We are mid of rhubarb season & it’s time for me to add some new rhubarb dessert experience. I thought of some combination of baked rhubarb w/ lots of thickened rhubarb juice & some light cake … The dessert is also known as cobbler in the English hemisphere. In general it’s a thick layer of fresh fruit covered by a thin layer of batter processed in the oven until all is done & bubbling. It’s…
It’s summer & it’s jam season … (There are years … I missed this somehow!) So for jam season I tried a mix of strawberries w/ raspberries & lemon (zest & juice!). It turned out to be a very, very red jam w/ a sharp edge of lemon flavour! I started like: … & afterwards I tried a slightly other mix which led to a more orange-red jam: So let’s prepare some summer jam …
This winter we had an especially grey & dull time (my private experience). The sky was so grey (most of the time), the days were grey & filled w/ rain (too often), it was cold & humid about 5° C (… & sometimes below zero) – and we had some snow (for about 3 days!). I felt winter blues … In addition … after living in the Mediterranean area for most of 2023 I missed…
Another lemon cake: today we’ll get a moist lemon cake loaded w/ lemon flavour (aka zest & juice!) & topped w/ a creamy lemon sugar icing. Seems simple & plain, but it’s far more than a small pound cake … … latest exit point now: anybody who doesn’t like lemons may stop to read on!
It was on a birthday party night when I tried hummus for the very 1st time … everybody seemed enthralled by hummus, the new star of dip paradise. Well, hmmm … I wasn’t fond of hummus at all. It was tasteless & mealy. Okay: it was many years ago … the hummus era had just started. I always give any innovations in food universe a 2nd go – or even a 3rd go, or a…
It’s mid of November: all over the internet food blogs indulge in Xmas cookies, Xmas cakes, Xmas whatever – Xmas dinner suggestions didn’t surface until now. I’m not so ready for this Xmas business at the moment … I think some fresh & easy to prepare weeknight dinner is also appropriate. I also didn’t start any Xmas baking so far. I’m not in Xmas mood so early in November – although everywhere in food stores…
Pasta & summer: it’s an excellent combination because pasta is an easy dish convenient for all these warm summer nights when sitting outside w/ a glass of wine longing for some easy, but substantial food – which wouldn’t keep you in the kitchen for too long. It’s also one of my favourite pasta dishes in the south if Southern France or Northern Spain (where we are now!). The main challenge sometimes seems to be to…
It’s hot outside – the sky is blue – the sun burns like hell: it’s ice-cream weather! Some years ago I tried to prepare homemade ice-cream in a very simple way & it worked: a creamy & refreshing lemon chocolate ice-cream was my very 1st creation. (In fact I never was eager to produce homemade ice-cream. Maybe because an ice-cream machine didn’t sit on my kitchen desk – no way of churning ice-cream manually. Even…
Happy hour is on the agenda … what about some homemade salmon paté? We are still in Southern France, in Carcassonne … Also in France there is a happy hour & sometimes we enjoy a leisurely happy hour in front of our current home, sitting in the spring sun & having a glass of wine. I found this easy approach to salmon paté in Rachel Allen’s cookbook, worked then with the ingredients available at the…
Avocados are very popular w/ us. I think we are no exception. Especially since we are in Southern France we like to create some avocado mess & indulge w/ fresh baguette for our dinner. Afterwards we may have some cheese … for the finish. As I already told you there is only a tiny kitchen in our home so preparing excessive meals for lunch or dinner, requiring cooking & frying & preparing a sauce &…
During the last days summer was all over the place w/ temperatures of about 30° C – at least in the afternoon. It isn’t a time for cooking & baking. So for desserts I like to opt for fresh fruit or – even better – a fruit salad. However, it’s also always nice to prepare a sweet pie lounging in the fridge until it’s time for dessert. I posted a recipe some years ago –…
My better half & I: we are back home. So I’m back on my blog. For 3 weeks we lived in France – holidays in Brittany. While it was about 20-25° C as expected for beginning of June, temperatures skyrocketed up to 35° C during our last week. When back home – surprise! – the next heat wave approached … So I decided that we’ll need ice cream … to survive. I thought about a…
I’m obsessed w/ lemon cake. (I’m sure you noticed my passion before …)Each time when I come across a recipe for some lemon cake I think about recreating it in my kitchen. So this time I read about a version w/ olive oil & ricotta. The result is fabulous: a soft & fluffy cake, lots of lemon flavor & a freshness from the moist consistence. I stored the cake on my kitchen counter, covered –…
It’s a simple & easy pasta dish.(To add some flavorful edge also quite a lot of lemon juice & lemon zest found its way into the pasta bowl.) Do we need a recipe? Is it worth a post?Yes, because there are these great soft roasted pine nuts all over the pasta – freshly roasted just minutes before added. There is also freshly grated Parmesan, fluffy & creamy at the same time, delivering a sharp edge…
Since Xmas I have a new toy: a new baking tin. It’s a classic one concerning the size, however, there is no non-stick coating. So I studied the instruction & decided to work exactly as recommended – meaning to use butter generously for the baking tin & finish w/ flour. (To prevent becoming this last step a mess I worked over my sink when adding the flour, shaking the baking tin & turning it upside…