what's up?

maybe i can resuscitate this blog by joining a foodblog event, just like in the old days?

but where should i start?

top 10 pictures

celine of black.salt tagged me! sure, she is totally stroking my ego, because she's actually inviting me to show off my top 10 pictures ... "yes of course", says my ego, "we'll do that!" so i head over to my flickr-account to check out what other people think are my best pictures. most of them are my fav's also! wow, i already forgot so many of the delicious foods i made! and i feel a little bit stupid for abandoning my blog for so long ... plus, my ego just tells me: "gerda, we will *never* narrow our favorite pictures down to just ten!" ;) well, i'll give it a try, okay?

10 hokkaidokürbissuppe mit zucchini


09 würzig marinierte sardinen


08 buckwheat
(i'll always love this photo. my foodblog started out with these buckwheat-pix!)


07 rindsuppe mit grießnockerl (semolina dumplings in broth)


06 australische nationalfeiertagscookies ... oder so


05 orangenmarmelade


04 putenschnitzen / bauerntoast-style


03 crumpets!


02 knoblauchcremesuppe


01 ricotta pancakes with fruit on top


wow, that's really tough! i can't decide, i cant't decide!! now:

1. post 10 of your own favourite food shots
2. pass the opportunity on to others by tagging 5 fellow food bloggers, leaving a message on their comments page just so they’re aware of it. after my absence i might be a little out of touch with the foodie world, so i leave this tag open. feel free to show me your top 10 pictures, my friend!

please leave a comment here if you like to join and show off!

stuff my belly? yes! and stuff the bell pepper too!

see that? i am really back to foodblogging now - with all that implies! only a few days into the rekindling of this foodblog-romance and i have quite some unpublished posts piling up on my blogger dashboard! i just can't make up my mind which one to finish first for crying out loud!

but i will definitely show you the yummie, the not so yummie, the experiments and the failed attempts ... and today, ladies and gentlemen you'll get another issue of the popular category "an attempt to (once again) save my precious organic produce from going to waste" ... that started out a little half-hearted but turned out surprisingly yummie!

thus said: i don't like bell peppers. i don't know what it is, because i don't hate them, i actually don't mind if i accidentally have a bite or two of a bell pepper. so i technically don't even dislike them ... i just don't eat them. whenever i find one in my farmbox i try to get rid of it as quickly as possible. i either give it away to my mum or my neighbours/friends or i boil it to a pulp and add it to my tomato sauce. i just can't put my finger on why i don't want to eat them. i try to figure that out every once in a while ... just like with this recipe here, that turned out surprisingly delicious, considered the unloved ingredients.

bell pepper stuffed with rice and mushrooms
since i am not eating much meat anymore i went for a vegetarin yet somewhat "meaty" version of the stuffed pepper.

cook 30 g of rice. you should end up with about 100 g to stuff the bell pepper with. set the rice aside when it is done.


you end up with about 4 times as much rice once you cook it. interesting! i didn't know that!

cut the top of a bell pepper off and clean out the inside. this one is fairly large, so if you stick to the measurements i used you might as well be able to fill two regular sized peppers.


rinse the pepper. in a saucepan, sauté some leek in a tbsp of olive oil. cut up 100 g oyster mushrooms and add them to the pan. fry them a little.


add about 100 ml of cream or rama cremefine.


now add the rice and mix well. season to taste with salt and pepper. fresh herbs would be nice too!


stuff your pepper with this mixture. but would you look at this mess? i am sure you can do this way better than me! place it in a fireproof dish and bake it for about 15-20 minutes on 180°c.


i did not make any sauce for that dish, because i simply had no idea which taste would go nicely with bell pepper and mushrooms. i remember that we always had tomato sauce with a regular stuffed bell pepper when i was a kid. then again, those peppers back then where stuffed with lean ground beef.

do you have any suggestions on a nice sauce that would suit that recipe?

update: astrid suggested to enter this recipe in a foodblog event and i love to do that!

hello sweetie!

boy oh boy, i feel like the energizer bunny today!

