Photo a day or two, maybe three - 1

To motivate myself and blog here often, I decided to make this tiny project called "photo a day (or two, maybe three)". No matter how lousy my shot might be, I should post and tell a story.

So this is a first attempt.

My Sunday Fuchsia nails and my antique laptop as a background. Even if they don't seem fuchsia enough, they are. At least that's what was written on the bottle.

As for my laptop - don't laugh, ok! I've had it since 2006. My mum gave it to me as a present after my first story was published. 

This is my first and only laptop so far. I had dreams about buying the Apple one, but do you think the girl with the soviet and socialistic past could've or would've bought it? For sure, NOT! I don't like to pay much for those conglomerates that rule our lives anyway. Ok, I know there are many people working for those companies that need to feed their families too, but I still don't like them.

Well, maybe I could've surrendered in the end if I had enough income myself to afford it, but since my husband is the only one working hard, meaning he would've paid for it, I ignore all the Apple temptation and stick to my old Fujitsu Siemens - so I'll be faithful till its death do us part.

Last but not least: hey, we live in East Germany after all - most minimal and hippie area, it would be betrayal to the tribe to have luxurious things, wouldn't it? :D

MUST Parve Dessert

As my husband jokes, there's nothing more tragic for an yiddishe man, than to be "Fleischig" the rest of the day.

I love meat. Especially beef. My husband prefers fish, but loves meat the way I cook too. I take all the credit here - I am not a good baker definitely, but I love making meat, it always comes out good. And I don't do anything special, I just have the right feeling how to roast onions and garlic before adding meat.

Today was the day when I cooked chicken breasts.
(My quick recipe goes like this: take a big pan, roast 5 onions and 2 cloves of garlic (if you are fond of it, have more) in rapeseed oil (or any other oil). Cut 3 medium breasts of chicken into small pieces and pour in the pan after onions and garlic are roasted, add 2 cups of water and let it boil. Before chicken is finally boiled, pour half cup of tomato juice, let it boil a minute, add salt and pepper to taste.)

It doesn't end here though. You can't just cook chicken breasts for dinner, you need to make something for dessert. Something which won't be dairy because we can't eat dairy after meat, have to wait 6 hours before that. As usual in Judaism, everything is harder for men - they have so much mitzvot to keep and never get leniency; it's only different with pregnant or breastfeeding women, who can eat dairy after meat in an hour's time.

Since I've been married and started cooking and baking, my biggest headache have been desserts. I learned how to bake brownies, banana chocolate chip cake, ultimate chocolate cake (fancy this "ultimate" word, don't really know what makes it ultimate though), American apple pie (with 300 grams of butter in it and your flat will smell like butter for a week), lemon bundt cake...
The problem is to find a Parve recipe, cake or pie without dairy ingredients, rather finding is not a problem, but the taste is - nothing comes out as delicious as with dairy products, I believe.

(Anyway, here's the recipe of the Raspberry-Apple crumble... I mean,Raspberry-Blueberry-Strawberry one. I didn't have Granny Smith apples and nutmeg that were in the original recipe, so I made it my way.
Defrost one package (400grams) of frozen raspberry-blueberry-strawberry mix or use fresh and drain it. Then pour two cups of flour and one cup of sugar and mix them together in a bowl, cut in one cup of margarine and make crumbles by hand.
Preheat the oven at 180c.
Put some crumbles on the bottom of the round spring pan and press with fingers a little. Add drained fruits. The rest of the crumbs go on top.
Bake for 25 minutes. If you like your crumble drier and fruits transformed into jam, leave it in the oven for 40 minutes (from my failure experience which actually came out quite fine) ).

Now, it's worth to become Fleischig for 6 hours, isn't it?

Pink Banana

What do you do if you have loads of bananas spoiling in your kitchen and all you think of is to make a banana cake. Well, it would not work if your family does not approve banana cakes as a matter of fact.

I am not fond of cakes, I'd rather have some juicy fruit or just a juice. Banana cake is not popular at our household either because my husband loves only traditional cakes with loads of cream or Georgian sweets such as Gozinaki (YES!). So, waking up in the morning and seeing poor, once yellow bananas going black melts your heart and you decide to find a recipe how to make Banana Mousse.

Here.
I did not use liqueur though because we have none. Instead I poured apple juice and lemon acid; added some cherries, which painted the banana in pink. Now my mousse is resting in the fridge waiting for the time to come and be eaten at the dinner.

Oh and the dinner is going to be meaty so banana mousse is just perfect for a dessert, isn't it?
Thus, when life hands you bananas - make a mousse out!

Happy Wednesday!!!

Like an Apple

Tea for one

I still haven't learned to keep calm when people do not behave well. I don't show it, I just leave the room and walk to and fro until my anger passes away. Today I felt that I was so small like an apple. It is always a problem. Feeling small and helpless. Miriam Masha (The teacher) spoke about 'emmuna and bitachon' (faith and trust) today, and it sounded so familiar to me, but sometimes I forget it. I lose bitachon. When I lose it I lose myself as well. I become like some strange person walking in my body and the soul as a trapped animal. Imagine how is it to feel like you are an apple: green, fresh, juicy, but small.

Maybe I should visit a psychoanalyst at last and not to rely only on my own analysis. That's how it all starts - being an apple and then becoming Napoleon the Bonaparte ;) Ok, now I am joking.

I miss my home.
I miss things like coming back home from the University and buying bread.
I miss sitting in my kitchen in the morning, listening to the radio and writing.
It is not a regular missing. No. It is something different. Really.