Yarn Alive

Today I went to Shichigahama (it means 7 beaches in Japanese) to meet some fantastic ladies. They are survivors of the tsunami and earthquake, happened on 11th of March 2011 on the eastern coast of Japan. Most of them are still living in temporary houses :(
A very inspirational lady, Teddy Sawka started a group for knitting and created a wonderful activity for getting together the ladies and giving them happy times. I heard fantastic stories and also very sad ones, but it is amazing how strong and positive these women are!

I bought some beautiful knitted stuff from them: the flowers are made by a lady, who lost her neighbours. She said she loves knitting these flowers, it makes her so happy.
That colorful coral-like thingie is for dishwashing - no way! It will be my stress ball!
And how soft the pink scarf is, isn't it?

They are creating admirable stuffs, please visit their website and have a look:
http://yarnalive.wordpress.com/
or their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yarn-Alive/415734178488553

And if you feel so, donate :)
Thank you!

Viva México!

Invited some friends for a Mexican night yesterday! I had a blast, it was so cool!
Enjoyed a bunch of tortilla chips with guacamole, enchilladas, almond cookies and tequila with Corona to wash down the tastes :)

The enchilladas was very easy to make, just needed beef mixture (Corona beer, garlic, salt, pepper, ketchup, tomato) and a chili bean sauce :) Optionally topped with Chorizo, Serrano ham and cheddar.
Here are the steps for wrapping - with pictures:

Birthday cake

When spring comes, I always feel a call to bake a marzipan birthday cake for someone.
This year it is a virtual gift ^-^

The pastry is a simple, not too sweet cocoa base.
For the cream I searched the whole internet (back and forth), finally mixed a Martha Stewart vanilla cream with pecan nut and golden syrup.
The coat is from marzipan, and because of the hopefully coming spring and the Someone, I baked it for, I chose a Japanese theme: cherry blossoms.

お誕生日おめでとうございます
そしていただきます！

 

The rabbit-hole

It's St Patrick's Day in Ireland. And I have a Guinness in my fridge!
Let's cook something delicious!

1. Catch a rabbit - supermarkets are the best for lazy people, like me
2. Grab a carton of Guinness, cool it down baby
3. Open a bottle: half into a bowl, half into a glass. Taste it, just in case ;)
4. Throw some spices into the bowl - great game for practicing basketball!
   My selection was whole green pepper, juniper and bay leaves. I also added mushrooms.
5. Put the rabbit into the beer mix (don't throw please, every drop is precious) and place into the fridge and...
6. Wait... sip from the glass... wait... open a new bottle... blow bubbles... don't get too crazy...
   
   
   
   
   
7. TIME IS OVER! Get the rabbit out from the beer mix
8. Spice the rabbit with salt and pepper and roast on both sides - I prefer butter
9. Wrap it with bacon and place some veggies next to it (carrots and the Guinness mushrooms)
10. Cover it and roast it in the oven (180 °C, 1 hour approx)
11. Wait... smoke a cigarette or three... taste a pálinka... open a Corona... make a Bloody Mary... use a kitchen towel when you wanna check what's going on in the oven!!! Or just don't drink and you won't forget it :)
12. Remove the lid
13. Roast some potatoes and green peas
14. Aaaaaand READY!!!!

Crunchy PecaNut

Yesterday Szamos' Poppyseed mousse, Starbuck's Strawberry and Cream Frappuccino and the Strawberry cheesecake wasn't enough sugar rush, I was starving for sweet food. I thought I am sweet enough, but maybe not on this weekend :)

So continuing the creative cooking/baking period I came up with the following idea:
cheesecake crust, poured with hot, fluid Nutella and covered with pecan nut and maple syrup cream (with butter, eggs blabla). Aaah, so hot! Now I feel like entering the heaven.

Savory grey mullet

Some months ago, when I still lived in Germany, some of my friends told me, that there is a new fish market opened near my hometown. I imagined something really biiig, like Tsukiji in Tokyo :)
In December I visited it with a friend, and the whole market turned out to be a small shop, tinier than my living room, and with unfriendly sellers! But if I was already there, bought some fishes seemed exciting. One of them was the grey mullet. And because it is Sunday, also Hinamatsuri in Japan (girl's day), it is a great time to cook something healthy after eating Poutine and "gesztenyepüré" (sweet chestnut puree with lots of whipped cream).. O.o

Here it is, a very easy recipe found on a forum, and transformed it a little bit according to my taste and fridge:

• 200 g grey mullet
• 2 tbs freshly pressed red orange juice
• pepper mix
• 6 leaves ramsons (bear garlic or bear leek)
• 2 big long slides of bacon - baked and cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup breadcrumb

 This is also the order, how to place it into a pot and bake it for about 20 minutes on 175 °C.
One of the most deliscious fish I have ever eaten!
Note to self: breadcrumb could be roasted a bit before.

Putin try :)

Found an interesting food on Twitter (see, professional growing sometimes has additional advantages): a Canadian one, called "poutine".
The base recipe is very simple: fried potato, curd cheese and brown gravy. From the 3 main ingredients which one can be bought in my country? Potato :D Zzzzzzzz... nothing similar to curd cheese, so had to improvise and bought Bulgarian goat cheese. And cooked brown gravy, which turned out to be caramel brown, so I added artificial coloring.

Because of my own strict rules, be consequent, I cannot call it poutine (however I found a "Greek poutine" recipe with feta cheese). So how to name the baby? Goutine!? :)