2013 advent calendar

The 2013 advent calendar is up!! I have hidden 24 surprises! The countdown to christmas has begun! 

Spelt leftover lunch

Two zucchinis, a few carrots, some celery sticks and a whole lot of nothing in my fridge. That happens sometimes. On days like today fir example. On this cold winter morning with chilly bora wind blowing from the east, I decided against grocery shopping and invented a new recipe: leftover spelt; meaning spelt with whatever leftovers there are. 

Here is what I used:

4 medium organic carrots

2 large organic zucchinis

1 celery stick

2 cloves of garlic (I was out of onion, but would have added it otherwise)

250 grams/2 cups of spelt 

extra virgin olive oil

1/2 lemon

a few basil leaves

salt, pepper 

other herbs if you like such as

rosemary or thyme

First off, preheat oven to the highest setting possible. Wash the spelt and soak in in fresh water for at least 20 minutes. In the meantime, wash and chop all veggies into small pieces, you can cut the garlic cloves very small and mix them up with the rest or leave them whole and take them out once the veggies are cooked. Mix all the veggies together, add a splash of olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, herbs of your choice (do not add the basil yet).

In a cooking sheet roast all veggies. Cook Spelt in fresh salted water for about 20 minutes, the same time the veggies need. When the spelt is cooked, strain it, let the water evaporate, then mix veggies and grains in a large bowl. Mix in chopped basil leaves. Let everything stand for a while to let flavours develop. Serve warm or cold. It's whole, healthy and: vegan! My hunny loved it with some not so vegan grated Parmesan cheese. Enjoy! 

Peppino pumpkin

This is Peppino Pumpkin, carved by my own hands! Part of Peppino is now soup! 

I made the same recipe a few weeks ago and served it - amongst other delicious dishes - for Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. It was a complete hit! 

Here is what I used for the soup:

2 cloves of garlic

1 red onion

some ginger roots (I used 2 large ones)

1 glass of prosecco (or white wine)

1 large pumpkin (buy a Hokkaido one if you can get it, I did not find one here)

200 ml/1 cup coconut milk

1 red chili pepper 

extra vergin olive oil

salt

pepper

For the croutons:

bread of your choice, can be a day old

4-5 sage leaves

olive oil

Here is what I did for the soup I served our friends:

Other than cutting and carving the pumpkin, I put it in the oven on the highest temperature for about 15 minutes. Afterwards it's so easy to cut up! I could not find a Hokkaido pumpkin (you can eat the skin as well) so I had to cut the skin off and take out the insides of the vegetable. I then cut the flesh in pieces and put it aside. 

I finely chopped garlic, a red onion, two ginger roots and a chili pepper (minus the seeds) and fried everything in extra vergin olive oil. I added some prosecco and when it had mostly evaporated I added the pumpkin pieces, let them fry for just 1 minute before I added some heated vegetable broth. 

I let the pumpkin cook for about 40 minutes. I then puréed everything and finally added some coconut milk that I stirred in slowly. I added just a hint of salt and pepper.

Right before serving the soup I cut up some bread and fried it in olive oil and chopped sage leaves. 

Since my guests were all Italians, they added some grated grana padano cheese, but it is not necessary. You can also enjoy it completely vegan. Perfect soup for the season! 

Feeling happy

Just wanna share my happiness with all of you!! May today make you smile!! 

bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Shoelicious Italy

Some men think all women go crazy about shoes. Period. Well, I used to be one of the very few women in the western world who did not share this behaviour with other female humans. All right, I did treasure shoes just as much as any other item in the closet; but not more. In the past, I'ld buy high boots and ankle boots, mary janes, sandals and, of course, stilettos, just as much as I would carry home skirts, jeans, dresses, shirts or any other piece that would enrich my wardrobe. What exactly changed my well-containted love for footwear into a hot, passionate can be summed up in one word: Italy. It is not a myth that Italians have the best footwear fashion. No matter where I go shopping here, some never-before-seen shoe style will catch my eye and soon later my credit card once again gets out of my wallet. This lovely pair of Janet & Janet wedge heel sneakers are the newest addition to my shoe closet. Just lovely! And I am sure that they will not remain the newest ones there for a long time.

Better without butter

Once in a while I like to prepare something sweet for my colleagues. Often, I choose muffins. The reasons being obvious: they are easy to eat at work, everybody loves them and I get to try a new recipe. The one I chose a few days ago seemed delicious: lots of chocolate, hazelnuts and... butter, the only ingredient I had not written on my shopping list and was missing from my fridge. At 11 p.m. my only choice was trying to find another recipe online that called for all the food I had either bought or that was sitting in my pantry. The more time passed the more impatient I got and thought: whatever. I mixed some of the ingredients together the way I thought was right, changed some grams here and there to adjust the texture and making up for the butter. I was afraid to check my muffins after they were baking in the oven for 20 minutes. The result was astonishing: they looked and tasted delicious!! Try for yourself: This is what I did:

Ingredients: 
180 g flour 
200g chocolate
200g crushed or grated hazelnuts
150g sugar
4 eggs
1 package baking powder
I preheated the oven to 180 degrees Cesius, melted the chocolate in Bain-Marie (hot water bath: fill a large pot with water, place a smaller pot with the chocolate into the one filled with water, heat slowly, stir chocolate until melted).
Crush hazelnuts or use crushed hazelnuts.
In a bowl mix eggs and sugar together until fluffy. In a separate bowl combine flour and baking powder. Add chocolate and hazelnuts, then add flour, mix well.
Prepare muffin pan with liners, put dough inside (fill up about 1/3) and cook for 20 minutes. They were so good, I'll make them again soon. I did not miss the butter and sure didn't miss the extra calories!