Catching Points - a food blog

BBM 10 items or less

2008-10-18T16:34:00.009+02:00

It's funny. Last BBM (which you can read down below, because I haven't posted anything else since then, stupid me), I waited and waited for my package and it never arrived. Instead Stephanie was a sweetheart and sent me a package.
This time, I was much luckier and acctually was one of the first to recieve my package.

See the list and follow the links here.

Rice and grits from the Carolina plantation. I got most excited about these and even though I'm on a GI diet at the moment, I can't wait to use these somehow!!

American tea. I've never tried american tea, I didn't even know there was anything called that. Interesting.

Sugar covered pecan nuts. These were deadly sweet but delicious ;) I gave them to my friend Kara as she loves all nuts. She was thrilled!

Charleston Chew. I've had these before as we have an american food store, and they mostly sell sweets. I like the chocolate flavoured ones more haha.

I also got some lemon marmelade and some nicks and nacks...
12 kitchen labels, a museum bookmark, metal tags and something I'm guessing is a christmas ornament in the shape of a sweetgrass basket.
Now I'm off to thank the person who sent me all these things, here!

NOTE apparently this post is blocked because of as put in an email "something that rimes with corn"... hmmm if anyone knows which part would cause this please leave me a note ;)

OH and if anyone who uses blogger, knows why I keep getting an error code saying bX-pier7a when I try to post, again please contact me...

57 out of 100 beat it!

2008-08-17T22:14:00.004+02:00

Taken from Dispensing Happiness
...a list of things every omnivore should eat.
It's taken from Very good taste... and what he wants you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating. (There's nothing I wouldn't try once)
4) Optional extra: Post a comment at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

I had to look alot of these things up through google because they aren't named that here in Sweden. But I'm surprised to say I have 57 out of 100. WOW! And alot are things I can't even get a hold of here!

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

BBM thanks to the absolutely lovely Stephanie!

2008-07-14T18:11:00.005+02:00

I never got my BBM pack. Well not the one intended for me and I had just gotten to peace with it, because it's someones time each time and this time it was mine, when... I found a big box waiting for me!
Stephanie, who is hosting Blogging By Mail sent me some things and I'm thrilled!
This is what I got:
- Bathstuff from the Worldmarket. Peppermint scented...
- Popcorn, HOT mmm can't wait to try these!
- Heinz Ketchup, a really small bottle that I'm giving to my nephew, who loves small bottles.
- A cute serving dish, silver coloured. From the Worldmarket
- Torani hazelnut flavoured syrup... for my coffee!
- Worldmarket mermaid drink markers... I have a mini bar and these fit right in!!
- Bamboo Picks, well with these and the drink markers, I guess I ought to have a cocktail party soon!
- Chowards Violet
- Clark bar
- Fruit Stripe gum
- Nutella
- Scharfenberger chocolate
- Newtree ginger chocolate
- Vosges Red Fire Bar (chili chocolate)
- Loa chocolate covered macadamia nuts

And wow, that's all I think.
I haven't got much to say about the candy yet cause I haven't tried much as I'm dieting. I did eat some of the chocolate though... Scharfenberger, which I got in 3 flavours, semisweet, bittersweet and extra dark. I love dark chocolate and this went straight to the top list of flavours! I also had to try the chili chocolate and ginger chocolate and I liked both. Although I love a more spicier chili flavour. Preferably one that slightly burn the lips. Mmmmmm

I think Stephanie is an angel. She didn't have to send me a gift, I was ok with missing my pack. Sad but ok, and I was just looking forward to next round! Now I didn't only get a ton of cool stuff and candy, I got inspiration for next round... I'm gonna raid my mums shop for a cool dish. She's got alot of 50-80's stuff that I just love. It all depends on the reciever of course.

PS, myc amera's broke, took the picture with my cellphone. Sorry but it was either that or no picture at all.

Welcome Back Catching Points!!

2008-03-30T13:46:00.003+02:00

Wow.
The best thing about Blogger is, that it keeps your post forever.
I have a blog in here that was like a diary 5 years ago. Imagine reading that.

Anyway. I abandoned wordpress, which gave me nothing but grief. Everytime I fixed one bugg another appeared. Out of the blue. It was like having a virus on your harddrive except it was on my boybeater server. Nope, gone it had to go.

I'm planning on posting here every now and then. Get up what I'm eating now and how it makes me drop pound after pound! You'll love it! I get to eat fat!

I'm also waiting for my Blogger By Mail package. I sent mine of weeks before it had to go, but no sign of recieving one.... I'm probably one of the packages not even shipped yet. It would be the icing on an already miserable month. Yes I'm bitter...

I haven't got a reciepe for you just yet. I'm gonna write about GI one of these days aswell. I wont be a daily updated blog, for one of those go to for example Annes Food. She just posted about the BBM package she got.

MOVED

2006-09-19T12:06:00.000+02:00

I've fixed my wordpress blog and I've moved this blog to my old domain!!!
No more waiting for Blogger to stop screwing up! No more uploading problems or slow connection times!
What are you waiting for???

HEAD ON OVER TO:

BOYBEATER.ORG

I'm going insaaaane!

2006-09-16T22:51:00.000+02:00

The reason I haven't been such an avid food/recipe blogger lately (besides the fulltime studying) is that I'm trying to put up my wordpress blog. Everything is going fairly well except the fact that I want a page for the archives (ie archives/index.php) and store all my archives there instead of having all the links on my index page. Is there ANYONE out there who knows how to do this??
I'll send you a thank you package with some swedish treats! JUST HELP ME???
email me (xonie@hotmail.com), be sure to put the topic as wordpress or it'll go straight to my junkmailbox! Remember, gifts for you!!!!

Cottage Cheese as a lunchbox

2006-09-13T18:12:00.000+02:00

I'm trying not to eat too many sandwiches, so for lunch lately I've been mashing some avocadoes up, mixing them with a splash of lemon and loads of tabasco (Some like it hot...) and then mixing that mash up with some Keso, our very own swedish cottage cheese. I just press the mixture back into my cottage cheese box and bring that to school, eatit at lunch adn then throw the plastic box away. Very convinient and tasty!

Polenta

2006-09-12T13:37:00.000+02:00

If anyone's been wondering why I haven't been posting so much lately it's because I'm working hard, at school. Which is somewhat of a relief to me. I was afraid I'd be slacking off, or acctually too stupid to understand a word that's been said. But I'm enjoying myself. I'm studying Management at the moment, which is a part of my business economy. Very interesting.
Of course I have time to cook, but maybe not all that interesting everyday.
A few days ago though, I tried to make polenta for the first time, but I couldn't find anywhere or anyone to tell me the polenta-liquid ratio, so I used a 1 part polenta, two part water and it worked out fine. Next time I'll just not put the polenta in the oven for that long (the crust became a bit too hard) and I'll use broth instead of water.
I liked it, it wasn't that appriciated by my boyfriend though. He doesn't have much to say about it though since he never cooks...

WDB #51

2006-09-10T14:14:00.000+02:00

It's werid but Love outdoors, look like a 5 year old while Love sleeping at home is an old old dog.
Go to Sweetnicks for the roundup!

Bakfickan

2006-09-04T17:02:00.000+02:00

My mother and I are relly close. And alot alike. Sometimes that means we fight and are both too stubborn to ever let the other win. Well maybe after a week of not speaking to eachother one will break.
Most often though it means that we take the time now and then to go out, have a sip of some good red wine (she only drinks red) and maybe maybe maybe a bite to eat. My mother is a food nazi. If the food isn't cooked to perfection it's sent back. Or well she used to be that harsh, these days she just wont touch it after the first bite and if the poor waiter asks what's wrong he or she will get their ears full. That happens more often than you'd think because good resturants are hard to find.
But last thursday we met up in Kungsträdgården. We didn't know what we were in the mood for we were just hungry so we didn't walk far, we ended up at Bakfickan which is an extension to Opera Källan a very posh place in Stockholm.
At first I thought, because according to a sign they had typical swedish food, that I'd be eating meatballs and mashed potatoes and was a bit bummed because I can make that at home, but when I got the menu my eyes fell on my first treat. Oysters (30sek/piece).

