Supper idea- mortadella sandwiches

This is going to be a new part on F&R- supper ideas- something easy to make, perhaps an inspiration for you :)
Of course, tried out, and it's good! Don't forget to add butter!

Red bean - broccoli salad or the Yum Yum salad

  
This is an amazing simple salad that looks just delicious and inviting.
We had the pleasure of being introduced to each other by our friend Daria, who prepared this and also a few other dishes with nearly no effort. That kind is my kind :)
The colors are so pretty, especially shown in a clear glass dish.

Type of dish: salad, side
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Time: 20min
Prep time: 15min


You'll need:
a cutting board, small knife, collander, large clear shallow dish, tablespoon, a large cup, garlic crusher, medium saucepan

Ingredients:

• 2 cans drained and rinsed red beans
•  1 broccoli head, divided in small florets
•  1 tbsp mayo
•  2 tbsp greek joghurt
•  1 large garlic clove, crushed
•  salt
•  ground white pepper

How to?

Heat water in saucepan. Fill the colander with the beans and rinse well. Transfer the beans to the dish, making a layer out of them. In a large cup or bowl, mix together the mayonaise, joghurt, crushed garlic and season with some salt and pepper. Mix well. Set aside, best in the fridge.
Bring water to a boil in the saucepan, add 1 tsp salt, add the broccoli florets and cook until just tender - 10min is enough - even with frozen broccoli. Transfer to colander and rinse under cold water to make it crisp and to stop the cooking process. When the broccoli is cool, transfer to the dish, layering it on top of the red beans. Then plop over the joghurt- mayo mix. It will look like whipped cream over beans, but that's just the broccoli.
Cover up and chill a bit in the frigde. Serve with fresh baguette or garlic bread.
Great for a party or an appetizer.

Fettucine with sundried tomatoes, parsley and shaved parmigiano

I was at the shop and a guy was buying before me parsley and a coke. Funny thing was that I rarely buy parsley, but I like it. I also had this great fetticine pasta and a ton of sun dried tomatoes from Rome, so it was time to put 2 and 2 together.
You get a simple, fast pasta dish that is suprisingly light.

Yes, light.

And the recipe is very basic. Add a tablespoon of salt to a pot of boiling water, add a drizzle of olive oil and cook pasta acording to package. Drain and dice dried tomatoes, chop roughly half a bunch of flat leaved parsley and shred some hard italian cheese like parmigiano. Drain the pasta, place in a pasta dish, sprinkle over with the tomatoes and parsley, add some  olive oil  over it, season with fresh cracked black pepper and top with the cheese. Serve!

Additional info: If you buy dried tomatoes, they are usually quite salty in the beginning. To make the taste bearable, try soaking in olive oil, and gradually change the oil or water out. This also works with capers.

Supper idea- italian plate

Another idea to take home. This delicious plate is a mixture of what you can find in your fridge.
So a bowl of grape tomatoes, some prosciutto crudo, some salami, avocado with S&P and a bit of lemon juice, 3 types of hard italian cheese, some mini mozarella di buffala with a drizzle of truffle infused olive oil, bread and butter. To freshen the palette, some grapes.

Supper Idea - Pad thai with shrimps

 




This is a delicious dish worth making when you really need some good food. I had a slight hangover, and when i do, i prefer spicy food to give me a boost of energy. Lately I've been also stressing out on the use of meat, preffering over it shrimps or tofu.
This was a little bit time consuming but so worth it:) Just prepare it in advance, then you just throw it together!
Ingredients:
For the sauce:

• 1 cup chicken broth or veg broth
• 3 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 4 tbsp brown sugar/ or palm sugar
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1/2 tsp fresh white pepper crushed

For the rest:

• Tofu cut in a small cubes and marinated in 1 tsbp soy sauce
• 5-8 shrimps, thawed and with removed tails, soaked in 1 tbsp soy sauce and sprinkled with chilli flakes
• 1 carrot julliened
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 thumb sized piece of ginger, crushed
• 1 chilli pepper sliced
• 1 small onion sliced
• green onions, white parts cut widely, green parts set aside
• 1 lime
• 1/2 pack of udon rice noodles
• Chilli flakes
• bean sprout
• vegetable oil

