Winter

beans bohnen feijoada brazil

Holidays, Brazil & the truth about beans

Holidays at the sea – great times! Leisure, pleasure, duties left behind. Welcome change of scenery, warm salty air dancing around your nose, carrying cherished memories of the last visit to the ocean long before you even catch a glimpse of the glittering blue. Then, watching the local fishermen do their work on their little colorful boats, thoughts of home are suddenly far away. No wondering anymore, whether or not I emptied the bin before leaving and worries of every day life are drifting off on the cooling waves around my feet. That’s when I know, I have arrived. Brazil. Whenever […]

valentines day cake choco coco

Happy Valentine’s Day! …and lots of (glutenfree-cake-) love :-D

Wondering what to surprise your loved one(s) with for Valentine’s Day? I have just the thing for you: amazing, delicious coco-choco-cake & cake balls (or pops)! I dare say, this has potential to become your favourite cake! Particularly the frosting is definitely one of my more genius kitchen-creations. And together with this soft gorgeous sponge we have the perfect (Valentine’s) couple :–D I have to admit though, that it is not strictly fitting into my healthy line of food. BUT I believe that in an overall healthy, balanced diet it is absolutely fine, to enjoy a “calorie bomb” now and then. Especially […]

organic biscuit glutenfree vegan

Delectable glutenfree+vegan soft biscuits & new ways in 2017

Hope 2017 brought only good things to you so far and that you have settled in well by now. I am starting to actually write 2017 instead of 2016 when I need to date something, so I dare say, I have finally arrived  ;–) And how is it going with all the more or less courageous new year’s resolutions? Still in the game? Not easy, is it, to change one’s habits. Well… my resolutions never work for long. So this year, I didn’t even make any in the first place ;–) But as life goes, strangely, they were made for me. Came upon me […]

Christmas tree pizza

XmasTree in the oven & magical (pizza-)bread dough

Almost Christmas. Did you find the time yet to slow down a bit and actually FEEL it? And enjoy the good vibes (while skilfully ignoring all the lurking Xmas-stress)? I finally made it to that point :–D My happy Christmas-mood even magically turned our pizzas into Christmas trees last weekend ;–) There is no such thing as magic, you say? But isn’t Christmas all about magic? The enchanting magnificence of glittering snow (it snowed this week – YAY!). How all the Christmas-smells send you on a time travel back to your childhood days. How everyone suddenly finds a free spot in their schedule to meet […]

cookies

Cosy crispy Christmas cookies :-)

What’s Christmas without Christmas Cookies? Just wrong, right? Yes. Just like an Austrian Christmas without snow… Unfortunately I have never learned how to perform a (rain-)snow-dance, but I did bake Xmas biscuits with my mum and my brother when I was little :–) So at least one of the two anti-Xmas scenarios can be averted ;–) Although I enjoy to munch on the Austrian classics each year, I find it always a great occasion to get creative and play with old and new recipes or make something beautiful from scratch. This year I wanted to bake something that is not just a delicious, pretty cookie. […]

pumpkin pie roasted almonds

Honey-roasted almonds, pumpkin pie & hopes around Xmas

Here we are, already in the middle of Christmas season, right in the second Advent weekend. Which means almost half-time for all the Xmas-fun! Seriously, in 2016 time has been moving way to fast for my liking. I haven’t even managed yet to decorate the house at least a bit or take some time to put on merry music and bake our favourite Xmas-biscuits in-between sung along “let it snow, let it snow, let it snow”s and “Rudolph the red nosed reindeer”s. Suppose it doesn’t help that I am not in decent Christmas mood yet. For me, it is simply missing snow […]

healthy chocolate cake & the nature of time

Sometimes I wonder if time is moving faster as you get older. Do you know this feeling? I remember, when I was a kid, time seemed to strech endlessly in front of me. Especially when there was an exciting event just lurking around the corner. Like Christmas, or birthdays. These days, I feel like I have to set up several reminders in my phone to make sure time is not rushing me past those events, without me realizing! A few days ago I was very aware of this phenomenon again, as it was time to celebrate with my beloved husband Douglas: […]

Hot “cloved” mandarins & the smell of snow

When I turn the calendar page to November, there are usually a few things going on in my mind simultaniously: Wow, time is going so fast! Another year almost over… I should try to organize the last few weeks of the year, so I can actually use the holiday season to unwind, reflect on this year’s events and maybe do a bit of planning for the coming year, instead of drowning in this massive wave of Xmas-stress that’s just waiting to crush everyone… And: snow :–) If the weather is not deciding to turn on those polluters among us, we […]

Baking sweet bread, reminiscing about our beloved dead

Hello from the other end of All Hallow’s Eve! Hope you guys spent some fun spooky hours last night :–) Over here in my little hometown it was rather quiet. Not as many trick-or-treaters around as we expected, which didn’t bother my husband in the slightest, as it resulted in more sweets for him… boys… ;–) I guess the neighbouring kids are probably still aware of the potato-scandal from two years back ;–P (see last post for full story). Today, All Saints’ Day, has much deeper roots around here than the present version of Halloween. You might not find too many people roaming the […]

BOOOoooOohHhhh! Happy Halloween!

Wow, Hallowenn already! Time flies. Feels like last Halloween was only yesterday. Even though this spooky holiday is not as big around here yet, as it is in the English-speaking parts of the world, it already made it into the rank of the well-loved traditions of the darker half of the year. I remember the first time I went trick-or-treating ever with a couple of my friends we had a rather hard time. Instead of already being expected by our neighbours with buckets full of sweets, we were asked to clarify, why we rang the people out of their TV-comfy-mode at […]