Author Archives: gingerlemonandspice

Mar13

Simple Everyday Couscous Salad

Posted on March 13, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Hello everybody!!

I hope you are great, all of you? Well, I took some time off to have my second birthday party with my family and friends at home. Then I did a whole lot of nothing, resting my brain from all the work 😉 But now I am back again!! Ready to show you some more food and stories and finally being creative again! 🙂 Last night I had a great time with my godchild. She always wanted to do a sweet yeast bread with poppy seeds on her own, so we just made a date and did it!! It was very much fun and the two braided buns turned out beautifully, too!! Of course everyone had to make their own. I would love to show you a picture, but I was so very clever to bring only my camera and not my charger to my parents house and we already took too many pictures at the wild animal park we went as a family last sunday. Well, things happen 😉

With a little luck my godchild remembered to take a picture of hers when she got back to her house!! But I can’t promise. At least I can say it wasn’t very difficult at all, so maybe I will make it again soon with proper pictures! To round up the evening we had a lot of fun eating pasta with pesto, watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in English and laughing about the silliest scens and of course – trying the first pieces of our sweet bread!! It tasted as good as it looked!

Today I have a recipe of a couscous salad for you. Well, it is not any couscous salad!! As I already told you, I live in a flat with two other girls – and this is what we eat a lot. And I really mean A LOT!!! We eat it on mondays or tuesdays, for lunch or for dinner, together or seperately – just all the time!! It is soooo very quick and definitly way too delicious to not been eaten at least twice a week!! I also take it to university if I don’t have time to eat at home which works perfectly too.

I don’t want to keep you in the loop any longer!! Here you go:

Simple Everyday Couscous Salad

Ingredients:

2 cups couscous (the easy cooking type)

4 cups boiling water

2 tea-bags (about 6-8g, or as much as you want) of mint tea – fresh might be better, but that’s all we have on hand in winter

2 teaspoons of granulated vegetable broth

1/2 cucumber (Salatgurke in German)

3-4 big tomatoes (or the equivalent in small ones)

200g feta cheese (in Germany that is one package)

about 8 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar

6 tablespoons olive oil

Salt, Pepper

optional: 1 bell pepper

directions:

1. Put couscous, mint, vegetable broth and hot water into your salad bowl. Stir a little bit with a fork, then let sit for 10 minutes.

2. Cut cucumber, tomatoes, feta cheese and bell pepper into squares.

3. If the water is soaked up by the couscous already, loosen up with a fork. If not, just wait a little bit more and then go on. Put the vegetables and feta into your bowl and continue loosing up the mixture.

4. Season with salt and pepper, be careful with the salt as the feta already is salty. Pour olive oil and balsamic vinegar over the salad and mix well. Have a taste! We never measure olive oil or vinegar, we just go on taste. So if you feel you need more of anything, just add it. I like a little tingling from the vinegar on my tounge 😉

5. Enjoy lukewarm or cold!! We usually eat this as a whole meal, but it would be great as a side dish or at a barbecue too!!

~Kathrin

Mar1

Buttermilk Banana Bread – Birthday Cake No.1

Posted on March 1, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Buttermilk Banana Bread – Birthday Cake No.1

Hello everybody!

So last wednesday was my birthday! I am 26 years old now.

Some of you may think: Oh my, this is very old, and some might think: I hope I was that young again 😉 For me age is not important at all! I just don’t care! I am living with the lines of: You’re always as old as you feel!! I have good friends that are a lot younger or older than me, and I also had bad friends who were the same age. In my opinion age does not tell you i you are on the same wavelength, so it doesn’t count!

Last wednesday I had a little birthday party. I like having birthday parties, because I like to cater for friends and family!! This year I had to stay in the city where I’m studying, so I could not celebrate with my family. I will do this the next time I am at my parents house! I invited friends from university and the choir I’m singing in. 10 friends came, celebrated and had cake with me! Everybody liked the cakes a lot, and we had lots of fun!!

Those were the cakes:

So after we ate and drank our cups of coffee and tea we went to the choir room and to the practice.

When I planed this little celebration I thought about baking two cakes and a batch of cookies. In the morning on my birthday I was very spontaneos and just baked one more, while the second one was in the oven. What I did was this Buttermilk Banana Bread! And I have to say – I liked all the cakes very much, but the banana bread just was the best!! I didn’t expect it to be at all, but I really really liked it. It was very moist and sooooo flavorful!! I didn’t think it would taste so much like banana 🙂 I even think about making it again for the big party with the family!!

