the fight against food waste

Last week saw the launch of Enough Food #IF.
One of the aspects that there is not enough food in this world (or let's say fairly distributed, there is more than enough food in this world!) is food waste.
Tristram Stuart does an amazing job in breaking it down and explaining it in this video. Some of these numbers will shock and surprise you, be warned it's a sad reality we live in!

It is way too easy to throw out food, to use everything means you need to plan and get creative. I get a box of organic veggies every single week and as the produce is seasonal I had to come up with seven different ways to cook cabbage recently :)
As with everything in our world, if we all play our parts we can make a change.
You can still sign up and be part of the Enough Food for everyone IF campaign here.
Happy weekend x

current obsession

Ellie Goulding
We listen to a lot of music at Zoe Boomer HQ, or watch a lot of music videos and this Ellie Goulding song has been on repeat as it features in every chart show there is right now :)


Matt Corby
we've been revisiting his EP a lot this week and this is still one of my favourites. Such a talented guy!

soup
It's that time of the year again. Nights are getting so cold and leaves are falling. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I love fall. The burst of colour and the sky is this certain shade of blue.
Soup is falls companion if you ask me, it fills your belly and warms you. Make it spicy and it will have you boiling in a flash :) Still have to make my first annual batch of pumpkin soup though.

Hope everyone's week is going great. NYC peeps you're still in my thoughts and prayers, so glad I got hold of my forever housemate to find out that everyone is alright. 

any excuse to celebrate

Two years ago when I moved back to Austria I moved in with my lovely friends R&M. Around the same time they tore down their garden hut to make room for a cosy arbour. Last year they finally started building and the structure received finishing touches this summer. Now all that's missing is vine to grow, form a roof and bring shade on hot summer days to come.
To thank all helpers and to celebrate that it is finally done, they invited us for a feast...

We ended the night with a fire in the well known ton... so ghetto, but fun :)
Thanks lovely friends for having us, wish everyone could encounter their hospitality at some point in their lives. 

adventures in baking

Has anyone ever stumbled upon The Forest Feast? It might just be the most picturesque food blog I've ever come across.
They had a peach ricotta tart recipe up a few days ago and as I had nectarines sitting in the kitchen I decided to make it.

 

Definitely doesn't look as pretty as the one they pictured but it was delicious! Plus these are ingredients everyone will have sitting in their kitchen in the summer and it is dead easy :)

a day of strawberries - the canning part

rhubarb and strawberries bubbling away

I don't know how I got to this age without ever having made jam?! A mystery and it is so darn easy as well!
Anyway one of my new years resolutions was to learn how to preserve food, so I finally got to tick that box, yay. It shall be the beginning of a hopefully long journey (learning curve) of preserving and canning.
By the way, it turned out yummy :)

crumble mania

There is nothing quite like a crumble. Maybe because there is so much fruit involved you ultimately put it in the "healthy" drawer in your mind, at least I do. Usually I include oats in the crumble part, which basically makes it like breakfast cereal - well almost!
To be honest I could eat this day and night. This one was a raspberry-rhubarb crumble I made pretty much according to this recipe.  My all time favourite will always be a plum crumble or apple and pears or apple and raspberry. Okay I'm obsessed with all of them. Anything with fruit and I'm sold :)

current obsession

Big Easy Express
Cannot wait to watch this!!! Two of my favourite bands and another one travelling by train through the States making music. Does it get any better than this?

Strawberry-Rhubarb crumble
I made it twice this week haha once with raspberries as I couldn't find any strawberries grown in Austria(shopping can be annoying sometimes, but principles are principles and you can be creative plus it was delicious). There is a wonderful recipe here or just wing it, if you have crumble experience :)

falafel adventures

Ever since my move I'm back in cooking mode. Not that I don't like being cooked for, but it is my way to relax and it makes my heart happy :)
I've thought about making falafels from scratch for a very long time now. I used to make them with a box mix when I was cooking for the Zekester years ago in London, but they were not the best. In Austria you can look everywhere for a pre-mix to no avail but to be honest I really like to know what goes into my food. One day while browsing the net I came across this recipe here.
If I would have known how simple it really is, I would have never used a pre-mix!!! Only thing I missed was a food processor, hooray for roomies who have awesome kitchen appliances :)

We feasted for two days!! So good, only thing I'd tweak next time to use a bit more salt and maybe put in a bit more parsley than I had on hand this time. You should definitely try it. It is so darn easy xx

current obsession

Revisiting a little treasure from Arcade Fire's last album. How beautiful is this little video...

