Apples:lemons - 1:0

January Daring Bakers challange was all about lemon meringue pie.. I hate meringues and lemons in sweet dishes so my hope was lost since first moment of getting the recipe.


















But I did dare and as easy to imagine my lack of faith was heavy in consequences. Innocent as above might seem, it turned out to be inedible. Soaken gummy crust, lemon cream melting, chewing gum-like meringue...
At least I learned a lesson about cooking against your taste ;)


















To cheer the climate up a bit I made an apple pie using my mum's invincible recipe. Maybe it was my innate love for apples, maybe just family wisdom but when our little cousin, speaking only Czech, visited us for a piece of "Szarlotka" he managed to muster all his school skills and afirmed: This cake is best!
And that made up for all my lemon bitterness.

on snowy Austria roof

Santa made me surprise this year. And it wasn’t about getting stuck in the chimney.

He hijacked me to Austrian Alps for some snow fun or rather lots of snow and lots of fun. And as much as the soul screams happy after sliding downhill stomach needs a bit more than frozen water to have a pleasant afternoon. Fortunately, those mountaineers either have the same picky stomachs or just simple sense for business and in a hutte perched 2000 m above sea level you can find really amazing food.

This season no 1 was undoubtedly huge yeast knedel with plum jam inside bathed in sweet vanilla sauce. On special order of a couple of true addicts poppy seeds were sprinkled lavishly atop the fluffy ball of sweet pleasure.
Now if you close your eyes and imagine chilly fresh alpine air in your mouth being suddenly replaced with a bite of warm delicate dough, sticky with intensively flavoured custard and mesmerizing with non-terrestrial poppy aroma you almost are surfing the sky.

For those who treat such temptations as a cherry atop the cake called real meal for iron muscled free-riders there are other attraction in autrich typiche cuisine. Take this sliced potato knedel enriched with bacon pieces and served with a decent steak of pork meat and heart warming sauerkraut. It is not for sure that you will be able to jump a lot afterwards but certainly you will have one more reason to enjoy chilly beer.

PS. wonderful pictures were taken by J.Photographer