Pasta Salad with Mussels and cherry tomatoes

I must admit, that this year was not spent much cooking outdoors. I’m getting really comfortable with just hitting for the restaurants and getting others to cook for me. Now that isn’t such a bad idea either?With the seasonal weather changing to be colder, darker, wet-ter and just nothing enjoyable to stay outside and freeze your buns out, I’d opt for eating out. Moreover we’ve been hitting for destinations where food’s real cheap, too cheap to think of even cooking by yourself, so that was it… But I promise you, next year is going to THE outdoor year spent cooking cooking cooking and äähmmm, climbing too… nevertheless I still have some recipes up my sleeves for you to try out.

This was amazingly delicious! It’s a perfect recipe for a noodle salad thats tasty and refreshing. It surprised my hubby that it turned out really “lecker” and i surprised myself that it tasted so good. Happy ending afterall…thank goodness

Climbing Arco, north of Italy

Mentioning the name “Arco” makes every climber´s heart beat a little faster. It’s the place where climbing dreams are made of, a place to get great pizzas and pasta or gelatis, to go equipment shopping and sizzle your skin brown over the weekend. Olive trees and wine yards decorate the sarca valley. Arco with a great infrastructure by today poses a great getaway for everyone big & small, beginners or muscled packed. There´s no corner where you could turn to and not find some mountaineering store to spend your money on. Not only is the region made for climbers,it’s a haven for mountain bikers and windsurfers. With it´s mild Mediterranean climate 360 days long,no wonder it boomed over the last 20 years with sport tourists coming from all over the world, looking for sun, sport, pizza and great fun over the weekend…. read more

Artichoke appetizers

Nizza’s great. It’s almost like a city back home, with every climbing spot just a milestone away, nowhere longer than an hour. Depending on where you stay, it could also be just right infront of your doorstep. It must’ve been the 5th time in a row we were in Nizza, and we’re still never getting tired of all those tufas, overhangs, and great climbing spots this place has to offer. And with each visit, again we discover new sites, awesome climbing, in an awesome ambient.

Places like La Turbie, St. Jeannet, Gorbio, Cayenne, Pupuce, Escragnolls and so many more to choose from. It offers climbing of all sorts for everyone.

If you have some rest days and are looking for high sugar level for your body, I suggest a visit to “Florian’s Consfiserie” where you could find one of the best candied orange dipped in chocolate, or rose petal jam, and delicious candied lavendel, rose, linden tree…. and don’t forget your credit card

For those of you less interested in spending a fortune on goodies that spoil your teeth, you may want to pay Grasse a visit. Grasse is the famous perfume city. In each every corner, you would find fragrance to anything, with everything.  There’s the Fragonard museum with guided tours and explanation in all languages to the production of a certain perfume. Very interesting indeed! A good getaway, if you decide to miss out on your showers.

Lets get to the stomach hunger quenching part of the story. I found this combination really great. Especially if you’re not looking very much into a hearty meaty meal. It’s actually almost italian, since you find the italiens adding artichokes more into their meals than anyone else. Nevertheless, it tasted great while we were in france. Here it goes…

Salsiccia pasta

If you are anywhere near italy or france, you`ll definately find fresh saussages in the supermarkets or at the butcher stall. They could be filled with herbs, or traditionally made according to the country you are in. Choose any to your choice, just make sure that it`s not one of those which is dried (air dried) , but raw.

Pasta with vongole (venus) mussels

If you’re all tired from the usual pasta with just red plain sauce, try this treat for a change. If you’re anywhere in the southern part of europe, you’ll usually find a stand with fresh fish in most of the bigger supermarkets. So buy those seafood according to your hearts desire and make it a fine yummy dish to treat yourself with!

Chicken sweetsour

Have you ever had one of these days when nothing seem to turn out right for you? Sun ray is something holy for me. Funny. It’s been weeks and months since we’ve been blessed with rain, bad weather and no chance for climbing outside. You feel how the cobwebs are growing on your arms making them heavy, your butt’s all sore from surfing the weekend thru in the internet (looking for sun – yeah!) And suddenly when the sun comes out for a couple of hours, you hurry down your cellar, grab your rucksack and equipment and drive 2 hours to a favourite climbing spot…. only to find out that the crag with over 140 routes were all soaking wet?

Beef Bourguignon with marons

It was quiet, terribly quiet and the day was just awesome. I sat outside enjoying every single ray the sun had to offer on a cold autumn afternoon. As a slight breeze came across my face, I watched the golden leaves falling to the grounds…the previous nights were frosty cold and winter was coming in big steps . And I thought, we’re going to have a strong winter this year, one thats white, fluffy and cold….not like the winter’s we’ve been having in the past. I could be wrong, but who knows whats happening to mother earth. Nothing’s predictable. I watched how the marons fall from the trees, and remembered how these marons destroyed my car years back…and everybody thought it must’ve been a big hail storm. Damned! It was a new car, and I was shocked when I saw what happened. And just as those angry memories were about to disappear, I had just the perfect idea for dinner that evening. I was going to get my revenge on those little marons!