Prepare the sauce by putting everything together in a bowl, mix well and set aside.
Bring a pot of water to boil, put in the noodles to soak and turn off heat. Check on the package to see if the noodles take 3 min or more to cook completly- mine were 3 min, so i soaked them 1,5min then drained and sloshed in cold water.
Heat up a large frying pan, add oil to a hot pan, and fry the tofu, and set aside. Then add to the pan the chilli, minced garlic, ginger, onions and white nion parts to fry until the garlic and onions are golden in colour. Then add the shrimps, tofu, the noodles, the bean sprouts, and 1/3 of the sauce, while stirring to cook the noodles and shrimp. Every time the liquid evaporates, add more, stirring all the time. When the noodles are done, they should be a little bit sticky, if not slightly mushy, the shrimps shoulb be pink and golden. Turn off the heat, stirr in the green parts of the onion, squeeze in some lime juice and serve!
Delicous

Healthy Stealthy Breakfast

When you want to have a gluten free breakfast, it's good to remember, that you should eat some oats, yoghurt, white cheese (if you are lactose intolerant like I am), a portion of fresh veggies, like cucmber, tomatoes, or some lettuce, and if you're a meat eater, some cold cuts or ham. I had delicious italian ham leftover from Christmas, so basicaly that's my meal. And, if you want more flavour to the cheese, sprinkle some chili cayenne, and on the side, sprinkle a mix of your favorite dried herbs (basil and tarragon for me!) pour some good quality olive ol over it to refresh the taste of them. Then you can mix your cheese in the oil herbs and it's delicious. I was actually well fed for most of the day with this small plate. If you feel that this is not enough, have a soft boiled egg too.
YUM!

Raclette party

Raclette if one of the few dishes where everybody eats from one plate.
Similar to fondue, this requires a special hot plate to keep the cheese melting and the potatoes baking.
We got a raclette set one year from our friends, and truth be said, the first time we did a raclette party, we drank way too much wine, to too little food. But it was a lot of fun. Hands up if you like fun!

And what can you also do with the raclette machine? Well,if you're considering getting one, or putting it on a wishlist, try getting one that has a plain top with no grill marks or any other kind of cute embelishes. Why? Because if you don't have a snazzy fancy schmancy crepe frying pan, this works just as well.
I've got the kind with a snowflake on top, so when I made crepes, they came out really fat and with the snowflake. So that kinda worked out.

What kind of cheese for raclette? Well, use the smelly raclette type. But it's smelly and heavy, so drink lots of wine folks, and have a salad on the side.
And you'll be merry merry :)
So what would you need to make this look and taste good?

• raclette cheese - about 200-250 gram per person :)
• 2 lettuces, shreded with a light vinaegrette
• potatoes, boiled, cooled, cut in half, about 6-8 per person
• pickles like: pickled pickles, bell peppers, sherkins, mushrooms, you name it.
• cold meat : ham, rossette, cured and regular bacon, pancetta, slices of sausages
• fresh veggies: carrot sticks, zucchini slices, tomatoes
• you can also serve grits, to warm up on the spoons with cheese.
• wine White and red. Lots of it, and lots of water to drink

Set your guests around the table, hand out eacha plate and a spoon, set the table with all the food and let the party begin- who shall eat the last slices of bacon with a tiny bit of cheese? Who wants dessert? You'll probably hear groans after that question :)

Herbed toasts

Serve these gorgeous bits with a thick soup for that extra ooompf:) Sadly, too easy to make, but only with the help of an oven....
Sorry guys without ovens :)

 Get ur choppers out, and a baguatte that can be a day old.
As for the ingredients, you'll be needing:

• 15 thin slices crusty baguette
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp dried parsley or oregano
• 1/2 tbsp garlic salt or granulated garlic

Heat up the broiler on your oven. Prep a baking tray with tin foil, and set aside. In a small bowl, mash together the ingredients with a fork, until mixed well. Smear the bread sliced with the butter paste and place on the tray. Broil for 5-10min and serve warm, not hot!

Cheesy Toast spiced up

I have no idea where I found this recipe, but it was probably the first recipe I found and used. I was 13 and it was good. Still is, for that matter.
Make this for dinner- 2-3 is perfect for a grownup, 4 is for the hungry people. A magic 1 and 1/2 goes for a kid. Trust me, you will be making this again and again.

Ok, let's say no more, let's make it.

