Jamie Oliver

Seit Jahren bin ich Fan von Jamie Oliver – das ging so weit, dass ich zeitweise ein Samstagsritual hatte, das Frühstück vor dem Fernseher beinhaltete, wo ich sowohl frische Brötchen als auch seine Sendungen verschlang. (Mein damaliger Freund war sogar manchmal ein kleines bisschen eifersüchtig, weil er durchaus mal aus dem Bett geworfen wurde, wenn er nicht mitgucken wollte.) Irgendwann bekam ich sogar seine DVDs mit dem Titel „jamie at home“, auch diese wieder ziemlich klasse.

In den letzten Jahren dann wurden seine Aktionen immer spannender, wie ich fand. Ob er nun in „Jamie’s Great Italian Escape“ der echten italienischen Küche nachreist, in „jamie at home“ sein Gemüse selbst anpflanzt und saisonal verarbeitet oder in „Jamie’s School Dinners“ versucht, englischen Kindern gesunde Ernährung nahe zu bringen, er beschränkt sich schon lange nicht mehr auf die typischen Kochsendungen, ihm geht es um mehr. Es ist hochspannend, einen Menschen zu sehen, dessen Beruf für ihn eine wahre Berufung ist. Mit seiner „Food Revolution“ ging es dann weiter, es ging ihm darum, wieder mehr Menschen zu zeigen, wie man gesund, schnell und alltagstauglich kochen kann. Es ist ihm wirklich ein Anliegen, und das wirkt wirklich ansteckend, wie man in diesem Video von ted.com sehen kann:

Sein neuestes Projekt sind die „30-Minute Meals“, in denen man ein komplettes Essen, das auf den ersten Blick sehr aufwändig wirkt und in jedem Fall sehr spannend ist, in nur 30 Minuten kocht. Die Rezepte sind so aufgebaut, dass die Arbeitsschritte für jedes Essen gezeigt werden, damit man auch ein Gefühl für das Timing bekommt, das in der Küche Zeit sparen soll, ohne dabei die Qualität zu vernachlässigen. Im folgenden Video beispielsweise wird erklärt, wie man besonders effizient schneidet:

my life list.

von Design For Mankind von erin

1 Person bevorzugt dies.

[image credit: tamara lichtenstein]

Rarely do I get personal on this blog. Rarely. Because, well? I get personal everywhere else. Sometimes too personal, but I digress into a new topic that I think you’ll like better:

There’s something on the horizon.

I can’t tell you what it is yet, but it will be happening in a little over one week exactly, and it will be fun. Really, really fun. And it will be right here, where the words ‘awesome‘ and ‘design‘ often caper together in the fields of wonder.

I will give you one hint: it’s sort of personal, and sort of a departure from the norm. I suppose that’s two hints. But hey, I’ve always been of the giving kind.

So in honor of this new! personal! project! that will release in April, I’d like to tell you two things:
(1). I’m going on my first family vacation in ten years next week, so wish me luck (and I won’t be around much… or at all).
(2). To give you something to keep you going during my absence AND to give you a bit of an introduction to this personal project of mine, I’m crossing off one of my more personal goals right here on this blog: THE LIFE LIST.*

Inspired by the sweet (and seriously, seriously smart) Maggie, I promised myself (and her, during Alt Summit) that I’d finally write down this list. And because I want to be held publicly accountable for actually doing these things, I’m posting it here, for you 10,000+ daily readers to see:

Feel free to peruse my items all of next week, because I ramble (clearly!), and this list may be quite lengthy. Until then, I’ll see you next Monday for the big, exciting release. Are you excited? Get there.

Behold, the Life List of Erin Loechner:

