Is an éclair supposed to be like this?

Daring Bakers time again, my friends. This month's recipe, chosen by Meeta and Tony, is from a book I'm dying to get: Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé.



Thus, I was excited from the get go. Even more so when I actually read the recipe and realized that this was all about éclairs. Something I've never tried. As in, never, ever, tried. Not to eat, not to make.



I have made cheese puffs, using a choux pastry dough with cheese, and loads of armpower. (Most of it provided by my able friends.) That was.. not so much fun actually, but quite tasty in the end.



This recipe turned out to be a lot easier. First of all - there was specific instructions for using a stand mixer. Excellent. That sure saved my shoulder from excessive beating. And second of all - I didn't encounter a single snag, because I was so appallingly late in doing this that many other Daring Bakers had already put up their posts, complete with good tips.



Thanks in particular to Fanny, who mentioned spraying the dough with water after shaping and also slitting the baked puffs with a knife right away. I did both - misting the dough once right before going in the oven and twice during baking, and then slitting them open straight away when they were done. Which they were after about 17 minutes. I have a convection oven and didn't bother with the rotating sheet thing. Sorry. But other than that, I followed the instructions.



Wait. More or less. Because I didn't make a pastry cream. I know, I know. But the guidelines gave us some leeway there, and I ended up just mixing vanilla custard (from a box!!) with some whipped cream. I had plans to add fresh berries, but the realities of life foiled me once again and well, no berries. I bet it'd have worked really well though, a few fat raspberries tucked underneath the glazed tops... well, next time. They were delicious just like this though. I particularly liked the chocolate glaze - that recipe is a keeper for sure!



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

I translated the parts of the recipe that I used - you can find that here.

Tesse's Carrot Cake

Thank god for an extra fridge.

Ok, sorry for not posting yesterday. I have good reason though - I was busy baking. A lot. Today is my brother's birthday party, and I had volunteered to make dessert for his 100-or-so guests. (What was I thinking?!) Anyway. So I did. I quickly scrapped my original plan of making cupcakes, and instead asked my friend Tesse for her awesome carrot cake recipe. I made a double batch of that, and then double batches of Earl Grey Cookies (recipe to come), Chocolate Chip Cookies and Cardamom Biscotti. I tried to make a double batch of Cinnamon Tosca Squares, but something went horribly wrong and most of it ended up on my oven floor. And eventually in the wastebin.



Anyway. I have to share the carrot cake recipe. It's really awesome, and I think part of the reason is that it uses butter rather than oil. Tesse always uses normal salted butter, but I used unsalted and instead added a small pinch of salt. You can do it either way.

I made twice this recipe (and three times the frosting) for the batch I made, but this is enough for a thick normal sized cake. (Use a 9-inch springform tin.)



Tesse's Carrot Cake

4 eggs
400 ml sugar
400 ml flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla sugar
1 tsp baking soda
200 g butter, melted
600 ml (about 500 g) carrots, finely grated
cinnamon

Beat eggs and sugar until very fluffy. Stir in flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar and baking soda. Then add the butter, and finally the carrots.

Pour into a buttered and floured baking pan, and sprinkle over cinnamon.

Bake at 175°C until the cake is baked through. Count on about 35-45 minutes, but depending on your pan it can take longer so keep checking it.

Let the cake cool completely before frosting it.

Cream cheese frosting
150 gram cream cheese
60 gram butter, at room temperature
250 ml powdered sugar

Beat all ingredients until it's really light and fluffy. Spread over the cake and place in the fridge to set.

Decorate, if you wish, with caramelized carrot strips.

Recipe in English:
Tesses morotskaka

Cookbook watch - new favorites

You'd think I'd grow tired of new cookbooks eventually. But no. Not at all. I don't like all of them equally much, of course. But sometimes, a few of them stands out from the crowd. I think that recently, I've hit upon several such treasures, and today, I'll tell you a little bit about three of them.

First - the Spice Merchant's Daugther, by Christina Arokiasamy. This is a lovely book about the importance of spices, in especially south-eastern cuisine. The author grew up in Malaysia, so there's a lot of recipes from her childhood, but there's also a lot of spice blends and ideas that can be used for whatever food you like to cook. I *have* to get myself a spice grinder, that's for sure! This book is truly mouth-watering, and the author writes so beautifully and passionately about the use of spices. She also has smart suggestions for what you can do ahead of time, and have at hand in the fridge or the freezer to make a quick meal extra-special. Very highly recommended!



