No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.
John Donne
Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 400ml natural yogurt
– 200g fresh blueberries
– 80g oats
– 40g chopped cashew nuts
Directions:
1 Toast oats and chopped cashew nuts ~2-4 minutes until golden at medium heat (no oil, no butter)
2 Sprinkle washed blueberries over the yogurt
3 Sprinkle warm toasted oats and cashew nuts over the yogurt
4 Enjoy and have a great day
It was the middle of winter, and the snow-flakes were falling like feathers from the sky, and a queen sat at her window working, and her embroidery-frame was of ebony.
Brothers Grimm
Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 6-7 slices of white bread (which makes 12-14 bread triangles)
– 1 egg
– 40g sugar (for soaking toasts) + 1 tablespoon sugar (for frying toasts)
– 200ml milk
– 50ml 33% cream
– 1 teaspoon Vanilla sugar
– 20-50g butter for frying toasts
Serving ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 100g raspberries
– 100g bromberries
– 100g yogurt
– fresh mint leaves
Directions:
1 Whisk an egg with sugar and Vanilla sugar in a large bowl
2 Pour milk and 33% cream to whisked sugar and mix will
3 Slice bread into 1cm thick pieces and half them into triangles
4 Dip bread triangles in the milky mixture both sides for 3 minutes (ideally, use a little dry bread, pain perdu 🥖)
5 Preheat the frying pan, melt some butter and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sugar
6 Put the bread triangles on the frying pan and fry until golden ~3 minutes each side
7 Serve with fresh berries, yogurt and fresh mint leaves
8 Enjoy with a cup of black coffee and have a great day !
Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero
Odes (Horace)
Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form.
Vladimir Nabokov
Pancakes ingredients (for 16-18 small pancakes = 4 portions):
– 500g cottage cheese
– 3-6 (for batter) + 3 (for forming pancakes) tablespoons wheat flour
– 2 tablespoons spelt semolina
– 2 tablespoons sugar
– 4g Vanilla sugar
– 2 eggs
– 50g poppy seeds
– 50-80ml milk
– 6-8 tablespoons sunflower 🌻 oil for frying
Compote ingredients:
– 80g cherry 🍒
– 50g red currants
– 3 tablespoons water
– 2 tablespoons sugar
– 1 tablespoon starch
Serving ingredients:
– 150g sour cream
– a few mint leaves
Directions:
1 Prepare berries compote:
1.1 wash and deseed berries add put to the pot
1.2 add water+sugar+starch
1.3 boil the berries mixture for 4 min. continuously stirring
1.4 put the pot aside and keep at room temperature
2 Boil poppy seeds with milk for 5 minutes: add milk little by little continuously stirring so that by the end all the milk is absorbed 🙂
3 Cook cottage cheese pancakes:
3.1 Combine cottage cheese+wheat flour+semolina+sugar+eggs+boiled poppy seeds: mix everything well until smooth
3.2 Put on a separate plate 3 tablespoon flour for forming the pancakes
3.3 Preheat non-sticking skillet, add some sunflower oil
3.4 Tricky part to make very gentle pancakes: take a little bit of batter (yes, it is viscous), form a round, roll it in flour and put on the skillet 🙂
3.5 Fry pancakes until golden each side ~3-4 minutes at the medium heat
4 Serve cottage cheese pancakes (or Syrniki) with berries compote and sour cream
5 Enjoy !
The fresh smell of coffee soon wafted through the apartment, the smell that separates night from day.
Haruki Murakami
Pancakes ingredients (10-12 pancakes):
– 2 eggs
– 3/4 cup wheat flour
– 1/4 cup buckwheat flour (it gives pancakes a special taste & colour !!)
– 2 pinches salt
– 1 tablespoon sugar
– 500ml Kefir (hint: Kefir makes pancakes especially tender !)
– 1 tablespoon sunflower oil for batter
– 1/2 tablespoon sunflower oil for frying
Blue cheese sauce ingredients (2 servings):
– 120g grated blue cheese
– 80g sour cream
– 1 bunch of chopped dill
Serving ingredients (2 servings):
– 100g smoked salmon
– 4-5 chopped green onion sprigs
Method:
1 Cook pancakes with you favourite recipe! I like the following one:
1.1 Whisk 2 eggs with salt & sugar
1.2 Pour Kefir in the whisked eggs
1.3 Gradually add wheat and buckwheat flour continuously mixing
1.4 Mix in 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
1.5 Preheat the skillet with 1/2 tablespoon sunflower oil (no more oil will be needed!)
1.6 Pour 1 soup ladle of batter into the skillet for one pancake
1.7 Cook pancakes until golden ~2 minutes on each side
1.8 Keep the cooked pancakes warm covered with a lid on a separate plate
2 Mix blue cheese sauce ingredients in bowl 🙂
3 Serve pancakes with smoked salmon slices & the blue cheese sauce & chopped green onions
4 Enjoy ! … and let the black coffee flavour enter you room and inspire you for great doings 😉
Tea is at four; but any of you are welcome at any time!