Type of dish: snack, dinner, toast
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 1
Time: 15 min
Prep time: 7 min
Baking time: 7-8 min


You'll need:
a grater,  a fork, a medium small mixing bowl, a baking tray, parchement paper, spoon, cutting board, sharp knife

Ingredients:

• 1 cup grated yellow cheese of any type
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard or grainy french mustard
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch pepper
• 2-3 slices of tomato
• 2-3 slices bread
• 1 egg

Heat up your broiler to at least 170C. Line your baking tray with paper. In the mixing bowl, crack the egg, add the mustard, salt and pepper and whisk a bit with a fork. Add the grated cheese and mix well. Put the bread slices on the tray, and a spoon of the cheese egg mixture on each slice. Spread it out evenly over the bread and on top of each slice, place a slice of tomato. Put inder the broiler for around 5 min, until the cheese bubbles and melts. Then turn it off and serve. Watch out, hot!

Raisin oatmeal cookies- like totally the best

I love raisins in my cookies. If you don't, stop reading now. Otherwise you will have terrible dreams about cookies with raisins EVERYWHERE.
Just kidding.

So, I may have mentioned somewhere before, I like/love/adore raisins, but only in cookies. Outside of cookies I only luuuv currants.
I'm sure that didn't make much sense.
So,  oatmeal cookies are my best friends now. Like really. We start the day together and we finish it together. It takes 15 minutes to make these babies, and they are delicious even after a week in a non- air tight container.
I've tried a few versions, using honey instead of sugar, or maple syrup, but to get this one right, you have to commit to sugar. But if sugar really isn't your thing, use brown sugar ( I did) and they come out beautiful. And so good!

Ah, some things are optional in the recipe, like almond flakes or shredded coconut. I found that some may like the taste, some may not. Totally up to you. You are the cook, you know. You have the POWER.

Yes, let's move along. Shall we? This way please.

Type of dish: snack, dessert, cookies
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: about 20 cookies
Time: 50 min ( with cooling time)
Preparation time: 5 min
Cooling time: 30 min
Baking time: 15 min
Oven temp: 180C

You shall need:
a large mixing bowl, a egg beater, 2 tablespoons, a silpat or baking tray lined with parchement paper, oven rack ( for cooling)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rolled oats
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 100 gr softened butter
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup almond slivers
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 pinch of salt

I like to call this a one bowl cookie, and why:
crack the egg in the bowl, add the vanilla, sugar and butter. whisk until creamy. Add the baking powder, flour, salt, cinnamon and mix well. Then, add the raisins, oats and almonds. Mix again, try the batter, fall in love, and pop in the fridge for 30 min. This will make the cookies more chewy and less splayed around, but you can start baking them right away.
Heat your oven up, and prep your baking tray with the silpat or parchement paper. Take the rack out of the oven before and put in aside, as you will use it later on as a cooling rack.
Use 2 tablespoons. One to pickup half a spoon of the batter, the second spoon to ease it of the first spoon on the baking tray. If you've cooled  your batter before, make 1cm space between each cookie, and if not, 2-3cm space between them, bacuase they will spill over while baking.
When you have the whole tray in cookie batter,  tap them on top with a spoon to flatten them slightly down, but not enough to make them join each other. Bake them for 13-15 min, until they get golden- brown around the edges and tranfer them to cool on the rack. This way you can eat a cookie just minutes after you baked them:) Nifty, huh?

Enjoy!

Cheese and butter pasta- everybody loves it

Believe it or not, but there is a way to keep pasta simple and really delicious.
The most important thing you have to know - always have some hard Italian cheese and butter. Otherwise, this will not work out. :)
Too simple to write down a whole essay about making it, so here goes:

Boil water with a tsp of salt, add enough tagliatelle for the desired amount of people you may or may not have. This is a dish to eat at once, so no waiting around for somebody to show up.
Cook your pasta al dente, according to package, and in a bowl, place about a teaspoon of butter  (if you're dieting, if not, give it a tablespoon:) ), add some grated hard cheese, like parmesan, parmeggiano, or even corregio. So?
Drain the pasta and add to the bowl and mix with a fork so the butter and cheese is evenly distributed all over the pasta. Add more cheese on top, and a good sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper and you're ready to go!
It's De-li-cious!
Dreamy!
Even the most wicked person who hates butter and cheese liked it! When he was sick! Way to go!