Next up, something entirely different. Two Dudes, One Pan, by Jon Shook and Vinnie Dotolo is a book about.. not having fancy kitchen equipment, one might say. Or it could be a book about cooking delicious food with small resources, and that's how I think of it. These guys obviously know a lot about on-the-fly cooking, and this book shares so many tips and ideas for what you can do with limited kitchen space or equipment. And on a budget, for that matter. I especially love that they rarely use stock, but instead build flavors in other ways. (I rarely use stock myself - at least not homemade. *blushes*) The chapters goes along the lines of "one big bowl", "non-stick skillet", "dutch oven" etc - and has recipes that can be made in, indeed, just that one pan. (Well, most of them require a bowl on the side, but then again, most people have something you can mix stuff in.) This might sound boring, but the recipes are anything but. Everything sounds utterly delicious - and although I usually tend to read a book start-to-finish before decicing what to cook, this book had me running into the kitchen after just half a chapter. (Made a delicious salad, I'll tell you all about it soon.) The "two dudes" have a MySpace page, and a restaurant called Animal which doesn't seem to have a webpage yet, but where I'd love to eat. My only question is who's who? Who is Jon, who is Vinnie? I'm just curious...



And finally a book that despite the title - Eat the Meat - is only available in Swedish. It's the fairly famous chef Jonas Borssén, well known for his ways with chili, who's written this really ambitious book about meat. It's divided into chapters on beef, veal, pork and lamb, and in addition to that, it also has a fairly long introduction about meat production in general and why you should buy locally produced meat. I love that each chapter talks a lot about different cuts of meat - but it also talks about different breeds of animal, and that's something I've never seen before. The book also uses cuts that aren't really common in Sweden, but the author suggests you take the book to your butcher and show him exactly what you want! Most of all, I love this book for the beautiful photos, and the amazing recipes. I'll be using it a lot this fall.

Chili & Apple Cider Vinegar Pork

I've written a lot of posts lately on really quick and easy recipes, something you whip together effortlessly... but today, you're in for a different sort of treat. This recipe *is* long, and it *will* take a while - but please don't let that scare you off. You don't have to do it all at once - in fact, you could easily do step 1 on the night before you want to eat this, step 2 the next morning, and step 3 just before serving. (Or - step 1 in the morning, step 2 and 3 just before eating.) And I assure you, well worth the time.

This is a really flavorful way to cook pork, and I use a fairly cheap cut with quite a bit of marbled fat - sadly, I'm not completely sure what that corresponds to in English. Looking at wikipedia, I think it's blade shoulder, or spare rib roast, depending on where in the world you are.

The recipe is adapted from the Swedish grocery store Ica.

Chili & Apple Cider Vinegar Pork
Serves 4

800 g pork shoulder

brine:
1 yellow onion
3 garlic cloves
3 tbsp salt
700 ml water
1,5 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp black peppercorns (whole)
1 bay leaf
200 ml apple cider vinegar

spice rub:
1 tbsp yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 tsp dried chili flakes
1-2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil

Step 1:
Make the brine. Peel the onion and cut it into wedges. Peel the garlic. Mix all the ingredients in a pot, and bring to boil. Stir so that the sugar and salt dissolves, then remove from heat and leave to cool.

Place the meat in a fairly narrow container, and pour the brine over it. The meat should be pretty much submerged. Use a weight if it isn't. Place in the fridge for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

Step 2:
Heat the oven to 150°C. Mix the spice rub - just toss all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Remove the meat from the brine, dry it off a little bit, and rub in all the spices. Place the meat in a baking dish, and bake for about one hour or until it reaches an inner temperature of 65°C. Flip the meat after half the cooking time to make sure it roasts evenly.

Remove from the oven, and let the meat rest a little bit before slicing it. Or cover and leave in the fridge for a few hours - that'll work too. Save the pan juices, whatever you do!

Step 3:
When it's time to eat, slice the meat into 1 cm slices. Grill them briefly, either in a pan or on an outdoor grill. Heat the pan juices, adding a little bit more water if needed, and drizzle the meat with them just before serving.

