Rhubarbs

Spring or if I'm honest summer has arrived at my little island, even when it's cold it's warm (10-13°C) and the birds are singing like crazy, in almost every bush you can hear the thrush nightingale and/or the blackbird.
When you go out in the forest everything is starting to get green, one of my favorite routes goes strait through a small beech grove and because H is not here I took some pictures for her.



So I actually have done some baking, unfortunately we've had so much thunderstorms and what not so I only got one good pict.
What have I been baking?

Rhubarb crumble pie!
(Because I took all the rhubarbs and strawberries I had I'm not 100 % on how much you should use.)

Approximately 500 g rhubarb (think I had about 10-14 stalks in various sizes)
About 2 dl strawberries
1-1 1/2 dl caster sugar
1-1 /2 tbs potato flour (or maizena if you have to, not recommended)

For the crumble you will need;
100 g butter or margarine
2-3 tbs caster sugar (I suggest you use 3)
1 1/2 dl wheatflour
1 1/2 dl porridge oats
2 tsp vanilla sugar
1 egg



Before you start turn the oven to 225° C.
Then clean the rhubarbs (peel the larger ones) and mix them with the strawberries (snuffed), sugar and potato flour in a large pie dish.
Melt butter in a saucepan and ad all of the ingredients except the egg. Let the dough cool down a bit and then ad the egg.

Smear the crumble on top of the fruit mix and set the dish in the middle of the oven for 15-20 min or until it's got a nice golden color.
Serve with vanilla ice cream or custard.

The best part about this pie is that the egg turns the crumble more crunchy and a bit like caramel. I made mine when the thunderstorm was right above us and with the rain and cold the pie tasted even better.

As I'm writing this the sun is shining in my face and I really whant to bake some cupcakes or a cheesecake...
But I think that will have to wait, tomorrow I have an exam and on Friday I'm flying up north to see Herbert. Until next time :)

i don't like mondays

so new week and sis hasn't published any of her yummy recipies, so to inspire her and everyone else heres what you going to do:
first listen to this, preferably on highest volyme:



and then chech out these lovely blogs:

the pioneer woman
annie eats
joy the baker
smitten kitchen
david lebovitz

now you really have no excuses. get in the kitchen!

mac'n'cheese

so, this is a "midweek recepie" which means a simple dish apropriate for dinner/lunch on weekdays. now, i've never tasted that mac'n'cheese from a box so this is a mac'n'cheese and I have no idea wheather it tases like the real thing or not. anyway, since this is a weekday recipie I'm not going to bother with measurments and also I'm only cooking for one so this is just basically a suggestion. I've used frosen vegetables except for the carrots.

pasta of your choice
vegetables: asparagus, carrots, peas, mushrooms
cheese, take what you like/ have in the fridge
yellow mustard
creme fraiche
an egg
rosted sunflowerseeds
breadcrumbs

boil pasta, I've used penne, while that is boiling away boil water for wveggies in another pot. I had some asparagus which i chopped up, but left the tip fairly big. when the asparagus is almost done i added chopped carrots, since these only need a few seconds to preserve it's nutrients. pour away the water and leave it in the sieve for now. fry up some mushrooms. now the pasta should be almost done, add some frosen peas (ok, so I didn't have room in my veggiepot for the peas..) pour off the pastawater but save some in the bottom of the pot, this will be used for melting the cheese.

put the pasta/peas to the side and grate some cheese into the pot (take it off the heat so it doesn't burn) add yellow mustard or mustard powder, i used colemans about a teaspoon. then a tabelspoon or so, depending on how many your serving, creme fraiche and an egg. take care to whisk when your adding the egg unless you want omelett.. put it back on the stoveplate and whisk until it thickens. you can also make it like a carbonara. season to taste. add all the pasta, veggies and mushrooms and stir together. I rosted some sunflowerseeds and breadcrumbs ontop for some crunch...

oh and seeing the picture now. it doesn't look that great but it kinda is, so try it sometime and let me know what you think..

