Monday, February 28, 2011

Preview from the new shooting from Erelle and Sara Lofwander

                                                   

I find the colours gorgeous!!! Very curious to see more.....
As far I know it is the first time that Erelle worked together with Sara Lofwander...they should continue...

Sunday, February 27, 2011

The Hummingbird Bakery in London

When ever I am in London I have to eat some Cupcakes from my beloved Hummingbird Bakery. Their cupcakes are simple but fabulous. So it was clear that for the Birthday of my Sweetie = Daughter (who is living in London) I ordered a Birthdaycake from them. The cake is a sort of a big Red Velvet - Cupcake: very cute!!

Teatime - is every time!

I confess: I have a butler.
The only problem: it´s a wooden one :)
 Nonetheless I adore him, his name is Friday and he serves me my tea.

He was a gift for Eastern years ago...
Teatime for me is quite on any daytime and on any occasion. I drink Tea for Breakfast, for Lunch, for Dinner, when I feel sad, when I feel happy, when I feel stressed....
 So over the years I developped something like a teapotcollection and I use quite all of them. Ok some of the pots I use more often then others but also because some of them looks pretty good but are´nt very usefull as they drip horribly while serving the tea. But quite every Teapot has a little history....
This one is one of my oldest one. It was part of my wedding gifts...quite a long time ago... the Teapot remained always faithful... Unfortunately Rosenthal stopped to produce this decor and the number of my cups decreased over the time....

The white one is a classic designed from Gropius (one of the founder of the great Bauhaus).


I have also the black variant that I use rarely to not get in danger that it breaks...Silly! This danger is not given with the small iron teapot. The blue is beautiful in my opinion. But I also do not use it very often as he is very heavy..but cute, no? 
The hanging one seems impressively useful with the integrated teapot-warmer..still I am not conviced..and we´ve been together for a long time.. Instead the little pot with the treefoils is a gift from a friend of mine and I use it very often. She brought it from Ireland to say thank you as I was looking a little bit about her growned up childrens during her holidays...
The small glasspot is intended for teablossoms. They are quite expensive and I find their taste not so great..so he is also not often in use. Meanwhile the pot called Salam from Guy Degrenne is one of my quite daily used. It is a combination of a porcelaine pot with a steel cover lined with felt to maintain your tea hot..very tricky and useful!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

"An apple a day keeps the doctor away" True or not who needs a reason to enjoy a Appletart?

Once more this is a very easily done treat. And nonetheless it is not a "normal" Appletart because I combine it with rosemary and some salted butter...

To make it you need for the base:
- 100 g soft butter
- 200 g wheat flour - 1 teaspoon vanillasugar - 70 ml water - a dash salt  For the filling: - About 4 - 5 apples - 50 g with rosemary flavoured sugar- 25 g salted butter
1. Some days before you intend to do the tart you should prepare the rosemary flavoured sugar by adding to 50 g sugar some fresh, in small pieces cut rosemary (add quite a lot so that the sugar really takes the flavour) and reserve it in a dry place.
2. On the day you make the tart: First preheat your oven to 200 C 
3. Mix together the soft butter with flour, vanillasugar, water and salt until eveything is well combined
4. Butter a pie form and cover with the dough
5. Peel the apples, cut them into small wedges and place them on the preapred dough. Disperse the rosemary sugar and the salted butter over the apple pieces. Put your pie form into the oven for about 35 - 40 min.



Serve it with some sweetened yoghurt or a scoop of vanilla ice....



Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Humus – Hummus – Houmus

There are different ways to write Humus and I confess that I don´t know which spelling is the right one. Perhaps all of them are right..? But who cares, it is not my intension to make an orthography lesson. Humus is a traditional dish from Mediterranean, oriental and Arab countries that is easily done and tastes great with some Pita-, Naan-Bread, Focaccia or Baguette.
I use tinned chikpeas (I find no difference in taste when using dried one…and it is much easier as you only have to open the tin…), Tahin (= special sesam paste that you can find meanwhile quite easily in stores selling oriental, arab or Turkish ingredients), salt, pepper, fresh Lemon and Orange Juice, pine nuts and of course some good quality extra vergin olive oil.

