My version

While I think some of the last couple of challenges where… well quite challenging… I think I may have picked a very easy one this time..:) So I would almost say that there is no reason not to participate this month!

For the new Donna Hay styling and photography challenge, number 7 already, I picked a recipe from the most recent Donna Hay magazine nr. 61. Photography is by William Meppem and Styling by Steve Pearce. For the past couple of months I have gone for dark and moody shots (to fit the season), rather then the signature Donna Hay style which is light and airy. I was in the mood for spring however and when I saw this gorgeous shot I could not resist.

The original by Wiliam Meppem ; the colors should be more like mine though. Blame it on the scan!

Smaller but better version of the original by William Meppem

So this is a fairly simple challenge, certainly compared to the ones we had previously but maybe it’s good to throw in an easy one for a change, to give you all some room to breath. It does not use a lot of props other then baking paper and a baking tray so in terms of prop shopping it’s easy too. I’ll show you a shot of my setup as well, so you have an idea on how I lighted the scene. Basically I had daylight coming from behind the subject and from the left with fill in with a large silver reflector from the right.

Setup for the shot

The light on this particular day was soft and cloudy so perfect really for a shadowless (more or less) photo. You could even go as far and place all the peas on the same spot but that was maybe a bit stretching it, so I left it the way I liked it. I also did have yellow tomatoes but for me that is not a huge difference so use whatever tomatoes you have.

Left mine, right the original

Now on to more pressing matters; we have a fantastic judging panel in place for the new challenge! I’m proudly presenting the following three awesome foodbloggers and awesome photographers/foodstylists.

Kay from the famous Kayotic Kitchen and a fellow Dutchie is a great photographer and has the amazing ability to do step by step shots for each and every single dish she makes. Hats of from me there!

Meeta from the equally famous What’s for Lunch Honey needs no further introduction if you come here more often. She’s not only a dear friend but also a very talented food photographer and foodstylist.

Then last but not least we have Jenn from Jenncuisine. Jenn has been participating regularly already from the first challenge and has won three times! So to avoid her winning anything else I thought I’d ask her to be on the judging panel..lol.. . She’s a great photographer and stylist as well.

So with that our judging panel is complete. The judges themselves are allowed to take part in the challenge as well, but they cannot win obviously. But it’s still fun to participate so didn’t want to take that away from anyone. Enter your links via the below Linky Tool!

Hungry yet?

You can find all the rules for the challenge on the special DHSPC page. As for the logo; I previously used the official Donna Hay logo but I was kindly notified that that is not allowed, so I changed it a bit. If you have the old logo, please use the new one from now on..

The Donna Hay team has kindly offered to share some wonderful prizes with us so the winner of the new challenge will receive a beautiful Donna Hay cookbook. it’s one of the two latest ones. I haven’t received them yet but will share that later as well.

Once the winner is decided upon  by the judges I will ask the winner for his or her homeaddress to ship the book to.

So now all that leaves me is to share the recipe with you here and it’s a delicious recipe for sure, so if all else fails you still have these delicious tarts!

As usual; dietary changes are allowed!

Artichoke and feta tarts with tomato salad

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Serves	4
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	15 minutes
Total time	25 minutes
Meal type	Appetizer, Lunch, Side Dish
From magazine	Donna Hay magazine

Ingredients

• 1 sheet store bought puff pastry (thawed)
• 250g feta (crumbled)
• 4 artichoke hearts (marinated and halved)
• 1 egg (lightly beaten)
• 100g mixed cherry tomatoes (halved)
• 120g frozen peas (thawed)
• 1/4 cup mint leaves
• olive oil (for drizzling)
• white balsamic vinegar (for drizzling)

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 C. Cut the pastry into 4 squares and score a 1 cm border around each square. Place the square on a baking tray lined with non stick baking paper and top with feta and artichoke. Brush the pastry borers with the egg and bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden

Place the tomato, peas and mint in a medium bowl, drizzle with olive oil and white balsamic and toss to combine. Top the tarts with the tomatoe salad to serve. Serves 4

Note

This is  really simple and delicious recipes that - at least it does for me - gives me a spring feeling!

Related Posts:

• Donna Hay styling and photography challenge #1
• Lemon Sour Bundt Cake – DHSPC #2
• Rumpsteak or potatoes; Donna Hay challenge nr. 8
• Sage and prosciutto corn cakes – Donna Hay Styling and photo Challenge #4
• Greek salad

Yummy and healthy dish

I can still remember the very first time I came upon Bea’s blog La Tartine Gourmande. I was awestruck to say the least. Those gorgeous airy photographs! Delicate, flowery and with a clear style. I was hooked. We’re literally talking years ago. It must have been 5 years ago, I think. I honestly don’t know. Do you know or remember that very first moment you saw a food blog and thought, wow, maybe that is something I should be doing too?

