Pierogi.

Hello, good afternoon,

another day, another bread filled with something. This time: pierogi. Yay!
I’ll give you the basic recipe for the dough, you can come up with a filling yourself (I humbly suggest the ‘stuff from the fridge that kind of has to be eaten’ filling, a classic).

Ingredients:
makes 12

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 stick unsalted butter, very cold
1/2 cup sour cream

1 egg yolk
2 tbsps. milk

Directions:

In a bowl, mix flour and salt. Add butter in cubes and knead into crumbles, add sour cream and knead into a ball of well combined dough.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and put into the fridge, for at least 30 mins.

In the meantime, make the filling. I filled mine with chicken and leek, which I cut fairly small and fried for maybe 5 mins. in olive oil, then seasoned with salt and chili flakes. In any case, the filling shouldn’t be too greasy, runny, or moist. I think the little dough pockets will bake best with a rather ‘dry’ filling, so they won’t get soggy.

Preheat your oven to 400°F.

Divide the dough into 12 equal parts. Roll each portion into a circle roughly 0.2 inches thin. Place about 1 tbsp. of filling on each circle, and pinch the rims together. Make sure they are squeezed together well! Place the pierogi on a papered baking sheet.

Whis together egg yolk and milk; brush the pierogi with this mixture. Bake for about 25 mins., until golden brown. Let them sit for a couple of minuted before serving. They taste great hot, warm, and cold.
Enjoy!

See how nicely the dough puffs up? It has a really nice flaky texture, too, and the sour cream adds a tart touch, very nice. So basicall, this is nicely nice all around.

The sun came out this afternoon, and spring is in the air. Nice!
Have an awesome weekend.
xoxo, F.

Khachapuri.

Hello,

I have added all kinds of ingredients to yeast dough before, but I haven’t added yoghurt. So of course, when I heard about khachapuri, I had to give it a try.

It’s a flat bread filled with cheese. Uh, hello? How great is that?
They did turn out fabulously, I’ll definitely make them again. Great for lunch or brunch, or in between. They are pretty filling, slightly salty, and really easy to make.

Ingredients:
makes 6 small flat breads

2 cups flour
3 tsps. dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar
3/4 cup plain yoghurt
1/2 tsp. salt
about 7 oz. feta cheese
about 3 oz. mozzarella cheese
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp. milk

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and yoghurt. Start kneading; add about 1/2 cup warm water one tablespoon at a time (you might need some more water, or a little less). Knead until all the ingredients are combined and you have a smooth, warm ball of dough. Leave it in the bowl, cover with a dish cloth and let sit in a warm place until the dough has risen (to about twice its original size; for about one hour).

In the meantime, cut the cheese into very small cubes, and mix them.

When the dough has risen, knead it once very quickly, and divide it into six equal portions. Roll these portions into circles on a lightly floured surface. Divide the cheese mix onto the dough circles, leaving a rim.
Pull the rim over the filling toward the middle of the circle and press it together. This should result in six oddly shaped balls. Roll these balls back into flat breads super carefully.

Preheat your oven to 400° F.

Place the breads on a papered baking sheet.
Mix egg yolk and milk; brush the breads with that mixture.

Bake the khachapuris for about 25 mins., until very lightly brown.
Let cool, and enjoy!!

See? Melted cheeses inside a light bread. I had expected the yoghurt to weigh down the dough, but it didn’t at all. I thought it made the dough really flexible, and the bread really interesting.

xoxo, F.

Apple Tarte for Dummies and Other Stuff Which Is Great

Hello there,

please consider making the following dessert when you’re up for one:

It is: store bought puff pastry (you can make your own, if you’re awesome), sprinkled with grated marzipan (again, feel free to make your own), covered with apple slices, and dusted with brown sugar, then baked. Serve with ice cream, of course! Dude… this is so good. I’m not even posting this because I did such an awesome job making that ‘tarte’, but because it honestly is so easy and rewarding.

In unrelated news, I have developed an addiction to capers:

I put them on EVERYTHING these days, for example on my cream cheese w/ tomato sandwich. I dunno, though; why do capers taste good? They are basically salty and sour, right? They shouldn’t taste so good, they should taste awful, but they don’t. So much for philosophical questions today.

Lastly, I am probably the last person on planet earth to discover this, but I came up with a how-to-finally-really-use-up-that-jar-of-Nutella-and-not-have-leftovers-in-it-that-no-knife-can-reach: fill it with hot milk, shake, and voilà: hot chocolate.

