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Aubergine Rolls with Walnuts !

May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks.
J.R.R. Tolkien

Aubergine stripes ingredients:
– 2 aubergines
– olive oil for baking aubergines
– chopped parsley for serving

Filling ingredients:
– 150g (baked) walnuts
– 2-3 garlic cloves
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/4 tsp black pepper
– 1 bunch dill
– 1/4 cup warm water

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 200C (400F)
2 Slice aubergines lengthways into 4mm thick stripes, put on the baking paper and brush well with olive oil
3 Add walnuts halves over the aubergines: bake them together for 25min at 200C (400F)
4 Combine and blend the filling ingredients (including baked walnuts) until smooth: put 1tsp of the filling on each aubergine stripe and roll the stripes up
5 Serve cold with chopped parsley !

Simple and Healthy Soup with Broccoli and Meatballs !

Courage is found in unlikely places.
J.R.R. Tolkien

Vegetables etc. ingredients (4-6 servings):
– 12 small (8 medium) potatoes
– 10 carrots
– 1 broccoli head
– 1 tsp salt
– chopped parsley for serving

Meatballs ingredients:
– 400g minced beef
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 4-6 tbsp millet powder
– 2 tbsp floor for dipping meatballs

Method:
1 Peel and cut vegetables and put aside
2 Mix meatballs ingredients and form meatballs with hands, dip each meatball in flour and put on the plate
3 Boil 1.5-2l water, add 1 tsp salt and meatballs: cook for 20min, medium heat
4 Add vegetables to the soup and cook for another 20min, medium heat
5 Serve with chopped parsley !

Spinach and Feta Fatayer: amazing with coffee !

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

I love spinach fatayer: they are simple to make, amazing in taste. They serve great as an appetizer or as a snack with coffee or with soup!

Dough ingredients:
– 1 cup (1 cup=250ml) wheat flour
– 1/4 cup water
– 3 tbsp olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 90g fresh chopped baby spinach
– 90g Feta cheese
– 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
– 1 tbsp lemon juice
– 2 tsp olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/4 tsp pepper

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 220C
2 Filling: combine all filling ingredients and mix well with the hands
3 Dough: combine all dough ingredients in a bowl: knead the dough
4 Divide dough into 8 equal pieces and form a ball out of each of them
5 Roll out each ball into a 8-10cm diameter circle: put 1 tsp filling in the centre of each circle
6 Lift up ends of each circle to the centre to form Fatayers with your fingers
7 Put the Fatayers on the baking paper (sprinkle with Provence herbs or pepper or a little of olive oil): bake for 18 minutes at 220C
8 Serve with a cup of black coffee or black tea !

Chicken Nuggets with Red Bell Pepper and Pineapple !

Pour vivre heureux, vivons cachés
Jean Pierre Claris de Florian

Chicken nuggets ingredients:
– 350g chicken breast
– 2 red bell peppers
– 200g canned pineapple (weight without juice)
– 2 eggs for batter
– 1 tsp chilli 🌶 pepper powder for batter
– 1/2 tsp salt for batter
– sunflower oil for frying

Pineapples-red bell pepper sauce
– 3-4 tbsp all-purpose flour for batter
– 1 tbsp liquid honey for the sauce
– pineapple juice from the can with pineapples for the sauce
– 3 garlic clothes

Method:
1 Chop chicken breast in 1.5 cm cubes
2 Combine and mix well eggs, salt, chilli pepper powder in 1 plate and put flour in another plate for dipping
3 Preheat two skillets (skillet 1 for chicken nuggets, skillet 2 for the sauce) and add some sunflower oil
4 Dip each chicken breast piece once in eggs mixture, once in flour, again in eggs mixture, again in flour – transfer to skillet 1 and fry for 4-5 minutes until golden
5 Fry red bell pepper stripes and pineapple pieces in skillet 2 for 4-5 minutes
6 Transfer chicken nuggets to red bell peppers and pineapples, add pineapple juice and cook for 6-7 minutes
7 Add chopped garlic and honey: cook for another 2 minutes
8 Serve with chopped dill or parsley!

Spinach Pancakes for lunch !

