Squash filled with meat

Today I had the time to prepare this lovely dish. Finally, I was waiting for weeks to make it!!!

I do not want to talk about it too long as these pictures will talk for themselves.

I carved the squash to remove the seeds.

I filled them with minced pork. This part is a bit tricky as the meat must be cooked before filling. 

How to make it?  What to add?

- onion

- garlic

- pork

- herbs, salt, pepper 

- and of course the squash and the cheese

Cut the onion and add it to a pot, simmer it in a little cooking oil. Add the minced meat and the spices, herbs,  and keep cooking. Once it is done fill in the squashes, cover with cheese and put them into the oven.

Bake them for two hours on around 170 celsius. Uncover them and check the squash. If they are about to melt, they are ready to eat.

I had some pork filling left, I put them to the freezer. Next week when I make penne I can use them with some tomato and cheese.

Soup for my baby boy

Today my son woke up having a terrible flu. I decided to prepare this lovely soup. I looked for veggies at home and cut them to small pieces. Put them to a pot and added water.

Once they started to cook I added salt and pepper. This time I let the veggies add their value to the soup and did not add any herb. When it was done I put some chilli paprika just as little as my baby can handle to say goodbye to the flu.

It was really great and easy.

Fudge

I just must share this. In Edinburgh we tasted this special one and I fell in love. Even by the pictures you will understand why.

I don't eat sweets, I am not well educated on fudge either. But now I can tell that I became a better person just because I know how the fudge tastes.

Töltött káposzta - Stuffed Cabbage

This week's star is the cabbage. I found one in my weekly delivery and did not know what to do with it. I wanted to find out something very simple, quick which is good for babies from 8 months old. And obviously I can find the ingredients I need. I could not come up with any better than the stuffed cabbage which is a Hungarian dish, one of my favourites. 

How did I make it? 

I used a small cabbage, half kg mince (best if you mix some different ones), some regular rice to make the meat-dough. I added salt, pepper, red paprika powder and garlic powder. You may serve it with soured cream and fresh bread.

Put the cabbage to a pan and add water, then start cooking it. When the colour changes and it is obviously done, take it out very carefully and leave it to cool. Once it is cold, cut each leaf and place them on each other.

You add everything else to a bowl and mix it - I do it by hand. Then just fill up the leaves and place them to a pot which is exactly the good size, so no cabbage can fall apart. If there are spaces between, put there smoked beef or ham or gammon pieces. Add water enough to cover the little cabbage packs.

Cook it covered. It might take for hours. But worth it, trust me.

Pasta with left-over mash

I made mash the other day but we could not finish all. 

In Hungary there is this great dish we used to eat a lot. It is easy, quick and lovely. If you don't have leftover food you can make the potato fresh, it is also fine! There is no instructions given regarding the amount you use. 

Clean the potato, cut them to pieces and add them to cold water. Add salt and start cooking. Meanwhile prepare the water for the pasta too. Once it is boiling, add the pasta and salt.

When the potato is ready, mash it. You can use some butter or oil. Then mix it with the pasta and add black ground pepper. 

Enjoy!

Mango-bread

What bread?!

Mango. 

Have you ever seen how to eat mango? Turned inside out. That's how the bread should look like. 

The best if you use bread baked to the mango shape, meaning prepared by yourself. I picked a small loaf in the supermarket which feeds four not very hungry guests or two starving ones. The shape isn't that exotic but the taste is lovely.

What did I do?

I grabbed a very sharp knife - not a big but sizeable one. Cut them without slicing, basically just carved in to 2-3 cm deep to get small squares. 

I used pure unsalted butter, corn oil - suitable for baking, rosemary, basil, parsley and mature cheddar. 

I stuck the butter in the cuts, added the others. You can use olive oil, salt or any other spices, herbs as you like. Cover with grated cheese.

It already looks lovely. Put it to the oven and grill it for 20 minutes on 150 °C. Or until either you can smell it or the cheese is golden brown.

Enjoy it with tomato. I loved it in this pure way so my son could taste it, too. If you have no small person to share the plate with, use your imagination and try to match herbs together.

Next time I will make the bread, too.

Let me know your version!

Odes to a veg :)))

Inspiration!  This is hilarious!

http://www.abelandcole.co.uk/blog/2013/09/odes-to-a-vegetable/

Duffy, Keates, Hegley, Dickinson? Here’s our starter for pen.

