How to take care of yourself

by making a chicken broth. Not using a spoonful of instant broth with a bit of water, mind you! I am talking about the real deal. A healthy boost from scratch.

I believe a lot in the body being clever enough to show when it's time to put up your feet and take a break. I know it is easy to feel threatened by the slightly itching throat in the morning. You can't afford having a cold now. You've got this important meeting/interview/project/thing coming up. And you need to function.

All the grannies of generations can't be wrong if they started to stir some veggies and chicken in a pot to get you back on track. That's how I see it, too. I understand an itching throat and the imminent cold as the most natural and actually adorable way of my body telling me it's time to lean back a little, dial it down a notch.

And the best thing to do now, besides lounging around on the sofa for a bit, is to support your defence system with some homemade goodness.

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This is a very basic recipe of a selfmade chicken broth.
It takes a little effort. And yes, it takes about 2 to 3 hours.
But good things come to those that wait.

What you need:
- soup greens (2 onions, 3 to 4 carrots, celery, leek)

- some chicken drumsticks, unseasoned of course (I used about 600g)
- peppercorns, allspice, salt (try to use sea salt if you can), 1 or 2 bay leaves
- noodles for soup (I personally like to use letter-noodles - but that's really just for the joy of finding words on my plate)
- butter and oil
- peas (you can use tinned or frozen ones)
- patience

Wash and dry your chicken, peel the leek, onions and 2 carrots (keep one for later), take off the ugly parts of the celery. If rather long, cut leek and carrots in half. But keep the onions as a whole.

Melt some butter and oil in a large pot on a medium high heat, add the chicken drum sticks and keep stirring for about a minute, so the butter won't turn brown.

Now add the greens, peppercorns, allspice, salt and bay leaves.

Cover everything with hot water and leave simmering on low heat.

After the first ten minutes you'll already notice some foam appearing on the surface. Gently skim this off, it will turn your broth a little bitter if you leave it.

Stir every now and then and keep removing the foam for the next hour/hour and a half (the longer it simmers, the more intense your broth will taste later).

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Now it's time to remove all ingredients from your broth.

Pod the chicken and keep all those parts you'd like to see in your soup. I am rather picky and tend to remove a lot of the fat and gristly parts.

Add your chicken meat, some peas and another carrot, cut in small pieces. Depending on your taste, you can always pimp your soup with any other greens, like zucchini for example. Or some more leek as well.

Add your noodles, stir and boil for another moment and finally enjoy with some bread.

Oh, and let me know how you got on should you try this recipe. I'd love to know the little extras you add to your chicken broth.

Avocado spaghetti

Nom nom nom... this is absolutely delicious and perfect if you're a little lazy and need something quick and yummy. And you can keep the avocado seed to grow something as pretty as this.

What you'll need:

spaghetti

about 50ml cream

1 avocado

1 tomato

1 clove of garlic

1 tbsp of lemon juice (or more, if you like)

salt (preferably sea salt)

white pepper

cayenne pepper

Boil a generous amount of water and cook your spaghettis until they're 'al dente'.

In the meantime, chop your garlic, cut the tomato in little cubes and scoop the inside of the avocado into a bowl. Add the lemon juice and stir in the garlic and tomatoes. 

Warm up this mix together with the cream in a pan. Be careful not to boil it!

Season to your liking with salt and pepper and add your spaghettis.

You can sprinkle some parsley on top for more color.

Enjoy and munch away!

Thoughts on a perfect breakfast

No breakfast is complete without a dish of eggs.

I didn't always think that way, and toast, bread, butter, jam and a certain chocolate spread have always been sufficient and satisfying for a long time. Not anymore though. Now the first thing that pops in my head as soon as the stomach complains is "What's it gonna be? Scrambled, fried, or omelette?" (Yes, I admit, I have not tried "poached" yet, but I hear that's quite difficult, and I doubt I could be up for these challenges early in the morning with a grumbling stomach). 

Someone told me our taste changes every 7 years. So this is the year for me! I have never liked onions much, and even garlic took a long time to grow on me. Now I find myself in the kitchen, willingly chopping shallots, consequently breaking out in tears, and fixing up a roux (is this the proper term?) as a base for pretty much any sauce I fancy lately.

Just the same with my breakfast. I wrinkled my nose at fans of a proper english breakfast, even when I lived in London for a while ("How can you eat warm food in the morning?"). Now I really can't think of a better start into the day.

What you see above is a spanish tortilla without the potato.. which makes it more into a well intended (and therefor rather thick) omelette. I chop tomatoes, peppers and mushrooms (you can also add zucchini etc.), whisk three eggs in a bowl, add the vegetables, salt and pepper and fry it all in a buttered small pan with garlic. The garlic is really essential, you'll love it! Try frying the omelette with a lid on it. And turning it is a lot easier with a flat plate pulled over the pan. Sprinkle some parmesan on top for extra indulgence.

Hope you're enjoying your breakfast this morning!