Recipe in Swedish:
Karré med äppelcidervinäger & chili

Leftover deliciousness

I was having dinner by myself a few nights ago. Not something which happens a whole lot, but once in a while. I rarely cook for myself, but instead I turn to comforting easy things - and I have to admit, I often use shortcuts. (Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup is a favorite) For this particular little wonder-in-a-bowl, I used up leftovers.

-Half a fennel bulb, cut up into pieces and fried in olive oil and a tiny pinch of sugar until very caramelized and crunchy-chewy.
-A little bit of leftover rotisserie chicken, shredded.
-A spoonful of crumbled feta cheese.
-A small handful of corn (frozen).

I shared with the tiny kittens - Kitty wasn't interested, as human food seems completely uninteresting to her, but Klara loved this. She particularly enjoyed the fennel, which I found quite strange. (No, I don't let my cats eat lots of food except their own kibble, but I do let them taste things once in a while. Especially when they're very insistent, in this case, hanging from the bowl...)

Zucchini Pasta

A very quick and simple meal that I found over at one of my favorite food blogs: The Pioneerwoman Cooks. I've changed the quantities a bit, but the recipe is pretty much the same. It's a great little thing, really - tasty pasta with a light white wine-cream sauce, with plenty of summer veggies. Can't go wrong with that! And best of all, it won't take you more than.. say, 20 minutes. At the most.

Zucchini Pasta
Serves 2

1 zucchini, diced
1 onion, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
olive oil
100 ml white wine
100 ml cream
parmesan, grated
fresh basil, shredded
180 g pasta (I like bowties - farfalle)

Get the pasta going, while you do the rest.

Dice the zucchini. Chop onions and garlic, and halve the tomatoes.

Heat some olive oil in a skillet. Fry the zucchini, over fairly high heat, so that it browns a bit. Don't let it cook too long, it should retail some bite. Remove to a plate with some paper towels, and let it drain off a little.

Heat more olive oil, and fry onions and garlic on medium heat until softened. Add the cherry tomatoes, and the white wine. Let it reduce for a few minutes. Add the cream, and the zucchini.

Season with lots of salt and black pepper. Drain the pasta, but save some of the water. Add the pasta to the sauce, and if it looks dryish, add some of the pasta water. Finish with shredded basil and grated parmesan.

Recipe in Swedish:
Zucchinipasta

Blogging by mail on again, sign-up now!

Stephanie from Dispensing Happiness has just announced another round of Blogging By Mail - that wonderful world-wide event where food bloggers send each other secret packages. It's so much fun - I've gotten some great goodies in the past, and gotten to know many lovely people, and I'm definitely signing up for this round as well. Head over to Stephanie and do the same!

My sister's salad

More desperately simple food. I'll post more proper recipes eventually, but bear with me while I tell you of these very quick things. I promise that they're good!

This salad is something my sister made when I visited her this summer. She served it as it was alongside grilled salmon, the next day with cooked quinoa and some fried up minced meat. Both days, it was incredible, and I couldn't wait to get home to make it myself. And it's so simple. One of those - why didn't I think of this myself?

So, what you need: cabbage, preferrably as fresh as possible, a handful of alfalfa sprouts, grated carrots (again, small, fresh ones), cubed melon, and if you happen to live somewhere where strawberries are in season, go ahead and add some. Finish with a sprinkle of pumpkin seeds.

And that's it. It's great with a creamy sauce on the side - simple, like yogurt and some chili paste, perhaps. Or just eat it the way it is.

Iced Latte

Summer is almost over - but only almost. It's still pretty warm, and I love starting my day (at least on weekends) with a big iced latte. I may not be able to make a proper frappuccino at home (god knows I've tried) but I can definitely make one of these: Simply fill a glass with ice and milk, pour over a shot of espresso and if you'd like (I like), some vanilla syrup.

Clafoutis in the making

All my text disappeared - how strange! Anyway, this photo is of Dagmar making a great plum clafoutis. Well, it's mostly of the baking dish, I suppose, and that alien-looking thing is Dagmar's hand. Notice her very handsome cat Yoshi, too!

Piperade

I have to tell you about this wonderful little dish - basically a creamy vegetable omelet - that I found in Chocolate & Zucchini the book. I've simplified it a little, cutting down on the cooking time at least a little bit, but that's just because I'm lazy. And I'm adding cumin, since it goes so incredibly well with the eggs.

