Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies

I can't believe I've left you without reipes for a whole week! Sorry! It's what happens when I don't cook properly.. I've been in such a cooking funk for several weeks now, not feeling inspired at all. But I'm sure it will change eventually. And today, I have to tell you about these awesome cookies I baked two days ago. They are So Incredibly Tasty. I found them at Smitten Kitchen, and if you want US measurements, head to her post. I just made some minor changes. And, somehow forgot to add the egg until I looked at my rather dry dough and realized I had forgotten it.. oh, it was fine to just mix it in at the end, so no harm done.

I actually used margarine rather than butter since I had some that needed using up, but it was perfectly ok - no problems. I also didn't use any table salt since my margarine was already salted - if you use unsalted butter, add a pinch of salt to the dough. The cookies are crunchy rather than chewy (except for straight out of the oven), and not as sweet as you'd suspect with all that white chocolate. Two thumbs up from me - I'm happy to have 20 or so cookies in my freezer...

Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies
24 large cookies

200 g butter or margarine, at room temperature
200 g sugar
40 g brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
150 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsk baking soda
200 g oats (the kind you'd use for porridge)
200 g white chocolate, chopped
flaky sea salt

Heat the oven to 175°C. Beat the butter with both sugars until fluffy, then add the egg and if using vanilla extract, add that too. Beat well.

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and vanilla sugar if you're using that (and salt if you're using unsalted butter) in a bowl, and then mix this in with the butter mixture. Stir well. Add the oats and white chocolate, and work into a dough.

Shape 24 large balls from the dough, flatten slightly and place on lined baking sheets. I could fit exactly 12 cookies on one sheet, these are *big*. Sprinkle a few flakes of salt on each cookie.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, until lightly golden brown.

Recipe in Swedish:
Saltade havrekakor med vit choklad

Craving See's

Nuts & Chews assortment, photo: See's

Rebecca in California commented that Roasted Raspberry & Chipotle Sauce was probably the one thing she'd ever introduce me to, food-wise. Oh, but she's wrong. That got me thinking, and two things popped immediately: her bacon wrapped aspargus, barbecued.. and mild sauce from Taco Bell. Yes, those free packets. I love those. She used to collect a great big bag for me for when I came to visit and I actually just recently run out even though it's been years since I visited.

Since then, I thought of a few more things she really got me hooked on. Let's see. Although not the first to try it with, she's definitely the one to feed my addiction to Kraft Mac & Cheese. (Thanks!) And she introduced me to Krispy Kreme. And to In'n'Out burger. And, I'm pretty sure it was also at her house I first experienced... See's Chocolate. Stupidly, I went onto their website, and now I have a terrible craving. Bad, bad, bad!

Edited - and HOW could I forgot the cinnamon buns at Sweet Jill's?? Those are most definitely Rebecca´s fault for introducing into my life. I can still wake up thinking about them. :)

Daring Bakers: Pizza Tossing Time!

It seems to have been a while since I started off a Daring Bakers post with this, but: I cheated. Yes, I sure did. By not making the dough. Instead, I sneakingly suggested to Dagmar that we'd make the pizza together one sunny Sunday afternoon, and she happily agreed. And made the dough. So, no real comments on how it came together, but it was definitely nice to work with and easy enough to shape.



Not to toss though. We tossed, and tossed, in order to get good photos but it did absolutely nothing for the pizza bases that had to be re-shaped from scratch after the tossing. And no, it did not get easier as we went along.



We topped our pizzas with all kinds of goodies - salami, smoked ham, mozzarella, tomato sauce, arugula, fresh mushrooms, red onion... delicious! And we baked them on our iPinium oven sheets - they work much as baking stones, since they have superior heat retention. It worked very nicely to give a nice, crusty base.



