Cheese pita

If you want to make cheese bread rolls look a bit more festive, arranging them in a pita form is the ideal way to achieve that. Separate the dough in three parts. Roll out the first and spread a little butter on it. Then roll out the second on top of the first and spread some butter on it as well. Finally roll out the third piece on top of the other two, making a 0.5mm thin rectangular dough sheet. Spread some shredded feta cheese on top and roll it in as a swiss-roll. Cut it in even 5-6 cm. pieces and arrange them with the cut part up in a baking form. Bake until ready. Enjoy!

As you can see, mine weren't quite even, but you get the idea.

Strawberry-banana yoghurt drink

I really can't get over the fact that strawberries here taste nothing like the strawberries we grow back home. We used to joke that they need to be caressed by the sun in order to get that special flavor and sweetness, but now it seems as no joke to me. You fully understand the importance of sun light when you can taste the difference. Well, now I know, but what good can it do for me?!

I guess one of the greatest qualities or skills (whatever you choose to call it) we humans have is flexibility. So, even though eating the strawberries is mostly unsatisfying, blending them with a banana and milk/yoghurt can make all the difference in the world. I prefer yoghurt as it gives the drink more texture (and I am a huge fan of yoghurt), but it works just as well with milk.

4 strawberries
1 banana
1 cup yoghurt
1/2 cup water

Blend everything well et voilà. 

Sweet bread and painted eggs for Easter

Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter today. I officially celebrate with them, even though I also took advantage of last week's celebrations. It's both exciting to have two holidays and a bit confusing, as it also steals from the uniqueness of the celebration. I myself am much happier when the holiday coincides and I can celebrate it together with my family and my Bulgarian and international friends. But it's a rare occurrence.

When I think of Easter, the picture that comes to mind is sweet bread (kozunak) and painted eggs. We don't have them at any other time of the year, so I'm always looking forward to eating a slice of warm sweet bread with yoghurt drink for breakfast on Easter Sunday and to paint eggs and later have egg fights with my family and friends.

This year, for the second time in my life I made my own sweet bread. Unconventional as it is, I opted for an Italian recipe that I had just discovered and here is the video, where you can learn to make this beautiful bread with cacao and raisin.

Mine turned out pretty nicely, although I was too overzealous with the cacao. Lesson learned! :)

I also managed to paint a couple of eggs in different styles and now I'm heading off to a bbq where possibly none of them will survive. At least I'll have a picture to remember them by. :)

My first crepes

I imagine most of you would be surprised to learn that I've never made crepes until a few days ago. They haven't been the usual weekend breakfast at any point in my life either. I guess that explains why I only remember about them when I see the pictures of food bloggers' creations. In retrospect, I've always thought they'd be somewhat tricky to make as the first image that would come to mind is the flying and flipping crepes, inevitably landing on the stove/floor. It's not exactly encouraging. Finally I thought I'd try though. 

Baby steps! That's what I've come to understand as the never failing recipe for achieving anything challenging. Let's face it. Crepes are challenging! So, I took the smallest pan I've got, pulled up my sleeves and began working on what turned out a dozen of delicious crepes. Thank you, TEFLON for making my life easier! :)

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 cups milk

5 small eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 tb. sp. sugar

1/2 t. sp. salt

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients until they've integrated well.

2. Heat a greased pan and pour enough of the mixture to cover the bottom of the pan, trying to keep the crepes as thin as possible. (Mine could have been thinner.)

3. Cook at a medium high temperature for about 1 minute and then turn the crepe to cook the top side.

4. Repeat the same with the rest of the mixture.

I had mine with honey (yummy), while also wishing for some fresh berries. 

The picture on the right is a nod to the very talented food photographer and stylist Eva Toneva who originated the idea about rose crepes presented in cups.

Poppy seeds crackers

Lunch ideas? Yea, sandwiches or salad! Come to think of it, crackers fall into the sandwich category, if you jazz them up a bit with cheese and fruit.

Ingredients


220 g. flour
3 tb. sp. olive oil
3 tb. sp. poppy seeds
1/2 t. sp. salt
1/2 t. sp. baking powder
warm water


Method


1. Sift the flour and add the rest of the ingredients, except the water.
2. Start kneading adding as much water as you need to form soft and non-sticky dough.
3. Roll out the dough and cut it in whatever shapes you prefer.
4. Bake at 220 C until gold brown.