I asked you on facebook, which of the three cakes you wanted to see on the blog today and you decided for my favorite one!! Great decision 🙂

But all the cakes were liked very much, everybody had their own favorite. Before the party I thought I baked way too much, but when I wanted to take the rest to the choir practice I was very surprised that there wasn’t much left! There is now better way of showing approval i guess 😉

So here comes the recipe for

Buttermilk Banana Bread

adapted from Two Peas And Their Pod

Ingredientes:

115g (1/2 cup) butter, softened

190g (1 cup) sugar (I used selfmade vanilla sugar – but you could add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract instead)

2 eggs

1 cup mashed banana (it is best if they already have brown sprinkles on their skin)

6 tablespoons buttermilk

200g (1 3/4 cups) flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

optional for glaze:

1-2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1-2 teaspoons milk

Directions:

1. Grease and maybe flour a big loaf pan, set aside. Preheat oven on 160°C (350° F).

2. First cream the butter in a bowl with a hand mixer for a bit, then add the sugar and whisk until well incorporated and creamy. Mix eggs in. Add mashed bananas, if used vanilla extract and buttermilk and mix the batter well

3. Now add flour, baking powder, salt and soda and mix on very slow speed. When all the white stuff is gone you can move on to a higher speed for a minute.

4. Put the batter into the loaf pan and then into the oven. Bake for approx. 60 minutes. When a toothpick comes out clean, it is ready.

5. Get the loaf pan out of the ofen and let it cool for 20 minutes. Then run a knife along the edges and loosen the bread. Put it out of the pan and onto a rack to cool completely. If you want you can decorate the cake with a little bit of glaze like I did. Just mix powdered sugar and the milk bit by bit until you have the consistency you like!

6. Enjoy – preferably with a lot of friends!! I can’t say how long it stays this beautifully moist because it was gone in a day!!

~Kathrin

Feb25

The Liebster Blog Award

Posted on February 25, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

The Liebster Blog Award

Hello everybody!

Yesterday I received my very first blog award from Greek Bites. The Liebster Blog Award! What is a blog award you ask? It is a little honoration you can get from other food bloggers, if they like your blog. As most of you know, I am quite new to blogging, and so I am especially thrilled to receive this award!!! 🙂

The liebster blog award is given to new bloggers that only have about 200 followers yet. ‘Liebster blog’ is german and means dearest, loveliest or favourite blog.

There are some rules to accepting this award:

1. Each awarded blogger will post 11 random facts about themselves

2. 11 questions provided by the sender have to be answered

3. 11 new bloggers have to be chosen to which the award will be passed on

Go to their pages, tell them about the award and pass on the link to your post!

So it is kind of a blogger chain mail. But there is nothing bad happening to you, if you don’t pass it along! 😉 It just makes fun and is a nice way to push new blogs a little and get to know the owners.

So here it goes: 11 random facts about me:

1. My birthday is in two days, I will be 26!

2. I have one brother and no sisters

3. I am crazy about flying – planes, airports and all 😉

4. I am studying nutrition science

5. I sing in a gospel choir

6. I am very proud of my 16 year old godchild and I love her very much!

7. I am definitly not the tidiest (tidyest?) person in the world

8. I haven’t painted a lot yet, but I once did a painting of a crest as an order and even got money for it 😉

9. I am a junkie of american series

10. I play the clarinette and saxophone

11. I like snow

11 questions asked by greek bites :

1. Do you remember the first dish you actually prepared on your own?

I guess that was Miracoli Pasta – a spaghetti and tomato sauce all-in-one package 😉

2. Who’s your favorite cartoon hero? Definitly superman!

3. PC or Mac – I have a PC, never had a chance to test a Mac before

4. Name one thing you hate the most – exams

5. If you had to live with just one food for a long period of time what would that be? – I can’t really decide, I love food too much! 😉

6. Rain or sun? – sun of course. More difficult would have been: Snow or sun?

7. A meteor falls on you and you have a super power. What’s that? – Flying!!

8. Say what comes first on your mind when you see/hear the words salt – pepper, egg – breakfast, sky – flying, kiss – love, black – white

9. According to you what’s your biggest advantage and disadvantage? Do others agree?

Wow – difficult. I am very creative, i’d like to think that’s positive. I am bad with keeping contact with friends – time just flies by to quickly and sometimes it’s already a few weeks until i write/call back. If others agree I can’t say. Have never asked!

