Good eats I’ve recently discovered or made:

A really good sandwich I made and wanna share:

First, you need a italian-style bun (big, with a chewy crust…ciabatta works too). Cut it in half and spread both sides with a generous (that’s important!) amount of a mixture of mustard and mayonnaise.

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Then add the toppings: lettuce, chicken (leftovers or grilled chicken breast), roasted bell pepper, red onion and a lot of avocado slices. Easy, fast and so good!

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And I made a creamy salmon pasta. All you do is cook some pasta (I like tagliatelle in this dish) until it’s ‘al dente’. Meanwhile, cook a piece of salmon steak in some oil (just a few minutes, you don’t want dry salmon!) and add some asparagus (or other veggies). When the pasta is done, drain it quickly and put it back in the pan. Then you add the cooked and chopped  salmon with veggies and about 1/3 cup of thick yoghurt and 4 tablespoons of cream. Stir until the pasta is covered in the sauce and you’re done! You can finish with some dille or other herbs or lemon juice.

Realisation I’ve recently made:

Someone asked me where I find the recipes I use. Well, where not? Really, I find recipes and inspiration everywhere: I’ve got so many cookbooks and magazines! These days, I don’t always use the complete recipe (some of them are so bad), but take it as an inspiration for a new dish. I often combine several recipes and my own ideas to create something. I love the style of Nigella Lawson, Tessa Kiros and Donna Hay for instance. And I follow a lot of blogs, of course! How do you find your inspiration?

Good eats I’ve recently discovered or made:

I based this dish on a recipe from Tessa Kiros. I sliced chicken breast in thin cutlets and dusted them in some flour. Then I cooked the cutlets in some olive oil, until they were brown on both sides. When they were brown, I layed a slice of cheese (Fontina, but any good melting cheese will work!) on top of each cutlet and added 2 tablespoons of milk. Then I covered the skillet with a lid and waited until the milk and cheese became a bubbling sauce (takes only a minute or so). So easy and so delicious! I served the chicken with roasted asparagus (with reduced balsamic vinegar) and potatoes (cooked in stock, reduced until the stock becomes a sauce).

One of my favourite bagels and it’s a classic: with cream cheese, smoked salmon, lettuce and chives. If I make it myself, I like to add some capers and dille, but I bought this one. In the background you can see a smoothie I had with the bagel: strawberries, yoghurt and oats. Sounds a bit unusual, but was really good! Maybe I’ll try and make this smoothie myself too.

Realisation I’ve recently made:

Challenging myself with ‘difficult’ foods was something I had to do for some months. For me the only thing that worked was just having those things and enjoying them. And I’m proud to say that I really can’t think of anything right now that I find less easy to eat. Really! That doesn’t mean that I won’t buy large gourmet sandwiches/ice creams/waffles/pastries/pizza’s/fried things anymore…I’m gonna eat way more of them! And I’m gonna challenge myself with unexpected things, like going out for dinner without knowing it before. Because I wanna become totally relaxed with those things too…

• moot witte vis (kabeljauw, tilapia)
• 2 plakjes citroen
• verse kruiden: basilicum, dille, peterselie, oregano (eventueel gedroogde kruiden)
• witte wijn
• olijfolie
• aluminiumfolie

Verwarm de oven voor op 200 graden.

Scheur twee stukken aluminiumfolie af. Ze moeten allebei zo groot zijn als een A4-tje (of iets groter).

Smeer ze aan de glimmende kant in met olijfolie.

Snij de moot vis in twee stukken. Leg op ieder stuk aluminiumfolie een stuk vis.

Strooi daar de gehakte verse kruiden overheen en maal er wat peper en zout uit de molen overheen.

Vouw de zijkanten van het aluminium omhoog en maak er een pakketje van. Laat de bovenkant nog een beetje open.

Giet er een scheut witte wijn overheen en druppel wat olijfolie over de vis. Leg het plakje citroen op de vis en maak nu de pakketjes dicht.

Schuif ze 20 minuten in de voorverwarmde oven.

I present to you: Thursday 9th of July’s bento (#60).

Upper tier:

• quiche wedge (rocket salad*, potato*, pine nuts, cheese, egg*)
• basil*
• seedless grapes
• red & black currants*
• homegrown bean sprouts*
• radish
• emmental La vache qui rit cheese
• homegrown garden cress*

Lower tier

• beet* salad on romaine leaves* (go to bento #59 for ingredients)
• gherkin
• radish
• dill*

All ingredients marked with ‘*’ were organic. We got some new garden beet in our veggie bag this week. What shall we prepare with them this time? Their leaves, which are almost the same as (Swiss) chard and can be processed like spinach, we already ate in a Italian pasta sauce.

