What happened to our sofa?

Yep, summer is great, giving my husband and daughter a great opportunity to show off with some of their creations. For instance, here are some  manifestations of iced coffee drink recipes that Milan and Marusa added to the Yummy Coffee and Food portfolio lately. Milan really did have a fantastically inspirational day because all the recipes are the result of his experiments and all iced coffee drinks are absolutely pure heaven for real coffee lovers. Has he just discovered his new talent? Time will tell!

In the last few weeks I haven’t been as productive as I would hope but with Milan’s enthusiasm the work on my web site hasn’t stopped. I am in the last stage of my pregnancy and I feel like walking in space – every step is totally exhausting and apologies for my words but I’m now really fed up with all the little problems of the last 9 months. Don’t take me wrong, we are totally excited and I’m really looking forward to our new baby, but my age has probably taken its toll.

Well, I do some work every day, trying new recipes, writing new posts, but it just doesn’t flow. I am not focused on anything any more. Incidentally, in the last few weeks our sofa has miraculously and suddenly become really beautiful and an object of my great desire!

I feel guilty when I have to say NO to my beautiful daughter’s request to play. She is such a wonderful girl and she understands much more than I could possibly expect from a child her age. She does her best to help me with everyday “must do’s” and I am so grateful for that.

So, my life has been a total mess recently but I know that this will change very soon

Oh my, I really love this sofa…

The two bananas story

Do you think that banana muffins belong to your typical summer desserts? They don’t, if you ask me. Summer is the time for baking with fresh fruits like strawberries, blueberries, cherries, raspberries and I usually don’t buy bananas at all. The whole summer offers abundance of colorful fresh fruits and I can hardly wait for the start of this “fruit heaven” every year.

It was a few days ago during our weekly shopping when my daughter suddenly wanted to buy two bananas. She insisted in eating something different and complained  about strawberries and cherries which apparently she has been eating for weeks on end. Can you imagine that? Well, as a true modern mum I was eventually happy to fulfill her wish and we bought two perfectly yellow and ripe bananas.

The days were passing by and those two bananas were lying in our fruit bowl. The only serious attention they got was from little fruit flies that were definitely delighted to have them there.  My daughter didn’t even wink at them! She kept asking for strawberries, cherries, raspberries, apricots but she never mentioned the two bananas. Slowly they were getting brownish and the well-known smell of overripe fruit lingered in the air. After a couple of more days my patience dried out and I asked her if she had any intention to eat them. You can guess her answer! “But of course mum, though not right now.” Ok, I thought to myself, let’s wait for another day hoping for a miracle but nope, nothing happened.

That’s it, I had enough. Next day when she was in school I took those two “poor and overripe” bananas and baked banana muffins. I used my friend’s old recipe but I just simply never had a chance to test it. Well, now was definitely the right time. What an outcome though!  The banana muffins were absolutely delicious, with very moist texture.

Of course, when my daughter arrived from school the first thing she noticed was the smell of baked muffins. She looked at me and you could easily sense the suspicion in her voice: “Did you take my bananas?”

And before I even managed to answer, she took a muffin and tasted it. When she finished she said: ” Mum, good that we bought those two bananas,  otherwise you wouldn’t bake such good muffins!”

Do I need to say anything else to this?

Do you make coffee at work or rather visit a nearby cafeteria?

I always loved the convenience of having cafeterias a stone’s throw away from my workplace but looking back this was expensive entertainment especially with many visitors and colleagues. Though, this was the only chance to have  a decent chat with them you know. More recently the situation has changed and because of the very high monthly costs I decided to start making coffee at work by myself. I didn’t buy any  fancy coffee maker, no. I just brought an ibrik (dzezve), a bag of ground Turkish coffee, an old kettle, some sugar, a few nice coffee cups and a coffee spoon. Yep, just a few tools/ingredients and I was ready to brew my first Turkish coffee in my office – without any Health & Safety issues that is!

Just a few attempts at brewing Turkish coffee in front of my visitors shows how very easy it is to break the ice without even thinking hard what to say.  I call this high-level simplicity networking extraordinaire. Isn’t that wonderful?  They are first of all interested in the method of brewing Turkish coffee but that is then topped up with an enchanted smell of freshly brewed coffee. Yes, it’s not discussing the business that breaks the ice, it is all about something completely different that seamlessly pulls people into their comfort zone.

You will probably agree that the method of brewing a perfect cup of coffee is one of the most important elements if you really want to enjoy the magic of this ancient beverage. Well, there is one more element that makes or breaks the moment. People often forget that serving a perfect cup of coffee is art in its own right. I’m sure you have had a chance to visit superb restaurants. Have you ever got coffee in a paper cup there? Probably not! Even more, they probably served it in a way that made you talk about it for a minute or two. Now, that’s what I am talking about and there should be no difference when you offer a cup of coffee to your visitors. It’s the first impression in the business world as well that counts. Here are a few tips:

- Use earthenware or glass cups or mugs. Why? The heat of freshly brewed coffee could melt wax from cardboard cups and affect its taste. On the other hand, it is very difficult to hold paper cups and they just look so awfully cheap.

