Hungry? Crispy toast … a creamy spinach-cheese-bacon mess … a baked egg still soft … Sometimes when it’s only me & myself for lunch I like to prepare some simple toast: easy to assemble, fast to prepare, but appeasing my appetite w/o working like a stone in my stomach afterwards. (Furthermore these toasts are also welcome for my better half & me during weekend breakfasts … in varying designs.) All starts always w/ a nice…
It’s time for another quiche. Some time ago I bought Meike Peters’ 365 The Cookbook. From the idea it’s covering a whole year w/ recipes – day by day. I’m pretty sure it was a huge challenge, but in the end this comprehensive book dedicated for home cooking emerged. I’m always a little vague concerning my approaches for the pastry shell of any quiche or tart. In general you can work w/ different pastry shells…
One of my favorite blogs some years ago created a blog category called THE SHITS I EAT WHEN BY MYSELF. (Here she presents all the recipes she cooks fast & easy for herself when hungry, feeling cold, feeling alone, distressed, stressed out …) When doing this fennel mess for the umpteenth time I realized that this is a candidate for such a category – if I ever had such a category! What is it about?It’s…
Ever tried a sauerkraut soup? Years ago I got myself involved in a moving adventure. It was some affair like starting in the 4th floor of an apartment house & ending up in the 3rd floor of another apartment house w/ lots of boxes, however, only few standard moving boxes, lots of baskets, suitcases etc. I assume all of you know what I’m talking about! (No lifts!!!) Then … suddenly in the mid of all hauling…
I had a fine butternut sitting on my kitchen desk for some days & decided to try an approach for a soup w/ lots of vegetables. I had some carrots, some frozen peas & some spring onions. What else? There was some bacon in my fridge & I thought it might be a fine add-on concerning the flavour. … & of course I had some of this dark green, intensive pumpkin seed oil for the…
Another one pot pasta approach: this time we don’t use any Mediterranean herbs, but seafood flavours & cream for an absolutely creamy finish. Imagine you are coming home after a stressful day in the office or in your shop … This heavenly pasta dish will take you less than half an hour!
… & 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…
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…
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…
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…
We are still in the South – now in Northern Spain near Barcelona. It’s summer & it’s hot. So all we need for dinner is a pasta dish … Did I ever mention that we are true pasta lovers? All’ ammiraglio … Let this melt on your tongue! We are dealing w/ a very simple & very easy spaghetti dish – quick & dirty! … it looks so innocent! Be careful: it’s really hot &…
In the south – we are now in Northern Spain … & when roaming on my blog I found this recipe which I adapted somewhat for a dinner. (I worked w/ tortellini, Spanish bacon, white onions … & it was fine!) However, let’s start w/ a streamlined version of the original recipe! My very 1st encounter w/ one-pot-pasta: my better half & I got a food & wine basket as a present from friends containing…
Potato salad is down-to-earth … so down-to-earth … Time to get it dressed to kill by adding an avocado dressing! Potatoes are year-round vegetables & avocados are on their way. What do you think of replacing mayonnaise and/or double cream and/or sour cream by a real heap of mashed avocado? This was my vision when creating this very special potato salad some years ago. We are still in the South aka Mediterranean area … having…
My standard information nowadays … We are still in Southern France resp. Northern Spain … It is hot, really hot … & for dinner it’s most of the days a cold affair: fresh bread, ham, cheese … & some dip (or more than a single dip!). So I remembered my aubergine dip … In the past: Aubergines (aka eggplant) & I – we did never become close friends. I’m fond of beautiful aubergines, but coming…
As I start usually these days … we are still in Southern France. However, we moved from Carcassonne to Sérignan meaning from Languedoc into Hérault approaching also the Mediterranean coast. For statistics: Carcassone is a town of about 47.000 inhabitants while Sérignan has got about 8.000 people i. e. a village. So now we are living in a small townhouse near the centre of the village – and enjoy the daily noisette resp. glass of…