Challenging Arts & Crafts: June 2013

The Potted Lilies

They were planted in a hollow block (concrete) located on the top terrace of the house.
They seem to have gotten accustomed to the small space.

The lily bulbs came from a pack that I got from a Supermarket....
just trial and error planting, as I´m not used to planting bulbs.

During it´s 1st year, the stalks were just half of this year´s height.

and not much flowers were there.... Right now, we´re having an explosion of

its buds and we really didn´t expect such plant to grow in such a small space.

The bulbs were a mixture of yellow and peach color lilies and the stalks are so robust that they could withstand even if there is a gusty wind.

They are protected anyway, because the small terrace on top is surrounded by

walls and yet they still get so much sun. The top terrace is ideal also for growing

salad greens as well as other veggies in containers.

Part of the bulbs were also planted in my small backyard, but all were victims

of the slugs....they seem to be all over.

One remedy to reduce slugs/snails coming in the Yard downstairs is to place a container of beer. They are so crazy to come and get " drunk".

They come in the night, that´s when they are active... their sense of smell is very

fine, that the beer container were always full of them the following morning. I gathered them and put them back to the fields not so far away from our house.

Along with the lilies, I also have a peony this year, that´s been growing nicely next to it, also in a hollow block. I hope that there will be blooms next year.

This one stalk has plenty of buds this year.

More of the lily buds.....

I hope that these lilies will continue to be as beautiful next year....Hope you have enjoyed the flowers !

Happy Sunday everyone!

Til next,

Mercy

Rucola Tomato Pie

One of the best things ever invented in baking is the ready made phyllo or the puff pastry. They are so versatile to use and a blessing in one´s kitchen. You don´t have to spend so much time making this dough to achieve flaky and crispy layers.

I always see to it that I have this ready in the fridge, so anytime when some visitors come up, I can always produce something quick and tasteful.

For this recipe, I used rucola leaves... it has a mild taste which I prefer more than the fresh spinach...

Ingredients :

1 readymade puff pastry ( approx 270-275 gms ) for
a 24 cm pie form

250 g Ricotta ( fresh italian White cheese)
200 g Rucola leaves
3 eggs, 2 cloves crushed garlic
3 medium tomatoes, thinly sliced ( reserve about 4-5 slices for
topping)
3 spring onions cut into small pieces
salt & pepper

cooking oil to sautée the leaves

butter to coat the pie form

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C. Coat the pie form with butter, roll out the pastry, remove the paper (set aside for later use), place the pastry onto the form slightly pressing it so that it covers the form completely. Tuck the pastry edges towards the inner side just like in a pizza crust (see Image nr. 1)....

Place the pastry paper or parchment on top of the pastry, then add dried beans to bake blind the pastry for 10 minutes under 180°C.

Remove the paper and the beans and bake 5 minutes more to get a brown crust all over. Set aside for later filling.

3. In a pan with 1 tbsp butter, slightly fry the rucola leaves until they get limpy and loose its liquid, put in a colander to squesze out more liquid.... set aside.

In the same pan, add 1 tbsp cooking oil & fry the crushed garlic, 2 sliced tomatoes and the cut spring onions til done, about 2 minutes.... set aside.

4. Fill the puffed pastry with half of the egg-Ricotta mixture. Arrange the Rucola and tomatoes on top of it and add 1/4 of the of the egg mixture. Then, top with the reserved sliced tomatoes. Pour the rest of the egg mixture and bake at 175°C for about 20 minutes.... for crispy edges, bake more for 5 minutes at 175°C..

Can be served warm or cold, goes well with white wine.

Note: If the puff pastry tends to become too dark during the baking process, cover the pie with an aluminum foil, remove cover 5 minutes before the baking time ends.

Have a nice time baking!!

Thank you for reading my blog.... am wishing you a Happy Weekend!!!

Til next,

Mercy

Berry Pudding Cake - No Sugar Added

No Sugar - Berry Pudding Cake

This is a variation of a delicious recipe that I stumbled upon while visiting Better Homes & Gardens´s site at http://www.bhg.com/recipe/berry-pudding-cakes/?socsrc=bhgpin052912 today afternoon... so easy and quick to make.

The original recipe has sugar, but I used Stevia in powder form to save calories.

I omitted the sugar because I added melted chocolate for the toppings. Chocolate bars are one of my weaknesses, so if I would have used sugar, then calories would have been much more.

Here´s BGH´s orignal recipe of the scrumptious Berry Pudding Cake...