1. Drain the chickpeas in a colander and squeeze one lemon and one orange, reserve the juice.
2. Roast about 20 g pine nuts in a pan until they turn slightly brown and start to deliberate a delicious odour
3. Now you mix together 450 g chickpeas, 4 Tablespoons Tahin and the juice from 1 lemon + 1 little Orange in a blender until you obtain a smooth, fluffy paste
4. Season with salt and pepper and add more Tahin or lemon juice regarding your taste.
5. Top the Humus with the roasted pine nuts and drizzle some olive oil over it.
(If possible prepare the humus one day before you intend to eat it. I find that the Humus takes than the flavour from the pine nuts.)
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Monday, February 21, 2011

Breakfast - Episode 2 - Cereals in form from Muesli

For a long time my familiy turned up their noses when only they heard the word Muesli. But when I started to serve them my fruity apple Muesli (I confess that it took some time to persuade them to taste it....) they changed their opinion.
You should prepare it the night before you wanna have it for breakfast so that the cereals can soften.
The ingredients you need:
150g oat flakes (you can also use a mixture of different flakes of cereals)
1 organic apple (about 150 g)
500 g Yogurt (up to you if you prefer normal or fat reduced one..)
3 Tablespoon brown sugar (add more if you like it more sweet)
2 dashes of vanilla paste (or the grains of half a vanilla bud)
50 g hazelnuts, 30 g raisins
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1. To crash the hazelnuts put them in a small plastic bag and then hit on it with a rolling pin. So you obtain chunky hazelnut pieces.
2. In a bowl you mix the flakes with sugar, hazelnuts, raisins and the coarsely grated apple (I grate the whole apple with his peel)
3. Add the yoghurt and the vanilla and mix well all the ingredients together
In the fridge this Muesli stays fresh for some days...



Sunday, February 20, 2011

Lazy Sunday - The pleasure of a good breakfast and Truffled Egg

Regarding truffles I think or you hate them or you love them...theres is nothing in between... Breakfast or Brunch on a lazy sunday is one of the best experiences in life. So for those who love truffles why not combine both: truffles and a great sunday morning brunch? It is not difficult to realize and also not so expansive.
I use Truffled oil, truffled salami and organic eggs (one / Person).
You will also need some ramekins (one / Person) and a little bit of butter.
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1. Preheat your oven to 200 C
2. Butter the ramekins and put small pieces of truffled salami into them
3. Add one egg to it and top with 1 teaspoon truffled oil
4. Place the ramekins in a oven-safe form, put some fresh boiled water to the form (up to the middle of your ramekins)
5. Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes (medium range egg - if you use bigger eggs the time will be a little bit longer, about 12 minutes)
Serve quickly with some fresh toast and enjoy your day!




Friday, February 18, 2011

Sweets for my sweets... Something needed for the weekend ? ..... Galette Amandine

On Epiphany Day it is tradition in France to serve a special cake: la galette des Rois. I confess that I love this cake as I like very much almonds. And another good reason to do these cake more often then once a year is that he is quickly done... So I do these cake also on other occsasions. I modified a little bit the basic recipe by adding some chocolate chips to the "Frangipane" (= the almond filling) and call it GALETTE AMANDINE. But see yourself or try it within the next days and see what your family or your friends mean about these cake...

You need
75 g soft butter
125 g  fine ground almonds
100g sugar
40 g plain chocolate chips
1 tablespoon amaretto sirup
1 medium range egg


1 egg yolk
3 teaspoons icing sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 roll of puff pastry
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1. First you prepare the filling, the so called Frangipane: Mix the soft butter with sugar until it´s perfectly melted. Add the almonds and the amaretto sirop.
2. Mix the egg yolk with the water and the icing sugar. You will need these mix to make a perfect browning.
3. Put the puff pastry on your working table and divide it into to equal sized pieces (or smaller pieces if you want some small bite sized desert). Put the Frangipane on one of the puff pastry halves and spread the chocolate chips over this almond filling. With a kitchen brush put some of the "browning mix" around the filling.
4. Now put the other pastry piece over the filling and press with your fingers around the filling so that the two pastry pieces stick well together.
5. Cut away the exceeding puff pastry (with a knife or some cookie cutter).
6. Place the cake on a oven tray armed with parchement paper

and put it into your fridge for at least 30 minutes.
7. Place your cake in the preheated oven (180 C) for 25 minutes.









This cake stays tasty and quite as good as fresh prepared for some days. But I would wonder if you could resist for a long time...


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