Summer style potato with basil and tomato

Basically this is a copy of  the basil potatoes that my mum used to make when we were little. I asked her for the recipe many times but I always forget it, so now I came up with my own. My brain seriously stopped today while writing my essay so I needed something to get it to function again. However, it's a fact that with new potatoes, fresh basil and ripe tomatoes, you cannot really fail... :)

Ingredients:

• 6 new potatoes
• 2 ripe tomatoes
• half a red onion
• 10-12 leaves of fresh basil
• a hanful of fresh thyme
• 3 tablespoons of sour cream
• salt, fresh ground pepper
• a tiny bit of oil

Wash the potatoes but you can leave the skin on, if it's nice. Wash the tomatoes as well, and peel the onion.  What we need is to have equal sied potato slices, which is also true for the onin and the tomaotes. So slice everything up and then you can start puting together the dish. Pour a bit of olive oil into a heatproof dish and lay the firs layer of potatoes. Sprinkle salt and pepper on them. Lay a couple of slices of tomatoes on the top of the potatoes and some onion as well. Season it with the basil and the thyme. Continue with the layers until you run out of potatoes. The top layer has to be potatoes because the final step is spreading some sour cream on top. Put the whole thing in the oven for about an hour at 180 degrees, preferably covered with aluminium foil, which you can remove in the last 10 minutes so that the top can roast a bit. 

Avocado salad with chicken fillet

 I had to come up with a quick recipe with avocados because it's been day 4 since I bought some quite unripe avocados in the store, and they started to ripe very nicely. It is a fact that guacamole is my all time favourite when it comes to avocados but I wanted to create something out of it that can be eaten without tortillas or toast. This is why I decided to make a salad, and I was also in the mood for meat, hence the chicken.

Ingredients

• 2 avocados
• one packet of mini mozzarella balls
• 1 clove of garlic
• lemon juice
• thyme
• salt, pepper

Slice the chicken breast fillets, add some salt and pepper and start frying it. Chop the clove of garlic and add it when the chicken is almost done, fry them together until done. Meanwhile dice the avocados, add the mozzarella balls, the lemon juice, the thyme and some salt and pepper. At last add the chicken and mix the whole salad carefully. You might want to let it rest for a couple of hours but its absolutely delicious right away too :)

Pumpkin roasted with chorizo and thyme

 

This recipe is one of my favourite pumpkin dishes. It combines sweet, sour and spicy flavours. The typical throw everything together into the oven kind of food. You can change the amount of the ingredients according to taste. The pumpkin can be replaced with normal or sweet potatoes.

Ingredients:

• pumpkin
• onions
• sausage
• tomatoes
• garlic
• thyme
• salt, pepper

Add the diced pumpkin, the sliced sausage, the chopped onions and tomatoes along with the garlic into a bundle made of tin foil. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on it, add the thyme and some olive oil and mix the whole thing. Close the bundle and steam it for half an hour at 200 degrees Celsius.

A very easy fresh cheese spread

As per my friend's request, here comes the recipe for this fresh cheese cream.

Ingredients:

• fresh cheese or cottage cheese
• garlic
• basil
• rosemary
• thyme
• salt, pepper
• sour cream

Mix the sour cream with the fresh cheese. The amount of sour cream depends on how creamy you want it to be. All of the basil, rosemary and thyme has to be chopped fine, and the garlic needs to be smashed. Add everything to the mixture plus the salt and the pepper. Give it a thorough mix, and taste it.

Veggie soup with thyme and marjoram

The original recipe says chicken stock instead of the stock-cube but thats what we didnt have at home now, so I stuck with the good old cubes.
 Its the perfect lunch for Sister, and other job-seekers before an interview.

Ingredients:

• 3 carrots
• 1 onion
• 2 sticks of celery
• 3 potatoes
• bit of olive oil
• marjoram
•  fresh thyme
• salt, pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 dl of sour cream
• about 1 and a half litre of water
• 2 stock-cubes

Chop the onion, not too fine and put them onto a bit of olive oil, start softening them, after adding salt to it. Meanwhile peel the carrots and slice them. Slice the sticks of celery too. Add them to the onion and stir them well. Braise them for a while and then add the thyme leaves , the bay leaf and the marjoram, and then add the water, bring it to a boil and then add the two cubes (this is whats on the box, I actually dissolved the cubes in the water and added it then, and it worked). During that peel the potatoes, and slice them into equal pieces, and when the carrots are 80% soft, add the potatoes. It softens in about 10 minutes. When its ready, get it off the heat so that it doesnt boil, and add the sour cream. Then put it back to the heat and bring it to a boil again. You can edd extra salt to taste and freshy ground pepper also fits it well.

Champignon salad with lots of thyme

Ingredients (depending on the amount of salad we are making)

• champignons
• thyme
• garlic
• oolive oil
• sour cream
• salt, pepper

Wash the champignons, and cut the brown parts down if necessary. Cut them in not too smal pieces, four in the case of smaller ones and correlate the others to them. In a bit of olive oil fry the champignons, and add salt too, but just until it becomes soft but nbot too soft. When its done, add the thyme and part of the garlic. Let it cool, whilst add the salt and the rest of the garlic to the sour cream and mix it. When its cold, add the sour cream to the champignons, and let it rest in the fridge for some time.

Mustard and rosemary drumsticks

Ingredients for 4:

• 8 drumsticks
• 2 onions
• garlic
• salt, pepper
• mustard
• rosmary
• thyme
• garlic and onion pasta

Smash the garlic and put it under the skin on the chicken. Salt both sides. Try to push the rosmary into the meat by the bone. Sprinkle the thyme leaves onto the chicken. Put some garlic and onion pasta, and some mustard on it. You can add some round peppers, and the 2 onions chopped into bigger pieces, and maybe tomatoes. It needs at least one hour at 200 deg, covered with aluminium foil. When its all soft, remove the foil and let it get a nice reddish colour. If you put all of the pastas on the chicken the day before, it will taste much better.