Pears & Pistachios, an unlikely but perfect match!

Sooooo I promised y'all,
(now I'm not from the southern USA - but I LOVE that word!! + it sounds so cute when you prononce it)
a recipe - and here goes:

Pear and Pistachio Pie

6-8 peeps

Ingredients:

75 g of unsalted pistachios + 25 g for decoration

50 g blanched almonds

200 g cane sugar (or equal substitute)

4 medium sized eggs

175 g of soft butter

Seeds from 1 vanilla pod

2 tbl. spoons of sour cream (or equal substitute) - I sometimes use greek yoghurt. 

75 g flour

Butter and sugar for the pie tin

4 ripe pears

How to:

Grind the pistachios, almonds and cane sugar into a fine meal in a food processer or blender. Add the eggs and soft butter and mix well. 

Pour in the sour cream, vanilla and flour and mix again. 

Butter the pie tin (20-24 cm in diameter), and coat with a thin layer of sugar (will give it a lovely sugary bottom).

Pour the dough into the pie tin and smooth the surface. 

Peel the pears, remove the center and cut them in quarters and press into the dough. 

(can make nice patterns if you like - i prefer the circle-pattern)

Bake for 40-45 min. at 175 degrees celcius. 

Cover the baked pie in chopped pistachios and serve with icecream or sour cream! YUM!

Definitely making this again! 

Pennie :)

Feeling lucky!

Greetings Ladies & Gents,

So another week's past or two, and more baking and garden fun happened! 

Pictures later....And by a burst of good luck and knowing the right peeps, we have finally had our front hedge removed. Keeping it the past years has been a complete nightmare!! 

Let me clarify: We bought our house about 5 years ago from a relative of my husbands, who sadly had not had the energy to keep it or do anything to better it for quite some time and it was in quite a bad shape....

Our former garden-patio... simply divine, dont'cha think?

Backyard - be sure to tie a rope around your waist,
so you won't get lost!!

But we fell in love with it - the homey interior and prospects of what it could be and also it's perfect location Close to town, but still in the country - only 30 min. to Copenhagen, but surrounded by both small shops and farms!

Sadly I don't have any pictures of the front hedge, but imagine it being slightly less kept then the pictures above... yeah... *nodding*... not kidding sadly...
So of course we were delighted when a co-worker of mine, whose husband has a truck and krane company, asked if I wanted it removed after I had bi***ed a bit about it for some time.... ;)  - and they did it insanely cheap, which was an added bonus with Yule-time coming up!

So this past weekend has been spent with getting the soil ready and cleaned for a new Privet Hedge, as it will be alot easier to keep.

Hopeing it will look like this in some years

Our old hedge was a mixture of 3 different hedges and random shrubs, who have planted themselves over the years, and never been removed or replanted. I'm working this weekend, but DH (dear hubby) has promised, that he and my brother will have it fixed when i'm home Saturday evening - so pics inc then!

Anyway apart from spending time in the garden, i've also spent alot of time in the kitchen. As I've written before, I LOVE Autumn! The colors of nature turning from green to yellow to firey red, the nights becoming colder, but the days mostly still warm - and all the wonderful autum fruits and berries!

This week i was fortunate enough to recieve some pears from my other co-worker, but as my DH hates fruit-pies (he thinks they're not sweet enough - he's not much for the tartness of especially apples and pears), I had to think of a clever way to disguise them..... and so the Pistachio-Pear Pie was born! Pistachio is one for his favorite flavores!

Just a little teaser - recipe will be posted soon!
It was absolutly delicious! Even DH approved :)

More pics from kitchen adventures this past week:

Sweet cinnamon/cottage cheese pancakes
and a sidebowl of blackberries

Chorizo-chili with lots and lots of shrooms!
YUM!

Bacon-wrapped ground-beef burgers (without the bun)
with a sidedish of root veggies (beets and parsnips)
and home made bernaise sauce *DROOL*

Last of the Blackberries -
Thank you Mother Nature for your bountiful presents!

Any recipe-ideas for the use of the blackberries???? 

Pennie :)

Hot Thai Soup

So this is my favorite soup recipe! My dear friend and former co-worker made it for me, and it has been a true autumn favorite ever since.

