*Easy* Crispy Oven French Fries - WORLD`S BEST!

With French Fries for me it is like with Pizza, Lasagne, Burger....with all the Classics:
Most you can get are "okay" to "not very awesome", sometimes you are lucky and get very good ones.

And again: I was on the hunt for MY perfect French Fries...the problem is: when you found them and you do them at home...you never can eat some outside from anywhere and be satisfied. Damn.

But nevertheless: I found my personal FAVs, and the same for Timo. We both love them!
AND!!! LADIES! - and Lords, for sure:
They are made in the OVEN, with a little bit of oil - but they are NOT deep-fried, so there is nearly no added fat in it!!! THIS is the REAL deal with that recipe here. Eat French fries without bad conscience.

Okay, let`s go.
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Crispy Oven French Fries
serves one as a generous side dish

> 2 BIG potatoes, floury
> salt
> neutral oil (for frying)
> polenta
> paprika powder

>> Preheat oven: 180°C/ 360°F
>> Peel the potatoes or not, like you prefer it (I like them with peel)
>> Cut into 15mm x 15mm thick long slices - you can choose your own thickness. They shrink while they are heating a bit, so don`t  make them toooo thin.
>> Prepare a big bowl of ice water (some cold water with ice cubes is perfect) and put potatoe slices into it for 15 minutes.
>> Dry them as best as you can on a kitchen towel. Ehm...dry them really WELL!
>> Mix them with paprika powder and polenta (own measure)
>> Give them on a baking sheet on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil.
>> Give into oven for about 20 minutes. Have a look at the color. They should get really dark yellow, like on the photo.
>> Take them out into a bowl and salt them


ENJOOOYY!

*Easy* Rhubarb Syrup

Some things in life just arent`t fair. You do so much and you get much less.
I think sometimes about it when I listen to the song "Ironic" from Alanis Morissette.
But I guess it works sometimes also the other way `round. Sometimes it needs just a spark and you get fireworks back (especially with best friends :))

For me, it works also in cooking.
One of my passions is to find the simplest basic recipes with the most magical flavor.
I mean those kind of recipes you can recite after you did them one or two times. And I mean also these kind of basic recipes that allow you to power them up with a flavour you are just in the mood to add.
When you found one, it surely will be a "Classic" for the rest of your life. Yeah. I am collecting "Classics", I am on the hunt!

Pizza, bread, basic sauces, icecream... (the chocolate icecream I wrote about is already one of my "Classics")
Here is one more of my beautiful babies!
Springtime here, that means april and may, is rhubarb-time. I always try to cook some things with it in, because the time is so short. It is not always easy, because Timo doesn`t like it at all. But that syrup is awesome, because you can store it in the fridge for long, and it is so refreshing. You can bring it to grillparties or take it into the office or whatever. It is just lovely.

And ... like I told you: it is so easy you can do it soon by heart!

Best is: be creative in serving!
Add ice cubes. Sparkling water. Lemon slices. Mint leaves. Prosecco. Other kinds of alcohol. Add to icecream. Whatever!
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RHUBARB SYRUP
About 1 liter

Ingredients:
> 1 kg rhubarb (makes normally about 500 ml rhubarb juice)
> sugar
> 1-2 lemons (1 lemon contains about 30 to 40 ml juice)

Method:
>> Peel rhubarb and cut roughly. Put into a pot with 50 ml of water.
>> Heat until it cooks, let then simmer at lower heat until the rhubarb is completely soft, like mush.
>> Give into a linen sheeth or very fine colander and let drop for a while. Then begin to squeeze it as much as you can. That will take some time and takes some effort. But do it for every drop. In the end, the rest of the rhubarb should be very dry...you can knead it like a dense dough then. Throw the "dough" away.
>> Measure your juice amount, put back into pot.
>> For every liter juice, add 700 grams of sugar and 70 grams freshly squeezed lemon juice.
>> Heat but not let cook...until the sugar completely dissolved.
>> Pour through a fine colander into sterilized bottles (I lay the bottles into hot/cooking water 15 minutes before using them)

...and now enjoy it with whatever you think it`s good (on my pic with cold water, ice cubes and fresh peppermint). Preferably on a warm or hot day in the sun :)

Lime Turkey WOK

The winter is over!
It was quite fun cooking during that cold season. The food is always very heavy and strong, what is really the best when you come from a walk in the cold cold air.
But I am looking forward so much to the springtime, and I prefer now light food. We love to cook in our WOK, so here we go, this is our first WOK food this year!

