Muffins Recipe

Okay, so this is just a random post about muffins (or the base for cupcakes, sort of. At least these muffins) because I think that everyone should be able to make them. It’s really easy and the main difficulty is not to burn them if you use silicon tins (I’m just starting to get the hang of using them now). Muffins can contain many various fruits and things, but this is more or less the base for everything. Feel free to add fruits or berries if you have something you like

What you will need to make approximately 12-15 muffins:

• 50 g margarine or butter (approximately 1,75 oz)
• 2 eggs (or equivalent egg replacement, which is what I generally use nowadays when I bake)
• 2 dl sugar (approximately 0,85 cups (use 1 cup if that’s easier. It might be a bit sweeter)
• 2,5 dl flour (1 cup)
• 2 tsp baking powder.
• 1 dl water (approximately 0,45 cups)
• If you’re looking for a bit more chocolate-y muffins, use 2-3 tbs cacao.

Equipment:

• An oven
• Two bowls
• Cupcake tins
• Baking sheet to put the tins on
• Electric beater
• Set of measuring spoons

Here’s how to do it.

1. Preheat oven to 175 C (or 347 (or 350, if that’s easier. Just be careful about the time))
2. 2. Melt the margarine or butter in a pot and add the water. 
3. 3. Beat the eggs and sugar together with an electric beater. If you use real eggs, make it fluffy. If you use egg replacement, it won’t get fluffy so just mix well for a few minutes .
4. Mix flour and baking powder (you can mix the cacao, if you’re using that, as well, or wait until the end) in a separate bowl and then add it to the  mixture. Mix carefully.
5. 5. Pour the butter/water mixture in to the bowl. Mix well. If you didn’t add the cacao earlier, do so now. Make sure there are no lumps.
6. Pour the mixture in to the tins and put in the oven for approximately 10 minutes, in the middle of the oven. Observe that it can go a bit faster so keep an eye out.  
7. Enjoy your newly baked muffins. Remember that things coming from the oven tend to be HOT! 

Read 6 books I want to read – The Nanny Diaries

I have now managed to do a few things during these absent weeks. One of them was reading this book called The Nanny Diaries, which was really good. The following paragraph will contain spoilers if you think of reading this,
It was about a young woman who accidentally fell in to the Nanny career while talking on the child caring of a young boy named Grayer X. The Xes are a upper class New York family who has everything and decides to hire a nanny (which is basically a person who is basically a fully functioning mother according to these people) and the main character is this person. She gets to do everything for these people who more or less remains anonymous throughout the novel (constantly being referred to as X). The main character (called Nan) doesn’t know what she’s getting herself in to and when it’s more or less too late (when the boy starts recognizing Nan as the mother figure and doesn’t care much for his original mother (which in my opinion serves her right as she neglects her son completely to get “alone time” all the time), Nan gets fired. That’s the main plot of the book, and the parents appear to be the most horrible parents in the world and only appear to want the child as an accessory. I think I’m pretty glad I have the parents I have.
This book was made in to a movie and I have to say, I can’t really compare the two.
That’s it for now. I’m going to post some recipes soon!

Read 6 Books I Want to Read - The Lost Symbol, Queen of Babble, The Virgin Blue, Inheart

Hi Everyone!

Sorry about the delay. I know I haven’t updated in a while. Mainly because of lack of internet for travelling with my mother to visit her relatives approximately 820 km north of where I live, but for those of you who like to read, I’ve got good news; four books so far. As some of you might know and identify with, I find that reading while travelling is a great way to pass time as I think the ride itself doesn’t feel as long. Therefore, I brought a lot of books (I actually went to the library to return tow of the books I had borrowed that I had finished reading, and I came out of the library with four new books. The library is my new best friend), and seeing as how I haven’t had any internet and the mosquitoes there have more or less kept me in the house (it was staying inside or die…or so it felt anyway), I’ve had some time to read there, but I’m only reviewing the four  books I’ve finished.

