Sorry, but I have a random pizza for you with potatoes and thyme

Do you know what I don't understand? Arabic. Eh ... honestly? Yes, I do understand a few words and phrases, but I really don't understand Khmer, not even a single word. Stop joking! I don't understand the way English movie or book titles are translated into German. Movies often have a completely different title, although it would be quite funny and understandable to simply translate it. However, the biggest mystery comes to my mind, when I think about a particular cookbook in my collection. It's the number 40 when you count it alphabetically. The book is from Ravinder Bhogal. Maybe you know it. The title is: Cook in Boots. Now I don't know whether you are fluent in German, but the title should be Kochen in Stiefeln. No big deal. You could do that, although it wouldn't sound too lovely. But, hey, now let's have a look at what they made of it. By the way, the book was published by a publishing house called 'Christian'. Fine, that was the reason, why I bought this book in the first place (you know, that's my name). Another reason was, the book was highly reduced. Anyway, originally we wanted to get to the German name of the book. Just repeat, the German name of the book. Wait, here it comes: Love to Cook. A little note on that. I didn't translate the name back into English, but that's the actual name of the book in ... wait ... German, although this is obviously English, too. So, I really don't understand things like that. I don't know, so I really feel more comfortable with the English language and all, although it should be different. I don't know what's wrong with me. Right, obviously a lot of things, but that's not the reason, why you endure reading all this ... eh ... stuff ... no ... things ... no ... ah, forget it, we should be concentrating more on food.
But it wasn't for no reason I mentioned this book. I already hinted to it, it's number 40 of my collection and if you have any idea about the food blogging world, this will connect you to the random recipes challenge from Dom over at Belleau Kitchen.

For the current challenge we have to go to page 40 of the book number 40. That is what we do and what is it that we get? Pizza sauce. So, what is it you have to do, when you get a recipe for pizza sauce? Sorry, I have no idea. Maybe choose another recipe?

Sorry again, I'm not 100 % sure what I did, but on page 41 there was a recipe for a pizza, too. Somehow I couldn't get all the ingredients for the sauce at that time, so I thought, if I do the pizza recipe on the following side, it will rectify everything and things will be good again for my karma. Ah, no such thing in my world. Fine, things will be good. I'm good!

So the next page had a recipe for pizza with potatoes and thyme. Before I get messed up in more details, I show you my uncut version.

Right, that is the pizza just before I cut it for eating. So, that is ... he he he ... indeed the uncut version. I don't know what you expected. 

Again sorry, but I am not sure anymore whether I was supposed to use the pizza sauce with this version of the pizza. I suppose not! However, I did it anyway. At least I used the slices of potatoes, which I blanched first and then mixed with olive oil, garlic anthem before I put it onto the pizza. The dough was just my standard home-made pizza dough.

Additionally to the potatoes with thyme there was some goat's cheese going to ... eh ... yes ... to go onto the pizza. Yes, yes, goat's cheese. Wonderful!

So, finally, standard pizza dough, tomato sauce, slices of potatoes mixed with olive oil, thyme and garlic and goat's cheese. Delicious! Oh, I had no choice, I had to add some mozzarella as well.

Now, here I give you the cut version ...

Apart from all this, I just want to let you know, I am having a Caipirinha right this moment while I write this down .... maybe I slightly confused the measurements of the cachaca and all this, but things will be fine. Oh, right, things will not be fine for Italy in the World Cup for they have missed their chance to be among the last 16. However, I don't want to miss my chance to add an Italian recipe to the Bloggers Around the World World Cup challenge. Accordingly, besides for adding this post to the random recipes challenge this as well goes to the Bloggers Around the World challenge. 

Well, you don't know exactly what I am doing here at this time of the day writing up a weird post for my blog, so neither do I. Therefore, before any major tragedy occurs, we finish it all here.

Bloggers Around the World May Round-up: Italian Desserts

As we are already in June, although it's still the beginning it's time now to look back on the month of June for our Bloggers Around the World Round-up and to see about those sweet teeth of you. Therefore without further ado I bring you the round-up for May with some Italian desserts.

I set the whole thing off with some Mascarpone All' Amaretto. As I think about again, I should have some more of it soon.

However, I guess it would be wiser on my part to have some of the other entrant's desserts. For example some of Galina's fruit salad or let's better say Macedonia with Apple Blossom and Mint. I would call that fresh and healthy and all.

