Author: troutandhawk

Is Dresden the new Scotland?

Leave a comment
Drinks

Right now, I feel like in Scotland. Pouring rain, the forest has never been this green, some cows escaped from the field and greeted us blocking the road (just sub sheep for cow and you get the true scottish highland feel). Someone else must have thought so too: Georg Schenk, the owner of Augustus Rex Distillery is already internationally known for his selection of noble spirits. He stuck to the old German varieties until this […]

homemade pizzete

Leave a comment
Dinner / Lunch

Tonight we enjoyed a heavenly extraterrestrial über delicious pizzete dinner though right now we are not in Italy, but in rainy Dresden (“too cold for the season…”). I must admit that my daughter, yesterday arrived from Florence, took the lead of  the whole thing. The dough had to be rolled out thin, thinner, thinnest! and my fridge had been searched  thoroughly to find every possible topping. I couldn’t resist to immediately  post you some pictures […]

the pleasure of a spontaneous paella

Leave a comment
Dinner / Lunch

Paella sounds like mastery. An elaborate spanish national dish with many ingredients you normally don’t store in your pantry.  No place for spontaneity. This might be right in theory, but…..  if you keep in mind (and in your pantry) two or three essentials which are responsible for the typical paella flavour you’ll be surprised by the result. Even without shopping before at the best delikatessen in town. I’ll tell you the secret:   if you […]

barbecue night

Leave a comment
Dinner / Drinks

Finally the nights have become warm enough  to inaugurate the Barbecue season. No better holiday feeling than heating the charcoal, mixing  the sauces and preparing the lots of meat we normally abstain from. And of course, our guests had to be introduced into the pleasures of a well-prepared Leapfrog.

David’s sorbet and Kelly’s rickshaw

Leave a comment
Drinks / Sweets

Since strawberries are in full season now (we can pick them ourselves in endless strawberry fields nearby), I have been looking for some more exciting recipes than the familiar cakes, creams and yoghurts. Here is the result of my research: The  STRAWBERRY SORBET comes from David Lebovitz’ book The perfect Scoop, the best ice cream book I ever owned. Every so often I prepared it, it disappeared in the twinkling of an eye. Believe me, it’s […]

Leapfrog

Leave a comment
Drinks

The peppermint plantation in my garden is ripe and ready to find its way into the cocktail glasses… For 2 glasses of irresistible-dazzling-turqoise Leapfrog  take 6 mint leaves 4 parts Gin 1 1/2 parts lemon juice 1 part Blue Curacao 1/2 part sugar syrup 2 dashes Angostura Bitter In a mixing glass, muddle the mint leaves with the sugar syrup, then add the rest of the ingredients. Shake with ice cubes and strain into a […]

sweet, strong and very italian – granita de caffé

Leave a comment
Sweets

  Granita de Caffé 1l espresso or very strongly brewed coffee 300g sugar Mix the warm espresso with the sugar until the sugar is dissolved. When cooled down, place the mixture in the freezer. Once it begins to freeze around the edges, take a fork and stir the mixture, breaking up the frozen parts from the edges into smaller chunks and raking them toward the centre. Return the dish to the freezer and repeat the […]

flowers for the Royal’s hats?

Leave a comment
Uncategorized

When I heard that British hatters had ordered thousands and thousands of artificial flowers from the Sebnitz manufactory, I decided that it was high time to pay a visit to this tiny village at the Czech border.  50 km from Dresden, the perfect destination for a weekend trip. Already on the staircase, where I took the photograph above, I got some slight doubts about the lifelike appearance of these works of art. Moving along to the […]