Lovely Movies: Chef

I keep on catching amazing movies in the last week they're showing, and I'm always so glad I didn't miss them. This was definitely the case with Chef. I was convinced I was way too late, but I got lucky and managed to still see it!

It was, without a doubt, one of the best movies 2014 had to offer. Jon Favreau did an amazing job! He wrote it, directed it and gave us some phenomenal acting as well. As did the rest of the fantastic cast, including the kid.

The moment this movie comes out on DVD, it's mine. This is one of those stories that makes you all excited about food and cooking again, and even life in general. It's the perfect cheer-up film for any rainy day!

P.S. This movie also shows that Scarlett Johansson and Christina Ricci can look eerily alike. Who would have thought?!

Little Luxuries

So I'm on a budget these days. I'm taking care of myself, doing my own groceries, the whole shebang. But I'm a firm believer of good quality food. You are what you eat, right? So I'd rather go for wholesome than for fake and chemicals.

Anyway, I discovered my local supermarket's artisan bread when it was on sale last week and it's so good! So much better than the bread I'd been eating prior to this discovery. I sometimes eat a slice just by itself.

Who says you can't have amazing bread and poached eggs for breakfast when you're living the "student life"?

Amazing Art: Hong Yi

Have you seen what the artist Hong Yi has been doing to her meals lately? It is amazing! I've seen some pretty things made with vegetables and fruit before, but these definitely take the cake. Enjoy!

Wishlist

Konokoshop has some of the cutest things! So instead of just one item, I thought I'd show you a whole bunch.

This mug is cuter to store that in is to use. Perhaps odd, but very appealing nonetheless!

I know you usually want to keep mice away from your food, but aren't these salt and pepper shakers adorable?

And the final food-related item: Pocky chopsticks. Such a clever idea!

They also sell lots of these coin purses. This is the koala of course, but the others are worth checking out too!

 What did I tell you? Cute shop, right? Click here to see even more.

Figs from the Oven: a Recipe

As I mentioned, I've been watching a lot of cooking shows lately and it's inspiring me to make some nicer meals myself. When I spotted some gorgeous figs at the greengrocer's I knew they'd make a perfect lunch.

Next time I host a party, I'll be sure to bring these ladies out! What a nice and healthy treat!

And they're actually incredibly easy to make. Here's how:

• Cut your figs cross-wise.
• Put them in an oven dish.
• Gently push some of the goat's cheese into the space you made by cutting the figs.
• Pour some honey over it.
• Sprinkle with some pepper.
• Pop in the oven at 400ºF/200ºC for about 15 minutes.
• When they're nearly done, put your bread in the toaster to make sure it's all ready at the same time.
• And then just enjoy!

First Try Pumpkin Pie + Recipe

Though pumpkin pie seems to be a pretty big deal in the US, you hardly ever hear anything about it in Europe. But due to my deep love of pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger and so on, I really couldn't resist making my own lovely pie. I don't think I even baked any other proper pie before, but this was delicious!

So delicious, that I thought I'd share the recipe with you:

First up, make sure you have a base. I used my favorite sand cookie recipe and used it to make the bottom and edges of the cake.


Then make the filling:


-Beat 2 eggs.
-Add about 500ml/2 cups of pureed pumpkin to those eggs.
-Mix in a teaspoon of cinnamon, one of fresh ginger and half a teaspoon of salt.
-Add about 180ml/ 3/4 cups of honey and 3/4 cups of coconut milk.
-And finally stir in 2 tablespoons of coconut shavings.


If this has a bit of a milkshake consistency, fear not! It will come out of the oven just right.


Bake at 230*C/450*F for 15 minutes and then at 175*C/350*F for about 45. That's it!

Enjoy!

Shelter from the Snow

It has started snowing recently. It looks amazing, but somehow it gives me headaches. The inside of my head pretty much feels like a snowglobe and as clear thinking is pretty much out of the question, I've decided to make the most of it and enjoy some Murakami and my very first Taiyaki.

What are you doing this weekend?

Some Christmas Sweets

Christmas is about eating. And eating a lot. Some lovely sweets have caught my eye these past weeks and I thought I'd share them.

Aren't these merengues amazing?! You can make them yourself!

Strawberry Santa hats? So clever! And delicious with those brownies too.

Last up the cinnamon M&Ms! We don't get special editions here, but if we did I'd definitely try them. Have you?

Are you making anything special this year for dessert or a cute snack?

Feel Good Food

Had a delicious and healthy lunch today. The juice looks gross but it's actually delicious spirulina mango juice. I also had udon with nori, a poached egg and some kamaboko.

Despite my healthy lunch I'm not feeling too well at all. I'm supposed to go to a concert but am not entirely confident I'll be able to make it. Will keep my fingers crossed!

