Sandwich - Freestyle

Yesterday, after I hopped through one of Hamburg`s farmer`s market, we had a more or less simple dinner - just sandwiches.

I freestyled a little bit, so the first one was spread with Ajvar & Harissa , I added mackerel, olives, chopped salted  lemon (which I prepared one and a half month ago already, yumm!), salad and roasted pine nuts.

Normally, I would have used tuna, but because tuna is one of the most endagered and overfished fishes, we decided already 6 month ago, not to eat it anymore.
(You can read that here: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/fishwatch/species/atl_bluefin_tuna.htm ...
We always watch out for the logo of the MSC, the Marine Stewardship Council - they look after  natural and healthy fishing...>>>>

The other one was with peanut-cocoa-sauce, chicken breast with roasted fennel seeds and cinnamon, olives, chopped salted lemon and apricot.

Happy, happy evening.

Spitzbuben - christmas cookies part 2

Don`t think I am lazy and my kitchen stays cold...noonooo!

I made a lot of christmas cookies, cute packaging and gave them all away...
But I always have to prepare the whole kitchen for photography sessions, and after hours of baking, well...there is sometimes no power left for that.

But I have been in Brandenburg, where my parents enjoyed the pre-christmas time...in a house in the forest..., and I used the opportunity to bake cookies with my mum, what I didn`t for years!...All the good old childhood cookies...mmmmh!

So here are some pics of  my favourite ones: "Spitzbuben" .. so it is called here.I guess, everybody knows this kind of cookies, it is so so simple, and every part of every country has a different name for it.
But everywhere, they taste delicious, I am sure!

For all of you:
MERRY DELICIOUS CHRISTMAS,
whatever you may eat during the holy days!

_____

Nut slices - christmas cookies part I

Not only winter is coming...also christmas!
I love christmas! Not only because of all those memories of my childhood and the snow and the smell of tea and hot chocolate... but also because of all the christmas cookies!
I love to taste those from others, and I love to bake them me myself.

The first session began with nut slices. The big ones taste awesome, so I tried them in small - and they are much better, because you can have little bites of - but more often...

Conchiglie with Brussel sprouts

Winter is coming.
The temperatures here gonna reach 0 C° this weekend...well, I confess: I really hate to freeze, and I hate these empty trees, no leaves at all, no birds, light is dull... it`s always a time, I have to overcome.

But this season has also its good parts.
For example all the seasonal vegetables, cole and so on.
Brussels sprouts is something very common in the winter here. ...well,...opinions differ on this point :o)
People hate it or love it. Timo for example hates it. I love it.
So I was happy, when he had to left for one day to Berlin, so I jumped right off into my clothes and went shopping.


 With my prey, I made this wonderful  Conchiglie, with Brussels sprouts, bacon crumbs, cream and Parmigiano.
OMG, it was wonderful! So easy and so well tasting!

~~ Granola,...again.

At the moment, I try out my new lens.
I also try out my new "Studio" - I had the wonderful permission of Timo to rebuild his kitchen, because he has so much more light in that room than I have in mine.
It´S now a mixture of kitchen and photo studio. Everywhere props and cam equipment, next to olive oil from France and Pasta deluxe from Italy.

I drilled holes in the ceiling to install a selfmade white background which can be lifted and closed down.

So I play around now with all that stuff, also exploring the possibilities of the new natural light quality coming from the big windows.

I have an inflamation in the right arm, so I can´t cook at the moment.
I have to do most of the thing with the left arm. Photography is something I can do, so I take things I already have, like the granola, to be my playmate....

~~ Granola!

I`ve got a kind of a spleen...

I always want to learn how to make those everyday-life foodstuff we normally buy at the supermarket:

Ketchup, Bread, spicemixes (> Garam Masala), ...
I want to know from what these things are made of - and I want to avoid all these additions that have chemical-sounding words and nobody except the "experts" know what it is and what they will do with my body!


I want it as natural as possible..and I want to create that with my own hands, eyes and brain.
So I did with that  wonderful GRANOLA.

I love breakfast, and Timo and me had our first "Sunday-Home-Breakfast" (after 4 years!) - I wanted to have everything perfect and yummee!
I didn`t bake the croissants by myself (that will follow sooner or later, for sure!), but this granola was spectacular!

There is no refined sugar in it, just honey and a lot of dried fruits.
The oat flakes are from biological agriculture, so I can be sure, they used the whole grain.It is really so delicious! It is crispy and crunchy and SO HOMEMADE!.... we had a wonderful breakfast!