Open the fridge and take a peek.
Find inspiration from spud and leek.
Pop on your wellies, what’s to lose?
Head outside, find your muse
there, perhaps.

Pick up a penapple
between finger and thumb.
Grab a sheet of pepper –
wait for your words to come
(and they will).

Send us your poem of veggie idolatry
And you could receive a recipe anthology
(Referred to in some circles as simply a cookbook,
We wanted to give it a poetical new look.)

 Read more on the AC website :)

Hello, little pumpkin!

Halloween and autumn in general is all about the pumpkins! At least in the kitchen. Squash, pumpkin any version. What to do with them? Nothing scary, I swear!

Ready, squash, roast!! 

It is soft like butter, sweet like honey. Roasted squash is one of the best dessert or snack you can offer. 

The easiest way if you wash it, cut it to half at least and put it to the oven for one or two hours (depends on the size, type, etc.). Uncover it when you first smell it and when you see it a little burnt, it is done! Do not eat the skin. (Not joking, I had a guest, who tried not knowing.)

My son loves it!

ZIPLIST recipe:

Vanilla Pumpkin Pancakes

"Breakfast classic and pumpkin delight meet to create some magic in these whole wheat, fluffy pancakes made to please!"

If you want to try something really lovely, give these pancakes 25 minutes from your life and enjoy their beauty :) - Not for babies under 1yr. Later it can be fine if you leave the sugar. Anyway, if you are lucky and your puree is sweet like honey, no need to add that much sugar.

Be creative and decorate your pancakes! Use any type of fruits or chocolate. HHMMMM....yammm: click to read the full article with detailed instructions and lovely pictures.

Quick pasta

I order vegetables and fruits from farms. I do not buy any in supermarkets. How this works? I get a box of mixed vegs and fruits every Monday. It is set what  the mix of the week is but I can either skip or dislike any which I still have from last week or we did not like. In this case it is a surprise for me what is going to be placed in my box instead. Every Monday morning I wake up excited as if it was Xmas! :) My son and me pack out the box and see if there is any vegetable we don't know or we know but never cooked etc. Immediately, my mind starts to work what I could make out of that mix. So, this is how it can happen that I find myself introduced to new vegetables and fruits. Today I met my first unknown leafs.

I did not feel like cooking today. I had to realize, though, that I must. The veggies are here and actually the family is hungry. I decided that I will not stay in the kitchen more than 30 minutes. 

When I started to pack out what kind of vegetables I can work with, I started to like them. So, I took several photos and cooked three different meal in the end. In fact, I did not spend more time in the kitchen than the promised 30 minutes. 

First, I would like you to meet my new best friend, the rainbow chard. Isn't the name already lovely?

I like it so much that I looked it up. See what Wiki says:

 " Chard is considered to be one of the healthiest vegetables available.....Chard is also known by its many common names such as Swiss chard, silverbeet, perpetual spinach, spinach beet, crab beet, bright lights, seakale beet, and mangold. In South Africa, it is simply called spinach."

Maybe it is only new to me. But you know, for a newborn... :))

Let's see how I make my Rainbow Chard Penne which is actually one the favorite dishes now in the family. I cooked it for my son only, I wanted to eat something else. My husband ate what the boy left and he loved it so much that I had to cook more. 

I promise! No more than 300 min. 

What we need:

- penne

- chard

- salt

- cheese on the top

Yes. That's all. :)

Boil water for the pasta, once it is boiling add the pasta. Meanwhile clean, wash and tear the chard to small pieces. 

We also need grated cheese. Either buy it ready or do it yourself. After about 8 minutes of cooking the pasta add the chard. 2 more minutes and done. Either you fish out every piece or you drain the penne and chard to a bowl. Add the cheese when serving.

It is lovely! Easy, fast and healthy.

You can use - as I did - wholegrain pasta with no eggs. Or any shape, form, type pasta that you like the most. It is possible that you will not find chard to cook. Replace it with any green you have. Slight adjustments in the recipes then. Like if you use spinach, add garlic. Use your fantasy and create this meal with all your heart and you will love it so much!

I know I told you that I cooked three dishes. You will find them posted in the next coming weeks. Until have a look what I left behind in the kitchen after 30 minutes of creativity:

Paprikas csirke aka chicken paprika

My dear friend made this dish the other day showing his interest in our Hungarian cusine. If you are Hungarian you must know this food. And must also know that we don't add mushroom. He did. My friend added it. That is his version.

