The base slab as part of a long wall. After ordering the CD’s from Rado I started building with the slab in November 2009 and had the first firings in March 2010. Because this is part of a larger south-facing garden project we decided to build it into one of the walls. It’s been a stimulating and at times challenging project although now we’ve had the first pizzas it has been worth it. Now I’m onto the new learning curve not just of how the oven behaves but also (more…)

Podravka vegetable relish. My Grandma in Bratislava always used to have it for me. This is the vegetable relish spread in the glass jar. I used to love it as a child and I still love it.

Those days that spread brand product was called Saba but I don’t remember its producer, i’ll try to find out. At home we used to call it pikant. I remember the nick name pikant was used by every one. The irresistibly rich flavour spoke for its self. Lots of people knew pikant and so did all kids that I knew. This mix gives good rich flavour also to various sauce dishes. I was always sweet chilly and pepper fan, (more…)

For 4 serves you only need 2 medium size papaya or 1 larger one, 250g of yogurt (I use natural or vanilla yogurt), 2 big table spoons of honey and 1 table spoon of lemon juice. How to do this, cut the papaya into smaller cubes and place into the bigger bowl, in separate bowl mix together yogurt, honey and lemon juice (for this I use hand mixer as it makes the yogurt mix smoother and distributes the honey evenly). Pour the yogurt mixture onto the papaya and mix, decorate with mint leaves if you wish. Enjoy! (more…)

Walnuts dipped in honey are so yummy.

Last night I made a second jar but this time I added in few pieces of orange skin with walnuts. This is a very simple task, all that is required is to pack well some small glass jar full with walnuts and then to pour honey in. The honey leaked in between the walnuts very slowly (air bubbles take their time to travel towards the top through thick honey) so it’s better doing so in stages instead of standing there and wait. At the end close the lid tight and that’s it.

The one on the picture I made in my mother’s place while I was in Europe last time. She always keeps at home this almost black color honey European bees collect in their local pine forests. That forest honey tastes so great and is also very aromatic. The guy who keeps the bees does not heat up his honey nor process it in any way. (more…)

Duck grease instead of lard fat.

Fat or grease and gelatin can be produced, collected and stored from roasting organic ducks and other poultry like turkey, goose or chicken. What do you do if you don’t eat pork(?), and as on purpose right the recipe you found calls for lard. Or you might want to eat a better fat stuff (in those rare occasions really.) Can you satisfy yourself? Like with the pecan pie recipe. Well, you can make your own lard and such that tastes much better.

If I can do it, you can do it easy. (more…)

my Pecan pie. Ever since I learned, that my friend Mark baked pecan pie I wanted to try to bake one myself. I found one recipe in a magazine from our local library and then gradually I tried to make it perfect. For some weeks I baked this pie when we had friends coming over, every time adjusting the recipe a bit. So here is another TNT (Tried N Tested) pecan tart recipe. If I can do it, you can do it easy.

Pecans are very healthy for our heart actually! I almost wrote “for our hearth” which would be true too. (more…)

Listen and watch video … Eight more days to go before the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is fully turned on and scientists start with the new experiment/s. If it doesn’t do anything useful it will become the most expensive technological art on earth costing USD$6.5 billion (~8 billion AUD$s). Nuclear Physicist Walter Wagner talks about his concerns and suggests to delay starting of the huge Hadron Collider at Cern, Switzerland. Earth could well be in danger if anything goes wrong with the LHC and that it shouldn’t be started without further study. Mayan end calendar is also mentioned by people phoning in. You need to hear/watch this. Sometimes the science goes too far and this thing might be the big case this time. (more…)

We’ve been filling our worm farm with vegetable scraps and cardboard paper daily for over 5 years. Natural powerful fertilizer in dark liquid form the worms produce will bring back into beautiful growth also not well looked after herbs. In my view and from my experience, having even a small size worm farm at home is another great step in creating own eco friendly home and another move in helping the environment all of us share, in several practical aspects. (more…)

Wollemi Pine, scientific name Wollemia nobilis belongs to family Araucariaceaeis is Australian native prehistoric Jurassic tree plant 200 million plus years old. This tree outlived dinosaurs and now we know it is one of the rarest and oldest plans found on the Earth. Wollemi Pine was able to adapt to Australian diverse climate weather temperatures ranging from -12°C to 45 °Celsius which is +10.4°F to 113 °Fahrenheit.

Wollemi Pine characteristics

Characteristic for Wollemi Pine is its interesting bubbly looking bark, multi stemming growth and mainly the unusual fern plant like shape green foliage. Till discovery of living Wollemi Pines’ humans (more…)

At home I am used to steaming vegetables by using another veggies being cooked. As you can imagine this method is very practical, doing both at the same time saves time and energy.

In this example; first potatoes and sweet potatoes cut into pieces with 1/4 teaspoon of whole caraway seeds are put to cook on the stove. While the water is getting hot green beans are cleaned and placed into steamer. When it starts to boil lid from the pot is removed and the steamer section is placed on top. Two steaming parts, each for different vegetables, can go on and be removed separately so no veggie gets over cooked (at least if you don’t forget about them like I do.) After a short while (more…)