I haven't had oysters for years. Mostly because I'm the only one who eats them of everyone I know, but also because they cost a nice penny. Sadly this was the only piece of food we got in that I remember to photo before I took a bite.
Next thing I ordered in, which my mother decided on as well was Beef Tartar (200sek) which is a raw beef, made from really fresh meat that has just been ground. I'm sorry the picture is so messed up, I couldn't really tell it was when I was at the resturant.

Yes I forgot I had a camera and purpose. The beef was originally perfectly placed in the middle of the plate with a raw eggyolk on top, around it there were three piles, one of capers, one of chopped raw onion and one of chopped swedish beet. You can eat it however you please but as you can see, my way is mixing the ingredients I want in and then eat. It was served with some mustard sauce on the side but I don't need any sauce with this delicious meat. And it was absolutely devine!

Last and least, dessert. I was completely filled so I ordered a martini(105sek), which my mother had to point out several times (even to the waitor) was a drink to begin a meal with and not end it. She ordered a chocolate mousse. This was the first time we got disappointed. The chocolate mousse was in a beautiful chocolate made cup, but it tasted of only cream with a small small splash of chocolate in it. Not at all satisfying.
In the end the meal was close to excellent, the beef tartar and the oysters left me with a huge grin on my face, but then again I didn't pay. We shared a bottle of red wine that I in the haste of joy forgot to photograph or even remember the name of. All and all, for two people the bill came to about 1300 sek. If you can afford it, it's worth every penny. Now I owe my mother a big night out!

Only negative thing about Bakfickan is the waiting. For waitors. There are basically only old men waiting the tables, which is quite adorable and makes the place feel extremely classy. To begin with we had excellent service. Wine glasses constantly filled, attention on removing plates, but somewhere after getting the dinner we suddenly got ignored. And getting the dessert list aswell as the check took a bit of work, more than I'd like to give. So don't go there if you're in a hurry or hate trying to get a waiters attention...

Bakfickan
Karl XII:s Torg
11147 STOCKHOLM
phone: 08-6765809

WEEKEND DOG BLOGGING #50

2006-09-03T13:21:00.000+02:00

Love is ten years old. So it's mostly pictures of him sleeping these days. but that's ok by me because that's when he's most adorable. He never used to be this calm when he was younger so for me it's still unbelievable and I just enjoy every second he's not on me for a walk.
When we're out though, no one will believe he's 10½, he acts like a baby, atleast until all the air has blown out of him and he has to catch his breath. Maybe pictures of that next week.
Now go to Sweetnicks for the roundup, or it'll be up atleast late sunday afternoon!!

Cyberkocken sammanställning (roundup)

2006-08-28T23:42:00.000+02:00

Rösta på mig?

vote for me? if you liked my chickenliver sauce!

Dead easy but awesome FRIED CHICKEN

2006-08-28T18:58:00.000+02:00

The easiest but incredibly yummie fried chicken you've made...

Chicken
salt
pepper
cayenne pepper
flour
oil (not olive)

Heat the oil in a deep pan. You don't need to add alot, halv a cup is sufficent.
spice up your chicken and then cover it in flour, shake excess flour off.
Heat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.
When the oil is hot enough add your chicken. I used legs. Don't add all if you're doing alot. When one side is golden, flip it over. You just want it to get colour and get a bit crispy but you don't have to let it cook through.
When all chicken pieces have fried, put them in a heatproof bowl and put them in the oven. While the chicken is cooking through, make a salad and fry some potatoes to go with the chicken.
The chicken usually takes around 15 minutes to cook through.
It's delicious and for me it's perfect for those days when pms cravings are getting to me. But best is to do this with chickenwings, and then add some hot sauce when they're done. Or tabasco. MMMMMMM!

CYBERKOCKEN #5

2006-08-27T21:35:00.000+02:00

First in Swedish, as this is a swedish challange, scroll down on this post to get this recipe in english!

Cyberkocken #5 hade ingredienserna Mozzarella, Kycklinglever, Mandel och Svamp. Jag blev verkligen till mig, för jag har tänkt ganska länge på kycklinglever. Det låter lite konstigt jag vet men de få dagar min pappa brukade laga mat när jag var liten, hade han några speciella rätter han gjorde. Falukorv i ugn (kommer senare i veckan), makaronilåda och kycklinglever med ris var de enda han kunde. Och plättar. Så vi kunde nästan alltid gissa vad vi skulle äta när mamma var borta. På sistone har jag tänkt mycket på pappa, ettårsdagen efter hans död var nyligen och man saknar ju sina nära och kära.
Det kanske låter konstigt men jag brukade älska pappas kycklinglever. Det var nog inte alltid så och det är en smak man måste vänja sig vid men sist jag åt den älskade jag den. Därför blev det just pappas kycklinglever som jag lagade. Det enda jag ändrade var att jag la till champinjoner. Till min kycklinglever serverade jag ris och en sallad med mozzarellan och mandeln.
Det här är en av de enklaste recept som existerar!

Pappas Kycklinglever
300 g kycklinglever
1 lök
1 vitlök
8 champinjoner
2 dl matlagningsgrädde
1 msk sambal oelek
salt och peppar
olivolja

Börja med att skölja och rensa levern. Ta bort all fett och alla hinnor du ser. Torka den noga med lite papper.
Hacka lök och vitlök. Rensa och hacka champinjonerna smått.
I en stekpanna, värm oljan. Bryn levern. När alla bitar har fått färg (inte är genomstekta) lägg i champinjonerna, ha pannan het och rör om hela tiden, du vill bara mjukna champinjonerna.
När champinjonerna är mjuka, blanda i lök och vitlök och stek tills löken har blivit genomskinlig. Salta, peppra, ha i sambal och tillsätt matlagningsgrädden. Låt det hela puttra i en kvart.
Koka jasminris undertiden och servera till.

Till salladen använde jag blandade salladsorter och hackade mandel till, och mozzarella i tärningar. Otroligt gott alltihop!

ENGLISH RECIPE

Cyberkocken is a swedish event where you get decided ingredients and you cook something after that.
The ingredients were mushrooms, almond, mozzarella and chickenliver. Which made me decide to make a recipe my late dad always used to do. No need to write the whole history as above, all I can say is that I used to love this as a kid and I still think it's awesome!

Dads Chickenliver
300 g chickenliver
1 onion
1 garlic clove
8 mushrooms (I used white button mushrooms)
almost 1 cup half and half
salt
peppar
sambal oelek (which is a chilipaste)

Start with cleaning the liver. You want to remove fat and any membrane you can find. Quickly wash it under water and make sure to dry it off completely.
Chop the onion, garlic and mushroom.
Heat some oil in a pan and add the liver. Brown it, then add the mushroom to soften. When it's soft, add the garlic and onion and stir until the onions are soften.
Add salt, peppar and sambal and then add the half and half and let it simmer for fifteen minutes.
Serve with some jasmin rice.

To use the mozzarella and almond, I made a salad and topped with both those ingredients. It was a very luxurious dinner and I made sure to make a lunchbox for tomorrow! YUM!

WDB

2006-08-26T10:22:00.000+02:00

For Weekend Dog Blogging!
Another Weekend has arrived, and here's another round of pictures of my darling Love! The light of my life!!

There are some places that are acceptable places to sleep at. Daddys lap is one of them.

Another is right infront of the tv, that way we get noticed everytime we move.

But the best part is in our very own bed. Nothing screams comfort like this one...

