travelling

… up in the air …

We are still in Northern Spain – now our home is at Castelldefels in the area of Greater Barcelona. There’s a suburban train which takes us in about 40 min to Barceloneta with Barcelona’s Port area i. e. part of it. It was one of these magic days with a magnificent blue sky … when we made our way from the train station Estació de França to the Transbordador Aeri del Port aka Barcelona’s Port…

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just pasta savoury delights

pasta, pesto, pecorino … meatballs!

… & my series of pasta dishes continues while we are still in Northern Spain! I learnt from Juls’ Kitchen that „pasta w/ meatballs“ originally isn’t Italian, but an American invention (same as for Alfredo, chicken parmigiano …), however, there’s also some pasta recipe from Jul’s granny creating very tiny meatballs. Inspired by this post I started my own version of pasta w/ meatballs. I managed to create some creamy pasta w/ lots of pesto…

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travelling

from the beach to the castle

We are in Castelldefels since beginning of August. You may have noticed some posts as well as Instagram activity about Barcelona … Barcelona i. e. Passeig de Gràcia & Plaça de Catalunya are only a 30 min ride on the suburban railway away. Nevertheless Castelldefels also is an interesting spot in the greater area of Barcelona. Where to start? Let’s start at the beach. Castelldefels offers some kilometers of a fine sandy beach, rather wide.…

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just pasta savoury delights

quick & dirty tortilla w/ potatoes or pasta

What is this all about? At the moment we are in Northern Spain near Barcelona … so the classic Spanish tortilla is part of the menus. I always liked tortilla since I made the 1st acquaintance of it in a holiday trip on Formentera – decades ago! So I unearthed my post on tortilla … which introduces also a tortilla w/ pasta! Let’s resume … I made a tortilla – straightforward (see photo on top).…

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travelling

looking back … palma de majorca 2021

Before the Easter (school) holidays started (in Germany) my better half & I made a 1-week-trip to Majorca. In short: We had a brilliant time, lots of blue skies & sunshine and very, very few tourists … Although Corona slowed down the exciting life on this Mediterranean island, it was a welcomed break from our everyday life. It was really relaxing … In my previous post I talked in detail about the rules & conditions…

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travelling

looking back … travelling into emptiness 2021

2021 – Corona times aka Covid times aka lock down aka travel restrictions … and more! Then in spring 2021 …Last time we travelled … it seems so long ago … it was last year (2020) in September when we made a trip to Poland. Our classic trip around our wedding day in December slipped away. (We tried to shift the weekend into February, but w/o any success.) Now it’s spring & we were longing…

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savoury delights

courgettes in italian mode

We are still in Northern Spain … & there is a great offer of courgettes! So I remembered my post for courgettes in soffrito – no sooner said than done … (Although it’s an Italian recipe it’ll work fine in Spain.) Some time ago … my better half & I planned to do a roasted chicken … & I meditated on what to cook as a partner to the meat. Both of us opted for…

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travelling

… to the cathedral …

Barcelona is a city of churches, of basilicas and a cathedral. My better half & I decided to make a trip to the cathedral. Don’t mix it up: the cathedral is called La Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia. The famous modern church of Antoni Gaudí, La Sagrada Família (in short) or La Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família, is only a basilica – as well as Santa Maria del Mar,…

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just pasta savoury delights

pasta & fish: in-one-pot!

Another day – another approach to one-pot-pasta! Today we are dealing w/ pasta in a thickened mix of fish, tomatoes & onions flavoured w/ thyme. Even now in Northern Spain a one-pot-pasta dish is one of my favorites – because it’s so easy & there are only few ingredients … no issues w/ availability of more extraordinary input into my pan. In my oldest Italian pasta cookbook (Vincenzo Buonassisi’s Nudel & Nudel – have a…

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travelling

looking back … madrid 2019

Before Xmas in 2019 my better half & I went for our annual eoy trip – this time to Madrid. We looked forward to some days in Southern Europe w/ blue skies, sunshine … The photo shows exactly this heavenly sky together w/ one of Madrid’s iconic buildings, however, we only experienced this fine weather for quite a short period. Most of the time it was cloudy, drizzling, rainy, hard raining, stormy. Nevertheless we had…

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savoury delights

… obsessed w/ potatoes …

At the moment we are in Northern Spain … roast potatoes (or baked potatoes) are my all-time favorite – you may have noticed in my Instagram. When here or in Southern France I very often just prepared a baking tray w/ these absolutely delicious potatoes … I admit I prepare the roast potatoes in a simple way … & I start always w/ 1 kg because this fits nicely on a baking tray. Some olive…

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travelling

a quarter in girona

A colorful row of buildings sprawls along the river (Riu Onyar) in Girona and designates part of the border of Old Town Girona. At least as far as my better half & I noticed, Old Town is on the left bank while on the right bank there are modern buildings, also impressive town houses, maybe more than 100 years old, shopping areas … just the modern life we all know. There are many bridges for…

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just pasta savoury delights

spaghetti quiche or what …

Every now & then I stumble across a recipe about a spaghetti tart or bake or … What I mean is a dish – served warm as well as cold – where cooked spaghetti are mixed with meat or vegetables or cheese or whatever & become covered by a mix of cream & eggs ready for a session in the oven. The result is some sort of quiche/tart/frittata … which may be cut into slices…

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travelling

looking back … tallinn 2019

Tallinn is the capital of Estonia. Estonia is the most northern of the Baltic states.(I think I should mention this at the very beginning because I noticed – more than once – that one or another of our bunch of family, friends, colleagues, neighbours … started frowning & mulling over like Where the hell is Tallinn?). The most known facts about Tallinn are that it has one of the biggest & best preserved Old Town…

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salads savoury delights

oven-baked vegetables – leftovers …

What to do w/ leftovers? For a dinner event during weekend I prepared lots of oven-baked vegetables. It was delicious accompanied by some chicken filled w/ lemons & rosemary, a generous mix of fresh basil leaves & pressed garlic under the skin for especially flavoring the chicken breasts. (Maybe you think that the vegetables accompanied the chicken …) We all enjoyed the dinner …, however, some of the oven-baked vegetables remained on their plate afterwards…

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