things have not been going smoothly for me lately.
i am now on medication and it is back to "for one" - two major changes that pretty much suck most of the time. and though i also finished my bachelor's degree i am still looking for a decent job. no idea yet how to make rent next month!
but i am sure i will get through all this.
i know i am strong.
and i hope to get this foodblog back to life too!
thanks for your patience anyway!
i am always looking for cool ideas to cook fish these days. so when i found this recipe for sardines as fingerfood / tapas i ripped it right out of the magazine. sardines? sure! i tried several kinds of fish in the past weeks and i think i am already tasting differences. so today i'll buy myself some sardines and quickly fry them up for a nice lunch ... or so i thought! can you believe i did not find one single fishmonger in linz who could sell me fresh sardines?! yes, okay, after half a day on my bike on tour through the city i finally found a shop that would sell frozen ones (which i bought anyway). but i wanted to cook them straight away! i would have to thaw and gill them - and that is something that i am not really curious about. i never gilled a fish and honestly, i don't ever want to. i confess that i prefer my meat clean and cut into handy pieces in a styrofoam box. see no evil, hear no evil, don't think of the fact that you actually eat something that was alive once ... yesyesyes! how naive ... don't judge me!
so what is all that about?! are there really no fresh sardines available in this city?!
of course there are. somebody hinted that i could order them in a local eurospar and they would have them available cleaned and gilled the next morning. this is exactly what i wanted! i stuck the frozen sardines in my freezer compartment - they can wait until i am ready to actually gill an animal ... and then i ordered fresh sardines from the eurospar at the city's (only?) shopping center.
[stop looking at me like that!]
rinse 500 g sardines (15 fish) and pat them dry. dredge in flour, shaking off any excess.
heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. when the oil is hot, fry the sardines until brown and crispy. remove to a large serving plate, and keep warm.
add four chopped cloves of garlic to the pan and cook until brown. add one tbsp of paprika powder, one bayleaf, 100 ml balsamic vinegar (the original requires white vinegar), 100 ml white wine and 100 ml water and allow the mixture to simmer, stirring occasionally. when the liquid has reduced by about half, pour the sauce over the sardines. you can sprinkle the fish with chopped herbs too - i used chopped basil. the herbs are optional. let stand for at least two hours to allow the fish to marinate.
serves 3
while looking for other recipes about sardines i found a similar one here. apparently those sardines are called "naples style". who knew!
i also strained and reduced the marinade by two thirds and it makes a wonderful and glossy dip / sauce for the filets. though there is 1/3 of balsamic vinegar in this sauce, it is not acidic at all. it actually gives the fish the final kick!
all in all it took me half a day to cook plus two days to actually obtain sardines, but it really was all worth it!
with the crazy weather here in austria it almost feels like summer is gone already. that sucks, let me tell you! because it has been a marvellous summer so far and i still want more of it - and yes, sure, i almost collapsed a few times when we had 40°c and sometimes even more - but the summer of 2007 will always be remembered as the summer of bbq and chill out afternoons on the deck ♥.
don't get me wrong - i barbecued before. i used to throw the odd cutlet or a hamburger on the grill, a few times every summer, i was experimental enough to grill a pineapple once. it actually became quite a ritual in my circle of friends in 2003, but that bbq never was more than food that was bound to be digested.
that changed this year. i can't even put my finger on it. i don't know what's different now - maybe because food is not just food anymore. this summer was very different in so many ways, and my different approach towards nutrition really might have something to do with it :) i am much more aware somehow. i enjoy every second with my friends and my ♥ out on the deck and i soak up every last sunbeam. and i am even more experimental as far as the food is concerned!
in order to preserve a little of this bbq spirit on a very cloudy lunchbreak i decided to make myself a tasty (and handy!) little sandwich with the ingredients i loved and discovered this summer. that's the best thing since sliced bread! nonono, let me rephrase that: it is the best thing between two slices of bread, baby!
