Tuesday, December 03, 2013

Sqash goes well with cranberries

I had a bit of butternut squash left in the fridge and today I used up in this nice and spicy tagine:

 

The recipe was taken from the BBC Good Food webpage (pumpkin, cranberry & red onion tagine) with minor adjustments. As I said, I used butternut squash instead of pumpkin and agave syrup instead of honey. I also didn't have harissa paste in the house, so I used some red Thai curry paste :)
 
A very yummy result.
 
The BBC webpage really has a nice collection of recipes, well worth browsing through them on a rainy day. You might for example want to look through their vegan Christmas recipes :)
 It's a pity they do not publish the BBC Vegetarian Food magazine anymore. I absolutely adored that magazine :) but then the online option is not bad either.

Birthday Joys

Yesterday I had a day full of surprises. The kids planned the day for me, and it started nicely with a pumpkin pie (slightly deformed, since their pie shell was way to big for their pie), full of spices and love. C and L made their first pumpkin pie ever, and without any tools for baking this must have been a really difficult enterprise. But they managed to make a nice smiling face on top of it :D
I really liked the filling which was rich in spices and had even a chocolatly touch :) and who judges by looks, certainly not me.
 

 

Then we headed towards Frankfurt and went straight to the Old Opera House.

Here you can see some Christmas decoration in front of the Opera:

 
and this is the building itself:
 

 
I then had the pleasure of being treated to a piano concerto by four students of Lev Natochenny. The just 17 year old Nuron Mukumiy was outstanding. I hope I will have the chance to hear him again.
The small Mozart hall was quite plain, but the grand piano was beautiful :)
 
 

  
After the concert we had dinner at a vegetarian Indian restaurant and I received the next sweet surprise. P and B donned their apron and made some vegan Simon's-cat cookies for me :D
 
 
Thank you all for preparing such a wonderful day! I utterly enjoyed it :D
 

Monday, November 25, 2013

Savoury Sweet Potato Pie

The first snowflakes officially herald the advent of oven-baked food in our home, like this sweet potato pie:


The recipe is based on one which I posted here a while ago as potato-mash quiche. This time I used a 1-2 shortcrust pastry (1 part non-hydrogenated margarine, 2 parts flour and of course some salt, turmeric and ice-water) and the filling base consisted of half sweet potatoes and half floury normal potatoes. The added vegetables were golden ball turnips, carrots and pointed cabbage. Add some chili flakes for extra spice and enjoy :)

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Christmas time is drawing close

Today the garden nursery Huben in Ladenburg, not far from our home, held a pre-Advent event. Mainly to sell their wreaths and other deco for the Christmas tides. We didn't expect the crowd that was there, they had to set up people to control the parking and their even was a doorman who made people wait at the entrance of the glasshouse where the main exhibition was held. Thus, long queues were waiting patiently in front of it.

 
For the children there was a roundabout and some, unimpressed by all the people, sheep wagging their tails at us.

 
Outside you could have a look at their ponds, morbid and beautiful with fallen leaves, instead of rustling on the soil, now rotting slowly on top of the pool floor.

 
They also have a Zen garden which was quite nice, albeit a bit too much of an Asian mix :)

 
One of the most visited sites were of course the mulled wine and 'Bratwurst' (sausage) stands. Obviously the favourite Advent food for Germans.

 
At some point we fled the crowded nursery and headed for a more quiet place, the Roman villa in Hirschberg:
 
 
This is the little byway to the little temple they had on their estate:

 
It got quite late or rather it is getting dark quite early, anyway, on our way back we saw the first public Christmas decoration in Schriesheim. It's not even the first Sunday of Advent! Still, it had a nice and cozy ambiance :) and gave, together with some tapas in our Kaffeehaus, a nice finishing touch to the day :D

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween 2013

What better to read on Hallow's Eve than a story about the dead or rather the dead who came to life again. Yes, I'm talking about Frankenstein. But not Mary Shelley's novel is what I read, but the play based on her novel and adapted for the stage: Nick Dear's Frankenstein (2011).

I saw the play at the National Theatre in London in 2011 - no, not with Benedict Cumberbatch, he was ill that day, but with an equally superb cast. That's when I bought the book and really enjoyed it. So I read it again (a mere 80 pages, perfect for this special evening). Maybe you want to read it for next year's Halloween. And, just maybe the National Theatre will have their DVD released by then, by all means watch that, too :)

http://electrastreet.net/2012/08/frankenstein-at-the-movies/

Monday, October 28, 2013

Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon

Sometimes the horizon seems a bit hazy


Lake District, England

and at other times your path seems crystal clear

Dubai, UAE
 
I'm reaching out to new horizons
 
... and am back blogging :D