Salmon, Chicken, and Flummery :)

Salmon, sauteed kohlrabi, and mashed potatoes

Chicken breast, potato wedges, and pepper

 

Vanilla flummery with strawberry sauce and meringue

Welcome Back, Myself :)

Here I am, once again, back again :) after all this time! Back to college and able to cook again every night (and to take pictures without anyone thinking I am super weird because nobody sees it in here ;))

Just some impressions of what I cooked this week:

Monday: Sushi Time

-  smoked salmon, cucumber, carrot -

  

Tuesday: Zucchini soup and mousse au chocolat:

Wednesday: Pasta with Eggplant, Tomatoes, and looooads of Parmesan Cheese

very yummy :) 

Thursday: zucchini soup again - with chicken breast and bacon

because the soup was so yummy on Tuesday and tasted even better with bacon in it <3

 and then Thursday's dessert: yummy yummy yummy yummy 

Friday: zucchini tart with bacon

have to make that one again, very tasty! 

 and some salad to go with:

 and a baked apple for dessert

150 Things To Do Before You Turn Thirty

Things I've done: crossed out, Things I am dying to do: italics

(Thanks to: http://www.robotgeek.org/blog/2009/02/12/bucketlist/)

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink

02. Swam with dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive (will do next time I am in vegas!)
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope 

26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight 

28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking 

37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe 

47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Taken a midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs 

57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day :)
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theatre 

66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced (see #72)
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest 

79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on a television news program as an “expert”
83. Gotten flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favourite band/singer on tour
98. Passed out cold
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking with the windows open
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart  (and I am very sorry about it)

111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a TV game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for 30 hours in a 48 hour period
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. States
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

Things to do in college

1. Live in a Dorm.
2. Meet new friends at orientation.
3. Have all 8:00am classes.
4. Eat Ramen Noodles for Breakfast, lunch, and Dinner.
5. Steal your roommate’s food, even if it has their name on it.
6. Become addicted to Red Bull.
7. Do a keg stand.
8. Shotgun a Beer.
9. Become an expert on party drinks.
10. Get noise complaints for partying too hard.
11. Lose your wallet at a party.
12. Lose your keys at a party.
13. Lose your phone at a party.
14. Dance all night.
15. Pull a prank on your roommate.
16. Learn how to do your own laundry.
17. Become a bartender.
18. Hook up with a random person.
19. Pull an all-nighter.
20. Live at Starbucks.
21. Experiment…..
22. Have the best Halloween ever.
23. Write a 30 page paper in one night.
24. Attend a Toga Party.
25. Do “The gallon challenge”.
26. Have sex for the first time….or 50th.
27. Hook up with your TA.
28. Hook up with your RA.
29. GO STREAKING!
30. Wake up in someone’s front lawn.
31. Tell yourself “I’m never drinking again”.
32. Steal something….or don’t…that’s illegal.
33. Fail your midterm.
34. Make straight A’s….or straight C’s.
35. Become addicted to Facebook.
36. Drop out of college, then start again next semester.
37. Get in to the best shape of your life.
38. Gain the “Freshmen fifteen”.
39. Become a vegetarian.
40. Give up being a vegetarian because you love meat too much.
41. Go to concerts on school nights, your Mom can’t doing anything about it!
42. Max out your credit card.
43. Move off campus into an apartment or house.
44. Realize you cant cook.
45. Find a new hobby.
46. Become addicted to video games.
47. Ride your bike to school everyday.
48. Become an alcoholic.
49. Do a liver cleanse…..or not, who needs a liver.
50. Have all afternoon classes.
51. Take out a student loan.
52. Take out another student loan.
53. Pay off ALL your student loans….or get another one, you can pay it off when your rich and successful, right?
54. Meet a girl/guy and fall in love.
55. Dump them because it’s getting too serious.
56. Become a Hippie.
57. Give up being a Hippie because you like shaving and bathing.
58. Go to every football game.
59. Shave your whole body, because you lost a bet.
60. Jell-O Slip ‘n Slide.
61. Attend a Backyard B-B-Q.
62. Network with business-minded people.
63. Build up your relationship with your favorite college professor.
64. Live on your own and independently.
65. Learn the University’s fight song.
66. Ace at least one class. Nothing prepares you for success quite like success.
67. Work on campus.
68. Play a game of Ultimate Frisbee.
69. Join at least one club or organization on campus.
70. Get in a fight.
71. Open a savings account.
72. Have a one night stand.
73. Become a champ at Beer Pong.
74. Retire from Beer Pong because nobody can beat you.
75. Go to a strip club.
76. Party till the break of dawn.
77. Jump off something high.
78. Run from the cops.
79. Start a revolution.
80. Change your major.
81. Take summer courses.
82. Get a cat/dog.
83. Start a band, then break up.
84. Ride the bus to school, or walk.
85. Jump into the school fountain during the winter. It’s a rush, they say.
86. Get engaged, then realize your way too young and call it off.
87. Settle for a promise ring.
88. Become popular on YouTube. I hear you make good money doing that.
89. Change your Major…..again..
90. Do a summer internship.
91. Star freaking out because your about to be a senior.
92. Don’t schedule Friday classes, 3 DAY WEEKEND, WOOHOO!
93. Go to the bars when you turn 21!
94. Starting thinking about Grad School.
95. Start interviewing for jobs, every weekend.
96. Realize your GPA could be better.
97. Look back on your four years and smile.
98. Realize how much you’ve changed.
99. Graduate.
100. Once you land that first job…..wish you’d never left college.