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Lime Turkey WOK
(serves 2)

Ingredients:
> 200 grams turkey cutlet
> 1 lime, untreated (you need the peel)
> 1 stick of lemongrass
> 1 piece of ginger (size: half of a thumb)
> 1 garlic clove
> Pepper
> 150 grams fresh mushrooms (I prefer oyster mushrooms)
> 150 grams PakChoy
> 2 Tbsp oil
> 3 Tbsp fishsauce
> 2 Tbsp Ketjap Manis
> 6 Tbsp chicken stock

150 grams rice, dry


>> Prepare rice (instruction HERE)

>> Cut the meat into stripes.
>> Wash lime with hot water. Grate the peel and press the juice.
>> Cut the top of the lemongrass, quarter lengthwise and chop into little pieces
>> Peel ginger and garlic and chop also into little pieces. Mix with 1 Tbsp limejuice, limepeel, pepper and lemongrass and rub into the meat. Put into fridge until you need it.
>> Cut mushrooms and PakChoy into large stripes.

>> Heat WOK until very hot, add oil and heat it until hot.
>> Add meat and fry 3 minutes until lightly golden brown.
>> Take out meat off the pan and put mushrooms in the rest of the oil. Stir and fry 2 minutes.
>> Add PakChoy, stir one more minute.
>> Add fishsauce, Ketjap Manis, stock and 2 Tbsp limejuice
>> Add meat and let cook for 3 more minutes.
>> Add once more pepper.

> Serve with rice!

 

How animals eat their food

For everybody who does not yet know it...you HAVE to watch it! Enjoy!

Little Ginger Cakes with Caramelsauce

Until now, my year was a little bit of unhealthy. I was ill a long time and couldn`t go to the sports, what annoyed me a lot. The weather here in Germany was a catastrophy - the winter didn`t want to leave at all, and everybody`s mood sank to the ground.
In wintertime, I always eat more, and in combination with "no sports" and "ill", this is not a good idea, even if the food was mostly healthy.
But there was also Easter and some birthdays, and I got used to too much sweets.
A week ago (I am finally healthy, yey!) I felt, my body doesn`t like all that anymore.
I remembered a good advice of a cook (could be Jamie Oliver) who said: Eat sweets ONLY when you made them with your own hands!
After a week without any sweet, I wanted to allow myself something, so I decided to bake some little cakes with ginger, because I knew: this recipe isn`t that sweet.

After this one week without "supermarket"sweets, I already taste the "sweetness-factor" differently. The supermarket sweets seem too sweet. So these cakes are superbe, if you search for something not that heavy.
You can surely leave out the caramel sauce, but this one is not that sweet, too!

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Little Ginger Cakes with Caramelsauce

(9 flat muffins)

Cakes:
> 2 Tbsp chopped candied ginger
> 1 tsp ginger, grounded

> 90 grams butter, soft
> 2 tsp fine grated orangepeel
> 60 g brown sugar, soft (Muscovado is the best choice)
> 75 grams creamy honey
> 2 eggs
>100 ml milk
> 150 grams flour
> 1 tsp baking powder

Caramel Sauce:
> 125 ml cream
> 75 grams brown sugar

Preparation:
> Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F
> Prepare muffin tin or something with a similar size: grease and sprinkle with flour
> Mix chopped candied ginger with a bit of the flour and stir, until the pieces do not stick together anymore.
> Combine butter, sugar, orangepeel and honey with a handmixer until smooth & creamy
> Add eggs and mix, too.
> Fold in well the flour, baking powder and ginger (candied and grounded) with a spoon
> Add slowly milk while mixing.

> Fill muffin tin with dough.
> put into oven for about 12 minutes - FINITO!

> For the sauce, combine cream and sugar and heat it softly until the sugar dissolves. Then increase heat and let cook for 6-8 more minutes. Let cool down a little bit and spread over the cakes.

If you want, sprinkle with sesamseeds or some nuts.

Coalfish India

We always try to establish some kind of "fish-day" - in many german parts, friday is the traditional one.
the "older" people still hold this tradition up. But the younger ones don`t. Well, Timo and me, we do not manage it, too. I am living in a harbour city but eat too less fish. I want to change that!

