Friday, 28 September 2012

DWZI - Dust

This week I felt pretty sorry for myself.
The house is chaos.
Renovating is not a joke... 
Microwave dinners.
Dust everywhere.

I have a cold.
The kids are sick too.
And really, the dust is simply driving me nuts.

I wash the floor.
I vacuum, I wipe things clean and yet it does not end.
Dust.

Keep your eye on the prize... that is my new mantra.
Just think about the finished kitchen.
This too shall pass.



Have a great weekend everyone!
You can find all the DWZI participants here.

Thursday, 27 September 2012

Scone Experiment

Before we went to South Africa we stopped by my friend Tip's place one lazy Sunday afternoon.
She is always experimenting with different kinds of flours and cool ingredients.
That day she had made scones with a different flour than usual (I forget what she used but it certainly is not standard stuff) and we were allowed to taste the experiment.

I thought it was pretty good, but she was of the opinion that the dough was overworked and it should have risen more and it should have been baked longer...
She served them with whipped cream, lemon curd and strawberries.

I was not complaining.
In fact I will gladly sit in her beautiful kitchen and taste her experiments any day!


Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Tuna Lemon Ricotta Pasta

I found this recipe in the Albert Heijn Allerhande magazine a couple of months ago. Although it is essentially marketing the supermarket, they have quite a few good recipes in there which I think are well worth trying.

This recipe for a pasta with tuna, lemon and ricotta cheese was very easy and quite tasty.
But.
Don't you just hate it when there is a but?
Well, for me there was definitely a 'but'.
My finished dish did not quite look like their photo of the finished dish.
I don't know... might be that I am not a food stylist and probably did not try very hard to make it look pretty. Might be that they tried too hard to make it look pretty.

Either way, I liked it and will most definitely make it again.



Here is a link to the original recipe.

Here is a copy, translated into English:


Ingredients
300 g farfalle (pasta)
1 lemon, wiped clean
2 cans tuna pieces in sunflower oil (a 185 g)
2 courgettes, peeled into thin ribbons
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tub ricotta (250 g)
some flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

Method:
1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions until al dente. Grate the lemon peel and squeeze out the juice. Drain the tuna into a bowl and save about 3 tablespoons of the oil.
2. Heat the tuna oil in a pan and add the garlic. Cook for about 1 minute. Now add the courgette and cook for 3 minutes more. Add the lemon rind, juice, tuna, ricotta and season with salt and pepper. Turn down the heat. Let it simmer away for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the pasta to the sauce, add the parsley and serve immediately.

Credit and thanks to Maybemej Photography for the frame template and all the other cool freebies she makes.


Friday, 21 September 2012

DWZI - Kitchen Progress

We started working on our kitchen extension in the beginning of May.
It is now the end of September.
Progress was slow, to say the least.

It was deliberate because quite frankly, we have a cash flow problem.
Big dreams and no money.
Luckily we figured out that we could save a fortune by doing the work ourselves.
There was only one catch... we had NO experience in this area.
None.

I have mentioned it before but we are very lucky to live next to two very experienced handy men.
They build houses and kitchens and pretty much anything for a living.
They agreed to help and teach us as we went along.

This week we finally broke down the last walls and now it feels real.
We are going to have a much bigger kitchen and lots of light.
The progress this week has been amazing.

It started on the weekend with our neighbour, Rene, helping my husband demolish walls and ceilings. Then Rene spent two full days working for us, all by himself, and let me tell you that man can make things happen.

I am starting to really look forward to cooking in my new kitchen!


Have a great weekend everyone!

You can find all the DWZI participants here.

Thursday, 20 September 2012

Pretty Things

Sometimes I take such pleasure from beautiful things.
Like this pretty coffee cup and saucer.
It contained a delicious cappuccino with a gingerbread cookie on the side.
Loved it.

Tuesday, 18 September 2012

Decadent Treat

Now this is a red velvet cake.

The first one I ever tasted and it was good.

Unfortunately it was in a restaurant so I cannot claim to have baked it myself, but rest assured that I will be looking for recipes and hopefully experimenting soon...


P.S. I didn't actually eat it all by myself! But I easily could have.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...