Duvel

Little one invited a sleepover guest and requested bánh mì for dinner ... Started by making xá xíu from a nice slab of pork belly … Our favorite place for bánh mì in Hong Kong always had some great squid fritters as a starter for their lunch menu. I replicated them successfully - much to the delight of the kids … Served with fresh lime soda … Bread came from a Turkish bakery - very light, very crisp … best substitute for Vietnamese bread I have found so far. Generously spread with paté, followed by mayo, Vietnamese hoisin with a dash of Maggi, plenty of xá xíu and topped with pickled carrot, cucumber and cilantro. A fried egg for good measure. Some (commercial) Baumkuchen for dessert & a nice Ghibli movie for kids & adults … No complaints 🙏

If I could get my hands on bergamot in affordable quantities, I‘d make both juice and syrup for highballs …

Sorry, couldn’t resist …

They didn’t … I like it a lot, too. Good & tart olive touch.

Abendbrot …

That‘s French pain d‘épice, and I made it from this recipe … It freezes well.

From a German perspective: you want to make an oversized Knödel … 300 g of stale bread, chopped up coarsly. Cubed would be great, but any hazelnut-sized pieces will do. (Optional) 100 g bacon cubes 100 g onion 50 g butter 250 mL milk Fry onions (& bacon) in butter until golden. Add milk. Pour the hot mixture over the stale bread pieces. Let it soaked covered for 30 min, mixing ones with your hands. Add 3 eggs, whisked 1 Tbs of parsley Salt & pepper & nutmeg to taste Let the mixture sit for 1h, then put into a buttered loaf pan and cover with aluminum foil tightly. Bake in a preheated convection oven at 180oC for about 30 min … Cool down, slice it up and enjoy 🙏

For Christmas, we are alternating between our families in Germany and in Spain. This year we will be in Spain, so we „preponed“ our German Christmas gathering with my parents and my sisters family to this weekend. My fathers as well a little ones birthday was just the week before, so we had a couple of celebrations together. As a added benefit we met at my parents in the North and had some icy nights & mornings to get into Christmas mood … I made classic holiday fare. Spice bread with whole foie gras … A chestnut „cappuccino“, made from roasted chestnuts, cream, five spice and topped with milk foam … Duck two ways: breast, dry cured and SV for 4h @ 54oC, then seared. Just perfect and served with a tart cherry sauce. Legs, also presalted two days in advance and SV 36h @ 70oC with thyme, butter, quatre épices and finished under the broiler. Classic dark duck sauce. Red cabbage, lingonberry jam and homemade dumplings from raw potatoes. In the heat of the battle, only little one made a picture of the mains … There was pear schnapps as dessert for the men, any other (solid) options were declined due to being completely pigged (ducked ?!) out … No complaints 😎

I don’t get it … You separate the content from the can before eating ?! How old fashioned … Think extra fibre 😎

@TdeV No, of course not … I had the nachos as dinner, and the puttanesca as midnight snack. And I didn’t even exceed my calorie limit 😎

And then … I watched some food shows. Including „Tucci in Italy“. Just the Tuscany episode, but maybe the Bulleit part in the vanilla coke acted up … I made some spaghetti puttanesca. Olives, capers, real sardines in lemon, fish sauce, olive oil, looots of garlic and tomatoes. Barillas bronze-cut spaghetti and looots of pecorino romano. Didn’t fit to Tuscany, but to my mood. Plenty of ripasso … Still no complaints 😝

With little one on a sleep-over and DW at a birthday party I was far too lazy to cook. So I raided the shelves and threw together some loaded nachos, plus dips. And enjoyed with a vanilla coke (in which strangely some Bulleit bourbon found its way) … No complaints 🤗

Not directed to me, but I do blood sausage, thyme & lemon peel … works every time 🤗

Rice paper „bagel“, filled with chorizo, egg and onions, topped with everything bagel mix and baked in the airfryer …

That looks pretty much perfect 🙏