So, check out the post on Chez Maximka and enjoy it.

Another alternative would be the Slimming World Tiramisu from Caroline at Caroline Makes ...

Well, there is some Cointreau in it, too. Anyway, you have to see it for yourself.

Then we go back to Chez Maximka and have a look at the ricotta cake Galina has for us. In fact, it is Aunt Giuseppina's recipe and therefore it's only fair to call it Aunt Giuseppina's Ricoota Cake.

Thank you everyone for having a share this month in Bloggers Around the World. Keep on the lookout for coming challenges. What could it be, though?

Mascarpone All' Amaretto and Bloggers Around the World May

What is your favourite course of a meal? Starter? Mains? Dessert?
What if the starter and the mains is already so good you hardly can restrain yourself, would you still eat the dessert? Some say (including my very self), sweets, puddings and cakes go to a separate stomach, so it is totally unaffected by what you ate before. Having a second stomach, though, is complete nonsense unless you are a cow, of course. Nevertheless, dessert always goes.
Right now, I am having one of those ...

... Mascarpone All' Amaretto, simple, yet very delicious. I found the recipe in the cookbook Two Greedy Italians Eat Italy. You simply whip together 250 g of mascarpone with a tbsp. of milk, 50 g sugar and 25 ml amaretto. Then crumble over some amaretti biscuits and stick in a chocolate stick. That's it! Is it the booze? Is it the mascarpone? I reckon, it's the combination that makes it so delicious.

You definitely should have a go. Something else you should have a go at is the Bloggers Around the World challenge for May. You might have concluded, we are going to Italy again. Right, but things are not that simple for this time, we are just concentrating on desserts. That's why I have presented you the Mascarpone All' Amaretto.

Well then, off we go for another month of Bloggers Around the World ...

... with the delicious theme ...

ITALIAN SWEETS, PUDDINGS AND CAKES

Along that line, you could present us a dessert like I just did or ... having so much to choose from ... you could do gelato, semifreddo, polenta cake, tiramisu, zabaione, panna cotta and much much more. If it has any connection with Italy, it's fine.

Besides that, the usual rules / guidelines apply ...

1. Link to Cooking Around the World and this very challenge in your post.
2. Use the "Bloggers Around the World" badge (you should be able to find it).
3. Use either an old post or write up something completely new.
4. You can enter as many posts as you manage (we can never have enough sweets).
5. Enjoy ...

Here some more impressions from Italy. After that you get the chance to link up your post  ...

Chain Reaction: Italian Week - Tomato Sauce, Pizza and Lasagne

Sometimes one thing leads to another. I like to have some kind of cooking chain reaction, when the leftovers of a meal come to star in another meal or two or even more. I dreamt of five meals or so. Well, I will be satisfied with less ... for now.
It all started with a tomato sauce. No, not exactly, it started when I found some lovely celery sticks and carrots smiling at me. When celery and carrots smile at a man, the only thing you can do is smile back and ... cook with them.

Meal 1: Pasta with Tomato Sauce (call it vegetarian bolognese, if you like)

Before I go on, I just want to tell you, I couldn't find the photos of the pasta with tomato sauce. Maybe that's because I didn't take any.

I put a large pan with olive oil on medium heat. Then I went about finely chopping two cloves of garlic, an onion, four celery sticks and two large carrots. All the tiny bits of vegetable ... eh, maybe I didn't chop them that fine ... went into the pan in order to be soften. Have patience and enjoy the process.
Next I poured a tin of tomatoes (400 ml) into the pan with some extra water. I better should ave taken two tins or a larger one. That's why I added some fresh tomatoes and a bit of tomato puree later on. Oh, some chopped up red chillies will give the sauce some extra heat, too.
It's important not to forget the seasoning. Good I didn't forget it the same way I forgot the photos and (you will see later) something else.
Anyway, now you want to get the content of the pan boiling and then leave it simmering for 30 minutes.
At this point you check the seasoning again. Better safe than sorry.
Now a splash of red wine vinegar comes in handy and ... you have to make a decision. You could just break up the tomatoes with a spoon or put the whole sauce into a blender and ... let things go. I went with blender. I wasn't in the mood for coarse consistency this time.
Finally I added some chopped up fresh basil.
Cook your pasta according to the package instructions, if you are not doing fresh pasta.
Again, if you don't forget, you could catch up some of the cooking water to add to the sauce.
Whatever the case, have a plate of pasta with the tomato sauce and some parmesan on top. It won't disappoint you.