i did tons of laundry (ooooohh, i am so looking forward to "clean sheets night" !!!). i cleaned my fridge and defrosted the ice compartment and currently i am in the middle of re-organizing the shelves in my living room. i will also totally tidy up the bedroom today!

i think i deserve a little reward in the middle of all this spring cleaning mania ... so i sit down for a minute and browse through those amazing cheesecakes from HHDD#10 because some of those recipes (actually, *all* of them) caught my attention and are on my "to do" list ...

but you see, i bought this fabulous cake tin the other day and while a cake from this silicone thingy would look really cute ... stupid me! did not realize at all that i'd have to fill this mould upside down, which is kind of a handicap if you prepare a cheesecake ... how on earth should i prepare a cracker crust that way?

so what now? i really like the soft / crumbly combination of most cheesecakes, but i have not found an "upside-down"-version of the cracker crust yet ... so should i just ditch the crust? i think i should! because i need something cute today - and my pretty mould will give me a cute little cake anyway!

all the pictures are really stunning! they all make my mouth water ... instead of flipping a coin i guess i should just go check if i have the ingredients for one of these gorgeous cakes in my fridge!

... i swear, i shrieked when i saw this one over at "the garlic press" - and i am oh so happy that i actually have what it takes to reproduce it (ingredients, that is!).

so here's my twist on the recipe! as always, i took the original recipe as an inspiration rather than something i must religiously obey. especially because the capacity of my mould is only 3 cups, so i need to do some scaling as well as higher mathematics ... you know by now that all these ounces, gramms, cups and what not always have me confused ... (though i have some nifty online tools by now!)


(would you stop taking pictures?!? lick that bowl already, you fool!!)

chocolate truffle cheesecake
inspired by this one by sarah at "the garlic press"

200 g 4,5% cottage cheese
200 g cream cheese (philadelphia)
100 g sugar
50 g unsweetened cocoa powder
25 g starch
2 large eggs
30 g chocolate, melted
pinch of salt
1/2 tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tbsp of hot water


(these ingredients yield exactly 3 cups)

1. preheat oven to 200 °c
2. puree cottage cheese in a food processor until very smooth
3. add cream cheese and blend
4. pour into a bowl and whisk in sugar, cocoa and starch
5. add the eggs, the coffee, the pinch of salt and the melted chocolate
   
   
   
6. pour in a little silicone baking mould
   
   
   
7. bake the cheesecake until the edges are set (about 45 minutes)
   
8. let cool and garnish with chocolate drizzle ...

actually, i have no idea how to get this cheesecake out of the mould! so far it looks really stuck ... i thought you don't have to grease a silicone pan! i might have to scrape it out with a spoon! but hey ... if i really have to destroy a lovely little cake because i can't get it out of the mould i can finally host that "kitchen disasters" - foodblog event i am dreaming about ...


update: look how pretty!! it slipped out of the mould just like that!


... and it is soooo good!

ps: thanks for the tip, zorra!!

pampering myself

now this one was really close! i barely made the deadline for hay, hay ... i decided to give our heirloom birthday cake a twist and throw in something other than pineapple for a change ... i asked my mama, and though we've had this b-day cake several times every year since i was a little kid she had actually never used any other fruit than pineapple for this cheesecake before.

i on the other hand took the bold step of changing a recipe that has travelled from australia to austria 30-ish years ago and has not been changed since.

i decided to submit a cherry cheesecake to hhdd#10:

250 g graham crackers (just take plain butterkeks, it's the best!)
125 g melted butter
250 ml cream
250 g curd cheese
1 small can of pickled cherries, drained (about 300 g)
3 tbsp of vanilla sugar (you can even skip this!)
10 g gelatine

1. crumble the crackers in a food processor and pour the crumbs in a cake tin
2. melt butter and mix with the cracker crumbs. press firmly in the tin until the cracker crust is very solid. chill until topping is ready
3. in a bowl, combine cream and curd cheese until smooth, add sugar if you like (though it is not really necessary)
4. fold in the drained cherries. add some of the liquid for a nice pink colour if you like
   
5. let gelatine soak in a little water for a few minutes. drain exess water and let gelatine dissolve completely over low heat
6. combine gelatine with the cream and cherry mixture and quickly pour topping onto the cracker crust
7. cover the cake and chill for at least 2 hours

that oughta cheer me up, dammit --- actually, it does a little, because it is just delicious!