10. What’s the most important thing in your life? (besides family) – This blog and music

11. If you were a food, what would that be? – Maybe a big colorful decorated exotic cake 😉

So now is the time to pass this award along!

I was orienting on facebook likes, as I could not find out how else I would now how many people follow a blog. Also I was a bit liberal with the 200 limitation and the required 11 blogs 🙂

I give it to:

shortcaked

all about food

juggling real food and real life

modest munchies

memories by the mile

cafe vita

simple awsome cooking

melisa colin

lovefoodies

And here come your questions!

1. What is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten?

2. Summer or winter?

3. What did you dream of becoming when you were growing up?

4. What is your profession?

5. Beer or wine?

6. What are your hobbies besides blogging?

7. What is your favourite band?

8. Is there a food you hate?

9. Sweet or salty snacks?

10. Coffee or tea?

11. What was the first blog you read?

Enough said – now I want to hear your stories!!

I hope you have as much fun as I did 🙂

~ Kathrin

Feb21

Something to celebrate – 150 Facebook Fans!!!

Posted on February 21, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Something to celebrate – 150 Facebook Fans!!!

Hey there – it’s me again!!

Celebrating 150 fans on facebook I thought about something special: A jigsaw puzzle!!

I thought you should have a chance to play too 😉

It is very fun and addicting! Just click on the picture to play. 🙂

~Kathrin

Feb21

Apple Rose Muffins with Marzipan and Walnuts and the self critic in me

Posted on February 21, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Apple Rose Muffins with Marzipan and Walnuts and the self critic in me

Hey there!

Another day, another time, another meal. What are you up to?

The ones of you, that follow me on facebook have already seen what I did yesterday. I made roses out of apples and put them on muffins!! Majorly cute!! 🙂

I couldn’t wait sharing!! Even if the dough is not exactly what I dreamed of.

You see – I’m a big self critic. One time my brother said something to me, which is sooo true – and what hit me again when I was sharing those muffins. You must know, we are all food lovers. We really like to cook, bake and prepare delicious food, especially for other people!! We get creative together, alone or talk about stuff we want to try out. Very important for us is to do things the old fashioned way. To work with our hands to create something incredible and then share it with others! We want to know how to make the food we eat on our own, and not just buy a package of perhaps premade lasagne at the store. My father has designed and built a wooden fired oven in our backyard which we use to bake his handmade sourdough bread, make a pizza party or bake cakes. My brother likes to do different kind of meat roasts and my mum does the side dishes like traditional sauerkraut or so. You see – it is kind of a family hobby 😉

So what my brother said to me was: When we share our food with someone, and that someone tells us it tastes great, we can’t really believe it. There hast to be at least a little bit of criticism for us to believe that the other person really is honest!

And this was soo true this time again. For me the muffins were a bit too crispy, it is not a really cakey dough. But I hadn’t even tried them myself! I just nibbled on a bit of dough that was overflowing during baking. So when I was told, that they really liked the muffins, I was very skeptical and had to ask if it wasn’t too crispy and stuff.

BUT WAIT – Why am I doing this? I worsen my own creation by myself?! Isn’t there a false to this logic??

I am sure there is!! I definitly have to learn to accept when somebody is liking what I did. Just like that. And not look for mistakes myself! It makes myself just feel worse, with now real reason…

Dear reader, i hope your still with me. Those muffins definitily deserve a chance! They look soo pretty with the roses on top! And they acutally were quite good. Not the way I imagined when I first judged over them without even trying myself 😉 There not the best muffins I ever ate, but they still are very good! Have fun trying out the roses technic and don’t give up too early. It is not so hard once you found out how!

And off we go:

Apple Rose Muffins with Marzipan and Walnuts

Recipe of dough adapted from Kawaii Kitchen

Ingredients:

100g butter at room temperature

150g sugar (I used homemade vanilla sugar)

3 eggs

150g flour

1/2 package baking powder (about 8g)

40g chopped walnuts

Filling:

50g marzipan (optional)

6 apples (you need mostly the skin, so keep in mind you have to do something else with the flesh)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Whisk butter in a bowl with a hand mixer until creamy then add the sugar and whisk some more.

2. Add the eggs, one by one.

3. Put flour and baking powder in your bowl at the same time and mix slowly just until incorporated. Fold in walnuts.

4. Put a bit of batter in every of the 12 molds of a buttered muffin pan or one lined with muffin papers. Divide marzipan into 12 pieces and put them in the middle of the dough. Divide the rest of the batter equally between the 12 molds.

