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Grie Sos, La vie en rose, New hat | Photo journal
DE – Zusammenfassung in Bildern seit, äh, der letzten Zusammenfassung in Bildern.
EN – Recap in pictures of what’s happened, well, since I last did a recap in pictures.
Grie Sos
DE – Letzte Woche war es endlich so weit: aus den Samen, die ich aus Frankfurt mitgebracht hatte, sind aller meiner Bemühungen zum trotz etwas geworden. 🙂 Und zwar Petersilie, Schnittlauch, Pimpinelle, Boretsch, Sauerampfer, Kerbel und Kresse. Zusammen mit Quark, Zitrone, Senf, Zucker, Salz und Pfeffer habe ich daraus Grüne Sauce gemacht. Dazu gab’s natürlich Kartoffeln und Ei.
EN – Last week I was finally able to make „green sauce“, a traditional meal from the Frankfort area. I had brought the seeds for the seven herbs you need, and despite all my efforts, they turned out pretty amazing. 🙂 Parsley, chives, burnet, sorrel, borage, chervil and pepperwort. Mixed with sour cream, lemon, mustard, sugar, salt and peppar, they become said green sauce. Traditionally served with potatoes and boiled eggs.
La vie en rose & new hat
DE – Das vergangene Wochenende stand hier in Ribeauvillé unter dem Motto „La vie en rose“. Die Schwedin in mir suchte nach der dahinter stehenden Marketingstrategie. Sie fand keine (nichtmal ein hashtag!?). Es war einfach alles rosa. Hat trotzdem irgendwie geklappt, ich habe einen Hut gekauft. Den brauchte ich WIRKLICH. Allerdings dann doch nicht unbedingt den für 345€ oder 195€ …
EN – This past weekend the Ribeauvilléans painted the town. Pink. The Swede in me was scanning this shindig for the underlying marketing strategy. Couldn’t find one (not even have a hashtag!?). Everything was just, you know, pink. It worked anyway. I bought a hat. I REALLY needed it. Just not the one for 345€. Or 195€ …
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Recipes | Pesto fest
I am going to skip the part where I comment on the lack of postage around here … and go straight to the wonderful pesto I have made from the herbs we gathered at Törnagården.
I looked up recipes online but I ended up playing it by ear for the most part. Basically, for pesto you just mix the herb of your choice (basil being the classic one) with olive oil, pine nuts and grated Parmesan cheese. I used sunflower seeds instead of pine nuts this time since pine nuts are pretty expensive here, and I needed a lot.
I made dandelion pesto … 
… nettle pesto … 
… and mint pesto. I found the recipe for the mint pesto on Martha Stewart’s, the one for the nettle pesto on chiliconkarin (in Swedish), and the dandelion pesto on a German page on healing herbs (so, yeah, this one’s in German, duh).
Some notes:
- Always rinse whatever herbs you’re using first (I don’t know, maybe I am stating the obvious here but just in case).
- In the recipe for the nettle pesto it said to boil the nettle leaves for 2 minutes in salt water before processing, which I did, although I can’t say that I have any idea why.
- I roasted the sunflower seeds after rinsing them (not the raw food way to go, I know!). I don’t know, I just somehow got the idea that it would be better to have as little water as possible in the pesto, so that it wouldn’t go bad so fast. I don’t even know if that’s true or not, I guess I was just acting on some sort of instinct here.
- Something I do know helps to make pesto last longer: make sure that there is a layer of oil on top.
I think that’s it. I can’t wait for the basil I am growing on my kitchen window sill to be big enough for some classic pesto. The simple things are really the best. I also want to try this cilantro pesto recipe I found on ByzantineFlowers … so I guess the pesto fest isn’t over yet.
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Recipe – Fig smoothie
OK, there’s no dancing around this: this one may look healthy but calling it tasty-looking would be a stretch.