Peach Crumble with Custard

... which does not look so pretty but was rather tasty :)

Bread à la facon tarte provencale :)

Bread with Rosemary, Tomatoes, and loooooads of Olive Oil

very yummy :)

... and more salad

 Green Salad with Tomatoes and Chicken Breast 

The chicken breast is soused with Mustard, Rosemary, Olive Oil, Salt, and Pepper! Rather yummy, I daresay :)

Green Salad with Braised Tomatoes scalloped with Ziegenkäse and Rosemary

Breakfast

Here we go, just some impressions of yummy items for breakfast :)

most importantly: coffee 

 

and the rest :)

Tonight's Dinner

Braised tomatoes in olive oil, served with cream cheese and some bread

... and, of course, the results of Fake Oreos Test #2 
Beginning with a picture

Ending with just two words: amazingly yummy! 


I will most defintely cook both of these dishes again soon! The tomatoes were really good and I didn't miss any meat (seems like I am being somewhat vegetarian at the moment :)) and well they were extremely easy to prepare - incise them, chop some shallots, put everything into a pot, pour some olive oil over the tomatoes/shallots, flavor them, put them into the preheated oven, and wait (aka the hardest part of all of that)

Trying Fake Oreos

When I went to the shops this morning, I saw that Lidl now sells this:

aka Fake Oreos :) I just had to buy and try it. 

Once you open the box, you find five packages / rolls like that - a really nice idea (although the rolls make you think that the cookies are going to be extremely small, but once you open the plastic wrap, ...

... you can see that the cookies look just like normal Oreos, same size, same color, same filling ...
 

Yet, they do not fully taste like Oreos as there is that subtle taste of Prinzenrolle-cookies, also produced by Griesson/de Beukelaer. Besides, the filling is a bit sweeter and has kind of a weird texture
The bottom line is that they are defintely not bad, but I prefer real Oreos!

By the way, I put two of the cookies and some rum in my chocolate pudding for tomorrow night - hope that it is good! Thus, test result #2 cooking with fake oreos, tomorrow night!!!!

Me ... and my dessert

Some more attempts to come up with a nice dessert

 Home-made orange jelly with peaches and kiwis

(rather pretty, fruity, and defintely nice!)

Chocolate-Pudding and Vanilla-Rum-Pudding, in a whirl :)

(very yummy, especially due to the very subtle taste of rum)

 

Brezel with Cheese

Just had some fun experimenting with gratinating Brezels with two different kinds of cheese. Firstly Parmesan cheese (which I considered more promising than it actually was) and then Gouda cheese (which was like a million times fatter and a lot more nourishing than my first try, but much better, too!)
So here you go:

Chicken Wings

Yesterday, I had chicken wings which I combined with some mixed vegetables (yellow pepper, carrots, tomatoes) and cooked in the oven. 
I merely flavored the vegetables and the chicken wings with some paprika, pepper, and salt and added some slices of a natural lemon. 
Before ...

 ... and after 40 minutes in the oven :)

I love meat

Wrap up your (minced) meat :)

really nice but rather hard to eat

 

Chicken Bouillon 

with some chicken meat and tomatoes 

Fried Chicken Filets with Potatoes and Pepper, both grilled in the oven

I love that combination: chicken, pepper, and potatoes go so well together!

Fried Chicken Breast with steamed Broccoli and Carrots

Meat Loaf with Pepper - Broccoli - Carrots 

 Chicken Drumsticks with Vegetables

ready to be cooked in the oven, very yummy!

Salad

because every meal needs some fresh side dish

Desert ...

... one of the most important parts of a great dinner :)

Apparently a German Pancake baked in the oven ...

Thanks to my American friend Vanessa for the recipe - 

never knew that pancakes were like that in Germany, but it's really nice!

Vanilla Flummery and Strawberries 

welcome, summer!  

Cinnamon flummery and apples cooked in red wine

 for the holiday season 

Fruit Salad

my favorite, with some cinnamon to make it fit for the holidays :)

 Coconut Macaroons

absolutely yummy :)

... and some coffee to go with the desert ...

trying to make a nice cake without the required equipment 

aka not pretty but pretty yummy  

Sponge Cake with Jam