No, not with the chocolate mousse, this would take too much time for a quick during-the-week-dessert. I’ve got 6 blood oranges and could start to make a nice, sour-power dessert!

By the way: Le gros père says that this picture reminds him of chicken sweet and sour because of the colour of the sauce. But this would be something completely different!

For one little bowl of dessert (about 2-3 persons) you need:

6 blood oranges
2 tblsp sugar
2 tblsp corn starch
vanilla.

(I added the juice of one lemon and some lemon and orange zest)

Squeeze 3 oranges to get the juice. Cut the other oranges in nice pieces (and cut off the white stuff! It might be healthy, but it isn’t yummy!), squeeze the rest of them with your hands to get the juice.

In a small pot, caramelize the sugar. Add the juice when the sugar has got a light brown colour. Bring to a boil and let it simmer. Add some vanilla.

In a small cup, dilute the corn starch in some water, add it to the boiling juice and stir well. Bring to a boil once again. Put the orange pieces in a large bowl, pour the juice-mix over it and let it cool

Serve with cream (whipped or not whipped – your decision), if you wish.

I gave it a try and found this recipe for a curry with brussel sprouts. Being too lazy for buying a pomegranate, I just decided to use an old apple that was waiting for being eaten. Not the same, but more regional. (Ok, we won’t start to talk about regional ingredients. Sweet potatoes? Well…)

We had the whole thing with Basmati rice, and yes: it was veeeery good!! So maybe we really learn to enrich our food choice!

For 2, you need for the curry:

1 onion
1 garlic clove
30 g of fresh ginger
a little bit of oil
300g brussel sprouts
400g sweet potatoes
1,5 tsp curry powder
200 ml coconut milk
200 ml veggie stock
1 lime
1 apple
fresh cilantro

Chop the onion, the garlic and the ginger very finely. Heat the oil in a pot, add onion, garlic and ginger and sauté it until translucent. Meanwhile, peel and chop the sweet potatoes into cubes, clean the brussel sprouts, cut them into halves. Add sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts in the pot and continue sautéing.

Dust with the curry powder, wait until it’s fragrant, add veggie stock and coconut milk, cover with a lid and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

Peel and cut the apple, add it to the curry. Season the curry with grated lime peel, lime juice, salt, and if you want with chili (depends on your curry powder), chop the cilantro and serve the curry with some cilantro.

The recipe combines Avocado with pears (and cuts everything nicely…) and uses special lemons, which I didn’t have. So here you can read my version – which is also very yummy! The soy sauce combined with Avocado reminds a bit of Sushi…

For 2 you need:

1 ripe avocado
1 apple (or a pear, I haven’t tried the original yet)

1 tblsp soy sauce
2 tblsp lemon juice
I added also some water – just follow your taste!

freshly cut Parmesan cheese

Stir together soy sauce and lemon juice. Peel the avocado, cut it, cut the apple, too. Put everything together in a bowl, garnish with cheese. Done!

The rainy, grey days outside made me cook a winter vegetable stew of my Moosewood cookbook (Moosewood Restaurant cooks at home) – a nice mix of winter veggies with different colors to brighten up a bit this grey, dark light outside. It’s the mustard that makes it different from just boring boiled veggies. And it’s a recipe that makes me even eat parsnips – normally I’m not really fond of them…

And of course, it’s easy to make!

You need for 4:

2 onions
2 celery stalks
oil
2 carrots
2 parsnips (Pastinake)
2 large potatoes
about 300g green beans (I used frozen green beans)
1 tsp dill (dried)
1 tsp marjoram (dried)
1 cup (about 1/4 l) vegetable stock (the recipe suggests to replace it by beer)
1,5 cups water (about 375 ml)
about 150 g mushrooms
1-2 tblsp mustard
1 tblsp molasses
salt, pepper

The recipe uses a green or red bell pepper, too, but for me, this is no winter veggie, so I omitted it.

Chop the onions and the celery and sauté them in the oil, using a large pot. Meanwhile, chop coarsely the carrots and the parsnips. Add them, continue sautéing. Peel the potatoes, cut them into cubes, add them as well as the beans, the dill, marjoram, the stock (or the beer) and the water. Bring everthing to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer.

Slice the mushrooms, add them to the stew, add mustard and molasses, let everything simmer for about 10 minutes, until the veggies are tender, season with salt and pepper.

Serve with bread and cheese.

For the last orchestra rehearsal I made some look-what’s-at-home-muffins:

500 g of soy yogurt vanilla
2 apples
3 tblsp oil

2,5 cups flour
1 tblsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamom
one pinch of nutmeg
one pinch of salt
one pinch of cloves

Preheat the oven (about 180°C). Whisk together the dry ingredients. Grate the apples (one finely, one coarsely), mix them with yogurt and oil. Stir everything together, fill in muffin cups and bake for about 30 minutes. Done!

It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s good, when you’re hungry.

For one very hungry person you’ll need:

about 400 g potatoes
3-4 tblsp milk
3-4 tsp sour cream
50 g of tomme d’Auvergne
about 50 g of fresh mozzarella cheese

If you wish: some garlic

Peel the potatoes, cut them, boil or steam them. Cut the cheese in small pieces. In a pot, heat the milk, add the boiled potatoes, mash them using a fork. Add the sour cream and the garlic. Add the cheese and stir well until the cheese has melted. Stir well, well well, season with salt and pepper and serve with salad!

