Fettuccine for an (almost) spring day

Today it was a beautiful day. After a couple of weeks where the temperatures went to minus 20.C, today with it's wonderful 5.C felt like spring. We decided to go for a little walk and ended up being outside for more than an hour. It was sunny, it smelled like summer at the beach (the sea is actually around 20km away from here, but who cares), it was just a perfect (almost) spring day. So when we got home I felt the urge to make a lunch to "pair" with this day.

Pasta is perfect for every situation. So I took the recipe of a Carbonara and just made it lighter.

400g of fresh fettuccine

1 small onion finely diced
2 cloves of garlic smashed

300ml of cream (I mixed heavy cream and crème fresh)

grated ginger, black pepper, salt, mustard (1 or 2 tea spoons)

70g of grated parmesan cheese

1/5 a lemon's juice

1 egg

a handful of chopped fresh basil and lemon balm leaves

Cook the pasta, rinse it with cold water and reserve. 

In a sauce pan with bit of olive oil cook the onion until transparent. Add the garlic.

Add the cream and the seasoning and let it simmer for 5 min. Add the lemon juice.

Add the parmesan and rectify the seasoning if needed cook for 2 min. 

Add the egg and stir very gently until its completely incorporated. 

Take out of the heat (or fire if you are lucky...I'm not) and add the herbs. 

Add the sauce to the pasta and finish with some more fresh leaves. I served it with a home made kind of red pepper sweet and sour sauce. I would have liked to add some pine nuts but "someone" said he didn´t like pine nuts.

all photos by me

Eames Chairs

via Vitra

via Stylepark

These two chairs from the 50's, designed by Charles & Ray Eames ,  are my latest "I must have for my home" obsession. The DSW (dining height side chair wood) and RAR (rocking armchair rod base) are being produced in several different colours but it's the white ones I've been dreaming of. They fit perfectly in my Scandinavian (in process of furnishing) home and you can never go wrong with white.

Saturday's Pancakes

This month we started a delicious new tradition here at home. Saturday is "pancake day". The designated cook is actually the man of the house, but I'm the one that elevates eating a pancake to a form of art. For today´s pancakes we went to the supermarket and got fresh strawberries (it´s no quite their season but I don´t care), heavy cream and maple syrup. It was the first time I tried maple syrup and I´m impressed. The thing tastes like trees! or flowers! ... in any case I´m a fan now. And with a leaf of lemon balm it´s really refreshing.

250g flour

4 eggs

1 tea spoon of sugar

1/5 tea spoon of salt

3 dl milk

Throw everything into a bowl and mix. Rests in the fridge for 30 min. 

all photos by me

Finding Inspiration and Courage

Photo styling by Irina Graewe

Photo styling by Irina Graewe

Photo styling by Irina Graewe

 

Photo styling by Irina Graewe

The absolutely gorgeous photographs above are from the interior stylist Irina Graewe. I've posted my favorites here cause I'm trying to gather enough inspiration and courage to venture myself in the completely new and unknown, to me, realm of photo styling.

I don't have a big amount of amazing "props" and background sets, but I´ll be doing some experimenting soon...

Red Mailboxes

A woman is sitting on a bench at the city square. She   has a cigarette in one hand, an her cell phone in the other. She´s sending a text message. The mail boxes are red, with shame. 

photo by me