Pille

I'm happy with the word 'foodie', too, but then I'm a non-native speaker and may not get all the horrid nuances that go with that word. To me it means somebody who is very much 'into' food (either cooking it or eating it with enormous pleasure), but not necessarily on a professional basis..

I use veal liver quite a lot (about once a month?), and usually to make this liver gravy. I've never soaked veal liver before - it has such a tender liver flavour, so there is no need for that.. I tried veal kidneys in a restaurant recently, which were soaked in milk for a few hours and then quickly seared on a frying pan - delicious as well. Do you eat chicken liver? I find chicken liver a good way to introduce offal to your palate - it's milder and easier to eat - and once you're used to it, you can 'progress' to veal, pork etc

Chocolate Walnut Brownies:

Three more recent soups: Creamy Beetroot Soup with Horseradish: Sauerkraut Chicken Soup: Salmon Vegetable Soup:

I'll bet there's some beetroot in the Horseradish soup with Horseradish, too btw I LOVE that little dish that you served the cheese cream in. ← Ooops. Of course I meant Creamy Beetroot Soup I corrected the typo. The bowl is from some Japanese shop in London - gift from another foodblogger, Inne

Yes, Pam! Last night's dinner was Creamy Beetroot Soup with Horseradish and Caraway Seeds: This was followed by a simple Curd Cheese Cream with Coffee:

Salmon with a Creamy Orange Sauce and Rosemary:

That's a great and inspirational list of soups, Pontormo! Thank you! Not sure if it's still ok to post soup ideas here, or whether we should start a Soup Time 2008 thread, but last night we enjoyed Coconut and Tomato Soup with Horseradish for dinner:

We had a large bowl of Coconut and Tomato Soup with Horseradish last night:

We hosted a party at our place for 12 guests, and prepared a variety of fingerfood and appetizers and desserts, including salmon roe and onion appetizers (photo below); two types of salami fingerfood; Estonian rye bread toasts with butter, pickled Baltic herring, chopped green onions and grated boiled egg; bouchons au thon; Russian Vinaigrette Salad and Coleslaw; canapés of black pudding, lingonberry jelly and roast potato; cheese plate; gingerbread tiramisu; pears poached in mulled wine; coconut and plain meringues; rosettes; gingerbread baskets with lingonberry cream. All photos and recipe links here.

I've made several different cookies, including these piparkoogid aka Estonian gingerbread cookies:

Thank you Egg yolks + sugar, mascarpone, vanilla, Amaretto, whipping cream. Gingerbread soaked in espresso & Amaretto. Topped with sea-buckthorn berries.

Christmas is very baking-heavy here in Estonia, and I've been practicing a bit. Here are some desserts from the last week or so (my generous friends have been helping to eat all these): Gingerbread aka piparkoogid: Coconut Macaroons (using this recipe): Gingerbread Tiramisu (using gingebread instead of Savoiardi biscuits): Tarte Tatin (I must use up all those apples my mum is sending me!): And last, but not least, David Lebovitz's Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake with Chocolate Glaze (it was excellent!): Happy holidays, everyone!!

Our dinner on Sunday and Monday: Russian Vinaigrette Salad, served on toasted dark Estonian rye bread: Pre-Christmas detox, you know

Looks just right - moist and crumbly. Good job! For anyone else out there keen to bake the cake, then here's the recipe for my Canadian apple cake. I'm off to my penultimate shift at the restaurant..

Dear Klary and Abra - I am sorry, too, that I couldn't join you in France and for this blog - you seem to be having loads of fun! And sorry for almost missing this food blog - I get to spend very little time behind my PC these days. You see, I'm doing an internship in one of the best restaurants here in Tallinn (no career change planned, I am very happy teaching & researching at the university, but I got this chance and had to grab it), which is also the reason for postponing our trip to France. I've just returned from yet another long shift, with my feet and back hurting Not used to stand up 10 hours in one go!!! In any case, I'm looking forward to hearing about the apple cake!! It got rave reviews on my blog, and has been in my cake baking repertoire for some 20 years, so it better be a success

Some of the recent meals: Beet Soup with Goat's Cheese (recipe here): A Sweet Pumpkin Soup with Semolina (recipe here): A Finnish Beef and Beer Oven Stew "Merimiespata" (recipe here): Pumpkin Risotto (recipe here): Pumpkin Arancini (using the leftover risotto): And for dessert: Coconut and Apple Crisp (recipe here): Canneles (recipe here): And for snacking: Nigella Lawson's Cheesy Feet (recipe here): Honey-Espresso Caramels (recipe here):

I had some pumpkin risotto left over, so I made some arancini balls. We both had three of them with adjika (a spicy Georgian pepper condiment) for dinner, followed by the prune & curd cheese dessert (photo here on the What's for Dessert thread) Nakji - love the use of garlic scapes in the 40 garlic cloves chicken recipe - very inventive!!!

Thank you, GTO! Joe - those caramels look soooo gorgeous - lovely shape & shine! I'm off to your non-eG foodblog to look for the recipe! Two recent desserts - a prune & curd cheese dessert yesterday and today (recipe here): And last weekend we made an Estonian honey cake (recipe here):

Funnily enough, we're on sorbet mode at the moment. It's funny, as it's really cold up here in Estonia already - we've had night frosts for a week or so now. In any case we made a sea buckthorn sorbet last weekend (with sea buckthorn berries from my grandma's garden): and then there was this orange sorbet few days earlier:

Dinner last night was an Armenian Aubergine Stew (that's "Armenian Eggplant Stew" in US English ) - tasty, light and vegetarian (vegan even, though you wouldn't know that). It was delicious hot, and I'm looking forward to having the leftovers tonight:

I've made a cheesy feta and spinach pie, where there's feta in the pie filling and extra grated cheese (cheddar or such like) in the crust - makes it richer, but very satisfying and tasty..

My dinner last night: a simple stew of sauerkraut, carrots & potatoes. Easy, and very heartwarming. For dessert I had two black chokeberry muffins.

You're welcome, Marigene! I'm so glad you like these It's a typical Estonian dessert, especially now when there are so many apples to eat!Marlene - that's a beautiful molten chocolate cake!!! Love the oozing centre! A friend of ours baked a tarte tatin in our kitchen on Sunday, and I was eating leftovers yesterday Tonight I made black chokecherry muffins: [Edited to add a photo of chokeberry muffins]

Looks great, Marlene! I've made that dish before, using the same pictorial - it was really lovely!! Thanks for reminding me. Last night I bought some mozzarella and lean pork mince, took an onion and 2 cauliflowers from the fridge, and made this simple gratin for dinner: Not the prettiest dish in the world, but easy, homey and tasty.