The first one was Dan Brown’s somewhat new novel; the Lost Symbol (More info). It’s a Robert Langdon novel and for those of you who have read previous Robert Langdon novels by Dan Brown know (and the title reveals it too) that it’s about symbolism, and symbolism often go hand in hand with religion. At least in Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon-novels. As always as well, there are “secret” societies involved. This time the story involves the Free Masons (and their sister-society; The Order of the Eastern Star, a little bit anyway. Not much) and above all, the slogan “Everything will be revealed in the 33^rd degree” is frequently referred to, which happens to be the highest degree within the order, the boiling point of water according to Newton’s degree-system and such things. This story also involves a woman by the name of Katherine, and her brother Peter has been kidnapped. Her brother’s part of the Free Masons, Langdon’s friend and Langdon gets dragged in to all this by the kidnapper who threatens to kill the brother if Langdon doesn’t help him find the Free Masons’ treasure; ultimate wisdom. As if things weren’t bad enough and Langdon under pressure, the psycho wants him to do it by the end of the night.

Slight spoiler warning (or major spoiler warning) if you haven’t read the novel; the psycho turns out to be the Peter's son Zachary (who goes by several different names; amongst the Mal'akh) who everyone thought was dead. The psycho dies in the end and the brother is saved. Somehow Langdon does it again and everything is fine again. 

The next book I read wasn’t good. At least not in my opinion, but I suppose you have to read bad books once in a while to appreciate the good books. At least that’s what I told my sister when she asked why I just didn’t stop reading after I realized it was bad. It was Meg Cabot’s book; Queen of Babble (More info). I suppose it was good, if you like that whole “I-met-a-guy-and-go-to-europe-but-things-ended-so-I-get-on-a-train-and-meet-Mr-Tall-Dark-and-Handsom-and-fall-in-love-with-him” kind of books, but I’m not much for that. It was well written, I’ll give it that, but the storyline and plot was obvious. Sure, the back of the book gave parts of it away, but I realized it even from the beginning that things were going to end up the way they ended up. It was too much foreshadowing to even call it foreshadowing, I think.

The novel was about an American college graduate (almost graduate. She forgot to turn in a paper which lead to her degree in Fashion History being postponed)named Lizzie Nichols who travels to England to meet up with her boyfriend but she finds out that her boyfriend only wants one thing from her; Money. When she realizes that, she goes to France to meet up with her friend Shari and her boyfriend. On the train there, she meets a stranger named Jean-Luc who happens to own the castle (Cheatû Mirac) where Shari and her boyfriend Chaz are working, so Lizzie goes there, and gets to help as well. They are preparing for Jean-Luc’s (Luke’s) cousin who is getting married and then there is a disaster with the Wedding dress and Lizzie is the only one who can help (or so it would seem). That’s pretty much it. Like most stories, this one ends well, too. 

The third book I made my way through during these approximate 820 km up to mother’s relatives was called The Virgin Blue (More info )and is in part a historical novel. The reason I say “in part” is because parts of the story takes place a few centuries ago, like most of Tracy Chevalier’s books, but in part takes place in the present. I’ve read most of her books (except “Girl with the Pearl Earring” and “Magical Creatures” [look up the last one]) and this book was interesting. I’m not saying it’s bad, because it most certainly was not, but the style of writing differed from the other novels (jumping between past and present the way this novel does). I like historical novels like that, and therefore, I liked the story of the past a bit better than the present part.

It’s about a young girl called “La Rousse” (due to her reddish hair, which is the color the Virgin Mary is presumed to have had) or Isabelle. She marries in to a wealthy family (Tournier) because she gets pregnant with a child that belongs to the family’s son. Nobody seems to like her. She has 3 children (that we know about) and her husband is not very friendly. The family goes from being catholic (where “La Rousse” was between them and God and worked as a medium to pray to) to French protestants, where worshipping the Virgin Mary was a sin, and being called “La Rousse” wasn’t exactly a good thing and people thought of Isabelle as being a witch. The youngest child, her daughter Marie, starts to get the red hair that her mother possesses and to stop this, Isabelle decides to keep it a secret and in secret she starts taking out the strands that are that color. A merchant comes to the city with the Virgin blue color (a color during the renascence which got to represent the Virgin Mary in paintings of that era) on a piece of fabric. Isabelle wants nothing more than to own that fabric, but she can’t because it would be considered inappropriate so she suffers in scilence.