5. Now the apples: wash and dry them. Start peeling the first apple from the very top near the stem with a peeler. Try to make stripes with half skin half flesh and try not to brake them. You can make roses for two muffins with one apple (depending on the size). Roll the stripe in a circular motion, the part of the stripe with the skin should be on top. Put the rose on top of the muffin, don’t press it down too much because the dough will rise a lot. For the second rose of the first apple start peeling from the bottom to the ‘equator’ of the apple. Don’t be scared! It just needs a little bit of practice. But the cute look is sooo worth it!! If your stripe cracks that’s no problem, just make a rose of the parts. Happened to me too 😉

6. Put the muffins into the oven and bake for 30-35. min.

7. Dust with powdered sugar if you like. Enjoy!!

I am sorry that I don’t have step-by-step pictures. It was because I was not sure if they turned out well, and I was occupied with the technic myself. 😉 But as there was already a request for the recipe I thought I couldn’t keep you waiting!! I will definitly make those again and maybe do a proper tutorial. If you experience any difficulties or have any questions, just ask!!

What to do with the rest of the apples? What I did was a compote with apples, green seedless grapes, freshly pressed orange juice of 2-3 oranges and a little bit of vanilla sugar. We had this plain as a dessert! But I imagine it would be great with joughurt, rice pudding or semolina porridge too.

~Kathrin

Feb19

Tagliatelle with Tomatoes, Ham & Mushrooms

Posted on February 19, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Tagliatelle with Tomatoes, Ham & Mushrooms

Hello everybody!

I hope your last week was nice? Nicer than mine, at least? 😉 I had to study, study, study, sleep a little and then again study,… You might have guest it: It was the week of my exams at university! I don’t like this time at all… But it is necessary.

So yesterday was my final exam for this period, and now I am FREE!! I can do whatever I like!! At least for a few days…

Also I had written a ‘what to do after the final exam’ list – which included watering the plants, hoover and clean and of course, write a new blogpost. As you might have noticed, this was not what happend! 😉

So when I finally went home yesterday what I did was starting a movie. I really love movies!! No special kind – I just like digging in another reality for a few hours! Of course there are good movies and bad movies for me too, but I would watch all of them – and the good ones more than once.

When I came home yesterday I felt the need to disengage myself from all the stress of the days before and watch a film. Not any kind of film! I wanted romance, I wanted the feeling of an idyllic world and a little bit of action so I turned on Twilight. Don’t judge me!! 😉

I haven’t seen the movies for quite some time now! And last time I did, I thought they were embarrissing because they are such a tear jerker (I hope that word exist – that’s what my translater tells me! ). So this time, to make them less awkward for me I watched them in english. It helped a lot! I really think you could say anything in english even if it is way too much in german. I actually did enjoy them so much that I watched part 2 and 3 right after the first and went to bed at 1 o’clock…

Yes – I don’t know what was going on with me either 😉

So today is the day for the list – all the stuff that needs to be done and was postponed because of the exams! It includes preparing for the studying period for the exams in april but I decided to do the ‘fun’ parts first. Here I am, writing just what comes through my mind and hoping you don’t think I am too awkward, strange or crazy 😉

But I have brought you something, too!!! As my meals needed to be quick I didn’t do much cooking in the last two weeks. But one thing I did was these Tagliatelle with frehs tomatoes, ham and mushrooms! It was a really quick lunch and very delicious!

Tagliatelle with Tomatoes, Ham & Mushrooms

for one person

Ingredients:

Tagliatelle for one person (I used wholemeal – approx. 100g)

100g mushrooms

100g ham

3 big tomatoes

75 ml cream

salt, pepper, parsley for decoration (I used frozen)

Directions:

1. Cook Pasta according to package.

2. Put a nonstick frying pan on medium heat. Chop the mushrooms in half slices, ham in stripes and tomatoes in cubes – or the way you like them.

3. Put mushrooms and ham into the pan, and let the mushrooms loose some water (5 min maybe). Add the tomatoes on top, let them sit on top for 2 min then stir. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4. The Pasta should be ready now. Put the pasta into the pan using a pasta scoop with holes in it to get rid of most of the cooking water. Add the cream to the pan. Stir everything and let the sauce and pasta reheat until it bubbles (2-3 min). Maybe add some more salt (the cream takes away some of the saltiness).

