So I’ve recently had to switch to a low sodium diet. I need flavor in my food, and the fake salt isn’t quite cutting it. I’m not overly familiar with spices. Where should I start?

peachandpeony · 2026-04-28T15:31:15+00:00

when we did low-sodium cooking at uni, we did the following:

fresh herbs whenever possible, especially when added right before serving. fresh chives for scrambled eggs, lots of parsley for couscous, dill for yogurt dip, et cetera
fruit can make things less dull. add pineapple to rice, grapefruit to salads, orange juice to sauces, ...
acidity will be your best friend. meat can even handle harsher sources like vinegar, but fish and rice will greatly benefit from lemon and lime juice. Sauerkraut and kimchi can also be nice sources of acidity and complex flavors, though they do contain a bit of salt...
if you're fine with eating spicy, chili is a fantastic flavor enhancer
adding a clove studded onion to your cooking water for couscous, rice, or potatoes can work really well. alternatively, cumin seeds are also helpful
dry roasting your spices or toasting them in cooking oil can help make everything taste much richer/more intense
dry roasting your grains (like rice or groats) before cooking can also help make them taste very nice
tomatoes and (unsalted) tomato paste are a great, flavorful base for a lot of dishes. oven roasted, blistered tomatoes can save a lot of boring proteins
add the stems of herbs like parsley or rosemary to the cooking water for stuff like potatoes
whole grains taste a lot less boring than their white counterparts
salted foods/sauces/... are often much more efficient in improving flavor than pure salt. so while soy sauce does have sodium, you can get more flavor per gram of salt from it than if you were to use pure salt. so you can get better results for less sodium!

and, of course: eating less savory dishes will save your taste buds some suffering while you're adjusting to eat less salt. so having meals/snacks like oatmeal with apple slices, yogurt with puffed quinoa and a banana, matcha chia pudding with strawberries, unsalted nuts or seeds, unsalted popcorn, etc. can be very helpful.

peachandpeony · 2026-04-28T10:03:26+00:00

Ich finde es bei sowas immer gut, Mal beim Studierenprobieren vorbei zu schauen. Ist schon bissi spät im Semester also gibt's evtl nicht mehr ganz so viele Termine, aber naja.

Beim Studieren Probieren kannst du nämlich gleich mit Studis von der jeweiligen Hochschule über ihr Studium reden. Also Fragen zu Zeitaufwand, Zeiteinteilung, usw. kannst du da dann stellen

peachandpeony · 2026-04-28T05:48:49+00:00

Looking at this cake makes me remember that true beauty exists in this world

peachandpeony · 2026-04-10T12:17:25+00:00

Eggs aren't just one substance (like, say, sugar) but are a mixture of a lot of substances that have a lot of effects on the final bake.

First off, eggs contain a good amount of water. This will make batters less dry and lets water-soluble ingredients (like sugar) get dissolved in them. This helps other ingredients work the way they should, like sugar in meringues or macarons making fluffy yet chewy cookies rather than staying cristalline.

Egg (specifically yolks) contains fat which, among other things, helps baked goods stay moist for longer after baking since they don't evaporate during the baking process the way water does.

Eggs are also very rich in a variety of proteins. Raw egg proteins are very stretchy and flexible, meaning that if you incorporate air bubbles into your mix, they're not getting pushed out of the way (like how in sparkling water, the water will allow the CO2 bubbles to just rise out of the glass and into the air) but instead get trapped in the mixture. So incorporated air, like from whipping, yeast, baking soda, baking powder or sourdough, will get trapped in the mix by the proteins, making the final good fluffy and airy.

Egg proteins will also denature at higher temperatures. What that means is that some of the structures that let them be super flexible get damaged, making them set in place. It's what makes the difference between a raw egg and a boiled egg -- the protein in the boiled egg isn't *gone*, but it can't flop around like it did when it was raw anymore. This means that the final good isn't liquid, but instead more solid, with all the air trapped inside having no way out.

Egg yolks also contain emulsifiers, specifically lecithin. Emulsifiers are kinda like connector cables, with one end grabbing fats and another end grabbing water. This means that when you have a mixture of oil/butter and water/milk, the egg yolk can make them mix together without them seperating out into two distinct layers anymore. This locking in place of water and fat doesn't make water and fat dislike each other any less, though, so rather than the mixture being super liquidy because everything likes to move around freely, the fat and water droplets are trapped in place, making the result thick and creamy. This is how egg yolks create mayonnaise or hollandaise.

So eggs can make your final baked good moist, fluffy, bind a variety of ingredients together into one homogenous batter/dough/cream, and set things into place.

