Homemade vanilla extract

Since we necer drink vodka we get sometimes get as a present, this year I decided to make something useful out of it. Homemade vanilla extract.


This will be a present for many this Christmas, so I used up the whole bottle.
The recipe is pretty simple:
Vodka
Vanilla beans
Cut vanilla beans in 2-3 cm chunks, divide between containers with vodka. Shake every day for a month (at least).

Tonato soup and bread rolls

Tomato soup:
2 red peppers
1 chili
1.5 boxes mushed tomatoes
1 onion
garlic
coconut oil
6 dl chicken stock
salt and pepper
Serve with cream and greens

Bread rolls:
350 ml milk
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons sugar
1.5 tablespoons salt
1 pack yeast
1 egg
1 l flour
Make the dough by mixing it all together, make rolls, wait to rise half an hour and bake at 180 C for 20 minutes.

Enjoy your dinner! :-)

Coconut and cocoa rolls

1 espresso
150 g butter
3 dl sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
5 dl rolled oats
5 tablespoons cocoa
dried coconut

Mix everything well except coconut, make small rolls and roll them in dried coconut. Enjoy!

Raspberry + blueberry

Greta has been asking me to make blueberry jan for almost a week now, so today it had to be. But am think blueberries taste better together with raspberries, therefore I made 50/50. Incredibly good result :-)

Bread

I like to bake bread (sometimes), especially when it involves mixing different types of flour. Mmmm, it smells deliciuos. This is not a no knead bread, but equally good. Test it you too, the recipe here.

Tomato sauce

Another good idea is to make a huge casserole of tomato sauce and freeze it it small portions - for pizzas, pastas, rice etc when you need it. I put everything I have of the vegetables: broccoli, leek, onion, garlic, peppers, carrots, and tomatoes, of course. It turns out to be pretty good.

Too late...

You think you would treat your family with (meatless) taco for dinner, and then realize you are out of tortilla sheets :-

Redcurrant

The easiest way to use up the redcurrant that I picked in the garden was to mix it with sugar (and a bit lemon juice) ant to store in the freezer. Yummy, so I had to taste a bit on my bread too.

Yoghurt ice cream

I rarely use our ice-cream making machine. Because it requires so much space in the freezer. And you have to have it there for many hours before you can make ice-cream. But you know how spontaneous I am. I wake up one morning thinking: "I want ice cream".
This is what happened today. I woke up craving healthy yoghurt ice cream. Because I already have unhealthy gingerbread ice cream in the freezer. So I sat the ice cream making machine in the freezer, did the laundry, cleaned the kitchen, drove to the town to buy something for my trip to Korea, came home, ate lunch, cleaned the kitchen again, and then!!!! Then I mixed lots of youghurt with coconut milk, almond essence, and frozen cherries. Now I am enjoying a wonderful ice cream, and a bit proud of not being so spontaneous today, nut a bit patient and organized )

Have a great weekend.

Bathroom fun and a kitchen marathon

We received a package today full of bathroom goodies. Greta enjoyed getting clean in a pink water, and she even got a surprise that was hidden inside of the ball.


And here is the kitchen marathon.
Given:
1l turkish yoghurt a couple of days before best before date (having been unfrozen, so you know the texture is not the best, but the yoghurt itself is great)
a husband alone at home with the child for 4 days...

Do you think he will use to cook somethink with it? I did not think so either. So I used it all up today. Now we have yoghurt-bread, yoghurt-cake (Greta said before going to bed that it has to be pink - great that I had some frozen pink cake icing!) and yoghurt-based waffels dough for breakfast. All made in a couple of hours. I feel like a super-hero!

We are back home

After yet another long weekend (this time close to Sweden, right on the border), we are home again. I started doing orienteering just like last year, so from time to time I enjoy a good view from some mountain top (nice to have a lot of light even so late in the evening).

The house is a desaster because we almost never are at home.

But today Greta and I had a nice evening. She saw me reading some embroidery blogs and asked me to make this one. So we made it (kind of together :-))

And now I am smelling the wonderful smwll of the chocolate and pear dessert and looking forward when Santiago gets down here to indulge it with vanilla ice cream. And read my new book about raising kids.

Raspberry and strawberry popsicles

We are enjoying this wonderful popsicles tonight. Highly recommend. So refreshing in a warm summer afternoon.

After the kindergarten

The recipe to get your child back home from the playground

... is to make pancakes :-) and serve them with jam, and also with sugar, cinnamon and banana! Yum!

The very first granola bar

Today I made for the first time my very own granola bars:

I used:
120 ml almond butter
80 ml honey
60 ml coconut oil

Heat them slowly to mix well.

60 ml raisins
120 ml chopped hazelnuts
1 tablespoon flaxseeds
1.5 tablespoon raw cacao nibs
250 ml oats

Mix all together and press in a flat form. Let it stick together and dry, then cut and enjoy!



Now I have a stack of snacks ready for the week!

Mr. Egg

It is snowing outside, but the Easter mood is on, anyway. This is todays egg for Greta, thankt to the tips from Pilli Pilli

The Easter bread

This is the Easter bread. Fresh and warn, right from the oven, tastes a bit of lemon, you feel the Easter mood.

When everybody sleeps

I eat cake-pops! First, I had to make them, but it was so easy peasy. Now I hear snoring from upstairs, but I am sure tomorrow somebody will like to try them, too. And I knit the dress for Milton doll. Will be ready soon. And I plan Greta's birthday party. And the trip to Spain/Andorra. So many things to do.

Today

Today has just started, but we already cleaned the house (not without help of the little hands) and are playing now!

A salad full of colours

I never imagined one could combine so many colours (and tastes) in one salad. Theck out this salad, give it a try, and you will not regret!
Now, I made so much that I will be eating it for 2 days more now. Looking forward for tomorrow just to eat it again.