Girls-night out

Had a bit of bad luck yesterday, baked a chocolate cake for Mums girls-night out but forgot to bring my camera so I don't have any pictures of the food yet.
However I do have some cake left so I hope to take a picture today, also Inger had her camera with her so maybe she has some pictures, anyway here is the recipe adapted from Allers (a Swedish magazine):

300 g dark chocolate (at least 70%)
3/4 fruit sugar (I used plain caster sugar)
2 tsp vanillasugar (the recipe says real vanilla sugar but I think you can use substitutes)
1 pinch of salt
6 eggs
1 dl coarsely chopped pistachio nuts

Preheat your oven to 200°C. Coat an ovenproof dish (that will hold 1 1/2 litre) with oven paper.
Then melt the chocolate in a water-bath or in the micro, when the chocolate is melted stir in the sugar, vanillasugar, salt and eggs.
It takes a while before the batter is smoth and creamy but you'll get there. When the wanted texture is achieved you stir in the pistachios.
Pour the batter into the dish and bake for about 10-15 minutes (don't worry if it has not set, it's supposed to be gooey). Let the cake cool in the dish and when it's at room temperature put it in the fridge for at least 1 hour (if you can leave it over night).
Cut the cake into pieces and serve with whipped cream and raspberries or do as we did serve it with a fruit salad (soaked in cointreu) and whipped cream with vanilla.

I also hope I can get the recipe and pictures of some of the pies they had yesterday :)
Have a nice Sunday! /LC

(Forgot to take pictures of the cake that was left, sorry but it was just too good...)

nonpareils

so -my first post. exciting. this blog is my sisters, but me being the younger sis who is unable to let her have her things to herself, asked if I could do some posts to. she, being the older sis who is always kind enough to let me have my way, agreed to this.

right, down to business. and today that's cookies. or rather nonpareil. now I know that there is a cookie that already have this name but MY nonpareil are based on a swedish cookie roughly translated as exceptionals, but since I found that name boring and my cookies where even more exceptional they're called nonpareils. end of story. (although im still going to call them makalösare when im speaking swedish just because.) sorry, am rambling.
Nonpareils:
makes 30.
100g softened butter
3/4 dl sugar
1 dl flour
3/4 dl rolled oat (funny word. oat.)
1 teaspoon baking soda

50 g (about 1/2 dl) raisins50 g dark chocolate
1/2 dl sunflower seed (not roasted. that's not the word, but do you know what i mean? like "raw" sunflower seeds...)

preheat oven to 175 degrees celsius.
blend the butter (or margarine) with the sugar. chop the raisins, chocolate and the seeds coarsly and mix it with the flour, oat and baking soda. add this to the butter and sugar. to mix everything together i used the doughhooks for my mixer. now, when it's turned in to a dough make a doughroll on a floured surface and divide it into thirty bits. roll these into balls and place on a bakingsheet with parchmentpaper on. flatten the balls and in to the oven they go!
bake for about 8 minutes. then. eat.



now just to make a few things clear. when I bake, especially chocolat chip cookies I tend to make a dough, usually a shortbread dough and then just mix in whatever i feel like/have on my shelves. so I add the amount I think is enough/looks good. so when I'm writing this recepie I can't really remember how much of the "filling" I added. so if it looks like to little chocolat- add more, to much sunflower seed- don't add all. although i must say the sunflowerseeds and oat makes this cookie tender yet chewie. and VERY tasty. also try switching the amount of flour with the amount of oat. (ok, so I can't remember which amount was used for what. so sue me.)

wow. if you've read everything I commend you. you really deserve a cookie.

Not much up

Soo, haven't had much time to bake anything and haven't eaten much the last few days but my sister has asked if she could be a guest-blogger so hopefully we get something jummie (she makes awesome cookies) and she's better at taking photos of food then I am.