28/06/2016

Asparagus, bacon & mushrooms snack

Hellooo :) 
Today I wanna share with you my latest kitchen product - a very fast, easy to prepare, delicious snack: asparagus rolled in bacon, with mushrooms. 


Ingredients: 
500 gr asparagus 
250 gr mushrooms
200 gr bacon
2-3 cloves garlic
cheese - optional
salt, pepper
baking paper
preparation time: 10 min
cooking time: 10-12 min


Sooo, first, the asparagus should be cleaned - google how to do it, if you are not sure, because asparagus is such a delicate vegetable, it would be a waste of money to spoil it. 


Second, you only need to cut the mushrooms and garlic into pieces. Then you lay down the garlic pieces on the bacon and you roll it around the asparagus sticks. Garlic inside :P 
Lay down all the asparagus sticks in the tray and shove it in the oven for 10-12 min, at 200 °C




When it is done, you can add cheese (I used 2 types of cheese, that explains the green colour - it was cheese with basil), turn off the oven, and let the cheese melt couple of minutes. 
Then it is ready to be served, with a glass of wine, of course :)))

Bon appetit! 




28/03/2016

Stuffed peppers, yummy ;)

Hello, dears! Stuff peppers are one common dish in all Balkan countries, but there can also be different variations of the recipe. 
For the following recipe, the cooking time takes approximately 1h and 20min so the peppers get soft. 

The ingredients: 

- 6 big peppers
- 600 gr ground meat - mixed pork, beef) 
- 100 gr rice
- 1 egg
- 200 gr sour cream 
- 200 gr tomato sauce/puree
- 1 onion
- 2 carrots 
- spices: salt, pepper,paprika, dill, parsley


We prepare all the ingredients, wash and cut the peppers, taking out the seeds, grate the carrots and cut the onion. The rice also needs to be boiled, not completely though. 




We mix the carrots, onion, meat, rice and spices in a large bowl. At the end, we add the egg and we continue to mix for a short while.
Then the fun part begins: stuffing the peppers :)



For the sauce in which peppers will boil, we need to mix the sour cream, tomato sauce, salt and pepper.


We arrange the peppers in the pot and we add the sauce:



We cook for at least 1h, on low fire. To see if they are ready, just take one pepper out and check under the "lid" :)

We served ours next to a very fresh salad, with dressing made of yogurt and a bit of oil olive ;)

Bon appetit! 







13/03/2016

Kiwi cake

Helloo! It's time for something sweet and easy to bake, especially during weekend. 
I bought some kiwi recently and since they were taking awhile to get ripen, I decided to bake something with them. 
So here is the cake I made with them, and also a vanilla pudding. 


Ingredients: 
- 1/2 pack of butter - 100gr
- 200 gr flour
- 100 gr brown sugar
- lemon essence
- baking powder
- 8 medium size kiwi 
- 4 eggs

For pudding - yes I cheated: I bought an already pack but to make it better, you can add some butter, brown sugar, and of course milk - 0.5l. 



As usual, separate the egg whites from yolks and mix well in 2 bowls. Also I peeled and cut the kiwi into smaller pieces. 




For the dough part, mix everything and carefully add the egg whites at the end. place the baking paper in the tray and pour the dough easily, adding the fruits. 

I pre-heated the oven at 150 °C and the cake was baked at 200 °C during 1h.
And the result looked like this: 



Or like this, when I finally took it out: 




I couldn't help it and ate a piece immediately :) 







Bon Appétit! 



06/02/2016

Little ballerina

Helloooo,
first hello for this year :)
I was thinking to show you my latest drawing/watercolor. always fascinating subject - ballet and ballerinas, perhaps, I will try more drawings in the future.
For the moment, let me know what you think.

kiss, kisses,








17/08/2015

Mussels & white wine recipe

Hello dears!!!
Summer is here, with high temperatures and not so much desire to stay in a hot kitchen cooking :)
Well this recipe is fast and the it can be a perfect romantic dinner for your loved one.

I absolutely adore seafood and mussels in particular, especially with a glass with a wine ;)

So let's get down to business.

Ingredients:

  • 1 kilo mussels
  • 2 onions
  • 7-8 garlic cloves 
  • 1/2 kilo fresh tomatoes
  • tomato juice 
  • 1/2 glass of white wine 
  • spices
  • basil or parsley or mint 

Start by peeling and cleaning the garlic and onion, while keeping the mussels in fresh water. 
In a pot, fry the garlic and onion in a bit of butter and olive oil, then add water to cover the content. 


Be careful not to get splashed by hot oil, so cover the pot with a lid. Boil some water and then drop the tomatoes inside that pot - it helps to remove the peel faster. 
Add the tomatoes and tomato juice in the pot, along with the glass of wine and the spices. 
After 8-10 min, you can add the mussels as well. 
Cover them with a lid, and steam for another 7-8 min. Hint: the mussels which didn t open, throw them away.  