Green asparagus with tuna Couscous

You know, it’s actually not the season for aspargus as it’s summer right now. But there are still times when you can find asparagus in the supermarket…and this wee world does have differant climates on it’s differant parts. So I thought yeah, why not add this right now into the blog. It doesn’t have to be spring time.

We were in France at this time of the year when you could find asparugus abundently. Infact I found some wild asparagus,

Spanish garlic bread

I remembered sitting in Todi’s rifugio near Montgrony waiting for dinner to be served. Todi was the mountain guide of the area, he offered guided tours to the nearby mountain regions, climbing courses, he offered beds and also it was possible to camp at his site. A few guys from New Zealand took the rooms upstairs, busy writing sms on their mobile phones hoping that the rain would stop soon. They had a nice kitchen to use for themselves, a dining table in the community room, electricity and showers. The rifugio had a rustic atmosphere,  it was built out of stone,
the fireplace was lighted,
warm and cosy, wind protected….

Drunken King Prawns

“It was a hot autumn in the 9-ties when we decided to bulldoze our way to southern Spain. Our flight landed in Malaga. We checked out of the airport, got in to our rental car and were looking very much forward to exploring this part of the world. It was my first time in spain, the culture, food was something really new for me. Andalusia was blessed with warm temperatures, hidden secret spots that only the locals would know of, awesome crags with fantastic 35m routes and everyone was just so friendly! We headed off for Granada after staying a few days climbing in Anteqeura and El Chorro,

 

 

Avocadopaste

Seid Ihr in mediteranen Ländern beim Klettern unterwegs so habt Ihr eine bessere Chance an reife speziell dunkle Avocados ranzukommen. Ebenso gibt es da meistens auch Baguette in besserer Qualität als bei uns in Deutschland. Diese beiden harmonieren hervorragend an warmen Tagen zu kühlem (im Fluss, Bach, oder Leitungswasser, Schnee???) gehaltvollen Weisswein.

Knoblauchnudeln

hier ein einfaches und für den schnellen hunger schmackhaftes nudelrezept das bei der richtigen menge knoblauch vielleicht auch deine projektierte route am nächsten tag freihält.

Reiberdatschi, raiberdachi, rub a ducky?

No matter how you say it, it’s a delicious something to make. Originally, this dish is supposedly a german or austrian food. My dad told me once that it comes from switzerland, better known as Rösti.  You could make it in many differant variants, with speck, with compott, eat it as a side dish, or as your breakfast, eat it sweet, salty of solid. The americans would call this hash browns… I remember only seeing them in McDonalds, but never tried…no way..

We were in south tirol one cold sunny autumn morning when we were just finishing our breakfast with the usual bowl of cerials,

Chicken curry

I was amazed yesterday to see what some climbers have in their rucksack…you think it’s usually full of equipment, rope, carabines, etc… A normal backpack with those weigh at least 12 kgs, depending of how you minimise. Well, when a fellow freind of ours turned up at the African Wall, and unpacked his bag, it was full of things to eat! Let me list out what I saw: 3 litres of water, 1 500g milk, 1 500g espresso tin can, 2 packs biscuits, 1 salami, 1 huge bag of bread, his camping gaz cooker, a small pot, espresso maschine…and so on. The Bag was still half full after taking those things out. Who knows what else he brought. He probably changed his mind of having his breakfast at home and decided to eat out His climbing partner probably took the rest of the real equipment along to the crag. And no, he wasn’t planning on sleeping out either…

Being on the go, you find yourself with just basic spices in your cooking utensils. The luxury is at home, far off in your home sweet kitchen, but when you’re travelling around, and a lot….you miss home cooking. Eating out in a restaurant all the time is too expensive, and sometimes you don’t get what you want just b’coz you don’t speak their language. It gets frustrating…but there are ways to help yourself out. After days of pasta, I start craving for my asian food. Europe’s not blessed with any hawker stalls like those in asia. You realise that you’re very much on your own…and to eat what you crave for – you’ll have to make them by yourself!

Curry is easy to make and easy to get the basic ingredients too. If you do some shopping at home already in any asian shop, you’ll be able to get a good authentic curry powder to bring along for your trips. The less you’ll need to buy at the supermarket.

Spaghetti with radicchio

Serves 2 

It’s more common to eat Radicchio as a salad, instead of cooking it. The red colour of the italien vegetable hints it’s bitterness – it’s a relative to chicory.  I found this to be a pleasent combination of bitter and sweet. It makes you want more

Lamb provincial

I discovered this recipe while in travelling in the provence. You would find thym and rosmary abunduntly in the wilderness, so it was always a nice thing to know that you get fresh herbs for your menu that day. No need to buy them at the supermarket. It is of course essential to know how the herbs look like and not getting the wrong plant. …