Allright, then: goodbye for now!
xoxo, F.

Mixed Bag.

Hello,

here’s what I cooked the other night:

I don’t know what to call it. Think chicken chorizo couscous, but with hamburger, chickpeas, and bulgur, ok? I won’t post a recipe, allright, because I didn’t measure anything, I just threw this together and it was good! If you want to make it, use the couscous recipe as a guideline: onion + garlic + meat + grains + fluid + extra stuff you want to add. Enjoy!

Also:

Chocolate chip cookies with almonds, y’all! While it was a not so hot idea to bake them when it was like 90° outside, it was awesome to munch on them all day. If you want a recipe, use Nestlés, or your mom’s – you probably have it memorized anyways.

Allright, that’s it for today! Great post, right? Har har.
Enjoy the sunshine.
xoxo, F.

Halloumi Love.

Hello,

remember how I told you how much I like halloumi cheese?
Here are some mouth watering recipes. I cannot wait to try all of them, seriously. Yes, it’s true: cheese easily works as my meat substitute. Which isn’t a bad thing, right?

Enjoy the weekend!
xoxo, F.

Recipes via The Kitchn
Picture by BBC Good Food

A Beautiful Plate

Hi there,

a beautiful plate of food! Isn’t bbq season the best? Except that we neither have a backyard, nor a patio, nor a balcony. But no matter; we use the grilling pan and the oven, and anyways, the most important thing is the good weather.
We had: baked potatoes with halloumi cheese, tabouleh, and grilled pork (but I didn’t care much for it…). It was very nice, a really lovely weekend dinner in the sunshine.
I’ve posted the potato/ cheese recipe before, and I wasn’t too much into the meat (I’m difficult with meat), so I’ll just give you the tabouleh recipe. I like making a huge bowl of it, in order to have plenty of leftovers which I can then have for lunch for the rest of the week.

Ingredients:
serves 4

1 1/2 cups bulgur wheat (the precooked kind)

2 spring onions, sliced thinly
1/2 cucumber, seeded, sliced
4 tomatoes, seeded, diced
a big handful of parsley leaves, chopped

4 tbsps. lemon juice
6 tbsps. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a bowl, cover the bulgur generously with boiling water, add a pinch of salt, and stir. Let sit for 90 mins. Then drain the bulgur well; if you feel like it, spread it on a clean surface or a dish towel, and let dry completely. The grains should have absorbed some water, but still be chewy.

In a large salad bowl, mix the bulgur grains with the prepared vegetables and the parsley. Make a dressing from the lemon juice and olive oil; season generously. Add to the bowl, and mix well. Let sit until serving; if you are able to give it a couple of hours, do so. Adjust the seasoning, and serve. Enjoy!

Enjoy the sunshine!! Eat well!
xoxo, F.

Lemon Rice

Hello again,

allright, so: despite going to the grocery store four times this week, I managed not to have any veggies to go with our fried fish fingers last night. Don’t ask. What to do? Thankfully, there was rice in the cupboard, which I seasoned with sauteéd onions, lemon juice, lemon zest, frozen herb mix, and lots of salt and pepper. It was pretty good!

Ingredients:
serves 2-3

1 1/2 cups rice

two small onions, diced
3 tbsps. lemon juice
1 tsp. lemon zest
3 tbsps. herb mix, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a pot, combine the rice with 3 cups of water and a huge pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let cook until the water has been absorbed and the rice is soft. It really depends on what kind you’re using, white Basmati or brown hippie stuff or whatever.

In the meantime, slowly sauteé the onions in olive oil. When they are soft, turn off the stove and add the lemon juice and zest and the herbs. Stir; season with salt and pepper to taste.

When the rice is done, combine it with the onion/lemon mix, stir well, and enjoy!

Have a fun weekend!! Do some good cooking! I have cinnamon rolls planned for Saturday, hooray!
xoxo, F.

Some spring flowers on our kitchen window sill:

Pasta with Lemon Ricotta and Zucchini

Hello,

I know, I’m late! It’s not Friday, and it hasn’t been for almost three days! But: it’s the Easter weekend, we had my family over, the weather is super, etc. So: here comes a recipe for a dish from the ‘light spring cooking’ category, a little late, but nonetheless delicious.