I added some cream cheese (ricotta is better), strawberries and honey to mine. 

Mixed salad

I realized I had inadvertently missed to show you a very cute picture in my last post, so instead of waiting for the end of the week (by which time I'm sure it'll be forgotten again), I'm stopping by for a quick post with a foodie note at the end.

While walking on the beach last week, we saw a man showing a pretty big fish he had captured to his wife (I presume), so she could take a picture of this glorious moment. I've seen this only in movies, so it definitely made an impression. Fortunately and in the spirit of a true paparazzi , my camera was still on (to be read as "always on"), so I quickly snapped a picture. :O

Inspired by the picture... I've had a few pieces of frozen salmon for a while now, so it was about time I made dinner with it. Mixed salad with greens, red pepper, carrot and maize added to the baked salmon bites with potatoes and herbs. I hadn't cooked salmon and potatoes together in aluminum foil, but they turned out delicious. 

Blueberry yoghurt smoothie

Normally, I'm an all-seasons person. So, whenever I get the question "which is your favorite season?", I stare thoughtfully for a few moments as if I'm trying to figure it out yet again and then answer vaguely "I like them all". That's pretty much how I feel about most things. There's just something specific I like about each thing (unless I totally hate it) and depending on what I'm looking for at that particular moment, I choose different things. Let me tell you, that can be exceptionally confusing, as I would go from one end to another. So, I'm known as a person of many minds. I keep it interesting for myself that way. Another thing I'm known for is getting off topic all the time. Like now. You'll see that a lot here. 

Although I like all seasons, it's spring now and I'm just about head over heels with it. After the mild but dark and silent winter, every time I hear the birds in the morning, I get butterflies in the stomach. The colors are still pretty dull and uninspiring, but you can feel it in the air... life! So, now is the time to start with the long walks and that's just what I, my sister and a friend did on Friday. Fabulous! This is why I'm also showing you a few pictures from our walk.

The moment I see a duck, a swan or a rabbit, I forget about any of my companions and go to look and photograph them. This time I actually managed to follow my dad's advice and approach two ducks with slow and fluid movements. They still didn't look too trusting at me, but at least they waited until I was real close to jump in the water. 

Even though for the most part the day was sunny and warm, by the time we were getting back from our walk, it changed so quickly and drastically, that I felt like I was transported in an alternate version of that day. I have to say that's one of the things I like most about spring though. It keeps surprising you.

Once I saw the approach of the boat below, I ran towards the beach, so I could take a picture of it in this mystic weather... did so too. But what I connect this moment with now is the scene that followed. Just as I was finished taking the boat picture and leaving, I saw a guy with a camera quickly approaching the rocks in front of me and immediately taking a sniper's position to photograph that same boat. You always know when you see a keen photography enthusiast!

Moving on to food!

We realized that there is a new season of a Bulgarian reality show called "The cherry of the cake". Every week five well-known people are chosen to cook for each other during the week, each of them hosting a dinner for the rest of the participants. It shows the entire process of selecting the dishes, preparing them and hosting the dinner, all the while being entertained by the host's stories. A professional chef also offers comments about how the food is being prepared and gives suggestions for improvements. It's very entertaining and educative, which makes it perfect for my taste. So, while watching an episode of it, I got really annoyed with one of the participants, who constantly commented on what she wouldn't eat. So very picky! Then I realized I'm kind of like that too, which is something I haven't really considered as upsetting until now. This means, I'm gonna be working on my attitude towards some of the undesirable foods and hopefully I won't find myself annoying before long.

Today, I enjoyed an hour of jogging which meant that I needed something lighter for lunch afterwords. I've noticed how after exercise I can't eat anything for about an hour and then suddenly I feel starved and light-headed. Not good! However, I've found the perfect energy booster and that's fruit yoghurt smoothie. I'm a big fan of blueberries... always have been, so I go for them any time I can. That kind of makes me nostalgic about the good old childhood, when I'd go to the mountain with my parents and pick berries all day long, while shouting at the echo "Grandma bear, come here" (sounds better in Bulgarian...hehe). 