Ingredients

Nonstick cooking spray
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup granulated sugar ( I used Stevia instead of sugar with a Ratio of 1:1 )
1 teaspoon vanilla
Dash salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups fresh berries (such as raspberries, blueberries, and/or sliced strawberries)
2 teaspoons powdered sugar (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly coat six 6-ounce individual quiche dishes with nonstick cooking spray. Arrange in a 15x10x1-inch baking pan; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine eggs, granulated sugar, vanilla, and salt; whisk until light and frothy. Whisk in milk until combined. Add flour and baking powder; whisk until smooth.

2. Divide berries among prepared quiche dishes. Pour batter over berries. (Batter will not cover berries completely.) Bake about 20 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Serve warm. If desired, sift powdered sugar over each serving.

Note:

I used various frozen berries such as blueberries, blackberries, red currant and raspberries ...I thawed them beforehand placing them in a colander to extract the liquid before putting them in the baking form.

When baking was finished, I added melted chocolate as topping:

To make the melted chocolate:

in a pot, heat 3 tbsp milk + 50 grams of plain chocolate bar ( 1/2 of the small bar)under low fire, mix til the chocolate is melted and well blended. Use spoon to add droplets onto the Pudding cake.

Depending on the berries you have, eat this with a spoon as the cake is soft and juicy.

For nutritional facts, please click BHG´s link given above.

Happy Baking!

Quick Summer Bouquets & A Visiting Cat

A visit to our local garden center prompted me to make this floral arrangement for my garden table... Actually, I just wanted to get some soil for the newbies I want to plant in my potted garden.

I just coudn´t resist looking at what was offered in the Center...gorgeous blooms, flowers of various colors and shapes.... Food for the Soul!

And so I went home with three small pots of flowers!!!

It didn´t take so much effort to make an arrangement... I simply left the potted flowers in its soil and distributed them inside the basket from one edge to another so that they would look like freshly arranged as a bouquet.

A few twigs of ivy & roses in 2 smaller glasses with water were added to the basket to give height for the arrangement.

I water them everyday and new buds keep on coming.

Last weekend, I spontaneously gathered the above red poppies and wild blue flowers sprouting from the wheat fields of our biking route. I used the handpainted vase you see above to hold them..

I think the vase suited perfectly to the wild flowers because of the design´s similarity of colors to the flowers.. pretty vase isn´t it?

But then....... something fatal happened!

Philip, our neighbour´s visiting cat.... jumped from the top of the pergola down to the table where the vase was standing and hit the vase!

Down went the vase to the tiled floor and broke...

Oh my!!!.... my vintage vase from Grandma is gone! But thank God, Philip was fine.

He felt so guilty ....just look at those eyes, see it from the looks of

his face, LOL!

I was not mad, it was just a vase.....besides, Philip is a good

being who always amuses us everytime he visits the garden....

I pencil draw him once some years back.... just for fun!

Hope you are having a nice weekend.... Enjoy it!

Clay-Grilled Chicken in Römertopf

Today, I rediscovered my clay pot called RÖMERTOPF for grilling in the oven... I haven´t used this pot for a long time.... Claypot grilling is a common method used here. It was a method used by the Romans even before Christ.

Römertopf is very convenient to use, which means less time and effort spent in the kitchen and fat is avoided and saved because the meat is grilled in it´s own liquid. You don´t even have to attend to it, cover it and simply place in the oven and grill for about 1.5 hours and it´s done... It will come out crispy and juicy.

What you need :

clay pot like the one in the pic

1 whole dressed chicken

salt, pepper, crushed garlic, fresh Rosemary or dried one ( optional)

1 tbsp soya Sauce

vegetables cut into bite pieces ( i.e...potatoes, spring onions, carrots, bell peppers)

Note: Before using the clay pot or Römertopf, soak this in lukewarm water for at least 15 minutes... this will later help produce the liquid of the meat during the cooking process.

Here´s what I did :

I seasoned the chicken with soya sauce, salt, pepper, crushed garlic and with rosemary ( optional), added cut potato wedges and other vegetables and then placed all in the Römertopf that is beforehand soaked for at least 15 minutes in the water. Cover the Römertopf and place it on the lower oven rack.

Then I slowly heated the oven at 150 °C for 10 minutes, increased the temperature at 200°C for a few minutes then at 225°C for the rest of the grilling time... when the time was up, I removed the cover, remove the veggies and the liquid and grilled more for another 10 minutes at 200°C to make the chicken crispy...