It tastes not only better than it looks, it actually tastes good. And it is healthy. Another raw food inspiration I took with me from visiting our friend C. How to (makes about four servings):
- Soak about a cup of figs over night (it’s a raw food thing: soaking everything – to get rid of toxins (seeds and nuts), or in this case just to make it more digestible).
- About half an hour or so before you want to prepare the smoothie, soak some powdered nettle, hip and blueberry (of course you can use the real thing, too, but we happen to have tons of this powdered stuff, it’s supposed to be rich in vitamins and stuff – gosh, this sounds like I don’t even know why I am doing half the stuff I am doing … which is completely untrue! … er … well). At Peter’s request, I added some spirulina, too (algi, also … um, healthy)
- Put the figs in the blender – with the water they were soaking in! Blend. Duh.
- Add the powder that should have turned into a creamy goo by now.
- Add a banana (or more, if you like), even some agave syrup if you like it REALLY sweet.
- Add water depending on what kind of texture you like
At our friend’s we ate this with berries (picked by her in the woods behind her house, of course). We were out so we had to go without. What I like best about this smoothie/cream is how the fig seeds crackle in my mouth.
Oh yeah: and how it makes it possible to take in all these vitamin supplements that I couldn’t force down before when I tried to just drink the stuff. I guess you can come a long way with sugar.
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Recipe – Almond milk
Like I said, this trip inspired me. A lot. Our friend eats raw food and while we were there, so did Peter and I. I found eating raw food surprisingly diversified, digestible and filling. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t feel like I had to eat a lot to feel full – but for me that’s kind of a mental thing I need to get over. I am probably not going to go Green for Life, although I did find the book very interesting and sensible in a lot of ways. For now, however, I do feel like trying out some of the nutritious deliciousness our friend introduced us to.
My favorite – which I had tried and failed at before – was her almond milk.
Tastes great with the lupine coffee I’ve come to love so much. Here’s how it goes:
- Take about two cups of almonds (makes about five cups of almond milk, less if you like it creamier), and let them soak in water over night.
- The next day, pour the water out, and pour boiling water over the almonds. Only let them sit for about a minute, this is just so that you can peel them more easily.
- Rinse the almonds.
- Put the almonds into a blender, add a little bit of water at first, blend.
- Gradually add more water until you’re satisfied with the texture.
- I added nothing else when I made this this morning. Our friend usually put in a banana (both for sweetness and texture), sometimes some agave syrup.
As for the health benefits and more detailed information, I unsurprisingly found something on my favorite health/food/diy blog.
After they’ve been soaking. You can tell they’re beginning to sprout by those little „tails“. 
Easier to peel after you’ve put them in hot water for a minute. 
Voilà: plain almond milk. 
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Recipe | Hazelnut almond muffins
I deviate from recipes a lot. But this time I went so far (not all on purpose … unforeseen turn of events demanded improvisation!) that I think it’s fair to claim I made this one up. Kind of.
Some are meant to be scones, others are meant to be muffins. That’s just how it is, right? It started out with wanting to try to make scones but substitute the flour for ground almonds and hazelnuts. Then I thought: why not add some cocoa, and make them chocolate scones? Then I thought: why not use the hemp milk that Peter made instead of regular milk? The first batch sort of melted into one cake on the baking sheet (I later cut them into cookies but it got kind of messy). So for the second batch I poured the batter into muffin forms. Hence, I call them muffins. Gluten-free but not really low-carb (the sugar, I suppose you can exchange it for a low-carb sweetener), and due to the hazelnuts obviously not for those allergic to nuts. Do almond only, I guess.