I made this one, because I found this package of green rice I bought in a wonderful store in Tübingen, South of Germany. I was just curious about. I mean, it has a beautiful vibrant color! Very special!
But: choose normal rice for that.There was no preparing advice on the package, so I cooked it like normal rice. It was really clingy after that. Still tasted okay, but not what I wanted.

Fish fits wonderful to rice, and I have this great korma paste recipe from Jamie Oliver.
(>> http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/uncategorised-recipes/easy-homemade-curry-pastes)
I make always more and freeze it. So I had a great dish to prepare quickly after work.

So, if you want to have some light fish with oriental spices, try this!


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Coalfisch Karma Korma

serves 2

Ingredients
> 2 x 180-200 grams coalfish filet (with or without skin)
> 1 TBSP korma paste (I do it myself, the recipe is from
> 2 green onions
> Olive oil
> 100 ml coconut milk
> some parsley or coriander leaves to sprinkle
> a little bit of chili
> 1 lemon, bio
> basmati rice for 2 (~150 grams dry rice)

Preparation:
First, prepare the rice:
>> Wash the rice in a sieve until the water coming out is clear (if it doesn`t , the rice gets clingy).
>> Heat some water in a pot, add a bit of salt and put rice into boiling water. If the rice is starting to "dance", let it cook for 5 minutes, then strain it.
>> Put water into pot again, a few centimeters high. Let boil and reduce heat until it simmers.
>> Put the sieve with the rice above and cover with aluminium foil. Then let it simmer for about 10 minutes.

Prepare the fish:
>> Heat big pan at medium heat.
>> Cover one side of the coalfish (if it has skin: on the fleshside) with half of the korma paste
>> Add a bit oil to the hot pan and put fish with the korma side down into it.
>> When it gets a bit of color after 4-5 minutes, turn and let fry for 5 more minutes.
>> Heat pan more and add green onions, the other half of the korma paste, coconut milk and chili.
>> Let cook a few minutes until the fish begins to fall apart.
>> If necessary, add lemonjuice to the sauce.

>> Put rice on plates, add fish and douse with sauce. Sprinkle with some green onions & parsley/coriander.
Serve with lemon pieces.

Mushroom-Tarte

I have these strange moments when I am on the market or somewhere where you can buy food, whereever, and see something that I know just from hearing but never prepared it yet by myself.
For example; I have been to the Languedoc (France) with my best friend last may, and we went on the marché du jour. I saw these awesome artichokes....I only knew them from pizza, from not-so-good-pizza, and I thought..how do they taste when they are prepared fresh???
Well, we bought some, and really: I HAD NO IDEA how to prepare them.
So first, I anatomized it, peeled off, cutted, twitched and picked....
Finally I called my boyfriend in germnay, he had to google it for me. That was quite funny, because he is absolutely not that "kitchen-boy".Now, he had to help me with THAT!
At the end, after a bunch of work, because we wanted to leave the artichoke in a whole and had to peel out the hay inside with a small spoon (we didn`t know any good trick to do it with less effort) we had a wonderful dinner with fresh fish and artichokes, olive oil and baguette.
It was worth the work!

The same happened to me on the market when I saw dried mushrooms.
Until I was something about 20, I HATED mushrooms, especially cèpes. I had a bad experience when I was a kid, so there was an obstacle. But things can change.
So I prepared these Mushroom Tarte,and what can I say?
It was awesome!
It smelled like...like..something mysterious, it smelled dark, it smelled like I bite into a forest. Mossy, tangy...full! Yeah, I guess I eat now more mushrooms.

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Mushroom Tarte

Ingredients:(springform of ~28 cm aperture)

Filling
> 700 grams fresh mixed mushrooms
> 35 grams dried mushrooms, different kind (cèpe, morel, shiitake ...)
(you can also take a plus of grams of fresh mushrooms instead of the dried ones. I prefer to have a lot of different ones, but if it is easier for you, take less sorts.)
> 2 shallots
> 1 garlic clove
> 1 small branch fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried thyme)
> 2 tbsp. olive oil
> 250 grams liquid cream
> salt, pepper
> bit of lemonjuice
> 2 eggs
> a small bunch of chive, chopped
> 1 hand full of grated Gruyère (or another melting, aromatic cheese, not soft)

Shortcrust:
(you can also buy that one readymade in the counter fridge)
> 250 grams flour
> 125 grams COLD butter, chopped in dices
> a pinch of salt and sugar
> ~ 4 tbsp. COLD water


>> let dried mushrooms soak in hot water at least 1 hour.
>> In the meanwhile you can prepare the dough:
Put flour on a work surface, add butter. Rub butter quick and soft into the flour, until you`ve got little rough flakes. Add salt, sugar and water and combine QUICKLY until you´ve got a dough. Wrap in foil and put into fridge. for at least 30 minutes.