1. Write down my life list (oh look! I’ve already finished one!).
2. Learn to do the splits.
3. Stop slouching, even at the movie theater.
4. Snuggle a manatee (I stole that one from Amber, but who wouldn’t want to do that?).
5. Paint my own self-portrait.
6. Unplug (entirely!) for one week.
7. Bring Mankind Mag back — in some form.
8. Own 50 original artist works from 50 different artists.
9. Take a Latin language class.
10. Learn the origin of/meaning behind 1,000 phrases/cliches.
11. Ditch the car for an entire month.
12. Read every piece of published work from C.S. Lewis.
13. Rock a baby to sleep.
14. Convince a total stranger to make a life list of their own.
15. Publish (self-publishing doesn’t count!) ten books.
16. Write thank you notes to my former teachers (thanks for that one, Mags!).
17. Visit San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.
18. Start a collection.
19. Meet all 97 of my new neighbors.
20. Make a chocolate chip cookie from scratch.
21. Learn to style my hair like a pro.
22. Taste 100 cheeses.
23. Road trip through 48 states in one summer.
24. Wash the dishes by hand with yellow rubber gloves.
25. Own a set of expensive, luxurious sheets.
25. Take a drawing class.
26. Dress to flatter my figure.
27. Own a portrait wall with 50 photographs of people I don’t know.
28. Perform Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ in a Karaoke bar.
29. Taste 500 red wines.
30. Subscribe to the New York Times — and read the style section over coffee every Sunday morning.
31. Volunteer at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving Day.
32. Spend Christmas in a cabin in Big Bear with our California friends.
33. Rent a convertible and drive down the PCH. Top down, hair down, shades on.
34. Build a parade float and ride atop it!
35. Treat my mother and sisters to a full day at the spa.
36. Learn to juggle.
37. Overcome jealousy.
38. Pay for someone’s dinner at Pizza Hut… anonymously.
39. Send a birthday card (on time) to everyone in my life for one full year.
40. Start a euchre club.
41. Attend a Rodeo in a cowboy hat.
42. Kick my caffeine habit.
43. Grow a garden in my backyard.
44. Sip sake.
45. Try acupuncture.
46. Fool someone over the age of twelve on April Fool’s Day.
47. Solve Rubik’s cube (stole that one from sweet Karen).
48. Attend a football/rugby match in Ireland.
49. Submit a book proposal for something I believe in.
50. Figure out how to exude grace — and do it.
51. Go house boating.
52. Name my own shade of nail polish (or have a shade named after me, of course).
53. Give a NYC cab driver a $100 tip.
54. Apologize to Thomas from 4th grade for calling him smelly.
55. Get to know my grandparents.
56. Write and publish over 50 magazine articles.
57. Grout and tile a kitchen backsplash.
59. Run for an entire mile… without stopping.
60. Get caught in a rainstorm with no umbrella.
61. Roast chestnuts over a fire.
62. Find my signature scent, the perfect pair of jeans and my perfect shade of foundation.
63. Picnic in a canoe.
64. Take a haunted hayride on Halloween.
65. Watch 100 scary movies.
66. Milk a cow.
67. Finish a crossword puzzle (no cheating).
68. Host a Thanksgiving meal and invite someone without a home or family.
69. Start a tradition.
70. Forgive. Really, really forgive.
71. Learn to roll my “R’s.”
72. Experience tennis elbow.
73. Draw a mustache on my husband while he’s sleeping.
74. Braid my niece’s hair.
75. Go skiing.
76. Ride an elephant.
77. Start (and finish) a 365 photo project.
78. Lay in a hammock.
79. Bowl a 120 game.
80. Plant a tree.
81. Listen to an entire book on tape without falling asleep.
82. Stay in the top 100 U.S. Hotels.
83. Start a food fight.
84. Bet on a winning horse.
85. Ride a gondola in Venice.
86. Adopt a pet.
87. Inner tube down a river.
88. Drive a tractor.
89. Build a tree house with my husband.
90. Play street hockey with the neighborhood kids.
91. Bury a time capsule.
92. Eat a hot dog in Chicago, preferably at a baseball stadium.
93. Feed a baby lamb.
94. Give a keynote address.
95. Re-upholster a chair.
96. Keep my elbows off the table.
97. Read an etiquette book.
98. Hold someone’s hand as they give birth.
99. Learn to surf.
100. Walk a Great Dane.

*And yes, I have a list of things I’d like to do in my life, and one of those is to actually make a list of things to do in my life. That’s how backwards my brain is.

Nils und ich haben jetzt sein neuestes Buch gewonnen, unter der Bedingung, dass wir innerhalb von vier Wochen mindestens einmal wöchentlich ein Menu kochen und darüber bloggen. Diese Beiträge werden hier veröffentlicht werden. Am Ende der vier Wochen wird Nils auf seiner kritischen Seite eine Buchkritik veröffentlichen – und wir werden bestimmt so einiges neues übers Kochen gelernt haben. Ich bin sehr gespannt auf die neuen Dinge, die wir über gutes Essen, Küchenorganisation und Fertigkeiten lernen werden.