~~ Autumnal plum-icecream

This week, we had wonderful weather -sunsunsun! Finally! Because Germany missed the summer this year....
We call that here "Altweibersommer" - often, when autumn comes, there is a period of warm weather before the cold season begins.
All the light is not only good for the mood, but also for a perfect light to take pictures...

We decided to act like it is summer.
I made a delicious plum-icecream with lemon and figs.
We -Timo, me and the cats- ate it at once, the whole pot of icecream! BURPS!.... I do not regret one bite, even if my stomach is aching now.

~~ Paella Olé! Cooking is fun!

Sorry, but all you out there...who speaks german or spanish:
HAVE TO WATCH IT!


PAELLA!!
OLÉ!

~~ Guinness Cake

I found by surprise the recipe for a "Guinness Chocolate Cake" in the web (>> Nigellas Cake) and really really really wanted to bake it, too!
It looked so awesome and sounded so f*** great!! I mean...GUINNESS CAKE!!!..

I had a Flashback to my youth when I was about 16, or something, when I went to the Irish Pub in my hometown Darmstadt nearly every evening - and often had a Guinness (or two). I was (secretly) in love with the barkeeper, an irish guy who also had an irish name...I was a big fan of Ireland, so I thought: an irish boyfriend would be cool! :)
So I went there every evening, staring at the barkeeper, but was too shy to talk to him. And the Guinness never helped to lighten my tongue. But it was delicious!

Actually, I have to confess:
The cake was wonderful, but it was more chocolate than guinness...nearly not too taste. Probably a little bit of bitterness, but that was it.

The topping (I ate this kind of topping in the U.S. - more a cream cheese topping) didn`t reach the hearts here in Germany. We are used to eat more that creamy stuff on the top of cakes.


Well, I really liked it!
But the "base" of the cake, with all the chocolate inside...well...EVERYBODY who tried liked it :o)

I am glad I made this experiment!...and the beautiful pix.

~~ In times of need: eat Chips

I am back from a wonderful trip through Italia and France...a CULINARY trip! UMMMH!
For sure, I brought a thousands of photographies...unfortunately, I didn`t brought the time to arrange them :)

So, until I can post some of the mouthwatering stuff I saw in the southern europe, I share all the other wonderful stuff with you, which has been created in my beautiful kitchen in Hamburg the last months....



In may, where we had this shit damn (!!!) EHEC virus in Germany (and especially in Hamburg, where I live), we really had a problem about "What do we eat?" ... no fresh things...no salad, fruits and so on...no vegetables... it was horrible!
And I really suffered from the abrupt stop of cooking...
So I had a look in my pantry and did everything I could with the rests.

Like you can see, lucky Fabia found some potatoes, and so I could experiment with my first homemade fresh chips! It was a crispy and crunchy and wonderful experience.

Holiday-Pecan-Plum-Muffins to save my honour!

It`s one month ago that I have been on the summer party of my current company Deadalic...
I don`t know what we talked about, but it was fated that I promised one guy to bake Muffins for him when he starts to work at Daedalic.


Well, he arrived 1st of August..and I didn`t have Muffins.
I FORGOT!




Blame and shame! ... I can`t accept that...
I have really not much time at that moment, our hopliday trip starts saturday morning and I have so much to do until then. But Muffins are something nice and quick and lovely, so I decided to bake some Pecan-Plum Muffins...
No decoration today, `cause time is short, but ...well... if you could smell them....no decoration necessary :)

Have a wonderful august!

Already printed.

Seen in Schwäbisch Hall :)

Big Russel - highclass imbiss

I never really thought about taking foodpics as job.
But as luck would have it, there was the first chance two months ago.
An Ex-gourmetchef quitted his starwinning kitchen and opened a diner - french fries, sausages and so on - but in highest quality.

GREAT FUN for me, so I made some cool conepts and he decided to take this one you can see here.
OMG, I have been in a cold sweat, but I really liked to be under that pressure one time, too, because I really arranged the french fries a thousands of times, until they laid perfectly for my eyes.

By the way: The Imbiss is called "Big Russel" (I could design the Logo,too), and it is located in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany.
You can find it HERE.

I made them an offer they couldn`t refuse...Torta di More!

Last week, I had so much fun in the kitchen at my free day, that I decided to bake a "Torta di More" (with a lots of berries, not only "more" as you can see) for my new collegues at work (well, the condition for getting a piece of the cake was, that the "eater" allows me to take a photo from him or her with it)...