>> Preheat oven to 230°C (air circulation) ( 450°F)
>> Put soakes mushrooms into a sieve, rinse several times with clear water. Let drip down.
Chop all mushrooms (also the fresh ones) into pieces.

>> Peel shalotts and garlic, cut into little dices.  Put off the thyme leaves.
>> Roast shalotts, garlic and thyme gently in olive oil
>> Add fresh mushrooms. Add soaked mushrooms after pressed out all the water.
>> Roast a few minutes. Add cream. Let cook softly for some minutes, until cream boiled down a bit.
>> Flavor with salt, pepper and lemonjuice.

>> Whisk eggs with chopped chives, mix it with the mushrooms. (Leave some chives for decoration)

>> Roll dough out (thin) on a floured work surface, pinch a baking paper into a springform pan (~28 cm aperture) and put dough inside.
>> Your rim should be around 4 cm high.
>> Prick little holes with a fork into the dough.

>> Sprinkle dough base with grated cheese. Put mushroom-egg-mixture on top.

>> Put into oven for 15 minutes. Reduce then heat to 180 °C (350°F), leave the tarte for 10 more minutes in the oven.

>> Sprinkle with leftover chives.

FINITO!

Leek-Hash-Casserolle à la Dad

This one so so so so simple recipe is a homage to my daddy.
He was not very often at home, because he worked the whole day long, so my mum cooked a lot of awesome stuff.
But he did sometimes two meals for us (well, I remember those two, probably it was more...and I didn`t mention the Christmas roast goose, this is special).
The first one was just a good wholemeal bread (we have wonderful bread in Germany!) with fresh cheese, tomatoes, salt and pepper. Quite simple, but awesome.
The second one is also simple, but warm instead of cold, and you can read the recipe here.

He cooked leek with hash, mixed with nutmeg, salt and pepper, and it was just wonderful. So easy!
My mum mostly cooked casserolles for us. We were three (wonderful :)) girls and it was not easy to get us full. A casserolle did always its work.

So I took daddy`s recipe of the leek stew and made a casserolle out of it. It is so so so so tasty, just try it out. The crispy lid makes all just....just....aaye! Just heavenly!
Enjoy!
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Leek-Hash-Casserolle
serves 2

Ingredients:
> 2  leeks (~ 400 grams)
> 200 gramsground beef
> salt, pepper, nutmeg
> 1 Tbsp mustard (not too hot)
> 2 Tbsp Crême fraîche
> 70 grams Pecorino/Parmesan, grated
> breadcrumbs
> 250 ml vegetable stock

>> Preheat oven to 190°C / 380°F
>> Heat a pan with a little bit of oil and roast the meat a few minutes. Take out of pan and put aside.
>> Put leek into hot pan until it gets soft. Add vegetable stock & mustard. Let cook ~8 minutes.
>> Take pan from stove. Add Crème fraîche and two third of the cheese. Mix well.
>> Put all into casserolle. Sprinkle generously with all the breadcrumbs and the last third of cheese.
>> Sprinkle with good oliveoil
>> Put into oven for 20 minutes. The casserolle should be now as crusty and golden like on the photos. Take out and enjoy!
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Orange-Choc-Stix

I am kind of a person that doesn`t like throwing something away - I mean food. Everything else is easy. But food? No way!
It is always a challenge for me to deplete everything in my fridge, all the leftovers from cooking sessions, and I am extremely proud if I made it!

I never thought about the peel of oranges. Sometimes you rasp it to use it sprinkled in pancakes or something, but the whole peel?
But then I remembered something I saw once in France (OMG, I love this country!)
And because Timo is a chocolat AND a fruit junkie, this was perfect for another of my glorious wonderful kitchen experiments he has to taste before I do :P

Well, what shall I say? It worked. These beautiful and tasty sticks are awesome to eat along the way, because (probably your opinion is different) you cannot eat that much of it. It`s more a tasty pleasure than a crapulence, like you sometimes have with chips. Once you`ve started to eat, you do not stop, and afterwards you feel bad. Not like this with these Choc-Stix.

