thank you,nathalie :)

my new haircut.

a dinner to remember

ribs and criss cut fries, great dinner after a great day. i got my hair done yesterday and my hairdresser nathalie and i were talking about me waiting for a call for a job interview. the application deadline was yesterday so i figured they would start calling people either that night or next week. i met henrik in town after the hairdresser so that we could take the tram home together and then it happenend, i got the call. now i will go to the job interview on monday. i am super excited !!

a sweetness

the roses that i got from henrik yesterday are obviously too pretty for my camera to handle... in real life they are incredibly dark red. beautiful !! why did i get roses on a random thursday? - it´s been exactly a year since i moved to sweden to be with henrik.

♥

a muffin a day keeps the doctor away

these muffins are incredibly easy to make and they freeze really well. whether you are craving something sweet or find yourself with unannounced visitors, put them into the microwave for 25 seconds straight out of the freezer and you have a delicious treat in seconds !
mix together 150 grams of flour,½ teaspoon of baking powder, 40 grams of sugar, 2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar, 50 grams of butter(melted),110ml of milk, 1 egg and vanilla/butter aroma to taste. pour into 8 paper muffin cups and add one teaspoon of your favorite marmelade or jelly to each muffin. using a teaspoon mix the marmelade in slightly. bake at 20 degrees celcius for 20-30 min.

CHICK-A-ROOOOOS

easter is coming up soon, it´s time to start decorating !! the birdy we got at the fleamarket is in good company. his two new friends are twin chickens :) we got the chickens from elisabeth and christer. TACK IGEN !

i love a good bread roll

here the recipe for 8 cheesy-rosemary bread rolls invented by ME ! :)

200 grams of aged gouda cheese, grated (use freshly grated parmesan if u can´t find the aged gouda)

500 grams of white flour

1 package of fresh yeast

200 ml milk , lukewarm

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of salt

100 grams of butter, room temperature

the leaves of 3 sprigs of rosemary, chopped up

add yeast to warm milk and stir until dissolved.in a mixing bowl combine flour,eggs,salt and butter.add milk-yeast mixture and mix with help of a hand mixer for 2 minutes. let the dough rise under a kitchen towel for 30 min.
add cheese and rosemary to the dough and mix in well. shape 8 rolls with help of some additional flour and put them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. cover with kitchen towel and let rise for an another 30 min.
bake at 175 degrees celcius for about 20 min. serve slightly warm,freeze leftovers.

FIGARO

today henrik and i went to a huge fleamarket called "kvibergs marknad" , a 20 min tramride from home. it is part outdoor market where they sell foreign food and clothes and part indoor market where you can find anything from electronics to antique treasures. i am very happy about the little bird we bought for 10 kronor. we called him FIGARO. we also got two antique looking planting pots with a white rose border around the top. the prices at that market are great!

when i grow up i want to be like JAMIE OLIVER

jamie oliver is one of my favorite tv-cooks. i have more than a few,but he is probably the one i have been following for the longest time.
the other day they showed a re-run of one of the "naked chef´s" early episodes. the bread that he made looked great! i just altered it slightly, here is how i did it :
i mixed together 300 grams of all purpose flour, a palmful of dried breadcrumbs and about 50 grams of whole wheat flour. i added one package of fresh yeast to 200 ml of warm water and fed the yeast with 1 teaspoon of salt and one tablespoon of sugar. once the yeastmixture started to bubble i added it to the flour and breadcrumbs. i worked it with my hands until i got a nice,non-sticking doughball (you might have to add some more flour while you work your dough).
the dough rested under a kitchen towel for 30 min. then i paperlined and greased a large oven pan and pushed the dough into a flat rectangle,about 1,5 cm high.
then i got to use the mortar and pestle we got from henriks parents for the first time :) i crushed 2 cloves of garlic,1 teaspoon of coarse salt,some ground black pepper, the leaves of 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary and about half a cup of olive oil together and dumped that mixture onto the dough. then i worked it into the dough,kind of poking little dents everywhere, so that it looked like there where little puddles of oil all over the dough. i let the whole thing rest for another 15 minutes while i preheated the oven to 180 degrees celcious. then it went into the oven for about 20 min (keep an eye on it and take it out when it looks golden brown and almost all of the oil is absorbed).
cut into slices this makes a great side dish for a salad or a snack by itself.

YUMM-O

that´s what i call an easy cake... i threw together a couple of left overs, completely without measuring. i just made sure the batter looked like it had the right consistency. i knew all the talk about "baking is science" wasn´t true. as long as you make sure to use a good amount of nutella you can´t go wrong :)

my first PAJ is in da house !!!

guess what´s for dinner tonight?? RIGHT, PAJ !!!
i got the recipe for a feta cheese-olive paj from henriks mom this weekend and happened to have most of the ingredients at home today. i exchanged the paprika for broccoli and in stead of black olives i used green ones stuffed with sundried tomatoes. email me if you need the recipe.
today we got a new swedish cookbook from ICA. it was for free because we used our frequent shopper coupon :) i looked through it and it looks like i soon need to make a chocolate-nougat-cherry cake....

HUGO !!!

yesterday i had a whole bunch of sweet visitors, including HUGO. hugo is henriks sisters baby-boy and the cutest little bundle of happiness to be around.
henriks parents picked up karin and hugo at landvetter airport,which is only a 25 min drive from henriks and my place. we all don´t get to see karin very often because she lives all the way up in luleå, so her visit was a very special treat.
i can´t wait to go to ugglarp with henrik next week. we´ll spend the weekend at his parents house and soak in as much of the hugo-experience as possible :)