So, challengewise - this wasn't the tastiest pizza crust I've tried, and I think I'll be sticking with my Jamie Oliver recipe until I find a super-good one, but it was perfectly fine. And while not extremely challenging, pizza is not something I make a lot either, so it was fun! And it was *very* much fun to share the challenge with Dagmar! For more fun photos, and her post, go here!



You can find the recipes here, the blogroll here, and the discussion forums - open to everyone! - here.

Blogging by mail: lots of goodies from the US!

It's been another fun round of Blogging by Mail hosted by the lovely Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness! I got a wonderful package from Melody at My Trap Door which was filled to the brim with delightful stuff. First thing I pulled out was not edible, but it sure smelled that way! It's a scented candle, aptly named Champagne Dessert.



I was super excited to get more non-edible things - they last longer! I got these really cool people-shaped push pins!



And these gorgeous orange comma-shaped plates. I adore small plates, they're so useful and so much fun. My husband doesn't exactly feel the same way which mean I have to sneak them in - but not when they're gifts!



Isn't this adorable? An egg whisk to cheer me up on not-so-cheerful mornings. I love it.



On to the edibles. I haven't had Peeps since I was in high school, but oh my goodness, they're great. I ate one right away, but will leave the rest to firm up a bit - they're best when they're a little stale. Oh, and I have to microwave one, too!



Completely new to me - cappuccino chips! I was really excited to recieve this, because we actually don't have anything like this here. No chips. except for the potato variety. No chocolate chips, no peanut butter morsels, no butterscotch chips, nothing. (Ok, I buy some of my baking chocolate in chip-shapes at a specialty store, but that's one particular kind of chocolate only.) This will definitely be put to good use - I'm thinking cookies and blondies to start with, and if I can stretch the bag far enough, brownies too.



I like Lindt chocolate a lot, but I've never seen this kind before. It's dark chocolate with chili, and cherry filling! I'm a real sucker for anything cherry, and this was no exception. Delicious!



This was a huge surprise! I've been wanting a bottle of raspberry chipotle sauce for ages - since I visited my friend Rebecca several years ago, and she served this with cream cheese on crackers. It's been on my wishlist since I started this blog, and I was so incredibly excited to finally get it! Yeay!



And for similar excitement.. Melody knew how much I liked Velveeta - my guiltiest pleasure.



So much she sent me TWO packages! And the second one seems like perfection - spicy! I can't wait to get some tortilla chips and dig in!

Weekend Cat Blogging, Klara again

Klara continues to be an insanely cuddly kitten. She loves curling up with us on the couch, and as you can clearly see, she has no problems showing off her lovable tummy.



This week, Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted by Catsynth!

Halloween

More and more people in Sweden celebrate Halloween. This was the
window of an exceptionally festive bakery yesterday!

Oatmeal Buttermilk Scones

I really love making something extra for breakfast on the weekends. Normally, we have sandwiches, and we do on weekends as well, but I like to have freshly baked bread or scones sometimes. (Or we'll splurge on pancakes or something similar - it feels very naughty as it's not typical in Sweden to eat something sweet for breakfast.)

I have a great recipe for scones that I like, but I was in the mood for oats, so I added some rolled oats to it. And I was almost out of milk... but I had lots of buttermilk. (Or well, Swedish filmjolk - but it's similar) Ta-da! All new recipe - and it's really tasty. And it's very, very crumbly, but that's sort of the thing about scones, isn't it?

Oatmeal Buttermilk Scones
6 large scones

215 g flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
40 g rolled oats
50 g butter or margarine
150 ml buttermilk, Swedish filmjolk or plain yogurt

Preheat the oven to 225°C. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, and add the cold butter or margarine. Use your hands, or a pastry cutter, to rub the fat into the dry flour mixture until it's evenly distributed. Add the buttermilk, and quickly work into a smooth dough. Use a little more buttermilk if it's very dry.

Shape into 6 large balls, flatten slightly and place on a lined baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes.



Recipe in Swedish:
Havrescones med filmjölk

Happy 4th blog birthday!

