This has been the last week of my birthday month and my stomach didn't collaborate a lot with celebrations....
Monday 23 February 2015: Nothing
Tuesday 24 February 2015: Noodles with cold oil and boiled trout with lemon
Wednesday 25 February 2015: complex dish fom Bangladesh with 29 garlic gloves (or that was my feeling), kgs of Garam Masala and all the vegetable we had but we the wrong lentils - nor red smashable ones but true Italian small and hard. It was edible after hours. Fail, not my attempt though.
Thursday 26 February 2015: boiled Swiss chard with lemon, a slice of pecorino and bread
Friday 27 February 2015: I guess nothing, since I have no note...
Saturday 28 February 2015: wow, a beetroot cream with garlic, pepper and greek youghurt as in Ottolenghi toghether with a classic of my family - tuna Polpettone: tuna, bread crumbs, parmigiano, one egg alltoghether smashed and boiled. mmm
Sunday 1 March 2015: rest of the beetroot cream and another Ottolenghi inspired recipe: basically Swiss chard, feta, ricotta, parsley, coriander pie. 8 cm high. Boah, mmm.
martedì 3 marzo 2015
lunedì 23 febbraio 2015
Week 8 : Berlin
Full week at work and the beginning of a weekend cooking serie
Monday, 16 February 2015: Moussaka by R.
Tuesday, 17 February 2015: Piadina
Wednesday, 18 February 2015: Moussaka.
Thursday, 19 February 2015: spelt, red and black lentils, green peas & other nice tony things soup.
Friday, 20 February 2015: ok this is the botton so far. We wanted to go to Chutnify in Prenzlauer Berg and called before going to see we could find a place and they told us that even without reservations we might have find a table. Ok, let's go! I wanted since Luisa Weiss of the Wednesday Chef has mentioned it in November. I am well experienced in unpoliteness of Berlin waitress but this is one of the best integrated English speaking person I have ever met. We entered the place to see if there really was an available table and even before we could have finished the three steps and withouth saying even HELLO (or HALLO) we were quickly asked (or shout at) DO YOU A HAVE RESERVATION??? To this, the German boyfriend remained silently confused and I instantly decided that I won't go there again. The German girl to whom we have talked then appeared and understood that we had just talked and friendly told us that the suppsosed free table had been occupied again. Apparently they really are successful and won't miss my presence.
The second choice was ZULA, a place where we had been once (on Electin's day 2013, over a year ago) but it was miserably closed. And we turn to the weirdest and probably kitchest place in Prenzlauer Berg, Savanna. here you can it zebras, ostriches, crocodiles and other amenities or concentrate on vegetarian spicy supposedly ethiopian food as I did.
Saturday, 21 February 2015: half od piadina at 10 after working on gigantic book shelf.
Sunday, 22 February 2015: thick slice of carp! with fresh tomatos, onion and celery. It was the first carpa ever
Monday, 16 February 2015: Moussaka by R.
Tuesday, 17 February 2015: Piadina
Wednesday, 18 February 2015: Moussaka.
Thursday, 19 February 2015: spelt, red and black lentils, green peas & other nice tony things soup.
Friday, 20 February 2015: ok this is the botton so far. We wanted to go to Chutnify in Prenzlauer Berg and called before going to see we could find a place and they told us that even without reservations we might have find a table. Ok, let's go! I wanted since Luisa Weiss of the Wednesday Chef has mentioned it in November. I am well experienced in unpoliteness of Berlin waitress but this is one of the best integrated English speaking person I have ever met. We entered the place to see if there really was an available table and even before we could have finished the three steps and withouth saying even HELLO (or HALLO) we were quickly asked (or shout at) DO YOU A HAVE RESERVATION??? To this, the German boyfriend remained silently confused and I instantly decided that I won't go there again. The German girl to whom we have talked then appeared and understood that we had just talked and friendly told us that the suppsosed free table had been occupied again. Apparently they really are successful and won't miss my presence.
The second choice was ZULA, a place where we had been once (on Electin's day 2013, over a year ago) but it was miserably closed. And we turn to the weirdest and probably kitchest place in Prenzlauer Berg, Savanna. here you can it zebras, ostriches, crocodiles and other amenities or concentrate on vegetarian spicy supposedly ethiopian food as I did.
Saturday, 21 February 2015: half od piadina at 10 after working on gigantic book shelf.