Now for all you Stockholmers out there... if you haven't been already, you should really go to Tensta and check out TenstaMarknad! The food is awesome and the music is great! There are also different stand selling all kinds of stuff! I was working until 1 am there yesterday so I never got a chance to take pictures of the food stands, but I know the designated photographer of the event so when he's processed his film I'll beg for some to show the rest of you what you're missing. I did however get to stuff myself with pirog, winedolmes, tabulleh, sambusa and loads more just because I was working there! Yummie!!!
Unfortunetly for you who decide to go check it out today is that you missed Ayesha yesterday, who was completely awesome! That woman can move! I heard Dogge was good too but I never got a chance to go see him... Martin Bentancourt was nice, but I never had time to check his show out either. His dancers drove me insane though...
Yeah I worked int he "artist lounge"...

SHF #22 Can you Can?

2006-08-24T20:31:00.000+02:00

Can I can? Well I was about to find out with this Sugar high Friday hosted by Delicious Days. I've honestly never made any jam or marmalade ever before. My closest thing to anything canned was the chutney I made just a couple of days ago. But I still couldn't resist to participate in my first ever SHF because on monay it's my mothers birthday, and I just have this weird feeling she'd love love LOVE a homemade jam or marmalade.
I did my best to find a recipe of any jam or marmalade that had as little sugar in it as possible, without using any sweetners, because
a) my mum thinks artificial sweetners are evil
b) my mum is on a low carb diet
and any fruit cooked is perfect because my mum is allergic to 90% of all raw fruits and vegetables, to different extents. She can for instance not eat raw apples, pears or carrots.
But what I chose was Plum. Why? I know she likes plums, I'd also seen some beautiful plums in my shop, so I just decided on plum.
Next step was to find a recipe. None of my cookbooks had anything at all appealing, which just shows that I need new cookbooks! So I surfed and found a swedish recipe of plummarmalade.

Plummarmalade
1½ kg plums
½ dl water
1½ kg sugar
1 lemon
3½ tsp fruitpektin powder (a natural thickner, I don't know the english word for it)
or a bottle liquid fruitpektin (1 dl) because I couldn't find the powdered kind
½ dl sugar (if using the powdered kind)

Clean the plums, desead but keep the skin. Cut them into pieces.
In a big saucepan add the plums and the water. Let the mess bring to a boil and boil under a lid for 10 minutes.
Add the sugar and juice of the lemon and boil at a high speed under constant stirring (no lid) for 5-10 minutes.
Take the saucepan off the heat and add the pektin, if you're using the powder first mix it with the sugar.
Boil for another couple of minutes while skimming it constantly.
Add the mixture to wellcleaned and hot glasjars. Let the jars cool upside down. Store dark and cool.

When it came to labeling my jar I had to do it all by hand and use glue to stick it on because I had nothing that could work as a label. But I still think it looks alright.

There are some things I still wonder. Why did I have to cool them upside down? This led to the marmalade being stuck at the top because the jars had a line as the top of how much I got to fill.
I didn't like this so I opened the cooled jars and let the air in, so have I now spoiled the marmalade? besides it doesn't look good anymore. Buhu!
And does anyone have any good recipes of marmalade without so much sugar? Or maybe any other way of perserving fruit without so much sugar?

Oh and I know it's thursday, but I'll be working until midnight on friday, so I wont be able to post this then....

Bullet Omelette

2006-08-22T20:04:00.000+02:00

This weekend my boyfriend and I decided to break in the bullet. We've used it alot since, and it can do most it's promised, but was completely useless when it came to make carrot juice. A huge disapointment.

This omelette was however perfect. We mixed cheese, bell pepper, onion and a jalapeno with 4 eggs. D took a hold of the cooking while I made some delightful smoothies for us. I got a berrybanana smoothie and he had a pineapple smoothie, and couldn't stop laughing at an old memory of a teacher who forgot it was called pineapple and kept saying ananas with an english accent (ananas is swedish for pineapple).

Yes we did use the so called partymugs. I don't see us using them at any "coctail" part we might have int he future though. At the best at a girls night, when we just stay at my place cooking great food and laughing at the stupid childish mugs. They would be perfect for a kids party though...

EVENT: Summer Salad Recipes

2006-08-21T20:55:00.000+02:00

I deicided to join My life as a reluctant housewife's event Summer Salad. It just took me this long to post my salad (and today is the last day to enter).
My salad is really not a typical salad at all. It's not a salad I've seen anywhere acctually but ti's damn tasty.
Black pudding or blood sausage is made out of pigsblood. It's strangely sweet and extremely tasty. Don't be afraid to try it.

Black Pudding Salad
3 slices of black pudding
a small piece of danableu
your favorite crisp salad (mine were arugola, mache, lollo rosso)
a tomato
a piece of cucumber
one green onion

chop all but the black pudding up and spread on a plate.
fry the blackpudding in a pan and then chop it up and spread on your greens.
I ate this without dressing because it's the tastiest, but any dressing made from lingonberry would suite this perfectly. It's a cheap and utterly devine salad!

Hot Tomato Mango chutney

2006-08-20T13:26:00.000+02:00

I've been meaning to try to make my own chutney for forever, but at the smae time I've been reluctant to try it. I'm not much for raisins and there are so many recipes with raisins out there in them. I just wanted something with tomatoes and sugar. It was pure luck that I found this amazing recipe at tasteline.com

Hot tomato Chutney
1 kg tomatoes
2 mangoes
9 small shallots
1 large chili
a small piece ginger
5 dl sugar
5 dl white wine vinegar
and some freshly ground peppar

Start with peeling the tomatoes by putting them in hot water to loosen the skin off. Don't boil them! Cut the tomtoes into chunky bits.
Peel the mangoes, and strip off the meat, cut it into chunky bits.
Clean the shallots and chop them up. With the chili, remove the seeds and cut it into pieces. A chutney cooks a long while so it'll be alot more spicy than you expect.
Cut the ginger into small pieces.
Put the tomtoes, mango, chili, ginger and onion in a big saucepan and bring it to a boil. Stir in the sugar, vinegar and peppar, and let it all boil on top heat, without a lid for atleast 50 minutes. Make sure to stir alot so it wont burn in the bottom. It should all reduce to a third and be thick.
Pour the Chutney into a clean and hot jar, fill to the top and put the lid on. Store it dark and cool.

Love for my Love

2006-08-19T16:42:00.000+02:00

I've been thinking about joining Weekend Dog Blogging a while, but now that it's weekend and I'm sitting here with a ready picture I just don't know where to turn. So if you do, comment the link of where I go to sign up, otherwise I guess I'll just blog about my dog alone each weekend!
I have a dog. He is 10½ years old. his name is acctually Love but it's not pronounced luv it's pronounced Loveh. Some people think he got his name from a famous swedish poet called Love Almqvist, but he didn't. Others think he got his name from Love, but he didn't get it from that either.
When I got him I was 15 and according to my parents a troubled youth. He became my rock. But his name back then was Blacky. I couldn't go around screaming Blacky I just refused so we opened a name book, I read hte name and the rest of the family said yes or no. But the interesting thing is, when I came to Love, my sweet dog thought I called for him and came to me. So HE chose his name and it suits him perfectly. He is my love.

Chopsticks

2006-08-18T17:10:00.000+02:00

Today is a day I've been waiting a long time for. Today me and my boyfriend are going to his parents place for a traditional Swedish Crawfish Party.
It's a typical swedish event and I'll try to take pictures (though half of the family hate photography at the table or at all...) and then I'll post a full event logg.

Earlier today I ate lunch at a resturant I love here in Stockholm with my sister. She took a typical teriyaki lunch but I decided to broaden my view and took Bay Scallops. I'm glad I strayed from my usual choices and ventured into the unknown. I usually don't like Scallops, but their way of cooking them was a taste evolution of its own.
They should've been enjoyed with a good glass of wine but my nephew was with us and I just had a diet coke with them, something I'll never have again, it just destroyed all my tastebuds.
Everyone in Stockholm, go enjoy ChopSticks! They have a new feature (for me who was there for the second time in a year) DimSum menu that starts at 2 pm. I'll be taking that one down next!!