Why do people decide to start a food blog? To begin with there should be a clear interest in food, otherwise; what is the point but there are tens of thousands of people out there that have a strong love for food, but absolutely no inclination to start a food blog. Mine is not even that old. With a mere 3 years it’s a medium aged blog. A lot don’t survive past a year, a few make it to more then 5. But what is it, that makes you start a blog? Most of the people reading my blog are probably bloggers themselves and a lot of them I follow too. And I love it. I love to follow all your blogs (if only there was more time!) and I love to write in my own blog too.

Juicy tomatoes and pink quinoa

There is nothing more satisfying for me then to have a clear idea on what I want to make, shoot it and then write about it. Let’s face it; a food blog is not only about food. That would probably make it slightly boring. I made this and that and it tasted good, bad or ugly. No one is going to want to read that more then once. It’s always funny to notice that the posts I write that have nothing to do with food, are often the ones that get the most amount of comments or the most traffic. The funny stories that is. Or the ones that are deeply personal. It’s at those moments that the blogging community can be at it’s best, I think.

I think I’ve said it before but blogging has brought me so much! I’ve met so many wonderful people along the way, both in real life and through twitter and Facebook and obviously through the blog itself. People that are now part of my life and that I love dearly. How cool is that? So to everyone who thinks blogging is weird I would say; try it first (but with your heart and soul in it!) and then judge.

Coming back to Bea; I’ve had the pleasure of meeting her in person at Foodblogger Connect last year and while that was too brief and in a large group of people, I would have loved to chat a bit more with her. She seems to be the same person you ‘see’ online when you meet her. With that lovely French accent.

So naturally when I found out that she was going to make a book I just had to have it. And even though I think I had to wait for about two years to actually hold the book in my hands; it is here now. And it’s every bit as gorgeous as I had expected it to be. The photos are just gorgeous but the recipes. O the recipes are even better!

Juicy tomatoes and pink quinoa

So when I found out that Nurit from Family Friendly Food had the same book, we quickly agreed on both cooking something from the book and blogging about it. We haven’t shared which recipe we’ve cooked, so for both of us it’s a surprise..;) Nurit and I have done a similar thing a while back where we picked pancakes recipes from around the world and made blintzes, blinis and some other yummy pancakes in the process. So it’s fun virtually cooking together again!

You would want to buy this is you saw it right?

In the name of health I picked this gorgeous recipe. And guess what happens; I had beets in my veggie box this week so figured I’d roast those and then use these for the salad. So early this morning I wrapped them in aluminum foil and roasted them for a while. (1,5 hour as they were big) And guess what? Turns out they’re yellow beets! Now that was not what I wanted! This quinoa salad is so pretty because it’s pink. And yellow beetroots, ladies and gentleman, do not become pink. So I cheated a bit and bought a precooked beet at the supermarket this morning. Tsssk. I did still use the yellow one which is why the salad is not so pretty and pink as I wanted to, so I made up for it with the props used.

The salad itself is absolutely delicious with the sweetness of the tomatoes and the salty feta. Yum! The book I can only recommend as I plan to cook much more from it and I know Nurit has already done loads of recipes and was enthusiastic over most, if not all!

You can read Nurit’s post here.

La Tartine Gourmande – Recipes for an inspired life

Beetroot and quinoa salad with feta

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Serves	4-6
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	15 minutes
Total time	25 minutes
Dietary	Vegetarian
Meal type	Lunch, Salad
Misc	Pre-preparable, Serve Cold
From book	La Tartine Gourmande

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons pinenuts
• 200g quinoa (uncooked)
• 475ml water
• seasalt
• 1 cooked beet (large, peeled and diced and make sure it's red)
• 100g cherry tomatoes
• 90g feta (crumbled)
• 1/4 piece red onion (finely chopped)

vinaigrette

• sea salt
• pepper
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon cilantro (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon chives (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon mint (chopped)

Directions

Toast the pinenuts in a frying pan over medium heat for 2 minutes or until lightly colored and fragrant, remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Rinse the quinoa under cold water and drain it in a colander. Add it to a pot and cover with the water or broth and a pinch of seasalt. Cook for about 12-15 minutes until most or all of the water is absorbed. Turn of the heat and let it stand for a further 5 minutes with the lid on.

Transfer the quinoa to a bowl and fluff it up with a fork and make sure it cools down. Add the beet and toss gently. If you do not mistakingly have a yellow beet then your quinoa will turn lovely and pink. Add the tomatoes, onion and cheese.

vinaigrette

In a small bowl, combine the sea salt and pepper with the olive oil and lemon juice and whisk to combine. Stir in the herbs. Dress the salad with this vinaigrette and adjust the seasoning to your taste. Serve with the pinenuts

Note

It's funny that I only now find out that I totally forgot to add pinenuts. It was still very lovely. I left out the onion, as I don't particularly like raw onions but I used spring onions instead. I also used spring onions in place of the chives as I had those left in the fridge.