[roundup]

is it a bird? is it a plane?

why no! it is a blogger postcard around the world!


what a lovely surprise today as i went downstairs to my mailbox! lovely jen did not only send me a postcard, no, she sent me two postcards, a valentine's card and recipes!! i am totally smitten, thanks jen! i taped the cards to my fridge and as far as the boston related recipes are concerned ... you can be sure you'll find them here pretty soon!

have a great valentine too, my newly found blogger friend :)

off you go, little postcard!

technorati tags: bpw, blogger postcards around the world

székelygulyás

i just love all the influences of various ethnicities in austrian cuisine! my country used to be a multiethnic monarchy under habsburg rule until 1918, i believe you all know that from history class (or, maybe not). it expanded eastwards starting out from the teeny tiny austria i live in today and included parts of the czech republic, slovakia, poland, hungary, italy, slovenia, croatia, serbia, romania and the ukraine.

up to the present day we have so many diverse dishes, so many flavours and textures and so many regional specialities still influenced by eastern europe and the former duchies, counties and kingdoms of the austrian empire. history around the globe teaches us that it's not exactly easy to manage a large empire with diverse ethnicities and austria inarguably has had a large share of a very dark moment in history.

still, i grew up to not only tolerate but embrace diversity in beliefs, religions, traditions and above all food! i value that highly.

when i was little it never really occured to me that i was so incredibly influenced by eastern european cuisine. i always believed that the dishes i grew up with where typically austrian and only found out about their history when i grew up to be a food loving teenager. bohemian pastry, mediterranean and balkan meat dishes, and not to forget the comforting eastern european stews are all a staple in my diet.

i just adore topfengolatschen (bohemian) with a nice cup of coffee in the afternoon.

minced meat ćevapčići (balkan) where my favorite fast food snack as a child and still are our traditional family christmas dish today. forget the turkey, my family has eaten ćevapčići for at least 20 years on christmas eve. i often get a "what?!? where is the roast pork?!?" when i describe our luscious feast with ćevapčići and a wide range of side dishes, sauces and various breads.

when i think of comfort food from my childhood - cheap, easy, quick, filling and delicious - i always think of the hungarian goulash. it still is the most comforting food i could ever eat.


this will also be my contribution to the brandnew foodblog event waiter, there's something in my ... stew, because goulash really has always been comfort food for me. my mama makes like a gazillion versions of this hungarian speciality and szegedin goulash (or as we call it: szegediner gulasch) has always been my favorite. when we have regular goulash i usually push the meat aside and drown white bread in the sauce, but when szegedin goulash is on the menu is finish off the whole plate, i request seconds (and often more) and i always feel the urge to lick the plate when i'm done eating ... oh yes, and then my pants pop :) ... when i've eaten too much i can always sip a little slivovitz (eastern european) ... indeed, sweet relief!

400 g diced goulash meat (pork)
500 g sauerkraut
vegetable oil
1 onion
3 tsp paprika powder (you can take as much as you like, even up to 2 tsp)
1 clove of garlic
about 150 ml water
salt
bay leaf
2 tbsp flour
150 ml milk

1. in a pot, gently fry diced onion and diced garlic in a little vegetable oil
   
2. add pork and continue to cook until the meat is turning brown
3. add the sauerkraut. some people like to drain or even rinse it, but i prefer putting it into the pot with all the juicy liquid. i also like to rinse the package with a little water (about 150 ml), so there's enough liquid in the goulash later
   
4. bring to a boil
5. now add the paprika and the bay leaf
6. reduce heat, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes
7. mix flour and milk and add to the goulash to thicken it
8. bring to a boil again
   
