~~ Granola,...again.

At the moment, I try out my new lens.
I also try out my new "Studio" - I had the wonderful permission of Timo to rebuild his kitchen, because he has so much more light in that room than I have in mine.
It´S now a mixture of kitchen and photo studio. Everywhere props and cam equipment, next to olive oil from France and Pasta deluxe from Italy.

I drilled holes in the ceiling to install a selfmade white background which can be lifted and closed down.

So I play around now with all that stuff, also exploring the possibilities of the new natural light quality coming from the big windows.

I have an inflamation in the right arm, so I can´t cook at the moment.
I have to do most of the thing with the left arm. Photography is something I can do, so I take things I already have, like the granola, to be my playmate....

~~ Granola!

I`ve got a kind of a spleen...

I always want to learn how to make those everyday-life foodstuff we normally buy at the supermarket:

Ketchup, Bread, spicemixes (> Garam Masala), ...
I want to know from what these things are made of - and I want to avoid all these additions that have chemical-sounding words and nobody except the "experts" know what it is and what they will do with my body!


I want it as natural as possible..and I want to create that with my own hands, eyes and brain.
So I did with that  wonderful GRANOLA.

I love breakfast, and Timo and me had our first "Sunday-Home-Breakfast" (after 4 years!) - I wanted to have everything perfect and yummee!
I didn`t bake the croissants by myself (that will follow sooner or later, for sure!), but this granola was spectacular!

There is no refined sugar in it, just honey and a lot of dried fruits.
The oat flakes are from biological agriculture, so I can be sure, they used the whole grain.It is really so delicious! It is crispy and crunchy and SO HOMEMADE!.... we had a wonderful breakfast!

~~ Autumnal plum-icecream

This week, we had wonderful weather -sunsunsun! Finally! Because Germany missed the summer this year....
We call that here "Altweibersommer" - often, when autumn comes, there is a period of warm weather before the cold season begins.
All the light is not only good for the mood, but also for a perfect light to take pictures...

We decided to act like it is summer.
I made a delicious plum-icecream with lemon and figs.
We -Timo, me and the cats- ate it at once, the whole pot of icecream! BURPS!.... I do not regret one bite, even if my stomach is aching now.

~~ Paella Olé! Cooking is fun!

Sorry, but all you out there...who speaks german or spanish:
HAVE TO WATCH IT!


PAELLA!!
OLÉ!

~~ Guinness Cake

I found by surprise the recipe for a "Guinness Chocolate Cake" in the web (>> Nigellas Cake) and really really really wanted to bake it, too!
It looked so awesome and sounded so f*** great!! I mean...GUINNESS CAKE!!!..

I had a Flashback to my youth when I was about 16, or something, when I went to the Irish Pub in my hometown Darmstadt nearly every evening - and often had a Guinness (or two). I was (secretly) in love with the barkeeper, an irish guy who also had an irish name...I was a big fan of Ireland, so I thought: an irish boyfriend would be cool! :)
So I went there every evening, staring at the barkeeper, but was too shy to talk to him. And the Guinness never helped to lighten my tongue. But it was delicious!

Actually, I have to confess:
The cake was wonderful, but it was more chocolate than guinness...nearly not too taste. Probably a little bit of bitterness, but that was it.

The topping (I ate this kind of topping in the U.S. - more a cream cheese topping) didn`t reach the hearts here in Germany. We are used to eat more that creamy stuff on the top of cakes.


Well, I really liked it!
But the "base" of the cake, with all the chocolate inside...well...EVERYBODY who tried liked it :o)

I am glad I made this experiment!...and the beautiful pix.

~~ In times of need: eat Chips

I am back from a wonderful trip through Italia and France...a CULINARY trip! UMMMH!
For sure, I brought a thousands of photographies...unfortunately, I didn`t brought the time to arrange them :)

So, until I can post some of the mouthwatering stuff I saw in the southern europe, I share all the other wonderful stuff with you, which has been created in my beautiful kitchen in Hamburg the last months....