When making smoothies, I never follow recipe proportions. Everyone has a preference to how dense or liquid they want it and which ingredients they want to taste more of. So, I'm just gonna say that I made mine with blueberries, banana, yoghurt and water. Well, the blueberries dominated certainly. It disappeared faster than it came about! :)

On a visit to the library this week, I accidentally spotted a book on Kofi Annan and I immediately thought I want to take it with me home. It's in a fairly understandable Danish, which makes it all that much more interesting for me and I'll share what I thought of it when I finish. I also got some books on textile print design, which is something I'm very interested to learn. I did some research on it during Christmas and it could be possible to also take a course on mixed media and digital print design in the summer, if I decide that I want some formal guidance. The best part of the course is that you get some feedback and notable exposure, so it's definitely something worth considering. 

It's too late, so I cut this post short of the Danish version. :/

Filo dough with leek, cheese and egg filling (Banitsa)

I'M BACK! I should apologize for the long absence, but ever since I said that I would post only on Sundays, they've become busy/lazy days when I don't feel like even checking up the blog. So, this mid-week post is a compensation of sorts.

On Saturday, we (Bulgarians) celebrated our national holiday commemorating 3 March 1878 when the Russian-Turkish war ended and after 500-year yoke, Bulgaria gained its freedom from the Ottoman (Turkish) empire. A day when I remember how grateful I am to the Russian and Bulgarian men who have given their lives, so that we could be free. Although as a child, I didn't give the holiday much thought and I dreaded the long speeches of statesmen and the folk music concerts on television, adulthood has given me a bit of wisdom. Recalling all the history lessons we've had on the hardships of life under foreign rule, the loss of lives and the struggle to keep our national identity, I feel very proud of my ancestors, who kept the Bulgarian spirit in a time when both Turkish and Greek influences threatened it (I hope nobody misunderstands, as I carry no ill feelings towards either nation. The past is the past.) Although I'm uncertain that we as a nation possess the dignity of the ones before us, I also know that every generation has its battles. I just hope we handle ours graciously.

Enough with the history lesson though. Let's get a bit culinary. My contribution to the holiday was a traditional Bulgarian dish called banitsa (filo-dough with leek, cheese and eggs filling). There are all sorts of versions of it both savory and sweet, but I made mine the traditional way. I can find filo-dough only in the Arabian store here, but with a little time on one's hands, it's easy to make at home. That's what I do. I have this crazy idea that if a meal is festive, it has to take quite some time to make. Buying the fillo-dough would mean just assembling the products and throwing the banitsa in the oven. It just doesn't sit right with me. That being said, the special ingredient of a festive meal is the people one shares it with, so if time is an issue, it's not a crime to take a shortcut. Moreover, fillo-dough is made just with flour, salt, vegetable oil, vinegar and water, so it's one of those products you can buy from the store and have no worry about its ingredients, etc.

I personally would probably always roll out my filo-dough as it's something I've watched my grandmother do and I feel very honored to carry the tradition in my family. So, this is how it goes:

Ingredients


500 g. flour
1 tb. sp. vinegar
1 tb. sp. olive oil
1/2 t.sp. salt
warm water


8 t. sp. olive oil


250 g. feta cheese
2-3 leeks
2 eggs
parsley (optional)


Method


1. Sift the flour in a big bowl and make a well in it. 
2. Add the vinegar, olive oil, salt and a little warm water.
3. Start kneading and add as much water as you need until you form soft dough.
4. Cut the dough in 12 pieces and form balls with them. 
5. Roll out a circle from each ball the size of a cup plate. When you roll out the first, place it on a plate. Spread 1 t.sp. olive oil on top of it and then add the second circle on top of the first. Spread 1 t.sp. olive oil on it and add the third circle on top. Do the same thing with the rest of the circles, arranging them three by three, by three, so on. At the end, you should have 4 sets of dough circles. 
6. Roll out each set as thinly as you can. You should be able to see through each leaf, when it's rolled out well. In order to make the process easy, sprinkle flour on the bottom of the surface where you'll be working and also on top of the circle sets every time the dough starts to stick or doesn't roll out easily and smoothly. Congratulations, you now have 4 sheets of filo-dough.
7. Cook the diced leek for about 5-10 min, adding 1/4 cup water, so it can soften.
8. Beat the eggs and mix with the cheese. Add the leek and some parsley.
9. Spread from the mix on each filo-dough sheet and roll it. Arrange in a round form.

