Cooking and food related stuff

 {salted peanut butter cookies}

{vanilla ice cream sandwich}

 {Chinese supermarket}

{miso, sambal olelek, sesame oil, bok choy, kimchi, sprouts} 

 {roasted pears}

I use cooking as a distraction from school, bad weather, bad days at school, feeling lonely.
It's gone great so far; I did a handful of recipes, new recipes.

I have to admit I'm really psyched about this Chinese market located not to far from my home. I just feel a bit intimidated, cause they have loads of stuff and ingredients and I've been trying to narrow it down to a few recipes to do.

I've mostly been cooking recipes from one of my favorite blogs out there: Orangette. Molly, the writer is awesome. I mentioned her a while back, as she has a podcast I listen to now and used to listen massively at home in Iasi. Molly has a couple of recipes there, Asian inspired, and I gave those a try. I have no photos, cause I forgot to take any but be sure they were good looking and pretty delicious. The recipes are: Soba Noodles with Peanut-Citrus Sauce ( I did not use soba noodles because I'm not a big fan, at all. They are made of buckwheat flour and have a distinct smell and taste that I just think takes over. I used regular noodles from my Chinese store) and Kimchi Fried Rice, which was deliciously garlic-y. These recipes made a couple of servings so I was able to eat them several times on weeknights and did not have to cook every time a whole new thing.

I did this cookie recipe and these roasted pears last weekend. The cookies were good, I shared them around. People were pleased.
The pears deserve a whole new paragraph. Like seriously. They were just wonderful. If you have the chance I urge you to do them as soon as possible. I was planning to cook them on a day/weekend like this: cold, rainy, miserable. But instead I did them on a sunny and breezy afternoon and they were just as good. But imagine cooking them on a lousy, cold evening. We all know pears are hard and require a fair amount of chewing, but this way of cooking makes them like pudding, so soft, so vanilla-y, caramel-y and they will make you eat them all at once. I did ten halves/ five pears and they barely made it for me to eat them the second time. Next time I'll do more of them, and maybe share them, maybe.

{natas}

{ espresso shot}

{roasted chestnuts - pretty common here}

A bit on Portuguese food habits.
Given Portugal's location and all that stuff, I was expecting people here to be eating loads of fruit and vegetables, sea food ( they do, a lot) like it's sister Mediterranean countries: Spain, Italy. But they don't really. Not that much. I mean, they do have loads more exotic fruits and veggies and sometimes a trip to the supermarket can be an exciting adventure, but at least in the house I live and at the school canteen, people are eating fat, greasy foods. What is up with that?
From what I've seen at school, I've recognized a pattern. School courses start at 8-9-10 am and at 10-10.30 they take a brake - the professors and students also. They get coffee - (they drink these petite coffee shots with sugar, which I can't understand. They are really into their coffee) and maybe a pastry and they smoke a cigarette or two, do a bit of socializing.  Then they go back to their course and at 1 pm everybody stops what they're doing and they get lunch at the canteen(some bring their lunch from home and heat it up in the microwave). The break is an hour long. They eat - pretty slow, talk, have a coffee and maybe dessert at the end and then some more smoking. Then at 2 pm everybody gets on with some more classes. And this is what I find very difficult to do. There were times when I almost fell asleep in my chair. You just slump there and try to concentrate. It's hard to pay attention after the siesta you've had.
All in all, as you've noticed, I prefer cooking my own recipes rather than trying out their stuff. At least for now.

the low-down

{this recipe that reminded me of a certain Chinese sweet chicken recipe/just not as good}

{red roses - unintentionally}

{unknown rescued flower + need to clean the windows}

{fudge popsicles}

Lazy hazy summer days

I had the most wonderful two days in the kitchen. I'm a freak, I know. Part of it is because we moved a bit around here, in the area near the window and it's somehow more pleasant, plus I got, FINALLY, I got my shelve up on the wall and I have my pretty kitchen ware to watch now.
I've also been listening to Spilled Milk Podcast while washing endless amounts of dishes, waiting for something to bake/cook. It's just basically Molly from Orangette and this other guy I don't know and they talk for roughly 20 minutes about food and taste and give thoughts and recall childhood memories. It's OK, for listening while cooking/baking.
Plus listening to this

I bought the loveliest coffee/tea cup I want to share with you all. Again, all about kitchenware.