Of course we have some leftover tomato sauce in order to continue ...

Meal 2: Four-cheese Pizza

I had to do this. It was about time I do a post with pizza again. You can never have too much.
I want some tomato sauce for my pizza before I put the final topping on, no matter what it is. At least that is what I think right now. Well, I can't remember it otherwise right now, I forgot it (with all this forgetting, I reckon I am getting old).

Fine, we already have our tomato sauce for the pizza. What else? Of course, the pizza dough. You can use your favourite pizza dough or have a look here for a recipe.
More? Sure, the four cheeses. I took buffalo mozzarella, gorgonzola, parmesan and a fourth very delicious Italian cheese, which unfortunately I (here it comes again) forgot the name of. The cheese was very creamy and in fact you get the most of that cheese when you eat it just the way it is. Yum!
Once you have all the components read, heat up the oven to 250 °C (unless you have a pizza oven). Roll out your dough and thinly spread on some of that tomato sauce. Then scatter as much of the cheese all over the pizza. Make sure to taste small bits of cheese to survive the time until the food is ready.
If you feel like it, you can finish off the pizza with a splash of olive oil. Since we are having an Italian week here, in fact, you can put a splash of olive oil to anything we are having.
My pizza was ready after 15 minutes ... well, I cut it into pieces ...

... and went for it ...

It was so yummy, I could have had more. Luckily, I already had frozen the remaining pizza dough. In time, that would be meal 4, but until then it is resting in piece.
So, if you love cheese, that's your pizza. At least it's mine. Even now while I am writing this done I am starting to salivate again. Or is this due to the fact I had some of meal 3 ...

Meal 3: Lasagne (do I have to say more)

Still I am doing Italian ... thanks to that lovely tomato sauce. I was so glad I still had that much left over.
Another pan goes onto the oven and again some olive oil is heated up.
I have 500 g of minced pork that needs some browning in the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Watch as the heat does it's job. Add the tomato sauce when the meat is ready. Stir through well and heat the sauce up.
Meanwhile you have a sufficiently large tin (mine was 35 cm x 25 cm) ready. Add some - I told you so - olive oil to the bottom of the tin. then lay out a layer of lasagne sheets.
Oh, we would need some kind of bechamel for the lasagne as well, I reckon. Nah, forget about it. We are doing a cheat version. Mix 200 g of crème fraîche with salt, pepper, a large hand full of grated parmesan and an egg.
Next onto the lasagne sheets goes a half of the minced pork tomato sauce, then half of the bechamel cheat, then some lasagne sheets again, followed by the remaining meat, followed by the remaining bechamel cheat. Well, how does that look?
Obviously something is missing. Ah, here we go, I topped the whole thing with 200 g of grated mozzarella cheese and ... you know.

30 - 35 minutes in the oven, which has been heated up to 200 °C, will do. The cheese will turn brownish.
Now you would only need to slice the lasagne up and serve it. Dig in! The lasagne was as delicious as the pizza. Dangerously delicious!

You might get some further ideas and serve a rocket and tomato salad on the side. However, I was satisfied with as it was. After all, I know about all those vegetables hidden in that meal.

When some lovely ingredients smile at you, smile back and get cooking.

Now, what about you, do you have any chain reactions going on in your kitchen? While I don't want to turn this into a blog challenge necessarily, why not share your Food Chain Reaction Stories with us by linking up a post in the comments and ... see what will happen.
Since I also made good use of the leftover tomato sauce, this is a fitting post for Elizabeth's from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary No Waste Food Challenge, which ... what a coincidence ... is hosted by my own self this month.

Dangerous dieting, but soup is good for you - Winter Minestrone

I reckon, life can be quite dangerous as a food blogger ... when you are at least as crazy as I am ... at least. Otherwise, how would you call baking a Sachertorte just for your 2nd Blogiversary? As I don't throw away food, I will inevitably end up with having problems putting my trousers on. Yes, no help arrived in helping me eat that cake. 
Anyway, repeated incidents like this will turn you into being overweight. That can make life quite hard, especially when you want to go swimming at the Sea and at the same time activists of Greenpeace are nearby. For sure they will aid you in getting back into the Sea, where you obviously belong.
Now, you could also choose the way of dieting as some have the custom to do at the beginning of every year or ... no wonder ... close to the beach season. From the latter we are still far off.
In case you have found a diet that is working well for you beware that it isn't working too well. In order to help you with that I have some clues for you when to stop dieting ...