- Coffee stays warm much longer in earthenware cups or mugs and they are normally far more stable.

- Always ask your visitor whether they like their coffee sweetened or without any sugar.

- Have some fresh milk always available but you can buy  some long life milk pots or sticks in case you haven’t got a fridge and a few sachets of sugar, and ask your visitor if they want some milk or additional sugar.

- By default you should serve a glass of water with coffee and visitors might be thirsty anyway.

- Serve only hot coffee and never re-heat it and I mean NEVER!

Storing coffee appropriately to preserve its freshness is crucial. The best advice for the office environment is to buy small amounts of ground coffee (3.5oz which is roughly 100g), store it in an airtight container and use it as soon as possible. Do not forget to close the container lid tightly immediately after every use.

Chocolate brownies & coffee

I came across this chocolate brownies recipe in one of many supermarket magazines diligently collected during my supermarket shopping trips. I’ve never baked chocolate brownies before so I was really looking forward to results anticipating nothing but pure success. After all the recipe promises a lot. I followed instructions to the dot but the result was far from what I  expected. The brownies where too “wet”, they were not even baked properly in the middle despite the fact that I extend the baking time for another few minutes (you know… just in case). Yep, that’s not what I wanted to say the least!

I decided to make some changes. I swapped vegetable oil for butter, reduced the amount of cocoa and plain yogurt,  added  raspberries and vanilla to improve the taste. I modified baking time a little and after a few attempts I am really happy with the result but all this just shows how careful you have to be with recipes you get from books and magazines.

These yummy chocolate brownies have dry crust, they are not too sweet, have a moist texture, rich cocoa taste and wonderfully refreshing taste of raspberries. Of course, we tested them with coffee too but there is no ultimate winner I guess. Cappuccino and espresso pair chocolate brownies really well but they would never be my “first” choice. Turkish coffee and cafe latte are much better if you ask me. Turkish coffee just brilliantly teams with chocolate while cafe latte brings out milkshake like flavor from raspberries. Fantastic, I’m telling you!

It’s strawberry time!

Fresh and ripe strawberry

Strawberry sponge cake

Strawberry sponge cake with double cream

Before serving always chill the cake in a fridge

Oh, how I love the beginning of summer. The weather is getting warmer and the fruit season is on the full. Strawberries are definitely the biggest hit for a perfect English summer.  They mark every traditional event  in this country. From Wimbledon to Ascot and Henley to hundreds of other local events which just wouldn’t be the same without freshly picked English strawberries and cream.  Of course you can get them everywhere, from the smallest local shop to the biggest  supermarket and local city markets.  But local farms where you can pick them on your own are truly fabulous. I never went picking strawberries as a kid. In Slovenia we just didn’t have strawberry  farms or at least I can’t remember anyone talking about them. But the memories of our school teachers taking us many times to pick-your-own (PYO) apple farms where we tried to earn some money for our school are still vivid, as if all this happened yesterday.  When we moved to Scotland it was the first time that we heard about PYO strawberry farms. Many immigrant workers from Romania, Poland and other countries are seasonal workers there earning good but hard earned moneys.  I have far greater respect for the strawberries that I see in stores now. We actually never think how they end up in our local store, who picks all this fruit and how tuff the job is. Yes, there are hardworking people behind delicious strawberries!

Here in the South of England you can find strawberry farms almost everywhere. They are scattered all over the place and are really popular, particularly with families. Besides, you pick  fruit on your own, you spend a lovely day breathing fresh air, teach your children where and how strawberries grow and of course they are much cheaper too.

So how do the locals here make popular strawberry summer treats? Well,  it couldn’t be easier! They wash the fruit, sprinkle them with sugar, leave for about half an hour to soak up the sweetness and at the end add single cream or Cornish clotted cream. In my family we eat strawberries in pretty much the same way, but what I really like to do even more is baking strawberry desserts. That’s why I usually mark the beginning of summer with strawberry sponge cake recipe. This is a simple cake topped with double cream and sweet strawberries and it tastes absolutely delicious. The recipe couldn’t be easier.

First you bake a basic sponge cake (you need only butter, sugar, flour, vanilla extract and eggs). The cake is baked in half an hour. Meanwhile, wash strawberries in cold water and cut them into quarters. Whip double cream and chill it in a fridge. When the cake has cooled down cut away the top to get a flat surface. Spoon a few tablespoons of the cream on the cake and use palette knife to smooth the surface. Cover the whole creamed up surface with strawberries and sprinkle with icing sugar. Chill the cake in the fridge for 10-15 minutes before serving.

What about strawberry sponge cake and coffee combinations? Well yeah, I’ve got to say something about my passion as well…

The ultimate winner is definetely cafe latte with cappucino being really close. I think those two pair this cake far better than espresso and Turkish coffee, or in fact any other black coffee.