Monday, September 28, 2009

Hot Bean Salsa with Peppers

This is currently one of my favorite side dishes.
1.5 dl Kidney beans (5 fl oz.)
1.5 dl Small white beans (5. fl oz.) (I usally take small black beans instead, because that's what's in my pantry)
1/3 Cucumber
1 Red pepper
1 Green pepper (or any color)
0.5 dl Chopped parsley (1.7 fl oz.)
2 tablespoons ajvar relish
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
0.5 tsk sambal oelek
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
1. Chop the cucumber and the peppers into smal cubes. Mix the dressing in a separate bowl.
2. Mix the beans with the vegetables and the dressing and add salt to taste.
3. Add chopped parsley on the top.
Preferably served with some kind of chicken, but today I fried some sausages and that worked well too.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Procrastination

I'm soo good at procrastination. I'm having some chapters in a book to read (I like the book, so it's not that it's boring), and a couple of things to read and exercises to do in my grammar book, all for tomorrow. And instead of doing that, I'm here updating my blog. Yay..

I really want vacation. And take an airplane somewhere. 'Cause according to me, the only REAL vacation is the one you have take a plane to go on.

Any ideas?


Now I'm so running out of ideas for our meals next week. Perhaps soup. I like soup, it's so easy to make.


Yesterday on the bookfair, I bought three knew cookbooks; Soppa (Soup), Dagens muffins: samlade recept (Today's muffins: collected recipies) and the new edition of Vår kokbok (Our cookbook).


Vår kokbok has been printed in 25 editions, and it's a book with lots of basic cooking skills, quite a lot of easy made recipies. The newest edition has a more international approch than before with recipies like risotto, and sallad with coconut dressing (which I don't think sounds very delicious). There are also chapters about different foods and provisions. It's kind of the book to have in every home.













Spinach Soup

Today I made the most simple spinach soup ever.

chopped, frozen spinach
1 onion
milk
1 vegetabale stock cube
salt
white pepper
oil

Chop the onion and frizzle until it softens in a pan. Add the spinach and some milk (not to much) and put the lid on. Let it boil on medium heat until the spinach is thaw. Then add the stock, some more salt and a little white pepper, and milk to taste. Boil for another 5 min and serve with bread, and halved boiled eggs.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Book Fair

Today I'm going to the large book fair in town (www.bokmassan.se). It's my Mum's birthday today, and she and a friend of her's is coming up to visit me. And tonight we're having dinner out to celebrate! Looking forward to it.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Hash with Weinerwurst and Chanterelles

Today I made hash (I'm not really sure "hash" is the appropriate word for this food, though) out of potatos fried raw, onion, wienerwurst in cubes, red peppers and chanterelles.

No real recipie needed, but some notes:
I fried the ingredients separately first, then mixed them in a bowl and reheated it all.
Yummy!

I love the chanterells, I found really nice (and Swedish) ones in the store for a reasonable price. I'm not really the kind of person who walks out in the forest to find my own ones..

Thursday, September 24, 2009

I gotta stop being so emotional

I cry for everything. I can't even see a movie where someone dies without crying.

Crumble Cake with Ham and Broccoli

This is another good way of making pie, without the crust and with crumbs on top instead. This is quite uncommon for food pies, but in Sweden the crumbs are often used on apple pies and similar.

Ingredients for 4-6:
150 g smoked ham (5 oz.)
400 g broccoli (14 oz.)
2 dl grated cheese (7 fl oz.), or according to taste

4 eggs
2 ½ dl light cream (15%), or similar (8.5 fl oz.)
1 dl milk (3.4 fl oz.)
½ teaspoon salt
a pinch of pepper

2 dl wheat flour (7 fl oz.)
50 g butter (1.8 oz.)
1 tablespoon water


  1. Put the oven on 200° C (390°F).
  2. Cut the ham into cubes. Boil the broccoli in lightly salted water until it's almost done. Let the water drain off.
  3. Put both ham and broccoli into a buttered pie dish. Put appropriate amount of cheese on top.
  4. Mix eggs, light cream, milk, salt and pepper and pour it onto the pie. Put in the oven for 15 min.
  5. In the mean time, mix butter, flour and water into crumbs. I like to melt the butter in the microwave for 30 seconds, then stir it all together with a electric mixer.
  6. Sprinkle the crumbs over the pie and bake for approximatley another 20 min.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

My Saturday project

... turned out to be pretty good after all.





I spent hours and hours trying to finish the first one and 30 min to do the second one. I really expected it to be a very simple project, but I quickly discovered that I had to think and plan the whole thing more careful than I though. With a little help from Max' aunt it ended up in this.
























Two covers to our dinner chairs, matching the curtains, the fabric is from IKEA. By the way, I just love that store. Almost everything in our appartement (we don't have a large appartement, so that perhaps doesn't say much) is from IKEA.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

[ʒəpaʀlbõfʀãsɛ]

(je parle bon français - I speak good French)

I had a small pronunciation exam in French today. It was weird, but I hope I do speak good French.

In my course we're reading the book Oscar et la dame rose (Oscar and the Lady in Pink) by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt. It's a really lovely story and I strongly recommend it! It's a short novel, so it's not much to read either.

Chicken Nuggets with Ajvar dip

Approx. 35 min

This is what we had for dinner. Super tasty, and pretty easy too!

I know, this might not be the best picture..