Enjoy them with hot tea, coffee, milk or whatever comes in your mind. Or pure.
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Orange Choc Stix

Ingredients:
> 2 oranges, peel untreated (!!!!!!!!!!!)
> 70 ml orange juice (taken from the 2 oranges)
> 160 grams sugar
> 260 ml water
> 60-70 grams good dark chocolat (at least 70 %)
>> Carve orange two times all around, so that you have four areas of peel you can now carefully peel off   from the pulp.

>> Give the peel for two minutes into hot water, just to blanch them shortly. Drain on a kitchen paper.

>> Combine water, orange juice and sugar in a pot and heat it until it cooks. Add the peel pieces. At low heat, let them simmer for 90 minutes.

>> take the peel out of the sirup, shake off the too-much-sirup-stuff and put onto a cake rack - let it dry there for about 2 hours.

>> If you want, you can scrape clean now the white inner stuff from the peel and put into trash, so you just have a few millimeters of pure orange peel. I didn`t do that and it tastes the same, for me. Some say, it is more bitter. I don`t think so. 

>> Cut the peel into long stripes, as thick as you want them to be.

>> Melt chocolate on a hot water bath and dip them into the liquid chocolat. Shake off the choc a bit and put on a baking paper to dry.

>> Store them in a screw top jar or something similar....not to forget: dance around and sing "Hallelujah! I`ve done something gorgeous!" (with the melody of your choice)
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Beetroot-Pear Caprese with Goat Cheese

I had a great last week, with a lots of hours to draw and to cook.
My kitchen was lost in chaos, because I experimented so much. Timo was in south of Germany to work there, and so my day began at 8 o`clock in the morning, baking or cooking. That happened, because I saw some recipes and got some inspirations from different sources and I couldn`t feel asleep very well - all those ideas and thoughts, my brain was already raw!

So I jumped out of the bed as soon as my alarm clock woke me up.
I experimented with cookies including seasalted chips, I tried a recipe for French Fries with Polenta, made my first Creme Brulée (see below), and immediately the second one, because the first failed, created awesome salads and vegetable rissoles....and for sure: photography!

But the most beautiful experiment I made after I have been to the "Slowfood Convivium" on Thursday.
It`s a regular´s table from people in Hamburg who are interested in Slowfood, in good food.
(Slowfood is all around the world, it started in Italy. If you do not know it, you should!!! >> SLOWFOOD.COM)
Well, we had a nice evening with great food. I had awesome mushrooms with herbs and saffron risotto. It was yummy.
I got to know a lot of people who share the love to good food, that was a wonderful experience.
We talked also about beetroot, and exchanged ideas.
Veronika, one of the people I met and a nice lady, told me, that she arranges her beetroot like a burger. She cuts it twice (cooked) and puts goatcheese in between. And I thought she said something like "apple", too.
Well, I had one beetroot at home, and I really really wanted to test a recipe based on her inspiration.
I thought of the nice arrangement you do, when you make an Insalata Caprese, a Mozzarella-Tomato-Salad. You fan the slices out onto the circle of a plate, by turns.

So I cut my raw beetroot in 1 cm thick slices and cooked it.... but just read the recipe:

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Beetroot-Pear Caprese with Goat Cheese
serves 1

Ingredients:
> 1 beetroot
> 1 normal sized pear, ripe and juicy
> 70 grams soft goatcheese
> 0,5 tsp liquid honey
> a few walnuts
> a few pinenuts
> good olive oil
> salt
> thyme
(> if you want to: some corn salad)


>> Preheat oven to 180°C/ 350°F
>> Cut the beetroot into 1 cm thick circles
>> Cook them until soft, but still al dente
>> Cut the pear from the bottom to the top into 5 mm thick circles, remove core where necessary.
>> Arrange beetroot and pear by turns - beetroot, pear, beetroot, pear, overlapping.
>> Tease goat cheese and scatter it over the mixture
>> sprinkle with honey and a bit of olive oil
>> Add salt and thyme
>> Decorate with some pinenuts and walnuts
>> Put into oven at the top, activate the grill from top
>> When the goat cheese is a little golden ( it took me round about 6 to 7 minutes, but check it by yourself), take out. Take care, it`s hot!