Related Posts:

• Bull’s blood salad with halloumi
• Greek salad
• Lamb’s lettuce salad with feta and tomatoes
• Quinoa, feta and walnut salad
• Orzo with feta, tomatoes and dill

Yummy sandwich

I think I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again; sometimes the best things in life are the simplest things… Now take for example this delicious bruschetta. Made with some of the leftover contents of our fridge and voila, you have a perfect lunch sandwich.

Not sure how the weather is in your part of the woods but here it is currently grey and boring… I’m glad all the snow and ice are gone as I am soooo ready for spring at the moment! We still had all the snow on Saturday, on sunday the temperatures rose quite dramatically from -10 to +5 C and the snow disappeared equally fast. Within a day virtually all was gone, except for the ice on the rivers. Some of that still remains even today but the majority is gone. And while I was fed up with the snow at least it gave the world a slightly more cheerful look. Now when I look outside it is grey and well, boring.. I have a little bit of green from the evergreen shrubs in the garden but that’s about the only green I see. Are you also ready for spring?

I have visions of warm summer nights, bbq-ing with friends in the garden. And light, lots of light! Especially in the evening. Although you can tell that the evenings are getting longer in terms of light, it is still no where seriously light… In any case, these delicious little sandwiches give you a hint of spring since tomatoes always make me think of spring (don’t ask me why, they just do..)

It’s incredibly easy to put together and while you certainly don’t really need a recipe to make a bruschetta I thought I share the ingredients of mine with you anyway. So if you want to you can make this yummy sandwich yourself too. It has tapenade on it, cheese, ham and roasted tomatoes and topped with just a few mustard-cress. I love growing those by the way. Within days you have a pot full of any cress and they really do add taste as well as looks to almost anything!

Sourdough bruschetta

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Serves	2
Prep time	5 minutes
Cook time	10 minutes
Total time	15 minutes
Meal type	Bread, Lunch
By author	Simone van den Berg

Ingredients

• 2 slices sourdough bread
• 4 slices Prosciutto
• 1-2 tablespoon Tapenade (I used a variant with olives(green and black), tomatoes )
• few slices cheese (I used a variety called charmeur cheese but you can use any cheese you like)
• 50g cherry tomatoes
• salt, pepper
• 1 tablespoon mustard cress

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Put a thick layer of the tapenade on top of the bread. You can make it yourself or buy a good version at a delicacy store. Cover the tapenade with the cheese. Put the bread in the oven. Put the tomatoes in a small baking tray, sprinkle with olive oil and pepper and salt and put them in the oven too.

Remove the bread once the cheese is melted and leave the tomatoes until the skin cracks. Line your melted cheese with a few slices of prosciutto (or other ham) and add a few of the grilled tomatoes. Sprinkle with some mustard cress and you're done!

Related Posts:

• Bruschetta with arugulapesto – DHSPC #6
• Gnocchi with garden peas
• Greek salad
• Baked penne with eggplant, tomatoes and cheese
• Lamb’s lettuce salad with feta and tomatoes

Delicious bruschetta with mushrooms and parmesan

Sometimes, just every so often, I get these crazy ideas in my head… I’m sure you’re all a bit sick and tired of hearing what a wonderful time we all had at the Plate to Page workshop that took place all the way back in May (and wow, did you see where they are heading in just a few days time?? Glorious Tuscany! Jealous!!) and I met so many wonderful people that if it was up to me I would be visiting all of them. And I will probably do so once my finances are back up to the normal level.. After having been to London and then straight into Weimar for prop shopping…. not a lot of money left in the bank I can tell you!!

Warm goatcheese with honey for dessert

But after having visited beautiful Weimar and having been “forced” to spend the days sweating and working – strictly no play – I felt I needed to pay Weimar and Meeta another visit. Weimar is not really close but it’s also not really far away and since I do love driving my junglefrog green car, I figured I might ask Meeta if she would mind me coming over for the weekend. Luckily she was immediately enthusiastic and so we set about planning the date. With all busy schedules planning a whole weekend can be a bit tricky but we finally managed to settle on the last weekend of September and what a glorious weekend it was!! The weather here in Holland had suddenly turned all warm and summery and while I thought the temperatures here were warm Germany was even warmer!

Do you see the subtle styling in the background done by Meeta?

We had a lovely weekend, with lots of chatting, a neighborhood BBQ (and I do have to apologize for my lack of German knowledge…!), we went to the market on Saturday, had a wonderful Greek dinner, went for a long bikeride and yes, we even had time to do some serious prop shopping too! Meeta had arranged for her ‘propguy’ to stay open until we had visited on the friday and ooooo, seriously… I could have spend easily hundreds of euro’s there.. *sigh* I did take back some lovely plates, cups and yes, even a 200 year old wooden board, that you have seen featured a few times already.

