Hello everyone!

I’ve been struggling to sit down and send out this last menu. I’ve had it ready since last Tuesday but it seems I just couldn’t bring myself to type. I think it has something to do with it being the last Food Letter of the year which would cause me to reflect back on the year. Which has been a good one – and maybe I’m a bit sad that it’s drawing to a close. The new year is there – looming on the horizon. I can’t deny I’m a bit scared of what next year will bring. Will my little one-woman business continue to grow? And if so, how? Will I ever become better at time keeping? Will I ever manage to make a Genoise Sponge? Will I dare to make a Drei-Husaren-Torte and an Esterházy-Torte and a Nusstorte? I now see that many of my worries revolve around cake…I will explore that further on my own time.

For now, let’s just welcome the last menu of 2021 – Vol.42! Can you believe it? There have been 42 menus this year! The overachiever in me is wondering what on earth I was doing during those 10 missing weeks but the realist in me is saying – Jess, you made double the number of menus you’ve ever done, so anxiety Jess should just sit down and shush now. In any case, isn’t it serendipitous that the last menu is Vol.42 – the answer to life, the universe and everything? Any Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fans in the audience? It’s a quick little one to end of the year. Filled with food I too want to eat. I hope you want to eat this food too.

Here she is! Vol.42!

I’m going to confidently say all of you are familiar with these meals. Especially the lasagna and the schnitzel. So to re-cap the other two:

Conchiglione stuffed with spinach and ricotta – these forst appeared on Vol.37 and they were so good that they are making a snap appearance once more before the end of the year. Conchiglioni are large pasta shells. The pasta shells are cooked and then filled with a creamy mixture of spinach, ricotta, chives, parmesan and fior di latte (stretched cow’s milk cheese that melts like a dream). I decided to go with spinach and ricotta as I just really like the look of the green against the red tomato ragu that the shells are then nestled in. The shells are topped with a little more ragu and some mozzarella and parmesan. Bake at home covered with tin foil and finish off without the tin foil to melt the cheese and turn it golden. Oh yeah! I know this is going to become a favourite.

The other one you might nont be super familiar with is the Toasted Orzo with spinach and yoghurt and chopped salad I made it for myself for dinner not too long ago and it’s absolutely delicious. So back onto the menu it goes. Here’s the description: Orzo is a type of pasta that looks like biggish grains of rice. For this recipe it’s toasted in olive oil then mixed back in with fried onion and wilted spinach before the whole lot is boiled until the pasta is cooked. In goes the fresh coriander and a dollop of dill yoghurt spiked with fresh chilli and lemon juice. The salad I’ve also sourced from Falastin. Tomato, red pepper, cucumber, spring onion, fresh chilli, garlic and parsley and mint. Everything chopped finely and mixed together with some olive oil and lemon juice.

And for dessert this week, I’m piggybacking on my Weihnachtsbäckerei – it’s the packet of 10 assorted biscuits. This offering includes the following biscuits: Vanillekipferl, Kokusbusserl, Butterkranzel, Mohnbusserl and Anistaler – 2 of each to be exact. If you haven’t yet ordered your Christmas biscuits you can do so via the link below ⇩

Christmas Biscuits await!

And so come to the end of 2021’s last Food Letter. Thank you so much for ordering this year. I hope I’ve fed you, shown you some new flavours, made you laugh, given you a reason to savour a mouthful of food and made you want to keep ordering. Here’s me signing off!