Sometimes, recipes aren’t about using specific ingredients in a specific way to create something new entirely – sometimes they’re all about highlighting that one spectacular item you brought home, make that one thing, possibly a rather humble one, the shining star of your dinner table. One of the things I absolutely love building a dish around is, as you may have noticed already, cheese in all shapes and sizes.
Continue reading “Wild Herb & Cheese Salad with Grapes, Blueberries and Maple Syrup-Lemon Dressing”
“Yarrrrowlgrrrr~!” That’s tummy-speak for: “It’s seriously time for a change in seasons in the kitchen!” Much to hubby’s and my own tummies’ dismay, mother nature doesn’t seem to have read the memo yet. Well, actually, the winter-(food)-blues isn’t all that bad just yet, but the idea of Spring, fresh veggies, berries and, most of all, our regions fresh asparagus is starting to dig serious roots into our subconscious these days.
Mid-February, Valentine’s Day to be precise, somewhere in south-western Germany. Just like every year, your’s truly is peering out of the window, briefly considering using the day’s dinner plans as an excuse to throw on The LBD… but no. There’s not much fun in wearing a dress when you need to cover it up in at least 4 more layers of fabric in order to survive a 20-minute-walk without frostbite~!
Being a notor… ah… well-known regular at your favorite farmer’s market stalls really has it’s perks. Sometimes, the same perks – in the sense of wrong place, wrong time – can put you between a rock and a hard place. When you realize you’re stuck however, the best escape, at least in a food-related thought-spiral kind of scenario, is down. Confused yet? Ok, here’s what happened.
Time for a twist on a light and lively winter classic before we can get on with the signature stomach-swelling and button-popping of the upcoming Holidays~!
Maybe you guys are familiar with a certain awkward situation I’ve found myself stuck in a short time ago: a situation that usually begins with a train of thought the displays at the farmers market might inspire, somewhere in the neighborhood of “Oh this looks pretty! There’s always something delicious to be made with this, can’t hurt to take one along… right?”.
Oh yes~! Summer’s here and not willing to take prisoners. Getting anything down at 35°C during lunchtime is starting to be just as unappealing as skipping lunch altogether. There’s one thing though, that always works in situations like these. Quickly made, easily carried around and, in most cases, very healthy and satisfying: Cold soups.
Is there a better, gentler, or more mood-lifting way to be nudged to awareness after a good night’s sleep than by having fragrant wisps of freshly baked bread playing around your nose, throwing out a delicious lure and drawing you kitchen-ward? I know, I can’t stay in bed for long with that kind of incentive to get up~!
As we were returning back home from our short winter escape to Sylt, basically crossing the country in a vertical line of about 800km, the progress of Spring nosing its way in couldn’t have been more obvious. The further south we got, the – for lack of a better word – juicier the landscape appeared to get. What started with miniature yarnballs stalking their equally fluffy mommy-yarnballs and merrily playing sheep-catch between blossoming heather shrubs in the northern regions, quickly turned into foresty areas sporting a first hint of green, violently colorful patches of crocus breaking up the still-dominant dullish brown here and there and, of course, the… well, juicy brown of freshly turned soil on the fields.
It took me a while, but I finally managed to twist and tweak another classic dish to my liking! You might wonder how a menace to the world’s tomato population like me can sidestep the issue of a simple tomato soup for years… well, after quite a number of… not bad, but unsatisfying bowls and recipes, I had almost given up on the idea. Basically, one half would have worked better as a tomato sauce and the other half needed a stomach-turning amount of cream or butter to loose the air of a sauce and turn “creamy”.
Nahdala's Kitchen 