Banana Bread and Old Book Review

Last night I had a baking attack. The cause of my attack was partly restlessness and impatience because I can’t wait to get The Food Press going, partly gluttony and partly trying to avoid doing yoga (yes I have a problem….). But don’t judge me too quickly because baking late at night when nobody is around was almost as zen as my Kundalini session would have been, plus the way I whizzed around the kitchen at an ungodly hour was a total physical workout. I ended up baking late because I got caught looking through my cookbooks, which for me is more than just looking through recipes, it is more like going through some sort of of nostalgic memory lane. In my recent explorations of my very large cookbook collection (in preparation for The Food Press) I have rediscovered quite a few books. Some of these books I bought more than 20 years ago when I first came to the Netherlands, trying to recapture what I experience as a “cinnamon muffin” sort of coziness which I associate so much with the neck of the woods where I partly grew up(the East coast). I guess creating The Food Press is partially a way of recreating those feelings, smells  and sense of community that I find so particularly American. Among the books that I rediscovered was Laurel’s Kitchen , from which I had never cooked anything until recently when I tried a couple of things that turned out very nicely. Although a bit outdated the book has nice common sense recipes, maybe too simple for the me of 21 years ago, but just earthy enough for the present me, and with lots of room to change things around. Nevertheless the introduction is still my favorite part of this book which gives me a fuzzy warm hippy feeling to which I easily allow myself to succumb.  Another gem I came across was Wake up and Smell the Coffee by Laura Zahn. This book has a unique All-American character and many of the recipes are very veganizable, like the Coffee Cake Muffins I made last night in which I substituted an egg for 3 tbsp of chia seeds soaked in a bit of water. But my all time favorite old cookbook is the Kripalu cookbook. Again, it may be partly nostalgia or maybe some mild form of homesickness, but I love this book, and unlike the other two books mentioned earlier I have used this book throughout the years to the point that it has no cover anymore and many of its pages are loose. This is the book from which I have made my Banana Bread all these years. It is a vegan recipe and I have done nothing  except follow the instructions, knowing that by the time it comes out of the oven I will have a deliciously moist, guilt-free loaf.

At about 11:30, after I had made the Banana Bread and the Coffee Cake Muffins I felt a second wind coming and a feeling that I was just beginning, so I proceeded to go ahead and make a Rye-Poppyseed-Pulp Cake. I really would share this recipe with you but unfortunately I forgot to write it down (I guess the late hour did take its toll on me after all). But since it turned out so delicious I will recommend to not forget that bag of rye flour that’s been sitting around your pantry and use it in baking cakes, it works really well (in combination with other flours). I also used the pulp from my morning pumpkin-carrot-sweetpotato juice as well as some of the pulp of the morning’s nut milk and added chia and linseed as “eggs”. Anyway I am afraid that this post is as endless last night’s baking adventure, so I will stop here and leave you with the best Banana Bread recipe ever.

 

 

 

Banana Bread

2 3/4 cups sliced banana
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup rice syrup
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup white flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp all spice
pinch of cardamom
2/3 cups chopped walnuts

-blend bananas and oil
-stir syrup into banana mix and combine with a spatula
-in another bowl mix all dry ingredients except walnuts
-add dry ingredients to the banana mixture
-mix with a spoon until well combined and add walnuts and mix again
-pour batter into a bread form and bake in a preheated oven at 375* F for about 40-50 minutes

 

 

Blueberry Crumble

 

I sometimes forget how it was that I jumped into this (healthy, plant based)cooking boat. The other day someone asked me and it brought back a bunch of memories. Although I’ve always enjoy cooking and since my teenage years toyed with the idea of not eating meat, it wasn’t until I first expected a baby that began to read about foods and health. Back in 1992 in Holland vegetarianism and health foods was still in quite a primitive state, but when visiting the American Book Center in Amsterdam I would always come home with a book related to foods in some way(Diet for a New Planet by Robbins and Diet for a Small Planet by Francis More Lappe among others). As I remember before switching definitively to plant foods I used to make a killer (no pun intended) lamb masala which my husband loved. One day after having decided to not eat meat I had the brilliant idea to go ahead and substitute the lamb for tofu…..and what a sad disaster that was! It really did taste horrible or worse yet completely bland. My husband politely ate it all and proceeded to ask (almost cry): “can we just eat meat again?” Insecurity overcame me, but didn’t completely beat me. Lo and behold the next day I received a package from the U.S from a dear friend Ellen who lived in Ithaca, the home of the Moosewood restaurants, containing almost all the Moosewood books available at the time. These books opened up a new world for me, they were my bible, security blanket as well as a key to freeing me up to learn how to cook with vegetables without feeling like a boring freak. After those books came the Kripalu cookbook and many others, over 275 to be precise. I don’t seem to get done collecting cooking books, and don’t have any plans to stop in the near future since it seems that cooking plants is becoming more and more delicious, beautiful and creative by the day and I can’t just walk into a book shop without yet another beautiful book. By this point I don’t usually follow recipes anymore (sometimes I do), but I read them like novels and admire the pictures just like I look at the great Dutch painting masters (okay almost).

