Last week we celebrated Esther’s 14th birthday. Which means that somehow, inexplicably and in a blink of an eye, our sweet baby with head full of hair, turned into an independent half-way grown-up human. The picture on the right…
Chickpea yogurt dip
Auteur: vera@gtc
Soba noodles with cabbage and broccoli shoots
Early spring is the time of discrepancy between what you can harvest from the garden and what you actually feel like eating. In the garden, it’s still the winter vegetables’ show that’s been on forever: the kale we’ve been picking…
Garden jobs in March
This post is a part of a series about the things I usually do/sow/harvest in my garden in a given month. I’ll post at the beginning of each month and at the end of month I check in to let…
Beetroot, carrot and apple salad
It’s the kids’ spring break this week and we are at my sister’s in the Czech Republic. We might be disappointed by the lack of snow and winter conditions in general, if the weather weren’t just so beautiful. We are…
Real jam doughnuts
I am a doughnut snob and that is a good thing. I do not settle for less than perfection, which means that if I want doughnuts, I have to make them myself, and that means I only have doughnuts about…
Pumpkin sage soup
There are many important dates in the calendar of the gardening cook: the last frost date and the first frost date, the first rhubarb harvest, the first asparagus, first ripe tomato… And just this week we reached another one: we…
Winter greens and poached quince salad
A terrible thing happened regarding quince last year. Because I love quince, but have no way to fit a tree into my garden, I planted one in my parents’ garden in 2010. Last year, the tree bore the first fruits…
Winter salads from the garden
Unlike many of you, we are having an exceptionally mild winter this year. We have had few frosts so far and they did not even kill the calendulas. My husband is so longing for snow that he starts checking the…
Berawecka
It is still January and because I don’t want to be the reason behind someone’s wavering resolve, I am not going to tell you about the doughnuts I made on New Year’s Eve (yet). But I thought it might be…
Seeds old and new
January is the quietest month in the gardening calendar – it is cold outside and it is too early to sow anything, whether outside or indoors. Starting plants too early when there’s not enough natural light only results in lanky…
Mushroom, spelt and kale soup
We went for a walk this morning, just the two of us. The weather was beautiful, the temperature just below zero and the sun shining. We walked to Kristalbad, a water retention/ water purification area about three kilometers from our…
Red cabbage slaw with ginger-yogurt dressing
In the last post I wrote about failing to stick to all but one of my 2013 resolutions. That, however, did not stop me from making a whole list of brand new resolutions for 2014. Which means that I am…
2013 – on keeping resolutions and favourite recipes
It is customary, as the year comes to an end, to remember, reminisce and reflect. At the beginning of the year I made a list of about 10 resolutions, trying not to be impossibly ambitious. Well – I kept one…
Christmas 2013
For the fifth year in a row, we celebrated Christmas at my sister’s in a tiny village in Western Bohemia. The village has about 30 inhabitants, a tiny church and a giant pear tree in the middle and no shop…
Christmas star bread with hazelnut-raisin filling
Last Thursday was my daughter’s nameday. When I was pregnant with her, I was for some reason positive that I was carrying a boy and when discussing names for our firstborn, we picked a name for a boy but never…