In the present, Ella Tournier (Turner) from America moves to France with her husband of two years because of his job and she starts to dig in to her family history (linked to Isabelle and her family of Tournier’s ). She falls (not so unexpectedly) in love with Jean-Paul, the librarian who helps her do research. This is why I don’t like the story. I think she’s a mean woman, because her husband, though distant, is kind (or, well, he’s not a complete idiot or mean to her or something), while Jean-Paul seems to flirt with her from Day 1 even though he knows she’s married. I can understand her not wanting to be with her husband, but Jean-Paul is…..UGH! Anyway, she goes through some personal crisis, her hair becomes “La Rousse” red and she goes to visit family in Switzerland. She finds out about her family history, that she’s pregnant and that she wants to be with Jean Paul instead. I don’t like this woman.

However, the story is good in general, and it wasn’t a waste of time.

The last book so far was called Inkheart (More info), and was recommended to me by a friend. I liked it. It was mysterious and fictional (almost a bit science fiction, or so it felt). However, the book was probably written for 10-14 year olds (maybe even 10-13/10-12) and if I had been that age-group (or read it the first time when I was in that age group) I think I would have liked it more.

Anyway, the story changes it’s 3^rd person narrative a bit during the story and shifts from person to person,  but added up, the main protagonist of the story is Meggie; a 12-year old girl with only her father, whom she calls Mo.

In the beginning of the story, a mysterious man shows up and Meggie is a bit lost. Her father is told that someone is after him, and Meggie is scared. They leave, and go to visit her mother’s aunt Elinor,  but the bad guys catch up with them and take her father. Now there’s some chaos; they take her father to a village, Meggie wants to follow, and when she and the aunt does; they’re captured as well. Then something strange happens. Meggie finds out that her father can make stories real. By reading aloud, her father can make characters come alive. She also finds out  that he’s conjured the bad guys on accident and that whenever someone comes out of a story, someone else goes in. Not all too surprising at this stage is that one of the bad guys servants is her mother, who went in to the story and then came out when another “reader” like her father conjured her by accident. Things take a drastic turn as they all get out of there, but then have to go back because Meggie and the man who wrote the bad guys that her father read out gets captured. It’s quite an exciting novel when you think about it, but like I said, it’s more of a children’s novel. Maybe the movie's better...

Wow, this was a long post, but after all, it’s three books we’re talking about. I suppose that takes some time. Anyway, That’s all for now, folks!

Baking Bread

Okay, so this isn't part of the original project but I thought I'd put it in here anyway because I think that everyone should try to make their own bread some time, and what better way to start than with this recipe I've got here? It's  the easiest bread in the world to make (okay obviously I've never tried making all the bread in the world, but it's not complicated nor does it involve strange ingredients). Really. It's not hard at all. It takes a while to do, but it's not difficult. (Amanda, it doesn't take a superwoman to do this! I'm sure you can do it too :))

I made these breads a few days ago, and they turned out really well, so I hope they do the same for you. There's no milk of animal bi-products in it, so in other words, it's completely vegan. You don't need that many ingredients to make it either. Once again, I use the metric system and here it is White bread with a Crisp Crust (makes about 4 baguette sized loaves);

What you need:

• 6 dl water ( approximately 2.5 cups (2.54 if we're picky...))
• ½ dl oil ( 0.2 cups). I used canola oil, but olive oil should be fine too.
• approximately 16 dl flour (regular wheat. It should work to substitute for whole wheat too, if you prefer) (approximately 6.75 cups) NOTE: You may not need all of this IN the dough. Some of it you'll have for baking the bread.  You may need to use more or less than this.
• 2,5 teaspoons salt.
• 25 g yeast (0.878 ounces, round to 0,9)

And that's it!  That's all you need.

How to do it;
So....how do we do this?

1. Well, the first thing to do is heat the water to about finger temperature (the best way to measure this is to actually put your finger in to the water every now and then to track the progress) after which you add the oil

2. Divide the yeast in a bowl, unless you have yeast from a bag which is already divided in to smaller pieces. If you have that, just throw it in there. When you're done, pour the liquid over the yeast and mix until the yeast is dissolved. This might be hard to see as it gets pretty turbid/cloudy and you won't see a thing but do your best. like the picture to the right shows.