August Break #23:neighbor brought a surprise apple pie!

August Break #19:made my own {delicious!} chocolates

August Break #18:I love me some Asian groceries

August Break #14: brownie I had today

August Break #9: yesterday's delicious lunch

A Little Cat Rant

Right after we went to retrieve our cat from it's vacation address we brought her to the vet. She'd been going to the litterbox too often and we also just wanted a little check up in general. Turns out she has urine christals and has to go on antibiotics for a little while and a lifelong diet.

Now what really pisses me off about this is that it is caused by a high salt percentage in cat food! It is quite a common problem with cats simply because their food isn't right for them at all.

I am really quite disgusted that it's apparently still okay in the food industry to say stuff is healthy while it is actually causing harm. I know there are still a lot of issues with food humans eat too, but at least we have a lot of choice. Cat food is cat food and you think you can feed it to your much loved cat, but I guess not...

Recipe: Green Tea Frozen Yoghurt

I'm really loving matcha (green tea) powder and I've been experimenting a lot with it lately. Here's one of my favorite recipes so far.

It's a very simple but delicous green tea flavored frozen yoghurt with raspberries. It makes for a nice snack on a hot day or a unique dessert for a little dinner party.

You'll need:

• a mixing bowl
• frozen yoghurt(though it'll work with regular ice cream too)
• matcha powder
• frozen raspberries(or fresh ones if you prefer that)
• white chocolate sprinkles

Put some ice cream in a bowl, add some matcha powder to taste. You can mix it easily with a fork. Pour in seperate bowls. Put some frozen raspberries on top and sprinkle with white chocolate.

Enjoy!

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Feel Good Food: Rice Soup

Some time ago a friend gave me rice soup to try. It was delicious! So when I saw a discounted pink package of special girly rice soup(which later turned out even contained stickers!) it was a no-brainer.

It had these tiny slices of adorable kamaboko in it:) Though the whole thing was delicious, you could hardly taste the little creatures, but they sure made me smile.

I added some surimi for variety and really enjoyed this as a lunch!

5 Minute Recipe: Green Tea Cake

Last week I promised a cake recipe that is delicious with the shake I made then. So today I'll be explaining how to make a super quick and easy as 1-2-3 green tea cake with oatmeal and honey. Delicious!

Mix together:

-4tbsp flour

-4tbsp sugar

-2tbsp matcha(/green tea) powder

Then add:

-1 egg

-3tbsp milk

-3 tbsp oil

Mix well, put in a fun silicone mold, sprinkle some oatmeal and some honey on top and microwave for 3 minutes.

Let me know if you try it:)

Lovely Movies: the Ramen Girl

I got so super excited when I saw the trailer for the Ramen Girl! Just when I was really getting into Japanese cooking, I was watching some trailers on a dvd and they came with this one:)

It's a lovely, funny and inspirational film. And I was happy to see that the Japanese people in this movie actually speak Japanese and not English with an accent, as is the case with most Hollywood movies that take place somewhere else.

You should probably eat some Japanese food prior to, during or after the movie, because you will definitely crave it.

Speaking of Japanese food, not only did I cook udon tonight, I just walked across this bento shop that they've been planning to open for ages (I think it's been about a year since I first spotted it and it's still not open!) and you can now apply for a job. It's sooner than I planned to look for work, but this is the perfect job! I'll let you guys know if I go through with it and become a bit of Ramen girl myself.

Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday and it involved so many cute things that I couldn't resist taking pictures for the blog.

I spotted this teeny tiny little cake a few weeks ago and knew I had to had one on my birthday. Since I wasn't expecting many guests I thought it'd be big enough.

My dad actually brought another small, though larger, chocolate truffle cake, so we had more than enough. I actually just ate a piece of each for dessert tonight.

Here's my outfit of the day. The earrings were sent to me by a very dear friend and the cardigan was a present from my mom on the day itself.

I did some special nail polish the day before. Mint green with cherry blossoms and a pink shimmer coating. It was made with one of those special stamps, I didn't get it the first few tries, but eventually got the hang of it.

Both my parents gave me beautiful roses!

And of course there were other gifts too. My dad gave me the Sims 3 and a bunch of cd's and dvd's including: Iron & Wine and Ray LaMontagne and Away We Go. I'll probably do reviews some time.

Here are some pretty Marie Antoinette earrings my mom gave me.

This little cupcake is not just decorative, it actually holds chocolate scented hand cream!

And this moth fighter is just awesome! Definitely something you don't expect to get on your birthday, but also not something you knew could be so frickin' cool, right?

As you can see it was a great day. I'm glad I took a lot of pictures to relive it all and I hope you enjoyed taking a peek too.