Summer Lunch

I love experimenting with food, especially if the outcomes are delicious. Of course sometimes experienting also means growing mold or making dishes of weird colors, but amost never intentionally. Fortunately this experiment ended in a delicious risotto and refreshing salad. To make it you'll need:

For risotto:

• brown rice
• 1/2 onion
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• 1 medium size zucchini
• 5-7 asparagus
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• yellow curry
• thyme
• rosemary 

For salad:

• lettuce
• mozzarella
• fetta cheese
• 1 green pepper
• 2 tomatoes

For salad dressing:

• olive oil
• juice of half a lemon
• honey
• salt
• pepper
• yellow curry
• pinch of thyme

Experimenting starts with heating olive oil in the saucepan and adding chopped onion and garlic with a pinch of salt. Add rice and spices, after few minutes add water, cover and cook on low/medium hear for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime cut zucchini and prepaire asparagus - peel off the hard skin, cut off the ends and cut them into smaller pieces. After the rice is half way done, add chopped veggies and more water. Leave for another 15 - 20 minutes, untill the veggies are cooked, add more water if neccessary.

Salad is pretty easy, just some washing, chopping and putting things together. Now I know the salad dressing sounds a bit exotic and weird but it's actually really tasty. Ever since my ex flatmate showed me that salad dressing don't have to be  prepaired only with oil, vinegar, garlic and onion, I've really started to enjoy them much more.

Bon apetit!

Dear Santa...

Recent Obama's Nobel prize got me thinking nothing is impossible. So I'm changing my strategy. Forget eteric experience and miracles on the 34^th street. We are in financial crisis for f***k's sake and this is no time for modesty!

So dear Santa, please remember, whatever you decide to bring, think big. By buying lots of gifts you will help our underfed economy and, more importantly, me. Since the luggage limitation or border control doesn't seem to be a problem for you, just bring me as much as you can of:

1. Natureta sauerkraut - because it's sauer enough to make jota. I know you'd imagine I can also get good sauerkraut in Berlin, but not really. 
2. Natureta spread with red pepper - in case you're wondering if I'm a fan of this brand, you're right. So while you're at it toss in some gherkins, red beet and ajvar. Even though I could get decent substitutions for the latter three, I'd rather have the good stuff.
3. Lemon flavoured Cedevita - cause there is nothing like instant quasi vitamins early in the morning. Yum!
4. Zdenka sir - First of all, I can't believe it doesn't have a website. Tradition with a taste of irony. I still want it though. Now I know there's been some fuss about different sizes in Slovenia and Croatia, but I'm not picky, so just bring both. 
5. Cockta - I take it this one doesn't need much explaining. Think a looooot. Now double it.

I know it is the thought that counts, but unfortunately thoughts make a lousy breakfast.

yours unfaithfully

Cherry

Brunch de Luxe

Brunch usually means enjoying a special meal while reading morning newspaper and sipping coffee. Of course sometimes it also means getting up in the afternoon, still a bit hungover from yesterday's party, not being able to decide whether to have breakfast or lunch.

In both cases food must be involved. So why not try out scrambled eggs on leek with fresh salad?

Ingredients:

• leek,
  
• onion,
• 2 - 3 eggs,
  
• tomatoe,
• mozzarella cheese,
• fresh basil
• olive oil,
• butter,
• salt.
  

Melt the butter and fry chopped onion on it. Add chopped leek, cover the pan and leave it for few minutes untill leek becomes soft.


Add scrambled eggs and salt and fry it untill the eggs are done.


Cut the tomatoes and mozzarella cheese, add salt and some olive oil. Garnish it with fresh basil.

You will find garlic bread a perfect addition to this brunch. Unless you are a vampire of course :)

Women and technology

There is a common belief that women and technology don't go together. If that would be true every housewife would need a training before she could start using her kitchen.

I've been asked several times to help "make the presentation appear on the projector" by the room full of men. So I think saying "women don't understand technology" is just an excuse for those, who are either not interested in it or are simply too lazy to deal with it on their own.

However I could agree that women (if I dare to generalise this not at all unified category) maybe have different expectations and needs towards technology. And I'm not talking only about design preferences or various period tracker applications. There is an interesting debate about the topic in the comments of this post.

Personally when it comes to computers and software, I want it to:

• be simple (have good usability),
• be visually appealing (not flooded with colors and animations),
• allow customization,
• speak my language,
  
• have a bit of a personality.
  