i grilled different vegetables i found in my fridge, basically a tricolour of zucchini, tomatoes and garlic. i also grilled a few cloves of garlic and - the main ingredient now - halloumi! i discovered this unbelievable cheese in early summer and i am hooked ever since. i still like grilled cutlets and grilled hamburgers today, but actually i almost always chose halloumi over meat when we fetched the grill!
when your veggies and the halloumi are done just do this:
i don't want to brag, but this has been the most satisfying lunch i've had in months! now let me get back to the second half of my summer bbq sandwich! you definitely should make yourself one too!
trig tagged me for a meme which sounded pretty familiar to me ... so i grabbed my shovel and started to dig through my archives - indeed, i had done this one before a year ago! so today you'll get an updated version of this meme:
4 jobs I’ve had in my life:
no changes here, though i could add call center agent (*ugh*) to that list now!
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!
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?
first of all i want to thank you for your overwhelming support.
i honestly don't know what to say.
healthwise i've had some very troubled times lately which i announced on this foodblog to a great extent. it almost seems that this is not a foodblog anymore, this might be a chronic ailment blog now! what a shame, don't you think?! no, i don't want that. i need to turn things around again and this little hiatus has to stop.
now.
like, right now.
because i feel so much stronger! i am getting in shape, i can feel that my body is changing because of my much healthier lifestyle and a very balanced nutrition. i have the feeling that a healthier body might even give me the strength to overcome bad times more easily. i don't want to be weak when i have to face bad times again! and not-so-funny-times are straight ahead: i will start with medication in a few days. i basically had to make the decision to either go ahead with orthodox medicine or rely on alternatives. and while i am not opposed to complementary treatment in general i don't believe in an esoteric approach at all. so i decided that i will be on meds for the rest of my life.
the.
rest.
of.
my.
life.
sounds so ultimate, doesn't it?
i have to admit that i am scared.
like, really really scared.
but actually, it is not so bad ...
... because, uhm ♥ love is in the air ♥ frankly, that's the other reason why i did not blog that much in recent weeks. i did not expect this at all - honestly, i was expecting quite the opposite because i tend to shut down in troubled times ... but this guy, oh, this gorgeous guy ... with his split-second timing! he managed to catch me off guard and just stole my heart - and now we're two enamoured geeks, how cool is that?! and we cook and eat together ... he seems to be a little concerned about my deserted foodblog too, because the other day as we stood by the stove he asked why i was not taking any pictures of the things we cook together ... aaawww, need i say more? i am one very happy gal!
one happy gal that can offer you another austrian dish today:
marillenknödel (apricot dumplings)
cook and peel 200 g of potatoes. though i am not particularly messy in the kitchen i always need a lot of space for making the dough. so i place my potatoes on the clean kitchen counter when they are cool enough to handle and i thoroughly squish them while they are still warm. use a fork or a potatoe masher, either would work. add a pinch of salt. hollow out a little hole in the middle of your pile of potatoes and crack one egg into it. it really depends on your potatoes how much flour you need, for my dough i added a little more than 100 g of flour. now knead the mixture well until it is compact and smooth. it should not be too moist!
slice open 4 apricots and remove the pit. my mom always slices them almost half open and replaces the pit with a sugar cube. since my apricots are really ripe and sweet i did not do that.
in the meantime bring a pot of water to a boil.
now roll out your dough a little and cut it into 4 pieces. flatten one piece with your hand. now hold this fairly round thingy in your hand and place one apricot you prepared earlier in the center. press the dough around the fruit to seal the edges together. make sure there are no leaks!
repeat with the other three pieces of dough. now place your dumplings in the water and let simmer for about 10 - 15 minutes. check back often, when your dumplings rise to the top they are done.
melt a knob of butter in a pan. stir in 8 tablespoons of breadcrumbs and one tablespoon of sugar. roast the crumbs until they turn brown. again, my mum makes them much sweeter and adds like 4 times as much sugar (which, honestly, every austrian chef would do. but i want to stay away from too much calories, so i cut out white sugar whenever i can).
when your dumplings are done, place them in the pan and turn them a little to coat them in the crumbs.