10. Bake in a 200 C oven until gold brown. 


Natural yoghurt drink goes very well with it. I just added a spoon of yoghurt to the plate. Hope you enjoy it! :)

Jeg har ikke skrevet i et stykke tid, men på lørdag fejrede jeg Bulgariens national helligdag med en traditionel ret, som jeg ønskede at dele med dig. Det kaldes banitsa - lavet af filodej med ost, porre og æg påfyldning. Jeg er ikke sikker på, om du kan finde det i supermarkeder, men du kan prove med Arabiske butikker eller den BulgarskMad butik i København (hvis du bor der).


Alternativt kan du også prøve at gøre det derhjemme. Det er ret nemt, men det kræver omkring en time at gøre.


Ingredienser

500 g. mel
1 spiseskefuld eddike
1 spiseskefuld olivenolie
1/2 teske salt
varmt vand

8 teske olivenolie

250 g. feta ost
2-3 porrer
2 æg
persille 



1. Sigt melet i en stor skål og lav en fordybning i det.
2. Tilsæt eddike, olivenolie, salt og lidt varmt vand.
3. Begynd æltning og tilsæt så meget vand som du har brug for, indtil dejen er blød
4. Skær dejen i 12 stykker og form bolde med dem.
5. Udrulle en cirkel fra hver kugle med størrelsen af et bæger plade. Når du rullerden første, placere den på en tallerken. Spred 1 teske olivenolie på toppen af ​​det og derefter tilsættes den anden cirkel oven på den første. Spred 1 teske olivenolie på den og tilføje den tredje cirkel på toppen. Gør det samme med resten af cirklerne. Der bør være 4 sæt af tre dejen cirkler, når du er færdig.
6. Udrulle hvert sæt så tyndt som du kan. Du skal se gennem hvert blad, når det er rullet ud godt. Drys mel på bunden af ​​overfladen, hvor du vil arbejde, og også på toppen af ​​cirklen sætter hver gang dejen begynder at klæbe eller når den ikke udrulle let og gnidningsløst. Tillykke, du nu har 4 blad filo-dej.
7. Kog hakkede porre for omkring 5-10 minutter med 1/4 kop vand, så det kan blødgøre.
8. Pisk æg og blandes med osten. Tilsæt porre og nogle persille.
9. Spred blandingen på hver filo dej. Arranger i en rund form.
10. Bakes i 200 C ovn indtil guld brun.


Serveres med yoghurt naturel. Velbekomme!

Leek and potato soup

First, I'd like to say Happy Valentine's day to all who are celebrating! I myself am more hung on the idea of honoring the day of wine (st. Tryphon) as it evokes many funny memories from my childhood. I and my family together with my uncles' families would go to the vineyard, where the kids (us) would play and the adults would drink some good red wine. Most years, the snow covered ground and frozen garden pond provided lost of entertainment and funny stories. Now, it's just me and my sister, sipping some red wine bought from the local store and laughing about all those past moments. Traditions, what will we do without them?

I've been thinking a bit about the blog and how I want to proceed with it. Since, I'm not quite fond of writing all that much during the week and my posts seem somewhat unfinished to me, I decided that it shall be a Sunday edition, when I would take my time in posting step by step recipe explanations with more pictures (hopefully better quality too) and a little more attention to the writing part too. I'm also going to try doing double-language posts (English and Danish) as I need to establish a routine practicing my Danish. Finally, I'm gonna keep the blog strictly 'food' related. If I have the patience to listen through skype explanations of gardening - growing vegetables and fruit - from my dad, I'd also love to include these. He has a life-long experience and lots of best-practice advice he's been giving to his friends and integrating in his work, so I think it will be a great way to keep his wisdom through an online shared note-taking. I hope you're interested. I'm going to reinvent the personal style part of it in a separate blog some time later on, as I've changed its concept a bit and I'm not ready to delve into it now, but if you're interested, there will be some bits and pieces of what I'd choose in my Pinterest account.

