Lemon Cake and Banana Cake

Mash the bananas

Beat the sugar and butter

Add the eggs

Lemon zest

This is the basic recipe I use for all of my cakes. I just modify it by adding other ingredients.

150 grams of sugar
150 grams of butter
200 grams of flour
2 eggs
baking powder

Cream the butter and sugar together until soft.
Add the eggs.

At this point I added the mashed bananas for the banana cake. For the lemon cake I added the juice of one lemon and some zest.

Mix and then add the flour and baking powder.

Beat well (I use an electric whisk).

Pour the mixture into lined baking tins and bake at 160° for about 30 minutes.

Add lemon juice

Add flour

Beat until light and fluffy

Add the bananas and spice to mixture

Beat until flufffy

Lemon cake

Banana cake

Melt in your mouth slices

Mummy, what's for dinner?: Some Alto Adige Delights

Mummy, what's for dinner?: Some Alto Adige Delights: Hot red currents with fresh cream (Calva Restaurant, Laudes) Strudel (Calva Restaurant, Laudes) Fresh fruit salad with icecream ...

Some Alto Adige Delights

Hot red currents with fresh cream (Calva Restaurant, Laudes)

Strudel (Calva Restaurant, Laudes)

Fresh fruit salad with icecream (Calva Restaurant, Laudes)

Sacher cake

Strudel (need to add the name of the cafè)

Mixed Grilled Meats (Restaurant Edelweiss, Reschen)

Weinersnitchel (Restaurant Edelweiss, Reschen)

We spent a few days in the mountains in Alto Adige where the first language is German. We ate lots of German influenced dishes. I forgot to whip out my camera to photograph the Goulash and canederli (a meat ball shaped combination of speck, herbs and bread). Here are some pictures of some of the things we ate. 

Stuffed Chicken Breast with Roast Potatoes

Bread and crackers for stuffing 

To make the stuffing use a variety of bread and crackers. Break the bread into pieces and crush the crackers.

Add chopped onions, garlic, parsley, basil (or your favourite herbs) and pepper.

Add hot water and olive oil and stir so that the bread softens.

Cut slits into the chicken breast and stuff with the bread mixture. Cover the chicken with any remaining mixture. Cover with grease proof paper and wrap in foil.

Break up bread and crackers, add herbs and onion

Add hot water to the bread 

Slit the chicken breast

Slice courgettes. Bake in the oven in a dish filled with water, some olive oil, parsley and garlic.

I sauteed some aubergine and served it along with roast potatoes, courgettes and the chicken. I kept the skin on some of the potatoes and par boiled them before roasting them in the oven.

Stuff the chicken and cover it with the remaining mixture

Add parsley, garlic, water and oil 

Chicken  breast and  Roast potatoes

Heart Pancakes

Add an egg to the milk

Soya milk

 It's Valentine's Day tomorrow but I'll be getting home late so I made something for desert tonight.

Pour about 500ml of milk into a bowl and add an egg. I have a lactose intolerance so I made separate pancakes for myself with 250ml soya milk.

Add flour until you have a smooth batter that coats the back of a spoon. I usually add water to pancakes I make with milk.

I used a heart shaped biscuit cutter and poured the batter into it.

Cook until golden.

Serve with whipped cream and strawberry jam. If I had fresh strawberries I would have used them too.

 A smooth batter

Cook the pancake in a heart-shaped cutter

Remove the cutter

Serve with cream and jam

Herby Beefburgers with Fresh Bread

Minced meat, onions, herbs, garlic, tomato ketchup and black pepper

 Choose good quality minced meat. Add your favourite herbs, chopped onions, chopped garlic, tomato ketchup and black pepper.

Give the ingredients a good stir and then form into burgers.

I cook my burgers in wine with added tomato pureè and onions. They stay nice and moist as we like our meat well done. This way you don't need to fry the meat.

Serve with home-made bread (see the recipe in
an earlier blog).We had oven chips and onion

Mix well

rings with ours.

Make into burger shapes

Cook in wine with tomato puree and onions

The cooked burgers

Serve in a home-made bread bun

Pork stew and rice

I was supposed to serve this stew with polenta but we forgot and Ricky made2 a vegetable fried rice instead. He added curry powder to cooked rice just for a little flavour. He sauteed the rice with courgettes, onion and sweet pepper.

Cut a joint into cubes. Put into a saucepan and add bay leaves, a vegetable stock cube, onion, garlic, celery, tomato pureè and carrots. Add salt and pepper if you like.

Leave to boil and then simmer for an hour until the meat is tender. I made the stew a few days before I needed it and decided to freeze it.

Ricky defrosted the stew and then reheated it.