Dr. Filomena

Japanese Mystery Food

Culc, please shed some light on this green stuff?

Phenomenal venison in a creamy carrot-base sauce with spaetzle noodles, a piece of ‘sirov strukelj’ (skuta cheese roll) and pear (cooked in white wine and topped with cranberry jam.
Prepared by Poldka at the renowned Jelen restaurant in Kocevje.

I hadn’t made these in a long time, so I forgot a detail. Next time, these sexy cupcakes will look even better 😉

Ingredients (makes 24 cupcakes)

250 g (Philadelphia) cream cheese
1 egg
60 g sugar
pinch of salt

200 g dark chocolate chips
200 g all-purpose flour
200 g sugar
20 g unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
230 ml water
80 ml vegetable oil
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Chop up the chocolate bars if you weren’t able to find miniature chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 175°C. Line muffin tins with paper cups or lightly spray with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, egg, 60 g of sugar and a pinch of salt. (Note: don’t overdo the beating as you want this mixture to have consistency! don’t let it become too fluid) Stir in the chocolate chips and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, 1 cup sugar, cocoa, baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Make a well in the center and add the water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Stir together until well blended.

Fill muffin tins 1/3 full with the batter and top with a dollop of the cream cheese mixture. See my problem was that I allowed my cream cheese mixture to become too liquid and had to almost pour it on top rather than top the batter with ‘dollops’. Had I done it that way, the batter would rise around the filling, engulfing most of it, for a prettier end result.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes.

Even if they didn’t look perfect, they still tasted good, though 😀

Just a quick marble cake for an easy Sunday.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Baked in: 45 minutes

Piece-a-cake 😀

marble cake

Ok ok so like I said the kitchen remodelling’s not finished yet and still no fresh paint job. Does not affect the food being served, though 🙂 Adriaan, I know… I know… but like I said, you’re welcome to join us for dinner 🙂

EDIT: This quote seems appropriate 😉
I find that principles have no real force except when one is well fed.
-Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

So you see Adriaan, it’s all about maintaining rock-steady principles.

When you really don’t feel like cooking 🙂

Saturday Breakfast

Banana muffins with a crumbly topping. Not a bad way to start off a weekend day 🙂

Inspired (also) by Quint’s post on the Portuguese sponge cake, I baked this apple “cheese” pie last night. Skuta is a type of cheese kind of like cottage cheese but so much better in pies. This was the no. 1 item I missed among food supplies whilst living in Luxembourg. Anyway, here comes this morning’s breakfast.

OK so the kitchen remodelling project is not quite complete yet as I’m waiting for my wallpaint guy’s leg to heal so he can come finish the walls and give them a paint job, but hey, the kitchen is back in action 🙂

Chilli @ Pomf

Miša’s doing a bit better and is taking a healing vacation at the seaside. In her absence, Sabina and I had our traditional Friday lunch at Pomf on Trubarjeva cesta, followed by the equally traditional yummm icecream at Rustika. A classic.

Ice Cream @ Rustika

Gotta love this town 🙂

Last Friday, Sabina and I again enjoyed a tasty meal at Čompa restaurant on Trubarjeva cesta in Ljubljana centre. Just like before, we phoned in and decided on our meal and at the set time we strolled over to the cozy place where the owner makes you feel at home. We had tuna on a bed of arugula – covering up a delicious chompa of course. Yumm! Chompas are traditional baked potatoes from beautiful Bovec region. After the meal, we were treated to a “teranov liker”, a sweet variation of teran wine.

Miša has not been well. She is seriously ill and has just completed a set of treatments. We talked for a length of time today. She is the type of person who is always there for others, but now she is the one in need of support and all the power of positive thought we can muster up. It takes so little to make a big change. Miša is in a dark place and needs to know there are people out there who care. It will give her the strength she needs. If you are willing to write a few inspiring words for Miša, I will print them out and make sure they reach them. I’m selfish. I want her back on her feet soon so I can enjoy more of her great cooking! Help