The Römertopf

The veggies were arranged on a platter and I added the crispy chicken cut into half and served it with its own chicken gravy...as simple as that!

Bon Appetit!

Rhubarb Strawberry Tart

There are so many articles featuring rhubarbs these days, I guess it´s because now is its season. Frankly, I haven´t really cooked or baked them... Oma, hubby´s grandma supplied us with her delicious rhubarb jams and marmalades or even compote that she made herself.

While food shopping, I stumbled upon them in my supermarket and the idea of making a tart out of the stalks got me excited. I brought home a Kilo of the stalks and well, I hadn´t even started the baking part yet and I was already nervous ´cause I was trying this for the first time.

After a few google researches on how to prepare them, I concluded that rhubarbs can be cooked with sugar even without adding water . I slowly cooked the

pieces for about 15 minutes til soft and done.

Here´s my recipe....

Rhubarb Strawberry Tart

Ingredients for the pastry

500 g all purpose Flour
30 g Sugar
a dash of salt,
200 g Butter chopped into small squares,
1 Tbsp Table Vinegar,
10 Tbsp cold water

Ingredients for the Fillings:

250 grams curd cheese

2 cups sliced strawberries (cut lengthwise)

1 kg rhubarbs diced into 2 cm cubes

1 Cup + 3 tbsp fine granulated sugar

1 pack Vanilla sugar or 1/2 tps. vanilla extract

1 tbsp corn starch

1/2 cup soft strawberry marmalade

1 medium egg

Preparing the Pastry:

In a container, mix all pastry ingredients as in above, knead well until dough is smooth and can be formed into a ball.

Divide the dough into two, or put each in a plastic bag and let them stand in the fridge for 2 hours....

Roll- out 1 dough onto a floured surface, using the rolling pin, flatten it and shape the dough according to the baking form you are using..let the flat dough cover the whole tart form. Set them aside for filling later.

Preparing the Rhubarb:

Cut both ends of each stalk, wash rhubarbs and cut stalks into 2-3 cm pieces.

Sprinkle the sugar all over the rhubarbs and add the vanilla extract, the corn flour, mix thoroughly with your hand until the pieces are well coated, let stand for

30 minutes...

Put the rhubarb pieces in a casserole and cook slowly under low fire for about 15 minutes until liquid comes out and the pieces become soft and done... Be careful in stirring the pieces so that the rhubarbs do not crumble.

When rhubarbs are done, remove & place the pieces in a colander with a container underneath it to extract the excess liquid, saving the juice.

Extracted rhubarb juice can be added to apple juice to make a cold drink , I tried it and I shoud say it ís very refreshing!

Place the rhubarb in a container, carefully adding the sliced strawberries.
Add 3 tbsps of soft strawberry marmalade. Mix carefully with a spatula until pieces are well coated with the marmalade.

In a container, beat 1 egg, add the curd cheese and the 3 tbsp sugar, mix thoroughly,

Place the egg curd mixture onto the prepared pastry form spreading it evenly on the surface. Add the rhubarb strawberry on top and scatter remaining marmalade on top of it....

I had a few extra slices of strawberries that I added on top of the tart before putting

on the pastry "grid" below,

Roll-out the 2nd dough , by using pizza roller/cutter, cut the pastry into strips to cover the tart top alternately like grids. Brush the grids with a battered egg white prepared beforehand to make it golden brown during the baking

Place the tart on the lower rack of your oven and bake in a preheated oven of 200 °C for the first 15 minutes then lower the oven heat to 180 °C and bake for more 25 minutes til the crust gets brown. and crispy

This can be served warm or cold....

I´ve added whipped cream, strawberry and marmalade as toppings, and this tart was a success!!!

ENJOY YOUR WEEKEND!!!

The Backyard Roses

Today is one of those sunny days that are so seldom in our part of the world. We had plenty of rain the past 2 weeks causing floods in Central Europe particularly Austria, Germany, Czech Republic and Hungary ... so sad to see plenty of people loosing their existence...

At least today, we have high temperatures with sunny skies... And the yellow roses in my backyard are blooming wonderfully. What a nice sight to see those clusters of vivid yellow colored flowers with enormous lovely fragrance!

Year by year, its blooms are getting more & more as the rose bush gets older.

I have blogged this flower in the past, this is my dog AKO´s yellow roses... We planted this bush when he was just a puppy some 19 years back..

Except for pruning it from time to time, it´s a low maintenance sort. I don´t even know its latin name...it seems to be a historic kind, like those english roses of David Austin.