3. Add the salt.

4. Here's the tricky part; the flour. If you use too much, the bread will get hard and it won't be tasty at all. What I did was that first take a cup and mix it with the rest. When that was pretty much lump-free, I took another cup and did the same. I did this with about half the flour, and then I started using less and less flour for each time I added some, which gave me a better (clearer) idea about how much I should use. It's kind of hard to explain how the dough should be, but it shouldn't be sticky and it shouldn't be really firm either. If you take a piece which seems non-sticky and you start rolling it in your hand and it becomes a bit sticky, then that's okay. You're going to add more flour anyway.

5. Let this be for an hour or so to make the dough ferment/prove/yeast (I had to look it up and I found these three, which to me makes no sense, but basically, the dough should swell, which you probably already had figured out, but anyway) under a kitchen towel.

6. After an hour has passed, put some flour on the counter or table and take the dough out. Work it and this time, they shouldn't be sticky when you're working with it.

7. You can choose different forms of the bread. I chose the baguette form, but you can also make them round if you want (You could probably make them square or heart shaped too, but  I don't know what that will do to the timing of the whole thing. The round breads and the baguettes have the same timing and steps).  If you choose the round form, you shouldn't make 4, but rather, make 2. Anyway, shape the bread to the desired shape (for me; 4 loaves, baguette style). Put them on a baking sheet.  Slit the breads diagonally.

8. Leave them be for another 35 minutes and turn the oven on for 275 degrees C ( 527 F).

9. Right before putting them in the oven, brush the bread with water (yes, water) and put them in for about 10 minutes in the middle of the oven.

10. Take them out and brush them again with water after the 10 minutes have passed and then put them back in for another 5 minutes. The reason you do this is so the surface will be crisp. Of course, it's not like store bought bread in the end, but personally, I think this is better.

11. Let the bread cool off under a kitchen towel before enjoying the freshly baked bread.

That wasn't so hard, now was it? =) I admit it takes some time, but I think its worth it.

Hope you like your newly baked bread and I'll be back with something soon (hopefully)!

Be responsible for dinner - Gazpacho

Hi Everyone!

Okay, so a few days ago, I was having lunch with my mother in the city, and she asked me if I wanted to make dinner that night. I agreed, having absolutely no idea what to do at first, but then came up with the brilliant idea of making Gazpacho; A tomato soup that is supposed to be served cold.

Knowing only that, I did some research on how to make the soup, and it turns out that there are several versions of it. As I wasn't familiar with making either of them, I went with the traditional Gazpacho, which is what I will be sharing with you today (tonight). By the way, I'll be using the metric system, but as I know that not everyone in the world uses deciliter and such, I'll put ounces and whatever else in parenthesis behind it.


Gazpacho (should take about ½ an hour at the most, if you're not like me and do 127 other things while making dinner. If you're like me, you'll have to add some time. Also, a mother who keeps coming in, asking if you're going to boil it every 10 minutes is not that beneficial either.)

• 3 dl bread (about 10 oz)
• 6 dl tomatoes (approximately 20 oz then. For all of you who are good at maths, you can see that both these numbers have multiplied by 2)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 onions
• 2 red and green peppers (I highly doubt that they have to be red and green. Sure, the green and red peppers taste a little different, but go ahead and use orange or yellow peppers if you prefer that, or why not use white peppers? That would be interesting... I have no idea what white peppers taste like)
• 1 optional cucumber.
• 7 tablespoons of oil (I used canola oil)
• 2 tablespoons of vinegar (I used Apple Cider vinegar)
• 1½ tablespoon of water (I used a mix of water and ice so it became a bit more than this, but it didn't matter)
• Cumin (optional as well, but it adds a bit of spice to it

How to do this:
Before I start with anything else, I want to let you know that there was either a growth spurt of the vegetables and flavors on the way home from the store or my mother managed to find the biggest vegetables in the whole store. I don't know how she did it, but in one go, I saw the largest tomato I've ever seen (that wasn't supposed to be big, like a beef tomato), a huge clove of garlic, an enormous onion and the fattest cucumber I've seen in a long time. I think the only thing that was normal sized was the peppers. Okay, now I've kept you long enough with my rambling, but I just wanted to share this in case you were wondering what happened with the two cloves of garlic and 2 onions or something.