This Blueberry Crumble was inspired by one of those beautiful books which I just couldn’t leave in the shop: Green Kitchen Stories. On page 37 of that lovely book (oh, I have the Dutch version so in English it will probably be on another page) you can find the original recipe. My crumble was a result of a quick scanning of the recipe and my pantry and it worked beautifully.

 

My Crumble

3 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries (I used frozen)
2 cups oat flakes
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
2 cups of the milk of your choice (I had hazelnut/pecan homemade milk)
3 tbs chia seeds
2 tbs linseeds
vanilla
1/4 cup liquid sweetener (I had honey)
1 tbs coconut oil
1 cup hazelnuts
1/2 pecan

-mix oat flakes and baking powder
-in another bowl mix milk, seeds and vanilla
-in another small bowl mix nuts, coconut oil and sweetener
-put the blueberries in a baking pan and cover with the oat flake mix
-pour the milk and seed mix on top of oats and berries
-spread the nut, oil and sweetener mix on top of everything
-bake in a preheated oven at 190* for about 30 minutes

drizzle with coconut milk and a bit more sweetener if desired!

 

The Bowl

 

In a perfect world all autumn Sunday mornings would be like this one. After doing a session of Ashtanga, taking a shower and walking the dog in this beautiful golden autumn day I got to do one of my favorite Sunday morning meditations: doing the dishes. This is an activity that I truly enjoy doing as long as the rest of the loved ones are happily snoring away in their beds on the rooms above me. It is an almost sacred moment where I can empty my mind and just enjoy how the soapy warm water gently cleans each dish and then feel the warm running water wash everything away. While doing dishes I sometimes engage in planning out my day, or try to apply my yoga postures and breathing to my dishwashing movements. It may sound silly, but it really brings my yoga practice into actual practical activities. In doing the dishes I become aware of the beauty and inner peace that can be found in the mundane tasks of our daily lives.

While doing the dishes I had this overwhelming feeling of making a nutritious and delicious Sunday morning breakfast for my lovely Zen moment interruptors, who were about to pop-up into the kitchen any moment now. I had soaked hazelnuts and brazil nuts for nut milk and I had plenty of fruit around, including a large bowl of berries to make a nice breakfast bowl. I decided to make some oat flake muesli and some patties from yesterday’s leftover quinoa and buckwheat. By the time my dear creatures began appearing in the kitchen the nut milk was done and the muesli was in the oven. I continued with my preparations for the healthiest ever breakfast while all of a sudden realizing that one of my dearest creatures had made his own plan and had a cast iron pan on the fire with 3 eggs and several slices of bacon! Okay now was a good moment to put my yoga breathing into practice…… nevertheless a beautiful Sunday morning.

Breakfast Bowl

2 cups of berries (a mixture or one sort is fine)
1 cup of soy yogurt
1 cup of nut milk
2 dates

-but everything in the blender and blend.
-put about a cup of the fruit blend in a bowl
-add some chopped fresh fruit
-add about 1/2 cup of muesli or granola
-sprinkle with maca and some hemp powder if you like and pour a bit more nut milk on top for a more subtle flavor

 

Pear Upside-Down Cake with a New Blog Look!

Upside Down
I lived in a funny town 
Where everything was upside down!
The birds walked and the humans flew
Where the trees were totally blue!
Trees talked and laughed a lot
They stole each other’s fruit and fought
The bear was gentle, kind and sweet
He never ever ate raw meat!
Fishes went to school in a pool
Where a frog principal ruled.
Water was blue and the sky flew
And told me in life always be true!