Creamy cheese spinach sauce with pasta

I adore baby spinach. It's cute, taste good, looks innocent, and you can put it anywhere and some people won't notice ( I'm doing the sneaky look now).

I want to clean out a bit the pantry and frigde by using up what I have.
I had spinach leftover after minestrone soup to which at the end you can add spinach for more fiber and vitamins. And I had heavy cream, cream cheese and some pasta I had no idea I bought. How did that happen?

I'll let you in on I little secret of mine. Are you ready? " This is a heavy dish, so don't serve dessert or more cheese afterwards, or at least give it an hour to set in or you will have nightmares".


But as everything I post, it's yum yummylicious.

Type of dish: pasta, main
Cost: medium
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2 hungry, 4 less hungry people.
Time: 25min
Prep time: 5 min
Cooking time: 20 min


You shall need oh so much:
cutting board, skarp knife, spatula, frying pan, medium saucepan with lid, collander, cup, plates.

Ingredients:

• 100-200gr cream cheese ( the hochland type)
• half a packet of fresh baby spinach, washed
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 1 cup of milk ( to thin out the sauce)
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 vegetable stock cube or 1 glass of broth.
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 chilli pepper, minced
• fresh ground pepper
• optional: bacon cubes or pancetta cubed, a handfull
• 1 onion, diced
• olive oil
• salt
• pasta of your choice

If you don't know what to do, read this:
Heat water in saucepan with lid on. When it boils, add a pinch of salt and add as much pasta as you need. For example, when using small pasta like for mac n' cheese, just add one bowl of pasta. That's enough for 2 people. In the meanwhile, in a large frying pan heat on medium high some oil, add the onion, garlic, chilli and bacon. Fry until the bacon is cooked. Take the pan off the heat for a second, pour in the liquids and add the cream, cheese and stock. Use your spatula to smash a bit the cream cheese so it dissolves faster. Stir constantly, otherwise your cheese may bubble over the pan or dry out. We don't want that. Add by a handfull the spinach, stirring it in the hot sauce so it wilts and makes more space for ther next handfull. When you have incorporated as much spinach as you need, stir, remove from heat and serve over pasta. If the sauce is too thick, before serving, add a glass of milk and mix to thin it out.
If you can't have pasta, but for some reason you can have cheese, serve this over broiled salmon.

Tiramisu misu su

Again, cravings; again, look in the fridge for inspiration.
And I have a cupboard that's dedicated to sweet stuff, like chocolote, biscuits, jams, nuts and Nutella.
And I did have mascarpone ( thank heavens!), and ladyfingers (where did they come from, I have no idea, and I'm the one doing the shopping), and vanilla extract and fresh brewed coffee (posh italian:P).

Besides, it's a really great dessert to make when you get those cravings, as you get to lick the bowl, and later on, after it cools, it always looks impressive.
And you can add booze to the coffee, but it's good without Amaretto, and I couldn't find my trusty old bottle which I brought from Prague, like, zillions of years ago. So maybe it's good I lost that bottle. I guess.
This recipe makes a double layer tiramisu, but if you want to make it higher, go for it.
Instead of using ladyfingers for this recipe, you can make sponge cake and use that instead for a more delicate version. It's good to use sponge cake when making this in shot glasses (just cut out the size with the glass and push it in, the rest is the same) for a cocktail party or smorgasbord.


Type of dish: dessert
Cost: cheap (if you get mascarpone cheap, it's still a cheap dish)
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2-4
Time:  10min
Prep time: 5min
Cooling time: 1h at least.


You'll need:
A rectangular dish at least 3 cm deep, a whisk, a medium bowl, spatula or spoon, a bowl, grater, cling foil or tin foil to cover


Ingredients:

• 1 cup mascarpone
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 muscovado sugar (smell it- gorgeous!) or any sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 packet ladyfingers
• 1 cup fresh brewed coffee
• cocoa to sift over layers
• 1/5 bar of chocolate for topping

What you're gonna do:
In the medium bowl, plop in the mascarpone, sugar, vanilla and egg. Whisk together to a cream.
In the other bowl pour in the coffee for dipping in the ladyfingers, unless you're using sponge cake, then don't bother with the bowl., a spoon is good. Put a finger in the coffee, then in the dish, until you have the bottom of the dish covered (doesn't have to be super - duper covered). Using the spatula, spread over the first layer about 1/3-1/2 of the mascarpone (eyeball it, as you'll need a bit more for the topping than on the bottom), and spread out evenly over the ladyfingers. Then sift over some cocoa and grate some chocolate (for "extra" flavour), and do the second layer the same way. When you put the second layer of mascarpone, smooth it out nicely with with spatula, and give the top a double sifting of cocoa and chocolate.  Cover with foil or film, and pop in the frigde for the flavours to intertwine like twilight characters.


