Yes I'm still alive, thank you for asking. The reason for the sudden quietness around here were my fantastic skills to juggle coordinate the last deadlines for my book with a rather spontaneously arranged trip to Paris. Paris was excellent, my aforementioned skills quite the opposite. In fact I am happy to state, that Christina (the angel from the editorial office) did not despair and threw her computer with my book on harddisk out of the window... Luckily, the hotel had free Wi-Fi, so at least a little got done, before exploring the city with Paris insiders, friends and foodbloggers Katia and David, who didn't get tired of spending time with us and sharing their favorite places. Now I definitely know that I could live pretty happily for the rest of my life just eating Saya or Soleil by Sadaharu Aoki - with the occasional Falafel inbetween.

But I was even more happy, when I left my editor's office yesterday. The final layout check is done, now I (and three more pairs of eyes) will spend the weekend re-re-re-reading the German book before we'll do the same with the English version probably over the next weekend. The publishing date (September) is approaching faster as ever ...

...at least that is what they say. Doesn't - always - apply to me. Especially not in the kitchen.

Can you guess what happened...again?

EDIT NICKY: Some of you guessed it right. What you see is probably cutting board no.17, that I - heedlessly - placed on a (semi) hotplate. Only the smell of melted plastic "woke" me up - too late. Again. Darn.

I'm always a bit wary when friends or colleagues use phrases such as "You must try this!" or "This is the best xyz!" when it comes to describing food or recipes - simply because I've been burned more than once in the past. Once bitten twice shy I guess. Not that I generally don't trust their judgement, but over the years I came to realize, that the perception of food is highly subjective and a topic on which people rarely agree. Certainly it's simply a matter of taste, not worth fighting over. Yet I don't know how else I could better introduce my newest salad addiction to you other than with the words You must make this salad. This nutty goddess of a bulgur salad, mixed with cranberries and a hint of lemon has made my weekend. Well, Friday evening. Saturday afternoon. And even the grey and cloudy Sunday morning became a friendlier one while I was scraping the salad bowl to get every last bit...

Stationery, that's my thing. I have a deep-rooted desire to shop for all kinds of papers, envelopes, nice folders, binders or notebooks. I silently check for necessity, receive a rational no-go from my subsystem - and still buy it. Of course. It plays little significance that five other folders, binders or notebook are desperately waiting to be put to good use in my filing cabinet at home. With Munich's first Muji store, the temptation for paper goods has gotten even stronger, and I permanently stock up on very simple notebooks and more. One of these notebooks has been dedicated to culinary ideas: Its cover is decorated with a drawn pot, which is a pretty solid statement of my drawing skills or lack thereof (...), yet is has become indispensable. It travels wherever I go, and within the last year, its pages have been filled with ideas and recipes that deserved a second thought.

Bang! From one day to another it is summer. Just like that. No notice, so we're still stuck with our winter wardrobe.