I show you how I make it. Since it is a traditional dish you can find many different ways to preapre it.

I will be really quick in explaining because it is really quick to prepare it. This was one of my firsts.

What do we need?

- chicken - quite obvious
- paprika - red paprika powder. Not available in every country.
- red onion
- garlic
- tomato
- salt, pepper
- cooking oil
and the herbs: lovage, parsley

Serve with pasta or mash and pickles or soured cream. You can spice it up a little bit with mustard if the basic recipe is too boring :)

How to do it in some simple steps?


Clean the chicken parts - remove the feathers.
Cut the onion to small. Slice the tomato.

Add oil to a quite sizeable pot and heat it up with the onion. Once the onion is getting to be soft, add the tomato and cover the pot.

They must become a juicy, soft ... er... thing. Like on the second photo.

Add the chicken and cover it. Add water so that it is almost covered.


Add salt, pepper, red paprika powder.

20 minutes later add the herbs and taste it. If you miss some more salt or pepper, do not hesitate.

Be cautious so it does not stick to the pot. Stir every now and then.You will see when it is done.


Easy, fast, kid-friendly and terribly delicious. 

Chicken drumsticks

Drumsticks with veggies

I promised to a special friend that I help her in losing weight. Unfortunately, I cannot stand next to her shouting to keep doing push ups and do not stop site running. It would be fun, though! That's why I dedicate this recipe to her to encourage her in her plan. And to show that you can eat good food, you do not need suffer and you do not have to pay fortunes to eat healthy food.

I am not on a diet. Please disregard the bacon...

You will need a pan with lid. Veggies (anything you like) and chicken. I used drumsticks.

The spices: pepper, garlic powder and herb - I used rosemary. Salt only if you skip the bacon.

I fried the bacon but without it you will need tiny portion of cooking oil and salt. Why is that? When you cook the bacon it releases salt. That's why is that.

(Do not use extra virgin oils as we need to heat the oil. It is not healthy at all if this type of oils are heated. You can read why from professionals by clicking here)

Wash the chicken and remove the small feathers from the skin and wash them through again. Cut the vegetables and wash them. If you use fresh new potato and carrot, no need to peel, only wash thoroughly. You can add apple, beetroot, tomato. Or make it sweet with plum or peach.

Put the pan on the hob. Heat it up. Either with the bacon or with the oil. Once one side of the bacon is done, turn them and add the chicken. Make sure that the chicken is fried, keep turning them. It should not take longer than 5 minutes. If you do not use bacon add salt now. If the chicken is nice brown, add the cut vegetables, pepper, garlic powder and the selected herb. It is not a problem at all if some water is left on the veggies. 

What if you noticed that the chicken or the bacon is stuck to the pan? Pour a little wine or any other alcoholic drink under the chicken. Maybe you would be happy to add the red wine but you have guests who do not drink alcohol? Use lemon then. 

Reduce the heat to the minimum now. 

Cover it and in 20 minutes it is done.

And then a recipe for pasta lovers

We cooked two types of soups by now. I hope you liked the tomato soup as we go ahead and based on that recipe we can create our very first pasta meal.

Spaghetti in tomato sauce

Do you  remember how we made the tomato soup? Let's get through again.

Have a saucepan or any pot, put tomato juice. Add salt, sugar, pepper and boil it. This is it.

Now we have a trick: we add garlic and basil. The garlic should be peeled and cleaned and pressed. Or you can use dry one (powder) from the supermarket. It is not thick at all, right? Well, put some flour. Slowly, carefully. Reduce the heat, so the flour does not burn. We are done with the sauce. Add some more fresh basil.

How to save some time? 

Before doing anything at all, get your pot ready for the pasta. Put water to boil and add salt and oil. The water should really be much more than the pasta amount, so when the pasta grows it still have space to develop and will not stick together. The oil will help that too. When the water boils, add the pasta. It is hard to measure how much you will eat, so how much you would need to cook. Try with some and let's see. If it is not enough, you still have the pot to cook some more. Normally, there are guidelines on the pack. Read them. When you think that the pasta is ready pour the water to the sink. 

