I love food. Blame my french roots over my german heritage ;o)
I love eating food, I love looking at food, I love shopping for food, and I ADORE cooking.
I find cooking to be therapeutic.
During the last stint of writing my thesis - something that feels like a distant blur, and too fresh a scar, memory - I got myself into a sort of time warp of sorts. I don't think this is anything unusual. But it is a rather surreal and truly strange experience. I mostly worked from home, rising around 9am. I'd have breakfast, do some work and then embark on a cooking meditative at-home retreat. For all the little sleep (I'd rarely go to bed before 4am) I had I craved healthy everything else. I needed exercise, to breathe fresh air, and more than anything to eat healthy food. I think I never spent as much money on food as during those last 3 months. And I don't regret it for a second.
I guess in some ways that time has elevated cooking to something even more special for me. Therapeutic yes. But also as though it was a gift to myself in moments when I truly struggled to be kind to myself.
All this is a bit of a long winded way to share with you one of my favourite recipes! I modified it from one of my favourite cooking blogs 101 cookbooks, which I discovered through my dear and loveliest of friend Krista - who has made her dream come true and put up her own blog, pods and pans (wicked name don't ya think?!).
So here goes the recipe:
1&1/4 cup plain cottage cheese
1 cup feta cheese (crumbled) – you can also use Parmesan
1/4 cup flour
1 cup almonds (grind these in a food processor until they achieve a flour-like consistency)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes (in oil), finely chopped
1/4 cup black olives
1/4 cup basil, finely chopped
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
4 eggs, lightly beaten
Pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Line a muffin pan with medium-sized paper baking cups (~10-12 it depends on the size of muffins you want). Alternatively use one of those flexible silicon muffin trays.
Put the cottage cheese into a bowl, add the eggs and mix well. Add all the other ingredients in the order above and season with pepper; mix well.
Spoon the mixture into the muffin cups, a spot before the edge. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until set, risen, and golden brown. You can serve them hot (my favourite) or at room temperature.
