Supper idea: Pork ribs with gravy and potato dumplings

Pork ribs is part of my childhood memories. My aunt would make these with potato dumplings, and we would all dig in. Ah, the stuff she made... Delicious :)

I haven't made ribs in a long, long time, so when an occasion finally popped up in the showing up of Magali and Kamil, it was decided- there were going to get ribs:)

Since I was already near tears that I have to do everything myself (one of those days when you either cry or laugh hystericaly from being constantly tired), I didn't make the dumplings (if I did, I would have to cook potatoes the day before), I bought some store made and they where really good- I get them once in a while just to have them for supper.

This seems to take forever to make, but finally it takes like 40 min, where you spend 20 somewhere else.
Just so you know :)


Type of dish: main
Cost: medium/low
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2-4
Time: 40min
Prep time: 10 min

You'll need: cutting board, sharp small knife, a shallow dish, paper towels, a large frying pan/ cast iron skillet, spatula, tongs, serving plate

Ingredients:

• 0,25-1kg ribs ( 0,5kg is enough for 2 very hungry people)
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• 1 tbsp flour
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 stock cube, beef
• fresh herbs like thyme, parsley, a pinch of rosemary, minced
• S&P
• olive oil

How to:
Wash the ribs and pat them dry with paper towels. Cut into pieces with 1 bone in it. Season well, sprinkle with herbs, and pour over some olive oil. If possible- do this so it marinates a bit overnight or an hour or two.
Heat up the saucepan on high heat, add a bit of olive oil, and fry up 4-6 ribs at a time. FRy on both side until golden brown. Then set aside while frying the rest. When all are fried, add to the pan the onion, garlic, and wait until the onions become translucent. Scrape the bottom of the pan and  add the stock cube, and the ribs. Stir, and cover up, turn down the heat to medium low and leave to cook for 20-30min. This will make the meat very tender, and it will start coming off the ribs. When you are to serve, transfer once again the ribs to a serving plate, and add to the remaing sauce the flour, sprinkling it in the sauce, so you don't have to deal with lumps. Whisk for a while, the flour will thicken up the sauce. Either pour the sauce over the ribs or serve in a gravy boat.
De- li- ci- ous!
I swear, try this:)

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.

The greatest chocolate cake- Penguin Cake

And I'm not talking brownies :) even though they are fool-proof, this recipe is even more fool-proof and will rise to your expectations. The batter is deliciously chocolate- as if you melted a ton of good quality milk chocolate bars and turned them into cake.

What I also love about this cake is that it's sweet but not overflowing with sugar. The cakes are sweet, of course, but the filling is with a small amount of sugar to balance out the overall taste. I might have to say, that after my absolute favorite, Black Forest cake, this is my second favorite that I absolutly adore.
And, of course, it's not that hard to make :)
Note: I doubled the chocolate batter as I wanted a thick cake.

Type of dish: dessert, cake
Serves: 6-10
Cost: medium
Difficulty: easy
Time: 1h
Preparation time: 20min
Baking time: 35 min
Oven Temp: 180C

You'll need:
1-2 same sized cake tins (or a large saucepan with a metal handle), large mixing bowl, medium mixing bowl, spatula, mixer, teaspoon, small saucepan

Ingredients:

• 110gram softened butter
• 220 gr sugar
• 3 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 150 gr flour
• 100 gr cocoa
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 125 gr mascarpone cheese
• 50 gr icing sugar
• 220ml heavy cream 30%
• 200 gr dark chocolate

How to:
Preheat your oven to 180C. Grease your cake tins . In the large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla and crack in one egg, mix it in then add the other. Add the flour, milk, cocoa and baking powder and mix until you have a stiff looking chocolate smelling (and tasting) batter. Spread it divided evenly in the greased pans, smooth out roughly with a spatula and put in the oven for 30-35 min. Use a toothpick to check if the cake is baked inside.
Let the cake cool down, and in the meantime cream together in the medium bowl mascarpone cheese, heavy cream and icing sugar. At first it may try to splash out of the bowl, but after a minute it'll blend together and fluff up. Cover and put in the fridge to cool it down.
In a small saucepan, melt the dark chocolate bar, crumbled with 5 tbsp of milk. Heat on medium with a lid on, and mix well to dissolve the chocolate. Set aside.
When your cakes have cooled down, gently transfer one on a plate, flat side down, cover with the cheese filling, and put the other cake on top, flat side up. Spread the melted chocolate on top of the cake, set aside to cool down compleatly and keep in a fridge until serving.