>> If you want, put corn salad in the middle.

Enjoy!

...with salad in the middle.

This is my Crème Brulée. It`s not yet perfect, concering the recipe,
so give me some more time to experiment!

Sweet Couscous with Cinnamon Fruits

I made this for breakfast this morning after reading something about Marokko.
If I can`t do a Foodie-Trip to other countries, I have to bring the countries on MY table.
Couscous is a wonderful food and I guess, I often underestimate the million possibilities you can create something with it....for example, something sweet, like here.

Some people do not want to spend more time than 2 minutes for preparing breakfast.
Well, I am not one of those. Breakfast is so important! I also do not want to spent hours, but 15 minutes ...for a good taste, it`s worth the time.
That breakfast doesn`t take long, so give it a try!
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Sweet Couscous with Cinnamon Fruits
serves 1

For the Couscous
> 1/3 cup Couscous
> 1 TBSP Sultanas
> 2 dried abricots, chopped in little dices
> 2 good shots of liquid cream
> a good pinch of cinnamon
> a small piece of butter

For the topping
> 1 small apple, cut in dices (or a pear, if you prefer)
> a small piece of butter
> 1 Tsp honey
> a good pinch of cinnamon

> 1 TBSP pistachios or almonds
_______

>> heat water
>> combine the Couscous with Sultanas, chopped abricots and cinnamon, mix it.
>> add 1/3 cup of boiled water and the shot cream
>> cover and let it soak for 10 minutes

>> meanwhile, roast the almonds or pistachios without oil in a small pan until they smell wonderful. Put aside.

>> heat a little bit of water in a pan, add the honey, butter and the cinnamon. When all melted together, add the appledices and let it simmer until the apples are a little soft (not pulpy)

>> add the piece of butter to the Couscous, mix and loosen the grains with a fork.
>> Put Couscous on a plate and cover with cinnamon apples. Sprinkle with almonds/pistachios, add the second shot of cream and sprinkle with cinnamon

If you want a sweeter breakfast, add a little honey to the dry Couscous before adding the boiled water.

Awesome Rustic Tomato Soup

I don`t know where YOU live, but here in Germany, tomatoes are not so tasty in winter (now), it`s too cold for them to grow and we get that horrible greenhouse tomatoes from the Netherlands that grew on mineral cotton and taste like nothing.
But I wanted to post it already such a long time ago.
I really want to share that now with you, because it`s an f***ing awesome basic recipe, and so tasty! I got it from a friend and we both agreed: everybody should have the possibility to enjoy it!...I guess, most of my readers do not live in cold cold Germany. Probably you are lucky and live in a country where you can enjoy tomatoes RIGHT NOW in their best way.

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RUSTIC TOMATO SOUP
serves 2

Ingredients:
> 250 grams fresh cottage loaf with crispy crust
> 250 grams tomatoes, ripe and strong (best: cherry tomatoes)
> 1 big garlic clove, chopped
> Olive oil (good quality, please, the taste is important)
> 400 grams tinned tomatoes (in Germany this is one big tin)
> 1 not-too-big bunch of basil ( you can use all of it, also the stipes)
> salt and pepper
> a twist of red wine

Preheat oven: 350° F

>> Place baking paper on a baking sheet
>> prick your tomatoes a few times and mix them with half of your garlic and half of your basil
>> add salt and pepper
>> spread with olive oil and put into oven for 20-25 minutes

>> take a huge pot and heat a bit of oil in it.
>> Add garlic gently until soft,  keep on stirring.
>> Add 800 grams of tomatoes and basil
>> Add 700 grams of water
>> Bring to boil and let go for 15 minutes
>> Chop the big tomatoe-pieces after it with a fork or big spoon.
>> Chop your bread into dices.
>> Add bread, salt and pepper to the soup and bring to low heat.
>> Let cook for 15 minutes
>> Add a twist of red wine

>> When the oven tomatoes are ready (20-25 minutes) put all ont the tray immediately into your big pot.

>> When the soup is kind of thick and viscid, a little lumpy, kind of irregular mushy, it`s perfect.
Have  a look, if you need more water (you can also add a little gulp of red wine or white wine).
When it has the right consistency, add some oliveoil.

