green box

not only do we have new apartment in a new city (uppsala) in a new country (sweden), we also started a new life concerning what we eat: we ordered a "green box". which means that every wednesday we get a large box with ecologically grown veggies and fruit delivered right to our door. it greatly reduces the schlep-factor in grocery shopping, is not much more expensive than buying regular vegetables at a supermarket, the quality is higher and we even get information about where our happy apples grew up.



so far we have only tested it for one week, but i'm really happy about it. we get three different sorts of fruit and six sorts of veggies (whereof usually at least one kind of sallad) and i try to come up with fun recipes to use them. i would say that each week there will probably be at least one fruit or vegetable that i usually wouldn't buy or have never bought until now. definitely challenging!



another good thing is that come summer we'll try out the completely swedish box - not only organically but even completely locally grown. i have to admit that with all the beets and roots during winter it is just not as attractive for us right now. we really don't like beets. at all.

for those of you living in sweden, we order lilla mixlådan from ekolådan. i'm sure there are similar offers in germany and lots of other countries. check it out!

edit: in germany you can google "grüne kiste" to find out if there is a service like this close to where you live. i also did a quick search for "vegetable subscription" and there seem to be a couple of programs in the states as well as in great britain.

breakfastparty

it was my birthday last saturday, and i invited some friends over for breakfast. having a breakfastparty is something i really love doing - no trouble with neighbours, it's easy to prepare and always appreciated by the guests who get a fancy meal before heading for work or whatever else they have planned for the day...



i got lots of flowers and other nice presents - a pressure cooker from my parents (practical!), some kusmi tea (anastasia, delicious!) and best of all, a boat trip to copenhagen in the beginning of may!!!



by the way, this is not the breakfast from saturday, but the leftovers on sunday morning =) we had carrot cake, rhubarb muffins and fruitsallad (one kiwi was all that was left from that..). and tea and orange juice.

a delicious summer

the most simple things can be the most delicious.
























fresh sweat peas from the market in helsinki.

























chanterelles directly in front of the summer cottage.



















picking your own berries just behind the cottage is so rewarding. i think i picked for half an hour per day. it was like meditation, only better.



















also, breakfast is twice as good with fresh blueberries..

lemon summer chicken

on a really hot day i found this fabulously fresh recipe for a warm chicken sallad in a swedish newspaper. however, i tweaked it a bit to match the contents of my refridgerator and it turned out to be just as delicious as i thought it would:





















you need:
olive oil, a little butter, 2 cloves of garlic, two chicken breasts, a handful of sugar snaps. pasta. one red onion, the juice and peel of one lemon, a bunch of parsley. salt, black peppar, thyme.

how to:
cook pasta.
cut the chicken breasts into smaller pieces, press the garlic through a garlic press or chop very fine. fry the chicken with the garlic in a little butter and olive oil, add salt, peppar and thyme (as much as you like). when it's almost done, add the sugar snaps for a minute.
cut the onion into rings, chop the parsley. mix a dressing of lemon peels, lemon juice and some olive oil.
put everything in a large bowl, add dressing, enjoy!

birds on repeat

today's outfit is almost a repeat of yesterday's. just breaking in the skirt =)

























skirt: monki
top: h&m
belt, hat and brown bag: thrifted
tote: mq
shoes: strauss

if you wonder what's in the tote: i just came back from grocery-shopping and it contains a box of black currants, a bunch of carrots, some sugar peas and a lime.

tonight we are going to have a typical swedish dish, called "pytt-i-panna". it's really easy, you use all kinds of vegetable and meat leftovers (such as bell peppers, squash, carrots, peas, meat balls, sausages,... whatever you like, basically), cut it into small pieces, add some diced potatoes and onions and stirfry the whole shebang. season with salt and pepper and if you like you can serve it with a fresh sallad or fried eggs. it's delicious!

the lime and black currants were for a cake which is right now in the oven and hopefully done soon...

let them eat cake

i love baking. it has become one of my favourite hobbies, and makes both me and my neighbours and friends usually very happy.



















