food lately

a fantastic meal at stomach
yummy blood sausage on bread with horseradish at the genussfestival (which we visited again this year for a the third time in a row!)
another dish we had already nearly demolished at the genussfestival
one of my favourites. simple boiled eggs with toast soldiers
a really great lunch at neni (at the naschmarkt)
a traditional berner würstel mit pommes in melk
a caprese salad with pesto for lunch
really delicious homemade mushroom and asparagus risotto (a recipe from this new cook book)
AMAZING homemade aruncini (made from the risotto leftovers). first attempt at ever making them and they were soooo good (recipe from the same new book!)
a tasty bacon sandwich in bed

lazy weekend

this weekend mainly revolved around cooking, eating and watching tv. so a pretty typical uneventful weekend for me really. oh, but i did manage to have a mini clear out of my wardrobe (it badly needed it) and do some ironing which had been piled up since we returned from our holiday over 6 weeks ago (there is still some left to do. ironing sucks).

our only venture outside of the apartment was to the supermarket and to a small local market that has recently started up called fasanmarkt. it is here that we bought the amazing cheese and pumpkin topped rolls. i might have to make a weekly visit there on saturday mornings just for those.

my weekend

well, another weekend that went by in a flash. and i totally forgot to take photos.

what you can see is a view of part of the hofburg palace (taken whilst walking through the city), some takeaway sushi (lunch on saturday), sleet (we got caught in it late on saturday afternoon) and my first attempt at making a victoria sponge (my baking skills are bad. i definitely need lots more practice). i also attempted to make chocolate brownies but they were a complete disaster!

what the photos don't show are a lovely evening i spent drinking prosecco and catching up with mimie on friday, shopping in the city and a couple of beers on saturday in our local cafe/bar, and the tasty cheese scones kev made for afternoon tea on sunday when we got to hang out with dorte, bjarni and the very cute silja.

a run tonight was very much needed to work off all the cake consumed!

my new favourite thing to eat

so, a bad picture... but i am totally addicted to eating jamie oliver's 'killer jerk chicken' from his 30 minute meals book. it is SO good. served with rice and beans, a refreshing chopped salad and yogurt. (okay, i've realised i might be a little bit obsessed with jamie oliver! ha).

i'm on a bit of a health kick at the moment (isn't everyone?). trying to lose a few pounds in desperation before our trip to australia in mid february (think i may have left it a bit late but i have to try!). the thought of wearing a bikini at the moment sends me into a complete panic.

i've also signed up to take part in the vienna marathon this year. don't worry, i haven't completely lost my mind. i'm in a relay team with work colleagues and i'm running the shortest part of 5.7 km (someone else has to run 16.1 km! eek!). however, i'm really not a running person and i'm struggling to run 1 km at the moment without needing to stop. so this is going to be quite a challenge!

my (long) weekend

so, friday was epiphany meaning it was a public holiday here in austria. bonus! the extra day was kinda handy as i was still feeling a little under the weather and kev had caught the dreaded lurgy from me.

the weekend was spent mostly at home resting, but i did manage to get out to the cinema to see jane eyre (totally brilliant adaptation). i cried (lots!) which was rather embarrassing at the end when they switched the lights back on. i also ventured out on sunday for afternoon tea at a friends place. delicious home baked cakes and earl grey tea helped to revive me!

i received two new cookery books for christmas and this weekend we tried piri piri chicken from jamie's 30 minute meals and beef tagine from jamie does.... i loved both. really great recipes.

oh, and i bought some new sparkly shoes in the sales!

fairy cakes

i've been terrible at blogging lately. i just don't know where the time has gone to. i haven't been taking many photographs either. just no time, and daily life getting in the way.

we had a little pre-birthday celebration for our friend on sunday and i baked little fairy cakes with buttercream icing! they were rather rustic looking but i kinda preferred them that way.

weekend

just some random photos from the past two weekends. the week passed by so fast that it seemed to all meld into one.

the christmas markets are now open and we enjoyed our first mug of ingwer glühmost (mulled cider with ginger) last sunday at the MQ. delicious!

this saturday night we saw the horrors perform at flex. i thought they were brilliant. i wasn't a fan of their music when they released their debut album but i really love their third album skying.

and yesterday i cooked red lentil and chickpea soup for lunches this week and i attempted my first beef pie. i used this recipe with beef, guinness and mushrooms. i think i will tweak the recipe a little next time (i think the beef needs cooking for longer... and there seemed to be too much liquid) but it was really tasty and pretty good for my first attempt!

breakfast

muesli, yogurt and fresh raspberries. YUM.

awesome spinach & ricotta cannelloni

sunday dinner before my friends left for the airport was jamie oliver's awesome* spinach and ricotta cannelloni (*jamie's word not mine! although i do agree. yummy. BAD for the waistline though. just don't look at the amount of cheese that goes in this recipe!).

i doubled the recipe by the way and we had leftovers the next day (when it was even better). one thing i would say is that it needs a lot longer in the oven to bake and brown than the recipe says. i wanted it to be more crispy and well browned on top but i had to give up waiting otherwise our friends would have been late for their flight!

valentines day menu

kev and i had a little romantic evening in together. we cooked a meal (joint effort), drank champagne, and it was lovely! we chose a really simple and quick menu (so we didn't spend ages in the kitchen). (the pictures are not very good, i literally took really quick snaps).

we turned to jamie oliver (again) for some inspiration and made the mozzarella and chilli crostini for a simple starter (well, our take on it anyway with the produce we could buy easily).

for main we cooked beef stroganoff (and served it with basmati rice). so easy and quick to make! and of course we followed jamie's recipe here. next time i will add more paprika but it was tasty and something i've never cooked myself before.
dessert is not pictured (i kinda forgot!) but we froze some grapes and ate them with some chilli chocolate (yummy). the frozen grapes were like sorbet without having to do anything except put them in the freezer. and i'd like to say that i thought of the idea all by myself but it was (you guessed it) a jamie oliver suggestion! (see here). i'm not being paid by him, honest!

*i've been so terrible at blogging lately (well, since i started work). hopefully i'll get better at time management (and do some more interesting things)!