We have nothing to eat in the fridge besides pickles, milk, coffee, beer and yogurt and some stuff in the freezer, but we now have THE sour cherry slab pie I just baked a couple of hours ago. It's this recipe and I haven't been so excited about a recipe in such a long time, and this made me very excited. The fact that mine looks (always the case) less prettier than her's, is less important. What matters is the taste.
I went full on with the sugar, at 1 and 1/4 cup and I didn't use any confectioner's glaze and it turned out tart and sweet and the dough, oh the dough/crust!; if you follow her instructions on the flaky buttery dough she points to, you will have perfection. I simply love it and would advise anyone to give it a go, although it may sound a bit daunting because of the dough making process. But still, even if you go wrong, you can still eat it in the end. I would.

 {veggies - prepared}

 {pickled veggies}

 {most delicious combination - garlic/ginger/onion}

 {lidl eats in the house - again}

 {pan fried}

 {cranberry oatmeal muffins - adapted from here}

 {THE sour cherry slab pie mentioned way above - *right now it's gone/finished}

Sunday afternoon I persuaded R to come with me to see this lake I had heard of but never seen. It was nice, we were on our bikes and the wind made the trip bearable. There were several people and as we headed towards Ciric there were lots more. Overcrowded really. People are sunbathing there and hanging around the pool and they made me dream of our trip this year at the seaside. It's in a month and I can't wait to get on that train.

Been on my mind for a while now

 {Lidls'croissants in a tube - French week}

 {breakfast: warm croissants + honey}

{Lidl random ad - Mexican week}

I have such a weakness for Lidl products. Being such a cook-aholic, I consider them fun and exciting.

Of course, I should be buying local, from the farmer's market, especially, should be supporting the local market, buy foods that are not packaged and not brought from abroad, made with god knows what. I know this very well, I believe in that and I will want to support that in the future. I really do.

I get my basic stuff like flour, sugar, oil, canned goods and such from Kaufland, Billa or eventually Carrefour. I love Auchan for their bulk section, where you can get your nuts, seeds, dried fruits, tea, coffee, pasta and so forth. I just love that you can get any quantity you want, you can see them there, I don't know, I just do. Of course, it would be even better if you could come with a reusable fabric bag, or a jar and not have to use plastic bags. That would be insanely amazing.

These are good for your grocery shopping.

But. There is a but.

But when you want something else, something special, maybe half baked, or just something to go with what you already plan on cooking, you (or just me) go to Lidl. 

I love their diverse weekly products. I like that after a while they go on sale because nobody buys them. I regularly buy their greek yogurt, asian cooking sauces, noodles, tortillas, a tortilla chip dip once in a while, if it's something special.

 R says that their nonfood products are pretty decent. Like, for example, a few months as the biking season was opening, they brought a lot of cycling stuff, saddles, lights, helmets, and lots of other things. They have hardware tools, kitchen tools, sewing machines, sewing kits, gardening tools, and lots of other stuff at a decent price.

I don't like their flowers, neither stems, nor potted. They just feel waxed and too polished and you feel like they've been drugged to get here from some far away place.

I kind of like going there on weekends and get a little something for the week to come. I do enjoy their ad and I scribble on it and mark the things to buy.

And there goes another post about food.

home/food

It's been good.
We've done a bit of moving around the furniture, cleaned a lot, made the place feel like us. I've already bought a kitchen cart and a rug and a few kitchen ware and we still need a few more things.
It's a one room apartment with a kitchen about the same size as the room, a little hallway and a decent bathroom. It's perfect for us. There's so much space I can't believe it.
The neighborhood is Ok, I guess. There are a few kids around in the afternoon screaming and playing down in the playground, but it's fine.