5. Put Tagliatelle on a nice platter and sprinkle with some parsley.

Enjoy!!

~Kathrin

Feb8

Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins

Posted on February 8, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins

A very warm WELCOME to all my new readers!!

I am sooo excited that you all joint me here and on facebook to follow my little blog! This blog is my heart’s desire and I love to bake and cook, tell my story, photograph and sew to make this blog a part of me and a nice place to be! And this is true, even if it rhymes 😉

For everybody that stumbles on this little site and especially the ones who decide to stay I am soooo very thankful!! It is so nice to see that other people like the same things I do and that encourages me very much!

I would like it best if I could get to know all of you personally, but as this is a very difficult task because you are living all over the globe, I encourage you to leave a quick comment! Don’t be shy! 🙂

Today I want to talk about muffins. Aren’t they great? You can bring them to any celebration and they are never out of place. People love them because they are already in single servings and can be transported easily! But most of all: They taste great!!!

If you have a muffin for yourself, it is just like you have a little cake baked just for you. They are cute, they are easy to make and simple to modify!

What I have here is a recipe which is loaded with a bright orange flavor, rich chocolate taste and is very moist thanks to the use of ricotta!

I used homemade ricotta which I made of the leftover whey I had from making my own camenbert and feta cheese. Also the only oranges I had were blood oranges! That is why the dough had a pretty rosa color and the baked muffins where a light green on the inside, because the color changed from rosa to green during baking.

I was very surprised when I had a bite of my first muffin! And they really tasted very delicious!!

So here it comes:

Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins

from two peas & their pod

Ingredientes:

115g unsalted butter, at room temperature

150g granulated sugar

Zest of 1 orange

15 g vanilla sugar (or use 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)

1 cup ricotta cheese

1 large egg

4 tablespoons fresh orange juice

240g white flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips (I used 125g chopped ‘Kouvertüre’ chocolate, but choc chips are fine)

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1-2 tablespoons orange or lemon juice

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 180° C (about 350 degrees F). Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners, or use silicone cups. Set aside.

2. Beat the butter, sugars and zest with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add ricotta cheese and mix well. Then add the egg and orange juice.

3. Now it is time to put in the dry ingredients. Flour, baking powder and -soda and salt go in. Don’t overmix! Just stir it in on low speed of the electric mixer.

4. Add the chocolate and just mix it in with a big spoon.

5. Using two large spoons divide the dough between the 12 muffin moulds.

6. Bake muffins for approx. 25-30 minutes. Take a skewer and make the test! If it comes out clean, they are ready!

7. Now prepare the glaze. In a small bowl whisk together the powdered sugar and the citrus juice (not all at once, check consistency!). Drizzle over the muffins. Let it sit until glaze hardens and muffins are cooled down.

Enjoy!!

~Kathrin

Feb4

Speedy Shrimp Pasta

Posted on February 4, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Speedy Shrimp Pasta

Good evening out there!

This weekend I was all alone in the flat by myself, so I took the chance to make a very big mess in the kitchen over and over again 😉

I should be studying as my exams are getting closer and closer and I have really difficult ones to pass this semester – but I just couldn’t let the chance go by!

During all the testing, picture taking and recipe studying I was getting hungry. I was stumbling on a recipe of a blog I am reading: Speedy Sauteed Shrimp & Pasta from dinners, dishes and desserts.

It had pasta, shrimps and sun-dried tomatoes, which especially of the last I am a big fan at the moment. I usually eat them plain or with cheese but I was already wondering what else I could do with them! On top of it all the package I have right now is very special to me, as it says the tomatoes are from Izmir region in Turkey!! That was where I stayed last summer – and we also went on the fields, ate fresh tomatoes and saw the people laying out the tomatoes in the sun to dry. You see – I had no chance but to make something special with them!

This and that I had already pre-cooked shrimps in the fridge that needed using made this a no brainer for me. Shrimp pasta it was!

Of course I had to give the recipe some twists, as I didn’t have everything on hand. But it was very delicious!!

Speedy Shrimp Pasta

adapted from dinners, dishes and desserts (see for exact messurements, I just did it roughly for one person)

Ingredientes:

spaghetti for one person

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 piece of onion

1 piece of garlic

a few red chili flakes

about 7 shrimps (I had precooked ones, but fresh or frozen ones would work to – just cook them through)

about 3 sun-dried tomatoes

juice of 1/2 lemon

parsley (I used frozen), salt, pepper

parmesan to taste

Directions:

1. Cook the pasta according to directions on box.

2. Meanwhile heat a large skillet on medium heat and put the oil inside. Chopp onions and put inside. Saute for a little bit, then crush garlic in a garlic crusher and add with chili flakes to the onions.

