À la Dankertier

That's an old classic of mine, early adopted from Jamie Oliver... I love it, because it can be made with rather simple and little ingredients. If you're on a trip and want to thank your hosts or just cook in the hostel, you won't need many fancy spices to make this. I did exactly this: I cooked this for my mom, when she visited me in Oxford (and there was almost nothing in the kitchen), I made it for my landlords in Abington and I cooked it for Sophie in Stockholm. For four people cut 100g bacon and 2 small Zucchini in small stripes. While frying them in a pan, boil some water to cook 250g pasta (Penne or Farfalle). Spice the bacon and zucchini well with pepper and thyme, if available. Mix 150g grated Parmesan with 1 egg and 50ml cream or milk. Add sufficient pepper (pepper is the main spice and adds a lot to the taste). Turn of the heat on the pan, add the cooked pasta and let it cool for a minute before you add the egg mix. Steer until you have a nice creamy pasta. ...

I know... It doesn't look like anything, but this is amazing!!!! If I would have had to woo André with a recipe, this easy, wonderful one would have done the trick. I adapted this salad from a healthier version my mother use to make all the time during the summer. But she is holding back on the good, secret, can't do without ingredient: the mayonnaise. The important thing here is that you buy the REAL mayonnaise. Not Miracle Whip, not that low fat (silly) version and not that Swedish non-sense (seriously guys, like Monica in Friends would say: THIS IS NOT MAYONNAISE!): you need the Hellman's mayonnaise. Cook some small pasta al dente . While it is boiling, cut some nice vegetables (and fruits, I did not forget Alex ;): bell peppers, cucumber, broccoli, green onions, sun dried tomatoes... Mix together and add some cube of cheese and maybe some cube of ham also? Oh yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah... The secret is to mix and match some sweet and salty stuff. Add some nice cashews or...

Even if it's not a pizza in my eyes, since the first time I made it here in Sweden it's called that way and is made every single time, we make pizza at home. Back when I made it the first time, I had nothing but a bunch of onions, cream cheese and a flower pot for the dough - we had to keep it vegetarian for Tom and Sumedh and also Sumedh didn't own a bowl (we changed that last weekend). Nevertheless, it was still a success, since the main taste comes from the combo of baked onions in cream cheese. The recipe is super simple, just needs some preparation and cooking before baking, but in total not more work than for a regular pizza! For the bottom you can make a regular yeast dough. Even though it's already simple, I developed a hand-and-foot recipe, everyone can do: Add a cup of warm water , a small hand of sugar and a pack of dry yeast (equals 50g fresh yeast) to a bowl and mix it. Then simply add first flour and then a pinch of   salt , mix and add more flour ...

Many, many years ago we got a muffin book in my family. I liked muffins already, but since then, I love them. These small little goodies, sweet or savory, creamy or chocolaty - always a treat and a nice snack for lunch, dinner, in between or at any party. In that particular muffin cook book I remember one muffin, I really enjoyed; but everyone else in my family disliked it completely - the Chocolate-Banana muffin :) A little while ago I experimented to make gigantic, fluffy, delicious muffins. I'm not quite were I would like to have them, but I found some nice recipes on the way. One is this here: one morning, we wanted to make some nice Banana-Chocolate chip muffins, but usually all recipes call for eggs. So I looked for a egg-free version. It was a little alternative in general, but after altering some ingredients, I got it working. And with the right baking time, they become a nice crunchy outside with a soft fluffy core - delicious. Set oven to highest temperature before ...

This is a nice little recipe my mom used to make when I was young (and still today, of course). I preferred it to hash browns, which both go with some apple sauce pretty well as a complete lunch in Germany. Maybe it was just the texture or simply the extra sugar, but I kind of missed them after I've been for the first few month in Sweden, so it became the first German recipe I made here. Traditionally it's made from left over potatoes, but you can also cook them fresh and let them cool down. You simply start by grating 500g cooked, cold and peeled potatoes (when you start with hot ones, you'll know why they should be cold ;) ). Mix this with 250g quark (kvarg or fromage blanc) 75g flour 50g sugar 1ts vanilla sugar some raisins and lemons zest Make a smooth dough and add flour if necessary, so it's not sticky. Then you can start to form palm-sized paddies. Fry them on both sides in hot oil or butter until golden brown. Put on a plate, add sugar and cinnamon and...

About half a year ago I stumbled upon the brilliant idea of having simple, quick cupcakes in a mug. They use almost no ingredients, and take about five minutes! The idea is genial and good for any occasion, or just if your hungry for some quick cake. Last week I did my first one, but it was rather dry. So today, after coming back from heavy shopping, I retried it - with big success. Some recipes you find online are for many cups, but I looked around for single cup recipes. They are supposed to be difficult, because the mixing has to be perfect, to be not to sweet, or to dry, or whatever. I found a bunch of them here , and tried the best looking first. The whole thing sounded rather sweet and chocolaty, so I reduced that a little, and it was perfect (guess it wouldn't have been to much, but so we had a nice relaxing chocolate goodness :) ). Just mix 4 tablespoons of flour 1/3 tablespoon of backing powder 4 tablespoons sugar 1 egg 3 tablespoons cocoa powder 3 tablespoons N...

I bought the "Comfy food" package of the Jamie Oliver's application on my iPad a couple of months ago, thinking that this will help me to go through the grey winter months of Sweden. Well! In the last couple of weeks, we have been trying some of those recipe, and so far, so good! Most of those recipes look good, and every one that we've tried is good! Of course, we have made some small adjustments because Jamie is a little bit like our Quebec Ricardo: they both expect that we have a nice bio garden or a bio farm in our backyard... Well, WE DON'T!!! Sometimes, we can't have our little nice bio eggs, or the best quality of happy lamb meet... Bottom line, we cut some corners but the results are still sooooooo good! Here is our version, of Jamie Oliver's Spicy Shepherd's Pie, an English classic (revisited), for 4 peoples. Peel a piece (2cmx2cm) of fresh root ginger, 3 cloves of garlic . Add in a food processor half a red bell pepper and half a red oni...