I can hardly believe it, but it's been FOUR years. Four fun-filled years since I started this blog - isn't it incredible? Let's hear it for four more years - at least!

As is my tradition, I'm serving up a somewhat classic Swedish cake for you. Previous years, I've made a Princess Cake, a Budapest Rolled Cake, and then Oscar II:s cake, and today, let me tell you about the Swedish version of a black forest cake. In most other countries, this cake has chocolate and cherries. In Sweden, it's meringue, hazelnuts and chocolate, with whipped cream. No chocolate sponge cake, no cherries. It's what I grew up with, and I absolutely love it - you can find it in most Swedish bakeries, and there's even a frozen version at the grocery store which isn't half bad. But making your own is easy!

I added a bit of Punsch, sweet Swedish liqueur that tastes of Arrak, to the cream. It's not traditional, but it sure is tasty. You can add something else - say, Amaretto or Frangelico for example - or just a little vanilla. I also happened to have a bit of praline paste left over from a Daring Baker's Challenge, and I added some of that to the filling as well. Delicious!

Black Forest Cake, Swedish Style
Serves 8-10

Layers:
200 g hazelnuts
4 egg whites
300 ml (180 g) powdered sugar

Filling:
400 ml heavy cream (35-40% fat content)
3-4 tbsp Punsch, see above, or other liqueur (more or less according to taste)
praline paste (optional)

Decoration:
200 g dark chocolate
1/2 tsp neutral oil (optional)

Start by grinding the hazelnuts - either in a nut grinder, or in a food processor until they're very fine. Mix with the powdered sugar. Beat the egg whites into a stiff meringue, and fold in the nut mixture. Spread (or pipe) the batter into three evenly sized circles on parchment paper. Bake at 175°C for 10-12 minutes, or until they look dry. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely, before carefully removing the paper. (If it's stuck, try brushing the back of it with a little water.)

Beat the cream and add Punsch according to taste. Add praline paste if you'd like. Spread the cream in between the layers, and on top of the cake. If you want to pipe it, you need more - say, 5-600 ml.

Melt the chocolate for the decorations, either in a bain-marie or in the microwave. Add a drop of neutral oil, like corn or canola, if you want to: it'll make it a bit shinier. Spread evenly on a parchment paper, then place it on top of a baking sheet or large cutting board and place in the freezer for five minutes. Remove, and by now the chocolate should have started to set but still be a little soft. Score a square pattern in the chocolate with a sharp knife, then slide it back into the freezer to set completely. Snap the squares apart, and decorate as prettily as you can.

Serve fairly soon, this isn't something that holds up very well.

Recipe in Swedish:
Schwarzwaldtårta med punschgrädde

Very cool news

I have two great things to tell you about today!

First - me, Dagmar and Lena made it to the next round in Tasteline's competition "Home cook of the year"! We sent in a recipe for a chili, made with plenty of spices and, maybe surprisingly, coca-cola, served with oven-dried tomatoes and lavash crackers. (You'll definitely get the full recipe in a bit, don't worry.) We are now one of 16 semifinalists, and next week, a jury will pick four finalists for a live cook-off. Very exciting! You can see all the dishes here, but it's in Swedish only. Ours is the "Stockholmschili".

Second, a happy birthday to the girls at Ragazze, which I'm pretty sure was the very first food blog in Sweden! (They beat me by three days! So, technically, my congratulations is two days late) They're celebrating by having really nice give-aways all week, but again, this is just in Swedish. Head on over!

Arepas

I was SO looking forward to arepas. I had read about them before, but what finally pushed me over the edge was this post by Shauna, at Gluten-Free Girl. So, I hunted for the special corn flour you need, waited several months for a good time to make them, and gave it a go. And.. was utterly disappointed. Don't you hate it when that happens?

