More lemon - a taste of Italy

We are going down to Italy with the first flight tomorrow morning, all of us, me, my husband, four kids, a boyfriend and my parents. To celebrate my birthday. The others will stay for one week, I will stay for two. We have been to church this morning, on Palm Sunday or Passion Sunday as it is also called, and now we are all busy packing. But first we had lunch, and without any spesific plans I decided to try to empty the fridge before we all leave the house. Spaghetti is always in a cupboard, I had a lemon, a squash and the half of a paprika to challenge myself with. When I also found some cream I knew that the lunch was saved. Spaghetti with lemon sauce.

Cut the squash, the paprika and some garlic and braise it smooth in extra virgin olive oil. The lemon was cut in two halves and the juice from one of the halves found its way to the pan. (I still have some lemon left from my late tea tonight). Add cream for a thick, creamy and tasty sauce.

The spaghetti was boiled al dente and was served with the sauce, cold water and bread. A perfect taste of Italy.

I will not be able to update this blog during my two weeks away, but I will try to write a few posts at The House in the Woods.

Marta's Limonade

I have called Marta, now 12, my apprentice. This is not the right title anymore, I must change it to co-chef. She loves reading cookbook (just like her mother) and she loves playing in the kitchen (just like her mother). I have been "on the road" yesterday and came home late. She was not in bed yet, "you know mum, it is Easter break now and I can't go to bed before you have read a chapter from Harry Potter!" (We have only a few chapters left of the last book, what shall we read next.......)

Well, instead of a sleeping Marta I was met with a delicious smell from the kitchen. Marta was just finished making waffler and coffee, perfect supper for her, me and daddy. And as soon as we had finished the waffles I had regained enough energy after my long day of working to read yet another HP chapter.

I have written about waffles here at The Blue Café already, so instead I'll give you the recipe of one of Marta's specialities; limonade:

1 1/2 l water

6 tablesp sugar

peeled lemon skin

1dl lemon juice

ice cubes

sparkling water

Boil water sugar and peeled lemon skin, let boil for 5 minutes. Cool.

Add lemon juice

Cool in fridge for a couple of hours

Decorate the top of the glass with sigar and lemon juice.

Enjoy the limonade cold with ice cubes.

Fried rice with walnuts, onion and chives

An unexpected day at home, and a craving for something extra for lunch! Well, the first step is to look through the fridge. I found some left over cooked rice and decided it could be a good start for something. With some extra virgin olive oil, a couple of chive boats, the half of an onion and an almost empty box of walnuts, and soon my lunch was finished.

First I fried the chive and the onion in the olive oil, after a while I added half of the walnuts and the rice. The rest of the walnuts I fried in a corner of the frying pan to use for garniture. Eating alone really doesn't mean that the food shall look just plain! With a piece of bread and a few pieces of parma ham I could have a feast together with my book.

I am reading Dervla Murphy's One Foot in Laos. I visited Laos myself a few years ago and fell in love with the sticky rice which were served to all meals. My fried rice was not sticky, but good as well.

A Month since my Last Post

It really was not my intention to keep away from The Blue Café for a month. It just happend, and I have no reason. I keep on makijng food every day, I even almost always take photos of the food I make..........

So the other day I suddenly came to my senses when I was in the kitchen frying some salmon for dinner. I caught my camera and decided it was full time to think about blogging again. And why do all food photos fpr blogging have to be so fancy and perfect. Here I had a kitchen with all signs of a kitchen in use, and the smell of the delicious fish was teasing my sences. If this isn't worth a blog post, nothing is.

So here I am, back again. Hopefully with more kitchen talks and recipes for you. I hope all my readers haevn't left me :-)