Happy New Year!

Hello everyone!

I hope that you have all had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family. Today is the last day of 2010...time really is going by so quickly. The year ahead is going to be a busy and fun year. I have many expectations of great moments that lie ahead.

After all the sweetness of Christmas, I thought I would share a cookie recipe that isn't so sweet, and yet is still so delicious. When I grew up in South Africa one of my favourite cookies was "Eat-sum-more"...They are a shortbread cookie that just melts in your mouth. One day I will master those cookies, but this recipe will do more than well in the meantime.

They make a perfect present to give away when dining over at a friend's place. What I like about this recipe is that you can either roll out the dough and make cute little cookies in different shapes, or else you can just press the dough out onto some wax paper, poke some holes in with a fork and sprinkle with a little bit of sugar before baking. If you do it the easy way around, remember to cut it into slices as soon as it has come out the oven.

The other great thing with this recipe is that if you want a little more flavour or variety, you can dip the edges in dark or white chocolate...or both. YUMMY!





This recipe makes about 25 cookies.


5 dl (2 cups) flour
¼ tsp salt
250 g butter, room temperature
1 ¼ dl (1/2 cup) icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence/vanilla sugar

1. Beat the butter until smooth, for about 1 minute with an electric whisp.
2. Add the sugar and the vanilla and beat for a few more minutes.
3. Gently stir in the flour until just mixed.
4. Flatten the dough and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge for about 1 hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
6. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until just under 1 cm thick. Cut out in different shapes using cookie cutters.
7. Place cookies on some waxpaper and bake for about 10 minutes, until they are light brown.
8. Cool and then dip the edges in melted chocolate.



Happy New year!

Love,
Heidi

A very happy Christmas to all!!!

Christmas is finally here! A time of joy and cheer, family and laughter.

On this side of the world we are definately not dreaming of a white Christmas. With nearly 1 meter of snow that dream is a reality! The house is full of children and family. Food is being prepared and presents are being wrapped. Our "julbord" (Christmas buffé) this year is a mixture of typical Swedish dishes like "Janson's fresteslse" - A potato and anchovy bake, Swedish ham, and one of my all time favourite Christmas dishes - red cabbage cooked in a delicious sauce. But we have family over from America, so we have an international touch on our meal, such as Pumpkin pie, sweet potato casserole and another one of my favourites...brussel sprout bake with bacon and parmesan cheese. I'll put that recipe up in a few days...it works great as a side dish for a New Year's dinner as well.

Today you'll get a recipe for one of my favourite sweets to make...they are so easy and delicious. With a taste of mint, they are perfect to serve after any meal with a warm cup of coffee.

-200g milk chocolate
-1 dl cream
-50g butter
-½ tsp peppermint essence

1. Melt all the ingredients carefully.
2. Let the mixture cool off for a while so that it can thicken enough so that it holds it's shape.
3. Pipe the mixture with a star tip into small paper cups or onto wax paper. Store in the fridge.



May your Christmas be filled with love, joy and peace. I hope that it is a blessed Christmas and remember the true reason for the season.

Love,
Heidi

The world's best chocolate cake!

Chocolate is never bad...at least, that's what I try and tell myself;-). But everything in moderation is good, isn't it? Well, here's a recipe for one of my all-time favourite chocolate cake recipes. It takes me way back to memories from my high school days when we used to go visit one of my dear friends, Mel. Her family is from America and most times we were over there her dad had made the most delicious chocolate cake. This recipe is based on that cake...it's definately worth a try!

This recipe can be found in Swedish here.

12-15 people

Ingrediants:

- 1 1/4 dl (½ cup) oil
- 4 dl (1 ½ cups) sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 3 eggs, separated
- 6 dl (2½ cups) flour
- 1½ dl (2/3 cup) cocoa
- 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 3½ dl (1 1/4 cup) cold water


Icing:
- 1 tin condensed milk
- 50 g butter, room tempertaure
- 2 dl cocoa
- 2½ dl (1 cup) icing sugar (you may need more if you think the icing is too runny)

Method:

1. Set the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Grease a round cake tin (+/- 25 cm) with some butter.
2. Mix the oil and 1 cup of the sugar.
3. Mix in the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well after each one.
4. Sieve the flour, cocoa, bicarb and salt together in a bowl. Add the vanilla essence and mix.
5. Mix half of the dry ingredients together with the sugar and oil. Add the water and then finally the rest of the dry ingrediants. Mix well.
6. Beat the egg whites until they form hard peaks. Add the rest of the sugar and beat for a few more minutes.
7. Fold the whites carefully into the rest of the batter.
8. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for appr. 1 hour. Cool.
Icing:
1. Beat the butter (at room temp) with the condensed milk. Sieve the cocoa and icing sugar and mix it with the butter.
2. Pour over the cake and decorate with chopped pecan nuts and white chocolate.

YUMMY!

Have a lovely day!

Love,
Heidi

Part 3...dessert

Dessert is always one of my favourite parts of a meal...i could actually eat a whole meal of just desserts ;-)...

For the final part of the romantic dinner, I wanted to make a dessert that had a Christmassy touch to it. In Sweden, Christmas and celebrating advent is often associated with buns and cakes made with saffron. Another typical Christmas flavour is "pepparkakor"...gingerbread biscuits.