For 4 people:


700 g potatoes


1 teaspoon + 1 teaspoon of sea salt (or regular salt)


500 g chicken file


2 whipped eggs


2 deciliter of bread crumbs (7 fl oz.), I think I used more


2 tablespoons of rape oil (but I used olive)


Dip:


2 deciliter thick yoghurt ( 10 %) (7 fl oz.)


1 deciliter Ajvar relish (3.4 fl oz.)


½ teaspoon of salt



4 snack cucumbers, or pickles


Do this:

  1. Put the oven on 250°C (480°F). Scrub the potatoes and cut them into smaller pieces. Put them on a baking plate with oven paper or similar on. Sprinkle it with 1 teaspoon of sea salt. Fry in the middle of the oven approximately 25 minutes. (I usually cook it longer on a slightly lower temperature)
  2. Mix the dip. Cut the chicken into 1 cm (½ inch) thick slices. Whip the eggs on a plate and put the bread crumbs mixed with the rest of the sea salt on another plate.
  3. Coat the chicken in egg and then in crumbs. Fry them on medium heat, some at the time, about 2 minutes on each side until they are golden and done.

  4. Serve with potatoes and dip.


Monday, September 21, 2009

These were my accessories walking through the large mall (Nordstan) in town and on the bus home:


... a large ice latte with a straw to drink noisy with and a stuffed school bag with a leek sticking out poking people on the bus.

Poor Man's Minestrone

This is a recipie I retrieved from an online friend once. I haven't tried it out for myself yet, but it looks good enough to publish here! (Holly, perhaps something else to do with all the zucchini?)


Hallo!
Time for another recipe. I made this last night and it ended up being really good - and simple - and CHEAP hehehe. I know some of you are students, and/or sometimes low on funds (like myself) so for anytime you need to stretch a few dollars to last you a bit, this is a good idea.

Ingredients:
*1 large can diced tomatoes (if you can get the kind with italian herbs added, that's a plus)
*1 can low-sodium chicken stock
*1 can light kidney beans (drained)
*1 can carrots (drained)
*1 can cut green beans (drained)
*1 can white corn (drained)
*1 can peas (drained) or 1 cup frozen peas
*Optional add-ins: okra is good in this, and also you could slice fresh zucchini and put that in as well.
*Garlic salt, pepper, parsley, basil, rosemary, and thyme to taste.


In a large pot, add all of the canned ingredients and bring to a boil. If soup seems too thick, add a cup to a cup and a half of water to give more broth (I usually do). Then add spices to taste. Ladle out into individual serving-sized tupperware and freeze. Out of a single batch of soup, I usually get 8 servings, which are very filling. All you have to do is microwave them for about 6 minutes and you are good to go. If you want, add a slice of double fiber whole wheat toast to the equation. Yum!

Enjoy!
Dee

Recipie again

Black Box

Serves 4:
400 g (14 oz.) minced meat
1 Spanish onion
1 leek
250 g (9 oz.) white cabbage
1 tablespoon of oil (rape oil)
5 tablespoons of Japanese soy sauce
5 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of sweet chili sauce
1 clove of garlic

Boiled basmati or jasmine rice
Sliced cucumber with sweet chili sauce and a pinch of salt

1. Chop the onion. Shred the leek and the cabbage. Fry the onion and the minced meat in oil until the meat is done. Put on a tray and fry the cabbage and the leek.
2. Mix the meat and the onion into the pan.
3. Mix the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and sweet chili sauce with the squeezed garlic. Pour it into the pan and stir.
4. Let it boil approximately 10 minutes and serve with rice and cucumber.

This is a really easy and simple dish to make! I usually use more cabbage than it says, and the seasoning can be varied after taste too.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Pie with Zucchini and Pesto

Here you go, Holly!

Serves 10 people


Ingredients:
3 dl wheat flour (4 cups)

150 g butter or margarine

2 tablespoons cold water

Stuffing
2 pieces of mozzarella cheese, total 250 g

4 tablespoons of ready-cooked green basil pesto

½ pot of green basil

3 eggs

2 dl milk (2 2/3 cups)

1 medium sized zucchini, about 400 g

1 teaspoon salt

A pinch of black pepper


Topping (optional)

10-12 cherry tomatoes (different colors)

1/2 pot of green basil, chopped

1 ml olive oil

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar


Do this:

1. Mix the flour and the cooking fat together, preferably in a food processor. Add water and work the dough into a dough ball.

2. Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

3. Put the oven on 225°C (440°F). Press or roll out the dough evenly in a round dish, about 24 cm in diameter (approx 9 ½ inches). Prick the pie crust with a fork.

4. Bake the crust in the middle of the oven in approx. 10 min.

5. Cut the mozzarella cheese in thin slices and spread them in the baked crust. Spread out the pesto on top of the mozzarella and put basil leaves on top of that.

6. Slice the zucchini into thin slices with a cheese slicer (or a sharp knife). Top the pie with the slices in a nice looking pattern.

7. Whip egg, milk and spices and pour this over the zucchini.

8. Bake the pie in the middle of the oven in 35 minutes, or until it's set and golden and looks tasty.

9. Cut the tomatoes into fourths or halves. Mix them with basil, olive oil and vinegar. Top the pie with this just before serving.



I usually don't top the pie with tomatoes; instead I serve the pie with a salad of tomatoes and lettuces on the side. I sometimes have put the halved tomatoes into the pie too, in the layer between the basil and the zucchini. The basil leaves in the pie aren't in the original recipes, but added by me. So, if you're not a big fan of basil, this is very optional.