9. serve with plain bread or cooked potatoes
   

i have never made this goulash myself, so danke für das rezept, mama :)

my siblings and i gave my parents "the internet" and a laptop for christmas and my mother is slowly losing her fear of technology. she can even skype me now, she can check and send emails and she is also beginning to discover those mysterious things called "weblogs" ...

technorati tags: wtsim, waiter theres something

so i kick back with my goulash and listen to the strong wind outside ... a storm warning has been issued yesterday for central europe, and i am kind of worried about that. though i have always been fascinated by thunder and lightning i have never witnessed something like that before. it's really a very unusual weather situation and the storm is expected to hit the northern part of the alps (where i live) in two to three hours with 150 km/h. i honestly don't know if i should be afraid or excited.


i am just watching the news where they have live coverage of various locations in austria preparing for the storm - everyone is on red alert. that really is a weird situation right now ... i better prepare a few candles and matches, i don't want to be surprised by a power blackout ...

update

it is 23:30 now and various things, odds and ends are tumbling around on my neighbours terrace ... why didn't he put that stuff in the shed? he'll probably find his patio furniture and his plants in the danube tomorrow, a few kilometers downstream ...

now the light starts quivering, that definitely feels weird. thank good i am in a solidly built house and i don't have to be afraid that the roof gets blown off ... but the loud wind and the noise from all the stuff that gets blown away outside is definitely giving me the creeps!

another update

so how did you other europeans survive this stormy night? the hurricane was gone when i woke up and though there still are rather strong winds, neither myself nor anybody i know was harmed during the night. my sister could not get to work in time this morning and there still is a blackout in the remote village where my grandfather lives, but my mama is taking care of him and bringing coffee and warm food until the broken wires are repaired.

apparently upper austria was hit very hard (137 km/h in linz-hörsching) and with lower austria and salzburg the most damage was done along the northern side of the alps. we had a peak of 216 km/h in the alpine upland in salzburg. that sounds really scary!

i will skip university today and i'll take a walk around my neighbourhood later to see if anything is heavily damaged. but it looks totally quiet outside right now, there might be some damage on the current building site near the danube (they are errecting a protective wall to prevent flooding of my neighbourhood). there are no warnings about flooding in linz right now, but its raining heavily and we might have to expect something over the next few days ...

my personal top 10

i have been tagged by zorra to join the best of 2006 meme. it is not an easy task, but i finally managed to narrow my personal favorites of the last year down to just ten recipes ... wanna see? there you go!

number one just has to be the fantastic lime coconut fudge! no doubt about it!


i saw ainsley harriot make ricotta pancakes on one of his shows. they looked so divine, i had to find a recipe to make some myself!


cooking a pumpkin for the first time this year! the pumpkin soup with zucchini tasted incredible and i've made it a couple of times already!


i discovered so many new tastes and textures this year because of the lovely farm box i get delivered to my porch every week. the parsnip probably was the most surprising vegetable and the parsnip au gratin was just delicious!


god, i am such a fan of soups! i tend to make the same soups over and over, but the lentil soup with roasted bacon was really outstanding!


i always thought making pudding from scratch was difficult. why on earth did i think that?! it's so quick and easy - and oh, did i forget to say delicious?


the green nockerl with mozzarella clearly where an experiment. and while not every experiment in my kitchen turns out okay this one is definitely a keeper!


garlic soup from scratch is definitely a staple dish in my kitchen!


i tend to stick to the tastes i know and like when it comes to trying out new recipes. the coconut soup was all about brand new flavours - and to my big surprise it worked out really well!


oh, the colorful layers of savoy cabbage where divine! adjusting something i've known for years and making my very own dish out of it has got to be my hobby number one since i started my food blog!


i know you always have to invite people to join a food blog meme, but i think i like to leave this invitation open: everyone should scan their archives! it is totally interesting to rediscover recipes you've already almost forgotten about! and it is harder than you think to limit your favorites to only ten!

so join in the fun, my foodblogging friend!

Well Fed Network: Food Blog Awards

... now go to the well fed network and vote for your favorites!
... pretty please?!

