Baking bread

Not very long time ago, I used to be extremely jealous of my girl friends posting pictures with their successful bread and exchanging their successful experiences in the field of doughs. How could I confess them, without being considered the black sheep of the cooking world, that I am simply afraid to think about me baking bread and I would rather prefer to starve than to get involved in the magics of producing out of flour, yeast and other ingredients a crunchy bread. 

But one winter day - maybe I have to be thankful to the bad German weather for all my progresses - I studied several recipes of bread, made a list of the most-haves and back home, started the experiment. This poppy bread is one of my best, but almost none of my experiences in the field by now were a failure. Thus, I will keep going and going.

For the poppy seeds bread, you need the following ingredients:

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

5 cups of white flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups of vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon butter

3 eggs

3 tablespoons poppy seeds

Mix all the ingredients - but only 2 tablespoons poppy seeds - and put the dough in a warm place. Wait for 30-40 minutes. Preheat the oven at 170 C. Bake the dough - use the 1 tablespoon of poppy left as glaze - for another 45 minutes. 

Enjoy it! It is simply delicious!

Emergency pasta

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 It was one of the days when I was overwhelmed by work - writing, of course - and under the terrible pressure to solve in a very quick time the pressing question of feeding the impatient kid. The kid being in a terrible hurry herself, with only two hours between the school program and her sport class. 

I had a short look around and it was a kind of disaster, one day of the usual weekly refuel shopping. 

Then I saw the big salvation:

- four fat bananas 

- five delicate carrots 

- some curry powder 

- the rests of some butter - 150 gr. 

and...ladies and gentlemen, the queen of my kitchen - a pack full of commoner fussili                            

Without saying a single word for not disturbing the laments of the kid complaining as usual about the difficult fate to be about 12 yo and with a mother always busy writing various untranslatable things, I put the water in the pot for boiling the fussili and the carrots, peeled the bananas and cut into medium-size pieces, prepared the butter. In maximum 30 minutes - the good amount of time to finish polishing some words -, the pots were boiling. Took out discretely the carrots, cut them into medium-size pieces, added the bananas and the butter, plus some 100 mgr. of olive oil, spread the curry, mixed all together and...when the pressure from the children room was increasing, shouted loudly: do you expect a special invitation, sweet squirrel? If I remember correctly, somebody was hurrying up...                                         Without giving me any credit, she entered reluctantly the kitchen and asked: What is this? Your lunch, baby, of course. Set the table quietly (the duty of those who don't make the food) and in the next 15 minutes, it was so quiet in the house...Simply delicious, I was congratulated when nothing was left in the pan. Everybody was happy, but I was the happiest, for passing, once again, the difficult test of motherhood.