Her heart did whisper that he had done it for her.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Pancakes batter ingredients (7-8 pancakes):
– 115g fresh spinach
– 2 eggs
– 300ml milk
– 200g all purpose flour
– 2 tsp sugar
– 1/4 tsp salt
– 1/3 tbsp sunflower oil for frying

Serving ingredients:
– 150g smoked salmon
– 100g cream cheese
– fresh dill

Method:
1 Wash and dry spinach leaves
2 Put in blender all pancakes batter ingredients: mash until smooth
3 Preheat a skillet, add 1/3 tbsp sunflower oil (needed only in the beginning)
4 For each pancake pour 1 ladle of batter on the skillet – fry at medium heat until bubbling, turn the pancake over and cook until golden
5 Serve pancakes with soft cheese, smoked salmon and fresh dill ! Enjoy !

Quick and healthy Salmon and Vegetables soup!

I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.
Jane Austen

Ingredients (4-6 servings):
– 320g salmon
– 1 head broccoli
– 6 medium carrots
– 8 medium potatoes
– chopped dill for serving
– salt to taste

Method:
1 Peel and cut/chop vegetables
2 Cut salmon in pieces
3 Put chopped vegetables and salmon in the saucepan, add water to cover the vegetables and salmon pieces, add salt to taste
4 Cook for 20-25 minutes after boiling, serve with fresh chopped dill!

Turkey-Pineapple Pancakes !

I am a mathematician, sir. I never permit myself to think.
John Dickson Carr

Ingredients:
– 400g turkey breast
– 200g canned pineapple pieces
– 1 egg
– 50g grated cheese
– 3 tbsp flour
– 1 grated garlic cloth
– salt and pepper to taste

Sauce:
– 200g sour cream
– fresh chopped parsley/dill
– chopped garlic

Method:
1 Combine chopped turkey breast, chopped pineapples, egg, grated cheese, flour, grated garlic and salt/pepper: mix until smooth
2 Preheat the skillet, add sunflower oil: pour 1tbsp of batter for each pancake-to-be. Fry 5-6 min each side or until golden, medium heat
3 Switch to minimum heat and cook pancakes under the lid for 10 min
4 For the sauce combine and mix sour cream, chopped garlic, chopped parsley/dill
5 Serve!

Tarte Flambée with Pears, Brie and Walnuts

In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.
Jane Austen

Dough ingredients:
– 220g wheat flour
– 1 egg yolk
– 2 tbsp olive oil
– 100ml warm water
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– 1 large pear
– 100g Brie
– 10 walnuts
– liquid honey for serving
– black pepper for serving

Directions:
1 Preheat the oven to 220C
2 Mix dough ingredients and knead the dough for 5 minutes
3 Roll out the dough into an oval 3-4 mm height
4 Put the dough on the baking paper and bake at 220C for 8 min without a filling
5 Meanwhile slice pear, cut Brie and slightly chop walnuts
6 Remove the baking tray from the oven, spread the sour cream over the dough, add sliced pear, brie pieces and chopped walnuts
7 Bake Tarte Flambée for another 7-8 minutes at 220C
8 Sprinkle with black pepper and honey, enjoy !

Sage and Butter Pasta !

If I could but know his heart, everything would become easy.
Jane Austen

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 30g fresh sage
– 100g butter
– 250g pasta
– 2 garlic clothes
– 50g parmesan

Method:
1 Melt butter in the skillet, add chopped sage, cook at middle heat for 8 min, add chopped garlic and cook for another 2 min
2 Boil pasta in salted water Al Dente, drain water and transfer to the skillet with butter & sage: cook for 2 min
3 Serve with grated parmesan and enjoy !

Olivier salad !

So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their endings.
J.R.R. Tolkien

Ingredients:
– 3-4 middle potatoes
– 3-4 middle carrots
– 4 eggs
– 200g chicken breast
– 150g ham
– 250g canned green pea
– 5-6 pickles
– 1/3 bunch green onions + 1/3 bunch parsley
– 3-4 tbsp mayonnaise to taste
– salt/pepper to taste

Method:
1 Dice boiled potatoes, carrots, eggs, chicken breast and combine with diced ham, diced pickles, chopped green onions and parsley
2 Add mayonnaise and spices, mix well and put for 1 hour in the fridge
3 Serve ! Merry Christmas !

Syrnyky for the perfect breakfast !

Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time,’ is like saying, ‘I don’t want to.
Lao Tzu

Batter ingredients (10-12 Syrniki):
– 500g cottage cheese
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 2 tsp Vanilla sugar
– 1 egg
– 4 tbsp flour

Additional ingredients:
– 3-4 tbsp flour for dipping Syrniki
– sunflower oil for frying
– honey for serving

Method:
1 Mix batter ingredients until smooth
2 For each Syrnik, dip 1 tbsp batter in flour, form a round with fingers and put it on the wooden board
3 Pre-heat sunflower oil in the skillet: fry Syrniki 2-4 min each side until golden: transfer them on paper towels to absorb extra oil
4 Serve warm with honey ! Have a nice day !

Quick warming lunch for a working day: pasta with beef and onion

Once again…welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.
Bram Stoker, Dracula

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 250g pasta
– 2 small red onions
– (already boiled) beef, chopped
– butter for frying
– salt, papper
– tomatoes for serving

Method:
1 Chop onion and fry it in butter until golden
2 Add chopped (already boiled) beef: fry for 5 minutes
3 Boil pasta al dente, drain water and mix pasta with beef and onion
4 Serve with fresh tomatoes!

Hungarian Paprika-Potato Pancakes with garlic sauce !

I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was “mamaliga”, and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call “impletata”.
Bram Stoker, Dracula

Pancakes ingredients (15-16 pancakes):
– 500g boiled potatoes (weight boiled)
– 1 red onion
– 2 eggs
– 3 tbsp flour
– 2 tsp paprika powder
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 100g breadcrumbs
– sunflower oil for frying

Garlic sauce ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– 3 tsp mayonnaise
– 3 garlic cloves
– parsley

Method:
1 Boil potatoes
2 Potatoes-batter: combine boiled potatoes, chopped onion, eggs, flour, paprika powder and salt – mix well until smooth
3 Preheat the skillet with some sunflower oil
4 For each pancake drop 1 tsp of potatoes-batter in bread crumbs and fry for 2-3 minutes each side, medium heat until golden
5 Garlic sauce: mix sour cream, grated garlic, mayonnaise and chopped parsley
5 Serve pancakes hot with garlic sauce and chopped parsley !

Veggie chips with blue cheese sauce !

You must remain. I must depart.
Two autumns falling in the heart
Yosa Buson

Veggie chips ingredients (for 2-3 servings):
– 6-8 medium potatoes
– 4 large carrots
– 2 beetroots
– 1 tbsp sunflower oil
– Herbes de Provence to taste
– salt to taste

Blue Sauce ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– 125g blue cheese (Saint Agur blue)
– chopped dill and parsley

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 190C
2 Pill and cut veggies into thin strips
3 Mix veggie strips with Herbes de Provence, salt and sunflower oil: transfer to the baking paper
4 Bake for 50-60 min at 190C
5 Blue cheese sauce: combine sour cream, blue cheese, chopped dill & parsley: mix until smooth. Put the sauce in the fridge until the chips are ready
6 Serve veggie chips with a blue cheese sauce !

Salmon-Kohlrabi soup: simple and healthy

When I am not reading Kafka I am thinking about Kafka. When I am not thinking about Kafka I miss thinking about him. Having missed thinking about him for a while, I take him out and read him again. That’s how it works.
László Krasznahorkai

Ingredients:
– 200g salmon
– 1 Kohlrabi
– 4 medium potatoes
– 4 medium carrots
– 1 red onion
– dill for serving
– 1 tsp salt

Method:
1 Pill vegetables, chop vegetables and salmon into 1-2 cm cubes
2 Put vegetables and salmon in a pan, add water to cover + 1cm more, add salt: cook at medium heat 18 minutes after boiling
3 Serve with chopped dill !

Morning Cottage Cheese and Almond Cookies !

Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.
Hans Christian Andersen

Dough ingredients (for 9-10 triangles):
– 100g flour
– 100g cottage cheese
– 100g butter
– 1 egg yolk

Filling ingredients:
– 3 tbsp brown sugar
– 3 tbsp grated almond

Method:
1 Filling: mix sugar and almond
2 Dough and cookies
2.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
2.2 Grate butter into the flour
2.3 Add cottage cheese, egg yolk: mix until smooth and knead the dough
2.4 Roll our the dough until 4-5mm height
2.5 Distribute 2/3 the filling evenly on the dough
2.6 Cut the dough into 5×5 cm squares, fold them into triangles
2.7 Transfer the triangles on the baking paper and distribute on them the remaining filling
2.8 Bake the cookies 20-25 minutes until golden !
2.9 Serve with black tea in the morning and do something kind.