Sunday, 22 February 2015: thick slice of carp! with fresh tomatos, onion and celery. It was the first carpa ever
domenica 22 febbraio 2015
Week 7 : Berlin
A week full of health issues - first my stomach, them my back and my skin everything told me STOP! we have enough of you being stressed! we're going to fail you! Also known as the week of rice noodles.
Monday, 9 February 2015: aafter waking up with terrible stomach pains I went to the doctor and exactly as everytime I meet a German doctor, I received a disappointing or funny comment. After waiting for two hoursmy pain had almost disappeared and there was no diagnosis - because, "the syntoms are almost gone! isn't it great?!" and no prescription because it happens still only once or twice per month! So dinner was rice noodles. with nothing.
Tuesday, 10 February 2015: Again! Rice noodles but this time with carrots and zucchini and soy sauce.
Wednesday, 11 February 2015: the boyfriend came back from the business trip and cooked Crostini and boiled parsnips with lemon.
Thursday, 12 february 2015: Surprise...Rice noodles! with chicken and carrots and parsnips and leek.
Friday, 13 February 2015: Salty pancakes with corn and cheese and a great salad in Hildesheim - no, it's not worth it, if you don't have dear friends working there don't go.
Saturday, 14 February 2015: Raclette! gnam gnam gnam gnam gnam. zucchini, corn, tomatoes sponsered again by the Hildesheimer.
Sunday, 15 February 2015: I frankly have no clue.
Monday, 9 February 2015: aafter waking up with terrible stomach pains I went to the doctor and exactly as everytime I meet a German doctor, I received a disappointing or funny comment. After waiting for two hoursmy pain had almost disappeared and there was no diagnosis - because, "the syntoms are almost gone! isn't it great?!" and no prescription because it happens still only once or twice per month! So dinner was rice noodles. with nothing.
Tuesday, 10 February 2015: Again! Rice noodles but this time with carrots and zucchini and soy sauce.
Wednesday, 11 February 2015: the boyfriend came back from the business trip and cooked Crostini and boiled parsnips with lemon.
Thursday, 12 february 2015: Surprise...Rice noodles! with chicken and carrots and parsnips and leek.
Friday, 13 February 2015: Salty pancakes with corn and cheese and a great salad in Hildesheim - no, it's not worth it, if you don't have dear friends working there don't go.
Saturday, 14 February 2015: Raclette! gnam gnam gnam gnam gnam. zucchini, corn, tomatoes sponsered again by the Hildesheimer.
Sunday, 15 February 2015: I frankly have no clue.
giovedì 12 febbraio 2015
A day out : Lovere
Thursday, 12 February 2015
Today, the most beautiful day of this period, ends with a relaxing smell of lentils in the air.
Lentils, with rosemary.
The Kitchen (with a special window that shows Montefabbri (PU))
Today, the most beautiful day of this period, ends with a relaxing smell of lentils in the air.
Lentils, with rosemary.
I only miss a specific Pukka tea (the one with cinnamon in it).
Maria is cooking pine cones
lunedì 9 febbraio 2015
Week 6 : Berlin
This week my birthday month started: it was again a stressful week at work on the one hand, on the other, I had such a great time with the lovely boyfriend and received so many presents and birthday wishes that I can consider myself more than happy. Plus: the Berlinale began!
Monday, 2 February 2015: I had an amazing solo aperitivo at home and drank over half of a Mumm Rosé bottle and after some time spent drinking without eating, I went out for dinner with R. and had a Pizza Diavola that made me suffer the whole night (it can't have been the Rosé!)
Tuesday, 3 February 2015: I went to bed at 9 and had nothing for dinner. Started the new year as a lion.
Wednesday, 4 February 2015: mmm..chicken thighs- marinated with litres of lemon, Kgs of thymian and wild fennel, and at least 4 garlic cloves. The bio and corn-feeded-chicken proved to be worth what it costed and was over tasty. I was just too full to have more that a tiny bit. I also received a ca. 12 Kg package from my parents full of delikatessen.
Thursday, 5 February 2015: yoghurt!
