as luck would have it...

(she carefully lifts her head to see if anyone is still out there...)

the luck would have it part? the weather, what else! just as i had planned, carefully i might add, to grill some veggies and ambitiously try to do the same to a couple of nice steaks, the heavens open and it not just rains but pours down...

plan B was in order, there was the oven...

the veggies got chopped, the mushrooms filled with a mixture of cream cheese, minced mushroom stubs and fried bacon and topped with some more bacon. i tried a new cut of bacon here and it sort of worked. the traditional strip would have worked better.  

as the oven was on i decided to put the asparagus there as well. 200C with fan on for 15 mins. placed the other veggies on another baking tray, they cooked for 20 mins.

oozing goodness...

lemon juice for the asparagus

minced some lovage and thyme for the other veggies

i'm loving fennel right now

the steak got the old and tried method of pan frying. done my home work on how to get it right on the stove at the shack, not sure i'd been as lucky with my spanking new (coal) weber.

those two seem to have endless stories to tell each other...

ps. if you've ever mixed windows, chrome, nokia booklet and an apple apparatus you might have some sort of idea of my IT desperation during the past several weeks. whether i actually manage to post this online remains to be seen...

happy mother's day!

happy b'day little brother!

braised red cabbage & duck breast

had some red cabbage in the fridge and a duck breast in the freezer (i'm constantly trying to empty it). in days gone by we used stay at the taverna hotel (now called mercure budapest) in budapest. their restaurant used to serve the best goose leg and braised cabbage. oh well, maybe once again one day...

i've tried to braise red cabbage "their way" but obviously never got it just right. nevertheless, i love braised red cabbage, even my way. this time i wanted to try cooking the cabbage in the pressure cooker, to save time, for one. i did some googling and found lobstersquads (fun drawings!) recipe for it. and made this dish my way...



my way really isn't a recipe, sorry about that. in addition to cabbage i used 2 red onions, an apple and 2 dl apple juice (lobstersquad doesn't use any liquid in her recipe). i added red wine and raspberry vinegar, you might want to skip the raspberry vinegar, i don't know what i was thinking...



my mom shreds cabbage with a cheese slicer which does make the cabbage a lot juicier, but i made a mess, i continued with a knife.



dump everything into the cooker...



...mix the ingredients somewhat. i took my potato masher to pack everything, did not want a purple explosion on the walls...did add some salt and black pepper before pouring the apple juice and 2 tbsp vinegar in.



after a mere 8 minutes of phiffing and whisling later...all done!




now that i look at the picture i remembered that i should have scored the skin...




fried the breast on medium for 6 mins per side, then foiled it for 10 mins.



very red but don't let that bother you, green salad would have been a nice addition.



the sun shone for a few hrs last week, it was nice on the deck.




sun was melting ice and snow, but we just got 20 cm more snow...



i'm going thru my seed collection and wondering what all should i grow this year.



however, the sun needs to get pretty busy melting all this before i can hide any seeds in the garden.

lots of snowy pics, some of sun, the dog and birdies

whoa...i guess i should have kept up with blogger. there's been so many changes i almost just gave up. anyways, it seems darkness of the winter got me big this year, hence the long pause on this blog. i have been missing the sun. the statistics people have gathered that this winter has been cloudiest in 25 yrs, and third in 50, with mere 50 hrs of sunlight between first of december and mid february. i rest my case.

this sight was welcome this morning, despite the fog and thin clouds...

the dog seems to not have minded the darkness, he naps a lot, winter or summer

                                     the full moon on monday night, snow moon some call it 

here's what the sun does! past few evenings the sunsets have been glorious.

the fluctuating temps make fog, and if someone has a more scientific explanation, please fill me in.

i don't know what little bird this is. i only know little birds, medium birds, large birds, black birds, gulls, eagles and woodpeckers.

there was a lot more snow last year...

pod of...gosh...i forgot! fox something comes to mind...

this is a woodpecker who demonstrates acrobatics at the feeder meant for LITTLE (hint, hint) birds. whether this woodpecker is a great, middle or lesser spotted woodpecker i don't know...

UPDATE: an ornitholigist friend of mine told that this is great spotted woodpecker

these are little yellow birds, certain someone thinks they are siskins (carduelis spinus)...


UPDATE: these yellow shrirpers are yellowhammers

along the cottage road

this was taken on planet earth, and you can ask my mom, she saw this, too. weird sunrise indeed.

from another point

enjoy the snow while it lasts!