Simple Cinnamon-Snail-Cookies !

If You Hurry You’ll Miss the Miracles
Lewis Carroll

Dough ingredients:
– 100g flour
– 100g cottage cheese
– 100g butter
– 1 egg yolk
– dash of salt

Filling ingredients:
– 2-3 tbsp brown sugar
– 1.5 tsp cinnamon

Method:
1 Filling: mix sugar and cinnamon 😉
2 Dough and cookies
2.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
2.2 Grate butter into the flour
2.3 Add cottage cheese, salt, egg yolk: mix until smooth and knead the dough
2.4 Roll our the dough until 4-5mm height
2.5 Distribute the filling evenly on the dough
2.6 Roll the dough into a pipe
2.7 Cut the pipe into cookies-to-be, about 7mm width
2.8 Transfer the cookies-to-be on the baking paper and bake 20-25 minutes until golden at 200C !
2.9 Serve with black coffee. Enjoy. Life is wonderful. 😀

Cheesy Potato Pancakes !

I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Pancakes ingredients (16 pancakes):
– 700g potatoes
– 100g cheese
– 1 big red onion
– 2 tbsp flour
– 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
– salt and pepper to taste
– sunflower oil for frying

Garlic sauce ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– 1 tbsp mayonnaise
– 2-3 minced garlic cloves

Method:
1 Combine grated raw potatoes, grated cheese, chopped onion, flour, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper: mix until smooth
2 Preheat the skillet with sunflower oil
3 One tbsp batter for one pancake: fry 3-4 minutes each side until golden, medium heat, transfer on paper towels to absorb extra oil
4 Garlic sauce: mix sour cream, mayonnaise and minced garlic
5 Serve warm pancakes with the sauce and enjoy !

Plum Galette by Jacques Pepin recipe

It grew cooler and even a little darker (but not much) with the coming of the night. The sky was cloudless; it was still early in July, and pretty far north; in the darkest part of that night, you would have needed pretty good eyes to read, but for all that, I have often seen it darker in a winter mid-day.
R.L.S.

Dough ingredients:
– 1 and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
-170g butter
-1/4 tsp salt
– 1/3 cup cold water
Filling ingredients (I changed a little original recipe):
-1/4+1/3 cup sugar
-3 tbsp grated almonds
-3 tbsp all-purpose flour
– 500g prune plums+200g peaches (weight with stones)
-3 tbsp butter

Directions:
1 Dough
1.1 Grate butter in flour, add salt and mix well
1.2 Add cold water, mix well and knead the dough
1.3 Roll out the dough into an oval 0.5cm width and transfer it in the baking paper to rest, make a filling meanwhile
2 Filling
2.1 Cut in stripes plums and peaches
2.2 Mix in a bowl 1/4 cup sugar + grated almonds + flour
3 Galette
3.1 Preheat the oven to 200C
3.2 Spread the sugar-almonds-flour mixture in the dough within 4 cm from the edge
3.3 Put the plums/peaches stripes on the sugar-almonds-flour mixture, top with remaining 1/3 cup sugar and chopped 3 tbsp butter
3.4 Bake galette for 50-60 minutes at 200C
3.5 Let the galette cool down and enjoy !

Healthy Banana-Oatmeal Pancakes: quick and delicious breakfast !

Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?
J.R.R. Tolkien

Ingredients:
– 180ml Kefir
– 1 large ripe banana
– 1 cup (200ml) oatmeal
– 1 egg
– dash of salt
– 1/3 tsp cinnamon
– sunflower oil for frying

Method:
1 Preheat a skillet, add some sunflower oil
2 Combine grated banana with Kefir, oatmeal, an egg, salt and cinnamon: mix well until smooth
3 Pour 1 tbsp of batter for 1 pancake, fry until golden both sides, medium heat
4 Serve with fresh fruits and enjoy !

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