To do this, you need a mortar or something similar to it.

1. First you soak the bread in some water (not the 1½ tablespoons of water. You'll need that later). To do this, and especially if you're under time pressure, I just put the bread in a bowl with water and pressed out all of the air from the bread and let it absorb the water instead.

2. When you're done with that, you take out the bread and remove most of the water (squeeze it out, with your hands) and put them in the mortar with the garlic (I chopped it a bit first, but I don't think you have to do that, if you don't want to) and the cumin, if you decide to use that. Be careful though; cumin is easily overdosed, especially since there are no measures for this dish, so just watch out a bit. And particularly you who doesn't like spicy foods. When you've managed to look over and done all that,then you mash it until it looks somewhat like the picture;

3. Chop all the other vegetables. You weren't supposed to put cucumber in the soup, but since my bread-mixture got a little spicy, I didn't think it mattered, which it didn't. The chopping doesn't have to be perfect. In a few moments, everything is going to be goo anyway. I used the red peppers in the soup and green for decoration. You're supposed to put the vegetables for the soup in a plastic bowl and mix them, but I was a bit lazy, and a bit behind, but seriously, if you have better technology; use it. I just put everything in a blender and that was that. It went much faster than if I had used a hand mixer. The downside was that at first, the thing was so full that it only took in the bottom, but if you're smart, you turn it off, take out a spoon and then mash the rest of the vegetables down a bit. It works. The end result doesn't look all that pleasant. It has sort of a sickening pink-red color which makes me a bit nauseated, but I soon got over that when I went back to point number 4.

4. Pour the water (or water/ice combo, or maybe even just ice. Using ice makes the cooling process shorter) in to the mixture. I wouldn't care so much with the measurements here. Just go with your instincts, and remember; it's better to use to little as you can always add more later, depending on personal taste. Pour in the oil and vinegar along with the water and mix a bit again. Chop the decoration vegetables; cucumber (I peeled the cucumber, but that's optional too), peppers and tomato (the rest of the vegetables go in the actual soup) if you have used the ice in the soup. Otherwise, refrigerate the soup and chop the vegetables right before serving. Remember that the soup is supposed to be cold when you serve it!

That's it. It's pretty easy and doesn't take long to do, so there you have it!

I'm off to bed now because I only got a maximum of 2 hours sleep last night (due to prom) and it's past midnight and I'm getting yelled at by mother. Not fun....

Read 6 Books I Want to Read - Molly Moon, Mickey Minus and the Mind Machine

Hello everyone! Long time no write. Or, well, you know what I mean.

Sorry I haven't posted anything earlier is because tonight was prom-night (yes, super exciting...) and I have had to prepare some things for that (which, thanks to my lovely sister and her friend wasn't very much as far as hair and makeup goes, but I have had to travel here and pack and stuff). However, I can promise you a gazpacho recipe for tomorrow :) Hopefully. If internet doesn't fail me, which it has a tendency to do some times.

Anyway, while I'm up and all (It's 3 am and I just got home, but I'm hyper now so it's all good. I think I might have to stay awake until I'm going home later on...), I thought I'd post about a book I've read, which means it's part of nr. 10 on my list.

On Wednesday, before I got on the bus to go back to school for the prom on Thursday (yesterday...you know what I mean), I went to the library in my home town to borrow some books. Unfortunately, the English section is very limited (I believe a book should be read in its original language as far as possible), so when I had gotten over the anger (if you can call it that) that I felt for the library, I actually found 6 books to read. I had already read one of them before, but still. I think I should alter point nr 10 to be "Read at least 6 books I want to read" because I have a feeling that I'll be reading more than 6 books. I know I didn't say anything about having or not having read them before, and that's because I don't care. The reason for this blog is to share my views with you about how I think  and such, and therefore, if I find a book so interesting I'm willing to read it more than once, then it should be recommended.