In may, where we had this shit damn (!!!) EHEC virus in Germany (and especially in Hamburg, where I live), we really had a problem about "What do we eat?" ... no fresh things...no salad, fruits and so on...no vegetables... it was horrible!
And I really suffered from the abrupt stop of cooking...
So I had a look in my pantry and did everything I could with the rests.

Like you can see, lucky Fabia found some potatoes, and so I could experiment with my first homemade fresh chips! It was a crispy and crunchy and wonderful experience.

Holiday-Pecan-Plum-Muffins to save my honour!

It`s one month ago that I have been on the summer party of my current company Deadalic...
I don`t know what we talked about, but it was fated that I promised one guy to bake Muffins for him when he starts to work at Daedalic.


Well, he arrived 1st of August..and I didn`t have Muffins.
I FORGOT!




Blame and shame! ... I can`t accept that...
I have really not much time at that moment, our hopliday trip starts saturday morning and I have so much to do until then. But Muffins are something nice and quick and lovely, so I decided to bake some Pecan-Plum Muffins...
No decoration today, `cause time is short, but ...well... if you could smell them....no decoration necessary :)

Have a wonderful august!

Already printed.

Seen in Schwäbisch Hall :)

Big Russel - highclass imbiss

I never really thought about taking foodpics as job.
But as luck would have it, there was the first chance two months ago.
An Ex-gourmetchef quitted his starwinning kitchen and opened a diner - french fries, sausages and so on - but in highest quality.

GREAT FUN for me, so I made some cool conepts and he decided to take this one you can see here.
OMG, I have been in a cold sweat, but I really liked to be under that pressure one time, too, because I really arranged the french fries a thousands of times, until they laid perfectly for my eyes.

By the way: The Imbiss is called "Big Russel" (I could design the Logo,too), and it is located in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany.
You can find it HERE.

I made them an offer they couldn`t refuse...Torta di More!

Last week, I had so much fun in the kitchen at my free day, that I decided to bake a "Torta di More" (with a lots of berries, not only "more" as you can see) for my new collegues at work (well, the condition for getting a piece of the cake was, that the "eater" allows me to take a photo from him or her with it)...

Great fun, like you can see, and delicious, because it was not that heavy stuff.

WOKfood - Quick and yummyumm!

because I am workingnoe 3 days in a company (called "Daedalic") as animator for beautiful PC Games, i have to re-think my cooking plan: I need quick recipes I can cook in the evening.
Great fun,another point of view on food.... and the best: cooking every evening, what is very relaxing for me. Leisure time!

Today, it`s asian food - Peas (freshly pealed for sure, from the market!) with ground meat and rice...

Varied Vegetables.

Summer seems this year not yet really summer, but yesterday, we had a lovely sunny sundayevening.
So I put a table in our beautiful garden and we had a greek and a french recipe:

Filled pepper with pistachio-mint-rice  (the greek one)  and a
Fresh salad with caramelized walnuts and Roquefort! (the french one)

It was wonderful - and we decided once more, that meatless meals can fill up, too!

Madeleines for everybody!

Today: Baking for my new team I am gonna work with (from Wednesday on)!
I am lookin` forward to and help them lookin` forward to me, too - :o)

MADELEINES!

Homecomer-Muffins

When my boyfriend is on tour for a few days or more -and his refrigerator very empty - I know exactly what will happen when he comes back: He will fill it with a lot of "went-just-to-town-and-bought-some-to-go-food"...

If I find then some time and leisure for another solution, I prepare something. Always with a pinch or a spoon full of love, because I am glad he returns home!

This time also with some lemon (he loves it). and some pignolias (he loves it). And muffins (he loves it).
Et voilà:
Pignola-Lemon-Muffins !
Including sun, for sure!

Besttr "Muffins-to-stay" than "Something-to-go" - hrhrhr!

Ravioli al Fabi

Wow, that isn`t as complicated as I thought!...Well, you need a pasta machine... ( I heard the italian "mamas" flatten it still with a rolling pin, but that is more sports than cooking!)
But if you have that machine - and a beautiful soft and handsome pasta dough.... then it works so easy!

And it tastes a thousand times better than the dried supermarket pasta out of the package from some big-loveless-concerns!