the red kitchen

Red is the new red

Here in the kitschenette household we are loving this new thermos I bought for Max at Ikea. It's so very red!

Every second Thursday the kindergarteners spend the afternoon in the forest, sawing bits of wood, jumping on frozen streams, getting muddy and just generally communing with nature. It's so cold now that their teacher suggested packing a thermos of tea to warm the little darlings up. So yesterday Max trotted off with a flask full of steaming hot peppermint tea, and very happy he was, too. When he got home he and Lola drank another flask full of tiger tea (it's especially for kids). Then more for breakfast! The tiger tea gets the thumbs up from us - rooibus, lemongrass, lemon verbena, peppermint, apple and orange zest, mmm.

Morning tea

I've just devoured this piece of my mother-in-law's yummy fruitbread.

Soup kitchen

It's cold. We didn't get the snow the forecasters predicted, but it's certainly cold enough. But, the skies are clear and blue, so I'm happy. As long as it isn't cold AND grey I can cope.

Soup for dinner tonight - potato and leek, with cubes of day-old bread tossed in garlic oil and parmesan and roasted til crispy.

I love sauteeing leeks in lots of butter. I like to squish the pieces with the back of the wooden spoon until the inner circles slide and slither out into the buttery juices.

Cold outside, warm inside, and the house smells soupy good. A nice start to the weekend.

The fruit of Love

Stephanie Alexander tells me that in ancient times quinces were revered as sacred symbols of love, happiness and fertility. There is something kind of miraculous about quinces, in the way that their perfume subtly fragrances the kitchen, and the way their hard, pale rawness transforms into crimson softness after a few hours of judicious cooking.

They've long been a favourite of mine, ever since I discovered them back in Sydney. Then, it was difficult to find a reliable source, but here in Switzerland they are reasonably easy to find.

Bruno's parents recently gave me 10!!! kilos of quinces, all from a local farm. Luckily they have a long shelf-life, because I've been so busy that I haven't had time to make jam and jelly from them - they are still sitting out in our open freezer (the balcony, now it's so cold). I did poach a huge batch,  from which I made a fab quince and almond cake (in the manner of Anneka Manning's apple and almond cake), much better than the quince and nut cake (from Stephanie Alexander) I made for Max's birthday, which was a dry and pretty dismal affair.

I have to admit I don't do much more with quinces other than poach them (and then use them in various cakes and tarts) and make jam or jelly from them. They do amount to a fair bit of work, just for those simple recipes. I haven't tried my hand at quince paste, nor am I tempted, for some reason (I think it was Stephanie Alexander's comment about how she badly sprained her arm while making a batch that put me off). I'm happy as a clam with my poached quinces, so I haven't made much of an effort to seek out new quince recipes (lazy, I am). I might try to put some in my christmas cake this year, though (if I ever get around to making it).

Here are my two favourite quince recipes. If quinces are in season in your part of the woods, take advantage now, because the season is so sadly short:

Bircher and more bircher...

Gosh, I never knew so many people wanted the recipe for 'bircher muesli'. In my blog stats a startling high percentage of visits coming from search engines are looking for bircher muesli, of all things. I hope all you people arriving here looking for bircher muesli are happy with what you find!

Better revisit my recipe myself (been preoccupied with toast), just to make sure it is still as yummy as I remember.

Schlangerbrot

We had a party for Max and Lolly on Sunday, a sausage sizzle in the park*, in the bitter cold and mud which no-one seemed to mind at all (much fun was had by all).

Above is a specimen of the (infamous) schlangerbrot (snakebread), lengths of bread dough wound around a bloody great stick and charred, err, cooked, over a fire. One of those things for which nostalgia seems to play a key part in the attraction (for Bruno, harking back to his days in the pfädi, or scouts). Most often they are rumoured to be blackened on the outside but raw on the inside, but these were surprisingly delicious and well-cooked. Or maybe they tasted so good because it was so damn frrrrr-fr-frr-freezing cold, and they were so divinely hot.

* Found a use for my 2 leftover rolls of frozen chocolate chipper dough. Chippers were a party hit with the semi-frozen, smoke-wreathed guests.

Toadfood

Happy happy joy joy....marinated tofu (or toadfood, as Max calls it) with egg noodles for dinner tonight.

On birthdays, a surfeit of cakes, and tight pants

This week finds me becoming increasingly well-acquainted with my oven, and my trusty Edmonds cupcake recipe.

In the last two days I've two double batches of cupcakes - one lot for Max's birthday celebration at kindy (yes, he continues to celebrate his birthday, a full two weeks after the event), and the other for Lola's birthday (which is today, happy birthday sweet little Lolly!)at the Chinderhuus. Max requested chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing and red flowers, and Lola got vanilla cupcakes with pink vanilla icing and white flowers (no photos, as I was too busy trying to fend the kiddies off the cupcakes, but trust me, they were delicious, even though I forgot to put the proper quantity of baking powder in one lot).

Cupcakes are a Good Thing when it comes to these kindergarten-type birthday thingies, because they a) look cute; b) do away with the need for plates; and c) do away with the hassle and mess of cutting and distributing. But, when it comes time for the big birthday bash, I think a proper whole cake is still nice.

Last night I also made a quince and almond cake, cos few people have asked me for the recipe and I didn't want to post the recipe without some pics. This weekend we are having a joint birthday party for Max and Lolly, so guess what I'll be up all night making! Another cake!!! Still haven't decided if I will attempt a shape (last year at Mum and Dad's in Oz we had a dinosaur park and a pink pigcat - it was meant to be a pink pussycat but was decidedly pig-like) or just do a big, round confection with sprinkles, candles, lurid piped icing, ringing bells and whistles, and maybe some fireworks for good measure.

Now, I love a good butter cake but taking this weeks' cake bonanza and last weeks' chocolate chipper fest (I made up a quadruple batch) into consideration, I think I have overdone it, and have the tightening pants to prove it. Oh well, there's my winter layer of blubber.