3. Put shrimps into the skillet and after 2 minutes add the chopped dried tomatoes and lemon juice.

4. Season with parsley, salt and pepper.

5. Put the cooked spaghetti in the skillet and mix well with shrimp mixture. If you want you can drizzle with additional olive oil and sprinkle with parmesan.

6. Enjoy preferably with a glass of white wine!

~ Kathrin

Jan31

Roasted Chicken Legs

Posted on January 31, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Roasted Chicken Legs

Good morning world! 🙂

Yesterday and today are the first days here in Germany, where we had at least a little bit of sun. It has been dark, cold and icy for a few weeks now! So this is a very good reason to be happy!! 🙂

Today I want to show you how to make roasted chicken legs in the oven. I made them as part of a meal I served to my parents on the last weekend! You remember the caprese salad? Yes, it was the side dish to the chicken!

It was the very first time for me to make chicken in the oven like this. Usually I don’t like eating meat of bones very much which is why I have never done it before! But I have seen my brother do it and I know my parents would like it, so I gave it a try. And I really was very surprised!! The chicken legs turned out very soft and tender with a very crispy skin. It really was very delicious!!

But see for yourselves:

There was wild rice and steamed broccoli as side dishes!

Roasted Chicken Legs

4 chicken legs (2 per adult, 1 per child)

4 tablespoons olive oil

spices: paprika, pepper, salt, chicken salt (a mix of spices that are great with chicken)

1. Preheat oven on 200°C. Line a baking sheet with aluminium foil. Put the chicken into a bowl and coat it in olive oil.

2. Put spices on top and rub them in with your hands. You need quite a bit of the spices, you will see how much! The chicken skin will become a little redish because of the paprika and the spices should be visible everywhere too.

3. Put the chicken legs skins up on top of a grid. Place grid into the middle rack of your oven and put the covered baking sheet directly under it to catch the juices that will drop of the chicken legs while roasting. See picture:

4. Roast chicken legs for approx. 45 minutes. The skin will be paperthin, crispy and browned!

5. Enjoy maybe with some caprese salad?

Jan27

Caprese – Tomatoes, Mozzarella and Basil Salad

Posted on January 27, 2013 by gingerlemonandspice

Caprese – Tomatoes, Mozzarella and Basil Salad

Hello everybody!

Today I want to share a recipe of the italian salad caprese with you.

I made it this weekend for my parents and I think it was really delicious! Usually I am not at my parents house, as I am studying at a university 110 km north of my hometown. The last times I went to visit my family over the weekend or for some days around christmas and new years, it became a habit for them to pronounce me as their cook 😉 I have free hand – I can cook whatever I want and usually they eat it, so it can’t be too bad. I like being creative and think about what meal they might like and how to make a meal a little less in carbs – as that is what we are trying to change our diets into since the new year. So a little caprese salad really fits well into this plan – and it also looks very delicious because of the italian colours!! And for an extra bonus it is very quick and easy to make.

Also I got to spend the weekend with the beautiful Sony DSLR camera of my godchild. It was soo fun to work with it! The pictures are just waaaay better then with my own pocket digital one. And all the options!! I am totally in love ♥ ♥ ♥

So enough talk for now – of to the recipe we go!

Caprese salad

About 5 tomatoes (depends on size)

1 ball of mozzarella (about 125 g)

basil leaves

2 tablespoons olive oil

4 tablespoons dark balsamic vinegar

salt, herbs (I used a dry mixture called pizza herbs, it contains thyme, oregano, basil,…)

1. Hold tomato on the side and cut it into 5mm slices from bottom to top. If you do it like that, all the kernels will stay in their place!

2. Cut the mozzarella into very thin slices.

3. Put tomatoes and mozzarella slices diversified and variantly into a dish. Your dish needs to have a rim to hold the oil and vinegar later on! Put as much basi leaves in between the layers as you like! I didn’t have much basil left which is why I only did a little decoration.

4. Mix the vinegar, oil, and herbs in a little bowl. Salt the tomato and mozzarella layers just from the top, that is enough. Take a spoon and drizzle the vinaigrette on top.

5. You can let it sit for half an hour or just eat it straight away! It won’t go bad if it stays for a little while. Enjoy!!