(Of course, in France you often get this dish as a side for meat…)

Until now I only knew the Kirwakuchen  (which belongs to the family of Schmierkuchen, especially the Grießschmierkuchen) which my grandmother brought from the Oberpfalz when she was visiting her family there. This is long ago, and my grandmother can’t tell me anymore how to make this cake. Then I found the book “delicious days” by Nicole Stich in the book store. Saw a recipe for Kirwakuchen and bought it. Only for this recipe. Tried it sometimes, thought that Grießschmiere (=semolina cream) would also be good with cinnamom (instead of saffron) – and hey, so I had my recipe for the weekend: yeast dough, Grießschmier and apples.

I had the cake with friends – test passed – recipe has to be noted.

Actually, I made the dough in the evening, put it in the fridge for the night, got it out and let it rest for about 30 minutes.

You wanna try?

dough:
375 g flour
50 g soft butter
about 200 ml milk
a pinch of salt
125 g sugar

Grießschmier:
3/4 l milk
125 g semolina
125 g sugar
about 1 tsp cinnamom (to taste)
(I also added leftover-yoghurt, about 5-6 tblsp)

a handful of raisins, a good shot of rum

apples:
about 10 normal sized apples
about 1 tblsp brown sugar

In the evening:
Make a dough of the dough ingredients, knead well, cover it (I use a kitchen towel…) and put it in the fridge overnight.
Put raisins and rhum together in a bowl, cover, let sit overnight.

The next morning, get the dough out of the fridge.

In a pot, heat the milk until boiling, stir in semolina and sugar. Let boil once again, stir well. Add cinnamom. Put away from the stove, stir in the butter. Let the mix cool down, stir in the egg and the raisins (in my case, the yoghurt, too).

Preheat the oven (180°C). Roll out the dough on a baking sheet. Spread the Grießschmier on top. Let it rise. Meanwhile peel the apples and cut them (I cored them and sliced them).

Cover the Grießschmier with apples. If you want, sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake for about 40-50 minutes.

Of course, you can also make the dough in the “traditional” way with lukewarm milk and no time in the fridge. Let it rise on a warm place until its volume has doubled, instead.

Of course it was the perfect occasion for baking again. So I got some plums, some curd (Quark), butter and eggs and made this cake. I like the mix of curd and fruit!

I got the recipe from the book “Das Ox-Kochbuch Teil II”, edited by. U. Herzer and J. Hiller. I changed it a little bit, but basically, it’s the recipe I’ve found there.

For a cake of 26 cm diameter put the following things on the grocery list:

275 g flour
125+125 g sugar
125 g butter
50-75 ml neutral tasting oil
2 eggs
500 g curd (Quark)
2 tblsp starch flour
lemon zest
cinnamom
salt
600 g plums

Prepare the baking pan.

Quickly make crumbles of the butter, the flour and 125 g sugar. Season with a pinch of salt and if you with with cinnamom. Use 2/3-3/4 of the crumbles to press them into the baking pan to form a pie shell. Put this art d’oeuvre into the fridge for about 1 hour. Put the remaining crumbles aside.

Preheat the oven (200°C). Using a fork, make some holes into the dough and bake the dough for about 10 minutes (I didn’t do that, it’s not written in the recipe, but next time, I’m gonna do it). Meanwhile, pit and cut the plums.

Then stir together the starch and the eggs (add the eggs slowly and whiks very well to avoid lumps), then add lemon zest, oil, the other 125 g sugar, and curd.

Put this mix into the pre-baked crust. Put the plums on top (cut side up), followed by the remaining crumbs. Bake for about 55 minutes until golden brown!

But let me tell you a little bit about my holidays: With my mom and le gros père, I was hiking in France from Le Puy to Conques on the camino de Santiago de Compostella. We had good weather, no blisters on the feet and good food – of course.

The first day, we had lentils in Le Puy (well, a must-eat, probably) and lots of picknicks with great views, yummy Baguette and great cheese.

In Saugues, we bought new shoes for me (mine were broken the 1st day. Bye-bye my good old shoes! Hello new ones…) – and had some cakes with our coffee (Germans in France!)

For the evenings, we often had food in the hostels – prepared by the owners and mostly pretty good, too. I was fond of Aligot, a sort of potato-puree with a special kind of cheese. But most of the times, it’s served with sausage, and well… Sometimes it’s ok, but not too often. Not for me… But Aligot and salad: I could eat it every day. Too bad that the cheese you need to prepare the Aligot is only found in this region. I’ll see how to substitute it.

In Aubrac, a village of 10 inhabitants and maybe 100 tourists, we were Chez Germaine for coffee and cake. First we thought that the tartes were quite expensive, but then we were served:

When we stayed in St Chély d’Aubrac, we found a chambre d’hôtes (the French way of Bed and Breakfast) where we got a dinner. And please, please, please: if you happen to stay in St Chély d’Aubrac, please stay at “la Carderie” – a very, very, very nice couple who are running their chambre d’hôtes, livinig in a house next to the little river, preparing great food with lots of veggies grown in their own garden. It was a little paradise! They also explained how to make Belgian tarte au sucre and I hope that some day you can find the recipe here.

Arrival in Conques: food in front of the great romanian Church – after days of Aligot and sausage, we decided to eat Crepes and Galettes. Not typical for the region where we have been, but very good and with a great view:

…and now I’m back. Too bad… Hoping that my kitchen will wake up again soon!