For lunch on Saturday we visited a small lunch cafe in Erfurt, called Mathilda and the food there was so lovely I wanted to share it with you. Maybe you’re ever in the area (and judging by the number of tourists while we were in Erfurt, you might easily..) it’s worth a visit. It’s a small but cosy place and the weather was so good that we actually sat outside in the shade (yes, in the shade.. too hot in the sun believe it or not!!)

We settled for two different bruschetta’s which we shared and a lovely green salad and then… then there was dessert. I had a delicious goatcheese baked with honey and Meeta had this chocolate cake made in heaven with vanilla sauce. I tasted a bit and wished I had that too.. We finished that all of with a delicious coffee. I forgot the name of the coffee but it waswith condensed sweetened foam at the bottom and some other goodness and it was just delicious!

I’m glad we went for a bikeride the next day so I could get rid of some of the excess calories!

Mathilda

Barfüßerstr. 1-2

99084 Erfurt

What's not to love about a good chocolate cake??

Shooting the chocolates

Related Posts:

• Strawberry feta salad
• DHSPC #6 – results and exciting news!
• Chicken curry and an Indian travel story
• Sourdough bruschetta
• Bruschetta with arugulapesto – DHSPC #6

Salad with bull's blood leaves and halloumi

As I have told you before I have a hard time resisting ingredients which I have not seen before and when they have an imaginative name like ‘Bull’s Blood’… well, there is only one course of action possible as far as I’m concerned and that is to put it in my basket! I was really shopping for pecans to bring with me to Germany as I spend a weekend there with Meeta from the blog ” What’s for Lunch Honey?” and we had a great time! (more on that possibly later) but finding those pecans was just an excuse to go to a shop at my favorite store in Amsterdam. I could really spend hours there just roaming around and the only downside is that I always (always!) come back with things I don’t really need. I do use them so rest assured that nothing will go to waste but still… it’s a struggle sometimes to have everything finished before the expiration date..lol..

Delicious dressing from I like that

The ingredients that went into this salad certainly had no risk of getting old or stale as they were all eaten outside on a gloriously sunny day the same day I bought them. Ofcourse there was my favorite cheese to use in salads which is halloumi. You can see some more halloumi related salads on my blog here, here and here. Key to this salad was another new find and that is a dressing by a company called ‘I like that“. Now to me, with a name like that it just had to be a winner. They have interesting flavor combinations and the company is originally located in South Africa. This dressing is so much more then the boring ones you can find in our regular supermarket. The flavors were intense and the smoked sundried tomatoes really shone through. I paired my bull’s blood leaves (which is essentially just a variety of beetroot leaves) with the crispy bits of fried halloumi, lovely juicy tiny tomberries and on top of that I quickly caramelized some toasted almond slivers with honey and put them on top of the salad.

Absolutely delicious and this will be a winner for me, if I could only find those beetroot leaves in my regular store! I could ofcourse grow them myself. Now there’s a thought for next year!

Salad with bull’s blood leaves, halloumi and tomberries

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Serves	1
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	5 minutes
Total time	15 minutes
Meal type	Salad

Ingredients

• 2 handfuls bull's blood salad leaves (this is a type of leave from beetroot. Usually from seed)
• 100g halloumi
• 50g tomberries (very small yellow variety of tomatoes. Use any other tomato you want!)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon rock chives (the baby chives...)
• 2 tablespoons almond slivers
• dressing of your choice (I used dressing from 'I like that' (smoked sundried tomato vinaigrette))

Directions

Cut slices from the halloumi and cut those again in cubes. I like them medium sized but you can always make them as large or as big as you want. Heat a small layer of sunflower oil in a frying pan and once the oil is hot, quickly fry the halloumi until golden brown. Be careful as it does tend to spatter. Leave to drain on paper towels

Wash the salad leaves and put them on a plate with the tomberries.

Heat a frying pan and toast the almonds quickly until golden. Add a tablespoon of honey and stir making sure all almonds are covered. keep an eye on it, as it will burn easily.

Once the halloumi is slightly cooled, distribute over the salad leaves, add the almonds and the rock chives on top. Sprinkle some of the dressing on top of the salad and enjoy!

Note

I totally loved the combination of flavors in this recipe. The crunch of the halloumi with the sweetness of the almonds works really well and the dressing from "I like that", was just brilliant here. If you're making your own dressing I would go with similar flavors but really it's pretty versatile.

Related Posts:

• Greek salad
• Strawberry feta salad
• Beetroot quinoa with feta and tomatoes
• Quinoa, feta and walnut salad
• Orzo with feta, tomatoes and dill