The one about smashing pumpkins

I have this thing for pumpkin. It started when I got myself a pasta maker. I was absolutely craving homemade ravioli, with a delicious and rich pumpkin filling with sage. And of course some sage butter. And then there was pumpkin puree. Made out of the remaining pumpkin filling, combined with grilled lamb chops. After that followed the idea for a pumpkin cake - pumpkin puree, all spice, ginger, brown sugar, orange zest. Everything. Although it never happened, I'm pretty sure it would be a good idea. And since pumpkin season isn't over yet... You see where I'm going with this one.

The one with the Asian invasion

 Mmm, just thinking about the pink red insides of the meat and the charcoal grill marks, makes my mouth water.

I was fed up with it all. The pizza, the pasta, the polenta, the parmigiano. Mamma mia! So this weekend we mixed it up. We took it all the way to the east and went for Thai beef salad and Chinese massages. Wait, what...

The one about the coulda, woulda, shoulda

I don't want to be the next blogger to write about expectations, and hating them, and wanting to do something different with life. However, I guess that's exactly the post I'm about to write. There's so many things in life you're expected to do: studying, working, relationships... And it's not good enough to do just that. No, there's expectations about how, when, where, with who, how fast, how good, how long, how every single thing there is to determine about it, needs to be done. But what if you feel like "blugh"?

The one with the trust issues

The plan was pretty easy, as you could read in my last post: I just had to nail appetizers, starter, main and dessert. In case you don’t know what sarcasm is, the last sentence was an example. However, as I love every single, little thing that has to do with food (especially eating it), I was looking forward to it. A whole day dedicated to the one thing I would like to define my life, who minds about the rest then?

The one without food

I had an amazing post set up for tonight. A glorious description of last night's triumph. It was all I could think of for the last couple of days. I had envisioned the menu in my mind at least two times a day over the last week. Until yesterday. Just saying: a spotless preparation doesn't prevent unexpected events. So what happened?

The one where I got served

A meal that is. The great beginning to a lovely night. A small picnic at the port of Antwerp (don't ask), coming home to a glass of wine and the boyfriend preparing the best dinner for a cold Wednesday evening. He made me a lovely pea - mint soup, with bacon and a slice of oven baked Turkish bread. What else can a girl ask for? The recipe of course!

The one where I fell in love



Still not the best at making pictures - scuzi!

 



This is an easy and a hard post to write at the same time. I have so many posts dangling in my mind, but this one just needs to be out there tonight. And that's for an easy reason: I fell in love. With a chef, with a book and with a recipe. Several recipes for that matter, all by the same chef. I've tried three of his dishes over the same amount of days and they were all equally delicious. But tonight's recipe stole my heart in quite a special way.

The happiest I've been

Not in forever, but in a long time. You might ask "when?". Well that's pretty easy: when I was preparing these beautiful shallots in order to caramelize them. At that moment (which was tonight), there was nothing more peaceful to me than looking at them and nothing else. I love how food can make me forget about ... Well everything. When I'm thinking about recipes, when I'm basting shallots (not the correct term for shallots, I know - at times I just like to talk like a posh motherf*****), when I'm thinking about what to pair with what, that honestly is the most important thing to me in the world.