garnish your dumplings with a tablespoon or two of the roasted breadcrumbs.
by the way, you can also use plumbs or other stone fruits for that recipe.
things are more difficult than i expected them to be so soon after the diagnosis. so much is changing, i have to figure out my every day life all anew. that's pretty exhausting, much more exhausting than i ever thought it would be.
still, as a glass-half-full-person i am positive and hopefull, it's not that i mope around the house and cry all day ...
it sucks that i hardly read your lovely foodblogs these days. that's a major downer, because digging around in the foodie community was always the most inspiring thing. the major downside (besides the meds and the numbing fatigue) is that foodwise, i am not really touched by the muse and that's clearly slowing down dinner for one.
i am sure that will change again and i definitely don't want to go on a hiatus or close this blog alltogether! i know you are patient and supportive, and i will surely keep posting. i will post less, but i will keep posting.
and i will also put my laptop on my belly while i rest on my couch, i will crawl through your lovely foodblogs and leave the odd comment here and there ... your inspiration will have me back jumping around in my kitchen in no time!
thank you for being here and dropping mails and comments that you are worried.
you have no idea what that means to me.
you rock!
i am having a rough time healthwise right now and i am not in the mood for anything at the moment. i just finished cortisone iv treatment and i am slowly getting back my sleep-wake rhythm. it sucks to be totally off my game! i was not even in the mood for eating or cooking, but i had some zander in my fridge which really had to be prepared. while it might be best to cook this fish in the oven or fry the battered fish i was going for a different fish in the pan - situation. accidentally, actually!
i removed the skin of a zander filet (the european version of walleye) and i fried it in a little olive oil over medium heat. once the fish was done on one side i tried to flip it - what a disaster! it totally broke appart! well, i am not that experienced with cooking fish, but i should have seen this coming. oh, nevermind. i sprinted to my fridge in search for further ingredients for a fish-stew-thing that would cover up this flipping disaster. luckily i found some fennel and green beans which seemed to match perfectly. i kept frying the fish for some more while i was cutting up the fennel. i added it to the pan and also added some cremefine and a spoon full of capers. i put a lid on an let the rescued disaster simmer for a couple of minutes. in the meantime i prepared the green beans and cooked them for about 10 minutes.
when it is hot an humid outside i tend to stop cooking altogether. cooking always means turning on my stove, and during summer i am clearly moving towards fruits and raw vegetables.
i just can not bring myself to eat something hot or even warm so dinner for one could easily come to a complete halt during a heatwave because tossing salad does not really qualify as cooking in my (narrow?) humble opinion. or at least it does not seem like something worth putting on a foodblog. most of my cold food is awfully simple and quick and putting something like a dip or spread on dinner for one almost seems like an insult to those aspiring chefs out there that are dropping by my little corner of the www.
so, cold food.
nothing wrong with that! as a cook i should really be more openminded here, huh?
what about all those marvellous salads that take ages to chop and prepare?
what about gazpacho and antipasti?
i thought a cold and yummie noodle salad might just be the thing to make and wrap up in another blogpost during those hot hot hot days. it is not fancy, i did not even go shopping for this salad - all i did was i raided my fridge.
but beware! this recipe clearly does not qualify as "for one". i just know i will dine on this for at least 3 days ...
750 g penne rigate (cooked)
100 g carrots
100 g green bell pepper
100 g cucumber
100 g cherry tomatoes
125 g mozzarella
1 big tbsp capers
2 big tbsp mayonnaise
- cook the penne and rinse under cold water. set aside
- dice 'em, slice 'em, chop 'em - just make your veggies as small as possible. you actually could throw in every vegetable you can find in your fridge
- tear or cut the mozzarella into tiny little pieces
- in a bowl combine the pasta with the veggies and the mozzarella
- sprinkle over one big tbsp of capers and two tbsp of mayonnaise. my capers are marinated in white wine vinegar which adds a lovely and subtle note to the salad
- mix well and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- let rest for at least two hours in your frigde or preferably even overnight
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 ...