So I somehow wanted to use those 2 flavours and combine them into a delicious dessert....

It ended up as a white chocolate and saffron mousse with pepparkakor crumble. IT IS DELICIOUS! But also very rich and filling, so no big portions are needed ;-)



Here's the recipe!

To see this recipe in Swedish click here.

50 g melted butter
about 15 gingerbread biscuits
100g white chocolate
1 tbsp oil
2 1/2 dl (1 cup) cream
1/2 packet of saffron
2 dl vanilla kesella ( or creme fraiche mixed with 1/2 tsp vanilla essence)
2 tbsp icing sugar
4 tbsp sliced almonds
A few red currants

1. Crush the biscuits well and mix them with the melted butter.
2. Mix the saffron, kesella, icing sugar and almonds in a bowl. Let it stand for about half an hour so that the flavour of the saffron can develop well.
3. Melt the white chocolate carefully and mix in the oil. Let the chocolate cool off.
4. Mix the cream, not too stiff and carefully fold the chocolate in.
5. Layer the crushed biscuits, then the cream and finally the saffron mixture, 2 layers of each. Decorate with some almonds and red currants.
They can either be made in individual glasses or in one big bowl.
6. Let it rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour before serving. This could be a good time, after all your hard work, to let yourself rest as well!


Hope you have a wonderful week ahead!!!

Love,
Heidi

Romantic dinner...part 2

Hello everyone!

It's Friday and I'm looking forward to an exciting week-end! My sister-in-law and her family are coming out from America to visit. It's going to be wonderful to see them again!

But now, part 2 of my romantic dinner...the main meal. Bacon-wrapped chicken breasts stuffed with feta and sun-dried tomatoes, served with a mediterranean vegetable bake, a salad and tzatziki...Delicious!!!



The chicken may sound advanced to make, but it's actually really easy...a great way to impress that special someone ;-).

The recipe:
4 Chicken fillets
1 packet bacon
70-100 g feta cheese
6-8 sun-dried tomatoes

1. Put the oven on 180 degrees celsius.
2. Slice the chicken so that you get a little pocket to stuff in the filling.
3. Mix the feta and tomatoes together and divide it between the chicken fillets.
4. Roll the chicken up and wrap 2 pieces of bacon around each fillet. Secure with toothpicks if needed.
5. Bake the chickens for about 20 -30 minutes. Take them out of the oven and then cover them with foil and let them rest for about 10-15 minutes.
6. Serve and enjoy your masterpiece!

The mediterranean vegetable bake consisted of potatoes, zucchini, red peppers, red onions and yellow onions, all sliced. I mixed oil together with salt, pepper, finely chopped thyme and garlic and poured it over the vegetables and baked it in the oven for about 30 - 40 minutes.

I actually had the vegetables and the chicken in the same oven, to save time. It worked really well, as long as you use 2 pans that can fit together in the oven.

Hope you all have a wonderful week-end!

Happy eating!

Love is in the air

Good morning everyone!

It's Monday again and the start of a fantastic new week. The snow is still falling so we are still surrounded by a beautiful winter wonderland!

A few nights ago we had some friends over for a romantic double date. Music playing, candles lit, good food ;-) ...we had a great time!

We started off our meal with a mushroom soup. It was delicious, easy to make and it warmed us through and through...perfect for this time of year in the northern hemisphere. Any type of mushroom can be used, I used normal button mushrooms (champinjoner). Here's the recipe:



-2 tbsp butter
-3 big handfuls mushrooms, sliced
-1 red onion, chopped
-3 garlic cloves, chopped
-1 handful fresh thyme, chopped
-1/2 litre vegetable stock
- 2 dl cream
-Salt and peppar

Melt the butter and fry the chopped mushrooms for a few minutes until they get soft. Add the onion, garlic and thyme and fry until the onions soften. Add the vegetable stock, bring to the boil then let it simmer on low heat for 20 minutes(add more water if it gets to thick). Season with salt and peppar. Blend the soup with a mixer until smooth. Add the cream just before serving.

Mix some creme fraiche with the zest of a lemon and serve with the soup. Eat and enjoy in the company of good friends!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

The heart of Christmas

December is here and with it comes the anticipation and excitement of Christmas. Yesterday I spent the afternoon indoors baking gingerbread cookies and decorating oranges with cloves, and playing Christmas music in the background. The smell of Christmas filled our home and the joy of Christmas filled my heart. As I write this it is -21 degrees outside, perfect weather to snuggle up indoors. This is such a lovely time of year where fun is had and new memories are made...



Ultimately Christmas is about giving...that is the heart of Christmas. Two thousand years ago we were given the best gift that we will ever get.

Sadly Christmas now is so often about getting. Let's not forget the heart of Christmas...

Get into the spirit of giving!


Here is one of my favourite Christmas songs to help get you into the Christmas mood. It's by Jill Johnson - Christmas in You.


Happy holidays everyone! And God Jul...Merry Christmas in Swedish. Make the most of your time with your loved one's. Have fun and create memories now that will last a lifetime!

By the way...I'm busy planning a romantic dinner for some friend's that have recently started dating...can you guess what's on the menu?