Apple Sharlotka
Do you like apples? This is the worlds most simple apple bake thing I have ever made. It is delicious and I couldn't stop eating it. Find the recipe over at SmittenKitchen. 

birthday pancake fun

This happens when you have a pancake party for one brother and the other gets creative with the chocolate sauce. Art by 25-year-old haha

 birthday boy

Thanks Dave & A for hosting a fun night, happy birthday Ulrich xx

cake pops

I had a go at baking and making cake pops.
They turned out to be not the prettiest but most delicious little bites ever!
One day I'll let you in on the secret of how to make them :)

dear plum cake

 you were delicious

and incredibly fluffy

you were sweet and tangy

and you smelled divine

you are the essence of fall

thanks for showing up

Astrid xx

macaroons - attempt number one

At least I tried haha... they were way too big and wouldn't stand up, on the plus side: super delicious!
Chocolate ganache also very yummy :)

cherries

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm trying to recover from one of the best nights we've had, but more on that later :)
Anyway I got given more cherries from my neighbours. This time a whole kilo!!
To not let this go to waste I looked into preserving recipes and found a yummy one in my beloved Tuscan cook book.

Cooked cherries in syrup with mint! Ruth, Ian and Lisl stayed for lunch and we had some for dessert today with left over mascarpone and soy vanilla ice cream. Ridiculously good!

blueberry pickle??!!

Stumbled upon this pickle recipe collection.
How cool does this blueberry pickle look?!

There is a blueberry farm just outside the city and ever since last year Lisa and I have talked about spending an afternoon in that field picking.
My mind always goes straight to making jam when it comes to preserving blueberries, but this might be a fun add on :) To be honest I wouldn't even know what this should taste like - I've never had blueberries in a savoury way - so this should be interesting. If it doesn't turn out great I'll love it for the colour anyway haha.

(image from Saveur via Small Measure)

random act of kindness

My next door neighbour, an elderly lady, just knocked on the door to hand me a bowl of cherries! She had just picked them in the garden. How nice is that.
Butter is already softening in the kitchen so I can turn them into some kind of yummy cake!
It's the little things in life right. Love stuff like that.

recipe: coconut cake

Two days ago was a public holiday here in Austria (the upside of living in a "catholic" country - you get quite a lot of days off every year).
I went over to see the lovely peeps at EheG for an afternoon/evening of hanging out, playing cards and a very yummy bbq and one should never come empty handed. As I brought cookies and other things the last couple times, I decided to try something new this time :) Also thought that it would be fun to share a couple recipes every now and then on this blog - what do you think?

Coconut Cake

3 1/3 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup cream
vanilla extract or 1 pack vanilla sugar
190g butter
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs

Side note: I substituted all dairy products with lactose free products and flour with spelt flour and it still worked :)

Combine dry ingredients.
Combine wet ingredients.
Cream butter and sugar until it's soft - this should be really easy when you have a mixer, if you do it by hand, like me, you might take a bit longer but also get toned arms haha

Add eggs - one at a time.
Stir in 1/3 of the flour mixture, add half of the mild mix. Repeat.
Hooray
Pour it in a pan or two pans - if you don't want to cut it up in the middle for the filling.

Bake for 40 minutes at 180C

Icing
340g cream cheese
250g butter
vanilla in whatever form
3 cups icing sugar (I took less than that, hate overly sweet things and it was absolutely delicious)
2 cups shredded coconut
Cream it all together

 put it in between layers

and frost the entire cake (not that good on the frosting front as you can see, but I will practise).

Voila!
The batter tasted to die for and the cake itself was an instant winner with everyone. Even the boys who would always go for a second helping of meat over dessert :)

Three of us took leftovers to work the next day, yay!

Have a lovely weekend everyone, I'm off to celebrate the next birthday and enjoy the sun xx

a very relaxed Mother's Day

Sunday was kind of perfect.
I celebrated Mother's Day with my Salzburg family. Because of all the travelling on both sides I hadn't seen them for months!! Well I see the "kids" all the time but I hadn't seen H & G in ages.
It was a sunny day and we had lunch outside on the patio. G is an amazing cook so there were tons of food and so many salads to choose from. Four days later I'm still stuffed haha. Best part was the fruit salad!
We just sat outside all day, potted some plants, ate some more and never stopped talking... It got really cold that in the end Lisl and I just sat wrapped in blankets :)

 the way H wears his glasses still makes me laugh :)

 dirty fingernails...