little cousins

old is gold

I was looking for cheap old sofa to replace a shitty one @ my room in Ljubljana. After a day of checking the austrian and slovenian websites with small ads, I found a perfect one in Graz. For 10 euros. Of course I bought it! 

It was in red, which is not really my favorite color, little washed off and faded in the middle of every pillow, where the unknown rumps were sitting. Coating is washable, which is great! I wanted to paint it black, so I bought two doses of black textile color. But as the coating is too big and heavy for this amount of color, it only became darker, not black. And to be honest, I couldn't be more satisfied. The result is this plummy color, mottled-from more blue to more red shades, which I love!

pesto

Pesto is another delicious thing to have always in your fridge. Actually I didn't know how useful it is until I made one. I thought it would be a perfect supply for winter time, but well... That sweet little green glass won't last until then. It appears to be a great supply for all season.  

My mother never tried pesto before, actually she never even heard of it. She is very conservative about the food, she mostly eats "verified" dishes. And there is also my sister, she don't like garlic because of the smell and my brother don't eat most of vegetables at all. So I thought they wouldn't really like that pesto and was planning to share the joy with Marko and store the rest @ my new apartment in Ljubljana. But actually it was like that: I did share the joy with Marko first, but then I shared it with all the other family members for the whole last week. Grandma's gnocchi with pesto, spaghetti with pesto, bread with pesto, potatoes with pesto, pizza with pesto. And pesto is almost gone. Everybody in the house find it tasty, obviosly.

I'd love to make another dose of it anyway. At my mother's house is now the perfect time for homemade parsley pesto. Why? Because there is a lot of parsley in the garden, which is slowly going to become yellow and wilted. It's a good solution to store it like that:

Parsley pesto

40g of slightly toasted peeled almonds (cooled)

4 bunches of parsley

3 cloves of garlic

60g of parmesan (or ementaler) cheese

1/2 teaspoon of salt

200ml of olive oil

1 pinch of black pepper

Prepare a glass jar if you make bigger amounts for storing. 

Place all ingredients except for oil in a food processor or blender. Blend, then stir in olive oil. 

Place the mixture into glasses and fill with olive oil to the top of the glass jar. Close and store it in the fridge.

You can freely exclude cheese and experiment with other nuts and spices. 

 

I love to add a little pesto to spice different kinds of sauces or marinades for tofu and seitan. 

au revoir!

This was probably the best summertime so far! I'm counting down those breezy days left, but at the same time I'm getting ready for the fresh challenges  and opportunities the new academic year will bring... Au revoir summer heat, bonjour fresh air!

one

It's been a year since plum&mosquito was born and this is post #73. Not thaaat bad!

fingers crossed

dio and his balls

Graz, yo!

Finally, after a whole year or even more, I was in Graz again! Since I moved to Ljubljana I never made it to go back there.. And it was wonderful to take a walk trough the city center, see what's old, what's new, go to my favorite places, have a meal and bunch of desserts @ Ginko restaurant and to go to the Emeralds & Agent Cooper concert @ Postgarage. 

Thanks Aljaž, for giving us a place to stay! Looking forward to visit the city more often...hopefully I'll hang out with some of my ex college friends at the end of the month @ Handsome furs concert!

mushrooms

I made this lunch a month ago, so i'm nut sure those are all the ingredients, but it's really easy actually and as I remember you'll need:

champion mushrooms

1 cube tofu

soy sauce

tahini

olive oil

red onion 

tomatoes

sesame

parsley

garlic 

grinded pepper

other spices you like

1. Peel mushroom caps, remove stems. Wash and sort the caps (like bowls) to bakig tin.

2. Put tofu in blender, add few tablespoons of soy sauce and tahini (as many as you like). Blend. 

3. Heat onion in olive oil until it's slightly brown, add tomatoes and heat until soft.

4. Add onion with tomatoes to the tofu mixture. 

5. Add parsley and garlic (chopped), sesame and pepper, or any other spices you like. 

6. Mix all together.

7. Fill the mushrooms with tofu mixture.

8. Bake on 200°C in preheated oven for 15-20 min, or until they look eatable.