Even though I am quite interested in the topic of gender and technology, I am still somewhat sceptical about gender specific technology. Firstly because "men" and "women" are not homogenous groups and most certainly not the only two gender groups. And secondly because attempts to find common characteristics in the gender groups usually means using blue vs. pink arguments.

So is it fair to say you designed software for women when it's not going to satisfy all the women? I think not. But I would definitely go for software with a little of personal touch.

Here's an example:
Beeing annoyed by endless windows popping up when least needed just to ask me if I am really sure about some action, I've wished I would have had different options than "No" or "Close". Having "STFU" or a third option "No. And never ask me again." did cross my mind several times. And I would definitely love to be able to rewrite certain commands in a more creative way. Of course that is not the only thing I'd like to change.

So what is the alternative? Honestly I don't know but if there is one, please do share it. After all the purpose of technology is to meet the needs of the people and not the other way around.

Breakfast philosophy

I have a long history of "no sign of breakfast" behaviour. Sure, it's healthy and good for you but then again:

• Coffe and cigarettes ARE breakfast.
• Lunch counts as breakfast if you have it on empty stomach, right?
  
• Why waste time eating, when you can sleep longer?
  

So yes, I had quite some difficulties accepting the breakfast philosophy. And on the rare occasion when I could actually have breakfast, my fridge contained only things which MacGyver could use to make some weird kind of weapon.

And then something magical happened. No, not really. My ex's father had a very strong opinion that everyone should have breakfast. It was pretty much impossible to avoid eating in the morning. Jumping out of the window somehow didn't come accross as a very appealing option at that time. So I gave in.

And here I am now, a proud breakfast eater. Not only that, I made a whole ritual out of it. There is no day without breakfast. What I am going to eat very much depends on how I feel in the morning. But most of the times one of these two options will do the trick:

1.) Feelin' chewy: boiled eggs, bread & butter & salt, freshly squeezed orange juice

2.) Not feelin' chewy: fruity smoothie

before:

after:

And since my housewife genes are apparently kicking in it is only a matter of time before I make a philosophy out of snacks :)

Fast food my way

As a fresh freelancer I was looking forward to all the benefits of self-organized life, from flexible time table to decent home prepared meals. After signing up for new projects, having unscheduled meetings and or being too tired to cook, I found myself living on coffee and vending machine. Balanced diet is a sandwich in each hand, right?

Then I saw this pretty thing with my name on it. Lunch Snack box! Just what I needed (besides sleep and a jacuzzi):

And it looks even better on the inside:

It should keep me happy until I get some real food.

La la la lasagna

Lasagna is one of those rather fancy dishes that almost everybody likes. It seems quite complicated to make even though it in fact is much easier to make than pizza. The good thing about lasagna is you can stuff it with pretty much everything you like (except maybe fruit) - from meat, mushrooms to cheese & spinach.

So basically all you need is:

• lasagna noodles/"sheets"
  
• spinach
  
• sour cream
• cheese (possibly mozzarella or Parmesan)
  
• garlic
• butter
• milk
  
• flour
• tomato sauce.

After you've prepared the spinach the way you like (e.g. on butter with garlic and sour cream), prepare the beshamel sauce. (butter, spoon of flour, milk, also Parmesan can be added). Now all you gave to do is to play a tetris game of layers with spinach and beshamel sauce, adding a bit of cheese to every layer.


Extra cheese/sour cream on top is always delicious and you can add some tomato sauce for more diverse taste. After approx. 20 minutes or so your lasagna should be ready for date with your stomach. Piece of cake or what?

Luscious pumpkin

First I have to admit I'm a huuuuge pumpkin fan: I love everything from pumpkin soups, salads, pizzas etc. right to Smashing Pumpkins. Well, the later are not really helpful when you're hungry :)

Of course there are many ways how to make a delicious pumpkin dish, so let's start with a bang and serve stuffed pumpkin as a main dish. I should probably warn you: they're rather irresistible.

What you will need is:

• one Hokaido Pumpkin (because they are the best)
• a mix of various cereals - oat & rye flakes (best to buy already packed mixture)
• 1 egg
• sour cream
• half an onion
  
• garlic
• cheese
• Vegeta
• oil

First clean your pumpkin - cut it in half and take away the middle. Put some Vegeta and spices in a cup of warm water or soup, add chopped garlic. Fry chopped onion on some oil and add both to your cereal flakes. Leave for at least 20 minutes to soak up.