Chopsticks Restaurang
Mäster Samuelsg. 42

Some kind of Magic...

2006-08-17T19:10:00.000+02:00

Sometimes I think I'm the typical person tv-ads center themselves to. I always get interested in things I see on TVShop, acctually everything that isn't gym equipment. I atleast know better than that...
So the latest thing my eyes fell on was... the Magic Bullet. I swear the first time the ad ran on tv I hated it. The second and third time too, but then everytime I used my own kitchenappliance I swore to myself because I didn't have the bullet. that and I want a juice maker.
But the price, oh the price, it was painful! 999 SEK ($140). Way too much! But maybe if I could convince my sister that she'd want one... We'd get two for 1500 (209)... hmmmm. But then I started searching info about it online, and I was surprised how many people had something positive to say about it, and I also found a site where the Bullet would cost 799 for one. Intruiging. What if I could find it cheaper... and I did! I found it for £59.95 ($77) and with shipping it came to £69, which was cheaper than the rest. Yeah I did it... I went and bought it... and it arrived yesterday. All I've looked at so far is the recipe book that comes with it, just because I couldn't help myself. Now I'm dumbfounded. What should I do first? Make some carrot juice? Or maybe some sort of energydrink? Oh can't someone come with advice?
Once I've used it a fair bit of times I'll evaluate it for everyone so you'll know if it's worth buying or not...

Stuvad Vitkål

2006-08-15T12:30:00.000+02:00

Stuvad Vitkål is Cabbage cooked in White Sauce that's the closest anything would let me translate it to, although Stuvad Spenat is Creamed Spinach. I wonder why I can't translate Stuvad Vitkål to Creamed Cabbage?
Anyway. It's just as the name says. Cabbage cooked in whitesauce. Sure there's a little bit more to it, but I thought I'd tell you a bit more about it. Creamed cabbage and also creamed macaroni are very typical swedish to have with sausage, but usually not just any sausage but our very own Falukorv which will translate to sausage from falun. What's special about it is that it has to have atleast 40% meat. But that doesn't mean I can make a sausage with 40% meat and call it falukorv, since the name is protected by law. There are so many cheaper brands that try to replicate falukorv, they usually call themselves things like guldkorv (goldsausage) or something corny like that and have a sausage very similar to the falukorv, but the taste differs immensely. The falukorv's look is special. It's usually almost round and covered in a red skin. The skin is not eatable. It's one of the most common things to eat in Sweden.
Back tot he main issue. Stuvad vitkål. to make this healthy and delicious side dish here's what you need...

400g green cabbage
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
5 dl milk
1 tsp dijon
salt
whitepepper
nutmeg (optional)
parsley (optional)

Clean the cabbage by removing the most outer layers. Cut the cleaned cabbage into 2 cm cubes.
Melt the butter, add the cabbage and let it become a bit shiny by covering as much as possible in the butter. Sprinkle the flour on it and stir to make it spread all over.
Add a little bit of the milk at a time. I used lowfat milk, which wont cream aswell but the taste will be the same. Bring to boil at a lowheat while stirring constantly, when it's boiling add the salt, peppar and dijonmustard.
Let it all simmer at a lowheat for about 15 minutes (the cabbage should be soft). Add the nutmeg and taste it to see if you need to add more mustard, salt or peppar. Spread chopped parsley over. (I had chopped parsley but being really hungry made me completely forget it).

Jerky

2006-08-14T15:00:00.000+02:00

Once upon a time (two weeks ago to be more exact) I had a terrible pms. In my pms attacks I crave salty, meaty things and it's not that easy to throw a huge steak on the grill and chew on it the entire day. It's not really healthy or convenient. I was on the verge to go out and buy myself some beef jerky but thinking about how little was in a jerky bag and the cost I decided on something else (acctually more expensive, but not in the long run). I made my own.
When it comes to making jerky there are a few things to think about...
Buy a piece of meat with as little fat in it as possible (this means that entrecote is the wrong choice to go) the fat will go rancid after time, ruining your jerky. A good choice is top round steak. But you don't have to use beef, try anything firm as turkey or venison.
Decide on the taste of your jerky. Since this was my first time I went with an easy choice but later decided that next time I'll make it more peppery and spicy as my jerky became a bit sweet.
Make sure to cut your meat with the grains, that's the nice lines you see in the meat and usually when you cut a piece of steak you cut against the grain, but doing that now will make the meat fall apart a bit.

Cut the meat as thin as you can (I got my butcher to do it). I used 2 kg of meat, and that's alot of jerky. But when doing this, since the meat has to dry for about 12 hours, why not make alot?
Mix
1,5 dl soysauce
1,5 dl worcestersauce
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper
in a big bowl or ziplockbag for the marinade and put the meat in it. Make sure it's all covered.

Let the meat rest in the fridge over night, turning it in the marinade a couple of times.
The next day, after having my meat in the fridge all night, I got up really early. Excited. I had even thought up a rack system to dry my meat in the oven on. I was going to use my ovenbars, and wooden bbq sticks, thread the meat on two sticks at a time and then let it hang between the bars on the ovenbar. It was easiest to set it up by removing the bar from the oven and create the racks...

And guess what? It worked perfectly!
The oven should be on the lowest temperature, and slightly open. My oven has no "slightly" open feature, so I put a metallic spoon in between. Too much open and my dog would've finished of all meat before I could have a taste.
Here's when I got unpatient. The hours it take for this lushious meat to dry, it's unbearable. The entire appartment smelt of salty delicious jerky and i just wanted a taste, so I was attneding to my meat alot, just checking if any piece was drier than the other so I could nibble a bit.

Lucky for me I'd gotten an end cut from the butcher so some piece were smaller and ofcourse dried up so much quicker. MMMM. It all just reminded me o living at home and mum drying liver in the oven for my dog. Just like back then he'd changed his permanent sleeping place to right in front of the oven even though he dislikes heat. He just couldn't bear the thought on someone getting treats without him.

After 7 hours in the oven I removed the racks and cut the meat up in smaller more desired pieces. I let them dry for a couple of hours more and then I suddenly had a heap of yummy jerky. I still have alot left, but is it weird that I want to finish it quickly so I can do the whole process once again, with a different flavour? Maybe try that liquid smoke I've heard so much about?
Considering the amount of money jerky cost (here atleast) this was all I thought it would be and more. It was easy and I'll be doing it again real soon!

Chicken Wings

2006-08-10T19:41:00.000+02:00

I just have to say that my favorite snack these days are chicken wings. I had problems finding just chicken wings to buy except these prespiced frozen bags, which were ok but I don't like eating things with things added without my knowledge. I really don't like allspice with monosodium glutamate so I try my best to avoid it. Well the other day I was by a butcher and he had chicken wings for 45 SEK/kg but I never bought any right then. Then I found frozen chicken wings (without anything added) at a supermarket and I bought some so now I'll be making my own buffalo wings or hot wings or whatever I fancy... I love crispy things mmmmm!

Healthy Seabass

2006-08-09T16:25:00.000+02:00

I was over at my sisters house watching BBCFOOD and I kind of jumped right into them making a whole ovenbaked seabass. Since I love fish and also because it looked amazing when it was done I decided to try it. However I couldn't remember much of the recipe so I had to improvise, and it was delicious.
I think fish is perfect for summer because it's light and you don't feel overworked after eating it like you sometimes do with both meat and pasta dishes.
I was also surprised that seabass wasn't as expensive as I had anticipated.
I cleaned my fish myself but I bet you can ask your fishmonger to clean it for you.