Serve this with either a few slices of air-cured ham, or maybe with some smoked salmon, or like me tonight: with roasted chicken. It goes alongside many things, and would be nice on its own for a small supper too.

You can use frozen peppers, pre-cut into strips, if you have them. I do, because fresh peppers can be incredibly expensive and I stumbled over this huge bag a while ago and as long as you're cooking the peppers, there's really no difference at all. If you want, you can skip the tomatoes. I don't have any today, so it'll have to be without. I'm sure it's still going to be delicious.

I should mention that my omelet making skills are so-so. Thus, this is more of a scrambled eggs dish for me. As evident in the photo. But never mind that...

Piperade
serves 2

1 small yellow onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 peppers (preferrably a green and a red)
chili powder
cumin
salt
olive oil
pinch of sugar
3 tomatoes
4 eggs
cream (optional)

Slice the onion and the peppers into thin strips. Fry with the minced garlic in a splash of olive oil with cumin, chili and a little bit of salt on low heat until the vegetables are soft. Aim for at least 30 minutes.

Blanch the tomatoes - which means, dip them in boiling water, then peel them. Cut them into wedges, remove the seeds, and chop up the flesh. Add this to the vegetables with a small pinch of sugar, and fry until the liquid seems to have evaporated.

Whisk the eggs with a little bit of salt, and if you're feeling luxurious, add a splash of cream. Pour into the vegetables, and fry over medium heat. Stir gently to make sure that all the egg cooks evenly. Or stir less gently, and get scramled piperade. Really, it's up to you.

Recipe in Swedish:
Piperade

Cookbook Watch - harvest time

It's the middle of August, and most berries are either gone by now, or in their prime. Apples are soon coming into season, and plums are perfect at the moment. I don't have any fruit trees or bushes, so I'll be doing all my picking at the market - but that's ok too, and there's plenty to choose from. As for what to do with the loot.. well, that's where these two books come in.



Both are only available in Swedish, and both are written by very accomplished female pastry chefs. And I'll tell you right now, both are well worth the space on the cookbook shelf. One, Min äppelbok ("My Apple Book") by Elisabeth Johansson is just about apples. The other, Frukt och Bär ("Fruits and Berries") by Ingela Persson has a wider scope, and covers everything from citrus, rhubarb, currants, plums, pears, apples to peaches, cherries and sloe berries. It's more focused on preserving in different ways, whereas the apple book has a lot more dessert or baking ideas. Both books are very nicely made, but the apple book has more photos. If you have loads of apple trees, you should definitely opt for Elisabeth's book. If you, however, don't have much of a preference on what fruit or berry to work with, get the other book. Or really, get both. You won't regret it.

Spicy Carrots with Chèvre

It's been a while since I mentioned my favorite cheese, chèvre. (It's a delicious goat's cheese and you should all try it.) It goes incredibly well with sweet flavours, and you just have to make this warm salad with carrots, spices and honey. It's positively scrumptious! Eat it as it is, or serve alongside a piece of grilled meat or fish - pork or salmon would be really good. This serves 2 generously, or maybe more if you're serving something else with it.

Spicy Carrots with Chèvre

3 large carrots
1 red chili, finely chopped
1-2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
1 tsp cumin
1-2 tsp sea salt
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp runny honey
70 g chèvre
3 tbsp toasted pumpkin seeds
3 tbsp dried cranberries
3 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Peel the carrots and cut them into bite-sized pieces. Fry with the oil, chili, ginger, cumin, salt and honey for about ten minutes. Crumble the cheese on top, and finish with pumpkin seeds, cranberries and parsley. Serve warm.

Recipe in Swedish:
Kryddiga morötter med chèvre

A favorite, second time around

I know I've posted about this before, but I just made this lovely crispy polenta with caramelized tomatoes and shallots for the first time in a *very* long time, and I had to remind you of it. This time, we had it for a main course alongside a piece of grilled entrecôte, and it was absolutely delicious.

Go here for the recipe.

Ground Beef & Cabbage Noodles

So incredibly quick and delicious, I've made this twice in the past few weeks and I can't wait to make it again. It's really a satisfying meal, and it takes no more than fifteen minutes providing you start with ready made noodles, or at least make those first. I've just discovered a completely pre-cooked noodle which kind of sounds like something unnecessary, but really is nice to have at hand in the cupboard at times like this. You could definitely use rice instead of noodles, or some kind of pasta - if you have some leftovers, that's ideal.