Hot Thai soup

4-6 peeps

Ingredients:

3 large carrots

2 red peppers

1 whole broccoli

1 yellow onion

30 g fresh ginger (or more if you LOVE ginger like me)

2 stems of lemongrass

2 red chilis

4 cloves of garlic

1 tbl. sp. red curry paste

1 liter chicken stock

2 tins of coconut cream

2 dl dry white wine

2 tbl.sp tamari

3 tbl.sp. fish sauce

juice from 1 lime

some turmeric (or safran if you have)

coconut oil for frying

salt 

How to:

Clean the greens and cut into smaller pieces. Peel the ginger and grate it. Chop the lemongrass finely. 

Cut the chilies in half and remove the seeds, slice finely. 

Heat up the oil in a large soup-pot and add the finely chopped garlic, red currypaste, onion, carrots and ginger. Sauté until the onions are shiny and the carrots tender. Add the red peppers, broccoli, lemon grass  and chilis as well as the chicken stock. coconut cream, white wine, tamari, fish sauce and lime juice. Add a pinch of turmeric (or safran) for the beautiful color. Let it all simmer under the lid for around 25-30 min. 

After 30 min. blend the soup to a fine, creamy liquid. Let it all boil once more, taste with salt and serve. 

( I like to add some tiger prawns or noodles as an extra touch for when i'm extra hungry!)

Bon Appetit!

October - it's getting colder outside and yummy in the kitchen!

October - the 10th month of the year (according to the Gregorian calendar), and the 2nd month of autumn. 

And here in Denmark it's starting to get chilly at night - although we still enjoy quite warm days. 

October derives it's name from the latin "octo" meaning eight, 

as October was the eight month of the old Roman calendar. 

Early roman calendar

Since Mabon the last week has flown by with lots of autum cooking, work , baking, work,  jam-making and more work but here are some of the good food moments caught on film:

Making an tomato-basil omelet

Tomato and Basil Omelet

1 pers.

1-2 eggs (pasteurised)

1 tbl.sp. heavy cream

2 tomatoes

10 leaves of basil

butter or coconut oil for the pan

salt and freshly ground pepper

There it is - YUM!

Whip the egg(s) and cream together in a bowl along with salt and pepper. 

Dice the tomatoes and mix with the chopped basil leaves. 

Heat the pan and melt the butter/coconut oil. 

Add the egg-mixture and turn the heat down to medium-low. Lift the sides from time to time, all the way around and let the wet egg-mixture flow underneath the beginning omelet. 

When the omelet is solid on the sides, add the tomato and basil on one half and close the omelet. 

Heat on both sides until firm. 

Serve with the rest of the filling on the side and ENJOY!

This is a nice breakfast I like to make when i have time, usually on the weekends, or when I'm working the evening shift - DELICIOUS! And a great use for those autumn-tomatoes. 

For autumn I also like to bake some hearty breads, full of nuts and seeds, here is my favorite recipe.  I usually bake 2 of 'em, and cut into slices. I freeze 4-6 slices in a bag, and then it's very easy to take up the needed amount for the week, and you'll always have freshly baked bread in the house!

Pennies Nutty Bread

1 bread

100 g of Linseed

150 g of pumpkinseeds

100 g sesame seeds

100 g sunflower seeds

100 g roughly chopped almonds

100 g roughly chopped hazelnuts (or your favorite nuts - i like macadamias as well!)

0,5 dl oil

2 tsp. salt

5 eggs

150 g shredded cheese (i use cheddar, but you can use your favorite, be creative)

How to:

Heat your oven to 160 degrees (celcius)

Mix seeds and nuts in a bowl with oil and salt. 

Whip the eggs together in a seperate bowl and add to the seed & nuts mixture along with the shredded cheese. 

Pour the dough into the bread-pan covered in baking paper and bake the bread in the oven for 60-70 min. 

Take the bread out and let it cool. 

Slice and serve!

I sometimes make them in Muffin-tins, perfect for the lunch-box!

Plum(p) tart! muahaha:

A co-worker of mine had alot of plums from her garden she didn't know what to do with, so ...

....PRESTO CHANGO....

Served with vanilla-whipped cream
YUMMY in my TUMMY!

27 days til Samhain..... and counting....

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