Veggiebag week 28-2009
I decided I would like to be able to look up what came in our weekly Aardvlo bag of organic vegetables. At the end of each year there’s a questionnaire about what you would love to get more often — or what you didn’t like so much. A question that’s easier to answer when you can remember what you got!

So, week 28 of 2009 brought us: a whole bag of basil (we made some fresh pesto sauce and used that on bruschettas, in a salad dressing and for a pasta salad), a head of lettuce, leeks (we had some oven steamed with cheese; there’s one stalk left which we will probable eat with nasi goreng), tomatoes, red beet with leaves, red and black berries.

Are you all really jealous now?

I can see the questioning looks asking WHY this bento (#59) would be so unusual… Well, normally I don’t have a Wednesday bento And this was a really good one as well! Containing:

• salad of organic romaine leaves, potatoes, oven roasted red beet, spring onion, red onion, dill and gherkin in a yoghurt dressing
• piece of (organic) rucola (rocket), potato, cheese and pine nuts quiche
• tiny radish
• edamame sprinkled with sea salt
• hot pepper (from the balcony) filled with houmous
• walnuts
• homegrown bean sprouts
• organic gooseberries

It was a well balanced bento with that spicy red pepper and some fresh bean sprouts to cool down with. Yummy!

I’m looking forward to today’s surprise bag: what kind of organic vegetables will we get this week?

Here’s the recipe for the tzatziki that I took in bento #58. I’ts really easy to make and tastes great. A fresh dish that will make you think of vacation on any summer day!

Ingredients

• 1 organic cucumber
• salt
• 3,5 dl Greek yoghurt
  (I like it full-cream)
• 1 piece of garlic
  (2 if you wish)
  
• 2 table spoons of olive oil (extra virgine)
  
• pepper
• 2 table spoons of fresh dill (finely cut); see Gnoe’s tip for cutting herbs below!

Preparation
Wash and roughly grate the cucumber (including the skin). Because you’re not peeling the cuke, it’s really best to use organic! Put in a colander, sprinkle with salt en put a weight on it for half an hour. I often use a saucer and small pan filled with water to weigh something down.

In the meantime crush the garlic. Mix yoghurt with garlic, olive oil, dill and pepper to taste (blend by mixing). When the cucumber is ready it can be added to the mixture.

You can make tzatziki a while in advance if it’s kept refrigerated.

Use
Use as a starter or side dish with salad and black olives (think mezze!), as vegetable dip, for a picnic or buffet — you can even put it on your sandwhich, but it will get soggy I like to serve it with Turkish pide bread.

To give you an idea of the quantity: it’s about 4 servings as entree.

Gnoe’s tip for cutting herbs
An easy way to cut dill (or parsley) is putting the leaves in a cup and snip-snap with your kitchen scissors! You can’t use this method for all herbs though; e.g. basil leaves should be torn to allow their fragrances to appear.

Last but not least: I like the smoothness of a tzatziki that’s low on garlic but some people might want to use 2 pieces of garlic In that case, remember my post with natural tips against garlic smell

Elma from Chasing Chatwin gave me some chocolate euros to use in my bento. How appropriate on the day Michael Jackson died! The ancient Greeks put money in the mouth of a deceased, for paying Charon (ferryman of the river Styx) to bring his / her soul to the world of the dead.

I didn’t have much preparation time so I had to get through the day with just one tier of food in bento #57 :\

Contents
Chocolate money (obviously), radishes with gherkin, raspberry vinegar and dill, mushroom noodles, broccoli with black & white sesame seeds, walnut and nori seaweed.

Having just admitted to being a teenager in the Eighties, you might have guessed I was a Michael Jackson fan in those days. I even had a poster hanging on the wall (among many others though No matter what came of him in later years, he was and still is an icon. I find it a fascinating idea that on Friday June 26th, a huge part of the world population has been playing Wacko Jacko’s songs all day on the radio, television, internet and at home. It’s so profound it’s almost unimaginable.

RIP MJ. And now, life goes on.

La PSP sufre mucho por la piratería

Así lo afirma Peter Dille, de Sony América. A pesar de que las nuevas PSP están preparadas para que no se puedan customizar y cargar ISOS, asegura que todavía la portátil de Sony tiene graves problemas con la piratería, y que esta se lleba gran parte de las ventas de juegos para la consola, responzabilizándola de los escasos lanzamientos para la consola, a pesar de las promesas de sony al principio del año.

Sin embargo, se muestra optimista y piensa que también hay gente honrada, y que ellos que sí que compran juegos serán capazes de sacar PSP adelante.

FLICKR-FOTO von imacri.