Ovenbaked Seabass serves atleast 4

1 whole seabss (mine weighed 1kg)
a bunch of asparagus
2 lemons
1 kg new potatoes
a hand full of parsley
oil, salt and peppar

Boil the potatoes.
Clean the fish. Stuff the insides of the fish with the asparagus, salt it and end it with lemon wedges. Keep it all closed in by tying it up with a plastic rope. Put it into the oven at 190 degrees celsius at around 20 minutes.
I putmy fish on a ovenplate but covered the plate with tinfoil before so I wouldn't have to do so much dishwashing.
Cut the potatoes into halves and fry them in oil with the parsley.
The asparagus will become perfect because they wont get dried up inside the fish.
I wish I hadn't been so hungry because we devored half the fish before I thought about taking a photo of it...

Blogging By Mail!!

2006-08-07T19:50:00.000+02:00

I just recieved my parcel from EBBP last week, and now it's time for hte international one! YAY! Blogging By Mail. JOIN!!!

Also Sorry jeanne that I misunderstood the eomeote, I should've written an article shouldn't I? I thought I should've but I surfed around at the other links and some had only made pictures so I thought I could get away with it ;) Damnit. But next time I'll do it right!

EoMEoTE#17

2006-08-06T16:41:00.000+02:00

This is my first time entering EoMEoTE, but here's what I came up with...
*Interesting fact, there's a swedish magasin called Hänt Extra (Happened Extra). I just used their template of a magazine and my own stories ;)

Salmon in Mustardglaze

2006-08-05T14:17:00.000+02:00

I love Salmon. And I could probobly eat it everyday of the week. Raw. Grilled. Cooked. Ovenbaked. And this was a successful recipe.
To think about is that the fish will keep cooking after you remove it from heat, so take it of the pan just a little earlier than you'd like it to be. That way you don't end up with a dry piece of fish.

Salmon in Mustard Glaze serves 4, approx 400 cals each

1 tbsp olive oil (and just a few drops for the pan)
½ cup dijon mustard (dijon will give it a good kick)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp white wine vinegar
4 salmon steaks or filées

Mix the sauce/glaze ingredients together. Salt and pepper the fish and then lightly coat it with the mustard glaze. Save atleast half as a sauce.
Fry the fish in a hot pan for about 2-3 minutes per side. Remember to let the fish rest after to let it cook through.
I served this with asparagus and a chickpea salad that was inspired by Erins Chickpea salad although I made a vinegrette rather than a mayodressing.

MY PARCEL HAS ARRIVED!!!

2006-08-04T14:20:00.000+02:00

It has arrived and I was lucky because I got to go pick it up earlier than anticipated. WOO! And I was right it was from Steve!

He cleverly packed everything into a plastic box that reminds me alot of an icecreambox, or candy box. And loads of bubblewrap! Hmmmmm.

It didn't take me long to break everything out of the box.

First thing I checked out was the Italian tomato sauce made from tomatoes grown near Steves holiday home in France. COOL!

And with the sauce I might try Steves homemade pasta made with herbs and some basil oil. They smell devine!

Most interesting is probobly the Lancashire Cheese (that I've already tasted!) because I loooove cheese!!! It's made locally near where Steve lives!

MMMM smoked garlic. I'm a garlic freak. I am! Unfortunetly I didn't get this one yesterday as I made an awesome seabass, which will be blogged about sometime during the weekend...

And ofcourse some candy. which will be loved by the man in the house since I'm staying off sweets. He'll be happy about that!

Thank you Steve!!!! Can't wait to try everything out!

IT'S HERE!!!!

2006-08-04T12:08:00.000+02:00

Well it's in the city. My EBBP parcel. I just can't go pick it up for another 3 hours. Oh the suspence!!!!
It says it's from Steve Tustin so I'm guessing it's from this Steve... am I right am I???
My grief is that the packages arrived so far has all been sent on the 31st and mine was embarassingly sent on the first and she told me 4-5 days it'd take, so today? Or tomorrow, if that country gets post delivered on saturdays, otherwise not until monday which sucks!!! It's as much fun to see how people react to your packages as you anticipate your own!

Vindaloo Pork

2006-08-03T12:27:00.000+02:00

I was going through a faze where I acctually missed being in India, even though when I was there I hated it. I felt so out of place and watched. It was hard to blend in when you're extremely pale and blonde, especially when me and my friend travelled in land to see all the amazing things India has to offer.
I still missed it, because I grew and I experienced. I was amazed by India and DID vowed to come back but with a man by my side, as it seemed to put some men off from staring too hard...
In India, the food tasted so much better and so much more different than any indian resturant I had tried here in Sweden, well of course it did considering they have the fresh ingredients. Well I surfed the net to try to find some recipes of indian cuisine and found World-recipes which is awesome because now I can try other countries foods aswell!
Vindaloo sounded awesome so I decided to give it a try.

Vindaloo
(I only made a third of this recipe which was enough for four people)

2" piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
11/2 tsp hot chilli powder
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs cardamom seeds
6 whole cloves
6 peppercorns
2" cinnamon stick
2 Tbs coriander seeds
2 Tbs cumin seeds
2 Tbs wine vinegar
2 lb pork fillet
4 curry leaves (optional)
3 Tbs vegetable oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
5 fl oz water

Put the ginger, garlic, chilli powder, turmeric, salt, cardamom,
cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, coriander and cumin seeds with the vinegar into a blender and blend to a puree. Scrape down the sides of the blender and blend for a further 30 seconds. (I only had a food processor and it did NOT work as well, things just wouldn't be crushed) Add more vinegar if necessary to form a smooth liquid paste.

Put the pork in a large bowl and pour over the spice paste. Cover and set aside to marinate for 1 hour. Lay the curry leaves, if you are using them, on top. Re-cover and put the bowl into the refrigerator for 24 hours, turning the meat two or three times during the period. (My refrigerator smelled wonderful, acctually the marinade smelled so intoxicatingly good that I decided to keep some of it and make a sauce on it)

Two hours before cooking time remove the bowl from the fridge and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Add the mustard seeds and cover the pan. Fry the seeds until they pop then add the pork, marinade and water and bring to the boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan and simmer for 30 minutes. Uncover and simmer for a further 30 minutes or until the pork is cooked through and tender.

Transfer the vindaloo to a warmed serving dish and serve at once.

I served this with rice and some fried carrots. Since my blender didn't really mash all the ingredients in the marinade together it was impossible to let it stay on the pork and eat, but after removing it with a knife it didn't matter because it had all soaked into the pork and it was absolutely delicious.
I made a sauce from the marinade by using the same pan I'd used for the pork and added the marinade and some half and half. I then sifted it to get a smooth sauce. Everyone should try this, it's worth the time and effort.

Food food food

2006-08-02T10:51:00.000+02:00

Just because I haven't blogged doesn't mean I haven't eaten... Here are some things that I've found on food blogs and tried...

ChubbyHubby's Chicken Rice which was perfect for this girl, because she loved the rice. The chilisauce became too hot but was ever soooo tasty, but the broth and chickenitself was only mediocre. Might have something to do with me stripping it off its skin...
I do understand the irony of a dish named chicken RICE and I only have photos of the chicken. Anyway, I've made the rice many times after, because it was so good.

Another hit was Debbies Cucucmber Salad. It got so well liked that it became a party treat and my sister stole the recipe. Light and yummy! Perfect for summer!!!

Vietnamese Rolls are something I've always wanted to try to make and when a perfectly simple recipe popped up I just couldn't help myself, and I'm glad I didn't. Perfect Perfect Perfect! Thanks Suyin!

The last thing that I've photographed my effort on is a ceasar salad. It sounded perfect, all I did was add some bacon to it, but for me the dressing tasted too much of dijon mustard, which with its overpowering flavour burries all other flavours. But if you read the post Aria wrote you'll understand why I had to try it...