From Failure to Bread-Stick Tomato Soup

Out of a sudden bread-sticks were on my to do list. What comes to your mind, when you think about bread-sticks?
Well, it would be lovely, if they are straight and they should make this snapping sound when you break them.
I had my standard yeast dough, I use in a similar form for pizza, ready and wanted to have a go. I had added some Parmesan and dried rosemary as well to the dough. Things started out nicely ...

I even made some extra effort to give them some spiral shape. Maybe there wasn't enough effort, for you can already see, they are not going to be straight. Anyway ...

Chuck Away the Telly ... Have Some Twisted Round Pizza Bread

Right there in the most of the time dark corner sits a piece of equipment, the television set. I got it from work some months - or was it years? - ago and I almost never used it for tuning in into some television programs. Fine, once I connected a free SAT receiver to try to connect to the already installed satellite dish for the house. The receiver broke before the seek run was over. It never recovered.
Sometimes I watch a DVD using the television, but ... I don't really need it. I might as well chuck it away. I never switched it on since I live here.
Do I believe that television broadcasting is entirely evil and good for nothing?
Well ... eh ... um ... eh ... no, not really. A workmate told me how I can watch telly on the Internet ... after all a lot of channels give the opportunity to watch their program online ...
Since then I discovered some nice programs.
For instance, since we are visiting South Africa for Bloggers Around the World, I started watching Masterchef South Africa from 2012 and ... I love it.
Now I would stop talking about television programs and get to some cooking, but ... eh ... just briefly ... the following dish is inspired by Paul Hollywood's Bread, which I watched once. Maybe it was the last show that was running.

I didn't really remember the recipe, but just took up the basic idea. What did I do then?

Goat Cheese and Plum Pearl Barley Risotto

The quest for making good use of the plums I received is still going on. As you know, there are quite a lot of things you can do with them. I already did the recipes which take a great amount of plums like jam and plum butter. I even made a plum chutney.
Now, cake and jam and things like that are the logical choices for going with plums. Things you would think of right away. Therefore I try to do something else ... kind of pairing the plums with cheese, goat's cheese to be precise, in a risotto. I've heard it before you can do it also with pearl barley. Let's try it then and have a Goat Cheese and Plum Pearl Barley Risotto.

Into Darkness Basil Gorgonzola Carbonara

No, this has nothing to do with the latest Star Trek movie, although I regret it already. There might be a slight danger, that you don't like me anymore after this post. That is, of course, only if you liked me before this post.
Besides a simple pasta dish, this post is about the darkness of the human mind.

Confused? Green White Cabbage Risotto

There is something lurking in the freezer part of the fridge, a few bags of frozen white cabbage. I couldn't possibly use the whole head of cabbage in one go for coleslaw or kimchi or for whatever. I needed a cabbage break. Into the freezer it went and stayed and stayed there. What to do with it?
Then I read something about cooking the cabbage with garlic and I thought by myself, why not have a risotto, a Green White Cabbage Risotto.

Isn't that a bit confusing? I don't know really, because I am kind of confused most of the time and simply try to go on. In this case here, however, I am just referring to this "Green" and "White" thingy. Well, not really. You already see, how we get the white cabbage green. Lets go for it then ...

Ingredients:
A quarter of a head of white cabbage
4 cloves of garlic (the more the merrier)
Vegetable stock
A bunch of basil leaves
A splash of olive oil
One small onion, finely chopped
200 g  of risotto rice
A splash of dry white wine (might be a bigger splash)
A knob of butter
50 g of freshly grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper

Method:
The recipe unfolds with the leaves of cabbage cooked together with the peeled and halved cloves of garlic. Just cook them a few minutes together. Then remove the cabbage and the garlic together with a bit of the liquid and transfer it to a blender. Add the basil to the blender, too and ... blend it.
As for the remaining cooking water, you can mix it with the vegetable stock and keep it warm.
Now have the pot for the risotto ready and start softening the onions in some olive oil. Once you have achieved that, give the rice into the pot and go through it with a spoon to bring things together. Pour in some white wine and cook until most of it has been absorbed.
Then we can go on with the risotto fun part by adding one ladle of stock to the rice at a time and cooking until most of the liquid is assimilated. 
Keep going for about 18 minutes. Then toss in the knob of butter and the grated Parmesan. Cover the pot for two to three minutes. Remove the lid again, spoon the risotto through and season it with salt and pepper. Then it's time to plate up.
Enjoy your Green White Cabbage Risotto.