I think it was my expectations. I had dreamed of something soft, pillowy, chewy - sort of like the English muffins which they look so much alike. Instead, they were.. not at all like that. They do look a little overbaked and cracked in the photo, so possibly the pan was a bit too warm, but when it was cooler, nothing happened. And they were still fairly sticky in the middle. And dry. And boring. And almost tasteless.

I have to try this again, obviously. At least because I still have a pretty big bag of special flour. So, please, any arepas tips for me? Any way to make these delicious, and not just boring? I even thought about adding a little baking powder to make them fluff up - good, or stupid?

Weekend Cat Blogging - the whole gang

Ywette, proving that she still has what it takes

My cats have a new toy. Their well-trained human (me) bought them a Da Bird wand cat toy, on Ebay, and they are very enthusiastic about it. They all absolutely love it, but Hamlet doesn't like playing near the girls, so he decided to nap in his not-so-well-trained human's box of dvd:s, that are ultimately heading for the attic. (Any week now...)


Hamlet, having a good nap.



The feathers move quite much like an actual bird, so the cats get a real hunting kick out of this one. They train their eye-paw coordination, and you can get them to run and jump - a real workout!


Glinda and Klara, not looking at their most intelligent...



This is a brilliant toy to exercise your cats, so definitely get this if your kitty is on the chubby side. Or just needs more fun! It takes little effort for the human, but it's not something they can play with on their own, so you will have to interact. Which is why you have a pet in the first place, yes?


Kelly, wide-eyed

These toys are also recommended if you have a shy cat, who won't let you come very close. It's a great way to play gently with them, without scaring them. Well, not a problem with my kitties, but I hope this is useful advice for someone.


Little Klara, training her balance

Personalized offers at the grocery store

I shop at Ica, as do many other Swedes - it's one of the largest chains of grocery stores, if not The Largest. I have their store card, which means that all my purchases are logged. I don't mind that. Especially not when they use it for something that benefits me! Yesterday, I received a bunch of coupons "just for me", that were based on my previous buying patterns. I'm pretty darn pleased - I admit to buying all of those things (well, there was one surprise...) I hope they'll keep this up - I much rather get coupons I'll actually use than completely useless offers. How about you? Does your store offer this? Do you like it? I do see that some people have an integrity issue with this, but I personally don't.

Here are my offers this month:

-hard taco shells (yup, we buy taco tubs every now and then)
-fresh basil (ooh, indeed)
-Häagen-Dazs ice cream (yes.. yes. I indulge.)
-cream cheese (not something I buy a lot, but it happens)
-red Danish hotdogs (this was the surprise. I've never, ever bought this, but when confronted, Per admitted that he frequently gets this when he's home alone)
-vitamin-c fizzy tablets (every morning!)
-cat food (obviously)
-bake up baguettes, the kind you just stick in the oven for freshly baked bread in the mornings (we like this on weekends)
-organic tortilla chips (ok, I admit it)
-feta cheese (definitely!)

Ingegerd's Punsch Bars

Ingegerd is one of the politicians I work with. She brought in this wicked cake a few weeks ago, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Luckily, she provided the recipe, and it's SO SIMPLE. And as a bonus, it's really versatile - she uses punsch which is a sweet Swedish liqueur that tastes of arrak, but you can use any sweet liqueur you want, or even coffee or orange juice. (I bet amaretto would be brilliant.) And it freezes perfectly well, so you can prepare it well in advance. Oh, and did I mention that it's gluten-free? No? Well, it is.

You might want to use a little more chocolate than I did - 100 g was on the skimpy side if you want a thick layer.

Ingegerd's Punsch Bars

300 g almond paste
2 eggs
50 ml punsch or other sweet liqueur
100 g dark chocolate
2 tbsp flaked almonds

Grate the almond paste coarsely, and mix with the eggs in a food processor or with a mixer. Spread into a lined pan, about 25 cm in diameter, or an 9 inch square pan. (I used an 8 inch square pan, which was maybe a little on the small side.)

