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a busy but fun day today.
made this yummy tart to take to dinner at bruno's parents' place - i love love love nectarines. unfortunately, the nectarine pieces seemed to migrate around in the custard, ruining my perfect arrangement. no matter, it was still lovely.
summer must be approaching, fer sure.
spied the first peaches and nectarines in migros on wednesday, and they didn't look too bad, either - they even smelt vaguely ripe! summertime in our house is characterised by trays of ripening stone fruit left in strategic sunny spots - here is the first of (hopefully) many trays - peaches, nectarines and a lone mango, sunning themselves on the balcony.
mmmm, strawberries. we've had spanish ones available for a while now, but just today i found the first swiss ones. they are infinitely better (no doubt because they have had to travel far less, and thus can be picked much riper), with such a gorgeous perfume that the whole kitchen is filled with their scent. they come in a little folded paper carton (easily compostable/scrumple-able, of course, not like their heathen cousins, who come in - shock, horror - PLASTIC cartons), just a few sweet, scented mouthfuls. they need no cooking or adulterating (but lemon juice and sugar if you MUST), however, some good vanilla icecream would make them just that little bit MORE perfect...
don't you just love the picture of the lion licking the strawberry??!!
i've finally got the chance to sit down in front of the pooter and blog a bit. we've been so busy, and i've been disheartened because the photos i wanted to upload have remained stubbornly stuck inside the camera thanks to our uncooperative usb hub. but: ta da! i managed to extract them this morning.
last sunday we had our friends d + a, and their kiddies over for brunch. again, we hadn't seen them since last summer, so we had lots to catch up on. d has a new post as professor at a new university in cornwall, so they will be upping stakes and moving the whole family, a big, big change for them.
in the last few weeks we have seen more friends than we have all winter! this is because ppl literally go into hibernation during winter, esp. if they have kids. when it gets dark at 4pm you just don't feel like dragging the kids out into the snow for dinner at someone's house. the recent gorgeous weather has had us all emerging, blinking, into the sunlight.
among other things, i made bill granger's tomato and ricotta tart, with a few adjustments. it was so delicious! want the recipe? read further....
finally, i think, we are all in reasonably good health (touching wood and crossing fingers). it's been a long 2 weeks. bruno was the last of us to feel better, and boy, did he make sure we knew just how bad he was feeling. men are such pathetic wimps when they are sick! : ) you'd think they were on their last legs from the pitiful moaning and pleading looks and whimpers. i have to admit, he was pretty sick, tho, much worse than me. both he and i got some sort of nasty flu with a gastro kick at the end of it. a friend gave us a home remedy, which worked wonders - perhaps coincidence, perhaps not, but whatever, it put bruno's system back into good working order, if you know what i mean. i had actually heard of something like this somewhere, but never tried it. so, next time you get hit with the awful gastro bug, and are desperate to try something, try this:
i've been on a bit of a muesli binge the last couple of days. can't tell whether it's the lure of plump, soft oats (i LOVE oats) or the pleasure of having some good fresh fruit after days of nutella and bread but i'm loving a big, white bowlful, all to myself (greedy, eh?).
a good bircher muesli is a beautiful thing. i don't think it is switzerland's national dish, but perhaps it should be, because it is so ubiquitous - you can find it anywhere. i really got a taste for it when i was in hospital after having lola. i always chose it for breakfast, and it would arrive in a glass bowl, fresh-fruity, yoghurty and with a cup of tea. it was all i needed to keep me going until lunch time. any other breakfast, be it gipfelis (crosissants), bread, jams etc etc always left my stomach grumbling an hour later. for some reason i have a super-fast metabolism in the morning and this was the only thing that made the grade. oh, how i have searched over the years to find something which keeps me going until lunch time..... cos when i get hungry, i get really, really GRUMPY. and IRRITABLE. and HORRIBLE (just ask max and bruno, and oh, just about every other person who has had the misfortune to face me in the morning). so you understand how imperative it has been to find this one crucial meal, and how delighted i was to find that THIS IS THE ONE THAT WORKS FOR ME. hooray!
