Garden in early spring

Gardening became my new passion. I grew up as a city girl, the best way how to get fresh fruit and veg was to go to the farmers market. When we were looking for The House to buy for ourselves here in Ireland, the size and orientation of the garden was a major issue. Finally we managed to find good size South West facing garden.

This is the third spring in our house. During the first two years we tried to figure out what plant where, which plant can survive a lot of rain and perhaps a lack of sunshine. I adopted very simple approach: if something could grow in my grandmother's garden in North of Slovakia, it will surely grow in the middle of Ireland. Summers are just about the same and winters are much warmer with almost no snow or frost.

This is our apple tree - must-have in the garden. The tree itself is barely taller than me, but it produces fruits right from the beginning. Well, first year we only had 2 apples out of it, but last year 26! This year it looks pretty good too.

Gooseberry bush. We only planted it a year ago with no luck for fruit so far. Maybe this time.

Redcurrant bush. Oh yes, I really do love them and I hope no birds munching on my currant this year!

Last, but not least - black currant bush. We only had a handful last year, so this time hope for best.

One more fruit is planted in our garden - of course, strawberries. They don't look particularly interesting at the moment, so no picture ;-)

Next time: vegetable and herbs.

What to eat in Zurich

In short: chocolate, macaroons and cheese. And if you have more time, get some fondue, roesti, sauerkraft, sausages or visit Michelin star restaurant.

Last week I spent 4 days in Zurich using hospitality of my brother and his wife. As many of my trips, this one was food orientated as well. Oh yes, we went to Luzerne and Rigi (one of Alp's mountains) and explored Zurich's surroundings a bit. But most of all we just wanted to enjoy each others company - with such a distance between us it doesn't happen so often.

So I had fondue in my brother's place, sausages with sauerkraft and roesti (potato pancake) in lovely gastropub just off Bahnhofstrasse and amazing experience in Michelin star restaurant mesa. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures in mesa Restaurant - I was far too busy admiring the food and guessing which cutlery to use for each dish ;-)

As usually the important part came - what to bring home. If you are like me - love chocolate too much - you would be spoilt for choice in Zurich. I am sure I've seen at least 1000 different types of Easter Bunnies, I've never seen so many of them in my life. 5 of them found the way to my house too.

The most famous chocolate place in Zurich is probably Sprungli. And I can see why. I was feeling like a kid in candy shop, literally and it took me a while to choose some gifts. Beside Easter Bunny and box of pralines it was box of macaroons which are called Luxemburgerli here.

They are still looking wonderful in this picture, bearing in mind they had traveled 1000 km.

There was a note saying "best enjoy as soon as possible" So I did. My favourites were bourbon vanilla, caramel fler de sol and cappuccino.

This is another important thing that I was looking forward to. Fresh chocolate Laderach sold by weight. I had to lock it in the cupboard to prevent from getting eaten before Easter.

Well, Zurich is really place for chocolate lovers!

Stracciatella torte

So far not everything has been going on as I planned this year. I planned to be very active, to post more often on my blog, to loose some weight, to make more bead earrings, to try more recipes, to finish knitting my red jumper... After bad weather in January, I got really bad tonsillitis in February and all my great plans were long gone. I did not feel like eating or moving, let alone trying something new and do some stuff! When I eventually got a bit better I did try something new - in this case biscotti, which I will post later about.

As my husband is working away for a while, we did not have a chance for Valentine dinner in time. He gave me very nice present - CDs and DVD of my favourite group Nerez. This music brings back the memories of my years at college... I was listening to it when I was preparing our belated Valentine dinner: prawn and rocket salad for starter, smoked salmon risotto for main and stracciatella torte as desert.

It is the best way to prepare the sponge the day before and fill it after it has rested for good few hours.
125g caster sugar

3 eggs

80g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp cocoa

Cream eggs and caster sugar in electric mixer until the mixture is pale and thick. Then sift in the flour, baking powder and cocoa and mix. Pour into buttered 20cm baking tin and bake in preheated oven for 175 C for about 25-35 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean. Remove and leave to rest, preferably overnight.