Safety instructions:

• Be careful with the heat and steam. You can open the tap to add cold water to the sink
• Remove everything from the sink, specially the glass
• Wear heat-resistant gloves
• If the pot full of water and pasta is too heavy, do not lift it alone. Ask for help or hold it up to the sink and just slightly, slowly make it tilt aside.
• Always use the colander and never the lid, no matter how experienced you are. It can slip and the water burns you. Of course the pasta is gone then. 

You can be naughty a bit and add cheese. What do you think? Isn't it just easy?!

Notes:

If you cook for babies

• choose different, smaller pasta which fits to their small fork or finger better. 
• use birch sugar.
• add less salt.
• use extra virgin oil instead of any regular one.
• they can eat cheese, but not too much a week. If your little one had cheese in the past couple of weeks, skip it now. If he is 10+ months old, go ahead and enjoy the cheesy pasta. :)

Töki pompos - Hungarian Bread

or we can call it pizza ... as you like.

NOTE: Not advised for babies! And it is a bit more advanced level...do not feel disappointed if it is not exactly the same how you pictured it. It will be much better and better every time you try again.

As I am just sharing this recipe but haven't made this bread recently I cannot share photos. I will update the site soon.

This will then be difficult to project it for you without pictures if you have never seen Töki pompos. Don't try to translate the name. This is just how we call this beauty. They say that this bread is from the village of Tök which is closed to Budapest, capital of Hungary and pompos means 'small piece of bread'. I read that this pompos is known there for hundreds of years now, most probably taken over from the Turkish.

This is your food if you like garlic and smoked bacon meeting with cream on fresh, soft bread in harmony with some cheese on the top. And this can be truly yours if you are veg, just leave the meat. It is going to be fab!! Do not think of this food as if you have tried anything like that before, because you have not. Unless you went to one of the Hungarian Xmas markets where you can enjoy a piece of it flushed with mulled wine.  OR  unless you visited me at Halloween. :)

You know, I must admit something. I took a very dangerous step publishing this article for you. Hungarians take it very seriously how to make Töki pompos. And everyone has a version. I tell you something. Do not care about them telling you this is not the way. Just add anything you like and enjoy it!

Precautious notes - Safety instructions:

We will use the oven. You will need to make friend with it first. For now, please, carefully read the user manual and be very careful when you open the door while it is hot or you touch anything inside while it is hot. Why? Because it is hot. :) If this is your first time with your oven, try really to do everything to learn how it works before you start with anything else. Do not waste the food if you - in the end - cannot even switch it on. 

After words followed by words let us enjoy some flavour. I stop talking and will only go on with showing you how to make this nice bread and how to make it yours.

There you go.

Follow me to my kitchen, take a seat, have your drink and relax. 

I will show you how to create this masterpiece of the Hungarian Culinary Art. 

Let's start with the ingredients:

• 0,7 kg flour (coded - at least in Hungary - Bl-55, otherwise plain flour)
• 0,4 l water
• 2 dkg yeast (it can be the powder version)
• 1 coffee spoon of sugar - can be xilit
• 2 dkg salt
• 0,7 dl cooking oil (any would make it)

---------------------------------------------

• 10 dkg bacon
• 10 dkg smoked bacon
• 1 mid-sized red onion
• 1 teaspoon crushed garlic
• 20 dkg cheese
• 2 dl cream - tejföl (as fat as possible - 20% or so)
• fresh ground black pepper

Just because I love bacon, you don't have to. Remember that. I love garlic, no need for you to add as much I do, or add more as you like. And the soured cream. In Hungary you find it under the secret code: TEJFÖL. You can skip if you fancy some tomato. :)

The amounts are not exactly what you need unless you use the very same type of flour, yeast, etc. Once you start to make the dough, you will feel whether you need more flour or more water. We will get there, do not worry. So, the above are only guidelines.

Do you have every needed material ready to build up the harmony of flavours? Reading the shopping list I can already taste the pompos. :)

Make the bread first. 

Get a mug. Add the yeast and the sugar. Add very warm but not hot water to the 3/4 of the mug. Stir it. The yeast should be even in the mug. If you are lucky and the yeast is good quality you will see how the yeast, water and sugar combo starts "foaming". It looks like a lovely cup of cacao but you would not want to try this one... 

Some say that there is no need to prepare the yeast, just add to the flour in the bowl with the sugar and the water... I say that you have better chances if you make the yeast foam before you add it to the flour. You can try both ways - not at the same time, of course.