It's just plain old good!

Baked mushrooms- Crowd pleaser

We had a BBQ a while ago and I wanted to make some sides and salads as everyone else was bringing on the meat and wine. I had a few salads in mind but I got super cute mushrooms and just had to make something with them. While the stove was occupied on all four tops I had only the oven to make something. So I had them baked, and they came out delicious! Seriously, it was the first thing that disappeared from the table. To me, that's a sign that something is GOOD.
Deliciously easy. Make it for any potluck or party or for dinner. GUSH.

Type of dish: side, salad
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 4-8
Time: 25min
Preparation time: 5 min
Baking time: 20 min
Oven temp: 180 C

You'll need:
a shallow baking dish, knife, cutting board, spoon, oven

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• mushrooms ( as much as you want)
• butter
• 4-5 garlic cloves, finely minced or crushed
• 1 bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped
• addional: 1/2 glass of dry white wine
• S&P

Go at heat the oven, chop up the larger mushrooms in 4, leave the smaller ones whole. Drizzle olive oil all over them,add the garlic, parsley, s&p, mix it over nicely and lay on small chunks of the butter over the 'shrooms. If you want the wine version, pour in the wine just before you put it in the oven. I swear to you, this is delicious. Now pop it in the oven for 20 min, just come back in 10 min to mix them so they brown evenly. After that they're ready to serve!
Serve with a fresh baguette to soak up the sauce. I'm hungry again:/

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!

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!

Easy cheese soup recipe

I hate autumn. I want to eat more then, and it's usually the stuff I shouldn't, being lactose intolerant. But there I go, from one cheese to another, like a butterfly.
It's useless.

So, having in mind a cheese soup from a place not far from our previous apartment, which, unfortunatly, closed down (WHY?), that  served this soup with ham and mind blowing croutons, I wanted this soup.
So I made it.
Suprise suprise- it's easy to make. I swear. By the moon and the stars in the sky... I'll be there..
Name that tune.

Anyways, it's not complicated, I made it from leftover chicken soup for T ( he had a cold).
So I'm going ahead  and thinking you have your chicken soup, or chicken broth, or you make it with stock cubes and all.:) Love you too.

Type of dish: soup, main
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2
Time: 20 min
Preparation time: 5 min
Coking time: 15min

You'll need:
a medium saucepan with lid, veggie peeler, cutting board, sharp knife, hand blender, laddle, spoon, bowls to serve

Ingrdients:

• 1 chicken or vegetable stock cube or 1,5 l broth
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
• 2 cream cheeses ( hochland flavours: ham and creamy)
• 4 frankfurter sausages
• 1 bowl croutons
• pinch of salt
• fresh pepper
• optional: fresh chopped parsley for garnish

How to you do:
Heat up your broth/stock in the saucepan, add the carrot and creamcheese, crumbled. Mix well. Put in the sausages. Plop the lid on, make sure the heat is medium, and go away. Clean up or something for 15 min, just checking if it's not overboiling- if it is, turn down the heat a notch.
After 15 min, prep your blender, remove the pan from heat, remove the sausages and put them on the cutting board to cut in bite-sized pieces . Blend your soup until you see no more carrots and the soup now has a pleasent orangish- yellow color. Taste and season if you need to.
Divide the sausage in two or more bowls, and pour the soup over. Serve with a side bowl of croutons.

Addtional info: This seems like a hearty soup, but in fact, it isn't. So prepare some salad or pasta course later.

Drunk chocolate mousse (or not)

Chocolate mousse by itself is really good. But add a bit of strong coffee and Grand Marnier liquor and it will rock your world. Just don't drink this at night, because you will have problems falling asleep. Tested by me. But it's gorgeous! And stolen from my personal idol Pioneer Woman. Love you Ree!

And it's ridiculously easy to make. Like, I was shocked.
I loove it. It's creamy, chocolaty like the best truffles, sweet, smells of chocolate coffee with a liqour kick to it. If you don't have Grand Marnier, it's ok, just add a spoon of vanilla extract  for more flavour.