By: Rosy, Tulika, Nikitar

Another Quick Post from one Busy Girl to Cyber Space
Pear Upside-Down Cake
If you’re into moist fruity cakes like I am this upside down cake will please you.

Cake:
3/4 cup whole spelt flour
1/2 cup white spelt flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp.baking soda
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup light olive oil
1 cup maple or rice syrup
vanilla

Glaze:
2 or 3 medium pears cut in half then thinly sliced
1/2 cup pear or apple juice
1 tbs. rice syrup
1 1/2 tbs arrowroot dissolved in 1/4 cup of the juice mentioned above
dusting of cinnamon

Cake:
-preheat oven to 180*
-Prepare a round cake pan by covering the bottom with wax paper and oiling it with about 1 tsp. olive oil and greasing the sides
-in a bowl mix all dry ingredients
-in another bowl mix all the wet ingredients
-mix wet ingredients with dry ingredients
-drizzle the baking pan with about 2 extra tbs. of maple syrup and spread evenly
-place the pears gracefully in the prepared cake pan
-then pour the batter evenly on top
-bake for about 30-40 minutes until a knife inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean
-cool the cake and the invert onto a serving plate, peel the wax paper off carefully

Glaze:
-in a small pan heat up the juice and syrup
-add the 1/4 cup of juice with arrowroot and stir until it becomes thick and shiny
-brush, or gently evenly pour the thickened juice on top of the cake and sprinkle with cinnamon

One word of advice: don’t do what we do at or house and devour the cake before it is cooled off, it will not only leave you with an unpleasantly burned throat, but it won’t taste nearly as good. Wait until the cake has cooled down, it will be worth it!

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The Winter Pear

The Winter Pear
by William Allingham

Is always Age severe?
Is never Youth austere?
Spring-fruits are sour to eat;
Autumn’s the mellow time.
Nay, very late in the year.
Short day and frosty rime.
Thought, like a winter pear,
Stone-cold in summer’s prime,
May turn from harsh to sweet.

These pears are truly wonderful and no work at all.

ingredients

large pears cut in half
1 tsp coconut oil
3 tbs. rice syrup
dusting of cinnamon

-spread the coconut oil over the bottom of an oven dish
-drizzle with about 1 tsp of rice syrup and place the pears cut side down on top.
-drizzle the pears with the rest of the syrup and dust with cinnamon
-place dish with pears in oven under the grill for about 15 minutes until the pears caramelize
-serve with roasted crushed hazelnuts and coconut cream.

Yum, Yum, Yum

It feels like the summer is coming to an end, at least here in Amsterdam, where the gray days have started, the wind feels cooler and the fall jackets are starting to come out of the closets. I know it’s early but that is the nature of the this beast called the Netherlands. The weather may not be spectacular, but many other things are pretty wonderful here. Today I read a quote somewhere on FB which reminded me of the give and takes of life, which in the Netherlands you can interpret pretty literally: “If you want the rainbows, you’ve got to put up with the rain.” I am willing to embrace the rain in exchange for the beautiful canals, the mix and match of people and styles, the variety of foods and the typical down to earth Dutch attitude of which they seem so proud.
Yesterday in an attempt to hold on to the summer vegetables and dishes I came up with a delicious gazpacho which I have to share with you. Have you ever thought of combining roasted red peppers and a very ripe mango? Well it seems like a marriage made in heaven! The sweetness of the roasted peppers and the mango really complement each other, neither sticks out or tries to control the other, and even the colors don’t cancel each other out, they create a beautifully intense shade of orange. By the way orange is the national Dutch color and since I seem to be ranting on about the qualities of this adoptive country of mine, the color of this soup seems like a funny and appropriate bonus.
The basil pesto with roasted almonds adds that extra texture which makes this soup a notch chiquer. The super bonus is how easy it is to put together this bomb of color, texture and taste.

