Catalan fish dish

Finally we made it!! Guillem was always so proud of this special dish and we decided to make it on Saturday. Alex arrived on Fri evening. Saturdays started with doing groceries for dinner. We started cooking around 15.00. Guillem came home with 2 kg of mussels, 2 kg of different fish. Monica brought I think 2 kg of shrimps and even more fish. MY GOD! The whole kitchen was like a fish market ;)
We had to support the chef so some white wines got opened, incl. Hungarian dry Tokaj which was sooooo good. Handan got the job to fry the fish. I got a task to clean a squid (oh yeah I forgot - there was also this big squid). It was a tough job to clean it but I made it!!! :) Below turning the squid inside out - like a sock ;-)



Kazuhiro joined as well (with mums chocolate from Spain). Dennis and Aga missed the whole cooking session but they joined for dinner.

We had to make some breaks during cooking (especially when onion with tomatoes sauce steamed for ca 2 hrs!!!). During breaks we ate mussels in tomatoe sauce which Monica made, I ate half of the squid, we had some good bread. Everything yummi!!!



Fish:


Crowd in the little kitchen:


Seafood after frying:


Handan in action:


When the main dishes were done, Handan made Monica's cake. Soooo good. Together with dark chocolate it was great.
We had also a good speed of wine drinking. I can count 9 empty bottles of wine and one half opened. Hmmm... that explains headache of some of us on Sunday ;-)

Mums cake!


Dinner was great; from time to time filled with some Bregovic or gypsy music ;-)

Sunday was nice and sunny and we went to celebrate our Swedish friends' daughter birthday. A different kind of party with many kids around ;-)
So it was a nice Valentine's day.
My apartment still smells some fish. I hope I cleaned everything and there are no leftovers anywhere...

Budapest (2)

Time passes by fast...when you check out the blog ;-) So I need to make update about 2 weekends. In the beginning of Feb I was again in Budapest. I was hoping for a better weather than last time but nope sorry - even more snow. But it wasn't so cold this time. On Saturday we went to a big park close to People's square (I think this is the right name...). There is a castle in the park and also some kind of "fair" - many stands with people selling everything! And there were many people over there. Despite the crappy weather.













On Saturday evening we were invited to Alex's colleague's place for dinner. It's a pair actually from Hamburg who work now in Budapest. We had a nice dinner with some good white wine.
Sunday was lazy but we went for a walk to the castle again. But this time saw more of the whole area.
I'm actually looking forward to seeing this city in spring. I guess I'm "done" with winter ;-)

Winter winter.... #4??

The most common topic of conversations nowadays: WINTER.
This year I think winter will finish in April. Anybody taking bets?
And I'm sooooo tired of it! Don't get me wrong - I love snow but in the mountains. While skiing. Not in a big city, snowing, melting, snowing, freezing, ice skating on sidewalks and streets, breaking legs, bike, sliding car, "blask" etc etc.
Anyway, on Sunday Handan, Hamid and I were brave and walked to Alster (in half melting, half freezing conditions). The weather was bad but it was good to get some fresh air.
Alster - man-made lake - pride of all Hamburgers - was totally frozen so there were thousands people walking around.





After the walk, we had fika somewhere nearby and then had to walk back... I was exhausted when I got home in the evening ;-)

Anyway, the coming week - again trip to Budapest. Hope landing and leaving will go smoother than last time. Meaning - no fog or snow storms. Pleeeeeaaaase!!!

Weekend in Budapest

I went to visit Alex in Budapest this weekend. Since he is going to be there for a while I better get used to some travels to the land of "Bratanki" (Polish expression - somehow Poles and Hungarians are supposed to be buddies).
Anyway, the first impression of the city - airport's location sucks! ;-) It is placed in a valley which apparently often has a bad weather. So was the case on Fri evening - we couldn't land due to a heavy fog (we were cruising above the city for 1,5hr - around 10-111PM!!!). There was already a risk that we would have to land in another city which I just didn't want to hear about!!
Anyway we got to Alex' place around 1AM...Oh well. The house he lives in is nice in a very quiet and cosy area.
Saturday - we did some sightseeing in the city, had fika, returned Alex' rental car etc.
Actually I didn't have any tight agenda when it comes to MUST see. Since there is going to be more times over there...
I like the bridges in that city! Actually it is a nice city, with old and great architecture. The Parliament building is very nice, especially with the lights in the evening.












