Interests shifted, and while my love to food is still here, my cooking these days is an array of quick improvisations that mostly are not worth publishing, with a few exceptions. Today's recipe is one of these exceptions - just couldn't help sharing. As common as it is among chefs,  this yogurt souffle was a result of a failure.

This time it was used to sweeten sour cream for a quick creamy topping.  We often use sour cream whipped with sugar in desserts, and sour cream is always in my fridge. Substituting honey for sugar seemed like a good idea, especially if it was an unusual honey like the one I had.

The research shows that basic drachona is made of eggs, flour and milk, it is oven-baked. But there are also numerous variations when it is made with wheat or millet, potatoes and even cheese. When I found the recipe online and decided to cook, I forgot to separate eggs and my drachona, though deliciously puffy right out of the oven, quickly and disappointingly decreased in volume on our plates.

In today's recipe tiny Frikadellen are prepared in a different way. I would say this soup is a healthier way of cooking ground meat, since it is boiled not fried. The soup is simple, the only special skill you need is roll small meatballs out of ground meat.

A perfect quick breakfast, it gives your day an energetic start. I used to make fresh beet salad once in a while, but real love to fresh beets came to me when I stumbled upon Mini Beet Protocol among many readings on natural healing methods. Taken regularly and persistently, fresh beets and beet juice can rid you of many ailments.

Tonight I cooked dinner for the first time in my blissfully empty Swiss kitchen. As the name of this post suggests, the kitchen is inside my new and almost entirely empty apartment, just about a 15 minute walk away from Zurich's local mountain Uetliberg. The apartment is empty, because I only brought a suitcase with me from New York, but in the suitcase I brought a loyal stainless steel pan!

I used tvorog bought at a Russian market, but farmers cheese will also do. These two products are very similar in texture and taste. One just have to pay attention what farmers cheese it is: if it's salted no more salt is needed.

Not that I have Irish ancestors to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day , but I really like this  corned beef & veggies soup.  It is simple and rustic, but very aromatic and filling. It does take a lot of time to boil meat, but if you cook  in two stages, it's really not that bad.

Cooking breakfast on Sunday is a great pleasure, and eating it is an even greater pleasure, especially if you have a good company. You have some time to to mix and fry and fill the house with those homey aromas. Basic omelet made of quality eggs being my favorite, I also like to experiment and add things to it.

When you are not inclined to spend hours mixing, grating, and baking, but still crave a homemade dessert, this improvised creation could come handy. The Muse of Improvisation visited me and pushed some buttons of my imagination. I rushed to my fridge where I had a cup of leftover sweet crumbs, the rest was done on magical impulse.

Red lentil soup is one of the fastest soups to make! And it is good for you because lentil is one of the healthiest world foods. You come home tired and hungry, you certainly don't want to spend hours cooking, not even one hour, not even 45 minutes...

Shrimp are a delight of a lazy cook, and this recipe is no exception. Spicy, zesty and quick, these shrimp call for second helpings. The recipe was born on our last night on Kauai, when we decided to be frugal and use up everything left over in the fridge.

An advocate of minimalism in life, which unfortunately is possible mostly theoretically in our world of consumerism, I adore simple dishes that do not involve many ingredients. Some of those dishes come from my childhood in Russia, where minimalism was dictated by permanent deficit. Our memory carries on all our life impressions including food, and these simple things we experienced in early years are remembered as good.

Just buy some simple vanilla ice-cream, and arrange it in a bowl with generous amount of currants and a splash of black currant liqueur (or jam mixed with brandy). Sit back and indulge in it! Notes: An even more simple way to eat black currants is to whip 1/2 cup sour cream with 1 tbsp sugar and mix it with berries.

Summer calls for salads, frosty drinks and fruit, but sometimes the body craves grilled cheese and protein, no matter the heat outside. These are easy-to-make, delicious stuffed mushrooms, with a couple of unique touches and the intense flavor of tarragon. Craving melted cheese?

This recipe has been brewing in my mind for awhile  - a smoothie and a cold soup in one. The best part - it is almost no-boil, where most of ingredients are fresh vegetables. And the best best part is - the proportions are quite arbitrary, just flow with your desires and you will be good.

so, I give up and make sangria. There are as many recipes for sangria as there are women in Spain. There is no proper, authentic sangria.

Well, something simple with minimum cooking. I happened to have a package of farmers cheese in the fridge, and something lazy came to mind. I have omitted the most time-consuming and boring part of making ravioli, that is making them per se.

Okroshka is a traditional cold Russian summer soup that doesn't need to be boiled. It is usually made on hot days when nobody wants to move, let alone cook something serious in the kitchen. This soup contains mostly raw vegetables, boiled eggs, and fermented drink kvas.

This recipe is another experiment with fiddlehead fern salad. The first one was a complete fiasco. This time it was dashed off intuitively, with Asian cuisine in mind.