You can serve even an hour after cooling time, but it's best the next day. Although I do think you may eat it the same day because it's just so good:)

Pink Lemonade

There is something really appealing to me about pink lemonade. I sometimes see on bogs or pictures a bottle of pink or "rose" lemonade, that looks so nice, bubbly ( for some weird reason which I don't quite understand), summery, and fun. It also looks really sweet  and girly and it makes me want to giggle and skip around ( I sometimes do that, it burns more calories and is MUCH more fun than walking).

I saw the pink lemonade or whateva it was, in a shop and fainted when I saw the price. I mean, ok, the botttle looks nice, fancy fonts and stuff, but seriously?
And because I'm no millionaire and because it's fun to be me, I made it. Nailed it, in a sing- song voice.
And you will too.

And I made the pics extra big, because, it's yucky outside and you and I need a reminder that it's not always that way. So here you go, a nice view of my windowsill.

How do you make it, you might ask? Well, when you make it, you can control the pinkness:) Add more or less raspberries, or blackberries, mush them with a spoon or fork, add some quartered lemons, some mint leaves, and to sweeten it you can use a spoon or two of honey, or brown sugar, just mix it around. I also add juice from 1 lemon to make the lemonade actually have a taste of lemons. You can also try adding a bit of rose water, if you have it, or if you don't, don't worry. During the summer, if you have a rose plant in your garden and you vouch for the plant, add some clean rose petals for that extra detail.
Pour this stuff in a bottle to which you have a cork or cap, and swish it around, and pour in some sparkling water or still water. Naughty grown-up version- instead of water, add some crisp white wine. And it's ready!
Pack up for a picnic, or serve at a lunch/ dinner table. Great mood booster!
Enjoy!

The BLT Sandwich for the hungry

There is something about the combined tastes of fried bacon, tomatoes, mayonaise and cruchy bread that will bring you to your knees whenever you'r totally hungry.
Or you just need a sandwich.
To me, BLT is the ULTIMATE sandwich. Sorry for the messy pictures.

And it's so easy to make.
I won't have you salivating here any longer, here's the recipe, get the products if you haven't got the yet, and go make yerself a good ol' BLT.
BTW- my first BLT was at the Hilton Hotel :)  Very snazzy indeed, but I'm not a fan of toast bread.

Type of dish: snack, lunch, sandwich
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 1
Time: 10 min
Preparation time: 5 min
Cooking time: 5 min


You'll need:
Cutting board, knife, frying pan, tongs or spatula, butter knife, plate


Ingredients:

• a hand- long piece of a baguette, split but not halved. Like a subway sub.
• half a tomato, thinly sliced
• 4-6 slices of bacon
• 2-3 lettuce leaves, clean and dry
• mayonaise
• 1 garlic clove
• S&P
• optional: few thin slices of onion, leftover shredded chicken

Do it, make it, how:
Heat up your frying pan on medium high. Put in your bacon and fry until it gets smaller, more wrinkly but not golden brown or crispy brown, because it won't be pliable enough. When you get the bacon done, transfer it to your cutting board, and put on the pan your bread. We are going to toast it up a bit so it has a nice crunch. Gently press in the bread so it soaks up the grease from the bacon. Let it fry until golden and crunchy, then remove.
Take the garlic clove, cut it in half and start rubbing it over the crusty bread. This will give it a great aroma. Next, spread some mayonaise over on side of the bread,  and if you have chicken meat, put it over the mayo. Now the tomato slices, use some S&P on them, then the bacon, and the lettuce. Fold the bread together and serve!