Ground Beef & Cabbage Noodles
Serves 2

200 g ground beef
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp Chinese five-spice powder
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, grated
5-6 cm fresh ginger, grated
2 carrots, thinly sliced
2-300 ml fresh cabbage, shredded (older winter cabbage will work too, just let it cook a little longer.)
2-3 tbsp Japanese soy sauce
handful of alfalfa sprouts
salt, chili, more five-spice powder

ready-cooked noodles

Brown the minced meat with oyster sauce, five-spice and sugar until it's cooked through and starting to brown well. Add onions, garlic and ginger and stir-fry for a few minutes. Add carrots and cabbage, and fry for a few minutes longer. Add soy sauce, the sprouts and the noodles, and season with salt, chilli and some more five-spice. Serve with sriracha sauce, for those that want to spice things up!

Recipe in Swedish:
Köttfärsröra med nudlar och vitkål

Weekend Cat Blogging - nine weeks

My little girls are nine weeks old now, and I'm getting so attached to them. They really are quite darling, especially Klara who keeps coming up to me, laying down in lap and purring loudly. I have no idea how I'll be able to let them move out in three weeks time - it feels unreal.



They've finally caught on to the idea of eating cat food. Reluctantly, but still. Klara loves everything else, and will do anything to get on the table when we're eating. So far, she seems to like Indian food, roasted fennel, ice cream, buttermilk, sandwiches, cheese, ham, crepes with mushroom filling, chicken and just about anything else that we've let her try. (And we really shouldn't - I know her new mommy is quite strict about kitty diets, but believe me, it's hard to resist.)


Look at that tummy!

Last night, I had the bright idea to place some of her boring dry food on our apparently irresistible coffee table - and she immediately galloped over to gulp it all down. Success!


Possibly my favorite kitten picture ever.

For the full Flickr set, check here.


Kelly really loves being a mom.

Feed problem

I've been getting a few e-mails asking what's happened, have I stopped blogging? Turns out there's a problem with my rss-feed. And sadly, I don't know what to do about it. Earlier this summer, I switched to feedburner instead of just using blogger's default rss. After that, my photos disappeared in the feed, so I switched back. And after that, the feed doesn't show up at all. (I use google reader, and it can only pull up posts from July 24 and earlier.) Should be the same with bloglines.

I'm really sorry for any inconvience - I'll try to fix it, and if you know how to, I'd love to hear it :)

Birthday cake

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No, not for me, but my co-worker celebrates today with cake and coffee. This one was so pretty I had to take a picture. Happy friday!

Coriander & Chili Yogurt

Here's the sauce I mentioned, that goes so very very well with the fruity bulgur salad. It also goes really well with other salads, or with something from the barbecue - almost anything, really. And it takes just a few minutes to put together, but try to do it slightly in advance, the flavors develop more if they're left to sit for an hour or so.

Coriander & Chili Yogurt

5 tbsp fresh coriander
1 tbsp fresh mint
1/2 chili (use your favorite), finely minced
2 tsp honey
1 lime, finely grated zest
200 ml thick yogurt (greek or turkish style)
salt

Place the herbs and the chili with a little bit of the yogurt in a bowl, and mix using a handheld blender until it's well blended. Stir in the rest yogurt and the lime zest. Season with honey and salt.

Recipe in Swedish:
Koriander- och chilisås

Cookbook Watch - a wonderful find

I have a lot of cookbooks to tell you about again, but let's start with my favorite of the bunch: The Great Big Veg Challenge by Charlotte Hume. Charlotte is a fellow blogger, and has a blog with the same name here. I've been following it pretty much from the start, and always thought it was a great read. It's about Charlotte's family, really, and mostly about her son Freddie. They had a complete war every time Freddie was forced to eat vegetables, and in a most ambitious effort to change this, Charlotte challenged him to try every single vegetable - starting at A, ending at Z.

People, that's a pretty big challenge.

And Freddie accepted. Thus the blog. And eventually, this book. In it, you'll find all the vegetables this family tried, complete with stories and of course, recipes. All recipes are rated by Freddie, and you can see which ones did the best and which ones were just so-so. But he tried them ALL! For a boy who before refused to eat three little peas, this is an effort so incredible I can't even think of appropriate words.