J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Hobbit”
Pancakes ingredients (10-12 pancakes):
– 2 eggs
– 1 cup (1 cup = 250ml) + 1 tablespoon wheat flour
– 2 pinches of salt
– 1 tablespoon sugar
– 500ml Kefir (hint: Kefir makes the pancakes especially tender!)
– 1 tablespoon sunflower oil for batter
– 1/2 tablespoon sunflower oil for frying
Rhubarb compote ingredients:
– 200g peeled chopped rhubarb
– 4 tablespoons sugar
– lemon juice from 1/3 lemon
– 2 tablespoons water
Method:
1 Make rhubarb compote:
1.1 Wash, peel and chop rhubarb in 0.5cm width pieces, transfer them into a bowl
1.2 Add sugar & lemon juice into the bowl and let them stay for 20 minutes
1.3 Transfer rhubarb mixture to a pan, add water, cook for 5 minutes at middle heat
1.4 Cover the compote with a lid to keep it warm!
2 Cook pancakes with you favourite recipe! I like the following one:
2.1 Whisk 2 eggs with salt & sugar
2.2 Pour Kefir in the whisked eggs
2.3 Gradually add wheat flour continuously mixing
2.4 Mix in 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
2.5 Preheat the skillet with 1/2 tablespoon sunflower oil (no more oil will be needed!)
2.6 Pour 1 soup ladle of batter into the skillet for one pancake
2.7 Cook pancakes until golden ~2 minutes on each side
2.8 Keep the cooked pancakes warm covered with a lid on a separate plate
3 Serve hot, decorate with fresh mint & sugar powder and … enjoy!
There was a huge moon over the western mountains, and it made the city seem even more mysterious and old, and the great black castle on the ridge stood out in front of the moon.
John Steinbeck, A Russian Journal
Ingredients (2 servings):
– 4 eggs
– 1 cup (1 cup=250ml) tomato sauce (pure tomatoes!)
– 1 chili pepper
– 40g chopped walnuts
– 1 chopped onion
– 3 chopped garlic cloves
– 1 tsp salt
– 1/3 tsp black pepper
– 1/2 parsley bunch for serving
– 1/2 tbsp olive oil for cooking
Method:
1 Chop onion & chili pepper and put them into the first bowl
2 Chop garlic & walnuts and put them into the second bowl
3 Chop fresh parsley and put it into the third bowl
4 Pour some olive oil onto a skillet and set the medium-low heat
5 Transfer chopped onion & chili pepper on the preheated skillet: cook for 5 minutes
6 Add tomato sauce, salt, chopped garlic & walnuts into the skillet: cook for 3 minutes
7 Carefully pour the eggs into the tomato-walnuts sauce (prepare holes for them in there with a spatula right before pouring in eggs): cook the eggs for 5-10 minutes
8 Serve hot with black pepper, fresh parsley and lavash or flat bread !
“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner
“Pooh!” he whispered.
“Yes, Piglet?”
“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw. “I just wanted to be sure of you.”
Ingredients (for 12-14 pancakes):
– 2 stalks (200g) rhubarb
– 120g flour
– 90g milk
– 50g sugar
– 3g Vanilla sugar (Vanilla sugar adds a wonderful flavour to the taste!)
– 1 egg
– pinch of salt
– 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
– [optional] 1/2 teaspoon baking soda + 1/2 teaspoon vinegar
Method:
1 Peel washed rhubarb and cut it into 20-30mm width pieces
2 Mix well in a bowl flour+milk+sugar+Vanilla sugar+egg+salt+oil and whisk a little bit
3 [Optional] Mix in baking soda & vinegar in the batter if you want to make your pancakes fluffy 😉
4 Carefully mix in rhubarb slices in the batter
5 Preheat a skillet over a medium heat, add some sunflower oil
6 Pour 1 tablespoon of batter onto the skillet for each pancake and cook until golden on both sides (flip pancakes with a spatula, add sunflower oil when needed)
7 Transfer the pancakes onto the paper towels to get rid of extra oil
8 Serve pancakes with sour cream, strawberries or cooked rhubarb and … enjoy !
Hint:
Sour & sweet combination makes these pancakes truly delicious 😉
“I don’t feel very much like Pooh today,” said Pooh.