Fluffy pancakes with maple syrup- the american breakfast

I don't know how you think about it, but some days,you just wake up and dream about getting breakfast to bed, or that when you finally emerge from the bathroom, there's a plate of warm, good food waiting for you at the table with a cup of coffee just the way you like it. Now, this is a fantasy of mine, because it just doesn't work out, and usually on the weekends I sleep till noon, meaning that when I finally get up it's lunch time:/

But I crave the pancakes with maple syrup and squares of butter on top. J'adore once in a while. While the most expensive part in this recipe is unfortunatly the syrup, it actually lasts a long time, so the cost drops, so I'm signing this recipe under medium cost, just if you were curious.
And I'm resigning from writing the blog in polish because I have nobody to talk to now in english, so this is my only chance of being "heard"/"read".
So, if you feel the love one morning for someone else than yourself, be a good person and make these simple, fluffy pancakes.
PS. If you make too much, just pop them by two in small ziplocks to freeze. Unfreezing is a blip when you have a microwave ( JEALOUS!)

Type of dish: breakfast, supper
Cost: medium 
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2-4
Time: 20 min
Preparation time: 5 min
Frying time: 15 min

You'll need:
a frying pan, a spatula, a medium bowl, a whip, laddle, plate, strong will to not eat everything by yourself.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup flour, sifted or not
• 3 1/3 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/4 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp melted butter
• maple syrup
• small squares or big of butter

How to:
Heat up the pan, melt the butter if you didn't melt it before in the microwave. In the bowl, mix together the salt, flour, soda, sugar, make a small hole in the middle and pour in the egg, milk and butter. beat this up with your whip/beater so you don't have any clumps of flour floating around.
Now, I know this is supposed to be ready in 20 min, but if you have the time, let the mixture rest for 10 min. This makes the milk poof up the flour and somehow, the pancakes are better. In that time you can make yourself a coffee, wake somebody up, clean up the floor or read a chapter in a book. Whatever. So, heat up your pan on hig heat ( I've got a fancy ceramic pan and I don't have to use grease anymore, but if you have a normal sticky  pan, grease it with a drop of oil or ghee ( clarified butter that doesn't burn so fast like regular butter). turn the heat to medium, pour in 3-4 pancakes( usually- 1 laddle of the mixture is enough for 1 pancake), when they go golden brown on the bottom, flip them and cook them to the same level. When done, transfer to plate, plop a butter square on top, drizle with the syrup. If you want to, you cxan garnish with some fresh berries- I had raspberries, but blueberries or thin slices of apricots or peaches works well too. Now, cut in with a fork and gobble up that yummy goodness!

New pigs in blankets on the block

I love ready made pastry. It's a blessing, as I'm not that great with punching dough all day. I especially love french pastry, ready to go, ready to use.

When I started reading Roahl Dahl books, I started reading about dishes that weren't popular anymore. They were a relict of past times. Sponge cake, triffle cake, toad in the hole, the sort. Actually it sounded really good. Especially the triffle.  Mhmmm. I'll get to that one day.
So, what's toad in the hole got to do with pigs in blankets?
Actually, nothing. Piglets in baby blankets are a popular snack in the US for parties, here, our friend from Belgium introduced it to our group, served with dijon mustard. (Thanks Maxim!)
And they dissapear fast.
I think it's because when people come over for a party, they are usually quite hungry. Waiting for all the guests to come, they snack at the table and in general, "the early bird gets the worm". Or piglet.
So, let's say you're not going to a party, but, you're hungry, and you have french puff pastry. And some sausages. And some ketchup and mustard and mayo on hand. In squeeze bottles. or you're handy with a knife:)

Let's hear it for the piglets! Applause!

Type of dish: snack
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2-4
Time: 20 min
Preparation time: 5min
Baking time: 10-15 min
Oven temp: 180C

You'll need:
cutting board, sharp knife, fork, baking tray, parchement paper or silpat,

Ingredients:

• 4 sausages or hotdogs
• 1 piece of french puff pastry
• ketchup
• mayonaise
• dijon mustard

What to do when your oven doesn't want to explode:
Heat your oven up to 180C.  Put your baking tray inside the oven.
Roll out your puff pastry, paper side down. Remove the foil from the sausages if you have it, and set aside.
For a dinner, for 2-4 people, do this.
Using your knife and a sausage for help, figure out how to cut the pastry so you can easily fold up the sausage in pastry to enclose it, but with a pinky finger worth of space on each side. We are going to wrap it up completly. And add the condiments before baking. So there needs to be a little space there.
When you know where to cut and fold, put the sausages in place, and squirt on a line of ketchup next to it. And a line of mustard. Or mayonaise, depends on the mix of flavours you like. Or smear it on.
Now fold the pastry over the sausage,  and use fork to gently press the sides together. You'll have something looking like the apple pie in McDonalds. Take the knife and gently make 3-4 cuts in the top of the pastry, so you can see the sausage. Transfer all the pastries on a silpat or parchement paper, take out the baking tray from the oven, gently slide the silpat or paper on,  pop in the oven for 10-15 min.
Your pastries should puff up, and turn golden. Take them out, allow to cool down for 3-4 mins and serve.

