Snow! It really did snow! I didn´t believe my father and his five weather apps at first but when I woke up this morning, everything was covered in white. I almost froze to death on my way home on my bike yesterday, everyday it is getting darker and colder, the Christmas lights are almost up and the first cookies are about to go in the oven. Meanwhile, I´m over here, giving you a recipe for a sunny fall picnic. You might ask weather everything is alright with me but don´t worry, I´m fine, just a tad late on my blogger plans. (And by tad I mean, waaaay to late.)

I had this picnic idea in my head for a while now but somehow I didn´t have the time to implement it. There was a short trip to London and way too much time spend on the footnotes of my master thesis and through it all, I was kept quite busy with sometimes not-so-fun-things. But I finally turned the thesis in which means it might get a little quieter and more comfy from now on. (Let´s just ignore the fact that I need to start this whole job-hunting-thing now.)

I thought about whether I should even post these pictures, since fall is definitely coming to its end and all signs are showing towards Christmas. But last week, after the first frost, the light was absolutely beautiful and I jumped around the forest, taking pictures of everything in my sight. So I decided to post them nonetheless, even if it is snowing like crazy right now. Maybe they can function as a homemade vitamin-D supply. Or you could just make the recipes and enjoy them in the comfort of your home.

Notes to the recipe:

• You could add some feta cheese to the patties if you like.
• Plums can be found frozen at some stores. If you can´t get a hold of them, apples or pears work just as well.

For the patties:

120 g white quinoa

200 g Hokkaido pumpkin

1 egg

1 onion

1 garlic clove

700 ml vegetable stock

6 – 8 tbsp. rolled oats

Salt/pepper

Fresh parsley

1) Chop onion and garlic. Grate the pumpkin. Heat olive oil in a medium sized pot, add onions, garlic and pumpkin and let simmer for a while. Add quinoa. Add vegetable stock, reduce heat to medium and let cook until the quinoa is done. If the quinoa hasn’t absorbed all of the stock, just drain the rest.

2) Let quinoa cool a little before adding the egg, rolled oats, salt and pepper and parsley. Mix well. Using your hand, form small patties. Heat oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Add the patties and fry for about 2-3 minutes on each side.

For the salad:

2 – 3 handful lamb´s lettuce

½ avocado

¼ pear

Walnuts

Goat cheese

Cranberries

For the dressing:

2 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. lemon juice or mirabelle vinegar

Salt/pepper

Dried herbs

1) Wash the salad. Cut avocado and pear into slices. In a mason jar, assemble salad, avocado, pear, goat cheese, walnuts and cranberries.

2) For a picnic mix the dressing in a separate jar. Then, just add the dressing to the salad once you found the perfect picnic spot.

For the plum cakes:

100 g butter

185 g all-purpose flour

75 g sugar

¼ tbsp. baking powder

1 pinch of salt

1 egg

Fresh or frozen plums

1 – 2 tbsp. sugar and cinnamon

1) When using fresh plums, wash and cut into halves. Melt butter. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add butter and eggs and knead until you have small crumbs.

2) Butter 3 – 4 small tins (approximately the size of a muffin tin.) Roll out half of the dough and place into the tins. Add the plums, dust with cinnamon and sugar and add the remaining streusel on top of the cakes. Bake in the preheated oven at 175° C for about 20 – 25 minutes.