Hubby Birthday Cake! #50ShadesOfCake pt. 02

Baking a cake for someone clearly is a labour of love. You don’t bake cake just for anybody. I don’t. Especially not layered cakes or anything that is more fancy than a simple stir-up-and-go kind of cake. When you bake for someone, you take time for them, you think about what they might like and what might give them pleasure, and you give yourself plenty of time to contemplate what it is you like about them. Last week, I made my husband a birthday cake. Or rather his birthday cake, since it is the exact same cake each year. He asks for it – I make it. What may seem like a rather monotone and dull endeavor is actually a very romantic ritual to me, and in a way, it is emblematic for a long term relationship as such: of course, after a few years, there will be repetitions. And there will maybe not be a whole lot of razzle-dazzle and dashing surprises each and every day. The trick is however, to go about it with the same care and devotion as the first time, every single time.

Lonesome Lentils & Solitary Pleasures

Some people say everything tastes better with bacon. For others it’s chocolate. For me, everything tastes better with – well, okay, butter of course, but I’m trying to make a different point here – with company. Eating is a profoundly social activity and I am a very social eater. I hate eating alone, even if it is the tiniest snack (my snacks are never tiny, but anyway). Apart from the actual eating (which I love), I so much enjoy the talking, laughing, caring for each other, and spending time together, that sharing a meal is as well. However, every now and then, a solitary supper all by myself, cuddled up in bed with a bowl of spoonable goodness can be a true solitary pleasure. 

Blood Orange & Cinnamon Churro Swirls

So many things in the kitchen are ‘time machines’: Their sight, sound, or smell transports you to places you have been, people you have met, moments you have loved. The scent of cinnamon always brings me back to my childhood, and so do the crunchy churro swirls I’m telling you about this week. Back in the late 1980s though,  in southern Germany, neither me nor anyone I knew did know anything about churros. But each year during the carnival season, there would be masses of deep fried doughnuts in countless shapes, and they would be thickly covered in cinnamon sugar that crunched alarmingly between your teeth. I loved those. There was nothing delicate or precious about them: there were just piles and piles of them, and in the middle there was usually me, full-handedly enjoying the mere fact of my existence and the end of theirs as I greedily gobbled them up.

A Sweet Fin(n)ish: Omena-Pannukakku

Whaaat?! Yes. And wait until you’ve tried it. This is based on a recipe from my friend Massi, a Finn currently living, working, cooking and blogging in Denmark. Alex (my husband slash sous-chef) and I went to visit her and our beloved circle of Danish friends two weeks ago. As you can easily imagine, being friends of ours, they all live on the food-loving and high-carb side of life. And so, after days of mouthwatering roast chicken & root veggies with tsatsiki, dazzling honeycomb, sumptuous cheese fondue with homemade bread, the carniporn extravaganza that goes by the illustrious name Stegt Flæsk med Persillesovs and the most amazing pizza (turns out: you have to travel north), it seemed only appropriate to have something substantial for our 9 hour-car ride home.

Zesty Cedro Lemon Caesar

Although winter isn’t really that grey and gloomy in Germany this year, avoiding the winter blues is still one of my main concerns in life from November until – June. Being one of those people who are especially prone to weather-induced moodiness, I consider it a service to the community to find effective ways of preventing it. One of the most potent solutions is soaking up as much light as I can get: in addition to spending my lunch break out in the open and planning little roam-abouts in blindingly lit shopping malls on my way back home, I add some sunlight to the menu plan. Citrus are just the way to bring some brightness to a grey day and almost every dull dish. Luckily, winter is when most of them are in season, and even if not here, courtesy of globalization they are at my fingertips on my local market.

Roasted Parsnip Salad w/ Brown Butter Dressing & Dill

I have the feeling there is some kind of lookist prejudice towards winter vegetables. Winter (at least in Germany) seems to be the time when farmer’s markets turn into vanity fairs: all the sun-soaked desirable produce beauties have vanished and we seem to be left with their less desirable frumpy cousins that will make our kitchens smell and our digestion troubled (cabbage) or our hips wider (sugary root vegetables). But there are hidden treasures – literally: beneath the surface (where it so often lies) there is unexpected beauty.

Spice Route Scented Pork Belly

I know, this is a bit groundhog-day: Just the other week I put a whole turkey in the oven, this week it is a piece of pork belly – carniporn galore. But somehow, especially this time of the year, the old-fashioned business of having a roast in the oven and having the aromas permeate the kitchen (or the whole house for that matter) seems to provide a sense of coziness and succor that I need and crave.

Danksgiving & A Last Minute Early Bird

Last Friday, I held my first ever Thanksgiving dinner party. Yes, you got that right. One week prior to – well – Thanksgiving. But although the dinner itself was early, one particular (and critical) thing about it was very last minute: the bird. The actual early bird was me – sitting at a poultry farm a half-hour drive from my kitchen, on Friday morning at 8:00, with 7 hours to go until my guests arrived, having coffee with the farmer’s wife, waiting for the turkey to arrive. It didn’t until 11:00.

Neon Crunch & Punch Pickle

With Scandinavian cuisine growing in vogue during the last few years, the humble practice of pickling has become all the rage. At first, I didn’t even care. Now I am a heavy user.

Postal Pumpkin Pie. #50ShadesOfCake pt. 01

I am fully aware that it might not be the smartest idea to make this first recipe a pie which I am about to have delivered by parcel service, and which will probably end up either lost somewhere in Germany or reach its destination as total mush. But the prospects of surprising two dear friends with a freshly (as in 24h express delivery time ago) baked pie and making their weekend a bit (rather: a piece) more special make it worth taking the risk.