baked fennel with Parmesan

I keep promising to post the receipts that I like from my cooking course.. so tonight it's about fennel. If you would have asked me if I liked fennel just a couple of month ago, I would quite surely had answered that I don't know.

I guess fennel belongs to a forgotten group of vegetables. When I bought it in Sweden, the guy in the supermarket couldn't find the price-code for it, and he even told me: it such a rare case that somebody buys this...:)

Anyway, there is a very simple way of preparing fennel, and it's really delicious. So far I served it together with the salmon that I wrote about in another blog post. Maybe someone has some other ideas on what else it could fit with?


Baked fennel with Parmesan

What you need
2 fennel heads, salt and pepper, Parmesan and some olive oil.

How to make it
Wash the fennel, cut the heads in half and remove the middle part. Slice them thickly and sprinkle with some olive oil. Cover with aluminum folio, and bake it until soft in medium hot oven. Add the Parmesan and bake for another 5 minutes.

Serve immediately and enjoy!!!!

aubergine avec amour

The last evening at my parents place for this time was a very nice one. We were cooking together at home and I really enjoyed the company of my mother, father and Edith Piaf very much.

We prepared stuffed aubergine, it was again something I had learnt at my cooking course. I guess most people already know how to prepare stuffed aubergine but there is one secret ingredient to add which makes the whole difference; grinded almonds. It absorbs the liquid from the vegetables and gives a round complete taste. Delicious!

The recipe below is good for approximately 3 people. The filling can of course be what you have at home, but the little trick is to not forget the almond, the love and attention..

Ingredients
2 aubergines, Olive oil, onion, little garlic, 2 tomatoes, 1 paprika or red pepper, 10 mushrooms, 5 grinded almonds and 100 gr fresh (green cheese) / seasoned (mature) ovine cheese or goat cheese, fresh parsley, salt and pepper.

How to make it
It's actually very easy to prepare, and I guess impossible or at least hard to fail. Cut the ends of the aubergines, and divide them into two. Scrap out the pulp with a spoon and cut it into small pieces. Cut also all the other ingredients into small cubes and fry it together a little bit. Start with the onion and add the other ingredients little by little. Paprika takes a while to make soft so it should go second when the onion are golden soft. Add the grinded almond, and the salt and pepper according to your taste and as much love and attention as possible. Put the mixture in the scraped aubergines. Bake it in the owen for approximately 25 minutes in 200 degrees. Ready!

Enjoy!!

Again the importance of love and attention
I think I said it in another blog post, but it cannot hurt to repeat that love, attention and good ingredients would be the basic for cooking, and the rest comes with practice. Cooking at home, I imitated a bit a TV-cook; I made sure to have enough time to prepared everything in advance - washing, cutting and measuring. Great fun! The difference is in the details. And eating it with love and attention will help to make even the simplest dish delicious; to enjoy the taste and the structure of the food consciously and to fully appreciate the company around the table. Again the difference is surely in the details.

And Edith contributed for sure to the harmonic atmosphere by filling the kitchen with her beautiful voice. And a little bit of dancing in the kitchen added to the happiness and love even if it likely did decreased a little bit of attention to the cooking...:)

La Vie En Rose..

What Santa brings..

I tried to introduce a gift free Christmas this year or at least to limit consumption. Early in October I wrote an email to my family to propose different solutions – such as only giving one, to collect money for a common trip, etc etc.. Maybe I should have written directly to Santa Claus because finally we were having gifts :) Maybe a bit fewer, but all so very nice and thought through!

The best of the best, was the dress made in silk that my sister had knitted for me. I almost cried of happiness when I saw what she had prepared for me.

Designed by K.

Other nice gifts
I will not list all the gifts, but just mention a few because even if I wrote they were fewer there were still quite a lot :)

My sister brought yarn from Argentina, which was also a very nice gift for my other sister and mother. They are very creative so I'm sure they will make something nice out of it. There were also other very nice handmade things in wood prepared by my sister's boyfriend.

I was most pleased with the gift I had for little V. It was a handmade train, not made by me but from the Christmas market in Budapest. It was very nice and also pedagogic and he seemed to like it, and his mother did as well...:)


So I was receiving so nice gifts, that mine, even if they were selected in India felt a bit poor.. :) So for next year, I will not propose not to have gifts. It's so nice to find out what to give, and to see the happiness of the one who receives it. So, next year I'll also make my own gifts at least some of them. If people only get half as happy as I got, it's already great!

coming home..

This year I actually for once had some Christmas feelings already in Budapest with Lucia celebration, some you tube clips with Christmas songs in different languages and I even prepared Christmas cakes and chutney. So, I was well prepared and really looking forward to going home for a couple of weeks. It has been an intense year with lots of happiness but also some sad and difficult moments, so being home for a while is probably good for me. Anyway, it's always good so I try to go once in a while.