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
“There there,” said Piglet. “I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.”
Ingredients (for 10-12 muffins):
– 90g oat flour
– 120g ripe bananas
– 75g quark or cottage cheese
– 2 tbsp sugar
– 4g Vanilla sugar
– 1 egg
– 1/2 tsp baking soda & 1/2 teaspoon vinegar
– 1/2 tsp cinnamon
– 1/4 tsp salt
Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Dough: mix all ingredients in a bowl (baking soda+vinegar at the last step)
3 Pour the dough into a buttered muffin form
4 Decorate muffins with oat flakes and bake for 30-35 minutes at 180C
5 Serve with Kefir or black coffee
Ce fut le temps sous de clairs ciels…
Paul Verlaine
Ingredients (2 servings):
– 130g canned tuna fish
– 120g Almette or another soft creamy cheese
– 1/2 chopped onion
– 1/2 finely chopped dill bunch
– 1 teaspoon lemon juice
– 1 teaspoon mayonnaise
– pinch of salt & a bit of black pepper
– 6-8 triangle slices of rye bread
– one sprig of green onions for serving
Method:
1 Prepare tuna mixture = tuna fish + cheese + chopped onion + chopped dill + mayonnaise + lemon juice + salt + pepper
2 Cut rye bread into triangle slices and toast them if you prefer them toasted 😉
3 Put the tuna mixture on the slices, enjoy it and have a great Sunday !
Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards
Vladimir Nabokov
Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 2 ripe avocados
– 6 slices of rye bread (it is really tastier with rye bread)
– 125g cream cheese (e.g., Almette)
– 4 sprigs of green onions
– 2 tsp of lemon juice
– 1/3 tsp salt
– 1/4 tsp black pepper
Method:
1 Mash avocado pulp in a bowl with salt, pepper, lemon juice and cream cheese
2 Prepare 6 triangle slices of rye bread and toast them
3 Put the avocado mixture on the toasts
4 Serve with chopped green onions and enjoy !
Alice laughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said. ‘One can’t believe impossible things.’
– Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 1 onion
– 1/2 large or 1 small red paprika
– 3 garlic cloves
– 200 g tomato sauce with 100% tomatoes, no salt (either homemade or store-bought)
– 1 teaspoon salt
– 1 teaspoon sugar
– 1 teaspoon vinegar
– 4 eggs
– 1 tablespoon olive oil
– a bunch of fresh chives for serving !
Method:
1 Cut onion and paprika into small (~0.5cm) pieces and chop garlic
2 Preheat frying pan with olive oil for 0.5-1 minute
3 Put onion and paprika on the frying pan and stew for 5 minutes at medium heat
4 Add chopped garlic to onion and paprika and stew for another 1 minute
5 Add tomato sauce to other vegetables in the frying pan and stew for another 5 minutes, slightly stirring the mixture
6 Add sugar, salt and vinegar to the frying pan an mix well
7 Carefully pour eggs into the vegetables mixture: make it symmetric, it looks nice 😉
8 Let the eggs cook in the frying pan for about 10-15 minutes until the whites are firm
9 Serve Shakshouka with a pita or a piece of rye bread and enjoy it some Sunday morning !
When the girl returned, some hours later, she carried a tray, with a cup of fragrant tea steaming on it; and a plate piled up with very hot buttered toast, cut thick, very brown on both sides, with the butter running through the holes in great golden drops, like honey from the honeycomb. The smell of that buttered toast simply talked to Toad, and with no uncertain voice; talked of warm kitchens, of breakfasts on bright frosty mornings, of cosy parlour firesides on winter evenings, when one’s ramble was over and slippered feet were propped on the fender, of the purring of contented cats, and the twitter of sleepy canaries.
― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 4 slices wholegrain bread
– 2 large avocados
– 50 g miner’s lettuce
– salt and pepper
– 1/2 tablespoon olive oil for frying eggs
Method:
1 Mash avocado with salt and pepper and put on toasts from whole grain bread
2 Cook eggs on olive oil and put on the toasts over avocado puree
3 Serve with fresh miner’s lettuce and enjoy !
You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.
Pablo Neruda
Ingredients (for 2 servings):
– 3 small avocado
– 150g cream cheese (e.g., Almette cheese)
– multigrain bread (at best, home-made but in any case multigrain!)
– 6 cherry tomatoes
– parsley/dill for serving
– 1 tsp salt
Method:
1 Mash avocado pulp, cheese, black pepper and salt
2 Butter avocado-cheese mixture on multigrain bread
3 Decorate with parsley and cherry tomatoes
Love... to cooking ! 