Garden Brunch

Last Sunday, I invited all of my friends to join me in my garden for brunch. Around 20 people came, and we had a great day from noon to, I think, nine at night. We had great amounts of delicious food, made lattes from more than six liters of milk, drank more than 9 bottles of prosecco and wine (at least five of the twenty did not drink...) and at least a crate of beer. The only thing we did not succeed in was the attempt not to annoy the neighbors. But garden brunch only takes place once a summer.

My friends ate all the good food I made before I could take pictures of any of the dishes. But here's a list of what I made:
* Antipasti from zucchini, eggplant, yellow and red peppers and carrots.

* Meatballs from two pounds of ground beef (I added parsley to the meat - really good idea!)
* Chard quiche

* Strawberry cake

Then there were also lots of more antipasti that I bought in the grocery store (two kinds of olives, artichokes, dried tomatoes, caper buds, feta cheese), salami, olive ciabatta, baguette, four kinds of cheeese, rhubarb pie, two kinds of tiramisu, strawberries, vanilla dip, mini-muffins, goat cheese and grape tart, and cheese tartletts. You see, most of my friends are also good at cooking, and - more imporant - willing to bring delicious food to brunches! :)

Since I didn't take any pictures this time, I will post the photo of the strawberry cake that I made last year. This year's looked almost exactly the same.

Zimtsterne

It's St. Nicholas day, I am finally able to make time for some Christmas baking! Today: Zimtsterne (Zimt - cinnamon; Sterne - stars).





500g sweet almonds, ground
450g confectioner's sugar (plus about 50g for rolling out dough)
3 egg whites
1 tablespoon kirsch
3 teaspoons cinnamon


Beat the egg whites until stiff, add kirsch. Set aside about 2 tablespoons of the mix.
Add sugar and continue beating.
Mix ground almonds and cinnamon and add to the egg mix.

The dough should be fairly dry. Roll out, using plenty of confectioner's sugar to avoid that the dough sticks to the surface. Rolled out dough should be about 3/4 cm (1/4 inch?) thick.

Cut out stars and place them on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.

Add some confectioner's sugar to the egg and kirsch mix. Spread sugar mix thinly on the cookies.

Bake for about 12 min at 175°C/ 350°C until cookies are dry. They should still be very soft in the middle when you take them out or they will be too hard once they are cold.

Saturday Routine - Stuffed Pumpkin - Rose Blossom Liqueur

Being at work all day during the week, I have developed a certain Saturday Routine. After sleeping in, usually until about nine, ten or eleven, I have coffee and some sort of breakfast in my kitchen and write a shopping list. Then I get my big shopping bag and "hit the village," as my friend H. calls going to the shops in our somewhat fancy neighborhood.

I first go to what Americans would call a drug store, think CVS or Walgreens, only really nice. Besides the usual drug store things, they also carry a large variety of organic foods like yogurt, milk, cheese, juice, chocolate, candy and many more things. This is where I do the first half of the weekend's grocery shopping, followed by a stop at the organic bakery (my favorite: an Italian ciabatta with whole Kalamate olives). Sometimes more stops follow, for example at the newsstand, the pharmacy, the stationary shop, or the organic farmer's market.

Before I go to the supermarket to get the remaining groceries, it is time for the best part of the Saturday Routine: getting coffee at the Northern German Starbuck's clone Balzac and reading the newspaper for an hour or two! The last thing of such a shopping trip is always a stop at the flower shop where I get a bouquet of fresh flowers for my kitchen, and sometimes another one for the living room. Today I got a large bunch of sunflowers for the living room, a last reminder of the quickly vanishing summer.

On some Saturdays I don't have time for all this, or I am too lazy to go to all these places. But when I just go to the supermarket to get the most urgent necessities, it is just not the same. It's not a lovely, relaxing Saturday. The Saturday Routine is a great way to put away and enjoy some true me-time once a week.

The culinary result of today's Saturday Routine was stuffed pumpkin. I had a small Hokaido pumpkin in my organic food box this week. (The box is delivered to my house each week and keeps challenging me with less common vegetables and seasonal foods.)

Stuffed Pumpkin

Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F. Wash a small Hokaido pumpkin and cut off the cap. Remove the seeds with a tablespoon. Put some vegetable oil on the pumpkin and place it in an oven dish. Bake pumpkin for approx. 20 min.

Boil three medium sized potatoes until about 3/4 done. Peel potatoes and cut them into 1cm/quarter-inch cubes. Mix potato cubes and 200g/0.4 pounds of ground beef with some salt, pepper, chili pepper and herbes de Provence. (Adding feta cheese to the mix might be a good variation as well, I will try that next time.)

Fill mix into pumpkin and bake for another 45 min until the meat is done.

Today's wine is an Italian prosecco which I "pimped" with a lacing of Austrian rose blossom liqueur that I bought at a culinary fair last month.