dish towel salad dressing

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

if it only was that easy!

Adobe Photoshop Cook from Lait Noir on Vimeo.

i like how they compare money to cake

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 think i may need that!

oh wait.
i KNOW i need this!!!

google friend connect

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]

love food, hate waste AND save money

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.

good work!

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

maybe tomorrow?

the mother of all foodie blogrolls

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?

in other news ...

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 ...

think globally, act locally

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!

i am so going to buy this!

the yummy kitchen community device! (via techie diva)

"Yummy is a kitchen community device. It connects the kitchen to the cooking network and food blogosphere. It recommends you a good lunch, according to your food supply, current diet and receipes from the web. Yummy is specially designed for the kitchen. No waste of space : it fits on the wall. It is designed to enhance standing interactions (fast and simple operations) in the kitchen."

it recommends recipes based on your food supply, your diet, and recipes on the web. You can update your recipes by adding comments on the blog using the touchscreen and taking pictures from the plunging camera. It can also scan bar codes on products to add them to your house stock. yummy can also access media such as podcasts, video blogs, music, webtv, and skype.


it would be totally awesome to have a tool like this in the kitchen ...

thank you & a question

did a fellow foodpage with a million hits a day link to my humble site and thus share some of the success - or what is going on here? 31.12.2006 has been the busiest day so far on this blog! page views where shooting up and i've had almost twice as many visitors than before! oh man, i am really excited about that and i want to thank you again for visiting :) you certainly made my day! i totally consider this good luck for 2007 :)

but this first post in 2007 is not about cooking, eating or anything else food-related. i want to ask you something: how do you keep track of your (food)blogs? maybe you noticed the blogroll in the sidebar, that's my only archive at the moment - well, i am not really satisfied with that blogroll and i am looking for another way to file my bookmarks online. how do you handle the overwhelming amount of fantastic foodblogs? there must be a better way - tagging, storing in folders, maybe rss ... whatever! i'd love to sort foodies by country.

do you also store your links online or do you keep track in the favorites of your browser?
do you have any tips or suggestions for me?
your help would be appreciated!

andere länder, andere sitten

... that would be the german equivalent of "when in rome, do as the romans do!".

i was always really bad in converting the values and measures from american or british recipes. i usually cook very intuitivly and when i must follow a recipe i tend to make mistakes. in my world it does not make any difference if i use a level spoonfull or a heaped spoonfull. when it comes to foreign recipes these inaccuracies usually turn into a mini-disaster. as i really want my food to actually look as delicious as it tastes, my americanstyle cakes tend to be a mashed up something (still good to eat though!) and my americanstyle muffins don't rise or melt away.

for future reference i want to point out a webpage i have known for years and might be usefull for all the (german speaking) europeans out there: usa kulinarisch. the site is devoted to american cooking and gives an insights in american traditions, regional dishes, holidays and saisonal recipes ... and they have a great section for all those troubles an european girl has with the "cup", the "ounce", the "fluid ounce" and the "pound" ... don't even get me started on fahrenheit! another great section is the part dealing with replacement of american ingredients that are either hard to get or very expensive import articles here in europe.

convert measures, temperatures / replace traditional american ingredients

and now i will roll up my sleeves and dig into your archives for a nice (and healthy) american recipe for a desert ...

thinking about cooking

having my foodblog back on track makes me think about my dinnerplans all day :) what am i going to cook today? i feel like i need to cook fancy and delicious things to rise to the occasion and be an exemplary foodblogger. of course i always like to experiment with new spices and flavours, dishes and ingredients, in addidtion to a tasty meal for myself i'd like to create good looking stuff for you to look at.

as i was cleaning my fridge yesterday i found a rather old piece of a ginger root. now i have such a craving for a ginger dish, it's unbelievable!

i am looking through www.chefkoch.de to find a delicious gingerdish i can cook, eat and post this evening. on my way home i might also check out that new health food store that opened last week right by my workplace for some fancy & healthy ideas ...

by the way:

the ginger root from my fridge also has a sprout on it.
can i plant this little thing?
will it start to grow?