man, i tell you: the amount of information regarding healthy life with ms is overwhelming! i am sure 80 percent of what i read and researched already is utter bullshit, but it seems that almost all physicians agree on the importance of diet and nutrition to maintain a balanced lifestyle with multiple sclerosis.
i discovered some interesting facts about the occurrence of ms. it seems that countries where butter and meat are a staple food ms is four to eight times higher than in regions with mainly fish and olive oil - and japan does aparently have only 29 documented cases, can you believe that?! along the equator are less cases documented. colder countries seem to have more cases. the disease seems to have a lot to do with our modern way of living. processed food, canned goods, long work hours, stress and too little sunlight seem to be a factor as well.
who honestly believes crouching in a cubicle for 8 hours a day can be healthy?
raise your hands please!
allright, you might not get ms by working long hours, but it seems to be a fact that once you are diagnosed with it you can steer in a healthy direction and slow down the disease by simply changing your lifestyle.
simply.
we will see about that ...
well, i don't want to bug you too much with all this stuff, i just want to tell you this: the sooner you take countermeasures, start a healthy lifestyle with lots of sunshine and vitamins and good food that is preferably not processed at all, the slower the disease will apparently progress and the longer you can live without being bugged by that stupid malady.
right now i am reading an interesting book by christine wagener-thile about alternative therapies. i am not at all against orthodox medicine, after all this is what will slow down the progress of my disease.
but hey, when i can help to slow it down even more - why shouldn't i?
people who stick to a certain diet religiously can live up to 36 years without any troubeling symphtoms. now, that sounds promising! having my next attack at 76 would be pretty cool, huh? though i have to admit it seems unlikely ... i am a weak person, i am sure i will not be able to obey the strict regime of a certain diet. i am still smoking. my belly is too big. i don't work out at all.
the good thing: you should think about changing your lifestyle after the first attack and not just two years later when another attack hits you. since i am at the very beginning of my life with multiple sclerosis i should really be able to implement some changes that help me with my wellbeing.
so let's talk about a recipe now, shall we? shunning preprocessed food should be an easy task. i just make the burgers myself. all vegetables of course!
grate a zucchini (250 g) and a few small carrots (100 g). put them in a bowl and set them aside.
in a pan, heat a tbsp of vegetable oil and fry a diced onion, a clove of garlic and some chopped parsley. dice a bell pepper (100 g) and throw it in the pan too. add 50 g rolled oats to the pan and keep stirring. when the oats start to brown, add 150 ml of vegetable stock and let the mixture simmer for a while. once the oats have absorbed all the liquid let the mixture cool for a couple of minutes.
pour over the grated zucchini and carrots and mix very well. add one whole egg.
the mixture is rather runny now and to compensate that add three tablespoons of flour and three tablespoons of breadcrumbs. you might need a little more / a little less.
season to taste.
heat a knob of butter in a pan and make litte patties with your spoon. fry them for about 3 minutes on each side.
serve the veggie-thingies on green salad or stick them in a burger-bun.
the temperatures have dropped significantly around here and we are going from cool ice cream straight to heart warming soup. global warming is really springing surprises, weather-wise.
when i saw the recipe of the week in one of my food newsletters i was intrigued.
they want me to poach an egg!
i've never done that, how on earth do i do that?
the recipe itself is rather simple: a few ingredients and a stock cube, that does not sound to challenging, right? lacking coriander i opted for parsley and since i was out of garlic i obviously did not add garlic either.
i diced a slice of bread and put it in a soup dish. i chopped a handfull of parsley and added it with a drizzle of vegetable oil to the dish as well. i also added ground pepper, one of my favorite seasonings lately ... i let the mixture rest while i was bringing 300 ml of vegetable stock to a boil.
while all that is doable and does not require any special skills whatsoever, my attempt to poach an egg was ... a mess! look at this, it really is a mess!!
it is sooooo hot and humid outside today, i am this close to running around in my underwear!