For 12 muffins you need
- 2 3/4 cups (6,5 dl) ground almonds and hazelnuts (I went half and half)
- 1/2 cup (ca. 1dl) sugar
- 2 tsp baking poweder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cups (2 dl) firm butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 cup hemp milk (just search „hemp milk recipe“ – you’ll get a variation of the same: this, this, or this, … Peter used dried dates as sweetener)
- add raisins/fruit if desired (I didn’t, maybe next time – I imagine banana would taste great, and make the muffins even more juicy)
- I also added some psyllium (don’t know how much, though, maybe about a tablespoon), which is used in a lot of gluten-free cake recipes to make whatever you’re baking more fluffy, and keep it from getting so dry and compact
Mix the dry ingredients, cut butter into crumbs, add, stir in milk, knead until the texture is smooth. I let the batter stand for a couple of minutes (I think that it gets a little more „doughy“, less „liquid“ – I suck at speaking bake – my apologies!). Use spoons to fill the batter into muffin shapes, bake at 400°F/200°C for about 30 minutes.
*** Oh yeah: did I mention that they tasted really great? Well, they do.
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Recipe – Scones
When I was an exchange student in the USA, my (host) mom would make pancakes or scones on the weekends for breakfast. I loved and kept this tradition later on. Until I – like most people it seems, including my host family – kind of fell of the sugar and carb wagon. But the other day I just couldn’t resist. So if you want to celebrate this Sunday (or my American mom), make some scones!
Here’s my mom’s recipe for 12 scones:
2 3/4 cups (ca. 6,5 dl) flour (I used whole wheat)
1/2 cup (ca. 1 dl) sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups (ca. 2 dl) firm butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup (ca. 2,5) milk
add fruit if desired- Mix dry ingredients,
- cut in butter until crumbs,
- stir in milk,
- knead 25 times,
- shape and place 2 inches apart.
- Bake 400° F (200 ° C) for 18-22 minutes
During the colder season, I like to add orange zest – lemon zest tastes great, too, but to me it’s more of a „cold“/fresh taste (= summer in my mind), while orange feels more „warm“. You know what I mean?
My favorite breakfast – besides American pancakes, of course! -
Recipe – Fancy yoga cake
Yes, another recipe from the Yogamat book. I actually didn’t deviate from the recipe here except for the decoration.
For one fancy yoga cake (ca. 12 slices):
- 5 dl (ca. 2 cups) almonds, soak them in water for about 4 hours first
- 5 dl (ca. 2 cups) dried dates, also: soak them in water for about 4 hours first
- 2 tbs cocoa powder
- 1 vanilla bean or 1 ts vanilla powder
- 5 dl (ca. 2 cups) cashew nuts, also soaked for about 4 hours
- 2 bananas
- 1 ts ground cardamom
- 1 dl (ca. 1/2 cup) agave syrup
- 4 tbs coconut oil
- juice of 1 lemon
- 5 dl (ca. 2 cups) raspberries
- a pinch of sea salt
- fresh berries and fruit as decoration – I used sea buckthorn and Physalis, and some Flower Power, an organic spice and herb mix
Line the bottom of a spring form pan with baking parchment. Mix almonds, dates (without the seeds, obvs), cocoa and the vanilla until the texture is grainy. This will be the bottom layer of the cake, so spread onto the spring form pan.
Mix cashew nuts, bananas, cardamom, agave syrup, coconut oil, lemon juice, raspberries and salt into a smooth mass.
Pour this mass onto the bottom. Put the cake in the freezer for at least four hours. This cake can easily be prepared the day before serving it. Just remember to take it out again a few hours before eating it.
Add you berries and fruit for decoration.
Note to self: next time remove the cake ring right after taking the cake out of the freezer … Other yoga food recipes (or variations thereof) I’ve posted:
- Ginger elixir
- Banana blueberry hazelnut muffins
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Recipe – Banana blueberry hazelnut muffins
This one is for Dina. It’s a recipe based on „Nötiga bananmuffins“ („Nutty banana muffins“) out of Yogamat (which would translate to „Yoga food“) by Anna Gidgård and Cecilia Davidsson. The book’s design is very appealing and makes you want to try out every single one of the recipes: lots of pictures that fill entire pages, and the photography is beautiful. Not that much background information, though. I always like knowing what certain recipes/ingredients are good for, but hey – there’s other books for that.