Cut horizontally in 3 and get the filling ready.
Mix 250g ricotta, 50g icing sugar, 1 tbsp vanilla extract and 10g finely grated dark chocolate.
Now you can assemble the cake. Put the first layer on the cake stand and moisten with few drops of liqueur. I used Creme de Cassis, but amaretto or some fruit liqueur would be nice too. Spread half of ricotta mixture over, cover with the second part of sponge, moisten with liqueur again, spread the rest of ricotta mixture and cover with the remaining sponge part.

Then whip 250ml of whipping cream with 2-3 tbsp vanilla sugar (to your taste). Spread whipped cream on top and sides of torte and smooth it slightly. Grate dark chocolate over the whole cake. It is best to do it from about 30cm above cake as the chocolate distributes evenly. I used sugar coated chocolate balls for final decoration, but you can use any chocolate chips or omit this altogether.

Goes very well with cup of espresso.

White chocolate chips cookies

On Saturday I went to see my friend Martina and her partner Jan. They have the best news - just moved to a new house and are having a baby in 10 days time. Tiny Martina is getting pretty big and she can't be as active as she used to be. And she loves white chocolate. So when I was thinking about edible present for her, I decided to go for Sultana and white chocolate chips cookies.

100g golden caster sugar

100g butter
1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp golden syrup

200g plain flour + 1/2 tsp baking powder

100g white chocolate chips (or chopped bar)

50g sultanas

Cream first 5 ingredients, then add flour with baking powder and finally chocolate and sultanas. Use ice-cream scoop to drop the mixture onto buttered baking sheet well apart. Bake in preheated oven for 175 degrees for 12-14 minutes. Leave to cool on wire rack.

Munich Christmas Market

Well, I know it is a bit too late now... But I just didn't have a time to publish photos from our trip to Munich Christmas Market earlier. When I look outside the window at the moment, there is thick layer of snow and temperatures very well below 0. Hmmm, very christmassy... Unlike weather 4 weeks ago in Munich.

Everything else - except weather - was as great as I could have imagined. Decorations, stalls with christmas cookies, chocolate, mullet vine, food in pubs...

Frankly, we did not do much of sightseeing. All we could concentrate was food-related.

Or Christmas-related.

Last day I even had an oportunity to go to brilliant Viktualienmarkt to admire local food product and sample soup as Nicky had suggested in her blog. All great and worth trying!

New one in the house!

This year Christmas came early for me. Our old coffee machine has been on strike for longer period of time, so we decided instead of having it repaired (again!) to go for new one. Frankly, decision has been made long time ago, we knew we wanted Kitchen Aid - sturdy and beautiful piece of appliance. Only price tag was putting us off, but I've done a bit of research on Internet and eventually found good e-shop with better price. So finally, we've got it!

This is the first ever espresso made in new coffe mashine and the first cappucino. Not bad for the first time, is it?

With nice cup of coffee it feels like home...

Advent time - apple gingerbread cake

Last Sunday in November was the first Advent Sunday. The weather was so unbelievably awful - rain and strong winds, floods in many parts of the country. I planned to go to woods to find some nice twigs, pine cones and dried berries in the morning. Instead I stayed at home until afternoon, only stepped outside the house to chop ivy, holly, lavender and some greens in our garden. Anyway, I managed to create nice enough advent wreath and light the first candle.

And with Christmas spirit in the air I made Apple gingerbread cake. Lovely smell of Christmas spices filled the house to get me in the right mood.

Apple gingerbread cake
300g self rising flour
2 eggs
225g light brown caster sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp ground mix spices (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, cardamon)
80g butter
300g grated apples

In the bowl cream sugar, butter and eggs, add flour with cocoa and spices, then fold apples in. Transfer into a tin lined with baking paper and bake in preheated oven for 175 degrees for about 30-40 minutes.

Let it cool for a while and finish of with chocolate icing - place heatproof bowl over the pan with simmering water. In the bowl melt 100g chocolate with 40ml cream and stir. Spread evenly over cake and cut into squares.