Same procedure as last time...

Every time coming home follows more or less the same procedure. I always arrive just in time to the airport in Budapest, then I always sleep on the flight and I wake up in Denmark. At Copenhagen airport, the visitors are always welcomed by the smell of Røde pølser. Then I catch the train to Sweden, I’m always surprised how expensive it is and I always think of how good it would be to follow my mother's advice to refill the discount-travel card before leaving next time and remember to take it with me....

Correct, informative and user friendly..

These adjectives are quite well describing how things are generally working in Sweden. The train is no exception, it's clean and modern, and will most likely be in time. This time it stopped twice for couple of minutes and a friendly voice informed us that „We have now stopped for a stop sign, and we are waiting for permission to continue” I smiled a bit, of course it's very nice of them to inform the people so that they wouldn't worry but I'm also sure that most people didn't even realised that we had stopped before they announced it. And once they finished their sentence, the train started to move again. Anyway, a small thing like this makes me realise that I'm home again so it's time to re-adapt to Scandinavian way of doing things , for the good and for the bad..:) At the train station, my parents will come to meet me and it’s always a very happy moment and we always go home to have a cup of tea.

Alla talar svenska

Arriving in Sweden, there is one sentence always popping up in my head “Alla talar svenska” This is the text for Disney movies to inform that everybody speaks Swedish in the film. It’s also a bit strange to me, and in the first few days I add some English words here and there. I’m sure some people believe I do that to be snobbish or interesting…:)

So until here it's always the same, and then it will depend on if I'm staying for longer or only for the weekend. If it’s only for a few days normally there is a reason like a celebration so time is passing really fast.

If I stay for longer, I'll get a little restless quite soon. I’m used to much higher tempo, and even if I know it’s good for me to slow down and relax, I need a few days to find the good rhythms, to adapt to the silence and calmness. And even when I feel little restless, I enjoy to have some time to think, and also to knit together with my sisters and mother. It's very inspiring and I become much more creative at home. The first two evenings I made a pair of sandals while enjoying to spend some time with my parents. And now, I'm already half way with the next project :)

Sandals, made of the left over yarn from the hats I prepared for me and some friends last year, posing in the snow

So, for the next few days, I will continue with having a good time, playing with little V, spending time with family and friends and do some knitting and reading. After those first little restless days, I know that time will pass very fast. It always does, and when the day to go back arrives, I'll surely have the feeling that time at home was not enough... like always. Time is such a strange thing.

sauteed apples better than appels cooked in butter

Sauteed apples is one of the ingredients in a new recipe for cakes that I just learnt to make. It sounds quite sophisticated, right?? It also sounds French and it's not a secret that I'm fascinated by all that is French. Actually before moving to France I kind of thought that everything was good there, and to me it sounded like everybody speaking French is really intelligent (hehe, actually it still does to me.. :) Now I know that not ALL is good and great there, and also not all French people are very clever, but I keep my fascination and still think that everything can get little improved by adding something French :) :) If so only the name...

Sauteed apples would normally have scared me a bit, but with the new inspiration from the cooking course, I was happy to give it a try. And, after a quick search on Internet I realised that it is very easy to prepare. I tried several versions, each time little different but still very good. One good piece of advice would be to choose sweet apples, and then not adding any sugar (or only very little).

Sauteed apples

1/4 cup butter
4 apples
2 teaspoon corn stand
1/2 cup cold water
some brown sugar (optional)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

How to make it..
Melt the butter, cut the apples in pieces and add them to the butter. Stir until tender (approximately 5 min). Dissolve the flour in the water and add it together with (the sugar) and the cinnamon. Stir while it's cooking together for a couple of minutes

Ready..

Other versions..
In some other recipes, they also included apple cider, honey, juice from a half lemon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. I tried different versions, and it's hard to tell which one is best. Already the simple one was really good. It is melting in your mouth and if there is not too much sugar it still keeps the fresh taste.

So it sounds sophisticated but it's really basic to make. Maybe sauteed apples is a very good illustration of how everything gets improved adding some French to it. I mean, apple cooked in butter sounds already less appetizing...

Sauteed apples is delicious warm or cold, on it's own, with chocolate, with banana split, for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner or in between...:) You see I tried it all...


Dessert for Sunday brunch... Bananasplit with sauteed apples

listen to the silent crying

Once in a while for quite some time, I could hear some crying noise in the background. Some low intense almost silent crying asking for help. Actually, the complaining crying came from my back where I had some pain and I started to think of all kind of possible sicknesses that I could possible have... Now, when the pain is gone, I know that it was some of my approximately 600 muscles who were crying from the overall bad treatment and from the everyday sitting in front of computer. They tried to tell me that it couldn't go on like that, and their small initial protests got worst and worst.

They were not always crying with the same intensity, some days they even stayed quiet. Anyway, what ever they tried with, I just kept on ignoring them.