Friday, 6 February 2015: Second birthday dinner! actually it should have happened on my Birthday but first, Monday sucks, second too much work and we missed the time, even though I didn't know what the "surprise" / "date at 7 at Alexanderplatz" would have brought me. And it brought me to a wonderful place, and not to the theater where I thought we were headed: Serrano, in Wilmersdorf, practically an area of the city that I know as much as Poland. The food was fresh, tasty, spicy, in your mouth the 1256 different tapas of the appetizer would melt with different layers of flavours und blablabla and I could have drunk all the ceviche marinade. Even the Chilean Chardonnay I had fit in, it was perfect.
And it was months since we really had had a kind of dinner date. Like go, sit stay three hours and enjoy that time. Probably since last year in Sicily. WOW.
Saturday, 7 February 2015: yes Saturday was great but freezing and we walked a bit too much or I don't know, in any case I spent the next day sleeping practically under layers of blankets in bed until 7 pm. This meant almost skipping dinner and especially, missing the first Berlinale of the year - it would have been the premiere in the Berlinale Palast of Ixcanul. BUT, R. cooked for us rice with vegetables and curry and then we head over to Les cousins fous to celebrate my belated birthday with some friends.
Sunday, 8 Februray 2015: as a great closing day for the birthday week we spent the whole day at the Berlinale and had a cheese burger with fries in between at Potsdamer platz. We watched two beautiful and moving documentaries The look of silence and Ueber die Jahre for a total of around 5 hours. To the discussione with Joshua Oppenheimer after The look of Silence took part also Werner Herzog, interruptig him the whole time, but stil. HERZOG!
It was such a full week, and ending it with a day inside cinemas was the best idea we could have had.
 |
| The birthday aperitivo |
Monday, 2 February 2015: I had an amazing solo aperitivo at home and drank over half of a Mumm Rosé bottle and after some time spent drinking without eating, I went out for dinner with R. and had a Pizza Diavola that made me suffer the whole night (it can't have been the Rosé!)
Tuesday, 3 February 2015: I went to bed at 9 and had nothing for dinner. Started the new year as a lion.
Wednesday, 4 February 2015: mmm..chicken thighs- marinated with litres of lemon, Kgs of thymian and wild fennel, and at least 4 garlic cloves. The bio and corn-feeded-chicken proved to be worth what it costed and was over tasty. I was just too full to have more that a tiny bit. I also received a ca. 12 Kg package from my parents full of delikatessen.
Thursday, 5 February 2015: yoghurt!
Friday, 6 February 2015: Second birthday dinner! actually it should have happened on my Birthday but first, Monday sucks, second too much work and we missed the time, even though I didn't know what the "surprise" / "date at 7 at Alexanderplatz" would have brought me. And it brought me to a wonderful place, and not to the theater where I thought we were headed: Serrano, in Wilmersdorf, practically an area of the city that I know as much as Poland. The food was fresh, tasty, spicy, in your mouth the 1256 different tapas of the appetizer would melt with different layers of flavours und blablabla and I could have drunk all the ceviche marinade. Even the Chilean Chardonnay I had fit in, it was perfect.
And it was months since we really had had a kind of dinner date. Like go, sit stay three hours and enjoy that time. Probably since last year in Sicily. WOW.
 |
| Serrano tapas with the ceviche staring at me |
Saturday, 7 February 2015: yes Saturday was great but freezing and we walked a bit too much or I don't know, in any case I spent the next day sleeping practically under layers of blankets in bed until 7 pm. This meant almost skipping dinner and especially, missing the first Berlinale of the year - it would have been the premiere in the Berlinale Palast of Ixcanul. BUT, R. cooked for us rice with vegetables and curry and then we head over to Les cousins fous to celebrate my belated birthday with some friends.
Sunday, 8 Februray 2015: as a great closing day for the birthday week we spent the whole day at the Berlinale and had a cheese burger with fries in between at Potsdamer platz. We watched two beautiful and moving documentaries The look of silence and Ueber die Jahre for a total of around 5 hours. To the discussione with Joshua Oppenheimer after The look of Silence took part also Werner Herzog, interruptig him the whole time, but stil. HERZOG!
It was such a full week, and ending it with a day inside cinemas was the best idea we could have had.
giovedì 5 febbraio 2015
Week 5 : Berlin
Another long week, with sad and unexpected news and then, as always ended up with a whole lot of cooking to get distracted. I now realized that I didn't mention that these past first weeks of the year I baked my own breakfast cookies every Sunday.
Monday, 26 January 2015: a much needed youghurt.