And  there is a ton of ways  to serve- got some cute mason jars- fill 'em halfway up. Use some glases, wineglasses, cups, teacups, teeny bowls or those micro jars from hotel jams. Anything works. And it looks so pretty under a cover of whipped cream:)

Type of dish: dessert
Difficulty: easy
Cost: cheap/medium
Serves:4-6
Time: 2h 10min.
Preparation time: 10 min
Cooling time: 2 h

You'll need:
A blender with the top to take off and pour stuff in, a cup, 4-6 jars, glassess, spoon, medium bowl, mixer


Ingredients:

• 2 eggs, whole cracked
• 1,5 dark chocolate bars, crushed or crumbled into fairly small pieces
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp Grand Marnier or Vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup strong coffee ( take 1/2 tbsp instant coffee with very very hot water)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream for whipping

Put the chocolate inb the blender, crack in the eggs and add 1 tbsp of sugar. Add the Liqour or vanilla and blend- pulse until the chocolate is fairly well processed. Boil your water for the coffee, and when you have it ready, turn the bleander on again on low, and pour in the coffee in a slow stream. Then turn on hign speed again for a minute and then turn off completely.
Prepar your glasses or jars in a row, and pour in the chocolate mixture, trying to make them all even   ( or not :P ) . Wait for them to cool down a bit before putting them in the frigde.
In the bowl, add the cream and remaining sugar and beat for a few minutes untill stiff peaks form. Cover up and put in fridge for later garnishing.
After 1-2 hour, the mousse will look like a sponge from the top. Note- if you happen to have some liquid formed at the bottom, use a thin knife to slide in by the side, then turn over a sink so the liquid flows out. This may happen if you use more coffee.

Before serving, garnish with the whipped cream and maybe a sliver of orange peel, or fresh grated chocolate or cocoa.
For a festive feel, sprinkle with cinnamon

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!

Amazing Tomato Sauce

You will be grateful for this recipe, because it will change your life, perspective, future choices and so on. Look into the sauce...

It's blatantly easy, so if you're planning, let's say, a pizza, this is a great sauce for the pizza base and as and additional sauce substitution for ketchup. Yes, ketchup. I think you might even make more of this sauce just to smear it anywhere- sandwiches, pasta, meat, the sort.

Trust me, everybody will like you even more once you know this recipe:)

Let's get it on... oh sugar... Let's get it on...Damn you Marvin Gaye.

Type of dish: sauce, dip
Cost: cheap
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 4-6
Time: 35 min
Preparation time: 2 min
Cooking time: 30 min

You'll need:
A low, shallow but deep (?) Saucepan of the frying pan kind. , cutting board, sharp knife, spatula, medium bowl, teaspoon

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of chopped tomatoes. ( or 1kg of fresh tomatoes, skinless)
•  2-3 garlic cloves, minced 
• 1 pinch of coarse sea salt ( buy 1kg and it will serve you for a lifetime, and your friends too)
• 2 tsp red pepper flakes
• grated rind from 1 lemon
• 1 pinch sugar
• 3tbsp olive oil

Get your guns up- Don't turn anything on yet. This is going to be a gentle, fragrant process. In the saucepan, pour in olive oil, sea salt, garlic and pepper flakes. mix it evenly and turn on your cooker, on medium high. Keep close to the pan now. Stir a bit with your spatula and keep sniffing. The sniffing is key to this recipe. Sniff until you can smell the garlic and pepper beginning to smell somewhat more intense than before. The garlic should still be white during this. Let it heat up more, until you just get that the garlics turning golden and plop in the tomatoes. mash them up with your spatula, mix well so the oil incorporates with the tomatoes. Mix it mix it. Now turn  down the heat a notch or two, best if it's medium, and go away. Come back every 4-5 to 6-8 minutes to stir, because we are reduced the water in the tomatoes. The sauce has to be thicker than tomato juice, but thinner than paste. This takes about 25 mins, and until then your sauce should have the constistency you look for in a pizza sauce. You know, the kind you get when you order pizza? Turn off the heat.
Okay, now add the lemon rind, mix, and taste it. You may need to add the sugar if the sauce is a little bit too acidic/bitter. just a pinch will do.
Taste again and you're ready to go. Eat, I mean.

This recipe makes enough sauce for 3 large pizza's plus for topping them all. If you don't plan on making this for pizza and need more, either use 1 can of tomatoes, or freeze the amount you don't need.
Gotta love freezing:)

Piccolo Italia

Last thursday we went with T for a walk on Francuska street to search for the french butcher which, suprise- suprise, we didn't find. Turns out he moved his business to a different place but nobody knows where. SPOOKY.
So we went shopping for lasagne products to carrefour express. I don't really like shopping there because the stuff isn't good, or cheap. But sometimes you just don't get to choose.
So we bought out products there and decided to walk to Plac Waszyngtona for the bus. On the way there, we saw Piccolo Italia and thought maybe they have ricotta cheese? So in we went.
I was shocked. And suprised. Plesantly. But they didn't have ricotta cheese anymore.