Unbelievable as it is, I managed to write an entire post without the tiniest hint of the title. So, here it comes. I checked out a very interesting recipe a couple of days ago. Reading just the name "leek and potato soup" immediately caught my attention, as both ingredients are on the top list of this season's food and I love them both. Here is the recipe. The author gives plenty of information on how the recipe could be modified for all sorts of diets and explains the process with beautiful pictures. You should check it out!

The only changes I made were that I used only 10 g olive oil and substituted the double cream with cream fraiche. It was absolutely lovely. If I had tomato salad, it would have been even lovelier. :)

Orange chocolate chip cookies

Fruit or chocolate? Cookies or cake? Why not have it all in one? That's what orange chocolate chip cookies are for me. I and the raising eyebrows' taster at home particularly like the combination of orange and chocolate, as I'm sure most of you dear readers do.

I'm too tired to write anything else except the recipe, but if I have time tomorrow, I'll tell you why... or most likely show you. Winter and sea lovers will be excited to see. ;)

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup butter/ coconut oil (I prefer the latter, as it adds a little more exotic feel to the cookies)

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

4 tb. sp. orange juice

1 t. sp. orange zest

1 t. sp. baking powder

1/2 t. sp. baking soda

1/4 t. sp. salt

chocolate chip

Method

1. Mix the butter/ coconut oil with the sugar until creamy.

2. Add the eggs one by one, whisking them well.

3. Add the orange juice and zest and continue whisking.

3. Add the baking powder, the baking soda and the salt to the flour and sift it in the bowl where the wet ingredients are. Mix well together.

4. Finally, add the chocolate chip and integrate in the dough. 

5. Let it rest wrapped in plastic foil in the fridge for a day. (I wasn't feeling like waiting, so I made them the same day.)

6. Bake in a 200 C oven. Let them cool for about 5 minutes, before you remove them from the baking paper. Leave them on a rack to cool additionally. Enjoy! :)

I also did a batch with coffee and raisin, but they weren't as good.

Cinnamon buns

In a few minutes we're going for dinner with a lovely Bulgarian family, so I thought I'd make the dessert. I've been thinking about trying cinnamon buns ever since I read Kanelbullar post, but I only got to them today. I mostly followed the recipe, except that I made about 1/6 of the size, used the egg for the dough, replaced the dried yeast with fresh yeast and I also used raisin instead of topping the rolls with sugar. Now, I somewhat regret the choice, as their shape got a bit all "over the place" or in other words, they popped too much. However, I'm also conflicted by the very pleasing taste they create. Next time, I think I'll just cut the raisin in very small pieces... maybe that'll work. In any case, I'm sure they'll be savored. :)

A take on egg salad

Remember how I mentioned I'll try a more challenging crochet design than the one I did on Sunday? Well, I browsed some video tutorials on flower-making with chaining, double and triple crochet. THANK YOU to all the lovely women sharing their knowledge on youtube! It's so easy to follow - stopping, resuming and repeating to suit one's learning best. My needle (0.66 mm) and thread are a lot tinier and thiner than the ones used on the tutorials, though. So, I wasn't particularly excited about the size of the flowers I ended up with... one will have to look at them through glasses just to spot them (I'll make some adjustments and give these designs another try). Instead, I did my own thing again. It's mostly chaining and then applying three layers for achieving volume. I should remember to keep it a little loose. At least, that's what my mom said back when she tried to teach me. But I don't like loose at all. Until my fingers hurt, it's like I haven't worked with it. Crazy, I know. Anyway, this is what I did last night. I know it's a tiny amount of finished work, but I watched a scary movie in the meantime. :O

I'm not sure whether I'm gonna make a dozen of these (or more, depending on what I end up using them for) or mix them with other designs. I'm also having some serious dilemma what I wanna use them for. I thought about embellishing a headband, a bolero, a cushion case, cards, etc. If it's a bolero/cushion I'd wanna do it from scratch though, which means hand-sewing (I'm gonna buy a sewing machine one day!)... scary but possible! :)

Moving on! :) My version of egg salad. I haven't had egg salad before, so I have no idea what the classic version tastes like. I was a bit pressed for time, so I didn't check out a recipe either. I did have eggs in the fridge though and the only food I could think of was boiled eggs, yoghurt and salad, so I guess it worked out the way it should have. I used home made whole grain bread (the same recipe I use for other bread, but with whole grain flour) to make sandwiches with the egg salad. It was yummy!