phew, it's been an exhausting few days, with little time to eat and not much appetite on all our parts. max is still fighting off the nasty tummy bug and is reduced a mere shadow of his former self, poor babe, and still cannot keep much down. it's a strictly white food diet for him for now - zwieback, pasta, rice etc. high point of the whole affair was sitting down to dinner last night, having prepared a nourishing chicken soup, and max puking at the table...yes, including into his bowl!!!!!! SO disgusting, i had to just shut my eyes and not look. not his fault of course, but somehow i just didn't feel like eating the rest of my soup...back to that ol' stalwart, bread and nutella (plus a fortifying glass of red wine). the jar of nutella is the most popular thing in our household at the moment!
yesterday at migros i discovered to my delight that last year's favourite seasonal yoghurt is back in production - belle hèléne (chocolate and pear). so good! it is not too sweet, slightly sourish, with a good chocolatey flavour and colour, and satisfying chunks of pear throughout.
sell by: 21.05
consume by: 27.05
note 'yoghurt' in 3 languages, as is everything here (makes for very busy graphic design on all products. sometimes they squeeze in 4!) - german, french, italian.
lola is eating...beetroot, carrot and brown rice mush. oh yum. but such a pretty pink.
max is eating....electrolyte rehydrating solution, a square of dark chocolate and a nibble of zwieback (dried bread). the last 2 are recommended here as a suitable diet for gastro sufferers. poor babe has been spouting from both ends all day and night.
i am eating...successive nutritionally unsound rounds of bread with nutella, coffee, and muesli bars in between trips to the washing machine and the bathroom.
bruno is eating....as above.
as you can see from the above, lola is the only one in the family currently eating anything decent.
someone feed us some real food!
some days i can find no inspiration to cook. and some days i worry that max is suffering from my apathy. he's not too fussy with what he eats, and can even be quite adventurous. but he's still pretty much yr typical 3 year old who picks out the mushrooms and olives and has a pathological hatred of onions. i can't really blame him because i only began to like all of the above things when i was about 20! thankfully he has no problems with broccoli and loves raw carrots and cherry tomatoes and all fruits so my nutritional conscience is somewhat appeased.
when i think he needs an extra vege boost i make this pasta for him, and he loves it. it is nothing new or special, but useful when you want to make YRSELF feel better about yr child's consumption of vegetables! i got the recipe from annabel karmel, but unlike her version, i usually ditch the marscapone.
on tuesday night i made a saffron risotto for dinner. it was beautifully yellow, soft and butter-creamy. and i finally got around to having some asparagus, poached and then drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice. i'm not usually so reluctant to eat asparagus, i just can't bring myself to feel enthusiastic about the thick, woody stalks we get here. in oz, thin, slender spears are prized; here it is just the opposite. they were delectable anyway, despite their appearance, not tough at all. even max ate a few spears, despite previously swearing that he hated them. so the whole family 'enjoyed' the after-effect of asparagus wee : ) even lola, who got it through breast milk. i heard a rumour that in spring time so much asparagus is consumed in zürich that the lake of zürich gives off a slight whiff of asparagus.....
tonight i slow-roasted tomatoes and beetroots in olive oil and balsamic vinegar with a good grinding of pepper, until the beets were gently caramelised and the tomatoes dark red and gleaming. i love coming home to the smell of roasting tomatoes, it reminds me so much of cosy cold-weather winter warmer cooking (it was cold today). i made some polenta with rosemary and a bit of milk to smooth it out, brushed it with olive oil and grilled it until it was crunchy and brown. had some hot spanish sausage (a normal sausage for max), too. it was good! i especially love to smoosh the tomatoes on top of the polenta and grate or shave a bit of parmesan on top. drank some white wine our friend peter gave us, produced on his daughter's farm just outside zürich.
shortbread biscuits afterwards for something sweet : )
roasted tomatoes
- cut some good ripe red tomatoes in half
- put cut-side up on a baking tray
- drizzle over some olive oil and blasmaic vinegar
- turn the tomatoes over (cut side down) and jiggle about a bit to distribute the good stuff evenly
- turn tomatoes back over grind over some pepper and bung it all in the oven.
- i usually start out with the oven quite hot (maybe 190°c) and then turn it down to 150°c after a bit.
- let roast for a while....check 'em to see how they look. don't let them dry out too much, unless of course you want dried tomatoes. you gotta leave some juice in them!
- you can do this with cherry tomatoes - oh, very good. but be extra careful not to dry them out.
- roasted tomatoes are excellent on their own, as a pasta sauce, to mop up bread, on oat biscuits or just about anything, really.
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