last week i made a rhubarb version of one of my current favourites: the lemon merengue pie. it was delicious!

























also, i found i could not withstand the smell of the elderflowers out there, so i made some light liqueur with elderflowers and lemon. it is really easy to make, just pick some elderflowers (around 12-15) and put them inside a bowl. wash two untreated lemons carefully cut them into slices and put into the bowl as well. at last, pour about 0,7 l of water into the bowl and let stand for about 24hours. filter, blend with around 200g of sugar and 0,7 l of vodka. done!!

chocolate truffles

on monday i went for a long walk. it's amazing how just a few minutes from here feel like a totally different world, with the river and forest. it was warm, so warm that i took off my tights later on. it also was the first time i took out my pair of converse this year..

























blouse and belt: thrifted
shoes: converse
tights and shorts: h&m
bag: 70s vintage

this year i had decided not to buy any chocolate for easter but to make my own chocolate truffles. i used a recipe from mia öhrn (who is also the publisher behind josefin ekman's "pyssel deluxe") and they turned out wonderful! i forgot to take pictures and they are almost gone now , but at least i thought i'd give you the recipe:

for 20-30 truffles you need:
150g dark chocolate, finely grated
150g nougat, chopped into small pieces
150ml cream
2 teaspoons of honey

200g dark chocolate for topping/dipping

bring the cream to a boil together with the honey, take it quickly from the heat, put the grated chocolate and chopped nougat into it and stir quickly so it melts. let cool down to room temperature and put it into the fridge over night. the next day, take it out of the fridge and roll small balls or eggs, put them back into the fridge to cool down again.

melt the chocolate either in a microwave or over boiling water and dip the truffles into the melted chocolate. place onto a plate with baking paper and let cool down. enjoy!

happy easter!

it's a beautiful day today. perfect to hang out in a garden or park, do almost nothing other than eat, drink and relax. perfect to take out my new dress again and to sport my newish white socks in my newish red shoes (no, i still think it's a bit too early in the year to go totally barefoot - you have to content yourself with a peek at my pale legs).

























dress, socks & necklace: h&m
top: indiska
belt: vintage
shoes: deichmann

i had a great, tasty, and quite typical german easter breakfast:





















two different sorts of bread (a good tasty farmer's bread and a sweet one with raisins, icing and almonds), three different sorts of ham (well, ok, turkeybreast and two different sorts of ham), selfcoloured eggs and butter. and my usual black tea. what a heavenly breakfast!! and no, i did not eat up everything yet, there's enough left for the rest fo the week..

i'll be off to a friend's place soon, she has her godchild over easter and her own daughter as well, so we'll have to entertain two soon-to-be teenagers. for this purpose i made some carrotcake-cupcakes:












and later on we'll barbecue!!

salt

i discovered some amazing food blogs during the last weeks and months, amongst others the swedish one "krinolinas kök" (krinolina's kitchen). there i found interesting recipes and ideas, a few of which i have already tried out. the first one i did was my own herbal salt after krinolina's directions, which is what i want to share with you here. it is really easy and tastes so much better than the stuff you can buy at the stores!

























the general rule is to use roughly the same amount of herbs and salt. chop the herbs into really really small pieces and, if you have different sorts of herbs for the same salt, blend them well. then mix the herbs with seasalt (1 dl salt + 1 dl chopped herbs) and put the mixture into a well closing container. the salt will get a little moist as it draws the aromatic oils out of the herbs. according to krinolina it can last for a good 2 years as the salt conserves the herbs. well, in case you don't use it up before..

i chose one bunch each of parsley, lemon thyme, chives, wild garlic, rosemary and sage, plus one or two cloves of garlic. i think i got four smaller glasses plus the tiny and the large on on the picture out of this, and gave away three of the glasses as presents already.
basically you can chose whichever herbs you like, it also depends on what you'd like to use the salt for. for example i am planning on making some basil salt soon for my beloved tomato sallad.

baking again

on friday i baked again, this time a swedish recipe called "kladdkaka". it is a chocolate-cake and i like it very much. but instead of my usual recipe i used the one that underbara clara posted some time ago. as she writes only in swedish i thought i'd translate it for you, as it is really very very good:

