...Blogmas

Welcome to Blogmas!

Every day from December the first until Christmas Eve I will accompany with one Christmas related post, giving you gift ideas, tips, recipes, etc. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy Coming up with posts and writing them. 
 

Day 22

Recipe: Rum Truffles
 

My grandma published a cookbook way back in 1983 where she gathered many recipes typical for Lower Austria (one of the nine different areas in Austria). Each and every member in our family has a copy of this cookbook and it is where today's recipe for rum truffles is from. 

What you'll need:

100 grams of coconut oil

150 grams of icing sugar

40 grams of cocoa powder

40 grams of ground coconut (you can use ground nuts too)

30 grams of flour 

1 tsp. of rum

Melt the coconut oil in a pot or the microwave, combine all the ingreditents and mix well. 
Form the dough into a ball and put it in the fridge to cool down. 

When the dough has cool down, form little truffles out of it, roll them in the decoration of your choice (I used ground coconut) and put them into small paper cups (like the ones used for muffins but smaller). 

Put them back into the fridge and let them chill for a bit longer. 

Enjoy!

 

...Blogmas

 

Day 16

 

Welcome to Blogmas!

Every day from December the first until Christmas Eve I will accompany with one Christmas related post, giving you gift ideas, tips, recipes, etc. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy Coming up with posts and writing them. 

Recipe: Baked Apples

Let me tell you a little secret – I don’t like fruit, except for berries and peaches but I like baked apples during winter. When I was little the Sundays during Advent were always really special. We would light a candle on our Advent wreath, sing Christmas songs (dad plays the guitar) and have either tea and cookies or baked apples. So they are part of my holiday season tradition.

They are really easy to make, can be prepared in advance and are so yummy!

What you’ll need: 

Don't use overly sweet and juicy apples. They will only dissolve into juice in the oven.

Chop the nuts and dried cranberries until they are as big as the raisins and mix raisins, nuts and cranberries with jelly of your choice (I used elder). Remove the apple core from the apple, drop a knob of butter through the hole and fill it the raisins, nuts, cranberries and jelly. 

Put some butter on top and pop it into a hot oven at 200°C / 393°F for 30 to 45 minutes (until the apple is soft). Put it on a plate, wait for approximately 5 minutes to let it cool a bit – it will still be extremely hot – and serve it with a generous amount of ice cream. 

Flavors that go really well with the baked apples are Vanilla (or any kind of Vanilla variation – we had vanilla eggnog) and Walnut. 

I hope you’ll enjoy your baked apples and tell me in the comments if there is something (to eat) that you need to get into a Christmassy mood.

...Blogmas

 

Day 5

Welcome to Blogmas!

Every day from December the first until Christmas Eve I will accompany with one Christmas related post, giving you gift ideas, tips, recipes, etc. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy Coming up with posts and writing them. 

Gift Guide : Delicious Cookbooks

I am a huge fan of cookbooks and a sucker for cooking shows. Thank God, I don't get hungry when watching them. Over the years I accumulated a huge pile of cookbooks, most of which I got as presents because let's face it, cookbooks are expensive. My grandpa is always asking my mum what I want to Christmas and every year for the last years I asked for a cookbook I really really wanted. 

my collection

Today, I will tell you my favorites:

all the Nigella Lawson Cookbooks

She is so awesome and I really love her cooking shows (watch them if you get the chance). Her recipes are easy to make and absolutely delicious.

Jamie Oliver: Jamie's Great Britain and Jamie's America

I know Jamie Oliver is everywhere for years but these two cookbooks are amazing. Yes, I am one of those Non-Brits who think that British food tastes delicious, so I had to have this cookbook.

Jamie's America is not only a delicious cookbook but also so pretty to look at.

Antonio Carluccio Passion for Pasta

because I love love love pasta!

Bill Granger's Cookbooks

Bill Granger is an Australian cook, cooking fusion food and has super easy and wonderful meals I mostly associate with summer (maybe that's just me).

The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days

I am not a huge fan of cupcakes - there, I said it! But I went to Hummingbird Bakery in Portobello Road when I was in London two years ago, I think, and their cupcakes are really good. Their cookbooks are as awesome as you expect; full of cakes, muffins, cookies, cupcakes and they are all really easy to make and super delicious! I highly recommend these two for sweet lovers!

