Easter holidays

We  are back from our Easter holidays and we had 24 hours to adjust to a daily routine in England before school and work started again. For children that’s not a big deal but, if I’m honest, for me it is. It takes a few days to get our house back into order again; do all the washing and return our suitcases back in a storage.

At the moment Maribor is “the only ” Easter holiday destination for our family. Grandparents and the rest of the family are not the sole reason why we travel to Slovenia every April; good food, lovely atmosphere, old memories and photos, and of course our dear friends just make every Easter unforgettable. It seems that’s the way it has to be for now that our children are growing up.

What about the city itself?

Maribor is the European Capital of Culture in 2012 and I was bitterly disappointed how this lovely city can’t make the best of it. The city hasn’t done enough to show the tourists what exactly it has to offer. Just a few posters and arguably weird signposts confuse wandering tourists who would generally just like to get more information about the numerous hidden events. Milan and I were observing all this with pain in our hearts and “curse and swear” about incompetence of the city’s leadership. Yes, we live in difficult times, but that’s a lousy excuse for missing such a great opportunity to position Maribor on the map of Europe.

But anyway, if you travel to Slovenia or to its neighbouring countries, make a short trip to this lovely city. It truly is beautiful and worth a visit.

Beautiful moments!

The weather this week was absolutely gorgeous.  After a really mild winter, England has been suddenly mesmerised with summer temperatures.  We have pretty much skipped the spring and swapped winter coats with t-shirts. It just doesn’t feel right, if I am honest.

But despite all this strange weather, it is absolutely lovely sitting outside on the sun and watching the gradual awakening of the nature.

In the afternoon Milan and I decided to take kids out to fresh air. Our local playground was swarming with people and we didn’t even bother stopping. Instead, we drove to the huge University campus where both kids had plenty of space to play. What a lovely campus this  is! It is a bustling place like every university campus during the week, but at weekends when most of the students leave, this is the best place for walking, cycling or just enjoying the nature.

At the end of the day what really mattered to Oliver and Marusa was that mummy and daddy  spent the whole afternoon with them playing, running, hiding,…

Seven more days

Seven more days and we are off to Maribor (Slovenia) again. It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen our family and friends.  I would lie if I said we are not excited. But the most “impatient” (in a good way though) for sure is Marusa who has started counting hours, not just days, until our departure. Staying at the airport has been the most exciting part of any holidays for her.  Even now, when she is approaching her teens she starts jumping and screaming whenever we get to the airport. She knows every single corner, running like a headless chicken, and she would probably get lost in a matter of seconds if I wouldn’t hold her back.

Oliver is  still too young for all this excitement, but next year he  will probably run up and down the airport and make me and my husband even more nervous. Ah well, the joy of being a parent…

I will updates you about our holidays in Slovenia, but just for information, here are a few photos from our previous holidays in Maribor.

Barley cookies

I don’t normally review cookbooks or recipes, but weeks ago I came across Gwyneth Paltrow’s “Notes from my kitchen table” cookbook in my local library. If I am honest, until then I didn’t even know that she has been such an enthusiastic cook.  At first I had just a quick look  at two or three recipes. Because they didn’t catch my immediate  attention the book was very soon back on the shelf.  But funnily enough, because I didn’t find the book I was looking for and I hate leaving the library empty-handed I decided to take it home. And I’m glad I did that.

“Notes from my kitchen table”  is a very well written cookbook, with a lovely personal touch and beautiful photos. You can sense straight away that Gwyneth is a good cook and that cooking has been an important part of her life. The whole book is a fantastic selection of  simple, healthy, imaginative and delicious recipes. Going through the book for the first time, your first impression could be that you need a wide range of difficult to find and expensive ingredients.  Well, this isn’t far from the truth. There are a few quite extravagant recipes (for daily meals) and you would need to put in some effort to get all the ingredients but to cheer you up straight away, for most recipes the ingredients are easily available in local shops or you can always use suggested substitutes.  Even here Gwyneth doesn’t leave you in the dark. She lists websites for more “exotic” ingredients too (mostly in the UK!) and that is yet another lovely addition to this brilliant book.