You will need a bowl now. Wash your hand very thoroughly, remember, this is a handmade-homemade staff. You can use kneading machine. But honestly, I would not! This bread is supposed to be baked in an outdoor furnace, not in an electric oven. At least, show some respect by preparing it by hand once you put it in an oven in your kitchen. 

Prepare some more water and flour just in case you will need it to shape the dough.

Add the flour and make a small valley in the middle. Pour the mug of yeast here. Add the salt and the oil. Once these are in, start to stir it. In the beginning you can use a spoon but don't be shy. Push your hand in there... Gentlemen! Please be careful if your hand is hairy that no hair goes in the food! - Ladies, too, if I may...

Make the dough. Just knead, hit, turn, bash it. Until it shapes and forms a small ball. If it is too dry add water, if it is sticky add flour. Try to use only one hand, so you add anything needed with your clean hand without messing up your whole kitchen and begging to the paper bag to open once you stuck it with dough.

The dough must be soft and "clean" ready to be formed to pizza shape. Before shaping, though, please cover it with a kitchen towel and leave it in a warm (constantly warm) place for 30-40 minutes. Do not check on it before the time is up! You will see once you discover it that the size is almost doubled! That is the symptom of leavening. That is what we need. The yeast and the sugar works fine. Your dough is full of gas and it is really nicely full of air.

But what to do until the dough is having a nap? 

Prepare the toppings! 

Mix the cream and garlic in a plate, spice it up with some salt and pepper. Cut the onion and the bacon. Mix the onion and the bacon on another plate. Or cut the tomato. Or any toppings you decided to use. Cheese must be grated into not too small size. Make them ready for the big decoration movement!

When the dough is done with the nap it is time to heat up the oven. The settings are individual and every device is different, I can say that there should be 230 Celsius in there. You see? This is VERY HOT! 

This time do not use the ventilation only the up and down baking mode. I hope that I am of any help. 

The oven is on, heating up. This starts to be exciting, right?

Have two baking trays and get them ready. Put some oil on the trays so the dough would not burn in there, make the oil even.

Place your 'yeast cake' to an even board or cover the table with baking paper and start to stretch it. 

Ok, I am stretching but how? If you have no rolling pin in the household, you should be fine with a bottle. Make it clean and remove any paper. 

You can use some more flour if needed. Make the size of the trays or smaller. But the dough should not be higher than 2 cm.  Spray or sprinkle water on the top and immediately put it in the oven.

After couple of minutes you will see that the bottom is nicely yellow and the top is dry. It can be 5 minutes or 10 depending on your oven's capacity. You can open the oven - VERY CAREFULLY - and touch the top to see if it is dry or not.

Take it off from there if it is dry on the top and the bottom is crispy. 

Here comes the decoration!! This is the part when you can really be creative! Even the cream with the garlic, add the bacon and the grated cheese. Or the tomato and the cheese and the cream and the garlic. Or no garlic. Once you are done with the decor, add some salt (only if bacon was not displayed as participant in this ceremony) and ground pepper. Cheese on top! 

Back to the oven and bake it until the cheese turns to Autumn colours and becomes light brown.

Switch off the oven. Let the cheese melt some more and once you cannot hold yourself back take the bread out and slice it to oblong shape and enjoy!

Eat it warm or cold. With beer or wine, with tea or coke. 

Enjoy your meal!

Enjoy! 

Jó étvágyat! 

Bon appetit! 

Guten Appetit!
Tuck in! Get stuck in! Eat already! Happy eating! Get your laughing gear round this! 

Another soup - if the vegetable soup was not your cup of tea

Tomato soup

Did you try the vegetable soup last week? Well, maybe it was too much for first bite.

Let's go and see how to make it much easier.

It happens that my sweetheart son does not like what I cook. He eats it on Monday but next Tuesday he dislikes it. Happens. He keeps changing, his appetite changes so does his taste. And it is also possible that I slightly change something which changes the whole meal for him. Well, for these cases I have a super 10 minutes soup which he always loves.

Tomato soup from pure tomato juice.

Always buy the 100% pure juice. Add to a pot as much as you need. Add some sugar, salt and pepper. Keep tasting it. Once it boils, add pasta and three drops of extra virgin oil.  If you'd like you can add some water. I use small sized Italian pasta as you cannot buy pasta for soups here. (Which I find kind of weird.) When the pasta is ready, your soup is ready. Add basil before you remove it from the hob.