The first book I took on out of the 6 I borrowed was a childrens' book called Molly Moon, Mickey Minus and the Mind Machine . It is the 4th book in a series (Previous books are;  Molly Moon's hypnotic time travel adventure Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism , Molly Moon Stops the World (My personal favorite) and Molly Moon's Hypnotic Time Travel Adventure ) and there is a 5th called Molly Moon and the Morphing Mystery which I haven't been able to get my hands on yet BECAUSE OUR LIBRARY IS SUCKY! (I haven't gotten my hands on Mickey Minus and the Mind Machine in the sense that I own it, but at least I've read it)

The whole series is about an ordinary girl  (an orphan who was found in a box that had contained Moon's Marshmallows... I think Moon's Marshmallows sounds delicious to eat right now...I should eat something.... anyway,) with a not so ordinary gift. She realizes that she can hypnotize people and during the series she explores what she can do with her gift and how it works. It may sound dull, but it's not. I loved these books when I was a little younger (and I still do). I will try not to spoil too much, but if you're planning to read the series, you might want to not read this part (but if you want to spoil, then go right ahead), but during every book (more or less) she finds a part of herself and she wants to know who her family really is (I am not sure if she says it outright or not, but it's implied anyway).  In this book, she's found her mother and father, but have been told she has a twin brother who is somewhere. With the powers she's learned before (freezing time and time traveling, and of course hypnotism) she travels back in time to see what happened to him and she realizes that she needs to help him. She finds a new power within herself in this book as well, like she has throughout the others.

As you may have noticed, I keep referring to this piece of literature as a book. And it is a book. But I do this on purpose because for the past 3 years, I've been forbidden from calling a novel or a short story or something like that a book, so now I'm making up for it ;)

Okay so it wasn't the longest post in the history of blogging, but I think I've told you the essential. I really recommend this series for children of maybe 9-10 years, both boys and girls, and I know that I'm a really big kid most of the time, but I still find all of these books to be extremely entertaining even as an (almost) adult.

That's all for me now :) Remember to look here today (tomorrow) and I'll hopefully have been able to put the gazpacho-recipe up tomorrow.=)

Sleep really late - And I love it!

Okay, so this post won't contain that many images as it deals with sleeping. It probably won't be that interesting either since it deals with sleeping and for the same reason, it won't be that long either, but yesterday was really nice, sleep wise. I conducted nr. 13 on my list :) (I will probably do this more than one time though, but still)

On Wednesday, my sister and I had a movie-night and as we were watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I fell asleep around 11, which wasn't all that strange since I was really tired. My sister woke me up at midnight and after that I went to sleep in my own bed. I had asked my sister to wake me up at 8 when she left for school, which she did, but since I was pretty much sleepwalking around that time, I walked back to my bed and fell asleep again. (Un)Fortunately, I didn't have an alarm-clock on so I managed to sleep until 10.30 am, which was FANTASTIC! but I'm one of those people who get really tired once I sleep over a certain amount of hours (for me, that's about 9 hours; sometimes more and sometimes less, but around 9 hours sleep is what I need to be fully rested) so I spent the rest of the day being tired instead, which I guess wasn't really beneficial for me either in the long run, but it was most definitely pleasant while I was still sleeping ;)

Bye for now! I'm off to scan some pictures :D

Be responsible for dinner - Mexican Quinoa Salad

Hi!
Once again I'm playing with the UFO's! Yes, quinoa's part of this dish too, and this was today's dinner.

I decided to do this because I have a vegan friend and I wanted to do this to see if I could possibly use it for my graduation party. This recipe is, like the previous, really easy to change to fit what you have at home, or if you happen to live, like me, in a place where certain fresh spices are hard to come by at certain times of the year (or the stores don't stock them), you can use the dried versions. The Mexican Quinoa Salad was really easy to make, but the recipe involves beans so if you decide to use dry beans rather than canned ones, make sure you have plenty of time as for example the black beans I used needed 8 hours to soak before being cooked for 30-40 minutes... Anyway, onwards to the recipe:

Mexican QuinoaSalad (4 servings)
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup UFO's (or Quinoa for you normal people out there)
1/2 red bell pepper or yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 small jalapeno, seeded and diced finely (This is optional (leave it out if you do not like spicy food, add more or include some of the seeds if you like things hotter. My sister is not a big fan of spicy foods so I left it out)
1 small red onion, chopped fine or 2 green onions, chopped fine
2 roma tomatoes, chopped or 6 grape tomatoes, halved
1 (15 ounce) can pinto beans (or other beans, I prefer black beans)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup salsa (fresh or homemade is best) - I made my own salsa, and I'm putting the recipe below. If you have a recipe you like, use that!
1 tablespoon canola oil
Juice of 1 lime (I used lemon juice since limes here are not the best this season...keep in mind that if you do use lemon juice, lemon is often a bit "milder" and isn't as concentrated as lime juice, so you may have to add some extra)
fresh ground black pepper
sea salt


How to do it:
1. Boil the UFO's until it's done according to the package. While you're doing that, you can make the rest, like boil beans (if needed), chop vegetables and maybe even the salsa if you make your own.



2. Let the UFO's and beans cool off before mixing them with the rest of the ingredients. And you're done. Can be saved and refrigerated for a few days or it can be served straight away.

Salsa
6 tomatoes, preferably Roma (or 3 large tomatoes)
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely minced
2 jalapeño peppers, finely chopped
3 Tbsp cilantro, chopped to taste fresh lime juice
1/8 tsp oregano, finely crushed
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 avocado, diced (black skin)


 How to do it:

1. Combine all ingredients in glass bowl. I don't think the kind of bowl matters, but okay. Anyway, if you happen to be short on some ingredient, never mind; it will be okay anyway!

2. Serve immediately or refrigerate and serve within 4–5 hours.

Fresh herbs add plenty of flavor to this salsa, so you use less salt. Like I said, you can used the dried herbs instead, but fresh is usually better.

I mixed the Salsa with the salad, but if some people don't like it, then serve it on the side :)

Enjoy!

Be responsible for dinner - Quornfilés with Quinoa Salad and "Sweet Chili Muddle"

Hello.
Number 8 on the list (Be responsible for dinner for a week) actually started yesterday with the said dish; Quorn-filés with Quinoa Salad and "Sweet Chili Muddle"

I found this recipe in a grocery store here and since I'm a vegetarian I thought it was a great dish to try. I'm also a big fan of UFO's (I like to call Quinoa UFO's because I think they look like the stereotypical image of the vessel. Plus, before I remembered what it was called, and I wanted to explain to my mother what I was talking about, I called them that, so now whenever I say it, she knows what I mean instantly). Originally it was supposed to be an "avocado muddle" or whatever you want to call it, but because it isn't avocado season right now, I just went ahead and changed the recipe. It's not that hard to do, really. Quorn-filés reminds me of chicken so if you have a sauce or muddle that you like with chicken, you can use that instead. It's a pretty easy dish to vary.

Quornfilés with Quinoa Salad and Avocado Muddle. (4 servings)

4 Quornfilés (It's a vegetarian substitute for chicken filés)
1 Tbsp Oil
4 portions UFO's (Quinoa)
1 bell pepper
1 packet of pea sprouts (I disregarded from this and went with original salad instead. Worked just as well)
250 g cocktail tomatoes (you can use regular tomatoes just as well)
Salt and pepper to taste
2 dl Turkish yogurt or other sour cream like yogurt (or sour cream, if you prefer)
1 Avocado (this is what I substituted for Sweet Chili Sauce)
1 lime.

How to do it: 
1. Make sure you have all the ingredients.

2. Fry whatever chicken-substitute you choose with the oil (Note that in the picture, the chicken is for my non-vegetarian sister who, for some reason, refuses to eat completely vegetarian). For the quorn-filés it's about 5 min on each side. While doing that (or while heating the frying pans), rinse the UFO's (quinoa) and boil according to what the package says.

3. Chop all the salad-components, mix them in a bowl and add salt and pepper  to taste

4. Here's where you make the avocado muddle where you open the avocado and mash it with a fork, mix it with the yogurt/sour cream and mix in some lime salt and pepper. What I did was that I mixed Sweet Chili Sauce with the yogurt in a bowl and put it in the fridge.







5. Mix the UFO's with the salad (once they UFO's are cooled down) and serve.See? Easy as that. It didn't take me long to make. The most time-consuming part was cooking the UFO's.

Well, that's it for me now... I'll be back in a little while ;)

31 Days of Summer - The Blog

Hello people!