She wants to make every meal and every dessert “healthy” using many alternatives to the plain sugar, like maple or agave syrup. There are other suggestions and substitutes too (different types of flour for example), but it is up to every reader if he/she would go for healthier or maybe less healthier options. I believe this is a big plus because I try really hard to cut sugar from our daily diet wherever possible.

Talking about healthy eating, there are also many delicious vegan recipes. I am not a vegan or vegetarian, but sometimes my taste buds crave for new and different. Most of vegan recipes I have tried so far are  absolutely delicious and all have been successful. Even my daughter, who calls herself a “meat eater”, loves them.

All the recipes are easy to follow with very clear instructions. The only thing that I would wish for is that every recipe is accompanied with a photo of a cooked dish and maybe with step by step photo instructions (am I going too far?).

At the moment my definite number one recipe from this book is “Lalo’s famous cookies”.

These delicious barley cookies recipe baked by  Gwyneth’s  mother and by Gwyneth  herself have been in their family for years.  I was quite surprised when I checked the ingredients . If I’m honest, I had never heard about barley flour before. Straight away I liked the idea that the sugar was swapped with maple syrup. These cookies are really good for kids  because they don’t contain any “bad” ingredients. I think that’s the wish and dream of most mothers in the world, to find a “healthier option” to cookies from shops. My 1-year-old son absolutely adores these cookies and he could eat a whole bunch of them in one go. My 8 years old daughter is not such a big fan, but then again she would still take one or two cookies every time. The biggest problem for her is somewhat sweetless taste. But she is slowly warming up for these cookies, especially when she heard that they are much healthier then cookies from the shop (her last appointment with the dentist made her think too).

Gwyneth Paltrow’s famous cookies (Original recipe’s name is: Lalo’s famous cookies, page 252)

Ingredients:

1. 225g barley flour
2. 170g chopped almonds
3. ½ tsp salt
4. 1 tsp cinnamon (original recipe suggests ½ tsp)
5. 125ml sunflower oil (original recipe suggests rapeseed oil)
6. 125ml maple syrup (original recipe suggests real Vermont maple syrup)
7. Jam (blueberry, raspberry and apricot are all very nice)

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Baking time: 18 minutes

Make: about 29 cookies

1. Preheat the oven to 160C/fan oven 140C/320F/gas mark 3.
2. Combine all the ingredients (except jam) in a big bowl. Take a tablespoon and mix well.
3. Form tablespoonfuls into balls. Space them 1 inch (2.5cm) apart on non-stick baking sheet.
4. When you finish with shaping balls make a small indent in each cookie. Use your little finger.
5.  Fill each indent with the jam. I usually use blueberry & pomegranate conserve but blueberry, raspberry and apricot jam will do too.
6.  Bake cookies about 16 minutes. Let cool before eating.

Pasta with fresh tomato sauce

My daughter is far from being a fussy eater. Usually she wouldn’t think twice about pretty much everything I put in front of her. But, if anyone ever asks about her favourite food, the answer would always be the same – PASTA! I really believe she could eat pasta for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

To at least try making it healthier, I  try hard cooking different kinds od pasta sauces playing around with as many different ingredients as possible. I go for this and I go for that but then she’d say: “Mum, I don’t want to eat that, I want my tomato sauce!” (you can imagine the expression on my face!)

Why on earth does she like this simple, homemade tomato sauce sooo much when there are so many other recipes out there?!

Well, it’s a mistery to me but here we go, here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Serves 3:

•  2 cans organic chopped tomatoes
•  3 cloves of garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• a pinch of caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon mixed herbs
• salt and ground pepper
• fresh basil leaves or dry basil

Put all the ingredients except fresh basil leaves into a saucepan. Heat the pan over a medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Cover the pan with a lid and turn down the heat. Cook the sauce over a low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring it frequently, to prevent sticking. When the sauce is cooked, stir the chopped basil leaves into the tomato sauce. Spoon the pasta onto a plate and pour/spoon the tomato sauce over the top.