Quark!

I never thought I'd be able to make German cheesecake here in Ireland, because the main ingredient -quark- was never available here. But this has changed:
Nunca había hecho esta tarta alemana en Irlanda, ya que no se podía comprar quark -un queso blanco fresco- aquí. Pero esto ha cambiado:
 

This being rip-off Ireland and the quark imported from Bavaria, a 250g tub is almost 3 euro (if I remember correctly, in Germany you can get 500g for less than a euro), so making a cheesecake that requires a kilo of the stuff is a luxury. Since I had only bought one tub -before I searched for a recipe-, I made a small cake.
What's great about this recipe is that it doesn't involve any pudding/custard powder stuff, like so many of the newer cheesecake recipes.
 Ya que todo es muy caro aquí y el quark importado desde Bavaria, cuesta casi tres euros para 250g (en Alemania es menos de un euro para 500g), así que hacer la tarta (con un kilo de quark) es un lujo. Sólo había comprado una tarrina, así que hice una tarta pequeña.

Quark cake (slightly adapted from here -I used less sugar):
-250g flour
-1/2 tsp baking powder
-1 egg
-120g butter
-70g sugar
-pinch of salt
Combine the above ingredients in a bowl and mix by hand, kneading into a smooth dough. Roll out and spread in a round baking tin, pulling up the edges for the crust.

For the filling:
-1kg quark
-90g flour
-170g sugar (more if you like it sweeter -the original says 250g)
-4 large eggs
 -1/8 l milk
120g melted butter

Separate the eggs. Mix the quark, flour, sugar, yolks, milk and butter. Whisk the egg whites until peaks form and fold into the mixture. Pour onto the cake base in the baking tin.
Bake at 160 degrees Celsius for about an hour.

 I used a loaf tin, as I made a tiny cake

If I make it again, I will use spelt flour (wholegrain for the base) and maybe honey instead of sugar. For this one, I used brown sugar. I have only tried a tiny bit (waiting for my friend); it's yummy.

Para los españoles, disculpad que no he traducido la receta -si la queréis, avisadme!

Making things

I am taking it easy at the moment (recovering from the flu), which translates as watching episode after episode of Mad Men, drinking gallons of tea and knitting fluffy things:
Estoy recuperando después de estar enferma, viendo Mad Men, bebiendo té y tejiendo:
 

 

And sewing (something to cover the dryer I never use):

 Y cosiendo (algo para cubrir la secadora que nunca uso):

 And listening to PJ Harvey's new CD; it's brilliant (read The Guardian review here):
Y escuchando el nuevo disco de PJ Harvey:

Three weeks later....

The busiest time of year (aka arts festival) is over and things are back to normal....almost. Our show went okish  well, and we made it onto Irish television (YES! My poodle dress had a 2-sec appearance on TG4!

 My love for this dress knows no bounds; I would happily wear it every day

) and university radio.
Las semanas más ocupadas del año (el festival de las artes) han pasado y estoy volviendo a mi vida normal. Nuestro show salió bastante bien, y emitieron un poco en la televisión irlandesa -qué bien que llevé mi vestido de caniches!


I really got into illustrating. Unfortunately, when that happened -after agonising over it for months-, it was just days before the show... I spent several blissful evenings drawing while listening to TED talks.
Al final disfruté mucho de hacer las ilustraciones -lástima que eso ocurrió sólo unos días antes del show... Pasé unas tardes dibujando mientras escuchaba conferencias de TED.

Rab (the writer and storyteller I worked with) put his poems on a blog, and I added my illustrations: click here. It's a work-in-progress. I also got four of the pictures framed for a group exhibition -I love the deep frames.
Rab (el escritor y contador de cuentos con quien estoy trabajando) pusó sus poemas en un blog, y yo añadí mis ilustraciones: haz clic aquí.Es un trabajo en progreso. También enmarqué cuatro de los dibujos -me encantan los marcos hondos. 

Now I am trying to get into healthy habits again (the last few weeks featured A LOT of chocolate, muesli for dinner, and no running at all) and start the next project.
Ahora estoy tratando de volver a comer bien y hacer footing (las últimas semanas había mucho chocolate, muesli para la cena y ningún deporte) y empezar un proyecto nuevo.