Dear Morgensternchen: Dutch Salad

Dear Morgensternchen.

Phuuuh the weekend is over and all gradually returns to normal.
We had fantastic weather for a change and even managed to have a BBQ. I think the whole street did and at some point the road was black with smoke.

The reason I made a Dutch Salad and I call it this because the first time I had a version of it was in lovely Zwolle, NL. Well now where was I, oh yes, the reason that I made this lovely salad is that I got accused by my seven year old and I quote:” Mama, your food is a little uninspirational!”, looking down on his bowl of pasta with a homemade tomato sauce. I had make the mistake of instead of freshly sliced morzarella, I’d put some bought, grated cheese over it!!!
That happens when you train of your children in the art of good food. As a peace offering and there is nothing better to create an explosion on those trained pallets I made Dutch Salad.

You’ll need:

250g boiled pasta (Farfalle or any short length pasta will do)
2 TBL spoons pesto salt to taste
Mix together and let cool down.

250g of strawberries quartered, but not sweetened with anything.

150g mixed salad, a rocket mix goes very well combined with maybe lambs lettuce
For the salad dressing:
mix 4 TBL spoons extra virgin olive oil
1 TBL spoon Balsamico ( to taste, depends on what kind of Balsamico you use)
1 tea spoon of honey
1 tea spoon of mustard  Dress the salad.

Roast in a dry pan 50g of pine kernels. Let them cool down.

Crumble up 100g of French goats cheese (Chevre Blanc).

Now for the assembly, you’ll need a deep serving dish.
In the bottom you put the pasta. Top it with the fresh salad. Scatter the strawberries, the cheese and the pin kernels to finish it all off.
 Enjoy.
Sorry this is a post and run. It’s Monday and there is a long list of things-to-do for me :)
Yours The one M

Dear Morgensternchen: A totally female perspective on which camera to choose, after a few people have made the mistake of asking me for my opinion and which camera I have and why!

First I have to make two statements:
 a) I am result orientated! Let me give you a practical example what that means. I own one handbag. In that I have spare batteries, a tape measurer, emergency tools, emergency nail varnish, wipes, money, plaster, lynx deodorant, I have teenagers, magic medicine, as in Haribos, safety pins is standard equipment for mums, so I won’t go any further down that route, short,the lot. To repack that every time would take much too much effort. It is much easier to colour coordinate my wardrobe to make that one handbag fit all. Result! It’s exactly the same with my camera. I’m not a gadget person. I’d like to have one camera that does it all. Basta.
b) I’m a woman. I do not get terrible excited about technical details, so that kind of woman I am! A car needs to have 4wheels and be preferably in an easy recognisable colour, my stereo needs to be capable of playing music and I’d like to make phone calls with my mobile. And that’s where the problem starts. Recently in a camera shop, because I need a new camera, after years it’s time to part, so in that camera shop that lovely man, very proud of his job, started to suggest cameras to me. He really tried hard, but it just doesn’t work with me. After third D-suchandsuch is better because soandso I had a shutdown. A complete shutdown.

I shoot with a Nikon D60. I bought it 3 years ago to get me back into photography. Years and years ago or in the olden days, as my charming children like refer to, I used to do the lot ant uni when we were still on film. I did develop my own films and prints. Somehow life got in the way and I never made the transition to digital. When Morgensternchen got me into blogging I needed however pictures. I bought the Nikon D60, because I’m a Nikon person and because the D60 was on sale.
The D60 is what I call a sunshine camera. She does what she is supposed to do in good weather or generally in good conditions. If all you want is to take a snapshot here or a snapshot there she is all right. Question though is why would you want a DSLR in the first place if for that? If that’s all you want why not go for a Panasonic DMC range!? I personally don’t own one, but what I see on flickr are fantastic results (reminder ... point a) I made earlier, results). Leaves the D90 as a minimum starter camera. However I would personally recommend the Nikon D7000. It is a little more expensive, but and this is a big but, you get so much more out of it. In photography you get what you pay for. To name a few the D7000 is weather sealed, very handy at the rugby pitch, great image quality and the higher ISO is good for indoors.

To cut this long story short I pre ordered the D800. I had my eye originally on the D700, however after long collaboration and because the D800 has a movie function and less noise at higher ISO, something very important when you can’t use flashlights or any other lights I decided to go big. I’m doing a lot of sports, rugby and judo mainly, portraits and abstract landscapes and street and younameitIdoit photography. So I need a clever all-rounder. I don’t think it is a starter camera though and I’m convinced it is far to advanced for me, but I’m a quick learner, determined and competitive. I feel at the moment I pushed old Donna (that’s what my D60 is called) too much in too many directions, you name it, she had to endure it. She needs a break from me.
 I shall report back my findings of the D800. Haven’t got a name yet. That will be the most difficult bit.
In the meantime one thing I can recommend is the lens. If it fits on your camera get it: the AF-S Nikkor 70-300mm 4.5-5.6 VR. The stabiliser is amazing. There is a more light sensitive version, but also a lot more expensive. I’m almost so far to say I’m not only a one handbag woman, but also a one lens woman  One way or the other if I had to choose three things to take on a lonely island with me: this lens would probably the first thing I’d pack!

Have a lovely weekend, my friend!
Yours
The one M

Dear Morgensternchen: Surpriiiiiiiise!

Dear Morgensternchen,

juhu, yes it's me. I can see you are rubbing your little eyes in disbelieve....

Now calm down, get yourself a nice cup of coffee, seek a sunny spot somewhere in the garden, thanks to wifi and read on.

Or is Malkreis?

Remember you asked me what I was going to cook for lunch. Well just recently back from Italy we fancied some pasta.
This is the easiest recipe you'll ever encounter: wild garlic pesto pasta!

You'll need for four people:
500g spagetti
15 leaves of wild garlic (Baerlauch in German)
2 tips of fresh thyme ( and this is the secret ingredient, which makes all the difference)
2 tbl spoons of a good mild olive oil
1 tbl spoon of soya cream ( another secret ingredient, or alternatively cream)
200g of grated mild cheddar or what ever cheese you fancy, maybe an older gouda
salt to season

And now for the magic. Boil your pasta as per instruction.
In the meantime chop the wild garlic leaves into fine strips. Try to chop the thyme as fine as possible. Add both to a bowl with the oil, the soya cream and some salt and mix thoroughly.
Drain the pasta and mix in the wet garlic pesto.
Serve with cheese on top.
Easy, fantastic, tasty! Food in under 15 minutes!
Enjoy.

Yours
The one M