Bine's Base

ok, i've got 11 gmail-account-invitations to give away. one per person. just write me a personal message with your name and e-mail-address and i'll send you the invitation.
as soon as i don't have any left anymore, i will tell you in this thread here. please stop asking for an invitation then.

Gmail is the freemail of google in betatest. it is invite only still.

PRO:
1 GB free storage
goggle searchengine for mail contents
new order: instead of folders, gmail has got labels and filters
threaded conversations
attachements up to 10 MB per message, i think
great spamfilter so far
easy use makes it very efficient
i'm satisfied with it *hehe*

CONS:
terms of service are not everyone's taste
no encryption
miserable status quo of privacy laws and data protection and security in the USA (patriot act)
you get google ads in a column next to each mail, that try to match adequately with the mailcontent - all automated, like here on multiply.

Ingredients:
4-5 sunriped tomatoes
garlic or garlic paste
salt
italian herb mix or basil/organo
feta-cheese
olive oil

Directions:
cut tomatoes in half so that you see the rosette. spread a bit of garlic paste or a bit of the squeezed/chopped garlic on it. place the tomatoes tightly and with the garlic side upwards in a stove-ceramic. salt them, put the italian herb mix (frozen, dried or fresh) or a good portion of basil or oregano generously on every tomato, cut the feta-cheese into little cubes and lay it on top and drop good olive oil on every tomato. put a glas cover on the ceramic and bake it in the oven with full heat till the cheese melts a bit and becomes lightly goldbrown. you may also use the grill-function (strong upper heat) for the last minutes. it only takes some 5 minutes, usually, when the oven is pre-heated. it also works in a microwave to cook the tomatoes and make the cheese melt a bit.

the greek tomatoes are a yummy and decorative sidedish for some barbeque, rice and salad. they are also nice as a first course (antipasta), placed on a lettuce-leave and with some bread on the table.

Ingredients:
SPÄTZLE-DOUGH:
~ 40 dag coarse-grained flour
salt
~ 1/4 liter of hand-warm water
2 eggs
maybe a bit of fondor or aromat spice (not necessary)

KÄSSPÄTZLE-PAN:
butter
salt
2 middlesized onions
20 dag tasty cheese (we have various alp-cheeses; raes-chesse or ripe tilsiter would do too - just a strong tasting, rather old cheese that melts) - some people like as much cheese as flour, but that's too heavy for my taste.
1/2 glass of soup or a soupcube

DECORATION:
a bunch of chives
OR
2 large onions
flour and paprika powder
salt, pepper
oil

Directions:
//SPÄTZLE-*DOH*//
mix flour and salt and a bit of fondor/aromat in a jar, add the 2 eggs and pour in some of the water. beat the dough with a cooking spoon - the consistency of the dough should be sticky, not smooth or even liquid. it should drop from the cooking spoon in sticky elastic chunks... man, i'm really bad at describing it. anyhoooo, don't beat the dough too much, otherwise the dumplings become hard. basically just dry stuff first, wet stuff later, beat it ten times with the cooking spoon. done. let it rest. easy peasy.

there are special spätzle-sieves around here, a metal board with holes and a little wagon on it, in which you fill the dough and just slide it back and forth so that the dough drops into the boiling saltwater (big pot, lots of water). if you don't know anything like this special sieve, use a small board (on which you chop stuff usully), put a half spoon of dough on it, smear it with a knife flat on the corner of the board, and slide small pieces of the sticky dough into the boiling water. fast. hop hop hop =P have the spätzle cook in the boiling water for max 5 minutes. pour them into a regular sieve and shock it with some cold water. let water drop off.

//KÄSSPÄTZLE//
heat butter, roast finchopped onions glassy-golden, pour the spätzle into the pan, mix the stuff. spice it with salt. lower to medium heat, cover the spätzle with grated cheese or stick thin cheese-sticks into the spätzle. take half a glass of hot soup (or of hot water and disolve a soupcube in it), pour it over the spätzle. cover up the pan and let the cheese melt on top of the spätzle.