Roasted Red Pepper-Mango Gazpacho
5 roasted red bell peppers(I roasted the peppers in the oven until they turned pretty black, it took about 15 minutes, then I peeled and seeded them)
1 large mango peeled and cut in chuncks
1/2 -1 cup water
1/2 tsp sea salt

-put all the ingredients in the blender and blend until the mixture is smooth and uniform

Roasted Almond Basil Pesto
a handful of basil leaves
1 clove of garlic crushed and minced
about 3 tbs roasted almonds
1/4 cup great quality olive oil
sea salt to taste
1 tsp of sumac (optional)

-make the pesto by hand with a mortar and pestle
-first crush the basil, garlic, oil and salt then add the almonds
-crush until you get a unified consistency, but the almonds still feel crunchy
-sprinkle with sumac if desired, for a tangy taste and mix well

Spoon the pesto in the individual soup servings

The Cycle of Jam

Today while shopping with my daughter for school supplies in Amsterdam I caught myself regularly looking at my reflection on store windows, or inadvertently staring into every mirror I came across. This masochistic behaviour is not something I have indulged in for the last 32 years(yes I am 50), but somehow it popped up again, and I wondered why.
Having two teenage daughters with beautiful figures, who look great on anything they wear is of course no great confidence booster for my 50 year old ego, although I am extremely pleased to see how lovely they have turned out. When I looked for my reflection on those shop windows I was also looking for that teenager of 32 years ago, but what was the teenager looking for way back then anyway, when she repeatedly looked at her reflection on the store windows?

That search for perfection! Funny enough art is much kinder; perfection often lies in the beauty of the imperfect. Although creating art is more often than not a painstaking process, the product mostly has the ease of something that has always existed, something that couldn’t and shouldn’t be any other way. The artist often uses his skill to portray perfection and beauty in the imperfection and vulnerability of life. When we look at the curves in those plump Botticelli women or at the dark, wrinkled images of the characters in Rembrandt’s paintings, we don’t turn away thinking that those women really should have been thinner or less wrinkled, on the contrary we look into their souls and embrace the beauty, pain, and life that they portray.

We people are also works of art, and if I remind myself to look at my window reflection with the same wonder for life that I look at Rembrandt’s characters, the ones looking back at me from the walls of the Rijksmuseum I will see myself in all my perfectly imperfect glory and enjoy!

The food I love is also not about perfection. I love to cook foods that don’t look perfect, foods that happen from the messy interaction with life. I love foods that cook in one large pan, in which ingredients are measured by handfuls or pinches and not by grams. I don’t feel tempted by those large plates with a couple of creamy drops of something in the centre. I love the beauty of the big pot with stuff in it.

Today I made a big pot of tomato jam, and it was fun to go from the plump juicy tomatoes to the concentrated, reduced, sweet, spicy gooey jam; a whole cycle in 11/2 hour.

Tomato Jam
about 2.5 kilo of tomatoes
11/2 cups honey
1 cup of sucanat(granulated cane juice)
the juice of one lemon
the peel of 1/2 lemon
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 tsp clove powder
4 cardamon pods
a pinch of salt

-cut the tomatoes in medium size pieces(I cut them in pieces of 4)
-put all the ingredients in a large pan and let them cook until the whole thing becomes jam, about an hour and a half
-stir occasionally, and don’t let it get super thick since it will thicken when it cools off
-when the jam is done put it in glass jars, let it cool off and refrigerated for up to a couple of weeks.
-you can also can it in sterilized jars(which is what I did this time, since I want to practice to get really good at canning and preserving), in this case you can store your jam outside the fridge for several months.

if you want to can your jam:
-have a large pan of boiling water where you can boil your already cleaned jars and lids(use new lids, since they are safer against bacteria) while the jam is cooking
-when the jam is almost ready boil the empty jars and lids
-take them out after they have boiled for about 10 minutes, use kitchen tangs to get them out, and place the jars and lids on a clean kitchen towel
-fill the jars with jam, but leave a bit of a space on top, and wipe the jars well with a clean towel
-close the jars well and put them in the pan with boiling water again to boil for about 10 minutes, make sure that the pots are completely under water
-take the jam pots out carefully and place them on a kitchen towel and let them cool off
-you know that your pots are properly sealed when you push the center of the lid and the lid doesn’t bounce back. The lids should be flat, rather sinking than bulging.
-if the pots are not well sealed put them in the refrigerator to avoid spoilage

BTW Tomato Jam is delicious!

