Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a Happy New Year!!! May it bring you health and luck, a strong will and a light foot :). We all have inside us the power to change the world around us, we just need the courage to take the first step. So get up, set your mind and go get your dreams! It might be tough, but it will be worth it!

From this side of the world, I will try my best and bring you more recipes to try out ;). If you have any recipe you'd like me to write down feel free to email me and I'll come back to you with the guide. ;)
Here's a small preview of what's in store already...

Vertical Garden

I mentioned some time ago that we've been working a lot on our vertical garden, didn't I? Well it's in its' full bloom now. Overcrowded as it is - Zucchini, Cucumbers and Tomatoes spilling out of it... pumpkins growing over the roof... herbs flowering and seeding.

Each morning, when approaching the terrace, quietly... you can hear a silent, deep, rhythmic whisper. Sounds like a jungle voice calling out "Uga chaka, Uga chaka, Uga chaka". And then, just as you open the curtains, there's a general confusion for a second! Shadows dance around for a lingering moment. Each of them searching it's own hiding place. Under a leaf! Behind a pot! Surely - I must have adopted some Makurokurosuke :D

It's Ramen time!!!

Mmmmm...Ramen dattebayo! Ever since I started watching Naruto I got intrigued by this dish, who wouldn't when that little clumsy ninja never says no to one. :) Well, can't blame him - a big pot full of soup and other delicious ingredients just can't be bad right? And it definitely is not! After trying it in Toronto I got the Naruto fever and decided to make my own :).

Now, this is not a quick recipe, it's the old fashioned make it from scratch - soup stock and all.
If you want to make it easier you can use dehydrated soup stocks (dashi) and ready to use noodles, but those will be taken into account in another post ;).
This one is a long, delicious, homemade ramen :) , soup base: pork.

(divided into a couple of posts to make it easier to read - let me know if you want me to combine them into one)

Back again...

Dear Luka :)

(since you seem to be the last one checking this) I'm back!
After a 3 years pause i decided it's to be no more! I'm back and kicking and hope to update it more regularly with new cooking tips, tricks and ideas :)

Sooo, in the past 3 years a lot has happened.

First of all, the culinary show. Let me update you on this one ;).
It was 5 days of cooking and serving, 4 different meals and one day of barkeeping. Had quite some fun i must admit, even a small fight on the screen :D. Naughty boys were stealing my spring rolls, and you know they ought to be served hot :D. The five of us in the show were competing for a small money prize and a weekend for two, by serving each day a different dish to 15 strangers who then voted for the best. I didn't win the main prize, but i did succeed to win with my Main Dish - "Turkey in a honey pot", bringing home a nice bottle of wine.

At the beggining of 2010 I started working,my student days were over, free time decreased and therefor my cooking suffered as well. However... it got more inventive too :D and with the standard full fat, low gastronomy, bad cooking brunches we were being delivered i entered more and more the world of Bento.

Today, i enjoy searching for Bento ideas over the web, trying out different recipes,buying all those small and crazy Bento Accessories one can find on Ebay, with one goal: making lunch a special time for yourself!

Stay tuned,
you just might be surprised :)

At least i will give my best