Party version of piglets- cut the sausage in 3cm pieces. Fold in the dough each piece without the condiments ( it'll fall apart if you do), and bake 15 min until golden. Serve with additional mustard or mayo fordiping and toothpicks. A popular mix is ketchup mixed with mayonaise.
Party Time!!!

Watermelon salad

You think watermelon is good for a dessert or kids time. I had some more to spare and was in need of a salad that could work as a side or main. Just try to get out as many seeds as you can. Be happy about it! Why not?


Type of dish: salad, side, main
Cost: medium
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 4-8
Time: 10 min
Preparation time: 10 min


You need:
cutting board, knife, large bowl, spoon


Ingredients:

• 1/2 kg ripe watermelon, deseeded, diced the size of half a dice
• 1/2 box of feta cheese ( Arla, or the crumbly wet type, doesn't matter as long as it leaves you with pieces that don't melt away)
• 1/2 bunch fresh mint, chopped finely
• thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced

How to:
In the bowl, add the watermelon, feta, mint and ginger. Mix well and serve chilled. That's it!


Additional info: you can spice it up a bit by adding a tiny pinch of cayenne pepper, or some minced fresh chilli.

Gosh, another soup: Gazpacho

You probably might be bored with all the tomato soups we have here going on, but this is served as a starter so we really don't care more than we have to. Another classic, served in wine glasses, but if you have more guests, think about shot glasses or regular drinking glasses. It's really good for using leftover pieces from tomatoes, cucumbers and bread. Kind of a trash soup, I guess, best served chilled:)

Type of dish: soup, starter
Cost: medium
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 4-8
Time: 15 min
Preparation time: 10 min
 
What you need to prepare this dish:
hand blender, table spoon, large bowl, cutting board, knife, serving glasses

Ingredients:

• 1 can tinned tomatoes
• 1/2 cucumber/ pealed
• 1/2 bell pepper
• 2 slices of bread
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 5ml olive oil
• 1 cup of water
• Splash of tabasco

How to prepare:

Put everything in the large bowl, except for 1/2 a tomato, and about 1/5 of the cucumber. Cut out the seeds from the tomato and cucumber you set aside and throw it in the bowl. Stirr a bit and turn on your blender. Blend until you see no more big pieces.  Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge to chill. As they say, revenge is a dish best served cold, and the same is with gazpacho. Cut the remaining veggies into small dice and set aside for serving time, as you can put half a spoon in each portion you serve.

Additional information:
If you have some chives you can decorate the gazpacho with a few springs. In France, now very popular are Verrines, which are nothing else but food put in shot glasses. Apparently, very fancy, but in Poland, we have other uses for shot glasses, thats why we use any glases. Wine, or beverage ones. Or, if you're not having a party but just want good food, take a bowl, you don't need our permission to use one:)

Simple salad

I'm a sucker for salads, I think most of you know that by now. This is the easiest of all salads known to mankind. Once you get hooked on it, there's no going back. Use lambs lettuce, it has more body, is fairly crunchy and mixes well with other ingredients. You'll fall in love with the delicate flavour.  All you need apart from the lettuce is good quality olive oil, I used black truffle oil that my darling brought me from a truffle specialized shop in Paris. I love it when he remembers what I need:)

Type of dish: salad, side

Cost: medium

Difficulty:  easy

Time:  3 min

Serves: 2-4

Preparation time: 3 min

What you need to make this dish:

a large bowl, salad spoons

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of lambs lettuce
• 1 tbsp of the best olive oil you have

How to prepare:

Pour the olive oil in the bowl and swish it around the bowl, so it coats the sides. Toss in the salad, mix gently and serve. HA! That SIMPLE!

Additional information:
We got the hint that Maille (which makes great french mustard) makes raspberry vinegar. When you serve yourself some salad, have a few drops of this vinegar over it. D-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s. And we seriously recomend having some truffle olive oil. So good. Oh.