//DECORATION//
either just chop a bundle of chives and put it on top. and/or chop large onions in circles, put them in a mix of flour and paprika powder, salt and pepper - take it out, clap on it so that it's only flour-powder-mix stickin on the onions and deepfry it in sufficient high-heatable oil. take it out and let the oil drop off on a papertowel and use the onions as deco on top of the kässpätzle.

best served with green salad. i like the pan on the table and all help themselves. it's a typical large-family-in-tough-times-food i think. :)
in switzerland, this dish is sometimes served with sweet apple sauce with cinnamon. that's a pretty good sensation too, but turns it more or less in a sweet dish. fine sensation are also fresh pear-slices on the plate.

plain spätzle swilled in a bit of butter (so, without cheese and onions and stuff) are also a popular side-dish, especially for stews (?). erm, i mean small meat slices with sauce like zürcher gschnetzeltes, if that means anything to you. geeez, i really gotta work on english cooking terms, then i can be less explanatory here...

easy peasy recipe again. enough for 3-4 persons.

Ingredients:
//HERB-MEATSAUCE//
40 dag low fat minced meat (beef or half-beef-half-pork)
Olive Oil
1 large onion
1 clove of garlic
salt, pepper
1 soupcube,
basil, oregano,
marjoram, thyme

//NOODLES//
30 - 35 dag green tagliatelle noodles
water, salt
olive oil

//GORGONZOLA-BECHAMEL//
3/4 l milk
about 5 dag flour
10-15 dag Oesterkron (or some kind of Gorgonzola-cheese)
salt, pepper, aromat

Directions:
Fry the minced meat in some olive oil well, till it crumbles up like for pasta asciutta. add the finechoopped onion and clove of garlic, spice the sauce with salt, pepper, the soupcube. add the herbs, 1 big soupspoon of marjoram, flat soupspoons of the others (basil, oregano, thyme), when they are dry. best rub them between your palms, then they are better. bestest are fresh herbs, of course, but don't cook them too long. Pour in a bit of water, close pot and have it cook on low heat.

Cook the green tagliatelle noodles in saltwater with a tiny bit of olive oil al dente,

For the Gorgonzola-Bechamel, swill out a milkpot with cold water, heat up 1/2 a liter of milk till it cooks. in 1/4 l cold milk, disolve the 5 dag (about 5 soupspoons) of flour. Pour the cold flour-milk into the cooking milk when it rises in the pot, stir constantly for about a minute and then take it off the heat. Add gorgonzola (or similar cheese) cubes into to bechamel, where it melts. Spice with salt, pepper, aromat. Careful that the sauce doesn't burn into the pot - stir!

Shock the noodles shortly under cold water and put them into a low baking-bowl that you have fatted with a bit of olive oil.. Pour the herb-meat-sauce over it and finally pour the gorgonzola-bechamel over it (it will turn into a pudding-like-consistence). You can serve it like this or bake it shortly in the oven. (if you want to, you can put some cheese (or cheese mixed with breadcrumbs) on top too, but it's not necessary.

Very easy recipe. Best served with salads.
This portion will do for 3-4 persons.

Ingredients:
see below

Directions:
//SOUP//
5 large sun-riped Tomatoes --- wash them, chop them in middlesize cubes, cut out the stalk-parts;
1 large onion --- chop fine and let it turn glassy in
4 dag of real butter (or olive oil) --- Then add the tomato-cubes (and maybe
1 fine-chopped garlic) --- and let it steam. Spice it with
salt and pepper --- and
1 soup-cube --- then add
about ½ a liter of water --- and let the soup cook on rather low heat.Then puree the soup with a mixer-stick in the pot till it is creamy. Add a bit of
vinegar (balsamico) --- and
2 soupspoons tomato paste --- and add
1/8 liter of cream (you know the milkproduct with which you could also make whipped cream *erm*).


//HERBS//
you can add fresh oregano or basil at the end or have
a bit of dry pizza-herbs, dry basil or oregano cook with the soup for a bit, but it's not necessary if the tomatoes have a taste.


//DECORATION//
* 1 soupspoon if whipped cream in the center
* fresh oregano-leaves on it
* Croutons (small, into soup) or Bruschetta (breadslice, on plate): ... mix
good olive oil --- with a bit of
al rabiata spices --- put it (not too much) on
ciabatta-breadslices --- and bake it in the oven on full heat till the bread gets crunchy.

et voila, bon apetit. :)