First of all, you see a few tables in front of Piccolo Italia. Becase they're the bigger ones, you think it's a restaurant. But you go inside. And you think that it's not a restaurant. In front, there's a bar, where you can get coffee. On the right, there's the passage to the actual shop, plus a display of wines sold by the glass. It looks nice. Expensive, italianish and not shoppish at all.
So let's wander in more. We pass the cashdesk which also serves as the bar, and see a display of knives, cutlery, biscotti, more wine ( not only italian, but also french and spanish. Prices vary.), sweets, chocolates, the typical stuff you get at checkout. But let's see what else they have.

Next aisle, olive oils, olives and sauces galore! Everything to make your mouth water. And the amount of olives was devastating. And the sauces- mmmmmm.... I wanted all of them. Just to look in my cupboard, but also to try. I never buy ready sauces because they never hit my taste and I'm fully convinced they have so many preservatives and other E stuff that I'll glow from eating it. But not in this case.

Coming up next, pasta. OMG, it was HEAVEN! Many kinds, ( but not as many as in Rome, but still a lot), many types, few brands. Lot's of options. For example: I bought in CE lasagne pasta ( the kind you have to cook before you use it) for 9,8zl. In PI, I found a package of precooked lasagne noodles, with 2 handy tins for making the lasagne in. For 8,6zl. SCORE!
Typically, pasta was cheaper and better than in CE.
So guess what did I buy?

Going on, I came upon the fresh produce aisle where there were 2 very nice ladies behind a fridge display of coldmeat and cheese. On the fridge there are some things displayed to try. I had a teaspoon of tomato paste and tomato- soup vegetables paste. The latter was really good, and can be used as a paste for canapes, or sandwiches, or to give taste to a sauce or soup. The former can be used for soups, sauces. Eat your heart out, for if you don't know what you want, but want something good, the ladies will propose you some ham, or salami, or cheese. They will even let you try a slice to see if you like it. This way we purchase some very delicate non colorized ham, some cured ham that had a wonderful flavour, and some peperoni that really got us fighting for our breath arter we finished munching on it. It was really spicy! And we loved it, as nothing usualy gives us that kick anymore. So hello sausage!
Oh, and one lady also spoke italian, so go italian your heart out!

Then I drifted further to the tall fridges with the cheese. It was calling me in from the very beginning: come over and bring us home....
So I decided to check out a cheese I didn't hear about before, cow's milk cheese, looked like a goat cheese, has a slightly metalic taste and is a tiny bit bitter. A little on the crumbly side, this is great for a small apero with garlic bread. Or any baguette, with salad and maybe some delicate ham. But not in a omelett, sorry. That was a no-no.

I still need to check out more, and behind the freezer was another aisle, with bunches of dried herbs,
( a guy came in and bought 5 bunches of herbs, said they make great bouquets for cooking women:p), and generaly all I saw was herbs. I'm sure that there was more, but T. was anxious to pay and go home eat the stuff we bought. So back to step 2, to the cashier, where plesantly we didn't pay a fortune, and were very satisfied with our findings.

We have a good reason to come back, and hopefully, they sell also fresh fruit and veggies. And make panini's:) I would love that.

Currently, there are a few shops in Warsaw of Piccolo Italia, one in al. KEN, one next to Zlote Tarasy in the center, another one on Polna street ( probably in the Polna mall, with the goodies), and a new one in Hoża street. And the one on Francuska street.

I'm very happy to find this store, and I'm very unhappy that nobody told me about it before:)
This is going to be a place to shop for all they have, for sure.

Ps. This article is not sponsored by Piccolo Italia.

Baked salmon with cayenne maple syrup glaze

Sometimes you have to cook with what you have. I had to cook with what I was allowed:) This time, it was a salmon filet.
Sure, you can cook it with lemon slices and s&p, but that's just old and booooring. I guess I should have done that one, but I seriously didn't feel like it. Come on, anybody who diets, craves something. Usually flavour, believe it or not :)

So I was real naughty an I did a maple syrup marinade. Did you know that maple syrup is sweet, but much much less than sugar, brown sugar, aspartam and so on? And it has a wonderful flavour. I heard about a cleansing diet:) where you're supposed to drink lemonade made from lemons, cayenne pepper and maple syrup. You end up drinking the syrup sans the rest:)

This is a super simple recipe, that I think you will end up making often. I know I do.