Great fun, like you can see, and delicious, because it was not that heavy stuff.

WOKfood - Quick and yummyumm!

because I am workingnoe 3 days in a company (called "Daedalic") as animator for beautiful PC Games, i have to re-think my cooking plan: I need quick recipes I can cook in the evening.
Great fun,another point of view on food.... and the best: cooking every evening, what is very relaxing for me. Leisure time!

Today, it`s asian food - Peas (freshly pealed for sure, from the market!) with ground meat and rice...

Varied Vegetables.

Summer seems this year not yet really summer, but yesterday, we had a lovely sunny sundayevening.
So I put a table in our beautiful garden and we had a greek and a french recipe:

Filled pepper with pistachio-mint-rice  (the greek one)  and a
Fresh salad with caramelized walnuts and Roquefort! (the french one)

It was wonderful - and we decided once more, that meatless meals can fill up, too!

Madeleines for everybody!

Today: Baking for my new team I am gonna work with (from Wednesday on)!
I am lookin` forward to and help them lookin` forward to me, too - :o)

MADELEINES!

Homecomer-Muffins

When my boyfriend is on tour for a few days or more -and his refrigerator very empty - I know exactly what will happen when he comes back: He will fill it with a lot of "went-just-to-town-and-bought-some-to-go-food"...

If I find then some time and leisure for another solution, I prepare something. Always with a pinch or a spoon full of love, because I am glad he returns home!

This time also with some lemon (he loves it). and some pignolias (he loves it). And muffins (he loves it).
Et voilà:
Pignola-Lemon-Muffins !
Including sun, for sure!

Besttr "Muffins-to-stay" than "Something-to-go" - hrhrhr!

Ravioli al Fabi

Wow, that isn`t as complicated as I thought!...Well, you need a pasta machine... ( I heard the italian "mamas" flatten it still with a rolling pin, but that is more sports than cooking!)
But if you have that machine - and a beautiful soft and handsome pasta dough.... then it works so easy!

And it tastes a thousand times better than the dried supermarket pasta out of the package from some big-loveless-concerns!

Spargel - the easy way.

Seit dem 21. Juni ist die Spargelsaison für dieses Jahr zu Ende - the same procedure as every year!
Ich hab natürlich nicht verpasst, Unmengen davon zu essen und vorallem: Mir selbst welchen zu machen.
Nyummnyumm!!!

Das klingt immer so pseudoedel und so aufwändig...aber echt! Spargel ist null kompliziert!
Schälen, ins heisse Wasser, feddich.
Kartoffeln und etwas Butter dazu, wenn man hat, n bißchen Petersilie, und man kann schon losschmausen.

Irgendwie...kann kochen so einfach sein!!

Italy`s yellow coast on my table

Double fresh, directly out of the oven!
And it is not sour at all!...I really wondered about that. Amalfi Lemons, filled with Mozzarella, basil and anchovy filets.
I get kind of a longing for Italy, even if I really don´t know that country at all (I´ve gotta change that!)

After I read the recipe, I googles the Amalfi Coast to get a little geographic knowledge. In the same time, I realized that in summertime, people there really drown in these lemons.
I really really have to go there and have to help those poor Amalfi people :)

I served it with Crostini. Topped by chopped tomatoes and olives and some good olive oil.
You shouldn`t drink something else than water - you kill or choke the wonderful taste!


(Recipe from "Genial italienisch" ,Jamie Oliver << awesome awesome book !)

Rhubarbe with Vanillasauce

Summertime

For dinner (when Timo is not there, because he will squinch up his face  in disgust)  I had warm RHUBARBECOMPOTE with cooled VANILLASAUCE <3 - better Timo is not her. Than I don`t have to share it!

LYLs

Hellohhh everybody! WELCOME!
This blog is brandnew...but many of the pictures are taken the last year. So I will post bit by bit my LYLs - my LastYearLeckerlis (LastYearYummees)...and remember at the same time so many wonderful moments.

Me @ Jamie`s

OH YEAH!
I found my homemade fresh and tasty Chips (well, actually the photograph of it) on the Jamie´s Home Cooking Website (after I sent it there,for sure!) - I never thought that they would announce it, ... but I am SO HAPPY about that! <3

Have a look at the Website!:
JAMIES HOME COOKING SKILLS
(because it is like Gusteau said it: Everybody can cook!)