Massage Swedish style (picture from Internet)

One evening in June, I was out walking in my neighborhood and I felt terribly miserable for different reasons. Walking there feeling sorry for myself, I passed a beauty salon and I impulsively I went in and asked for a massage. Luckily, the lady was there and happy to receive me. It felt like somebody let me out of prison when her soft strong hands helped my tired and blocked muscles to relax and they stopped to cry. Since then, I'm going there every Wednesday and only being out of Budapest would stop me from that. In November, I was lucky to try massage in both Malaysia and India.

Malaysian/Chinese massage
In Malaysia, I had a Chinese massage. It was absolutely great, but would have been even greater if the girl didn't look that sad. I'm sure she wished to be somewhere else. She did a fantastic job, but afterwards I saw her sad eyes. She didn't speak any English, but her body language told that she was very unhappy. Probably she found it hard to be far from home, and likely she didn't get much of the 20 euro I paid for the one hour massage.

Ayurvedic massage in India
In Rikikesh in India, I had the most wonderful ayurvedic treatment. I combined shoriada with oil massage. You are completely naked and it's very intense and oily. In the massage, no muscles are forgotten and the pleasure is complete and really great.


Oil ayurvedic massage (picture from Internet)

The shridara treatment is a facial massage, part of the ayurvedic treatments. The dropping hot oil on the front heat makes you feel like the head is disolving and disappearing in a very pleasant way. I think you simply must try, very difficult to put in words, but when I close my eyes I can recall the feeling.

Shridara treatment (picture from Internet)

So surely next time I'm going to India, I'll try some similar treatment. But, in the meanwhile I'm still very grateful to have such a nice massagelady just a few blocks away.

She is such a sunshine, and her positive warm energy is transmitting to every muscles she touches. Writing this reminds me of my sister who use to tell speak about every-day-luxary (vardagslyx). The massage qualifies well, but I actually don't think of it as something luxary any longer. It became such a natural part of a survivial and wellbeing strategy and it is completely needed for someone who spends the days in an office. I guess I will discover what a luxary it is the day I move to a place where I cannot afford it anylonger..

My young body....
Speaking of massage always makes me think of a girl in Albania who, when I mentioned that I had an excellent massage in Tirana, told me "I hate massage, and my young body doesn't need it" Hehe, such a strange statement and maybe she meant that my old body does need it. And she didn't actually know how right she was...:) This saying "my young body.." has since then became a saying at my workplace.. It still makes me smile..

And now I know that it was not only the muscles that were crying in the summer time, it was actually me. I guess it's just easier to accept muscle pain than some psychological pain, fears and worries. But the good news is that massage is helping for both...:)

creative meditation

Knitting is creative and at the same time very relaxing. Kind of meditation. I enjoy it very much. Sometimes it goes all without thinking and sometimes full concentration is needed. In any case nothing else will take the concentration and attention, and thoughts are not wondering around, so complete peace is absolutely possible.

German/Turkish slippers made in Hungary
At the Christmas market in Frankfurt, I found some really nice wool yarn and a description of how to make slippers. The description was from a German company (http://www.coatsgmbh.de/Selbermachen/Stricken/) and the wool was from Turkey. Luckily the nice lady kindly explained the necessary steps and they were actually very few. It turned out to be really easy and actually almost too fast to make :) Also time passes so quickly in good company and a cup of tea...

How to make slippers
First of all, this may be the best for beginners to start with as possible mistakes can not even be seen...:) I used wool yarn and needles number 8. The instructions below can be followed approximately as the final size and shape will largely depend on the washing and shaping after wards..

For slippers size 38, the instructions would be as following (my free translation)

Start with 38 stitches and knit 32 rounds on two needles (1 row garter stitch, 1 row purl stitch, 1 row garter etc etc)
After having made 32 rounds, divide the stitches on four needles and continue only with garter stitches. After 26 rows, start to decrease for the toes. Stitch 1; lift the last but one, knit one, and lift the knitted one over. Stitch 2; knit together stitch 1 &2. Stitch 3 as stitch 1 and stitch 4 as stitch 2. Continue like that until there is 2 stitches on each needle.

Saw together the heel - done!

The slipper was now 35 cm long each, and it looked really big!! Make the second one as the first one, and put them in the washing machine together with some jeans or towels. It was written 40 degrees but after the 1st washing my pink sandals were still size 48 or something :)

Luckily my mum knew the solution, so I washed them again in 60 degrees, and after this wash they were proper size for a quite small kid.. But with help some newspaper and my own feet I managed to make them bigger again and they became exactly my size :)


I guess I don't have to tell that I' m quite proud of them.. I hope to start the second pair soon. This was great fun!!

Knitting is cool not only because of the peace and calm, but also because it's such a good feeling to create something with the hands without using computers.... It’s also very nice to knit together with other people, somehow it’s good for talking…