Love Like Salt
Do you know the Fairy Tale about the king and his three daughters? He asked them to express how much they loved him. The first compared her love with the joy of ruling a kingdom, the second told him, he was as precious to her as her jewels. The third one, the only one who loved him deeply, answered: “Father, I love you more than salt.” He didn´t understand her comparison at all and banished her from his kingdom. But in the end he tasted a meal cooked without any salt and found it inedible. Everything tasted blunt. He forgave his daughter and they lived happily ever after.
I understand the princess, I love salt, most of all the flaky Maddon Sea Salt, which smiles at me everytime I open my cupboard. In my opinion there is no dish which couldn´t be enhanced by a good pinch. Unfortunately my detox diet doesn´t allow ANY salt. The hunger is not that bad, I have surprisingly few cravings, but I so deeply miss the salt.
14-Days Detox
Over the last few weeks I endulged myself with eating marvellously. That´s always a pleasure, but I overdid it. Usually I balance a lot of eating with a lot of running. But because of the bitterly freezing temperatures and the snow-covered tracks I curled up on the sofa with a lot of comfort food instead.
Slowly but surely I´m feeling the effects of too much fat, sugar, white flour and not working out: I have been struggling with a persistent cold for three weeks; when I tried to put on my favorite jeans they seemed to have shrinked considerably. My energy level is completely messed up, I´m tired all the time.
Yesterday I googled “14 days detox diet”. I was looking for a diet which primarily helps rebuilding my strength and cleansing the body system. Loosing some weight would be very nice, too. After rummaging through a lot of pages I found Jugalbandi´s thread about Dr. Joel Fuhrman´s 6-Week Plan, the strictest version of the Eat to Live vegan diet plan. Bee followed a 14-days detox diet herself recently and I liked her program at first glance. Just like her, I will avoid gluten entirely.
Elisenlebkuchen – The Queen of Gingerbread
I cannot stand the cold, dark and wet German winters. Sure, the long evenings can be homey, especially with some comfort food, candles and hot drinks, but after some weeks I inevitably start yearning for the sun.
The last years we celebrated Christmas at far flung – and warm – places like South Africa or Kenia. This year we decided to stay at home. I like it. Only sometimes, especially after gray days full of nonstop drizzle, I feel this yearning again, but I have learned that cooking and baking helps a lot, especially all the Christmas dishes we did not have the last years.
Hence, I was particularly happy the other day when I discovered the original recipe of Grandma´s Elisenlebkuchen in my mother´s cookbook collection. It´s been years since we last had them, and I was so eager to have them again. Unfortunately, my first attempt was quite a disaster. But I didn´t give up and this time I got it right.
Light and Shadow in my kitchen.
I do not always feel like a kitchen goddess. Not even very often, actually. Like the other day, when I made Elisenlebkuchen, the queen of gingerbread.
During a visit at my mother´s I rummaged through her cookbooks and discovered the original recipe for Elisenlebkuchen inherited from my grandma. Immediately, the memory of my childhood Christmas flashed through my mind, and I could almost smell the spicy little cakes again.
I wrote the gingerbread recipe down and as soon as I got home I had to try it, too impatient to wait until the next day and buy the proper ingredients. Out came this epic gingerbread failure:
They do not even resemble remotely the smooth, succulent, almost creamy cookies they should have become.
By hindsight, I could identify my mistakes: The recipe askes for “finely” ground almonds. I had only whole ones in my cupboard and grounded them in my food processor. Not nearly fine enough, obviously. The second mistake: I overbaked them thoroughly. They should only dry out in the oven more than actually bake. The taste was fine, though, but that was a small comfort.
Luckily there is light in my kitchen, too. Sometimes even bright light. Like yesterday, when I cooked Osso Buco. Originally, I intended to make an oxtail stew. The butcher had no oxtails in stock, but beautiful knuckel of veal instead and I decided to switch to Osso Buco.