Maybe you do. At the beginning of the month I thought, maybe I get the chance to take part in Herbs on Saturday (Cooking with Herbs) from Lavender & Lovage this month. I just made it ...

Bloggers Around the World Round-Up: Italy

We should really start with a drink this time, an aperitivi. Maybe you like to have an Aperol Sprizz with the fruity bitter Aperol, some sparkling wine and a slice of orange on the glass.
Anyway, that's how you could do it for an Italian dinner. Whatever the case we are having an Italian meal now with our Bloggers Around the World. Thank you everyone for participating. That's what makes the fun.

Naturally then we proceed with antipasti. We could have salumi misti with parma ham, mortadella, bresaola or thinks like that. Crostini would be something else or brushetta. Well, no one  exactly entered some of those. Well, not exactly. Diane has it all, so to say a round-up of good Italian food. Then head over to Simple Living and Eating and learn something about Italian cuisine. There is something with brushetta, too ... and many more lovely food.

If you are done with antipasti ... hopefully you hadn't too much ... we can continue with primi. That could be a soup or risotto or pasta. That seems to be the favourite section of everyone.
What about fresh pasta then. Have you ever tried to do your own? Let us have a closer look then at what Caroline makes in this regard: Fresh Homemade Spaghetti with Bolognese Sauce. 

Now it's your turn, to do your homemade pasta. However, save some space for more pasta.

There is yet more pasta to come, something with mushrooms, rocket and mozzarella. You have read it here before some time ago.

That was my enthusiastic start of the June challenge. I didn't manage much more afterwards.
It's time to advance in the meal ... secondi. In fact that is the main dish. It could be fish or meat or who knows.
Elizabeth from The Law Student's Cookbook has some chicken on offer for all of us. No, I don't mean it that way. Just listen to the name of the dish: Cheesy Chicken Parmesan. She already had me at this point. Look closer to find out for yourself ... about the dish I mean.

Together with the main dish you can have contorni. However, if you are not the meat lover or better to say are vegetarian have the contorni as main dish.
Solange from Pebble Soup has a wonderful Mellanzane alla Parmigiana for that. So, if you are an aubergine lover, that's the thing for you, don't you agree?

We are nearly through with our Italian dinner. It's time for dolci. Sadly, nobody entered any. So we are having some fresh fruits instead.
This is followed by a digestivi. I'll have a grappa then.
Before we finish it all off completely, I wish to say thank you again for all your lovely entries. I hope, you continue to join us on one of our future trips. 
Have a caffe first. An espresso will do.

Did you enjoy our Italian dinner?
What is next? Where shall we go. Already the last few days I have thought about this and I came up with an idea. We are not going there.
In a fit of spontaneity, on last minute I decided to postpone that idea and go into the opposite direction instead. We never quite made it to Africa up to now. Therefore we really should do it. I already thought about letting someone guest host it, but then again, I didn't even ask that expert. So, if you have the feeling, you are an expert in a certain kind of cuisine, give me a shout and we can talk about it.

However, let us travel onward, further South then, to ...

MOROCCO

Maybe we get to see some lovel tangine dishes or I get the chance to use my Ras el Hanout. This time we are also trying something new. I have a linky tool down here, where you can enter. In the unlikely case you shouldn't manage, let me know. And ... if you don't have a blog of your own - post a fitting photo on my Facebook page. 
Besides that, keep the following things in mind.

1. Link to my blog and this challenge in your post.  
2. Use the "Bloggers Around the World" badge (the one you find at the beginning and end of this post ... you know!).  
3. You can use a new or an old post, but it has to be adjusted accordingly (you know, all the linking). 
4. You can have up to three entries, but ... if you just post on my Facebook page, you can have as many as you want.
5. Enjoy cooking, eating and posting. I already say: shukran.

You should have a little less than a month to accomplish that. I know, that will not be smooth sailing, but ... hey ... what is?

What are you waiting for? Fine, of course, you can leave a comment here, sorry!