... in recipes

Risotto con pomodori, scampi et rucola

Ciao amici!

Yes, I am an Italian by heart!

I love visiting Italy, I love Italian, I find Italian men very attractive and Italian women beautiful, I adore the landscape and worship the food! Everyone should visit Italy at least once during their life and there is nothing better than walking into a bar at 11 a.m. ordering “Un café” and enjoying life.

Yesterday evening I brought Italy a bit closer (well, it isn’t that far away. Austria and Italy share a border) and made Risotto con pomodori, scampi et rucola and I want to share the recipe with you.

For 3 people you need:

• Risotto rice for three (follow the instructions on the box)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 glass of white wine (Italians would say a good one)
• vegetable stock
• Parmesan
• 3 tomatoes
• prawns
• a handful of arugula per person
• some butter

Brown the onion in a bit of butter and add the rice. Stir until it seems see through, then add the wine and reduce the heat. Let the rice cook until the liquid reduced at bit, then add some of the stock. Don’t forget to stir often. Add the stock in small amounts when liquid reduced and let the rice cook until done. Meanwhile grate the parmesan, wash the arugula (remove the stem if you want) and chop the tomatoes into fine squares (removed the juicy inner bit). Grill the prawns. Add the parmesan and some butter when rice is done (there should be some liquid left otherwise it won’t be light), stir and add tomatoes and prawns. I added the arugula at the table so that it won’t wither.

Enjoy!

... in recipes

Last semester a good friend of mine cooked lunch and made this incredible pasta. 

I love pasta!

Today I want to share the recipe with you because it is sooooo good. 

For 2 people you need:

• 2 leeks
• 2 spring onions
• a bit of bacon (finely chopped) 
• half a jar of mascarpone
• pasta of your choice - I used spaghetti

 



Chop the leek, spring onions and bacon and fry it in a pan with a bit of oil until the leek is tender. Cook the pasta according to the instructions.
Put the mascarpone over the leek, spring onions and bacon and add a little cooking water from the pasta and the pasta itself and stir until it is well mixed.

Enjoy!

... in recipes

I need to confess something. 

Alice saved my day!

Today I got up and after 20 minutes of trying to get awake I dragged myself into the kitchen for some breakfast and the bread was nearly finished. I am not a big fan of the last bit of bread because then I need more than one slice and this does normally not fit into my morning routine during the week. Today would have been different because I have no classes but I didn’t eat it.

Instead I tried the recipe that Alice posted on her blog yesterday for her microwaveable chocolate cake in a cup. We had all the ingredients at home and it came out really well. It also tastes good but next time I will use a bit more sugar. 

 

Here is the recipe:

4 tablespoons of flour

4 tablespoons of sugar

1 tablespoon of cocoa powder

2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar

1 egg

3 tablespoons of milk

1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

Mix all the ingredients together put them into a regular cup (I used my morning coffee cup) and put them into the microwave for 2,5 minutes by 800 watts. 

Ups, there is part of my pen in the upper right corner :)

Enjoy!

... in recipes

Last week temperatures dropped below 10° Celsius here in Vienna. For me this meant two things – freezing when going outside and buying all the ingredients for an apple crumble.Warm apples in combination with vanilla ice or vanilla sauce are wintery heaven. Soooo good!

I’m sure that most of you know how to make apple crumble but for the few who don’t I will share my recipe with you.

 

Ingredients:

• Apples (I took four apples for three people – huge portions)
• Raisins or Cranberries
• Sugar (I used a combo of sugar and cinnamon)
• Butter
• Flour

How to:

Cut the apples into pieces (some recipes tell you to peel the apples but I didn’t – really depends on your own taste) and put them into a buttered casserole dish. I mixed some cranberries that a soaked with apple juice under the apples. You can also take raisins soaked in rum but we were out of those. 

For the crumble you mix some warm (room temperature) butter cubes with flour and sugar (I used a mixture of vanilla sugar and cinnamon) and knead it into crumbly dough. 

Sprinkle over the apples and cranberries and put it into the oven for about 30 minutes until the apples are warm and soft. 

 I served it with vanilla sauce but it tastes even better with vanilla ice cream!