by the lake

My favourite way to spend the last warm evenings of the year is to wander down the lake with some friends and some champagne to enjoy the sunset.

morning mood

autumn starts in blue and green

Can you see the face in the turned around tree?

kitchen

so long, summer

Tuesday morning

the easiest Tarte Tatin (sort of) ever

Are you already bored with my apple recipes?  No?

This short little recipe is a must if you love the combination of caramel and fruit and if you've not too much time to spend on baking. It's inspired by  the genuine Tarte Tatin, by a recipe I stumbled upon in La Cazuela Vegana and by David Lebovitz's Upside Down Cake.

You simply need:

3 tbs butter
100g sugar
4-6 apples
juice of 1/2 lemon

frozen puff pastry

1.layer
Melt the butter in a cake pan, add the sugar and cook while stirring until the sugar is melted and begins to bubble. Remove from heat and let cool.

2. layer
Peel and slice the apples, sprinkle with lemon juice and arrange them spiralwise on the 1. layer.

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

3.layer:
Top the apples with a layer of puff pastry (rolled out in the shape of the cake form).
Before you put it into the oven, poke a few holes into the pastry as an outlet for the steam.

Bake it for about 20 minutes until the puff pastry turns golden. Remove from oven, let cool for 10 minutes, then place a cake plate on top and flip the cake out on to the plate.

As David Lebovitz suggests, have also a try with plums, abricots, pears, or nectarines. Or  replace the puff pastry by the original pate brisée or by cake batter. Bon appétit!

Have a happy weekend!

more music for you

this time assembled by Jason Hudson, photographer in Toronto and author of an amazing blog named THESE ROVING EYES.
Have a look yourselves and enjoy his playlist " for sunny autumn days"; it's genius (like all his playlists).  Thank you, Jason, for giving us the possibility to download !

If you like rock, jazz and classic..

.. and happen to be in Dresden, don't miss to stop by SWEETWATER at Körnerplatz.

I love to sit there, in a comfortable fauteuil, ear-phones on my ears, sipping the kindly offered cappuccino and forgetting the world for a while.

My last acquisitions: CDs from Selah Sue and Thievery Corporation

Grandfather's weird collection: homemade insects in a box

New programme is out

Dresdner Musikfestspiele 2012 are headlined the HEART OF EUROPE , which for music lovers  means without question the triangle between Vienna, Budapest and Prague.

This is my choice after the first browsing:

Healthy food week: DAY 7

DAY 7

Breakfast
    Toast with avocado and tomatoes
    Toast with nut butter (try cashew!) and jam
    decaf

Lunch
    Raw Tomato "Pasta" Marinara (amazing recipe from Sparkle & Fade)
    (soaked sundried tomatoes, dates, fresh tomatoes, red pepper, red onion, clove garlic, fresh parsley,
    oregano, basil - all whizzed together in the vita mix)
    The "pasta" is sliced zucchini!
 
Dinner
    Your choice of sandwich
    Crispy fennel and orange salad

Snack
    Crackers with vegetable spread (I recommend you try the spicy "Feuerball".)

Crispy fennnel and orange salad

1 bulb fennel, trimmed and sliced

1 orange sliced into rounds

olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper to taste

Place the fennel and orange in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and vinegar and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

I  hope, you won't start DAY 1 of  WEEK 2 as in the picture above!

Healthy food week: DAY 6

DAY 6

Breakfast
    Oatmeal with fresh fruit
    Lemongrass tea

Lunch
    Seitan with mushrooms and rice
    Steamed leafy greens

Dinner
    Oven baked sweet corn
    Lettuce-onion-tomato salad

Snack
    Roasted seeds, fresh fruit

    






































And don't forget to drink plenty of pure still water!

Healthy food week: DAY 5

DAY 5

Breakfast
    Tigernut Breakfast with hot water and a mashed banana
    Green tea

Lunch
    Potato cucumber soup
    Plum Cake

Dinner
    Green beans sauteed in butter with garlic and chopped almonds
    (I brought this recipe from Spain.)

Snack
    Fresh fruit of the season

 

Kenny's sweater

When I  watched Tom Ford's  A Single Man  I fell instantly in love with the woolen sweater Kenny wore throughout the whole story.  So sweet and fluffy!
From then on I definitely knew that I had to dig out my knitting needles, wait for some cooler weather (which has arrived now), pass by the wool shop and ask for some nice angora wool. Shouldn't be so difficult to knit one of these trendy cropped ones, don't you think so?

Found it!  It's an offwhite Anny Blatt Super Angora.

Healthy food week: DAY 4

DAY 4

Breakfast
    Leftover Brownies
    decaf with oat/rice milk

Lunch
    Vegetable soup Minestrone style
    An easy Minestrone recipe you find here.

Dinner
    Nori Burritos with rice, cucumber and bell pepper

Snack
    Cucumber and bell pepper sticks dipped in Sandwich Creme "Hummus"

 Nori Burritos with rice, cucumber and bell pepper

To season 1 cup of rice you need 1tbs vinegar, 1 tbs sugar and 1/2 ts salt. Bring the mixture to a boil, let it cool down and mix with the rice.
Fold the nori sheets into cones and fill them with rice, cucumber and bell pepper sticks. Actually you also can roll in the rice and the vegetables. My burritos get nicer when I use the filling method!

Healthy food week: DAY 3

DAY 3

Breakfast
    Toast with nut butter and jam
    decaf with oat/rice milk

Lunch
    turnips (Kohlrabi), fennel, carrots and cherry tomatoes in the wok
    white rice

It's more interesting to season each vegetable differently: carrots with sugar, salt and cumin
                                                                             turnips with salt and peperoncino flakes
                                                                             fennel with salt and curry powder
                                                                             tomatoes with sugar, salt and pepper

Dinner
    Quinoa with roasted pine nuts, basil and olive oil
    Steamed greens or green salad

    Bring 1 cup of quinoa, 2 cups of water and a pinch of salt to a boil, then let it simmer for about 20  
    minutes. Roast 1/2 cup of pine nuts. In a bowl mix Quinoa, pine nuts, 1 tablespoon olive oil and
    fresh chopped basil.


Snack
     Vegan brownies (leave a few for the breakfast tomorrow!)

 I used  the Brownie mix from Bauck Hof.

No weather bad enough to have a short swim

Healthy food week: DAY 2

DAY 2

Breakfast
    Apple-grape sauce topped with almond butter and muscobado sugar
    A glass of oatmilk

Lunch
    Fettucine with fresh sage fried in olive oil
    Lettuce tomato salad sprinkled with roasted sunflower seeds

Dinner
    Pumpkin soup
    You find a delicious recipe here.

Snack
    Roasted sunflower seeds sprinkled with soy sauce while still hot
    (Caution: highly addictive!)

Quarter 12 apples, add some red grapes (for the nice pink colour), add 1/2 cup muscobado sugar, 2 ts cinnamon, a pinch of vanilla powder and 1 cup of water.
Put all ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook, covered, for about 10 minutes. Add more water, if needed. Cook until the apples are tender.
Puree in a food processor until smooth.

Dress the salad the italian way: salt, pepper, olive oil and vinegar.