Orange Marmalade and More

Our vacation expedition is on its way and this year we are heading towards Florence. I am totally ready to visit this great renaissance city, where I hope to feel da Vinci’s spirit and experience the legacy of Catherine de Medici’s adventures in art and foods. On our way to Florence we will make a short two night stop in Verbier, a village in the Swiss Alps right under Mont Blanc, with breath taking landscapes. In the winter Verbier is a chique ski village and in the summers besides being a wonderful place for hiking, it houses one of Europe’s most prestigious classical music festivals. Our oldest daughter is participating in the festival this summer and we hope to arrive at the right time to hear her play her cello.
At 11.45 last night we got into our fully loaded car and began driving south east. In previous years when the kids were younger I would prepare for these trips by making large amounts of foods to take with us in the car(sushi, sandwiches, home made musli, salads and desserts), but as the years went by constantly eating in the car became less and less appealing. Now we stop at a reasonably looking highway restaurant, which in Germany and Switzerland are really not so bad, and always manage to find a fairly decent vegan alternatives and a pretty good cup of coffee.

However I did make a couple of things which got devoured before leaving the house. Lately I have been getting attracted to the idea of making preserves and pickles, possibly inspired by my husbands enthusiasm with beer making, so decided to make some marmalade. I was inspired by Ken Albala’s book The Lost Art of Cooking, from which I loosely followed his recipe for citrus marmalade. It’s super easy and very rewarding to make beautiful pots of delicious natural jam without preservatives, refined sugar or pectins. This time I used honey for fear that the natural sugar in rice syrup wouldn’t be strong enough to gel the jam, but next time I am pretty confident that rice syrup or succanat will work as well.

I also have been experimenting with making cakes and although I have been making “standard” vegan cakes for a really long time, I am trying to develop my own voice in this matter by using different kinds of flour, seeds, sweeteners and toppings. After years of following cake recipes for fear(geez this is the second time I use the word fear on this post) of playing around with the chemistry of baking, I realized that there is nothing to be afraid of, a bit of concentration and common sense will do.

Orange Marmalade
4 oranges
1 lemon
4 cups water
1 1/2 cup of honey, but I think rice syrup would work too
2 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
2 pint canning jars sterilized(boiled for 5 minutes

-the day before making the jam cut the oranges and lemon in thin slices and save the seeds
-put everything in a bowl and including the seeds tied in a cheese cloth and add the water
-leave it to soak over night
-the next day throw the seeds away and add the honey
-boil rapidly until a syrup forms which coats a spoon(the consistency of honey)
-put jam in the sterilized jars and add the cloves and cinnamon sticks
-cover and sterilize the jam again to be able to save it for a long time outside the refrigerator, by boiling the filled jars for 5 minutes
-take out of the water and let it cool off, the jam should be ready and sterilized to be saved outside the fridge.

Syrup Seed Cake with Orange Marmalade
2 cups spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tbs baking soda
3 tbs chia seeds
3 tbs linseed
3 tbs coconut sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil melted
3/4 cup rice syrup or maple syrup or honey
1/2 cup soy yogurt or regular yogurt
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup water
1 tsp vanilla

-mix all the dry ingredients in bowl
-in another bowl mix the wet ingredients
-mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients
-bake in a cake pan with wax paper on the bottom and oiled sides
-bake at 190*c for about 20 minutes or when a inserted clean knife comes out clean
-let it cool
-cover with home made orange marmalade

Today’s Breakfast Ideas

Today is Anna’s birthday. She was born on a sunny northern evening in Utrecht 12 years ago on friday the 13th. At 6.30 a.m. This morning I went down to the kitchen to hang op the flags and make the kitchen look a bit festive for breakfast. Breakfast was simple, because she likes simple: miso soup, rice porridge, freshly made almond milk, a fruit compote which was actually nothing else than the leftover filling from yesterday’s Fruit Bag, blanched Chinese cabbage and some extra stuff like Nori and gomasio which some of us put on the porridge and crunchy muffins with millet.
After sitting around the table for a couple of hours talking about a newspaper interview with philosopher Alain de Botton about the purpose of art and not agreeing on anything we made our way to Amsterdam to sit around in the Vondelpark with more food of course! This time I didn’t make anything, sometimes it is physically impossible to have time and desire to do everything…. We bought ourselves a picnic. In Amsterdam there are some great places where it is pretty easy to collect stuff for a wholesome and delicious picnic. First we went to Marqt, a supermarket started by a Dutch man who was inspired by the American Whole Food stores. There they have fantastic sourdough bread(the crunchy, soft not sour type!), spreads and great organic fruit and veggies. Then we got some excellent burritos at Tomatillo, my favorite Mexican place in Amsterdam. Everything was organic, fresh and a big treat.