After 20-30 minutes add raw egg and some sour cream to get smooth filling . Fill both half's of pumpkin, add some cheese to the top and bake it in the oven for about 30 minutes at 200˚C.

How to make Jota

I've already written some recipes for recovery soups but this one is really special. Jota is Slovenian soup that can make you whole again after long night partying and also one of my favorite dishes. Well, to be honest I'm not completely sure it's Slovenian but if it's not...we really should claim it, steal the recipe and patent it like we did with Macedonian Ajvar.

Jota is one of those magic dishes that make you feel better even though you're not really sure why. Traditionally is it made with meat but I assure you it is just as delicious without it, It is all about the cabbage. So here is a recipe for vegetarian Jota - those of you meat lovers will probably want to add some smoked pork into it. Recipe is for 4 persons or one really huge Jota fan :)

You will need:

• 500 gr sauerkraut,
• 250 gr of cooked beans (you can soak dry ones and cook them but canned beans will also do),
• 1 - 2 potatoes,
• half an onion,
• 2 cloves of garlic,
• 3 bay leafs,
• oil,
• flour,
• water,
• Vegeta,
• paprika spice
  
• salt and pepper.

Boil cabbage for about half an hour and boil the potatoes separately. After half an hour add salt, pepper, cooked potatoes beans, a table spoon of Vegeta and bay leafs.

Chop onion and garlic, heat up the oil, add a tablespoon of flour and stir it for a minute or two. Then add chopped onion, garlic and half a spoon of paprika spice.

Add all to Jota and cook for few more minutes... and enjoy your meal.

Save it for the morning after

Longest and possibly best ever New year's party resulted in having substantially stubborn hang over the next morning. The kind when your stomach gets caught in somewhere between your head and throat, desperately asking for attention.

Luckily I had a cure for it - after having few cups of that excellent detoxification tea Pu Erh, I made myself a super recovery soup. I'm convinced it could cure everything but stupidity. My stomach didn't complain until late evening when I was watching Taxidermia. I'm still trying to forget.














For the super recovery soup you'll need only few ingredients and about 15 minutes of your time:

• celery
  
• carrots
• onion
• garlic
• cauliflower
  
• other vegetables of your choice
• salt
• pepper
• Vegeta
• oil

Heat up the oil and add cut carrots, onion, celery, garlic and other vegetables. You can use everything from tomatoes to leek. More vegetables will give the soup a better taste.

Fry it for few minutes and then add salt, pepper and Vegeta. Boil for another 15 minutes and then serve it hot. It will achieve a major agreement of your internal organs to stop remind you of their existence for the rest of the day.

The recovery soup

All work and no fun makes Jane as charming as George Bush and less entertaining than The English Patient.

Having fun is essential to almost every human being (except Chuck Norris) and it's of extreme importance that we nurture it. While doing so your body might scream gimme more, but a day after that it might as well say it was too much.

Luckily there is a recovery soup that will give your body some quality shut up time. It is really easy to make and it takes about 20 minutes.

You'll need some:

• potatoes,
  
• leek,
  
• flour,
  
• oil,
  
• salt
• Vegeta and
  
• water.

Peel the potatoes and chop them to smaller chunks, add some water, salt and a spoon of Vegeta and cook them for about 15 minutes.















Add chopped leek.



Take a spoon/two of flour and fry it on the heated up oil.




Add to the soup and cook for another 5 minutes. All that's left now is to sit down and enjoy your soup :)

Sexy mushrooms

Mushrooms might be the sexiest vegetable I've ever tasted. They are so tender, soft and....well delicious. They are quite simple to prepare to and go well with just about everything. Willing to try? This recipe is not mine - I got it at the picnic after bugging a cook. Nevertheless it was worth it. Presenting:

The mushroom sauce:

• mushrooms
• butter
• sweet cream
• cheese
• salt
  

Braise cut & salted mushrooms on melted butter until they soften up. Add sweet cream and cheese. Boil for few more minutes and your sauce is ready. As simple as that. It goes well with pasta or cooked & grilled polenta.