Bake at 175°C for about 20 minutes, or until the cake is lightly golden. Let it cool slightly, then drizzle the liqueur over the cake.

Melt the chocolate, in a waterbath or in the microwave, and brush over the cake. Sprinkle with flaked almonds while the chocolate is still soft.

Cut into smaller pieces and serve.

Recipe in Swedish:
Ingegerds Punschkaka

Beef Fajitas

Simple and fast dinner - buy good meat, slice into strips, fry with plenty of chili, cumin and garlic, and stuff into tortillas with roasted corn, fried bellpepper and guacamole. We ate this a few days ago, and while not exactly an elaborate meal, it was a very good one.

Cookbook Watch: quick and easy but don't forget your manners!

Allt Om Mat is as I've told you many times a Swedish food mag - in fact, probably The Swedish Food Mag. I'm not a subscriber, since I started feeling stressed out about getting food mags in the mail - I never had time to read them properly, much less cook from them. However, I buy it from time to time, and I do love their compiled cookbooks. See, they have a test kitchen, and every recipe is *definitely* tested. That's particularly good for unsure cooks, and I refer to all these books as my husbands - he loves them. Their latest offering is called "Snabba & Lätta Favoriter" which translates to "Quick and light favorites", or "Quick and easy favorites". Clever, because these are both quick, light and easy. No recipe has more than 8 ingredients, 600 calories or takes more than half an hour to make. However, they do use shortcuts here and there that I personally probably wouldn't. Frozen veggie mix for a salad? Pre-cooked wheat berries from a can? Well, no. But that's not a big deal, you can always change those things. I like this book as a fast "what can we cook tonight"-alternative.



Life with kids can be very stressful, I'm sure. I don't have any, so I don't really know from experience. But I do know many parents that struggle every day to get dinner on the table, often resorting to fast food alternatives, or at least half-made frozen convenience foods. This is the book for them: Jacob's Hälsokök (Jacob's Healthy Kitchen) Jacob's last name is Wismar, and I'd never heard of him before, but apparently he's worked out his own method for feeding families. It's a little bit like building lego, perhaps. You prepare various things - sauces, starches and bases. You can freeze these, or at least keep in the fridge. When you want to cook, you start with these things, and add on small touches to make it a meal. No more than fifteen minutes, he promises. Sounds pretty good to me! What does strike me when I read the recipes however is that the quantities seem way off. They're intended for four, but... well, if two of the four are very small kids, perhaps. The portion sizes photographed are tiny, so maybe the idea is that we also should eat less?



Det Dukade Bordet av Magdalena Ribbing is not really a cookbook, but a book about proper etiquette in association with food and eating. Magdalena Ribbing is Sweden's Miss Manners, and she's been writing several books and newspaper columns for many years. This book is rather interesting to read, and it can of course be used as a quick guide as well. It has a lot of history, such as why certain glasses are used for specific drinks, and when we started eating certain things in Sweden. I like that it's so modern and updated - after all, a lot of things do change when it comes to what's good manners or not.

Comfort Food: Creamed Macaroni

I'm at home with a cold today - sniffle, sniffle. I feel utterly down, and the only thing I'm craving is comfort food of some kind. And for me, that usually involves a) pasta and b) something creamy. This is an old Swedish classic that's extremely comforting - but I'm sorry to say I don't have an exact recipe because it's one of those things that's just "in my hands".

So. What you need is milk, macaroni (the elbow kind, preferrably rather large), a little butter, salt and white pepper. Some will add nutmeg, but I never do.

Use about twice as much milk as macaroni - if one cup of macaroni, then you want two cups of milk. Melt a pat of butter in a saucepan, and add the milk. Bring to a simmer, add the macaroni and stir well. Now, keep this at a low boil, stirring every once in a while since milk is tricky - it burns easily or it might try to escape the pan when you least expexct it. Boil until the macaroni are very soft and the milk mostly absorbed. If it looks too dry, add more milk. If it's too liquid, boil for longer. (Or, if you must, add a little flour or cornstarch towards the end.) Add salt, and lots of finely ground white pepper.