If I have some spare time, I make pasta on my own. Shape it, dry it, use it. Lovely. If you cook for your baby do not forget that there are some types of pastas which contain egg. Check when shopping and be careful with the egg. Use durum wheat.

This soup is not the best diet for your baby as it contains sugar. You can minimize the intake of refined sugar by using birch sugar which is perfectly fine for your baby.

About cleaning

I know, I know. We were talking about cooking and not cleaning. But, these two things go together. You must clean before cooking and after... not a fairy tale.

Before cooking always make sure that the tools you use are clean. I am very serious. Have you ever been to a very low level diner's kitchen? Find one on the road somewhere (maybe not in your country) and ask them for you to have a look at the kitchen. Even from the door...it will be enough for you to make sure that you keep your kitchen clean. Always.

End of story.

Some tips for cleaning:

• Use lemon to clean the cutting board, simply scour it. Especially, when you must remove the raw meat. Be careful with raw meat and eggs, do not risk salmonella.
• Lemon is great to clean your fingers after a nice portion of BBQ chicken wings eaten by hand
• Vinegar is great to disinfect your kitchen countertop, it removes limescale from the sink. Put water to a spray bottle and add some vinegar. Spray it, wait, wipe dry it. Easy, isn't it.
• Before cleaning the oven put water to a oven-safe pot and let it boil in there for several minutes. Be careful with the heat and the hot metal, though, you just wipe dry the most of the grease and dirt.
• Do not leave the dishes for the next day...you may collect more and more....and more...and just one more... NO, do not let your kitchen live its own life. It takes 5 minutes to tidy up after each meal, so it is easier to keep it clean.

I am manic cleanliness, a neat freak. You do not have to follow me in that. But there are basics. And these should be normal standard to everyone. 

How to organise your kitchen?

The best if you are lucky enough to have a kitchen on your own. 

If not...well...either you convince your mom/dad/boyfriend/girlfriend/neighbour to let you change things, to let you reorganise their kitchen. They will not like it...but you can try. Or just be selfish and temporary use the reorganised order of things. Don't be bothered; they will put things back if they don't like them in their new place. :D

You need space to prepare things between the sink and the hob. If it is possible. Best scenario is that you can wash your hand/the veggie/spoon as many times as you need, you can add water easily to your food boiling on the hob. We will talk about the oven soon, as well. For now it is good enough if check how to use it. That can be tricky. :D

What you need:

• a very good, sharp knife to chop, one to clean veggies and one to cut them.
• cut board
• kitchen spoon and at least one table spoon
• pots, pans
• kitchen towel
• spices
• oil, spread, butter, etc.
• herbs
• bowls

These are the basics.

What I do is that I have the knifes between the hob and sink, spices on the right side of the hob. Spoons, other tools under the hob. I do not really have to move more than a meter while cooking, no matter how big the kitchen is. 

When you want to do something prepare every ingredients and line them to see whether you have everything. What must be cleaned, cut, goes to the sink-side. What are additions, like flour, goes to the right side of the hob.

And yes, if you feel cutting the veggies too tiring you are free to sit on the floor with your bowl and knife or get a chair...maybe a bar chair. If you decide to peel and cut things on the floor be careful that it does not harm others (kids eg.) or you do not leave water on the floor as it can be slippery.

But if you cook every day and you do not have time for laziness, you learn how to do these things efficiently, quick and easy AND standing. For example if you clean all the veggies, you just need to cut them quickly. It can go directly to the pot, no additional dirty bowls. The messy thing comes when you work with meat, especially mince. Or you bake. 

We will get there....For now, get the chair and open a bottle of wine if that makes you relaxed. :) Where to place your wine glass? I know. Not easy, heh? Definitely to the right side where no dirt can get in there.

Vegetable soup - the kick off

Let's pretend that this is your first time in a kitchen. Don't think that you are alone with that. There are others out there who try it first time today. 

How I make vegetable soup

Chicken soup

The first photo I have taken is of a chicken soup with vegetables. It is a very nice Hungarian soup, basically it is a broth. I cook this soup - really a large amount of soup - and put the liquid to plastic containers. I normally keep three containers from one soup. When I want to have a vegetable soup quickly during the week, I just defrost the liquid with some additional water, put some carrot and potato in it. I already have the flavour, the richness, the love in it. I also add some pasta. The one I used on the second photo is a special Hungarian pasta. Any pasta would be fine which is small enough.

