last day of crazy October

Never before summer and winter met so closely at the end of October!

on painting II

This post is not about wall paintings, it's all about lip colours! Actually about my favourite one, the one which  always fits and which never fails to lift up my spirits. It's Ruby Woo by Mac.

I started thinking about mat lipsticks when I watched  "Easy Virtue" some years ago. Jessica Biel looked super amazing in all those Twenties' style mat lipsticks. I loved them all, the berries, the brownish and especially the bright reds...

#1 Grandma's Classics: Schinkenhörnchen

Today I'm going to introduce a new feature: Grandma's Classics.

Grandma does not experiment in the kitchen. No potions, no asian, no magic ingredients. No no... she is most fond of the traditional German recipes, which have been passed on for centuries and never fail to please.

The lady in fire engine red is Grandma.

#1 Schinkenhörnchen

The tiny croissants hold a lot of butter, the ham gives the right amount of saltiness.
Grandma loves to offer them especially as a complementary snack with champagne.

for the dough:

250g flour
250g Quark (fromage frais/ curd)
300g butter
1 ts baking powder

for the filling:

250g cooked ham (chopped)
250g smoked ham (chopped)

for the finish: 1 egg



Knead the dough quickly with your hands and let it repose in the fridge for half an hour.
Roll out the dough thinly with a rolling pin, cut it in triangles, fill them with ham and fold them into tiny croissants. Beat the egg and brush the croissants with it.
Bake them in the oven at 180° until they turn golden.

We prepared the original recipe but our drink of choice yesterday was a blue Margarita rather  than  champagne.

Have a happy weekend!

warm hues

To Read: The War of Art

A really inspiring book for those who, like me, love to procrastinate.

Spaghettini with Coquilles St. Jacques and Seaweed

This time I brought a couple of coquilles St. Jacques and a little box of emerald green seaweed salad from downtown Dresden.
As my family is very fond of pasta I created a quick spaghettini lunch with the coquilles and the seaweed.

These are the ingredients:

For the sauce

olive oil
1 red bell pepper, chopped
a handful of baby tomatoes, quartered
a bunch of parsley
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
the zest of half a lemon
10 coquilles St. Jacques
a small box of Asian seaweed salad
a glass of white wine
salt and pepper, and
2 or 3 sun dried tomatoes to intensify the flavour.

Cook the spaghettini:

From now you have exactly 7 minutes to prepare the sauce - (Haha, of course you are allowed to start with the sauce before you cook the spaghettini... )

Start stir-frying the bell pepper, the garlic and the tomatoes, then add the coquilles. When the coquilles are nearly done, add the stripes of lemon zest and the chopped parsley. Continue stir-frying at low heat.

The moment your kitchen starts to smell like heaven and you hardly can refrain from eating the coquilles right off the pan, it's time to pour in the wine. If one glass doesn't seem to be enough, add more.

Let it reduce for a few minutes, then mix in the spaghettini and in the very last moment before serving add the seaweed.

Lunch is ready!