Ingredients

2 boiled eggs

1/2 leek

1/3 cup maize

80 g. natural yoghurt/ cream fresh

ground black pepper

ground red pepper

salt

Method

Well.... mix it all well and bon appetite! :)

Apple pie

Previously, I've made an apple tart with pastry cream, which is a fabulous dessert to share with friends. Its thin crust leaves plenty of space for the abundance of cream and apples, which I love. Pastry cream is more of a festive dessert ingredient for me though. On the other hand, I'm very fond of fruit infused pastry for a weekday dessert. Apple pie, maybe? Yes, that's what sprang in my mind first. If I had thought about it some more, I would have gone for crumble, but there is always a next time. :)

Ingredients

2 cups flour

100 g. butter

1/3 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

1/2 tb. sp. icy water

2 apples

1 tb. sp. corn starch 

1 tb. sp. oatmeal 

1 tb. sp. sugar

Method

1. Mix the butter and the sugar together until creamy. 

2. Add the icy water and the egg yolks one by one, whisking them well together.

3. Finally add the flour and quickly form soft dough. Refrigerate for about 1 hour wrapped in plastic foil.

4. In the meantime, peel and cut in small cubes the apples. Mix them with the corn starch, oatmeal and sugar. (Alternatively, you can use nuts, which will absorb the moisture of the apples.)

5. Roll out a bottom and a top crust layer from the cooled dough. 

6. Place the first in a tart form(s) and spread the apples on top of it. Then cover it with the top layer. Cut the crust with a fork on a couple of places, so the pie can breathe. Bake at 200 C until ready.

I'm gonna try a vegan version of this some time before the winter has passed. Pretty optimistic about it too. :)

Crochet coaster

Two years ago, while on a holiday in Bulgaria, I asked my mom to show me how to crochet. She's not a woman of much patience though, so every time I stopped trying to get myself out of a situation, she'd just start pointing out the right way or get the needle and thread out of my hands, so she could show me again... and again. At that point, I'd start laughing uncontrollably, which made the whole endeavor so much more time-consuming and ineffective. Eventually, she gave me a book and told me I could learn now on my own. Hmmm... I don't do well with such instructions, so I left the whole project aside. This weekend, I accidentally stumbled on it and I thought I'd give it another chance.

I wasn't particularly excited about the shape though, so I unthreaded the whole thing and started wondering about a small project. I and my sister were watching our favorite BG series, 

so I in no way wanted to also look into patterns. I wanted something simple (just to get used to working faster) but also practical. Since my sister doesn't have a coaster for her coffee glass, I thought I'd make one for her. 

Admittedly, it's as simple as it gets. But I kind of like it, especially the round shape. Most importantly, my sister thought it was cute too. :)

I'm thrilled about trying a more challenging, but still small design now. Some creative project to go with tv-time.

Baked apples

I've been so tired all morning, despite getting up early and drinking a cup of tea. So I just stayed in bed, browsing a database of amazing print projects. I feel like a kid in a candy shop at moments like these. The fact that it's considerably colder than previous days (-16 C in the early morning) doesn't exactly encourage me getting a foot out the door just yet. So, it also seems like the perfect time for having baked apples for late breakfast. I usually prefer them with walnuts and honey, but the 1.5 kg walnuts I brought back from home vanished in less than a month. Ouch! The only walnuts I can find here come in packages of 150 g. and they look disappointingly unappetizing. Almonds are top quality though, so I think there's no discussion which ones should come home with me.

Ingredients

apples (the juicier and sweeter the apples are, the better)

marzipan 

raisin

almonds

cinnamon

I sometimes also add orange juice, covering 1-2 fingers of the apples, but they're equally delicious without the juice, I think.

Method

1. Clean the seeds of the apples, keeping them whole or cutting them in two. 

2. Fill the apples with small pieces of marzipan and raisin and bake them until the apples are soft.

3. Garnish with almonds and cinnamon.

I keep forgetting adding this outfit arrangement. I guess today is the day. I simply love the cardigan with its girly-romantic embellishment. It seems to me so cute to wear in the spring with shorts, heels and a clutch. 

Have a lovely weekend! :)