You're probably wondering what this is about. Well, the truth is that a while ago I read this article where Zooey Deschanel told of her list of things that she was planning to do in the summer. During those dark months of winter here in the northern hemisphere where I happen to be located, I begun to think about what she had done and decided to make such a list of my own. It sort of works like Earl (from My Name is Earl ) who is making nice things for people whom he's mistreated, except I thought that since I've been mean enough to put myself through 3 years of IB, I would do nice things for me that I like to do.

So without further ado, I present to you the list, inspired by Ms Deschanel 

1.  Have a picnic in a field - I have a field close to the street I live on, so why not use that? 
2. Lay in earlier mentioned field and listen to music - I love music, and on a warm day, that can get really nice. I will need a new playlist for that, which brings me to nr...
3. Make a summer playlist - If it wasn't obvious to you or you want to be sure, the playlist will be used for nr.2 of this list.
4. Bike to a village a few km away - there is a small village a few km away from my city so why not bike there? Biking is lovely =)
5. Stand in the rain/alt. have water-fight with sister - She doesn't know she's possibly volunteering for this but still. The point of this activity is to get soaking wet!
6. Get my driver's license - Not that I will use it much, but if I do get it, guess who will be the un-volunteered driver this summer?
7. Make breakfast for mom and sister - I can be nice to them without an ulterior motive, can't I?
8. Be responsible for dinner for a week - I've already started this and it won't be a week in a row because I have to go away for a night, but still. Plus, it's a great way to try out some new recipes. 
9. Roll down a hill - Preferably Åsbo, which is a huge hill, and it shall be awesome! 
10. Read 6 books I want to read - When I don't have IB bossing me around and telling me what I am going to read, I'll read books I actually enjoy (Some of the books I read were good, but were not my choice). Perhaps I'll do this in the field while listening to my summer playlist ;)
11. Watch 5 movies I haven't seen before - I need culture! 
12. Write Fanfics, do Fanart and make Fanvid - To regain my creative side *cough, cough* not that it ever was completely gone, but I’ve been on a low lately.
13. Sleep really late - I think I deserve it after my exams.
14. Wear summery dresses – I like dresses.
15. Make a list of things to bring to Australia – I prefer to be prepared.
16. Eat lots of fruit – I love fruit. Better than candy. I’m not just saying that, I actually think so.
17. Dry apples and make apple crisps – I’ve wanted to do this for years. 
18. Plant a tree – I find helping the planet to be quite fulfilling. Not quite sure I can do this one though. Maybe it will have to be a bush instead…
19. Do cartwheels – I want to be a kid again, and as a kid I used to love doing cartwheels.
20. Buy CD(s) – Dayplayer, She and Him Volume 1&2, Paramore. I’ll buy at least one.
21. Visit my aunt – I want to spend some time with her since I’m leaving in the fall.
22. Enjoy the beautiful scenery – meaning mainly walks…I don’t know if you can call it beautiful either, but still.
23. Write a list with 6 positive things about my name – for those of you who don't know, I don't like my name but I have to realize that sadly enough it’s not going anywhere...
24. Make another photo album – My sister did a wonderful one but I want more pictures with me.
25. Make a midsummer crown – I used to make them when I was little. It was fun.
26. 100 days of Bones – Making recaps with personal comments of the first 100 episodes of Bones and posting them here on my blog and on BT (possibly…We’ll see). 
27. Sit in a tree and read – I did this in 6th grade and it was so nice to just sit there, hear the wind and read a good book. Perhaps something from nr. 10
28. Eat fresh strawberries – I want to eat strawberries with un-whipped whip-cream.
29. Make a medieval chemise – I don’t know why, but I love medieval clothing, like dresses and stuff… I just love it. 
30. Make an item of clothing – Other than the medieval chemise of course.
31. Spend one day in pajamas – Does this really need explaining xD?

For those of you who have read this list; yes, I've made a few changes to it ;)

Anyway, so the entries in this blog will be about these things as a sort of documentation from my last summer in Sweden for a while. Finally, I don't know if it will be one for each day (especially since some points will contain several sub-posts so to speak) and that this will only take 31 days (I doubt it) but I kind of liked the title.

Bye now! =)