I'm back...

Ok, it's been long. Too long. Almost a year to be exact. But I am back and I hope to be back for good. I have excuses as to why wasn't posting, but they are too long and... well... not really good excuses. So, I am back and I'll start with a nice and refreshing cold soup.

I only discovered cold soups a few weeks ago and I can't get enough of them. They are so versatile, light and tasty. They don't require you spending time chopping, sauteeing, simmering. And they usually come together only in a few minutes. What can I say? I love them!!

This recipe is an adaptation from a recipe-ad I found in yesterday's Metro newspaper. I knew right away that it's something I'd enjoy. I changed some ingredients and voila I had a wonderful cold soup.




Cold Yogurt Soup with Cucumber and Avocado

Dinner for One... or If You Are Lazy

I am by myself this weekend. And it means a lot of TV watching (yes, I can indulge in my guilty please and watch "Rich Bride, Poor Bride"), lying on the couch, not wearing any makeup and not doing my hair. But a girl needs to eat! First, I considered to order some take-out, then I thought of going on a popcorn diet, but later I realized that I haven't cooked anything for a while and I had an urge to be in the kitchen. I actually found a few recipes that I really wanted to try. And then it happened!!! My laziness hit me. No, I didn't want to put on makeup, I didn't want to wear jeans, I didn't want to go outside. I was completely, utterly lazy! So I had to do with what I had in the fridge, and it wasn't a lot.

There was no question of what to make first - Bread. Yes, I mentioned it before, I bake bread on the weekends. I really wanted some plain white bread, maybe toast bread, but I was almost out of the white flour, and I had 5 (!) kilos of multigrain flour, so I chose a Mulitgrain Loaf.

Then I found some avocados, which needed to be eaten almost immediately. So I decided to make guacamole (yes, I really like guacamole!). I had tomatoes, bell peppers, mixed greens, and... That's pretty much it. I was thinking of making a plain salad but I had a revelation - Gazpacho! I've never made a Gazpacho soup in my life and I actually tried it only about three times. But I had all the ingredients for it... or so I thought. I started looking through some books and it turned out that I needed cucumbers and tomatoes juice as well. I got a little bit disappointed and then I decided to improvise. And while I was leafing through my cookbooks in search of a recipe I saw something else. Something that caught my eye. Something that I was scared to try at first. Avocado and Grapefruit salad! I still had grapefruits from a week ago (apparently they keep in the fridge very well) and I had avocados (as mentioned earlier), so why not I thought.

And my dinner for one was born

Avocado and Grapefruit Salad


My Gazpacho


Multigrain Harvest Loaf

Almost Mexican Dinner

Mondays are busy. I get home only at 6 pm, I have about 15 minutes to get up to my apartment, pack my guitar and drive to my tutor where I spend one and a half hours. So I am really only home at 8.30 pm if I am lucky, most of the time I get home at 8.45 pm. As you can imagine, I rarely cook on Mondays, but this time I was craving some carbs and I had some dying avocados in the fridge and I really really wanted to try one very simple recipe out.

At 8.45 I opened my fridge and found no bread. Well, it wasn't really a surprise for me since we finished the last of it this weekend. But my body needed carbs (and I always listen to my body!), so I found my Big Book of Bread and leafed through it. Breads - take too long and it's already too late; Quick Breads - have to bake them for 50 minutes; Flat Breads... Stop! My mind went back to the kitchen, to the fridge, to those mushy avocados. Guacamole and tortillas! Sounds excellent.

It took me about 5 minutes to mix the dough in my trusty KitchenAid mixer and I started on my lentil soup which was on my "to make" list for quite some time. While the soup was simmering, I mixed a simple guacamole spread and began rolling my tortillas. The recipe said to divide the dough in 12 pieces. Which I did. And then I was supposed to roll each piece into a 10 inch circle. Which I didn't. How on earth was I supposed to do it? My stretched and pulled dough was paper-thin, but nowhere near 10 inches, more like 5 inches. Ok, I am not even going to mention my so-called "circles". After the first two tortillas I gave up on making the perfect rounds and just rolled it out as best as I could.

The result: in 45 minutes I had a stack of 12 delicious, warm, homemade tortillas, a wonderful, garlic lemon lentil soup and a guacamole. Not bad, eh?

Guacamole turned out to be a very terrible model, so no picture of it...

Wheat Tortillas

Lemon Lentil Soup