefine)
salt, pepper
give the peeled tomatoes a quick blizz with the hand-held blender to hackle them
in a pot, quickly fry minced garlic and the herbs in one tbsp of oil
pour in the blizzed tomatoes and bring to a boil
whisk in one tbsp of crème fraîche
season to taste
you can strain the soup if you want, but i actually like it better if it's not too smooth

zucchini or courgette?

2007-02-28T21:12:00.000+01:00

recipe # 7: seethed zucchini soup

1 medium size zucchini (250 g)
300 ml vegetable stock
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 cloves of garlic
mint
chop the garlic and sautée it with the herbs (i used mint) in one tbsp of vegetable oil
clean and roughly grate the zucchinis

add to the pot and fry a little longer
add the vegetable stock and bring to a boil
cook the soup for about half an hour. the zucchini will start to dissolve and there is no need to purée it. i like my soup chunkier, but feel free to whip out your hand-held blender! you can even add cream or crème fraîche if you like!

perfectly normal

2007-02-28T08:53:00.000+01:00

the lovely burekaboy tagged me for a meme about 6 weird food facts and it did not take me long to come up with food related weirdness! i honestly thought that there was nothing really weird about me, not food wise and not in general ... errrr, but who am i kidding?! my eremite lifestyle only makes me think i am perfectly normal, but when i socialise and i find myself outside of my bubble, i always discover that my daily routine might not be so normal after all ...

i just hate to eat off of colourful plates when i have a main course. white, my friend, white is the only way to go when it comes to dishes!! that can go as far as me not being able to finish a dish because the colourful surface of the plate shines through my soup or the pattern looks disturbing on the edge of the plate. i can eat my cerial in a red bowl though. hm. what's up with that? that never occured to me!
i only started to eat raw tomatoes like half a year ago. i was already 30 years old. i always hated them, gosh, even the thought of a raw tomato made me gag! i remember that my mother once forced me to at least try a wedge of a raw tomato (i was about 4 then) and i literally puked on the plate. she never forced any food of my dislike on me again.
a disturbing thing i feel the need to share: i had a stupid phase a few years ago where i did not eat anything for three month. i am not proud of that, but since i never was a skinny girl a personal crisis kind of knocked me over the edge. i felt miserable the whole time, i did not loose any weight whatsoever and i finally figured out that i had to work on my state of mind rather than on my dress size. i have not looked back since and i am totally going for healthy instead of skinny these days ... and i proudly work my booty! boys totally dig that :)
gooey food is my kryptonite! the mere thought of a slimy semolina dish makes me gag. remains of my childhood, i guess. i actually can eat that stuff now, i even make it myself from time to time, but thinking of gooey food still triggers my gag reflex.
i can not stick to recipes. at all. usually i check the ingredients and completely ignore the directions. i only obeyed the exact recipes in home ec when i was 13. maybe that's because i copied my mamas "a little bit of this, a little bit of that" cooking style since i was 7 years old.
i usually align my plate, cutlery and glas when i have dinner. call me crazy, but if it is not a right angle, it is a wrong angle! ocd, anyone? i always think that this might be a bit strange after all when i catch myself suppressing the urge to allign the things on the table when i dine in company.

phew, now you know ... that was actually fun!

do you want to join in? vasilisa? dianka? daniela? i want to leave an open invitation to this meme, because i guess i am the only foodblogger that did not participate yet ... so if you want to join in (it seems as if most of you already have) - just go ahead and leave me a little note!