i was dying for some icecream all afternoon and yet i could not bring myself to quickly rub some sunlotion on my freckled skin, jump into my brandnew crocs and run to the grocery store - yes, run. that's how bad i wanted icecream. my spirit was really willing but my flesh was sooooo weak ...
i was so terribly powerless because of all that humidity that not even my craving for icecream could drive me out of my shady flat. so i had to come up with another idea for sweet and cool relief. i stuck my head in the freezer compartment and found the answer in a pack of frozen berries in the very back:
put 300 g of frozen fruit and 250 g of cremefin (maybe even yoghurt will work here) plus one tablespoon of your favorite sweetening (i took agave syrup) in a food processor and blizz for a few secondsthis might not be the most sophisticated way to make icecream, but it sure is a darn good quick fix! oh so yummie!!
et voila!
makes two people incredibly happy within 3 minutes (or makes yourself happy twice if you freeze half of the icecream)
hey there!
how have you been?
can you believe i left this blog deserted for almost a month? that certainly wasn't planned, and i honestly wonder how i would neglect something so important to me for such a long time! thanks to a lovely yet distinct kick in the butt by a fellow foodblogger (yes, i mean you) i pulled myself together and got back to blogging.
so why was i that absent?
i could tell you now that i was in hospital for a few days. oh my god, did you ever have a lumbar puncture? they totally lie if they tell you "this is going to hurt a little" - i am not a wuss, but i actually passed out because of the pain! i think giving birth one day might be out of the picture. i am not as pain resistant as i thought!
since some of you sent me very kind mails worrying about my deserted blog - let me assure you, i am okay. i have to get treatment started as far as the ms is concerned, and the sooner i start the better.
i also could tell you that i really need to finish my bachelor's degree and university is virtually killing me right now. i have no idea if i can / will push through with a master's degree. another two years? meeeeh ... i feel i can not plan that long ahead right now, you know? but a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, right? so i recently quit my job to focus on this goal right in front of me. i have never lived on a scholarship alone, i always had several jobs when i was going to university. this will be a drastic change. actually, i now live way below the austrian poverty level. that sounds really weird ... i don't feel poor at all! i am a very low key person, i don't need much (my dictionary says i am "frugal"). i make rent, i can afford bandwith, i have enough to eat - what more do i need?
speaking of which ...
i would feel poor if i had to eat potatoes all week long, instead my potatoes are accompanied by a lovely turkey steak with a herb crust. not too shabby for a penniless student, huh? sure, a regular schnitzel is a dull (yet famous!) dish in austria, but with a little sugar&spice you can really pimp this baby ...
four tbsp of bread crumbsvoila, there you have a nice exotic finish to a rather mundane dish!
mixed herbs (i used 20 g fresh basil, 20 g fresh parsley and 20 g fresh tarragon)
one egg
one tbsp flour
salt, pepper
three small turkey steaks (i suppose you can use any meat suitable for schnitzel)
one tbsp vegetable oil
one orange
a little sugar
new potatoes
- in a food processor, mix breadcrumbs with herbs and put them on a flat plate
- season the turkey schnitzel with salt and pepper and lightly dust it with flour
- pull the schnitzel through the whisked egg then coat it with the breadcrumb and herb mixture on both sides. make sure to firmly press on the last layer. this breading is very moist and will not stick as easily as it would on your regular viennese veal cutlet. if you want, you can use dried herbs and avoid all the moist roundabout :) i usually stick the bred+herb-mixture in the oven for a couple of minutes to dry it a little and make it easier to handle
- in a pan, fry the schnitzel for a minute on each side
- put on a baking tray and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes on 180°C
- slice an orange and season it with pepper
- put a little sugar in your pan, let it caramelize and quickly fry the sliced orange as a nifty garnish and side-dish for your turkey schnitzel. also give your potatos a quick toss in the same pan! they will taste sooo yummie and orangy ... "orangy" ... is that even a word? i don't know ...
- if you want a nice orangy gravy you can add a knob of butter and a litte stock to the pan after removing the orange slices and the potatoes. go ahead, you can even use white wine here! whisk in a little flour until the gravy thickens.