Enjoy hot!
And: It makes you really really full. Be careful :) But It`s so tasty, you probably eat and eat and explode in the end. LÖike that stupid crocodile a few years ago that tried to eat...well...any too-big-animal...and BOOOOM!
I do not guarantee for your health!

FoodLaughLove

People,

I was ill a long while, I stayed in bed since christmas with a big fat angina.
Imagine...I only could dream about cooking. No taste, no experimenting, nothing.
So something had to hold my head up...
I really really love these crazy foodstuff here- AAAHAHAHAHHAHA! LOVE IT!:

I have to work a lot now, but as soon as I am back to normal life, I have beautiful stuff to cook (already have a whole list!) and to share with you.
Please stay true, hope u had all a magical start into 2013!

Kisses,
Fabia

Cookies arrived.

The Christmas Cookie Session is over.

Timo "helped" me very well in eating :) But most of the cookies I gave away to friends or people I wanted to share something with.

And this is what happens when you do so:
This came by e-mail from a friend I sent cookies to!
Thanks Mike, I am glad you liked them all! :) ....

* means "world`s best coooooookiiiiies!!!THANK YOU!!!!" :D

God, I LOVE when people share their foodie-joy!

Cinnamon Fingers - XMas Cookies V

Before Timo and I will leave to Paris for a few days of romance and great food :), I will give you another wonderful more classic recipe for cookies.

Normally in Germany, we always have some cookies called cinnamon stars. “Zimtsterne”.
This is absolutely classic.
There is a baiser-topping on them, and it is sometimes really a mess to get it onto all the star-tips. But god gave us creativity (or somebody else), and so there is a solution for it, for sure.
This variation is beautiful, too,  and easier to handle. And nice to eat, because you can dip it into your warm drink.

Caramel loves cookies, too!

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CINNAMON FINGERS

Ingredients:
(50 to 60 pcs.)

Dough:
>> 400 grams grounded almonds
>> 1 pinch of piment , grounded
>> 1 pinch of clove, grounded
>> 1,5 Tbsp cinnamon (hey, these are CINNAMON stix, it`s the dominant ingredient. Don´t be shy with it)
>> eventually a little bit of flour, if dough is too soft

Baiser Topping:
>> 3 eggwhite
>> 1 pinch of salt
>> 1 Tbsp lemonjuice
>> 270 grams sugar


> Mix almonds with piment, cloves and cinnamon.
> In another bowl, beat eggwhite and salt to a stable snow. Add a few drops of lemonjuice. Bit by bit, add the sugar and beat beat beat all the time. You need to beat the mass for 10 minutes. In the end, add the rest of the lemonjuice and mix it under the mass.

> Now separate the baiser-mass:
4 Tbsp should be put aside for the topping
Knead step by step the rest of the baiser-mass under your almond-mixture. Do that until the dough is smooth and you have the feeling it could be rolled out after cooled in the fridge. If it is too soft and gluey gluey, add a little bit of flour until the dough has the consistency you like.
> Wrap in foil and put in fridge at least 1 hour

> Preheat oven: 170 °C
> Sprinkle your workplace generously with sugar. Roll out the dough on it. Time by time, seperate the dough from the workplace for that it does not glue too much.
In the end, you should have a 1 cm thick square, or something very close to it, for that there are not too many dough-leftovers.
When rolled out completely, lift it onto a sugar-sprinkled baking paper – it does not glue that much on it.

> Coat the 4 Tbsp baiser-mass onto your beautiful square.
> with a long knife, cut your square into horizontals and verticals. “My” fingers are 2cm x 8 cm and 1 cm thick.
> If you want, mix a little cinnamon with sugar and sprinkle it over the mass.
> Lift the fingers onto a baking tray with baking paper (best to lift them with a knife blade).
> Put into the middle of the oven and let bake for around 10 minutes (should stay light on top)
> Let cool down on a cooling rack, NOT on the tray ( for that they don`t get more heat than necessary) 

Cut with a long knife into a grid

Okay, that`s it!

Looks like snowy sticks, doesn`t it? So if you don´t have snow outside, you have kind of snow (tasty one!) in your kitchen :)
Enjoy, dance around, sing "Jingle Bells" and be thankful for life and cookies.

Do you find the CAT (part 2) ?