“What did the carrot say to the wheat? Lettuce rest, I’m feeling beet.”
-Shel Silverstein

Parrot Cie
2 eggs
2 dl sugar
1 tsp vanilla sugar
2.5 dl flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1dl olive oil
3dl grated carrots

In a big bowl whisk eggs with sugar. Stir in vanilla sugar into the mixture. Add baking powder and cinnamon to flour in a separate bowl. Mix these ingredients well and combine it with the egg mixture. Now add oil and mix it again. And lastly stir in grated carrots. Pick your favorite wide baking form and cover it with baking paper and pour the mixture in. Bake it in 180 degrees until the pie forms a gold crust. Let the pie cool down and take it out of the tray.
For frosting mix mascarpone with some honey and spread on top of the pie equally. Sprinkle some cinnamon over it and let it stay in the fridge for couple of hours.

Smaklig måltid!

“Perché per fare un buon pesto bisogna nascerci, come si nasce poeti!”.
-Alessandro Varaldo

Middle of March. Still couple of months to go for summer and so fresh and leafy basil plants. But already missing so rich and redolent pesto sauce! Here is a nice alternative of full-flavored, creamy condiment for pasta or even veggies. Goes very well as a dip!

Pesto Albino (3-4 person)

3/4 cup walnuts
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
12 large fresh basil leaves
350 g ricotta cheese
3/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons freshly grated pecorino cheese
fresh ground black pepper
salt

Start with toasting walnuts. 10 minutes in the oven or 3-5 min in a skillet will do it. While walnuts are cooling down and mince garlic cloves and fry them with couple of spoons of olive oil until nicely golden. Then transfer it into food processor (or mortar) together with walnuts, basil leaves and grind it well. Add ricotta, the rest of olive oil, lemon zest and continue grinding until you have smooth well blended mixture. Transfer it into a bowl, mix in pecorino cheese, season with salt and pepper.

Serve over pasta (good for 500g of pasta of your choice) or use it as a dip for your snacks!
Buon apetito!

And I had but one penny in the world. Thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread.
William Shakespeare, Love’s Labours Lost

Spices are the most essential for the tastes and smells of these winter joys. While the cookies are known as ginger cookies or ginger breads, the distinctive aroma is given by cardamon and clove. There is no cozy winter afternoon without crunchy sweet bites of cookies with your tea of choice.

Ginger Bells
125 g butter
5 tbsp cream
3 tbsp of black treacle or liquid honey
150 g cane or brown sugar
1 tbsp freshly grated (or extremely finely chopped) ginger
1 tbsp grated orange peel
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1.5 tsp ground cardamon
400 g white flour
0.5 tsp baking powder
optional:
1 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp grated lemon zest instead of orange peel

for glaze: sugar powder and lemon juice

Combine butter, cream, sugar and the spices you want into sauce pan. Heat it slowly until the the butter and sugar melts. While its melting, sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. In this way flour will get more air so the dough will raise better. Then, add the butter mixture slowly into sifted flour and knead thoroughly. Shape it into a ball, wrap into food wrap film and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. You can keep the dough in the fridge longer, even for two days if needed, but not more.
If the dough was in the fridge for more that one over it will need some time to get the room temperature. Lightly dust the work surface with flour. Start kneading the dough and when it gets soft roll out the dough. Its hard to roll out a large surface because the dough cracks very easily. Optimal thickness for cookies is not more than 4 mm.
Now use your cookie shapes to cut the cookies out. Place them on baking paper and bake for around 10 min in 150°C heat oven. The cookies should become nicely brown, but not too dark.
Let them cool down and decorate if you feel like it. For glaze just mix sugar powder with lemon juice and use you imagination!

Crunch crunch…

Love, like a chicken salad /…/, must be taken with blind faith or it loses its flavor.
Helen Rowland

Nice Chick for Lunch (2-4 person)
Marinade:
3 garlic cloves, crushed
juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp of olive oil
2 tbsp of dried oregano

Main ingredients:
3 chicken breasts
4 large salad leaves, cut into thin slices
1 avocado, cut into pieces
1/2 cup of canned mandarin oranges
1/2 cup of slivered or sliced almonds
salt and freshly ground pepper

Dressing:
2 tsp of Dijon mustard
3 tbsp of lemon juice
3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper

At first, prepare the marinade for chicken: combine lemon juice, olive oil and dried oregano. Whisk it well. Then add well crushed garlic and whisk the mixture once again. Now the time to apply all this to the chicken has come – make sure the marinade is equally spread all over the chicken breasts. Cover them and leave to absorb the aroma of oregano, lemon and garlic at least for an hour, though I strongly advise not to be desperate and leave it to marinate over night in the fridge – just for the best tastes!

After you chicken is ready, set a pan at medium heat with a good dash on oil. Once the oil is hot, place the chicken in the pan, season with salt and pepper and leave for 4-5 minutes to cook. The same procedure follows for the other side. Remove from heat when its nicely cooked from both sides but keep it warm.

It’s time to toast the almonds. Be careful and don’t burn them!

Dressing for the chicks! Just combine all the ingredients and whisk until it’s smooth.

Put sliced salad leaves in the serving bowl, chop chicken into bite-size pieces and place on salad, add avocado and mandarins. Pour the dressing just couple of minutes before serving to let the taste to settle and then top with the almonds.

Enjoy!

inspired from: ourchocolateshavings.blogspot.com

…
Ali the Gentleman: No, you first please…
Other the Gentleman: No, no please monsieur you first
Ali the Gentleman: I insist sir, please after you…
…
Anonymous Storyteller

This very special and delicious dish coming from the south eastern region of Anatolia represents a gentle but an effective collaboration of eggplant, yogurt and garlic tastes; and not to forget the carefully crafted ground meat which would be served on top of this exquisite puree to double up the pleasures.
The balance of all the elements in puree creates a unique sensation to attack the person’s plate and forget all about the gentleman’s code.

Ali the Gentleman (2-4 person)
Eggplant Puree:
4 eggplants
1,5 cups yogurt
2-3 garlic cloves
spices (spanish smoked paprika ‘pimenton’, black pepper, oregano, ground cumin, etc.)
salt to taste
butter to embrace

If you have a gas stove, grill the eggplants until they become dark and soft. If not, wrap the eggplants to aluminum foil and put them to the top level of the oven at the highest temperature for at least half an hour (or until they get really soft). Peel them like a gentleman while they are still hot (!) and chop them extremely finely, almost mashed, with the help of a good knife. Add yogurt and crushed garlic and mix them until you obtain a nice puree. Season it with spices of your choice.
Before serving top it up with melted butter and some paprika. Bon appetit!

Additional inspiration: you can serve together with grilled meat.