Eat. It's perfect with grilled (or fried) hot dogs. I know it doesn't look like much, but it's so very tasty.

And some people do this another way - boil the macaroni in water as usual, make a thick white sauce, combine. To each their own.

Who's the cutest little kitty?

Oh, it's Klara of course! This is how we spent the weekend - me on
couch, she on lap.

A few non-food book tips!

Besides cooking, I really like crafts. Or, at least the idea of crafts. I love it in theory, but in practise, I'm not very skilled, nor do I have a lot of free time. However, knitting and crocheting is great fun, and I really want to learn a little bit more about sewing as well. (So I don't have to hand over anything needing fixing to my mom - it's getting a bit embarrassing at this point.)

So - I want to tell you about three great new books that just came out in Sweden. All three are in Swedish, but I'm sure you can find tons of books in your language as well, if you're not a Swedish-speaker. Head over to your nearest bookstore!



Two of these books are about knitting, and they're written by Nina Sagulin who's previously written a really nice introduction book to knitting called "Sticka!" (which means - "knit!") She also runs a yarn store in Stockholm, and is really friendly and helpful. Her new books are as lovely as the first one - one is focused on knitting for babies and small children, and the other one is all about accessories. I love that the instructions are easy to follow, and it's all rather manageable projects. Nothing huge!



For sewing, this lovely book by Lotta Jansdotter is called "Enkelt att sy" which means "easy to sew". And this one, as well as several other books by Lotta, IS available in English! Or at least I think this one is translated - and it's called "Simple Sewing". (Amazon.com) It looks like a lot of fun, but I haven't tried anything yet. I love the apron on front, with the cool oven-mitt shaped pocket!

Sunshine Juice

My second juice experiment went very well also. I used three oranges, one tangerine, a quarter of a lemon (peel on!) and a carrot. It turned this beautiful deep sunny orange, and the flavor was incredible. It yielded quite a lot - about three glasses. I love my juicer!

Apple Cobbler

It's Friday, so I have to give you a dessert. Right? At least, that's my aim: something sweet for the weekend. (Granted, my aim has been a bit off these past few weeks, I just haven't been cooking or baking anything at all...) I made this a little while ago when my niece and her boyfriend came over for dinner, and it was really good. I found the recipe in "Min Äppelbok" by pastry chef Elisabeth Johansson, and while I omitted nutmeg and instead upped the amount of cinnamon, the rest of the recipe remains intact.

It was my first time making a cobbler, and I loved it. It was fun and easy to make, and while I was a bit confused as to how to properly spread the topping, it seemed to work out well. The recipe includes 200 ml of crunchy toasted oat cereal - something we in Sweden know under the brand name Start. I have no idea if this is available everywhere, and if it isn't, just use more oatmeal. I'm fairly sure that'll work!

Apple Cobbler
Serves 6-8

5 apples
4 tbsp honey
4 tbsp water
2 tsp cinnamon
125 g butter, at room temperature
200 ml sugar
200 ml rolled oats
125 ml crunchy toasted oat cereal (in Sweden: Start)
125 ml flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg



Peel and core the apples, and cut into thin wedges. Mix water and honey in a saucepot, add the apples and bring to boil. Lower the heat and cover with a lid and let them simmer for a few minutes until they're almost soft.

Pour the apples into a large oven-proof dish and dust with cinnamon.

Beat butter and sugar until soft and smooth. Stir in all the dry ingredients, and finish with the egg. Spread (or dollop, more likely) evenly over the apples. Bake at200°C for 20-25 minutes. Serve with vanilla custard or ice cream.

Recipe in Swedish:
Äppelcobbler

Top Chef 5 - coming soon!

