Pretty Things: Floral Tea Towels by Emily Hogarth

Images from etsy.com/shop/emilyhogarth

More information about papercut illustrator and surface designer Emily Hogarth, who works and lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, can be found on her website or her blog. Her screenprinted tea towels can be bought directly from her in her etsy store at etsy.com/shop/emilyhogarth

Homemade Beef Broth

There is nothing better than some homemade broth if the days are getting colder and if you are not feeling well. Period. So here is my recipe for a homemade beef broth.

Ingredients
(serves about 6-8)
approx. 800 g Beef (I used some Beef Shank - Wadenfleisch or Mäusle in German, but you can use any Boiling Meat)
3 liters of warm Water
2 medium Onions
5 Carrots
1/2 Celeriac
1 Leek
1 large bundle of Parsely
2 Bay Leaves
Salt
Pepper
Soy Sauce

Directions
Peel and chop carrots, celeriac, leek and one of the onions. If you chop the vegetables or part of the vegetables very fine or rather roughly in some huge chunks is up to you. Go for fine chopped vegetables if you want to serve your soup with the vegetabels, go for huge chunks if you want to server your soup without them. Cut the other onion unpeeled (!) in half. Sear beef in a stockpot until browned (about 1-2 minutes from every side). Add the halfed onion with cut face down and brown. Add the rest of the vegetables to the pot and brown for several minutes. Add warm water and make turn up the heat until everything cooks. Add parsley (chopped or tied together with some kitchen string) and bay leaves. Season with soy sauce, salt and pepper.

Reduce heat and simmer for about 2 hours.

Taste soup and add some more salt or soy sauce to taste. Remove from stove and wrap your stockpot in 3 large towles. Set the warpped up pot aside and let it rest over night or for at least 8 hours. Yes, this is no joke! Try this with any beef stew, goulash or beef soup and you will get the most tender meat ever! The soup is still warm after 8 hours. If you plan to serve your soup later or the next day let it cool down completely before putting it into the fridge.

If you want to serve your soup right away remove the meat from the pot, cut it and put it back into the pot again. Reheat everything but do not cook it again. Prepare some semolina dumplings or cook some noodles and serve them with our soup. Done!

Blueberry Porridge

I started the frist day of Fall with some Blueberry Porridge - the perfect breakfast as days start to get colder again.

I don't have a real recipe for porridge as I mostly whip something up with the ingredients we have at home for breakfast but I will try to reconstruct the recipe for my blog. Last winter I tasted some different kind of oats and came up with my own little oat mixture. I use two different kind of oat flakes (regular ones and instant flakes, both organic) and some organic rice flakes and have a jar with the prepared mixture. Use about one third of each.

Ingredients
approx. 1 cup Skimmed Milk
approx. 1/2 cup Oat Mixture (add less or more oats to preferred consistency)
1 teaspoon Cinnamon Sugar
Blueberries (frozen or fresh)

Directions
Cook milk and oats in a small saucepan for about a minute while stirring. Close saucepan with lid and let the porridge rest for about 10 minutes. Add cinnamon sugar and blueberries and serve. Enjoy!

Smoked Salmon Spread - Lachscreme

This Smoked Salmon Spread is prepared within minutes and makes great Hors d'œuvre or a perfect dip for your buffet. Or a little delicious snack.

Ingredients
200g Smoked Salmon
200g Smetana (Schmand, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smetana_(dairy_product)) or Crème fraîche
1/2 tsp Horseradish
1/2 tsp Chives
Fresh ground Pepper

Directions
Make sure the Salmon does not contain any fish bones. If you find any remove them carefully with a kitchen tweezer. Mince Salmon. Mix with Smetana, Horseradish and Chieves. Season with fresh ground pepper to taste.

You can also prepare this spread easily a day in advance. After preparing store in your refrigerator in an air-tight food container. Take it out of your refrigerator about an hour before serving. Serve with Baguette, your favorite bread or crackers. Or as a dip with vegetable sticks.

Wholegrain-Raspberry-Pecan-Chocolate Muffins

Sorry for the crappy pictures. This was the first time I made muffins - not cupcakes - and I just took some snaps. I was totally suprised about the result as I didn't expect to get such perfectly looking muffins. I made these for a diabetic person so I tired to make them as healthy as a muffin can be ;-) The recipe is based on Cynthia Barcomi's "Chocolate Cherry Muffin" recipe...but I adaped it and tried to substitute some of the ingredients by a healthier alternative (as far as possible as I had to use what I had at home). If you make these please do not expect to get a sugar rush from eating them. They taste definitely "healthy" but oh, so good! But you can also always replace the wholegrain flour with regular flour and the sweetener with caster sugar if you want to go for a less healthy taste.

Ingredients
(makes 12 muffins)

370 g Organic Wholegrain Spelt Flour
100 g Sweetener (suitable for baking)
250 ml Buttermilk
100 g Organic Vegetable Margarine (melted)
2 Eggs
2 Small Carrots (grated)
50 g Pecans (chopped)
50 g Dark Cocolate (chopped)
50 g Oat Flakes
200 g Organic Frozen Raspberries (unsweetened)
1 Tbsp Natron
1 Pinch of Salt


Directions
Preheat oven at 180° C. Melt margarine. I melted a little more margarine and used it to butter the cupcake pan. Prepare cupcake pan. I used cupcake liners and buttered the top surface. Grate Carrots. Chop pecans and chocolate. Mix flour, sweetner, Natron and salt. Add buttermilk, eggs, and the melted (and cooled !) margarine. In a separate bowl mix pecans, chocolate, oat flakes, and the frozen raspberries roughly. Add this mixture to your muffin batter. Fill batter by the spoonful into the prepared cupcake pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Maybe you have to add some minutes. Insert toothpick at center of the muffin. When it comes out clear the muffins are done. Remove pan from oven and let it cool down a little bit before removing the muffins from the pan.