100g butter (melted)
3dl sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla-sugar
6 spoons of dark cacao
1,5 dl flour
juice of a half lime
some poppy seeds

blend everything carefully with a spoon or fork (whichever you prefer) except the poppy seeds. the dough is supposed to be fluffy and dark brown and really pasty. butter a pie-form and instead of breadcrumbs you spread poppy seeds into the buttered form. spread the dough inside the form, put some poppy seeds over it and bake everything for 20-25min at 175°.
after it has cooled down a bit you make it look a bit snowy by putting some powdered sugar over it.

the thing is that i never succeed in making the kladdkaka kladdig. it is supposed to be rather pasty inside when you take it out of the oven, and i never succeed with that. i guess i'll have to take it out earlier. still, right now it is very fluffy and very tasty.

perfect glass

i don't know how they do it, but when it comes to designing nice glass, finnish Iittala is just plain best. one of their collaborations with marimekko, the maribowl, has been haunting me these days, and the craving does not seem to go away. i wish i wish!!!

















i mean, look at the small details! it looks almost as if it was made of coloured ice, the form is classic and it comes in don't ask me how many different colours....

























it's just plain perfect glass. for dessert, ice cream, cookies, pralinés, cherries, whatever you love.

cranberry-cupcakes

today i baked. cupcakes. after an afternoon of basically lying down in my bed with a severe headache, the aspirin i had taken finally helped and i felt quite enthusiastic and decided to bake a couple of cupcakes. i do love cupcakes. it should have been cherry-ones, but as i ate all the cherries yesterday evening already, i decided on cranberry with macadamia. gorgeous!


the picture does not do them credit, they are as crispy as can be, and fluffy and not too sweet. just perfect. the only thing missing is some icing, but i didn't have any icing-sugar at home, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

premium chocolate

yesterday, i had the chance to finally try one of a series of chocolates which i have been dying for to try. i'm talking about zotter-chocolate, which is hand made, organic and fair trade, expensive as hell, but the money is definitely worth it.

and it's not only the above named niceties that makes this chocolate so interesting. it is, above all, the fact that they offer about 70 different sorts with basically every taste that you can and cannot imagine.

how about "beetroot with galingale"? (i didn't even know that something like galingale existed..)


or how about "rose and basil"? sounds like a lovely summerday in the garden...


and here, my i-really-want- to-try-sort: "sour cherries with sesame". did i mention that cherries are my favourite fruit?


so "grey poppy - cherry" is definitely the second in row which i want want want to try...

it's pink and green and it tastes good

during the last weeks i rediscovered rhubarb. i just love the colour, and even more i love the fresh taste of it. so, i have been making rhubarb muffins, rhubarb-fruit-jelly and a rhubarb-strawberry-sauce to have with vanilla-icecream. and tonight, i did a new recipe from the cooking magazine viva!. it was supposed to be a quark-semolina-dessert with rhubarb-compote. i think i got it a bit wrong, mostly, i have too much sugar in it (blame the kitchen-scales!!) and then i didn't have any whipped cream. i guess, i also should have used a mixer but i did not. anyway, it tastes delicious.

this is how it is done, or rather, how i did it: bring 250ml of milk with 20-30g of sugar to the boil, add 25g of semolina and stir while simmering for 2-3min. let cool down. in the meantime, mix 250g of quark with a little bit of milk and some jogurt so it gets nice and creamy. blend the semolina with the quark-mix.
cut 300g of rhubarb into small pieces, bring to the boil with 60ml of water and 50g of sugar and let simmer for about 4-5min. let cool down.

put one layer of the rhubarb-compote into a dessert-bowl, then one layer of quark-semolina-cream and pile until the bowl is full. enjoy!!!

i still have their recipe on sweet and warm rhubarb-pizza with almonds to try out...

salmon with three kinds of onion

i have not always liked salmon, and it still depends a lot on how it is prepared if i like it or not. The swedish television, svt, has had a cooking show called "Niklas mat", which for the time being is not being produced or broadcasted, but instead, niklas started a videoblog for svt's webpage. here, he gives simple, easy and quick to cook recipes or shows special cooking tips. in swedish, i should add.