 My plants are not doing so fine; well, not all of them. The mint and basil are going strong, especially the mint, she's tall and proud. But my ranunculus is not. It's probably because it doesn't get enough sun, because we're facing north and there's no room outside the window for them to sun bathe. It's sad, cause it was going so well and I thought they would make it and I would have beautiful flowers, but no... I still have some bulbs left, and I'll probably try again but I'm not sure it will work.

 {kitchen window view}

 {the main and only room}

{farmers' market buys}

I've been cooking a little since we settled in, nothing new or exciting, as I'm just getting around the new kitchen.

 {mint lemonade}

 {pretty little potatoes}

             {roasted potatoes+ dill/garlic yogurt}                      {tomato soup*+nibbles}

{double chocolate banana bread** - recipe here}

 {mini pizzas***}

 *The tomato soup is a regular around here. The recipe is Jamie's and it's this one. There is another one of his, where he says to add a can or a couple of cans of whole tomatoes - to give it more body and get more of a creamy, less soupy thing. I did not have a couple of cans of tomatoes,and I just needed to get rid of five tomatoes so as to not throw them away sooner or later( we're not big tomato fans). So with five tomatoes I did not make a lot of soup, thus I did not added so much water, plus I skipped the cream/yolk/vinegar part and just added some cream before eating it. Sites everywhere you find this recipe advise you to serve this soup with grilled cheese sandwiches...yeah, in an ideal world. I'm not mocking, sure that would have been great, but it didn't happen.

** Being the first time making this bread I'm glad I did it, but I'm not sure I'll add it to my favorite recipes list, because the combination of chocolate and bananas is just not my thing. Of course, we finished it off in a day after baking it, but that's because we did not have anything else sweet in the house.

*** Mini pizzas cook way faster than a big regular one, so it's good.You'll notice that one is slightly more yellowish than the other. It's because it's been fried before putting stuff on it and going in to the oven. I've discovered this way back a few years in Jamie's Jamie's Italy book (great, great cooking book), but never really got to try it out. My fried pizzas weren't that different from the baked ones but I'll tell you why. I should have made them thinner than the baked ones and then the whole experience would have been different, I'm sure. It was funny, because frying the dough made the kitchen smell like we were making doughnuts. I will definitely do a better job the next time, by making them right.

This was supposed to be a post about our new home, not food, but they're both very important to me, so it's OK.

the last couple of weeks

I've been using R's cannon and it's great. The pictures end up much more moody and the focus is incredible. I have to play with it more and get to know it better... but they're so much more expressive than the ones my samsung takes...

 {washing salads}

 {lemons}

This week I've went to school once, I think. The rest of the week I worked on a couple of essays for H. But it's been slow... The rest of the time, I've been reading, Cooking, eating, cycling. And still I feel I was in a hurry, and hadn't enough time to enjoy them.

  We've been searching for a tiny flat. I hate this. It reminds me of last year when we were searching and it's never fun. I do hate it, really. We have a month to find one, but maybe we shall be done with it even sooner... we'll see. I've been contemplating on the space in my sister's apartment...

R finished his bike. Took an old one and repainted it and replaced most of its parts and now he has this. Its way more fancy and classic than my old lady bike. But you wouldn't believe how comfortable my bike is (Even R says so often times)- part of it is because of a good saddle i bought while in Italy, R had contemplated on buying one too and didn't and now regrets it.

food wise: I've been oatmealing it again. R takes lunch with him at work: omlette with cheese and a few pieces of bread and something sweet for dessert.
While at my sister's last week we had a special Friday night with homemade pizza inher oven which is grandiose. it really is. We had a drink of leftover drink of lemonade vodka and champagne from the party, along with episodes of the office - were getting really close to the end.