Breaking the silence....

Okay….after about 3 months of hibernation I’m back! With the unnatural warm weather there is no way to have a winter-sleep and there is much to write about. Last Monday I resubmitted the revised version of my paper (Yippie!) that has kept me from blogging about my 1 year blog anniversary, Christmas markets both in Basel and Strassbourgh, a food-filled festive holiday and a skiing trip to Tignes. But what finally got me out of limbo was last Sunday’s bloggers meeting organized by TBF where I met lots of nice people and this made me feel I should perhaps contribute again to internet space ☺


So that evening, I set out to make a dish for the golden shrimp….it was inspired by two things: a great Christmas present of a stainless steel grater and part of a lump of Italian Parmasan cheese my colleague received as a late Christmas present and couldn’t finish. I figured the best way to combine both, would be to make a simple pasta with pesto which was made very quickly. For the pasta I used this recipe and for the pesto I used the recipe in my favourite Italian cookbook. Both were very easy to assemble and tasted great.

For dessert, we stuck to the green theme and made this sorbet. I modified the recipe slightly but adding half the lemon grass to the syrup for a stronger flavour and I pushed the apples through a sieve after blending them as I don’t have a juicer. Also, I forgot about it whilst at the bloggers meeting so it didn’t get stirred and turned into a granita in stead of a sorbet but still tasted great and looked the part in my new Japanese tea cups (another persent). So that’s it for now, but I’ll post again soon!

Pesto (serves 4)
25 fresh basil leaves
100ml extra virgin olive oil
40g pine nuts
50g Parmesan cheese, finely grated
salt

Blend the basil leaves with the olive oil, pine nuts and a pinch of salt in a blender. Add the grated cheese and process again.