How to tell I’m on holiday

When I’m sewing like crazy and/or trying out new recipes, it’s that time again. Do you know the situation where you don’t know what to wear despite a full closet? Do you know when the same happens in the kitchen: not knowing what to cook despite a full refrigerator? Maybe it’s because of this similarity that I once in a while feel the need to report about my cooking/baking on my sewing blog… In the first situation, I’d sift my stash, patterns and pattern magazines and take my sewing machine out. In the latter, I surf cooking and baking websites for inspiration. I especially like to try more time-consuming recipes that I wouldn’t be able to whip up after work in my daily life. The following ones are from a couple of cooking websites I discovered not too long ago, smitten kitchen and delicious:days, which I can only recommend:

Spare Ribs: I upped the salt a bit (1.5-fold) and substituted garlic powder for fresh garlic (1 clove = 1/8 tsp dry). Worked well. My oven is in degrees Celsius and I had so much in my mind when I made this that I set my oven to 200 degrees Celsius! I realized and corrected my mistake when there had been in the oven for about an hour. The meat came out tender despite this. A great recipe.

Tiramisu cake: Yummy. Even DD, who doesn’t eat cake, had it and I let her. It’s only 2 tbsp of amaretto after all. I especially like the chocolate chips between the layers. Next time I might make more syrup because I think the cakes could be a bit more moist. And I might bake the cake at once and then cut it in two horizontally after baking too. Still: 2 thumbs up.

Ensaimadas: Not good for my hip measurement (lard?) but delicious. I didn’t use up the lard, despite being generous with it so next time 100g will do. A bit time-consuming but a definite keeper.

Some other recipes I tried:

Pear and maple syrup cake: Nothing to change about this one.

Also, these Kiflice would be perfect for a party because you make 40 of them on one recipe and they taste best warm from the oven. I had to make a bit more filling (1.5-fold) to use up the dough.

Planned for New Year’s Eve: Osso Bucco