This recipe is adapted from Mollie Katzen’s Sunlight Cafe

2 cups spelt flour
1/2 tsp salt
11/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 mashed banana or 1/4 cup applesauce to replace 1 egg
1 tbs. chia seeds
3/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup uncooked millet
1/3 coconut sugar or succanat
1 cup soy milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbs melted coconut oil

-combine all the dry ingredients
-mix the soy milk with the banana pure or applesauce
-pour milk mixture along with the coconut oil into the flour mixture
-stir well and pour into a greased muffin tins
-bake in a preheated oven at 190* for about 20 to 25 minutes
-cool before taking out of tin

This is a very simple version of miso soup, very convenient for mornings when there is rush. It feels good to drink and it can be a good way to start the day.

4 cups of water
1/2 carrot cut in matchsticks
1 small onion cut in half moons
1 tbs instant(dried) wakame
1 tbs rice miso
-boil water
-add vegetables
-when the veggies are cooked dissolve the miso in some of the broth in a separate cup
-pour dissolved miso into the pan
-simmer but don’t let it boil
-garnish with thinly sliced spring onions or chopped parsley


For this recipe look at the recipe of the filling of the Fruit Bag, just cook this filling at very low heat, maybe using a flame deflector for a long time, maybe an hour,checking regularly to make sure is not burning and that it has enough liquid.


Blanch the cabbage and sprinkle it with Umesu or umeboshi vinegar

“Art helps us to live and to die.”

Works of art can make our life better, partly because we recognize the emotions and partly because we get reacquainted with emotions that we had lost. We are so often forced to be strong, that we become worse at being soft and kind. Art invites us to be kind again.

my translation from an article in today’s Volkskrant newspaper

Today’s Breakfast

The new seasons always inspire me to cook, the problem is that Holland doesn’t really participate in this eternal natural ritual of seasonal changes, well not really. Even though the trees are fuller, the grass is greener and the sun blesses us with more frequent sporadic visits, there is still not a feeling that the summer has arrived. It feels like Easter is about to pop up. Nevertheless I enjoy time demarcations and if nature won’t give me that framework, I’ll attach myself to the man made version:the school calendar. This is the time when regardless of the weather life seems to change pace. Kids finish the school year and vacation plans begin to materialize. In our family’s case our youngest daughter is finishing grade school and end of the year performances are coming to an end. My son’s homeschooling year came to a natural diminuendo, as his rehearsal schedule with the National Ballet Academy became more frantic in preparation for their yearly final performance. Our older kids are also planning their summer exits and my husband has already taken a look or two at the map of Italy, somewhere around Florence, where it seems will be putting our new canvas army tent for some weeks this summer.
Getting up in the morning on these “summer” sundays when the business of the yearly schedule seems to have water down gives me a rush of possibility, creativity and inspiration to take more time to have fun in the kitchen. Summer time to me means time, of course, dry, sizzling hot weather would be fun and do wonders for my need for vitamin D, but I’ll settle for time, precious, old fashion time, to cook, think, read, make plans and comtemplate.

Little Musli Fruit Yogurt Pots
musli with nuts(homemade is best of course)
fruit of choice
yogurt(soy, regular, or my version of coconut cream mixed with lemon juice and a pinch of salt)
cinnamon
mint leaves

-make nice layers beginning with the musli
-garnish with fresh mint leaves and sprinkle with cinnamon

Baguette with Sautéd Wild Mushrooms, Beet Greens and Fried Tomatoes

wild mushrooms
olive oil
garlic
fresh thyme
beet leaves
tomatoes cut in thick slices

-sauté the mushrooms in the olive oil, add garlic and salt and cook stirring until they loose their liquid
-take out of the pan and use the same pan to sauté the beet greens, first add a bit of olive oil to the pan
-add a pinch of salt and cook the greens until they wilt
-remove greens from the pan
-add 1tbs olive oil to the pan and add the tomato slices until the become darker and shiny, add a pinch of salt
-cut a whole wheat baguette open and place the cooked ingredients on it
-cut in serving portions