Chicken with Lemon and Capers

2006-08-01T22:13:00.000+02:00

I've been going through alot lately. Friends who just disappear, maybe expecting me to hunt them down and demand them to spend time with me, while I've been exhausted from work. And when I say exhausted I'm talking about falling asleep in front of the tv at 6 pm. A boyfriend who comes home from work just to say things aren't working anymore, without an explanation, and then 5 days later he takes it back? Sick ass! He's on probation when it comes to me heart...
The only good thing happened today. I'm officially free from my job for a whole year! Sure I'll start studying in less than a mnoth but until then I'll have all this free time... what to do, what to do...

So I'll be back here hopefully. Starting with today. And today I ate healthy. I cooked healthy. It was southbeach inspiried with added treats.

Lemon Capers Chicken serves 4
258 calories/serving

1 tbsp olive oil
2 skinless Chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
4 tsp flour
1 medium shallot
2 tbsp drained capers
1,25 dl reduced-sodium chicken broth
0,6 dl fresh lemon juice

Start with halving the chicken breasts and pounding them out to be even thickness.
Chop up the shallot.
Heat up the oil in a pan. Salt and peppar the chicken and coat them with flour.
Fry the chicken approx 2-3 mins per side. When cooked through put on serving dish. Reduce to low heat and then add the shallot and capers. Fry for a few seconds, just to get the onion a see through consistency. Add the broth and juice and bring to a boil and let it boil for a short while to thicken it.
Pour the finished sauce on the chicken and serve.

I had a sweet potato and broccoli mix with ricotta cheese with the chicken and it was really tasty. Yum!

One week left to go

2006-07-23T18:26:00.000+02:00

First off, I'll be back to blogging about food, because I still cook, in a week.
What happens in a week? I get off work (that I hate) for a complete year. Of course I'll try to study and be a good girl at the same time, but just getting off work and managing my payments mean I can breathe and smile, because I was getting an ulcer from that shit job!

Until August 1st when I get off, I'll be busy with putting my European Blogging By Post parcel together. I can't believe I acctually found out in time this time around! PHEEEEW!
Live in Europe? See if you can join aswell:
EBBP #5

soon

2006-06-18T00:07:00.000+02:00

yes it's been ages since i posted.... things are rough right now... but expect august to be packed with goodies!!!

Cyberkocken

2006-04-26T18:45:00.000+02:00

*english below

Nu har alla bidrag till Cyberkocken blivit framlagda och det är dags att rösta! Så om ni tyckte om min sallad rösta på mig!!!

The round up for the cyberchef is complete and in swedish it can be found here.
If you liked my lentil salad, I'd be so happy if you voted for me (scroll down the post to vote). Also, atleast clivia will hopefully post her post in english if you're curious, but there's no promises....

Linssallad (Lentil salad)

2006-04-23T13:45:00.000+02:00

First part of this post will be in Swedish as this is for a Swedish food blog event! It will be in english further down...

Wow. När jag bestämde mig för att gå med i Cyberkocken visste jag att just den här gången skulle bli problemfylld då jag är pank, lönen är 2 dagar iväg, och för att jag skulle få göra den rätt jag bestämde mig för till mig själv, då min pojkvän vägrar äta både rucola och röda linser. Trist med en så inskränkt syn på mat.
Tack och lov hade jag det mesta hemma och bestämde mig för att göra en lätt och snabb söndags brunch.
Jag använde mina underbart goda physalis som någonting gult och gjorde en linssallad med pistagemascarpone kräm på toppen. Jag tror inte jag behöver skriva receptet för det är ganska lätt, jag kokade linserna väldigt lätt och försiktigt så det inte blev en mos, spred dem på en bädd av rucola, med physalis spritt runtomkring. Sedan vispade jag mascarpone och krossade pistagenötterna och hade i. Väldigt lyxigt, vilket visar att god mat inte behöver vara dyr.

English version

I joined a swedish food blogging event called Cyberchef. It's a Swedish version of Paper Chef. (Which in turn is a food blog take on the tv-show Iron Chef.)
Our ingredients of choice this time were Arugula, Red lentils, Pistachio nuts and as a twist something Yellow which could be anything that is yellow, egg yolk, lemon etc. I chose physalis (also known as Cape gooseberry) beautiful and so tasty!
I decided (due to money problems, and a boyfriend that wont eat half of the ingredients) to make a simple salad. I cooked the lentils without mashing them up, which will happen if they cook too heavy or too long. I then spread them on a bed of arugula, added some physalis around them. I then mashed up the pistachioes in my mortel and mixed them with whisked mascarpone to top the salad of. It was very luxurious.

Pickled Pears in Rum

2006-04-21T21:28:00.000+02:00

So I bought that huge bottle of rum for my birthday. Havana Club to be exact. I took that one as it's the one to make the best mojito with, I was told. Problem is, I'm not an avid drinker, well except beer, which I should give up... in due time. So what to do with my expenisve bottle of rum (except let my boyfriend drink it, which I'd rather not). Well my darling love's grandmother turns 86 tomorrow, and last year they all apparently forgot her (poor thing) so I've been hearing her say It's my borthday in a month... It's my birthday in a week all the time and I felt so bad for her that she had to point it out. I remember last year when we went for her birthday brunch (that she had to fix herself), Daniel bought her a jar of pickled pears. Just a simple, cheap jar of pickled pears. She likes them he said. Yeah well she can buy her own. Where was the thought in it? There was none.
So this year I decided to make her her own pickled pears. Homemade. With a splash of nice rum in them.

Pickled Pears in Rum
pears, halved and ínsides removed (or what you prefer to pickle)
1 part white vinegar
1 part water
2 parts sugar
vanilla cane
½ part of rum (or to taste)

The reason I write in parts instead of exact measurements is because it all depends on how many pears you've got and how big your jar is. Just play by ear or should I say eye. You'll know how much will fit, and now you know the ratio.
Cook the vinegar, water, sugar and vanilla can (that you've cut open and scraped the vanilla seeds from, and put all into the mix) for about 10 minutes. It'll get a sour vinegar smell but that's ok. Add the pears and let them simmer a short while. You don't want them easily prickled through, just a little soft.

Put the pears in the jar, mix the rum into the lightly cooler fluid, taste it to make sure you like the ratio. Pour the fluids over the pear, put a lid on and let it rest for a couple of weeks.

I made sure I had a nice jar to put the pears in, everything in presentation right?

Sugarcookies for Easter

2006-04-19T19:12:00.000+02:00

15 dl flour
3 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp salt
5 dl sugar
440 g butter (4 sticks)
2 eggs
2 tbsp vanilla

This recipe wont swell so if you use cookiecutters the size and shape you cut in, will be the size and shape of the cookies.
Heat oven to 175 degrees celsius.
This yields about 50 cookies, but I recommend doing the entire recipe and then freezing half of the dough.
Cream sugar and butter fluffy, for about 30 minutes. Add eggs and flavouring. Mix dry ingredients and then add to the butter mix. Mix well!
Put a handful of the dough between two bakingpapers (parchment paper) and roll to desired thickness, I liked it 1½ cm thick. Repeat with all the dough. Put the dough (including sheets) in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes. After that time the dough will be ready to be cut into shapes. repeat with the spares.
Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes.
I didn't have any cookiecutters (just purchased some) so I cut egg shaped cookies with a knife, some became more round, like the one in the image.

For the frosting.
Mix 4 dl powdered sugar, 2 drops of vinegar, and an eggwhite. Seperate into atleast three piles and add colouring.
It should be rather thick.
Add it to a plastic bag, cut one of the tips (really small) and start spritsing.