Vegetable soup

How you make vegetable soup

Ingredients:

carrot

potato

tomato

onion (some don't like it because difficult to digest - cut it to really small pieces or leave it as a whole and remove it from the soup at the end)

garlic (same as onion, leave it as a whole, only make a cut on it and remove it when the soup is ready to be served)

any additional vegetable you like

pasta

water

salt 

pepper

olive oil

the basic herbs: lovage, parsley, celery

you can add anything you like and feel would fit

Clean and slice every vegetable in a form you like and put it in a pot. Add water. The minimum amount of water is that it should cover the ingredients. And let's go! Turn on the fire!

Basically, we are almost done. You do not have to stay and stare at the water to boil. Cover it and give it time to warm up. When it reaches the boiling temperature remove the lid. Don't worry, you will hear and see when this happens. Adjust the heat to the minimum or as low that the soup can keep boiling but not running away from your hob. If you see that the water is getting low refill it.

Normally after 30 min the vegetables should be good. It depends on the vegetable's age, the temperature you use on the hob, etc. Keep trying to check whether the potato is soft enough. I would suggest that you use fresh vegetables, especially the carrot can be disappointing when it is old.

Add now the cut herbs. I was told once that the herbs should never be cut by scissors or knife, only torn by hand. Anyway, add the herbs and after cca. five minutes taste it. You will feel that it is sweet but watery. You add the salt and pepper now. Keep tasting. We still need to put the pasta which will soak up the salt, so don't worry if you put some more than needed.

Why do we add the herbs and salt&pepper at the end? Because then you will feel the real taste of the vegetables and not only the spices, yet the herbs can add their own aroma.

Once you feel it is done, add one teaspoon of olive oil. I use virgin oils because of my son. And before putting much salt in the food, I separate his portion. 

Add the pasta now and check back in five minutes. Actually on the bag of the pasta it is written how long it must be cooked. It can be al-dente or ready cooked. You decide.

While you are waiting for the soup to be boiled, the vegetables to be cooked, you have plenty of time to clean the kitchen or have a nice chat with your guests. Once the pasta is done we are ready to serve our first creation. 

What do you think? Was that too complicated? What did we do?

We cleaned and cut the vegetables. Put them in a pot. Keep waiting. Add spices and pasta. Done.

You maybe noticed that I did not add any indication of how much you should use from the ingredients. This is where the art begins. You use your own instinct. This is why I do not write recipe books. I don't want to tell you what to do or how. I just would like to give you a guide to find the artist in you.

Enjoy your soup and the compliments.

What to consider - recipes good for babies, too

I cook every day. In England, where we live, lunch is normally a sandwich and people have dinner in the evening. Well, not in my country! Lunch is a three-course dinner every day and me and my husband hardly eat anything in the evening. My husband needed to take lunch with him to the office, I must have lunch and then there is our baby.

When my son decided that he does not want to eat pureed baby food any more he was only 8 months old. He only wanted to what mom and dad do. My sweet little grown up baby. :)

The challenge to feed him made me be even more creative in the kitchen. I had to find out how to cook that he can also eat with us. Because I did not have the energy and time to cook two or sometimes three different full menu.

When you read my recipes therefore  consider that my foods are more or less suitable for babies from age 8 months old. This is anyway normally the time when complementary feeding should be on demand and you should give up the leadership and let your baby decide how big bite he wants. He also should develop the skill to eat for example a fruit  as a whole, using hands and fingers to be able to pick up food from the plate on his own. But there are so many things that he cannot eat yet.

Today my baby is 10 months old. In the past two months I created so many recipes which are good for babies, healthy and wealthy. :) I am happy to share.

The very first food you should try with

I noticed that many people do not eat soups. Why is that?

Soups are really healthy, they can be rich and filling your tummy. Additionally, it is not possible to fail when you cook soup. It is just water and then you just toss the ingredients. Some spices and herbs and let's boil.

I would suggest that try to cook soup.

Ok, what if you are really not a soup-person? You can go ahead with the pasta. No way to fail.