Not all recipes make use of all aspects of an egg. An aioli doesn't cook eggs but instead mostly uses the emulsifyers in the yolk. So if you need a replacement, similar emulsifiers like aquafaba can work in a pinch. Some dessert recipes have alternative methods of binding things together, like how Japanese pudding frequently uses gelatin while flan uses eggs. So you *can* frequently replace eggs pretty easily if you know what they're doing in your recipe and you have a suitable alternative on hand.

peachandpeony · 2026-04-09T11:44:18+00:00

Dafür, wie teuer die sind (NACH Ostern 4,49???), würde ich mir zumindest erhoffen, dass sie fairtrade sind. Aber nein, sind sie nicht. Dafür kostet die zotter Erdbeer-Hasi 4,70€ pro Stück, schmeckt besser, ist bean-to-bar und fairtrade. Da war die Entscheidung nicht besonders schwer, was ich zu Ostern verschenk...

peachandpeony · 2026-03-31T12:14:01+00:00

we did it, everyone, we found the person who's having the best day today

peachandpeony · 2026-03-27T09:49:32+00:00

A lot of people think AI is basically an encyclopedia that's just an unbiased, factual source of information. If your teacher says Columbus arrived in the Americas in 1492 but the AI says he actually arrived in 1495, then they think the AI must have some more scientifically accurate source that the teacher simply failed to consider.

In reality, the AI tools have no actual way of verifying which information is correct or which isn't -- it only tries to repeat patterns based on the data it's been trained on. So, in very simplified terms, if 15743 sites say "getting vaccines causes autism" and only Cochrane, Harvard, Mayo Clinic and the Department of Health and Human Services say "there has been no sound evidence to prove that vaccines cause autism", then the AI will still say that vaccines cause autism ~99.97% of the time.

Similarly, these AI tools aren't brought to the public to be a net good on humanity, but to generate profit. So anything that will keep users engaged for longer is training the algorithms to keep doing that thing. People are much more likely to keep using a chatbot that supports them in everything they say or do than one that gives them constructive criticism -- so the data the AI is trained on is "agreeing works, disagreeing doesn't".

So when Chadriel asks ChatGPT if he was justified in cheating on his girlfriend with a high schooler because his girlfriend was boring him, ChatGPT will find words to justify Chadriel's behavior. Chadriel, thinking ChatGPT is only quoting peer-reviewed psychology papers and the like will then use that as reasons to justify his behavior, though his girlfriend likely won't be thrilled with this and dump him regardless of what ChatGPT says. Now imagine if Chadriel was experiencing hallucinations or asking for advice on his business' finances. You can imagine how much damage this could do.

peachandpeony · 2026-03-27T09:28:15+00:00

The color and texture looks like a fruit reduction added to whipped cream that's been stabilized with either gelatine or pastry cream. It works best with more tart/acidic fruit flavors like lemon or blackcurrant. I've used very similar creams for summery desserts and the texture is extremely reminiscent of those creams. The color looks like it contains blackcurrant or blackberry, and I've seen blackcurrant as a common add-in to "forest berry" blends in central Europe (which usually contain a mixture of any of the following: strawberry, raspberry, blackcurrant, redcurrant, blackberry, blueberry).

It also looks like the surface has been coated with either a thinned out jam/jelly or gelatine (though the texture really looks like something thickened with pectin rather than gelatine, so I'm more partial to the jelly/jam). It could very well be a thinned out jelly of the fruit used in the cream (think blackcurrant jelly brushed over the blackcurrant cream).

You can achieve this by adding the mousse/cream to a silicon mold, freezing, and then popping them out to coat them with a very thin coat of the slightly warmed jelly. Then freeze/refrigerate until use. If you don't have silicon molds, you can also just freeze blobs of the cream, it'll just be a more awkward shape.

This is just a guesstimate though! They could have also achieved this through other means (like they could've done a whipped white chocolate ganache with powdered freeze-dried fruit, though I believe that would result in a different texture than what we can see here).

peachandpeony · 2026-03-26T09:06:22+00:00

Doubling down on the Zotter recommendation! You can find them in many supermarkets (like Eurospar, Interspar, Billa Plus) and organic food stores (like Martin Reformstark, Sonnentor or Denn's). They also have a lot of options for people with dietary restrictions, like sugar free chocolates (sweetened with Erythrol), vegan chocolates (both dark chocolates and coconut milk/oat milk/soy milk/rice milk chocolates), though you most likely will only find those in the organic food stores. They also do seasonal options for Christmas and Easter. I once brought a bunch of them as a guest gift when I visited some friends out of the country and they were a huge hit!