Tuesday, 27 January 2015: whole wheat flour vegetable pizza - a complete different taste. With fresh spinaches, zucchini and fresh tomatoes.
Wednesday, 28 January 2015: Pizza leftovers
Thursday, 29 January 2015: Tortillas with black beans, corn, chicken with cumin and tomatos. I bought myself Jerusalem by Ottoleghi and Tamimi and started to think...and rethink...and overthink.
Friday, 30 January 2015: fresh quiche with zucchini, fresh spinach, carrots, leek. Wonderful. Today the cooking and baking weekend started
Saturday, 31 January 2015: After spending around 40€ at the farmer's markt, I cooked lunch: marinied cod with peppers and tomatoes.
Sunday, 1 February 2015: Fish leftovers plus other smaller things. In the afternoon I baked two cakes.
 |
| The breakfast ciambellone. |
Monday, 26 January 2015: a much needed youghurt.
Tuesday, 27 January 2015: whole wheat flour vegetable pizza - a complete different taste. With fresh spinaches, zucchini and fresh tomatoes.
Wednesday, 28 January 2015: Pizza leftovers
Thursday, 29 January 2015: Tortillas with black beans, corn, chicken with cumin and tomatos. I bought myself Jerusalem by Ottoleghi and Tamimi and started to think...and rethink...and overthink.
Friday, 30 January 2015: fresh quiche with zucchini, fresh spinach, carrots, leek. Wonderful. Today the cooking and baking weekend started
Saturday, 31 January 2015: After spending around 40€ at the farmer's markt, I cooked lunch: marinied cod with peppers and tomatoes.
Sunday, 1 February 2015: Fish leftovers plus other smaller things. In the afternoon I baked two cakes.
 |
| Dreams come true. |
mercoledì 4 febbraio 2015
Week 5 : Lovere
Infusions on the table
I accepted
to join my friend Lucrezia’s idea because I had very pleasant memories about
her past “dinner projects”. I considered a pity to waste this beauty letting
the project fly. She writes well, she is international and, above all, she’s far from me, geographically speaking. So I
miss her, so I would like her to write and write and write again.
In other
words, I was starting to get completely hooked on “dinner projects”.
Lu lives in
Berlin, I live in Lovere, a little town by the lake Iseo, in the north of
Italy. We don’t really eat very different, ‘cause we have the same origins. Our
lives are otherwise influenced by the
places we are now.
I believe
myself able to add something different (and maybe interesting) to the idea. I used
to consider dinners to be not very important but with my daughter now, aged 21 months, I
know very well that if she doesn’t eat enough and healthy for dinner, she simply doesn’t sleep so…I began to learn
cooking family meals (not only
desserts, that I’ve always adored).
Behind this, I thought also it would be an
occasion to put myself under analysis.
If weeks are terribly ugly, boring or negative, which space have meals in that?
How can I grow better as a mother, as a woman, if I put my attention in this
light, little particular of my days?
There aren’t
any really interruptions in life, you can’t stop eating, you can sometimes skip
meals or don’t think about them at all. But you’ll continue eating, sleeping,
reading, writing, living.
The
literary question also interested me, but I don’t want to talk about that. I
can write in English directly (without any Italian draft) even If my English
level is not very high and if I feel myself closer to French.
Monday, 27
of January 2015
Various
infusions, after a boiled beef (boiled for almost three hours during the
afternoon), with carrots, celery and an inlaid-by-cloves onion. Broccolis.
Tuesday, 28
of January 2015
Dinner
alone (daughter with uncles and cousins). A slice of advanced cake with spry
cream (and Japanese tea Kukicha).
Wednesday,
29 of January 2015
Advanced
baked polenta with butter, parmigiano and bread crumbs.
Thursday 30
of January 2015
Light soup
made of sagy bouillon and pasta; baked ham.
Friday 31
of January 2015
Pie of puff
pastry with zucchini, ham, Quartirolo cheese. All brought to some friends’ home
(a big family).
Saturday 1
of February 2015
Sort of
risotto with almonds and peas.
Monday 2 of
February 2015
Consommé
with rice, shrimps and various vegetables. A virtual cake for Lucrezia (it’s
her birthday) of which I posted a photo. Even if I know that she’s now drinking
good grappa.
Lucrezia Cream! (mascarpone, chocolate and "Zalet" cookies)
Iscriviti a:
Post (Atom)