The Spice is Right #1 - Ancient Spices

2006-04-04T20:44:00.000+02:00

For the first time EVER, I've joined a food blogging event. Barbara announced The Spice is Right in March, giving us a nice time limit to join in for April. This months theme being Ancient Spices, and our interpertation of it.
I must admit, I don't have aspice I reflect on as ancient as in my ancient memories. And I haven't been keeping spices for an eternity as I've only lived out of my mums for a few years, and on my own for even less time. (First shacking up with my sister, who took her half of the spices with her). So my oldest spice in the cupboard might just be a month or atleast a few, old.
I was racking my brain trying to figure out which spice to use as my ancient spice. So I surfed the net trying to find inspiration of what to interpret as an ancient spice.
For me ancient spices are pure. It's the simplest flavour, that can change everything in the recipe if you leave it out. And at once I thought of something, mint.
Mint can dominate a dish without any effort, and the first time I really noticed how much was when I first tasted a Mojito. I was with my mumat a tapas place and she ordered me a mojito as a dessert drink. I was blown away by the taste! The lime incorporated with the sugar and especially the mint makes this drink feel more like a sensation than an alcoholic bevarage and done right you wont even know the alcohol (except it's subtle sting) until you're getting tipsy.

Mojito
4 cl light rom
4 cl sugarstock*
½ lime
mint
soda water
crushed ice

Start with making the "sugarstock". take equal parts sugar and water, and heat the mixture up in a pan, stiring constantly until all the sugar is dissolved. Let it cool.
In the 4 cl of sugarwater mixture, add half a lime in slices, and about a hand full of mint leaves (fresh!). Crush the lime and mint in the sugar, and taste it to make sure it's the right amount of mint. The mint varies so it's hard to say the exact amount but it should be a perfect blend of lime and mint in the flavour.
Fill the glass with crushed ice and then pour the 4 cl of rom on top. End with
poring sodawater in the glass. I'd say to fill it up but that depends on the glass, so be sure to taste it before adding to much.
Sip it while sitting in the basking sun. Ever so enjoyable!!

history about Mint
a bread of mint (there are loads of different ones) was found in ancient egyptian graves (anno 1200-600 b.c), unfortunetly it doesn't grow wild in egypt, so it's assumed that it was cultivated.
Later it's been used alot in medical researches in Europe and around 1700 it was added to the London farmacy corporation.

**EDIT I noticed a bit late that Barbara don't enclose fresh leaveds as spices and more as herbs, I don't really know what the difference is (blame the blonde hair or the fact that I'm a Swede, most people already seem to think we're daft...).
If Barbara won't accept this as an entry I'll *try* to think of a new one before the time is up, but no promises can be made.
And I must add, a Mojito was the perfect birthday gift to myself!!!

My favorite cheesecake

2006-04-02T18:27:00.000+02:00

This cheesecake never fails. It's delicious and easy to make and you'd have to do some major mistakes to ruin it.
I always make it whenever my brother comes over or has a birthday because he goes nuts about it (and usually begs me to make one on other occasions) and today the family was over to see my new appartment and because I guess they wont see me again until after my birthday (which is in 2 days).
I made my usual cheesecake but I also tried something new. I made some Martha Stewart French Almond Macaroons. Yes I'm obsessed with her recipes. Can you blame me when you see those pictures?? Mine didn't look as good but tasted real good.

Cheesecake
200 g chocolate chip cookies
75 g butter (room temperature)

750 g philadelphia cheese (natural cream cheese)
2 1/4 dl sugar
4 eggs
2 egg yolkes
4 limes

Oven on 175 degrees celsius. Mash the cookies together. Cut the butter into pieces and add it to the cookies. Mix it all together to make a nice dough. Fill the bottom of a buttered mould (with a detachable bottom) or a one time mould in aluminium. I've done both and prefer the throwable one here, because I can cut it apart and remove the cheesecake whole and solid.
Whisk the cheese until it's somewhat lucid. Add the sugar part by part mixing it in carefully and then add all the eggs and the juice of the limes. Pour the cheese mix over the cookie crumb bottom.
Take a deep oven pan and fill it halfway up with water. If you use the mould with a detachable bottom, put some aluminium over the bottom and edges (covering all parts with a crack) and then put the filled mould in the waterbath and put the pan in the oven. Bake for about 50 minutes.
This is the base recipe for the cheesecake, but adding new flavours to it is just fun! Like raspberries in the cheesemix. Yummie!!

Why WW isn't working for me.

2006-03-29T13:36:00.000+02:00

I haven't posted in ages. Not because I'm not cooking delicious, nutritious food. Nor is it from lack of energy or ideas. My problem is the WeightWatchers. This is the second time I've tried weightwatching, and sure it works, but it's so unbelievably dull. I don't want to count up every ounce of every ingredient I use, I can still keep it healthy without doing so.
When i was younger I was a bit thicker than my friends, without being unnatural at all. My friends were all from arabic cultures and I just happened to hang with the ones that couldn't gain a pound if their life was hanging on it, which the school nurse sometimes thought and had big crisis meetings with them. Problem was that they ate more than anyone else, they just didn't gain. When I was ten I moved to a posh part of town and apparences was everything there. Still the problem wasn't that I was bigger than anyone because I wasn't, I just couldn't afford the clothes or the toys. I still got friends.
I don't know when it sneaked up on me, maybe I was 11 or 12 but my mum started commenting on it on both me and my sister. School had these weighins every year and I was always the one weighing the most and it could be a pound at first but it soon rocketed far above the rest.
When I graduated 9th grade I was bigger than normal, I weighed 80 kg, which is about 200 lbs. I went on a language trip to England where the foods maintain of crisps and fried foods, but I still lost 5 kg. I got home happy but I gained it fast enough.
I soon realized that I comforted myself with food, and my home situation wasn't a happy one.
Over the next 4 years I gained almost 20 more kg, and when I left school I was the biggest I'd ever been. A year after that I met Linda and I started WW for the first time. In two months I lost 15 kg and felt great, but as soon as I had emotional problems I binged. So eventually I had to quit weightwatching because I only ate potatoes.
When I moved out of my mums, I had already planned a trip with Linda. I had gained back all those pounds and I was sad because I was going to warm countries where clothes were superfluous.
Needless to say, my confidence through all these years had been on a low.
I was gone for 3 months with Linda. Starting in India and ending in Australia, but the stop in Thailand in between was the most important one. I met a guy, I fell in love and I felt loved. And somehow that just made me live.
When I got home I had lost 15 kg on simply living. Not denying myself anything I'd wanted. I worked for 3 months and lost 5 more kg and went back to Thailand for another turn. Again I lost weight on just excisting.
When I got home that turn in january 2004 I weighed 78kg. Something I hadn't done since I was 16 (7 years earlier). I started working at the postoffice and I was somewhat happy, I got happier and I never thought of what I ate. Suddenly I was 9 kg lighter and beautiful.
This might sound cruel, but that's when I met my boyfriend. I don't want to blame him fro anything, but he was the opposite to what I had become. He was a true coutch potatoe, and suddenly I was back on old habits. The pounds started to gain without my notice. *Damn*
Then my dad died and I fell into a depression and all of a sudden I was bigger than ever. When I woke up out of my daze I thought that maybe WW will work this time, I was eating healthy I just needed to control the alcohol and chips. But as it feels for me is that as long as I focus my life around food I'll never get past food. And denying myself is only making me annoyed. So from now on, I'll post healthy or unhelathy food but that tasty as hell, and no points will be marked, and if I gain back the 10 kg I've lost so far, I guess I'll have to throw in the towel and admit it, I can't control myself, so put on the straight jacket and force feed me.

I just want to say to those out there who've been big for as long as they can remember, and think that life will be hell without all that food they can't eat... well once you've lost enough to enjoy to move around and flirt and dance, life will be about so much more than food. Don't get stuck thinking you're giving up something that defines your life, but understnad you're gaining a million things more to live for.

Oh Wey for being poor.

