aats = Apricot - Almond Tartelettes

It´s high season for Apricots. You see small ones, big ones, some with a little bit red on her skin (as if they had put some cheek blush on.. :). Really ripe they smell and look gorgeous. As I needed to bring some sweets for my collegues at work I was thinking about what to make. At the moment summer is making a (hopefully only short) pause and so I thought about making something expressing summer. So what could be better than using those tempting Apricots that I could´nt resist to buy on the Market? As puff pastry is one of the thing I have quite ever at home I decided to make some AATs = Tartetelettes with Frangipane topped with Apricots .

You need:

- 500 g apricots

- 275 g puff pastry (ready to use)

- 125 g ground almonds

- 75 g softened butter

- 100g icing sugar

- 1 egg

- 1tbsp. amaretto sirup (or liquor) (would not be a problem if you have´nt but in my opinion the almond taste becomes more stronger)

To prepare:
1. Start with the Frangipane by mixing together butter and sugar until well melted. Than stir in the rest of the ingredients (almonds, sugar , sirup, egg)

2. Cut the puff pastry in rectangular pieces

3. Put 1 good tsp. Frangipane on each piece of puff pastry

4. Top with half of an apricot and cut their skin lengthwise with a sharp knife 2 -  3 times. Fold the pastry around your filling.

5. Place on a oven tray armed with parchment paper and bake for 25 min. in the preheated oven (180 C)

I like to serve those tarteletts with some sweetened cream or a scoop of vanilla ice

The first completely self done Cake from my daughter!!!

 Ok, we are living in an emancipated environment. Ok, woman can do quite everything. Ok being a woman you must not be a good cook. But it is also not a fault to be able to cook, no? And I think it is not a question of emancipation if you are doing kitchen work or not. However I like to cook and to bake and of course to savour all the things that we cooked. So I confess that I was very proud as my daughter came over with her first  self-baked tart. She has done it without any help! Is´nt the cake looking gorgeous? For the candles she was so friendly to not put all on them that would have corresponded to my age.. :). Want to know what kind of cake it was..? Now a yummy one :).
It was a sponge cake flavoured with violet aroma with a sugar icing and topped with candied violets. Thank you so much! I have the best daughter in the world!

Violet Cocktail

Cocktails for non professional bartenders and without a hundred of different ingredients are a hard exercise... :). But having guests I want to serve something not so usual as aperitif... something readily and easy done... So I like to refer to some Champagne Cocktails. This time I made a VIOLET COCKTAIL.

You need: Chilled Champagne (or some Frizzante) with a not to dominant taste, some violet sirup (I use one from Monin), purple sugar (I have one very special from Dean and Deluca from NY..my daughter brought it to me...thank you my dear for that gift once again..), toothpicks, blueberries, 1 lemon.

1. Cut the lemon in wedges and go with it around the bezel from your glasses

2. Put the sugar on a plate and roll the bezel of your glasses in the purple sugar

3. Take 2 blueberries and stick them on the toothpicks

4. Fill 2 tsp. (or more or less; depending on  if you like it more or less flavoured) violet sirup in your galss

5. Fill up with your good chilled champagne and stir slowly with a spoon until well combined

 And now serve with some nuts, some tacos or what ever and wait for the questions coming.. like "oh what is that?, Oh is that so cute..." :))

(One can do in the same way with some rose sirup...)

Aubergine with Yoghurt-Buttermilk sauce

Now, as I was in London and visited one of the Restaurants from Ottolenghi I naturally also bought one of his books. Browsing through the cookbook I was planning to try some of the recipes.. My only problem is when to do all those things and also who should eat all those things... :) and wasn´nt there some other recipes that I wanted to try some day...? On the market I found some pretty, tempting aubergines and in Ottolenghis book a interesting recipe to prepare them. He roast the aubergines in the oven and top them with a youghurt-buttermilk sauce. Really simple but very tasty.. together with some Pita bread yumm.

You need (serves 2 persons as a starter):

1 medium sized aubergine

40 ml + 1 Tbsp. olive oil 

1 Tsp. thyme leaves + some fresh sprigs

70 ml buttermilk

60 g greek yoghurt
1 small garlic clove, crushed

salt and pepper to season

To prepare:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C

2. Cut the Aubergines in halves (also throught the stalk) and cut in a diamond shaped way the cut-side of each aubergine

3. Put the Aubergines cut-side up on a oven tray armed with parchement paper.

4. Drizzle the olive oil on the olive oil until all the oil has been absorbed by the flesh
5. Season with salt, pepper and thyme leaves

6. Put in the oven for about 40 minutes

7. Meanwhile the Aubergines roast in the oven prepare the sauce by whisking together in a bowl buttermilk, greek yoghurt, the crushed garlic clove and season with salt, pepper and 1 Tbsp. olive oil.

8. When the flesh of the Aubergines is soft, remove from the oven and let cool down.

 9. Place the Aubergines on a plate, top the flesh with plenty of the yoghurt-buttermilk sauce and decorate with some fresh thyme sprigs.

Play some songs from Kate Yanai (Summer feeling / Bacardi song), savour the Aubergines and you feel like beeing somewhere on a Beach, looking the sunset....

The heat is on..... Cucumber-Lemon Water

Summer is great! I love the heat! But of course we need some cooling drinks... One can not go for a swim all day long.. The last days was quite busy as all the staff from UK came and of course I helped my daughter to sort and store everything. Outside the sun was shining bright and we melted like ice..... To cool down my daughter served me a Cucumber-Lemon Water, good chilled and yummm it tastes good and one feel instantly better.. So I am very proud to be able to present you this "recipe" for a really cooling, non alcoholic drink from my daughter :)).

You need (for about 1,5 liter):

1/2 of a Cucumber

1/2 of a Lemon

(feel free to add more lemon or more cucumber..)

To prepare:

1. Slice the cucumber (not too thin) as well as the lemon

2. Put all in a jug and fill with cold water

3. Chill for at least 2 hours in the fridge and serve really cold......

Summer here we come!