Sealed food

Winter has finally arrived and it's time to hibernate. So what is best if you want to stay for the next few months under your duvet with lots of good books and hot chocolate without going for groceries? Well of course you could simply live from the pizza delivery man, but this could get boring and also the health aspect in that case is probably not the most favourable.

Instead an option is to cook things in advance and seal them in jars and finally reopen them when you need them. I've tried it for the first time a few weeks ago and now I have tasted all of them! First thing, it is absolutely easy to make any of these.

These are the following things I've tired:

• Marinated aubergine with basil and (lots!!!) of garlic (watch your breath!)
• Feta cheese in oil with pepper and chilli (yes you can buy this all ready made in the supermarket but isn't it fun to make it yourself?)
• Apples with vanilla (a real pod please!)
• Marinated pumpkin with chilli, lemon zest and dried apricots
• Marinated carrots the Indian way

The carrots and the pumpkin are just great to have as a side dish. A bit like antipasti. The aubergine do work the same way, but I also used them already at work when I wanted to make a quick pasta lunch: just cook the pasta and then add the aubergine mixture and some of the vinegar-olive-oil-marinade for the sauce.

The apples can be eaten like pure but they are very sweet, so I put a few slices in my porridge in the morning instead and add a bit of the vanilla syrup in it for the taste. I guess those apples would go well with Greek yoghurt too. Well the feta cheese is obviously great in salads, but also pizza or pasta.

And since maybe some more people wish to hibernate this year too I will give some of the jars out and made them a bit more cute in their looks!

Happy hibernating to you!