(polls will close on midnight EST on january 9.)

day one

with this new year knocking on my door i want to face the challenge of taking pictures of everything i consume during this first week of the new year. there was a food blog event in november over at becks and posh which i missed. i want to catch up on that now. kind of a new years resolution, i think. most people start the new year with a diet or a very strict workout schedule, but i need to do some different things *. i only want to screen what i eat and drink for a week - because i am curious. i tend to be very lost in my thoughts when i eat. or lost in my computer. or lost in my favorite tv show. i need to focus on eating again.

actually, maybe i jumped the gun here because as i took a picture of the first thing i drank this morning - a plain glass of tap water - i noticed: gosh, this might be terribly boring for you! most of the things i stuff in my mouth don't really photograph very well!

when i post an entry - and i am sure most of you mad foodbloggers out there will agree - i try to make the pictures as perfectly as possible. i consider lighting (no flash, please!), background (as blurry as possible), colors (colorful dishes with boring food and vice versa) and sometimes i even arrange the noodles on the plate to make them look exactly like i want them to ... yeah. now you know. my name is gerda and i am a crazy person. with all that stuff in mind my food usually is lukewarm by the time i get to eat it.

taking pictures of everything i consume is gonna be tricky. how on earth should i take a picture of the weckerl i gulp down in the tramway on my way to work?! this thing is gone in like two seconds!!

of course i will try my best and i intend to not cheat. but the people around me will certainly think i am totally out of my mind by the end of this week ... camera at the ready all! the! time!

okay. that said, in the style of tucker shaw i proudly present the yield of 01.01.2007


01 water
02 latte macchiato plus first cigarette of the day
03 water
04 bread and jam
05 weihnachtsstern tea
06 chili con carne leftovers - that's even better when warmed up!
07 water, again
08 more weihnachtsstern tea
09 a banana
10 cocoa & rum (watching a cheesy chickflick on tv)
11 the last 3 of my lime coconut fudgybabies (ditto!). i will have to make some more!
12 a kiwi
13 even more water

that's not really much food in one day, is it? and while it's challenging for me to remember taking all the pictures it might be totally dull for you.

we'll see what tomorrow brings.
more food and some actual cooking, i suppose!

_____

*
do you want to know what my real new years resolutions are?
yeah, shame on me, i could not resist making some anyway!

• i want to play guitar more. i started when i was 10 and i haven't played at all last year. i used to love to play and now i don't even know if i can remember all the tricky chords ...
  
• i did not read a single book last year. i started to read "carmen" by prosper mérimée two weeks ago in an effort to at least look back on one book in 2006, but nope! i did not manage to finish it (i have to admit i picked the original french version and my french is a bit rusty) ... i need to switch off my computer from time to time and grab a decent novel. i've never been a big reader, i mostly read magazines or i catch up on my reading online. but one book a year, for christ's sake! that should be doable, right?
• i want to receive mail again. real mail. with a stamp. written by hand. but i guess i have to start sending out letters in order for that to happen. so another resolution this year is to write letters again. because i can't even remember when i sent out my last letter. i suppose it was before the millenium.
  

everything, everything, everything

there was an interesting challenge over at becks and posh somewhen in november: the "every single thing i ate and drank last week" - task. i was not up to join in the fun back then. i hesitated because i was afraid it might bring out my darkest cravings for the whole world to see ... too revealing, much too revealing! i was not at all prepared to let that happen!

but i made up my mind. i thought i could just stop being a coward and make one (and ony ONE) new years resolution for this very first week of 2007: take pictures of everything you eat and drink, gerda. but seriousely. no matter if i dig into a box of cereals in the afternoon or if i put a big chunk of chocolate into my mouth right before going to bed ... i will share it all with you. no cheating, i promise.

so ... are you even interested?

well, at least it will be a therapeutical new years resolution for yours truly.
watch out my friends, it's gonna be interesting!
and it'll probably look something like my dishes-photoset on flickr:


you could help me revive the becks and posh challenge if you also missed it two months ago! or you could just check out my adventures in eating and drinking over the next week ...