According to this blog all I do nowadays is cooking. And exploring the kitchens of the world. That is so not the case. But I do love to cook and I find it a rather easy way to be creative. Quick and instant satisfaction.
Anyway, this is my first gnocchi try. At the stable today while waiting for the farrier to finish I picked some nettles. Inspired by this fellow I used the nettles to make gnocchi. It wasn't easy and I used a combination of at least three recepies to get it right. The main problem was the amount of flour. Too little, the gnocchis fell apart, too much, they came out too hard. In the end some of them turned out really good and I will definitely try again.

I learned this Turkish dish from a very dear colleague. Slice carrots very thin and fry under lid in olive oil and salt until tender. Toss thick yogurt with garlic (lots), salt and black pepper. Place the carrots in a bowl and cover with the yogurt sauce. Olive oil and black pepper on top. I serve it with bulgur salad and oven baked feta cheese.

CV home. We bought our house seven years ago from the family who built it 80 years ago. I doesn't show but it was a house well taken care of. But not at all a house for a family with two (three to be) small children. Only one bedroom, one small bathroom, a kitchen not renovated since the 60's. Situated by a pretty busy road. The first thing we did was fence the garden for the safety of our kids. After that we built another bedroom and installed a tile stove. Since then we've continued working on the house and today it's perfect for us. Inside and outside. We actually want to live in a more quiet place and are planning a move to the countryside but it will be hard leaving this house behind. We have worked so hard making it our home.

my husband bought eco italian artichokes (a rarity here) and I parboiled them and made lemon mayo with pestled peppercorns to serve. I also made a fish fond (stock?), simmering shrimp shells, fish bones, garlic, herbs and root crops for an hour. Sieved the fond and added cream, peeled tomatoes, fish and shrimps. All sunshine so far but then suddenly the stomach flu that had hit the rest of my family earlier that week got me and I never tasted the food. The kids did thumbs down and my husband said that the soup was good but too strong. I shouldn't have used all fond.
Well, the only thing I can say is that it smelled pretty fab and that it was fun as long as it lasted.