This is what you do:
1) Cook the pasta. I usually cook roughly half a pound for two eaters.
2) In the meantime, wash and grate the zucchini. I used two small zucchinis (I find the smaller, the better the taste). Heat some olive oil in a pan and add a chopped onion; stir. Add the zucchini, reduce the heat, and let them sauteé for about 5 mins. Add 2 table spoons lemon juice. Stir. Season strongly with pepper and salt.
3) In a large bowl, combine the cooked pasta, the zucchini mix, about one cup of ricotta cheese, and 1 teaspoon lemon zest. Stir well. Season to taste. Serve with parmesan cheese.
4) Enjoy!

I’ll leave it at that for today. Eat well, and drink well, and be very, very merry!
xoxo, F.

Gnocchi with Blue Cheese Sauce

Hello dear readers,

it is sweet, precious Friday, which is great, and the weather is great, and we have a fun, relaxing weekend ahead of us, which is also great. So, to go with all the chillin’/ spring happiness, here comes a super-simple recipe for a yummy weeknight dinner.

Once again, I don’t have exact measurements. But I guess that’s okay, this dish is so easy (especially since I used store bought gnocchi – I just didn’t have it in me to make my own this time), that common sense will do.

Ingredients:
serves 2-3

about 1 1/2 pounds fresh, store bought gnocchi
1 cup cream (heavy, or half and half, or whatever you like)
1 cup (maybe a little less?) blue cheese, crumbled
1 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
freshly grated parmesan to taste

Directions:

Cook the gnocchi according to the instructions on the package.

In the meantime, heat some olive oil in a small pot, add onion and garlic, stir, and sauteé for 2 mins. or 3. Add cream and cheese; stir. Reduce the heat. Let the pot sit until the cheese has melted; stir, and season to taste.

Transfer the cooked gnocchi into a serving dish. Cover with sauce and grated parmesan. Serve with a green salad and some good bread. Enjoy!

Enjoy the weekend! I’ll be going out for ice cream, for sure.
xoxo, F.

Pizza with Mushrooms and Creamed Onions

Hello there,

this pizza is quite an ugly duckling! It doesn’t look like much, but it tasted delicious. I especially liked that it’s not covered in huge amounts of melted cheese. Come to think of it, I also really liked that it’s not slathered with tomato sauce. In other words: it’s a pizza, which is generally awesome, but it’s a little different.
The recipe comes from Johanna Handschmann’s Italian Vegetarian Cooking. I followed it pretty strictly; except that I doubled it (my husband and I are both suckers for pizza, so leftovers were a must), and that I used veggie broth instead of wine (I’m not having alcohol at the moment; generally, however, I would use wine in this, and will do so next time I’m making it).
Due to a – totally unreasonable – sabotage of tomatoes on my husband’s part, I made half of the pizza without tomatoes, as you can see in the picture. Well, here we go:

Ingredients:
for one 12 inch pizza pan

for the dough:
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tsp. salt
1 2/3 cups flour
2 tbsps. olive oil

For the topping:
2 medium onions
2 tbsps. olive oil
3 1/2 oz. button mushrooms
6 tbsps. white or red wine
5 tbsps. cream
oregano, salt, and pepper to taste
2 medium tomatoes
1 cup freshly grated parmesan

Directions:
In a bowl, mix flour, salt, and yeast. Add olive oil and about 7 tbsps. warm water. Knead into a smooth dough (by hand or machine). If necessary, add a little more water. Let the dough rise for at least 30 mins.

In the meantime, peel the onions and slice them thinly. Wash and slice the mushrooms. Fry the onions in hot olive oil (in a large pan) for 3 to 4 mins., stirring all the time. Add the mushrooms; stir. Pour in wine and cream, stir. Add oregano (I used about 1 tsp. dry oregano), salt, and pepper to taste. Cook the mixture down over medium heat until the veggies are soft and the liquid has reduced.

Wash and slice the tomatoes.

Preheat your oven to 425° F. Grease a baking sheet and put it into your pizza pan.

Knead the risen dough very briefly, then spread it onto the baking sheet. Lay the tomato slices on the dough.

Stir the parmesan into the veggie mix, and spread this on the dough.

Bake the pizza for about 20 mins., until the topping is bubbly and the dough is crusty. Enjoy!!

I hope you have a wonderful, fun weekend. We have some good cooking planned, and some good hanging out and chilling. Those weekends are the best.

xoxo, F.