You can definitely see the optimism growing bigger and bigger throughout the book, as Charlotte discovers that Freddie does like some vegetables, after all. In fact, he likes quite a lot of them. And since I do too, I know this book will be well used. I don't have a fussy kid to cook for, but that doesn't mean I don't need inspiration to get more veggies into my diet. What I like so very much about this book is that everything goes alphabetically, and it's almost like a mini-encyclopedia on vegetables. "Let's see, I have half a celeriac and a daikon in my fridge. What on earth will I do?" (For those of you snickering and muttering about the unlikeliness of this happening, I have that exact situation right now. I can provide photographic proof, too.) Well, I'll turn to the book, and try something. And I bet it'll be good. This is not a book to keep tucked away in the bookshelf. Once you've read it through for the story, this is one for the kitchen.

The book has some photos - I suppose that's the one thing I'd have wanted more of, but lots of glossy photos means expensive books, and besides, you can get plenty of photos on the blog. It has lovely photos of Charlotte with her family - Freddie has an adorable sister, too, who has my hair color (gorgeous red!) and I love seeing photos of them all together.

You should be able to find this in any online bookshops, and it gets a big thumbs-up from me. Great book!

Duck Confit with fruity Bulgur - perfect!

Who knew? I had a very old tin of duck confit, brought to me from France several years ago. The eat-by date had just passed, and it was clearly time to break open this delicacy. If it was winter, I'd probably serve the duck with roasted potatoes, a creamy sauce, maybe some sauerkraut... but as it's in the middle of summer, we wanted something lighter. So, I went for the delicious fruity bulgur I told you about yesterday, and coriander-chili yogurt. A perfect meal.

Fruity Bulgur Salad with Raspberries

I hope berries are still in season where you live, because you really should try this salad before summer is over. You really do need fresh raspberries here (but I wouldn't mind blackberries, or maybe cherries) - frozen won't do at all. Or well, it will be nice, but it won't be the same. This is heavenly. You can eat it as it is, or as a side dish - I loved it with duck, and some roasted chicken would be equally lovely. For a sauce, I made a great coriander sauce which I'll post about in a few days, promise!

Fruity Bulgur Salad with Raspberries
Serves 2

150 ml bulgur
300 ml water
5 dried apricots
2 tbsp dried cranberries
100 ml mixed fresh herbs (a good handful really) - basil, coriander and flat-leaf parsley is what I used
1/2 red chili
2 tbsp toasted hazelnuts
2 tbsp toasted pistachios
1 lime, juiced
1 tsp olive oil
salt
125 g fresh raspberries

Put bulgur and water in a pot with some salt, bring to a boil and cover with a lid. Lower the heat and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes, at which point the water should be absorbed. Spread onto a platter and leave to cool slightly.

Chop the apricots, nuts and pistachios coarsely. Finely mince the chili. Mix with the now cool bulgur, and season with lime juice, olive oil and salt. Top it with fresh raspberries and serve.


Bonus picture!

Recept på engelska:
Fruktig bulgursallad med hallon

Three shades of green

I've been spending some time today taking care of a huge crop of rocket (also known as arugula) which I've been growing. I guess I hadn't counted on all of it being done at the same time, and I really should have picked it at least one week ago. Oh well, better late than never. However, I had to think of something to do with it that could be frozen, and used over the next few months, as I wasn't up for just having a huge bowl of rocket for dinner every day for two weeks. So, I turned to pesto. So simple really, and you can put nearly anything in it. The base I used was garlic (one or two cloves), salt, black pepper or chili, a pinch of sugar (since my rocket was a little bit too old, that means it's also more bitter), a splash of olive oil, a good handful of nuts (I used almonds, hazelnuts and cashews), as much rocket as the food processor would hold, and more oil.

Basically, I started by blitzing the garlic, salt, pepper or chili, sugar, nuts and some of the oil, adding rocket, and finally more oil. You can definitely put in cheese, but I think I'd rather add that at the time of the meal instead. (Or to be totally honest, I just forgot.) I made three batches - one with hazelnut, one with almonds and chili, and one with cashews. All three turned out super! Now, I'm freezing them in shallow containers, but when they're frozen, I plan to chop them into more appropriately sized pieces (I think maybe four or six per container) and freeze them in plastic bags instead.

