Well after a few glasses of wine, sorry about the pics. I didn't relize that just candles don't show detail. Oops! Since Kolbjørn and I need a vacation badly, but can't do much until after tourist season is over, we decided to go Middle Eastern tonight. What better way to escape the stress and leave for a dinner out, to the kitchen. I made falafals, greek flat bread, yogurt sauce, salad from my garden (all but the tomatoes, those are from the Nederland) and tahini paste (sesame paste). Afterwards we took a sauna, then headed back for dessert. Fresh picked strawberries and cream. The kind of cream right off the top of the fresh milked cow. Mmmmm. With just a little sugar sprinkled on top. So heres our dinner on kitchen vacation. and dessert, sorry about the smudge, but we was so into the food and atmosphere that we paid no mind to what we was doing,,,now its to late,,lol. Its all gone. We had a good time, in our make believe Middle Eastern cafe kitchen. Tell me does anyone else do this. Make a meal or set an atmosphere just for a few hours. To get away.
It all looks lovely, Biita. Well done, using your skills and imagination like that. We do it during winter some times, make Greek food, open a bottle of Greek Amethystos wine and dream ourselves away.
We do this too from time to time. Sometimes it's Greek, but more often it's Moroccan, Indian or Indonesian or Surinaams. I really love internationalk dishes and it's fun to make them with your own ingredients. How were those dutch toms, BTW?
Good job, Biita. Hope you get your real holiday soon, but this was a good substitute for now. Oh, that cream on the strawberries looks good. When I open a bottle, I dream of Tuscany. Gardengater
We do this more in the winter than summer. We make dishes from all over. It breaks up the monotany of a long cold dark winter here. Sjoerd that tomato was sooooo darn good! lol,, no white at all in the center just as meaty and red as can be. Thanks all, i was just curious if anyone else does this. Or KB and I are just over grown kids,,,lol.
Your dinner looks yummy. I "escape" to other countries while in the kitchen all the time. I went all over the world with my kids while in the kitchen. I hung laminated maps and when I served the meal, they would find the country on the map. We even learned a few basic words or sentences. I would go to the library and bring home that country's music to listen to whenever it was available. When my kids were little and we were tired of the cold and snow, I held "beach night". Spread out a blanket for a picnic, put sand and san toys in a large plastic bin so we could make sandcastles with a tape of ocean sounds playing in the background. I made everything they liked to eat in the summer by cooking on a little hibachi outside (in a winter coat- my neighbors thought I was nuts). Now I just change the candlesticks, linens, dishes,etc. on the table to go with the cuisine. I think our favorites are Native American, Italian, Japanese and Mexican. I grew up with mainly Native American and Irish foods. (What a combination, huh?) I have learned to make Middle Eastern food while here. My favorite is baba ganoush (eggplant hummus). I can eat a ton of that!
I used to do pretty much the same things with my children, but alot of it was so that myself, i wouldn't loose my swedish and saami heritage. I was always afraid of that. Of what made me, me. Also it was a way to teach my children, American born, about where i came from. But other cultures had a huge influence on me and i passed down to my children. When i was first new to America, there was a family who were Serbian (when it was a country) and Bulgarian. Their parties and spirit just amazed me. All the food and dancing. I even learned how to dance Bulgarian and Serbian dances. But the food, i recreated that for my children then taught them the dances. Then there was this Polish immigrant also who had a butcher shop down the road...to this day that is the best kielbasa and sausages i have ever had. Then on the other side of us was and Irish man, and his mother, and children. He made these amazing potato pancakes and apple tart or pie. I used to ask him, how he made it, and he would say " Girlie, if i tell you now, i will have to have me mum turn you into a leprechaun." I would laugh, and eat a whole lot more with my friends, his children. My children benifited from that, because when we was moving, to another place, he handed me the recipes. I still have them in my memory. So i still keep the tradition of escaping to my kitchen for vacation, and KB loves the rewards of it,,,lol. That man can sure eat.
My father's father was Polish so we had kielbasa, pierogis, stuffed cabbage, etc. quite often. My father always insists on fresh kielbasa, he would have loved that Polish butcher shop. I am not a fan of it but I do cook it for my family. I have finally mastered pierogis- a lot of work so I make enough to freeze, I like the cheese and potato fillings best. I do not have my Irish grandmother's potato pancake recipe, I wish I did. I miss them. Would you consider sharing yours? I am slowly learning to cook in smaller portions as my children are grown and back in the States. I will be seeing my "baby" daughter soon and can return to large portions- she can outeat anyway I know, including the men in our family (and is a size zero- how unfair is that? ). Everytime I am home, I spend days cooking and freezing and filling their freezers. We always had gardens so all of them are veggie and fruit lovers. And one son is a chef! (Yet I still wind up cooking for him...)
Wow...that kitchen vacation looks yummy! I love the idea of the kitchen vacation..we might have to have one of those soon!
Your 'vacation' looks really tasty. That takes a lot of imagination and someone who likes to cook. I have never thought about a vacation in the kitchen. The problem with living in a really large city is that there are restaurants of almost every ethnicity within easy driving distance. We haven't tried any of them but we keep saying someday we will
We have a few international resturants here, but this is an island. Tons more on the main land. I remember that from America, everywhere you looked there was a resturant of some ethnicity. But i think the best foods came from the kitchens in the private homes,,,but thats just my opinion. Traveling, the potato pankakes are very simple,,, i don't know if was because his mom made them or him sometimes or what but to me they just have always been good. I think the difference is the sweet butter instead of salted butter. but here goes. I don't have the measurement no more, i just judge now... potatoes,,,like a lb or so onion, i use a whole one flour and egg salt and pepper peel and grate the potatoes and onion. sift the flour. add the potatoes and onion to the flour then beat in the egg. add salt and pepper. heat a frying pan, use the sweet butter melted in the pan, and drop by big spoonfulls. fry both sides until really golden crispy. then i drain on a paper towel,, and serve with apple sauce. I think that is the key, the apple sauce, but omg, it still tastes like fine cuisine to me,,,,lol.
yummy falafall, haven't had them in ages! What a lovely way to spend an evening - wish the kids would let us escape once in a while!
It would be fun to try the ethnic foods made by Mom or Gramma from different countries. We spent Chinese New Years with the family of a Vietnamese woman Randy worked with about 15 yrs ago. There weren't many Vietnamese restaurants around then but I am sure if we tried one now it wouldn't be as good as Nina's Mom and Gramma cooked that night. Our favorite Tex-Mex restaurant opened in 1969 with Momma in the kitchen and the kids waiting tables. They still use Momma's recipes and methods and the food hasn't changed in the 29 years we have been going there. That's close to sitting in their home as we can get.
EJ, invite the kids, make them help getting it all prepared. I used to take my kids with me all the time to a kitchen vacation,,lol. Toni, now thats the kind of resturant i like. I think i would enjoy eating in a place like that. The food just always tastes so much better when its done with a family touch. We have one resturant here on the island that is like that. Its called the Skolehuset. Its an old school house with 2 rooms one is the kitchen the other the dining. It used to be the only school house on this part of the island back in the 1800's. The owner, his grandfather went to school there before they built another school. And when he grew up he bought the school and started a fishing house/diner for the fishermen. Just a few beds with a large table in the corner. The same foods as his grandfather made wayyyy back then is still being made today by he and his wife. It is one of the best places i have ever ate on this island.