I'm excited to see that my very favorite culinary show, Top Chef, will soon be launching into its fifth season! The bios of the cheftestants are now up on the Bravo site - looks promising!

Bulgur with Chanterelles, Feta & Pomegranate

This is a brilliant side dish, to any meat or chicken. It also works really well on its own, as a nice starter, or a vegetarian main dish. I first ate it at Dagmar's, but when I made it myself (to go with a roasted leg of lamb), I skipped the parsley and substituted feta cheese instead of chèvre since that's what I happened to have. It worked really well! I used golden chanterelles that had previously been frozen, and that was delicious. You can use any wild mushroom here, but I don't think ordinary button mushrooms would be great. You need the woodsy flavor to contrast with the salty cheese and the fruity pomegranate.

Bulgur with Chanterelles, Feta & Pomegranate

Serves 4

300 ml bulgur wheat
600 ml water
1 red onion, finely chopped
300 g chanterelles
1 pomegranate
100 g feta cheese, crumbled
100 ml pistachios, coarsely chopped
fresh thyme
butter, salt, pepper

Boil the bulgur in the water, it'll take about 10-15 minutes. Fry the onion and the chanterelles in a little bit of butter until all the liquid from the mushrooms has evaporated. Mix with the bulgur, pistachios and thyme. Arrange on a large platter, and top with crumbled feta cheese and the seeds from the pomegranate.

Recipe in Swedish:
Bulgursallad med kantareller, fetaost och granatäpple

A nice selection of Swedish food

For those of you who think I don't post nearly enough about Swedish food - you have to check out this post by Anna in Australia, whose husband is Swedish. She writes about all the food she ate on her last trip here, and it's perfect for those of you wanting to get a feel for what Swedish food is like. (Although I don't eat half of that.. probably even less!)

That didn't take very long. At all.

I got the Philips juicer, the XXL kind with an extra large (or extra extra large, I suppose) feeding tube. And my first concoction was the heavenly apple lemonade: four apples and half a lemon (peel on!), yielded this delicious stuff in less than five seconds.

Nice morning!

I started my day with a press event by Philips. We were invited to meet "The Juice Master" Jason Vale, and world barista champion of 2006, Klaus Thomsen. Both held really nice presentations, but I have to admit, I was blown away by the juicer. I've been thinking about getting one anyway, and this just pushed me completely over the edge. So, stay tuned, I'm definitely adding a new toy to my kitchen!

Klaus Thomsen surprised me by actually creating really nice latte art on the fully automatic machines provided by the company - well, he steamed the milk manually for it, but still - it was quite nice. Not as good as on a manual machine, but still - good quality. The espressos got a really nice crema, and I'm anxious to try his own coffee roast (we were given a bag).

Orange Olive Chicken

Today, something that Per cooked for me last week. It comes from the Swedish food mag Allt Om Mat which always has really reliable recipes in my opinion. You can fiddle around with this as you please, but the basic idea is really good and really easy. I'd never imagined that olives would go so well with orange! Do use good quality olives though - it's easily worth spending a little more on, since the flavor is so much better.

Perfect weekday meal, as it doesn't take more than twenty minutes - tops!

Orange Olive Chicken
from Allt om Mat
serves 2

3-400 g boneless chicken (thighs or breast)
1 orange
salt, black pepper
butter
100 ml chicken stock or water
50 ml creme fraiche or cream, any fat content
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp corn starch
10 green olives
200 ml cous-cous

Cook the cous-cous according to the package instructions. Clean the orange and finely grate the zest. Squeeze out all juice.

Rub the chicken with orange zest, salt and pepper, and fry in butter until almost cooked through. Mix orange juice, chicken stock or water and creme fraiche or cream, and pour over the chicken. Let it simmer, covered, for about five minutes.

Mix the corn starch with cold water and stir into the sauce. Slice the olives and stir in those, too. Serve with the cous-cous.

Recipe in Swedish:
Apelsinkyckling med oliver