First crawfish of the year

Dessert - it's Friday

Chocolate ice cream. Meringues. Caramel sauce. All of it straight from the grocery store. What can I say - first week back at work has made me exhausted!

A final batch of photos from my sister

Just a few more, I promise!


A delicious grilled sandwich at Pause café in Östersund.


My sister made banana muffins.


And biscotti with black currants and cardamom - yum!


She also knits, and crochets - a lot. These socks she made for me are made from yarn she dyed herself, with.. are you sitting down? Kool-Aid!


And these little Japanese scrubbies are for cleaning dishes, or the sink. Cute, aren't they?


Cutest of them all, my great-nephew Alex, reaching for a much too big bottle of Coke.

A delicious cake

I've never seen this particular cake in Stockholm, but it was everywhere in Östersund. It's called a Violet Cake, and while it has nothing to do with violets - except for the color - it was truly delicious. It's much like a regular Princess cake, but it also has one layer of meringue in the middle, and fresh berries. So, basically something like this, if I remember it correctly.

- cake layer
- jam
- cake layer
- whipped cream
- chocolate-coated meringue disc
- whipped cream with fresh berries
- caye layer
- marzipan

Maybe I'll try something like it myself!

Polenta Ciabatta

It's raining here. Raining a whole lot. It's wetter than wet - and there's also a very strong wind. You really don't want to go outdoors, unless you absolutely have to. Sadly, to get home from work, I'll have to eventually. But let's not think about that. Instead, let's talk about what you can do when you're at home, when it rains: bake bread. It's one of my favorite things to do, and it makes me feel very competent and accomplished. Plus, it fills my freezer and saves me from having to eat store-bought bread. (Which is often full with preservatives and things I really rather not eat.)

This is a very simple bread. I really recommend it even if you don't usually bake, because the dough is so easy to work with. And they freeze beautifully - just thaw in the microwave (or overnight if you're good at planning ahead), slice and toast for a nice crispy surface.

The recipe comes from a lovely book my in-laws got me for my birthday: Smaker från Saltå Kvarn. ("Flavours from Saltå Kvarn".) Saltå is a mill outside Stockholm, and they produce lots of different flours but also things like beans, lentils or whole grains. You can find them pretty much anywhere in Sweden, and everything they make is organic. The book is lovely - it has three chapters: bread, sweet stuff and food. I'm dying to try some of their salads, using beans and lentils - I generally shy away from that, but I will make a point of trying those recipes. On another rainy day, perhaps.

Polenta Ciabatta
from "Smaker från Saltå Kvarn"

makes 20

50 g fresh yeast
1 litre water, tepid
1 tbsp salt
200 ml polenta (0,8 cups)
2,4 litres all-purpose flour (10 cups)

Crumble the yeast into a bowl, and stir it with some of the water until it's dissolved. Add the rest of the water, salt and polenta. Work in the flour gradually -by hand or with a stand mixer, but be aware that this is a pretty big dough and it was slightly too big for my Kitchen-Aid. (Which meant lots of cleaning afterwards.)

The dough should hold together easily, and release from the bowl, but it will still feel slightly sticky. Pour it onto a clean surface and cover with a towel. Leave to rise for 45 minutes. Divide into 20 evenly sized portions - mine weighed 120 g each - and shape into small rectangles. Place on baking sheets, cover with a towel and leave for another 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 175°C. Bake the breads for 20 minutes. I used a water sprayer to create some mist in the oven at the start.

Leave to cool on a rack.

Recipe in Swedish:
Polentaciabatta

This is not a cupcake

Well, not an edible one at least. But pretty sweet nonetheless, don't you think? They're made from fimo clay (a soft polymer clay) and handmade by yours truly. It's great fun really, and I'm really enjoying this new little hobby of mine. I got the idea visiting my sister - her friend made charms like these, and I felt incredibly inspired to give it a whirl myself.


Swedish Princess cake - there's a recipe here


A very, very small slice of carrot cake

Right now, I'm not doing any orders...


Ice Cream cones

Each piece is fitted with a tiny eye pin, and you can attach rings if you want, thus making it easy to slip the piece onto a necklace. You can also use them as bracelet charms, or thread them onto earrings, use to spruce up a mobile phone or a purse, or even use them as stitch markers. The possibilities? Endless!


Lavender cake