If you want to make your meal a bit more fresh and healthy, make an Autumn salad:

• red chicory
  
• tomato
  
• corn
• chic peas
• tofu
• olive oil
• vinegar
• salt

Bon apetit!

iCook

Forget Facebook, there's Tastebook, Valley's another interesting startup. This one is for everyone who likes cooking or know someone who likes it. The concept of Tastebook reminds me a little bit on Coolinarika's system, but then again Coolinarika is not only about cooking.











Unlike Coolinarika's offer to print the recipes in a book format and order a book cover from them, Tastebook offers you the whole book for about 25 EURO's. Not so bad and the design is quite catchy too.

I think I'm willing to try it. If nothing else, I can add some of my mom's recipes and give it to her in a book-form as x-mas present. Priceless.

P.S: Two drawbacks: Website is in flash & they don't send Tastebooks outside US :(

Happy pizza

One of the essential ingredients of every successful meal is good mood. Anyone who ever tried cooking know dishes taste better if you're not cranky or in a hurry when cooking. Since we don't have any good mood button (which would be handy indeed), the buttons on your recorder will do the trick. For starters pick something romantic and easy going or just put your favorite song on repeat, turn up the volume and you're ready for cooking.

Step 1: Dough
Put flour in a bowl and make a hole in the middle. Usually I take some plain and some wholewheat flour or mix few types together. Warm up 1/2 deciliters of milk (warm not hot), put a teaspoon of sugar in it and half of fresh yeast. Stir it up with spoon until the yeast melts and pour it into the flour. Cover with napkin and leave for 15 minutes (possibly on a warm place).

After 15 minutes it's time to change your record as you will need a song with explicitly positive vibrations. If you're having hard time to choose, I recommend some reggae music - you can never go wrong with that.

Add half teaspoon of salt and 2 spoons of olive oil, some warm water and stir the batter until you get dough. If necessary add more flour and leave to rinse for another 15-30 minutes. Then make dough gently with your hands and add flour/warm water if necessary. Pizza will be much more fluffy, yummy and soft if you don't use the machine for making dough. Roll out the dough into pizza shape. You can use rolling pin for that or drag the dough using your hands (for those more experienced).














Step 2: Pizza making
Put some ketchup or tomato sauce on top of the dough and add vegetables. This time I used corn, fresh mushrooms and zucchini. However also tomatoes, peppers or aubergines are quite delicious. When you've decorated your pizza, add cheese (mozzarella, gauda, other) and spices (oregano, basilica).














Step 3: Baking
Bake pizza for 15 minutes at 200^oC. Yup, as simple as that. I assure you your happy pizza will be the most delicious pizza you've tried. Bon apetit!

Naughty Muffins

Not a big fan of sweets but every now and then I get bad sugar inch that needs to be fed. This usually happens shortly before or during a diet. Anyone who dares to come between me and my sugar could be dangerously close to meeting my inner witch.

Ironically it was the food machine who had the honors most of the times and couldn't care less about it either. Holding on to my paid! chocolates, ignoring my attempts of trying to talk it into letting the sweets go. Genuine nightmare, I tell you.

So I started to make muffins to get regular sugar supply when needed. My favourite would be chocolate muffins with fruit. Possibly cherries :).

Ingredients:

• 120 grams of butter
• 120 grams of brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 20 grams of cocoa
• 1,5 - 2 deciliters of cream
• 250 grams of flour
• baking powder
• cherries

Melt butter and mix it with sugar, egg, baking powder, flour and cocoa. Add cream.













When it's finished add cherries and bake about 15 minutes at 200^o C.

Of course you can also add some melted chocolate or chunks of chocolate to the ingredients and make muffins even naughtier.















Yummy!

Rainbow tortillas

How to satisfy six hungry musicians with different food preferences? Definitely a big enough challenge to try out something fresh, new and a bit exotic. Not too much though - grilled insects or tree worms are absolutely too daring for any of us.

So we tried some tortillas instead - small, cute and just a little bit spicy. Since we couldn't borrow "Tortillas for dummies" we just made up our own kind. What to put in?

A lot of Nachos, Parmesan, some random cheese and of course vegetables. It was after-Pride meal so we created our very own vegetable rainbow from:

• onion,
• tomatoes,
• peppers,
• aubergines,
• zucchini,
• corn.

After few minutes wok vegetables were ready to meet fresh tortillas (fresh from the supermarket that is) and our empty stomachs. Yummy!