As most of the times, I didn’t exactly stick to the recipe. The blueberries were not in it but I happened to have them, and I like the combination of banana and blueberry. Oh yeah, did I mention this is gluten-free/low-carb? Well, it is. So here it comes:
For 15 muffins you need:
- 3 dl (ca. 1 1/4 cup) almonds
- 3 dl (ca. 1 1/4 cup) hazelnuts
- 1 dl (ca. 1/2 cup) coconut oil (or butter)
- 2 bananas
- 1/4 ts ground pepper
- 3 ts cinnamon
- 3 ts cardamom
- blueberries (I don’t know how much I used, go with your gut)
- a pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 175° C / 350° F. Use a blender to process the almonds and the hazelnuts into flour. Add the coconut oil, the bananas and the rest of the ingredients to the flour. Mix well. Use two spoons to place the batter into small muffin forms. Bake for about 35 minutes. Done!
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Spring cleaning pt. 3
Mission completed! I did enough to be able to abandon this project, and show some after pictures that don’t reveal everything I didn’t do. Success! Oh yeah, and I tried out some more no poo methods which I now can recommend with a clean conscience.
I wish it actually looked like this … 
… but this is more accurate. Actually, no, it’s still too staged. Except for the mugs. Yup, there’s two of us – and Peter usually sticks to one mug, so … you figure it out. 
It actually looks a bit sterile … hm. 
My best friend (apart from lemon and baking soda): white vinegar. 
Forgot the before pic, so here’s one from during the process. 
After. It’s an old stove, so this really is the best it’s looked since I moved in. 
The yuckiest part: under the sink, where we keep all the recycling bags/bins and the compost. 
Still couldn’t win a beauty prize for this but again: old kitchen, lots of people have lived in this apartment. I cleaned the stove according to this recipe: Sprinkle some baking soda onto the plates, add some drops of white vinegar, let it sit while you do the rest of the cleaning. Then you just wipe it off. Before wiping the stuff off, I used one of those metal brushes (I don’t know what the technical term is, they are specifically for these kind of stoves). I found the recipe for this on a Swedish site, they had a lot more useful tips on cleaning, mostly also no poo: Bästa städtipsen för ett fint hem.
For all of the surfaces (cupboard doors, tiles, working spaces, mopping the floor) I used the white vinegar/lemon/water mixture again. For the sink I just cut a lemon in half, rubbed it in and let it sit for a while before rinsing with water. Again, I am really satisfied with the results, so I am definitely done with the poo that we have standing around here.
I found another link with no poo cleaning methods on ByzantineFlowers (I really find this blog inspiring, makes me wnat to try out a bunch of their recipes!): DIY Citrus Cleaner – you’ll find a lot more no poo alternatives than what the title reveals.
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Quick home-made Ayurvedic herbal tea
The Ayurveda book that I like the most out of the bunch I picked up at the library is Judith H. Morrison’s The Book of Ayurveda. It gives a great overview over pretty much all aspects of life, has lots of info boxes and lists, which appeals to me.
I found a simple recipe for some herbal tea that is supposed to be good for those of us with a dominant Pitta dosha or excessive Pitta (over the past week’s reading I have realized that I have both right now, almost freakishly textbook definition thereof!).
So this is it: mix equal parts of fennel, cilantro and caraway seeds. Use one teaspoon per cup. Just boil some water and add. Done!
- fennel, cilantro and caraway seeds
Due to the hot water the tea as such is obviously „hot“. But according to Ayurveda, the quality of the ingredients (the seeds) and therefore: the quality/effect of the tea is „cold“ or „cooling“. Ideal for me because I prefer drinking warm stuff but I really don’t need to pour any more gasoline on that Pitta fire right now!
- Pitta-friendly tea