ZUTATEN:

• ein Bund Dille,
• 3 d. Butter,
• 3 d. Mehl
• ca. 1/2 l Milch,
• 1/4 l Rahm oder etwas Obers
• Suppenwürze, Salz,
• 1/2 kg Kartoffeln

ZUBEREITUNG:

• Die Kartoffeln im Schnellkochtopf oder normal am Herd zustellen und nicht zu weich kochen.
• Die Dille fein schneiden,
• dann die Butter zerlassen, das Mehl zugeben
• und bei kleiner Hitze etwas anrösten,
• mit der Milch ablöschen und mit dem Schneebesen gut verrühren.
• die Dille zugeben,
• würzen,
• den Rahm oder das Obers unterrühren.
• Zum Schluß die geschälten, geviertelten Kartoffeln unterheben.

Mit grünem Salat oder geschnittenen Gurken, Tomaten, Paprika…servieren.

Natürlich paßt auch sehr gut gebratener Fisch dazu.

Heute kochte ich eine Tageskindersuppe. Dann gab es Dinkelnudeln mit Dillsoße. NINA und SIMON hat es sehr gut geschmeckt.

GUTES GELINGEN,

wünscht Elisabeth.

Vol van inspiratie van de laatste twee kooksessies, gaan Rolf en Aron op oudejaarsavond u van (verg)eten voorzien, aangevuld met wat moderner spul. Mundo is er helaas niet bij, maar zal ongetwijfeld ook lekker eten.

Hier een niet-uitputtend lijstje met wat we van plan zijn te maken:

Hapjes

• citroencrackers
• oesters met champagnesaus
• gevulde rettich
• gravad makrel (gekaakte makreel met dille)
• zelf gebakken brood
• flensjes met tomaten-tijm vulling

Hoofdgerechten

• vissoep
• lamstong met groene linzen

Zoet

• chocolademousse met Orval
• semifreddo al caffe
• oliebollen van de bakker

Reageren mag!

Bij makkelijke recepten denk je misschien niet meteen aan zelf broodbakken. Maar als je een broodbakmachine hebt is het hooguit 5 – 10 minuten werk. De machine doet de rest.

Ui-dille brood is mijn absolute favoriet. Heerlijk bij soep, salades en bij alle soorten hartig beleg.
Zorg wel dat alle ingrediënten op kamertemperatuur zijn.

Dit gaat erin:

240 ml water
200 ml cottage cheese
1/2 bekertje zure room
1 klein eitje
450 gr tarwemeel
3 eetl. suiker

4 eetl. fijngesneden ui
3 eetl. dillezaad
1 – 1/2 eetl. boter (beetje gesmolten in de magnetron)
3/4 eetl. zout
1 1/2 theel. gist

Gooi het allemaal in je broodbakmachine en gebruik het programma met de langste rijstijden.

Mich amüsiert immer wieder welches Gsturi um den Erdäpfelsalat gemacht werden kann. Jeder hat sein über mehrere Generationen überliefertes Geheimrezept und meint eben nur dieses hätte den gloreichen Siegeszug über ganz Europa, was sage ich, die Welt gemacht.

Nein, mein Erdäpfelsalatgeheimnis werde ich für mich behalten, dafür verrate ich die aufwendige Rezeptur eines recht erfrischenden Sommerkartoffelsalates, die aus einem amerikanischen Kochbuch stammt und seinen Ursprung in Skandinavien sucht (über mehr geografische Ecken geht es wohl nicht mehr?). In diesem Buch steht übrigens auch, die Dille wurde zuerst in England 1600 n.Chr entdeckt, wikipedia erzählt, die Ägypter hätten das Kräutl schon 1500 v.Chr. in Verwendung. Eigentlich egal, wenn man als Frau bei der Hochzeit folgendes beachtet:

Man solle sich als Braut etwas Dill und Senfkörner (Prinzessin auf der Erbse?) in die Brautschuhe legen und während der Trauung leise vor sich hin flüstern „Ich habe Senf und Dill, mein Mann muss tun, was ich will“, dann hat man die ganze Ehe die Schuhe an, sprich das Sagen. Also wer noch die Chance hat, es sich zu verbessern, soll seine Brautschuhe mindestens 1-2 Schuhgrößen größer kaufen und ordentlich von dem Zeugs hineinstopfen.

Und weil der Rest des Gerichtes vor dem Hauptgericht fertig wurde, musste ein Frankfurter (Würstel) herhalten, das leider, so geht es einer Wurst die mit Dillschuhen aufwächst, ein wenig zu braun im Rohr vergessen wurde. Würde ich die braune Wurst politisch unkorrekt (warum ist dieses Wort eigentlich so schlimm?) so taufen, käme ein Aufschrei, daher heißt sie einfach Hans Wurst – weil eh schon alles wurst ist.