 
You can serve them warm with the sauce in which they boiled or next to some pasta. A glass of wine is mandatory :) 

Et voila: 



Kiss, kisses, 


11/07/2015

Onion soup with a twist

Helloooo :)
This time I thought to share with you a little recipe for impressive results - the onion soup.
I tried to follow the French recipe so here are the ingredients I used:


  • 1 kilo onion 
  • 1,5l water but it would be better to use chicken stock 
  • fresh black pepper 
  • butter  - 2 tea spoons 
  • salt 

So I guess the most difficult part is to cut the onion, after cutting 2 of them, I almost gave up so I remembered I have this little vegetable chopper in my kitchen: 


Then I fried the onion only a bit in the butter, then added the water/stock, spices, and let it boil for abut one hour. 
When it got a more jelly-like texture, I added again some fresh pepper ;) 

For serving, I wanted to keep it more diet friendly so instead of the French recipe which calls for croutons, I decided to replace them with fried mushrooms et voila: 


It is delicious and as you can see very easy to make. 
Let me know your opinions. 

Kiss, kisses, 




12/04/2015

Easy bake and no egg cake!

Hello :) 
Hope you all enjoyed the Easter Holidays and  had a wonderful time with your families. 
Because it is spring and we are already looking forward to the bikini body, I know cakes are out of the question, but once in a while, I guess we can indulge ourselves :) 
Here is what I managed to put together, with whatever ingredients I had in the fridge/cabinets. 
It is very easy to bake and not (very) fat either. 

So what you need: 
- 1 banana; 
- 250 gr flour; 
- juice from 1/2 orange;
- 1/2 cup sugar; 
- 2-3 spoons of oil; 
- baking powder; 
- 1 cube of dark chocolate; 
- 50 ml milk; 
- peel from an orange;
- baking paper. 


First, pre-heat the oven at 180 °C. I peeled the orange and grated the little piece of chocolate, also I smashed the banana and squeezed the juice from the orange (only half of it): 


The rest is easy: you need to mix the banana, the chocolate flakes, orange peel & juice, add the sugar, and the oil. And then gradually add the flour. I also mixed the baking powder with a bit of lemon juice and added the milk to the overall dough: 


Then I prepared the baking tray, covering it in baking paper and poured in the dough.
It stays in the over for about 30-40 min, at 180 °C. When it is done, don't take it out immediately, but let it "rest" in the oven. 



The result is very fluffy and yummy, you can actually feel the banana taste. For the future I would try to add more orange ;) 



Bon Appétit!



11/02/2015

Healthier meatballs in oven

Helloooo!!! Although Valentine's day is approaching I am not going to post a recipe for cakes to sweeten your days. I have something more filling and less "cheesy" :) 
So here it is my recipe for meatballs done in a healthier way - meaning no frying. 

Ingredients: 


  • 500 gr minced meat (whatever you prefer, I had pork)
  • 2 eggs
  • 6-7 cloves of garlic
  • one small onion
  • one carrot
  • 2-3 potatoes, depends how big they are
  • spices :) 




The potatoes are grated and then pressed between hands to release the water from them. 
The carrot and onion are boiled, garlic is just minced. 
In the mean time, you pre-heat the oven at about 150 degrees C. So now it comes to the messy part of mixing all these ingredients together, add the eggs in the end, and of course as many spices as you please. 




Then I made more or less equal meat balls and placed them on baking paper, in a tray. 




I left them in the oven for about 30-40 min at 200 degrees C. 
They become golden and the are simply delicious. 

The result: 




They can served as they are, they work like snack for beer, or next to some garnish or salad. 

The only downside to this process, is that you would have to roll them a bit in the tray when they are getting done, otherwise they will be flat on one side :) 


Bon Appétit!




24/09/2014

Banana bread

Helloooo :)

Don't you have days when you crave for something sweet but easy to bake, and perhaps healthy? I do. And recently I was wondering how to make banana bread and I found out - the result is delicious :)
So here it is the recipe I used:

ingredients: 

  • 2 cups flour 
  • 1 cup sugar 
  • vanilla sugar or vanilla essence
  • 100 gr butter
  • 3 eggs
  • 4 bananas 
  • baking powder 
  • baking paper

estimated time: baking 1 hour + 20 min preparation

Start by preheating the oven at 180 degrees. 
Then separate the egg yolks from the white parts and mix the white parts very very well, with just a pinch of salt. 



In another bowl, mix the yolks with sugar, vanilla sugar. the flour, butter and baking powder. The baking powder needs to be mixed with some lemon juice before. 
You can peel the bananas and blend them or just use a fork for this purpose. 


Then you can add the bananas in the bowl with flour and at the end add the white parts and mix gently. 
Now it's the moment to pour the entire mix in a tray which you covered with baking paper before. 



Put it in the oven at 180 degrees C and leave it there, without opening the door for one hour.
After one hour, you can check if it's ready - the wooden stick test - and if it'sok, still leave it in oven for 10-15 min to get colder.


You can serve it like this or next to vanilla ice- cream. It makes a perfect cake for coffee or tea.
Bon-appetit :) 






21/09/2014

Magic Prague

Hello dears :)

I want to share with you some of the photos from my latest trip to Prague - been there couple of times already, but every time is different and magic :) The architecture, Vltava river, Charles' bridge, the  Castle, the crowd, the food, the beer, the absinthe everything adds up to the amazing atmosphere of this great city.
So here are my recent impressions:


 architecture 



view from Visherad




National Theatre - classic and modern 




Charles' bridge from ship 


art is everywhere





Cafe Louvre, a very special place


always  wonderful sight  - the old town square Staroměstské náměstí