On a secret baking mission

Shhht! Let me close the door first, you never know who's listening...
So, now we are alone and I can tell you my little secret: since yesterday, I am on a secret mission in order to win a cooking / baking contest. I'm preparing a cake that is going to sweep the jury of their feet (what? one is allowed to dream!). The cake is finaly ready now, I took a picture of it this morning and now I only have to write the recipe.

The jury of chefs has to choose 10 recipes to publish on the website and only then it's going to be possible to vote for my (secret) cake. BTW, I have to tell you, I was painfully remainded of one of the Murphy's low yesterday evening as I was about to bake my cake: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Not that I'm not familiar with it already, oh no, my friends! In my life, I had a more then fair share of it. But I was a bit saddened that it had to prove me wrong at such an important moment. In fact the first prize is so important that it would allow me to renovate my small, ugly kitchen. It would still have to be on the budget, but I can be very humble, believe me. Anyway, I finally  assembled and decorated the cake to my satisfaction as of this morning. I have to send my recipe along with the picture till midnight today, 12th November. Now let's hope Mr. Murphy is busy with someone else till then...

On a secret baking mission

Indian Carrot-Ginger Soup Recipe

I promised you yesterday the recipe for my favorite Indian Carrot-Ginger Soup. I got this recipe from a German vegetarian cookbook 'Schlemmen ohne Reue' (Indulge without regrets). You can buy it at Amazon but it happens to be on eBay just at this time for only 5 Euro, go for it if you understand German language, it's an excellent book with plenty of colorful, tasty and healthy recipes.

 I modified this recipe slightly in order to keep it simple. So here it goes:
Indian Carrot Ginger Soup
Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp curcuma
• 1/8 tsp chili pepper
• 1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 lb carrots, chopped in thick slices
• 5 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
• 1/2 cup yogurt (or 1/4 yogurt + 1/4 sour cream)
• Salt
• Pepper

Optional: Freshly chopped coriander leaves and sour cream for garnish
Preparation:

• Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and onion and stir often until soft, about 5 min. Meanwhile, peel carrots and slice them into 3/4-inch- (2 cm) thick rounds. Grate ginger in a separate little bowl, add all the spices. Add ginger with spices to onion mixture and stir again to warm the spices trough. Add carrots, vegetable broth and lemon zest. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Let simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender.
• Add yogurt and puree the soup with a hand blender, scraping down inside of bowl as needed. At this point, don't let the soup boil, let it simmer at low heat, add pepper and salt. I usually cut some coriander leaves with scissors and add to the soup, not too much, you don't want to overpower beautiful spices. The soup is ready to serve, you can swirl a little sour cream on top and add a coriander leaf, if you like.

This soup will keep well, covered and refrigerated, at least 5 days or freeze up to 1 month.
You got to admit that a colorful bowl of silky-smooth velvety carrot soup sets the mood for a nice autumn or winter dinner. Enjoy!

Indian Carrot-Ginger Soup Recipe

Cookbook Holder Solution

Today, as I was cooking my beloved Indian Carrot and Ginger soup, I used my improvised and simple cookbook holder. Actually, this isn't really a cookbook holder, it's rather a solution in the absence of it. There are so many models to find today, some even aren't so expensive, like this one I like :

Sleek and simple, only 14,99$ from http://www.organizeit-online.com/

But as it turns out, I have other priorities so I prefer this 1$ solution at the moment. I would like to say that I came up with it, but it wouldn't be true. I must have seen this one on the Internet very long time ago. So here it is working for me in my ugly kitchen:

All you need is a pants holder with clips! Works like a charm with not so thick cookbooks, individual pages / cards and magazines:

Simple to use, easy for storage. BTW, the recipe for my soup is from this German cookbook I love.

Just pay attention as you buy the pants holder: the clips should be rubber coated from the inside to prevent slipping. That's all! Oh, and the recipe for the soup, I'll give it to you tomorrow.

I found on the Internet some other very interesting ideas using the pants holder. I would like to share with you this one that Jean and Dylan from Ladies & Gentlemen Home posted last year as a beautiful solution for displaying art:

 

Be sure to visit their blog on ladiesandgentlemenhome.blogspot.com

Cookbook Holder Solution

Lovely November morning (for DIY post)

As I was preparing  my coffee this morning I couldn't help but wonder: is it possible to have such a long beautiful autumn, sunny and temperate even in November?  So I grabbed my camera and took a picture of my kitchen window bathing in the morning sun, with African violets still blooming.

So, and now back to work! I wanted to share with you an idea for reusing, or recycling, an unusual object. For quite some time now, i had in my shed an old utensil basket from my old dishwasher. It was in good shape and I stored some little things in it. Then, last weekend, as I was cooking in my all but practical and ergonomic kitchen, I reached for the olive oil bottle so clumsily that several bottles with oils, vinegars and sauces started moving very quickly, and in the same time, in the direction of my head. I must have used some cool move at that moment because somehow I managed, after wrestling with diverse bottles for several seconds, to save them from falling. On my head. I was furious at my kitchen even if it was entirely MY FAULT. And here is why: when we bought our fist home over 4 years ago, I didn't like the existing kitchen at all. Not one bit. But we bought the house because it had some nice features for our two teenagers and that was very important at the time. And even if I dreamed all my life of having a nice kitchen and hoped to get it with our first house, I said to myself: OK, calm  down, you can function in it for a while, see what is wrong with it and renovate later. And I did it. Except renovating, that part isn't done yet, I'm still in the dreaming phase because of  'peanuts'. And you should know: I really love cooking for my family, love making them happy when the smell of their favorite meal starts to spread from the kitchen and they come running to see when it'll be ready. Back to reality, there is not one day that I don't hate my kitchen, it is so small and very badly organized space wise. And the list goes on, it's very long, believe me. I'll save it for another post dedicated to my kitchen. See?! There is no stopping me when I start talking kitchen. Anyway, back to my DIY. Having survived the accident with my oil bottles, I started to think of a rapid solution for them. What you don't know: all these bottles were placed in the cupboard over my old integrated oven. And no, there was no other solution for them at the time. Last week, as I was finalizing some prewinter rearranging in my shed with my DH, I saw my old dishwasher basket and the light went on! Back in the house, I put my bottles in it - perfect! So I took some very simple loop screws and fixed it on the inside of the cabinet door beneath my stove without having to change it a bit. And without using any tools. Ta-da!!! Look at this smart, simple, free, practical, ecological, green solution:

This basket has a grip in the middle, very practical for cooking outside in the summer. Just grab and go, everything is ready. Here are some more pictures:

Lovely November morning (for DIY post)