Back from Mass. - Pasta with Tomatoes and Shrimp

I am back from my vacation in Massachusetts where I have discovered a tiny love for seafood. I don't eat fish but I have eaten lots of shrimp and - after I found out what they are - some scallops. So back home I decided to fight my jet lag with a good dinner.

I slowly fried very ripe cherry tomatoes in olive oil and later added balsamic vinegar and salt. In another pan I fried shrimp with garlic in olive oil. Cut up some green olives, added them and some capers (not the hard tiny ones, but the ones that are medium sized, see picture) to the tomatoes. Seasoned with lemon pepper, more salt and lemon juice. Tossed with spaghetti and added the shrimp. On the plate, drizzled a tiny bit more olive oil over the pasta and topped with parmesan.

Looks like this:

Provincetown, MA
Vacation

Sometimes you just gotta get your stuff done

Via Isabo

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.

Roots!

My veggie box blessed my with a real winter veggie mix today: a beetroot, oranges, clementines, carrots, chicory, white cabbage and - turnips! So for dinner it was turnips with carrots and beef.

Here's how I prepared it:

1. Cut two turnips, two carrots and one onion into smallish dice.

2. stir fry in sunflower oil, add about a cup of vegetable broth and simmer until the veggies are done and the broth is reduce to a minimum amount of liquid.

3. add about 1/4 pound of ground beef and stir fry (not for too long, it should stay juicy)

4. season with freshly ground pepper and a fair amount of salt.

Mine looked like this:

YUM!

party preparations II

Chilling the vodka - the very early first snow is good for something!

party preparations I

Lighting the candle