Hans Wurst im skandinavischen Kartoffelsalat

1/2 kg Erdäpfel (ich weine der Sorte Sieglinde nach, was soll man tun? Daher bitte festkochende Sorte kaufen)
1/4 l Sauerrahm
1 mittelgroße rote Zwiebel
1 Handvoll Dillspitzen
Salz. Pfeffer

Die Erdäpfel roh schälen und in gleichmäßige Würfel schneiden und im Salzwasser ca. 10 min. bissfest kochen. In der Zwischenzeit den Rahm in einer Schüssel mit Salz und Pfeffer cremig rühren. Dann die fertigen Kartoffelwürfel abseihen und noch heiß in den Rahm leeren und gleich vermischen. Dann die fein würfelig geschnittenen Zwiebel dazu geben, sowie die gehackte Dille. Nochmals gut durchmischen und wenn möglich 4 Stunden gut durchziehen lassen. Vor dem Servieren nochmals mischen und eventuell etwas Sauerrahm hinzugeben, wenn der Salat zu trocken ist.

Minigolf har blitt min nye dille. I går spilte jeg og Line. Til tross for at jeg tapte, var jeg igrunn ganske så fornøyd alikevel. Det er jo tross alt noen år siden sist jeg spilte mener jeg!

I natt hadde jeg overnattingsbesøk av Line. Hyggelige kvelden som gikk med til minigolf, tvspilling (ja, Lille Kylling er faktisk gøy) og filmtitting. Rovdyr ble endelig satt på, og jeg må si at til tross for elending skuespill (Typ “Lese rett fra manus” skuespill), var filmen overraskende bra. Spesiellt effektene. Det så passe nasty ut når ho ene fikk et skudd i foten kan du si. Nasty på den bra måten. Morbid jeg? Aldri hørt før!

Siden min kjære Gissgiss bestilte tannlegetime til meg for en tid tilbake, har det blitt noen besøk hos han siden. I dag var det borring, til og med uten bedøvelse. Ja, en smule vondt, men why not. Da sparte man penger på bedøvelsen iallefall! Nå er jeg ferdig, sett bort fra et møte hos en spesialist som skal operere ut de to visdomstennene jeg har igjen og fjerning av sting i ettertid. Jay, jeg gleder meg allere (den siste der leses med en meget stor porsjon sarkasme).

Etter en tannlegetime ble det shopping i Sverige med Line, John Georg og Lene. Det er farlig å ha fått skattepenger. Men nå har jeg endelig skaffet meg filmen “The Piano”. Prisen hadde gått ned på den blå Corneren, så da tok man også med en kartong av disse fantastiske kreftpinnene. Kjekt å ha i heimen.
Mat finnes det også litt mer av i kjøleskapet, selv om drikkevarer av type brus og juice egentlig er storparten av det jeg har. Fryseren er jo fin å ha til mat
Siden jeg fremdeles har barnet i meg, kjøpte jeg også Eye Toy til Playstation. Morsomme saken som gjør du blir helt støl i armene. Spillet jeg fikk med het noe slikt som “Astro Zoo”. Greit nok det er for barn, men hva gjør vel det? Og når det kosta under hundrelappen, kunne jeg da ikke la være.
Siden barnet i meg fremdeles var fremtredende, pengene var egentlig litt for lite av på kontoen og vi var innom “dragebutikken” som flere kaller den, endte jeg opp med en stykk slik en:

Jeg liker The Nightmare before Christmas, og Punkin King er jo så søt. Wey

Etter shopping og litt surring endte jeg, Lene, John Georg og denne gangen Thomas på minigolfbanen. Det gikk bedre i dag, og en delt andreplass, to poeng bak vinneren vil jeg påstå var ganske så flott.
Mat på Dollys med J.G, en rask tur i dusjen og jeg satte med ved dataen, og her sitter jeg enda.

Igrunn så er det helt greit å være Kristin for tiden. Positive meg

Nu dillar ni med mig!

Så att vara en glad amatör är bara positivt eftersom amatör har sitt ursprung i ordet amare, som ungefär betyder “att älska”

Så en dilettant för mig innebär alltså att det är en person som finner stor njutning i att läsa och studera vad andra människor åstadkommit vetenskapligt.

Och så länge dilettanten inte blir en karikatyr på en akademiker eller utger sig för att vara vetenskapligt skolad är det ingen fara.

Förresten finns det akademiker som är vetenskapligt skolade, men likväl ointresserade av nya sanningar eller har fuskat sig fram till resultat. Riktiga klåpare som ger näring åt sina egon.

 A song For You! Donny Hathaway