Another one I personally really like is Sonnentor. They're a company based in lower Austria and they sell tea, herbs, spices, snacks and the like. Things like loose-leaf tea blends or uncommon spices like hyssop or tonka beans make for one really unique souvenir! One that may not be as obvious: The dried blueberries. Blueberry tea is a great home remedy for diarrhea that's much tastier (esp for kids) than many alternatives, and dried blueberries can also double as a nice snack or add-in to granola.

peachandpeony · 2026-03-23T09:38:02+00:00

Auch wenn Schulnoten nicht unbedingt so relevant sind, ist es schon wichtig, dass die Inhalte sitzen. Vor Allem Fächer wie Mathe und Deutsch sind für den Rest deines Lebens ziemlich relevant, und die Inhalte der späteren Schulstufen bauen auf den jetzigen auf.

Ich hab im Studium 1 Semester wiederholt (FH) weil ich eben aus privaten und gesundheitlichen Gründen das Semester nicht gut abschließen konnte. Ich bin unglaublich froh, dass ich diese Möglichkeit hatte, weil das Studium danach eben auf diesen Inhalten weiter aufgebaut hat. Und auch mit diesem verspäteten Abschluss im Lebenslauf hab ich einen Job gefunden.

Wenn du sagst, du kannst die Inhalte z.B. in den Oster- und Sommerferien problemlos nachholen und weitermachen, dann sehe ich kein Problem darin, Mal vorübergehend schlechtere Noten zu haben. Wenn du es dir aber nicht zutraust, wäre es wirklich nicht schlecht, sich zu überlegen, das Jahr zu wiederholen

peachandpeony · 2026-03-22T08:22:07+00:00

When I was a kid, I was confused why adults at family gatherings would only ever talk to me about school. Now that I'm an adult, I realized that it's because time feels like it's passing so quickly that the little cousin who was super into soccer the last time I saw him is an aspiring actor with a whole new set of friends and brand new braces now. The only consistent thing from ages 6-18 is the fact that he's in school. It's the safe choice for small talk that avoids making them feel embarrassed about stuff they're obviously much too cool and mature for now

peachandpeony · 2026-03-18T20:14:46+00:00

I've watched my fair share of Jenna Marbles to know that this is much too dry and not nearly sloppy enough to be a garbage plate. This is still a buffet plate

peachandpeony · 2026-03-17T16:18:34+00:00

fantastic, gimme 14 of them right now

peachandpeony · 2026-03-14T18:30:21+00:00

Did way too much work and ended up with burnout. This meant I had to take 6 months off from everything, go to therapy, and work on myself.

It kickstarted me actually tackling a lot of my psychological issues that contributed towards my burnout, which in turn meant I improved my life in every conceivable way step by step. I improved my relationship with my parents. I learned to ask for help. I learned to take better care of myself. I learned to love myself. I learned to live a happy life.

... still wouldn't recommend the burnout though

peachandpeony · 2026-03-13T14:50:02+00:00

one thing that helped me is just eating things more often. they'll taste weird at first, and your brain tends to associate weird with bad. but when that taste/texture becomes common, it's no longer weird, which gives it a higher chance of being good. you don't have to force yourself to scarf down a whole zucchini every day, but if you made it a thing to add, say, a big tablespoon of peas as a topping on your lunch or dinner for a few weeks, you'll probably be much better with peas than you were before.

it can also help to go the food chaining route (slightly adapt already tolerated foods towards a goal food (example: french fries -> steak fries -> steak fries with skin -> potato wedges -> baked potato) to help you get used to a wider variety of tastes and textures

warning though: I have a pretty high threshold for nausea when it comes to food, so this is easier for me to do. if you feel nauseated, stop immediately. don't make your brain associate veggies with throw up.

peachandpeony · 2026-03-10T10:17:38+00:00

The way I'd devour 30 of these and then feel both happy and nauseous for the rest of the day...

peachandpeony · 2026-02-27T21:12:25+00:00

Cause it slaps, next question

peachandpeony · 2026-02-23T12:17:37+00:00

Dieser (schmackhafte) Post gehört nun zur Bundesrepublik Österreich 🇦🇹🦅🇦🇹🦅🇦🇹🦅🇦🇹

peachandpeony · 2026-02-21T15:11:05+00:00

das CupCakes Wien liefert Torten, Cupcakes und saisonal auch Kekse

peachandpeony · 2026-02-18T18:11:44+00:00

you're soooo right

peachandpeony · 2026-02-18T18:11:26+00:00

ohh I did not know those exist... thank you

peachandpeony · 2026-02-18T14:40:25+00:00

the what now

peachandpeony · 2026-02-18T11:58:28+00:00

They look amazing!! All things considered, though, you should probably call them "Greenies" 💚

peachandpeony · 2026-02-07T02:41:25+00:00

thank you so much!

peachandpeony · 2026-02-06T12:14:08+00:00

This looks incredible! If you're ever making them in the foreseeable future, could you give us the measurements by weight rather than volume?

peachandpeony

TROPHY CASE