anyway, here is one recipe which i really came to like, it's "salmon with three kinds of onions" (lax med tre lökar).
for this, you need - for one person - some garlic (the first kind of onion), a shallot onion and two or three spring-onions. if you like, you may even add some red onion or some leek. it's all up to you and what you like. as well, you need a glass of white wine, some olive oil, salt and pepper and of course, a piece of salmon.

start with chopping the onions into rings or halv rings and the garlic-cloves into two pieces (you may want to take them out before eating). heat the olive oil in a frying pan and put in the chopped onions, have them sweat a little (don't brown them!!) on not too much heat. add the glass of white wine (don't forget to taste it before!) and blend. pile the onions in the middle of the pan and put the salmon on top. don't season!! put a lid on and have the whole thing cook on low heat until the salmon is done. season then with a little salt and pepper.
if you like, have some wild or brown rice with it.
enjoy!!

anna's café

today i tried out a new café in lüneburg, and it has good chances to become my favourite. it is called "Anna's Café" and located at the Stint, which is one of two café-bar-pub-streets here.
anyway, the atmosphere there was such as i like it to be at a café, snug and comfortable, with a lot of room, lovely furniture and tableware (seemed like they went and searched all antique-stores around) and homemade cakes and breakfast. i had some tea there while correcting the last swedish-papers for my course, and i have to say, i don't know a single other café in lüneburg where that would be possible. it's cosy there, and nice people are working there as well.
as for the whole thing together, i'm not sure if it is supposed to feel like a typically swedish café, but it definitely does. i guess that's why i felt at home there...

happy new year

it's a new year and time to start blogging again.
last time, i wrote about christmas and what we usually do then - well, this year everything was different, not only because my brother florian and his girlfriend linda would be there (though only later in the evening), but also because a. came down to germany to be with me for christmas. the reason is a longer story which i won't tell here, but it was a great time, and my family was really happy to have him with us.

some days later we went off to oslo, and stayed here for new years eve, which we celebrated quietly with some nice nice food, videogame-playing, some reading and alcohol-free cider. at around half past eleven, we met with my colleague dagmar and her partner thorsten at the vigeland park (a huge park with a lot of weird sculptures) where we watched the fireworks. norwegian people are really strange, they start fireworking at around half past eleven and don't stop until one in the morning. anyway, it was not too cold and not too warm, the only thing missing was some snow, and we had a good time there.

as for food, my friend vroni introduced me to "dates with bacon", which tastes delicious. and it's so simple: you just take as many dates as you would like to eat, wrap them in pieces of bacon, and put them in an heated oven (180 degrees) for about ten minutes until the bacon is nice and crispy. the sweet dates with salt bacon are really gorgeous. *recommendation!!*

christmas gifts

this year, i really tried hard to have all christmas presents ready before december.. of course, i didn't manage, but at least i knew what to give away. as i still haven't bought everything (just, almost..) i really have to get started, and i also need to get finished those presents that i make on my own - liqueur.

in the end of october, i got the thought that it would be a lot of fun to try out some of these fruity alcoholic stuff, and when i thought a bit more about it, i decided to make not only a little bit, but so much that it would be enough to last for christmas presents.
so i obtained a lot of fruit (rosehips, quinces and plums), huge glasses, a considerable amount of strong liquor, some raw sugar and some spices as well (such as cinnamon-pieces). i cut down the fruit into smaller pieces (well, not the rosehips, those i just cut of the ends) and stuffed the pieces with sugar and spices into the glasses - two with quinces, two with rosehips and two with plums. then i filled the glasses up with different sorts of booze (vodka for the plums, korn for the quinces and brandy for the rosehips) and put them under my desk.

they were standing there until today, but now will be the time for truth - did everything go well?? (of course i've already tried all of them earlier..)
anyway, today i'll take out the fruit and spices and fill the liqueur into nice bottles to take to my grandmother and my parents. i really hope they'll like it..