Mama&Son quality time, a bag full of love, testing new kitchen...

Today´s post is coming with some delays, as I am going to write about last weekend experience. Me and Pablo had that weekend for ourselves, as my husband was on his "yearly guys trip" meeting up with his guys, this time in Berlin.

My son is an early riser (I guess he has it from me), hence we both were awake at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, which could not be better as I was thinking to go to the local market and check for some nice things we could have over the weekend. We took a little snack to us, made ourselves ready and went out. The streets were still empty, there were some people sitting in the cafes sipping on their first cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. Pablo was so happy to have the street all for himself, he could just slide down the street on his red bobby car without paying much attention their might be somebody on his way. He smiled, saluted and waved to the people sitting in the cafes and really enjoyed the attention he would get. It was the first time I took him with me to the market and seeing how much he was loving it, it would be definitely not the last time.
I on the other side enjoyed the fresh air, still a bit chilly and so clear, as I knew on the way back home it might be already getting hotter. You have to know that summer reached us already and for the last couple of weeks the temperature was climbing higher and higher, it gets quite hot during the day and early mornings became my favorite time of the day.

Our local market is very small, we have literally two local farmers who sell fresh vegetable and fruits, one girl selling cheese and yogurt, another one selling olive oil and than there is a guy selling bread and pastry. That´s it...but still you will find everything you need for sure. I always manage to get my bags full, well actually more than full as I am always find something on top, what was not on my shopping list. This time it was cherries and fresh peas. I love fresh peas and do actually eat them raw...I do not need to cook them, I just eat them like they are...sweet, crunchy, nutty in taste and so perfectly round and green. Pulling one pea after another, reminds me so much on my childhood. The best snack ever...not only delicious but also quite healthy. And the cherries...who does not like cherries?!? For me, cherries are a sign of a summer...if you can buy cherries already, the summer must be here.

Pablo enjoyed our shopping tour too...he would chat (in his own language) with the farmers, smiling at them while giving them money and waiting for the exchange, which he would always put back in my pocket (lets see how long this habit will last)... touching and checking the vegetable, as I was doing it, giving us the impression he knows exactly what he is doing. On the way home we did some small stops here and there enjoying the sun, the fresh air and the nice things we just bought. My son is definitely a son of his mother, we could not even move a meter away from the farmer´s stand and he already was checking the bag for a little snack. I was the same as kid, especially when it came to bread...in one point my mom stopped sending me to buy any bread, as she knew I will come home only with half of it, as I would start snacking on it on the way home already. Bread crust was my favorite part, hence something we would have crust less bread for dinner...

Pablo and I spend a lovely Saturday, with some delicious meals, which I did prepare from the rest of the things we bought at the market. Sunday was on the way, another day to look forward too. You remember that Sunday my friend and I have planed to have a shared baking-cooking event in his new brand kitchen.

If kitchen would be your favorite room in the house and you would like to spend every single free minute there, enjoying all the nice kitchen aids and tools, preparing something delicious for your family and friends....you can probably imagine how I felt, that Sunday.
Of course I wanted to have a new kitchen straight away too, preferably with a big house attached to it. I guess you can imagine what my husband is going through right now...I cannot stop speaking about new kitchen, new kitchen tools, new house etc. for days already! 

Just being in the new renovated flat was super exciting and so inspirational, not to mention the kitchen of my dreams. Somehow we just got lost in our talk about how and where and how much, that half of what we were planned to prepare was simple forgotten, which means (to MY delight) another baking event need to take place in that kitchen again...

For the house warming we brought some things representing different country habits I know:

• Bread and salt, something typical you would bring with you in Russia for a new house: bread stands for food which shall always be available in this house and salt shall spice up and rich it. Since I was born in Tajikistan I got to know this tradition too. 
• In Germany you would bring something green with you, typically a plant for the new flat or the house. I brought fresh herbs instead, as they would go so perfect with the rest of the present
• My friend is from France, so I brought him a box of Kusmi Tea, mainly because I wanted to bring bit of France to the  whole package too and because I do love it a lot (my current favorite is "green tea with strawberry")
• Small bottle of fine olive oil,  as we all live in Spain now and olive oil is Spain to me
• And because it is me and I do love sweets things, I made some "honey butter" which shall bring warmth and sweetness to the house and would go perfect with the homemade banana bread

Along with some other delights we have had, my friend did prepare some scrambled eggs for us. He spend some days in Berlin couple of weeks before. One day he went to a lovely place for a breakfast, a place his friend recommended to him. He told me that there he would have the best scrambled eggs ever, so he wanted to prepare them for us. There is a small twist to it, which makes the whole dish indeed very delicious. He did not exaggerate, the scrambled eggs were a dream and will for sure be a fixed part on my future brunch parties.

Scrambled eggs a la Greg (Gousfood)

• eggs
• milk
• spring onions
• feta cheese
• tomatoes
• olive oil, salt and pepper

Crack the eggs in a bowl, add a bit of milk and whisk briefly. Wash the tomatoes and spring onions. Cut tomatoes and feta in small cubes, hack the spring onions. Put some olive oil into the pan, add tomatoes, spring onions, the eggs and feta cheese. Stir and cook till ready. Serve them with some dark bread and fried bacon...

Banana bread

• 100 g brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 - 2 tablespoons honey
• 100 g butter softened
• 50 g almond flour
• 150 g flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• juice of half a lemon
• 2-3 ripe bananas

Preheat your oven to 180 C. Grease and line your loaf tin with baking paper. In a big bowl whisk together eggs, sugar and honey, till foamy and light in the color. Add butter, mix till all combined. Mash the bananas with lemon juice and fold it into the egg-butter mixture. Sift flour and baking powder. Add almond flour, sifted flour and baking powder and salt, combine all the ingredients together. Pour the batter into the loaf tin and bake for 50-60 minutes till golden brown (make the stick test).

Time past so quickly, we spend many hours talking, eating, having fun and searching for Denver...Denver is a cat, who could not really get all the excitement around him. Pablo was so amazed by him he would not leave from his side for a minute and then this chatty noisy women (me) with all her ahhhs and ohhhs around the kitchen. Finally he decided just to hide from us and have a nap under the bed, which made Pablo makes us to check regularly if he is awake already or not, by regular I mean every 10 minutes.... Denver was sleeping for more than 2 hours!

Enjoy!