november garden

 

Sweet Dumpling, oven-roasted with prawns, tomatoes, goat cheese and white wine

End of September is a special time for me because I finally accept that summer is over and autumn has come. Even though I try  as often as possible to not wear socks ( hello cold!), but I don't resist anymore to include roast pumpkin into my menus.

The topping of prawns, finely cut tomatoes, fresh goat cheese and white wine complemented perfectly the fine chestnuttiness of the sweet dumpling.

Sweet Dumpling, oven-roasted with prawns, tomatoes, goat cheese and white wine

1 sweet dumpling, cut into 4 slices
250g prawns, peeled
2 -3 tomatoes
50g fresh goat cheese
1 glass of white wine
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
a few sprigs of flat-leaved parsley, finely chopped
herbal sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
olive oil

Distribute the sliced pumpkin slices onto an ovenproof dish, sprinkle with olive oil and herbal salt and put it into the oven for 20 minutes at 200°C.
Meanwhile combine carefully the prawns, the finely cut tomatoes, the garlic, the fresh goat cheese and the white wine. Add the chopped parsley and season the mixture with sea salt and pepper.

Spread the prawn-tomato-cheese mixture onto the golden brown pumpkin and put it back into the oven for 5 minutes or until the prawns have changed their colour and the goat cheese has melted.

The sweet dumpling can be eaten with the skin and it is very filling.

fairytale forest

my resolution for this winter: the outdoor hour

 the outdoor hour (n.) to spend one hour daily outside

It's easy when the weather is nice and sunny like yesterday, but the deal I made with myself is one outdoor hour, no matter how ugly the weather will be.

Hm, and here we are, first doubts on my overhasty winter resolution are lurking...  Today's sky has been hanging grey and wet giving a foretaste of the never ending frozen Saxonian winters.

Have a happy weekend!

warm hues

October, 16th

beautiful start into October and a lot to catch up..

.. my ultimate grape and wine jam, the next delivery for Fatmumslim's photo challenge, a new booklist for autumn evenings and so much more.  I'm sorry for boring you with  always the same umbrellas for such a long while. The reason has been LAZINESS. I know, I know- this word should not exist in a blogger's vocabulary. But....

Moritzburg castle

Autumnal Surf'n'Turf

I suppose, the only thing you reliably can buy cheaper  in Switzerland than in Germany are dried morels. So whenever I happen to stay in Switzerland I pass by Migros and grab a few 20g envelopes of these wonderful mushrooms. Yummmm!

Inspired by Sylvias Pasta from sea and forest I decided to combine the following:

a butternut squash + vegetable stock + morels + crabs =  delicious surf and turf lunch!

To even increase the pleasure you may pimp the soup with a shot of white wine and with the strained soaking water of the morels . The crabs and the morels should be braised in olive oil, garlic and coarse salt before being placed on the soup. Salt, pepper and hot pepper flakes to taste.

October is a paintbox

.... assorted with soft greens and blues, a broad range of earthy colours and the brightest reds and yellows ever.

I have a juneberry in my garden, so sparkling red, that even on cloudy days it appears to be illuminated!

My juneberry in the evening sun

There's no season in the year which makes me call out so often " I want my camera. Now! How the hell could I leave it at home?" This usually happens  when I'm driving the car to just run some quick errands.  It's bedevilled: exactly in those moments the most unexpected, unique, awesome, irretrievable frames turn up in front of me. 

The pictures below I took the conventional way: riding my bicycle, ready-to-shoot-camera hanging around the neck, photographer's eye ON. I hope you'll like them anyhow!