Ok, here's how to:

Type of dish: main
Cost: medium
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2
Time: 65 min
Preparation time: 5 min
Baking time: 30 min
Marinating time: 30 min
Oven temp: 180C

You'll need:
A shallow baking dish the size of your salmon filet, a tablespoon, aluminium foil,

Ingrdients:

• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 3-4 tbsp soy sauce ( taste if you need more)
• 1 tbsp cayenne pepper
• 1 garlic clove, finely minced
• 1 salmon filet, fresh

Get ready, go:
Rinse your salmon under cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Set aside for a sec. In the baking dish, mix the maple syrup, cayenne pepper, garlic and soy sauce, and when you got the flavour you're after- sweeter or more salty, put your salmon in the sauce skin side up.Cover up with the foil and put in the fridge for 30 min at least ( you can make this in the morning and bake it in the evening).
Baking is terribly simple: preheat your oven to 180C. Take out your salmon, turn it over so the skin is on the bottom of the dish. Cover again with the foil and pop it in the oven. Bake for 25 min, then take off the foil, pour some more marinade on the fish, turn on the broiler/grill and get the top nice and brown/red for the last 5 min. Cut in half and serve with more marinade on top.
DONE! As we say, Nailed it!

Additional info:
Want a scandinavian touch? Serve with a few boiled or baked potatoes. More asian style, add plain rice. I went with salad as a side. You can do that too.

Hamburgers! with fresh herbs

We're a lazy bunch ( I mean my husband's lazy, while I do all the work :)), but while it's much easier to go to MC Do for a burger, it does take more time to make your own. But at least you know how to make it, what's in it, and do it your way. If you have one.

The basic 100% hamburger is actually not made of ham, pork, but Italians use both. I mean one kind of patties from pork meat, others from beef. T. prefers beef to pork and while I don't really care, I wanted to make them beefy. So search in your shop or at your butchers for some ground round beef. Round beef is from the back/hind part of the cow. You can check it up. Don't be lazy like my T.
I didn't find ground beef so I had to buy some for goulash, which came in chunks that I had to ground by myself. That was a big mistake. I could have waited 1 day and bought the ground stuff. Instead I tried to kill my grinder by stuffing the knife and holey bit with the tendons. It was a tragedy. And it took to much time, so too bad.
Ok, let's do it!

Type of dish: main
Cost: medium or cheap ( depends on the
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2-6
Time: 20 min
Preparation time: 10 min
Frying time: 10 min

You'll need:
a frying pan, a spatula, a medium bowl, a fork or spoon to mix, sharp knife, cutting board, plate and paper towels.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of ground beef or pork around 500gr
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 bunch of parsley, finely chopped
• 1 bunch of thyme, oregano, dill, chives, finely chopped ( basicly any fresh herbs, apart from coriander, but if you're aiming for a slightly curry flavour, go on with that base)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/3 cup of breadcrumbs
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 chili pepper, finely diced
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• additional: 3 tbsl lemon juice, 1 tsp worchester sauce,
• olive oil

How to do, youhoo:
Get your bowl. Plunk in the meat, add all of the ingredients  except for the oil, mix well with fork- you know you're on the right track when the meat is nicely forming in a ball and not sticking to the sides of the bowl. Take a handful of the meat in your hands and form a ball, flattening it down on the cutting board to form a flat patty that will be no thicker than 1 cm. When you're halfway through making the patties, heat up on high heat your frying pan, finish making the patties, pour a small amount of oil on the pan, decrease the temperature to medium. If my cooker has a max 9 level, I heat on 9, pour in the oil, decrease to 6/7, depending on the strength of the cooker.
Plop the patties on the pan. 3 at a time, or 4 if you start. I came up with 7 patties, so I did 4 and 3, so I cooled down a little the temperature of the pan when I finished the first batch. Fry 3-4 mins each side, flipping them over to check if they're not burning. when brown on both sides, transfer to plate with paper towels to suck away excess fat.

Serve by themselves, or on warmed hamburger buns, or Kajzerki ( polish  buns), with ketchup, mustard, mayo, sliced pickles, tomatoes and lettuce. Go crazy and make add some caesar sauce instead:)

You can also freeze the done hamburgers and refreeze them for a quick lunch option. Ta da!

Oh, we didn't have buns today, so we just had them on a slice of bread and it was okay too. But not very hamburgerish.
Too bad:)

A small extra to make you see why we started this in the first place

...and thats why:)
Have a great week!