In the evening we met with Alex' colleague and had dinner together in a local restaurant. Nice. Except maybe the fact that all restaurants and public places smell a bit like eternal "frying action". Really!

Sunday, after sleeping in, we went for brunch. And since it was in a huge mall, we decided to go to the movie theater to see anything which wasn't dubbed ;-) And we saw a great movie called The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Really nice!!

That's how the weekend passed. I was leaving really early this morning and we had "only" 1hr delay. Due to only one de-icing machine at the airport.
We will see how the next trips will be.

Christmas and New Year

Happy New Year to all of you!!! All the best!
2 weeks passed too fast!!! But it was a great holidays. First Xmas in Poland. We left HH with -11C, arrived to Gdynia and it was -14 and a lot of snow!!!


Then it melted when we went over to my grandmom's place... Xmas was nice. We saw Megi's little boy Maks. So cute! A lot of good food (too much!) and fun.
We left back to HH on the 27th Dec. Arrived home, had some burritos for dinner (no food at home) and on the 28th we left to Txell and Thomas to Barcelona.
What a change! After winter in the North we had pretty much +20C and sun everyday. Sooooo great!!!
We met with Monica on the 2nd day and had dinner in Mataro.


Txell was working until the 30th so we went with Thomas to BCN. There were many tourists all over but it wasn't sooo crowded.
We walked along La Ramblas, had some tapas, went to the beach and enjoyed the surroundings.










On the 31st the weather was still beautiful. But we spent most of the time in the kitchen cause we had to prepare some food for the party at night. Thomas and Alex made also some soup so we had nice dinner on the 1st Jan. I prepared two pies.
We left around 9pm to Txell's friends' place in BCN. The party was with her friends from the University. We had a lot of fun, dancing, talking, eating great food, eating grapes (Spanish tradition for the last seconds before midnight), etc. We were supposed to go to some disco around 02am but at the end we stayed until 04 at the party and then left to Mataro.
Here are the two handsome guys at the party ;-)



We got up at 13.30 on the 1st Jan. Well, we went to bed at 05 so it is not so bad...
After "breakfast" we took a walk to the beach in Mataro. Soooooo beautiful!!!
The weather was great and the air was fresh. The beach looks so nice.











Then in the evening we ate the soup that Thomas and Alex made, and later on we watched a movie. The day was short but very nice.

We got up early on our last day, packed and left to Barcelona. First Parc Guell and then lunch close to the harbor in BCN. Lunch was a menu with paella as a main dish. We ate so much that we were still full at 10 pm when we landed in HH.



Now the first day of work this year is waiting. Hope this year will be great, full of challenges and great moments. Wish the same to all of you!

Merry Christmas! God Jul! Wesolych Swiat!

So it is time again...
This year has passed by (almost) really fast! Or is it so I say every year???
Anyway, the first snow has come to HH today!! It actually looks much nicer and feels cozier with the snow. Lighter and more winter-ish. I just hope that Alex will land with no delays tomorrow and that we can fly without problems on Monday.
Looking forward to those holidays.

Wish you a really great and peaceful Xmas, spend in a nice atmosphere. And a great start into New Year!!! Hopefully it will be one full of adventures and challenges.

Lussekatter

The 2nd Sunday in Advent and I still haven't found my Xmas candle holder... It has disappeared!! Or rather I think Alex brought it once down to the cellar but I cannot find it!!! Oh well... next week hopefully.
Since I was in GBG last weekend I wanted desparately to bake lussebullar - saffran buns which are absolutely yummi!!! So yesterday, Handan and I did it! Normally I find baking any bread, cakes etc which have to have yeast in, a huge challenge. Cause the dough never really grew. But this time I succeeded!!! Whoohoo! They are great! One thing is though that they didn't become as yellow as they should. I probably should have listed to Handan and somehow crushed or put saffran into warm water first. But they taste great! I'm so so happy!


Before baking we went a bit around shops in Eppendorf. It was raining and windy - such crappy weather!!

Only 2 weeks of work and I have holidays! Hope it will go fast. Although - a new year, one year older K. Oh well.. ;-)