Here we go again. More accurately, here goes the GW2 recipe collection again, Obi-Wan’ing me into storming out of the house, to the next store and back home with bulging bags. Someone over there just had to pick the one type of ice cream I could never resist and put it down at the Chef’s Guild. Blueberries… Chocolate… I need a moment to collect myself… Mind control blows when you’re at the recieving end! And the major dishwashing-marathon after what might, to an innocent bystander, have looked like an exploded dish cabinet after a pack of wild boars rampaged through, really, really blows. Well, at least what came out of the mess was one absolutely divine batch of Blueberry & Chocolate Chips Ice Cream.
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Finally it’s time! Time for garden parties, brunches, picknicks and other outdoorsy things calling for quick-to-make, transport-friendly and easy-to-eat things that stay yummy for some time. With the weather finally having stopped yoyo’ing from major flood scenarios to making everyone feel like vampires crisping up in direct sunlight, creating a country-sized outdoor-steambath in the process… Now, making plans for more than just 30 mins ahead is possible at last. In my case, this translates to long days in the park, a hiking trip with hubby here and there and the occasional brunch buffet or BBQ in someone elses garden calling for my kitchen skills.
One thing stews from all over the world generally have in common is: they’re even better the next day. A Chilli Con Carne is no exception to that rule. After my inner vamp was satisfied with 
Usually I have a plan set up, or at least some hazy idea about what I’m looking for on our saturday stroll across the big farmer’s market in town. This time… nothing. Nada. Zilch. Blanks and some cobwebs in the food section of my head, but not much else. Trying to force an idea of what I wanted to eat out of my skull gave me a headache and the very non-helpful adjective „colorful“. Hubby added the similarily helpful word „vegetables“ to the fog. Well, the market sure is the best place to find inspiration in the neighborhood of „colorful vegetables“ and something to go right along with them.
Chilli con Carne. In 35°C weather. You might think the heat in- and outside of the kitchen has finally taken it’s toll on my sanity. Well, believe me, I’ve considered an extended trip down to the looney bin on several occasions myself. This isn’t the result of slowly-stewing grey matter though, this is the result of the GW2 recipe list rudely kicking a part of my subconscious, usually hibernating during heatwaves, to life without offering it some coffee first.
It’s time for a sweet bite again! This one is as healthy as it gets, more of a power-snack than a sweet, actually. Brain-Food, if you will, which is closely related to how I came up with this one in the first place. During the nightmarish depths of exam-prep hell I could really feel myself burning through any and all sugar reserves in my body. Not wanting to resort to unhealthy or useless types of sugar-boosts, I dug up a dried-fruit-and-lots-of-seeds truffle recipe I had picked out – and forgotten about – months before.
Several of the food-related reasons for me to love a good heatwave every once in a while are provided by the unending variety of cold soups, just asking to serve as a refreshing, speed-of-light-quick-fix tummy-filler when it’s too hot for anything else. A few weeks ago I was trying to figure out a way to skip the traditional baguette/chiabatta/toast deal and replace it with something on the healthier side of things without loosing the filling-factor of the soup – after all, I was trying to make dinner, rather than serving a bowl of… well, juice. After a couple of moments, twiddling my mental thumbs, pondering all kinds of gazpachos, juices and green smoothies, it hit me. Avocados! Oh, oh! River crabs go well with avocados! And grapefruit! Apples? <insert visual of mental sock-drawers being turned over here>.
After one particularly long and fruitful night of binge-WvW’ing, I was facing a whole lot of leftover junk food scattered around our desks. All of them came in those annoying amounts of stuff, just not enough to store away for some later point, but too much to really justify throwing them out. I racked my brain for a little while, once again cursing the oven-less state of my kitchen – I found myself looking at a bunch of leftover dried cherries, and the first thing that came to mind was the Tyrian Cherry Cookie recipe. Waaait a minute… Cherries? Check. Cookies? Check. Chocolate? Double check! Within 10 mins I had a batch of chocolate coated Cherry Cookies V.2.0 sitting in front of me and no leftovers in sight!
Nahdala's Kitchen 