Many asked me what I put to my soups to make them so rich in flavour. They ask which type of bouillon cubes I use. Well, you will not like my answer. I do not use any. I really try to avoid them. Specially when I want my baby to eat the soup too. What do I do then? I build up the flavour harmony on my own.

I grow my herbs. You don't have to. It is possible to buy them dried.

My basic herbs are for vegetable soup:

• lovage
• parsley
• celery

This Friday I share with you how to make a really lovely vegetable soup. Trust me, not a big deal! You will need some herbs, though. 

How to start?

I am telling you that the cooking books are just great! Unfortunate, that they only help you if you already cook well. Otherwise you will not understand a word. I noticed that they treat you as if you knew everything. But then why would you use a book to learn? Open the book only if have no idea of what to cook. Read the labels and the ingredients and that's it. Do not go into the details because you will be lost in two sentences. Anyway, if you feel that it's time to cook something and you are into it, you should not be discouraged by a book. Just go into the kitchen and let's see what you have at home.

Do not ever think that you cannot make it. Because you can!

Does not matter how old you are, where you are from. What matters is that you want to do something here.

Let's then check what are the basics you should keep at home to be able to create something.

It always depends on what type you are. I am a pasta type. There are people who prefer Asian food, ones like the vegan staff, others would eat everything with meat.

It is also important to see the level of your knowledge. This is going to be your first? Have you ever boiled water before? Did you happen to cook and it was just not what you expected?

Anyway, find your favourite ingredients.

I always have at home:

pasta: my husband likes penne, I prefer spagetti. I always have two, three types of pasta at home.

rice: brown rice is healthy, good to eat it sometimes. We do not like it that much, though. So we keep it to the minimum. Normal rice is always welcomed.

chicken breast: in the freezer. Do not store it in one piece, slice it before putting to the freezer and put them into separate bags. Defrost only the portion you need.

Herbs, spices.

You need to know them to be able to use them. Start to read the labels of the food you buy from stores. Find out what they are made of and from. Be cautious what you eat and whether you like them.

Until next week figure out your favourite ones and let's cook something together.

Motivation

Does not matter what your motivation is. When you go to the kitchen just leave your thoughts behind and start listening to your divination. Nobody cares what you do in there. Only you. Nobody cares how you feel about it. Only you. Do it for yourself.

I will guide you. Read my blog and I will post something to inspire you every Friday to be ready for the weekend cooking!

Just a quick side note:

When my husband proposed me one of his reasons was that I am the perfect housewife he wished for. It is important for men to be treated well down there...(not that down...or at least it's not what I mean now).

What I think of cooking...

Cook with me tonight

I am not telling you that the homemade food will be much better than the one from the store or restaurant.  I cannot guarantee that what you cook is more delicious. What I can guarantee is that you will feel proud. You will be receiving compliments. And you will be really not happy returning to the kitchen after the nice moments spent with your lovely creation and see the piles of dishes around.

Ready-to-eat food is great. I eat them, too. Rarely, but I do. I eat pizza, I eat cookies and drink coke. I am not trying to show up as if I was someone to show you how to live better life, how to eat more healthy,etc. The only thing I thought to share is the moment when you see the happiness spread on the face of your beloved husband - or the person you chose to test your cooking skills on – while he tastes one of your new creation.

Cooking is art. It is a way to express yourself, to show your feelings. And trust me, the ones who eat your food will feel how much you care. It will be very much appreciated. That is what I want to share with you. It is a gift I give you.

So, why not cooking with me tonight?

Intro

Hi, I am Mariann. 

Since my son was born I am a full time mummy and enjoying every moment of it. Yes, even the dirty diapers. Many times I thought that being at home and taking care of my son is not satisfying me fully. Then I look at the gorgeous smile of my son and I do not care about the world anymore. 

Yet, I have thoughts, I have skills, I did not stop being me. I need to share my thoughts, I must improve my skills. I must be me.

This is the reason why I decided to write. Any time my son sleeps I run to my fantasy world. This time, on this blog, I run to the kitchen to show you how to be more creative and how to collect compliments from your family.

If you feel that you have your own recipe, send it to me and we share it. You can publish with me.

The most important is that you find your own style. Do not try to cook Italian or Mexican. Cook pasta in your own way. Find your favorite Mexican food and spice it up and make it a’ la YOU.

Cooking is all about you. It’s your art, your masterpiece. Enjoy!

ps.: Please bear with me and my English... I am not native speaker. Cheers!