2006-03-23T20:21:00.000+01:00

I've always had these spur of the moment fascinations. It's been getting friends all over the world through letters (I was up to over 100 people in over 50 countries), the best part was looking forward to getting the mail each day. It's been webdesigning, constantly updating and renewing what I know, evolving and trying everything I can get my hands on. Once it was even trying to excell in writing, trying to get thoughts and words down on paper to be able to gather it all up ina coprehending mash. Eventually I grew tired to most of it...
Lately it's been food, but to be honest I'm losing interest.
Sure, I like to cook and sometimes photograph it, but it's not the passion it was at first, though I had a thousand ideas of what to make. Usually, these days, what keeps me from trying is fear of failing and the lack of utensils in the kitchen.

I mean who would have thought, leaving your parents house, that you would need a potatopress (to translate bluntly from swedish), because it simplifies mashing potatoes... or that a strainer is desperetely needed when you're making rice or simply baking. I just foolishly assumed my colander would do...
I was clever enough to make sure I had a good cooking knife, but a friend ruined that one for me by somehow getting a dent in the blade, don't ask me how, and then claiming not to have noticed... hmmmmm...
Starting to get curious of what to buy I found a whole world I haven't been invited to, where people seem to know what to need or use. For instance I've never used a rice cooker, but I desperetly want one though I have no idea how they work.
I had no idea of all the baking equipment there is and I get frustrated and a bit stressed because I want to buy so much that I can't afford... I also want to make elaborate cakes, but just the decorating will cost me more than a cake from a bakery would. Oh Wey for being poor.

Empanadas

2006-03-21T15:06:00.000+01:00

I followed Martha Stewarts recipe for Empanadas meticulously, except for the filling for my boyfriends empanadas, because he doesn't like cilantro, nor can he handle much chili, so I just fried some ground beef with some tomatoes and onions for his. It still made him happy.
These were tasty and a great snack! And great to freeze!!

Yummy pasta sauce

2006-03-20T22:17:00.000+01:00

This is a Bolognese with a twist sad point is it's fattier...
serves 4 as usual, 4 points each (with pasta 7p)

360 g ground beef
onion
garlic
can of chopped tomatoes
6 tbsp half and half max 15% fat
herbs (good idea is chili)

Fry the beef, when it's done add the chopped onion and chopped garlic. Let it fry ona medium heat until the onions are starting to get transparant. Add what ever herbs you like, basil always work and chili really hightens the tastes. Add the can of tomatoes and let it cook to thicken, then add the half and half and do the same thing there.
When it's done add already cooked pasta and mix in the pan, let it cook for a while.
Almost too good to believe ;)

Hamburgers my way

2006-03-19T16:20:00.000+01:00

Ground beef is the easiest ingredient when you're out of ideas.
This is a random idea I got, ground beef hamburger type meal. I haven't blogged in a while and I made this on thursday so I used the left over oven potatoes cut into pieces and fried in a pan.

Hamburger a la Lex, makes 4 large or 8 small burgers
4 p/each if 4 large

360g ground beef
2 pickles
1 onion
1 egg
salt, peppar, chili

Cut the pickles and onions into small pieces. Mix all together and make your burgers. Fry in a pan until well done and serve with a salad and some fried potatoes. Yummy!
I made a sauce by adding half and half to the hamburgers in the pan and added some extra salt and peppar and let it cook a while to make the tastes mix.

Oven Chicken with Root Vegetables

2006-03-15T20:19:00.000+01:00

Another extremely easy recipe is this of oven roasted chicken. i do this when I'm lazy and in the mood for something crunchy.
It feeds 4 if you only eat wings, clubs and breasts, if you completely clean it out it feeds atleast 6. If serving 4, without skin this dish is 5p each with skin it's 8p each.

one chicken
10 potatoes
4 carrots
2 large parsnips
a large piece of rutabaga
1 Tbsp of olive oil
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 garlic cloves, pressed
one chili, I used thai chili
salt
peppar

Cut the chicken into pieces. If you don't know how, most beginner cookbooks have picture step by step guides.
Mix the herbs, oil, soy sauce and garlic into a plastic bag. Put the chicken in it and try to mix it all well, covering every piece. Refrigerate the chicken and let it mariante for atleast an hour.
Heat the oven to 225 degrees (celsius).
Cut all the potatoes into wedges, depending on the sizes of the roots, cut them into similar sized pieces.
Into a big oven pan pour the potaotes and roots, and place it in the oven. On a grill above it, put the chicken pieces with the skinless sides up.
Let it all cook/fry for 30 minutes (shake the potatoes now and then). After 30 minutes turn the chicken and let it all bake for another 30 minutes, if the chicken isn't crispy enough after a total of 50 minutes in the oven, put it on grill or up the temperature.
And trust me on this. The roots don't need additional oil because the juice and fat from the chicken will pour all over the roots!

Salmon and risotto

2006-03-14T20:29:00.000+01:00

I love fish, and my most favorite fish (this might be boring) but it's Salmon. Salmon when I eat sushi, salmon when I fry fish, salmon when I make a fish stew or salad, I just love salmon.
I hadn't had fish for a very long while, and I'd also been cheating my risotto for my man by just boiling the rice instead of slowly simmering it into the consistancy that makes it a... yes you got it, a risotto.
But this time I might not have more time than normal but hte stamina, so I did it all from scratch, just hte way I like it.
My meals usually serve 4 because I make lunchboxes for the both of us.

Salmon Risotto serves 4, 7p each
4 dl aviori rice
8 dl hot water
600 g salmon
half a cauliflower head
150 g baby spinach leaves
1 onion
1 garlic clove
2 tbsp parmesan cheese
2 dl yoghurt (I used 8%)
2 tbsp caviar
chili
basil
sage
lime
salt
peppar
(any other herb you like)

Start with chopping the onion and the garlic.
Heat a wok or pan on low heat, add some oil and then the garlic, onion, spinach and rice aswell as the herbs and stir to cover all the rice in some oil and heat them a bit, also try to get the onion a bit translucent.
Add 1 dl water at a time. Make sure that the water get cooked off before adding more. (Meaning add 1 dl water, let it simmer and when it's all absorbed into the rice, add another dl of water). Keep this up until all the water is absorbed into the rice.
While you're cooking the rice, fry the salmon in a seperate pan. Choose to either have 4 filés or make alot of square pieces.
Add the parmesan to the rice and the cauliflower. When the cauliflower's just the way you like it, it's done.
I made a sauce to it all with yoghurt, some lime and the caviar.

"American" Pancakes

2006-03-13T19:17:00.000+01:00

I call these american pancakes because these are the thick pancakes my sister taught me when she came back from the States when I was younger.
Not only did I like these more, but they were easier to make, so now everytime I'm too short for ideas, or Elvira is over, I make "american" pancakes...
I'd love to hear an american view of these pancakes because you should know if I make them right... and ofcourse they are without any pancake mix because I want to know what's in my food...

American pancakes serves 2, 6p each
2 dl flour
2 dl yoghurt (I used one with 0,5% fat)
2 eggs
2 tsp baking powder

Start with seperating the eggs. Whisk the eggwhites to a marengue like mix (you don't have to take it really that far). Mix together the other ingredients and then fold in the egg whites so the dough gets light and fluffy.
Heat a pan with some butter in it and then add about 1 dl (half a cup) of dough into the pan, have the heat on a medium. When thebubbles on the dough stop closing themselves, turn the dough over to bake the other side.

When one's done I'd eat it if I were you. I used to love to have a bit of butter on it and some sugar but that's not really healthy weight watching style so I just had these the way they were which goes done just fine aswell.
This is a perfect base for pancakes, just add sugar or chocolate chips or blueberries etc to get your favorite pancakes!

Erins Profiterolls

2006-03-12T00:04:00.000+01:00

I finally tried erins profiterolls and it took me a while to understand everything... but it went rather well. At least at first.
The dough went extremely smoothly by, even with my boyfriend bugging me about shit that made me take my eyes off the butter and water boiling, leading it to almost over cook.
But it all went well later. Ofcourse I didn't get that these rolls wont rise, so the first batch were bite sized, which really aint much to fill, so I quadrupled those to make the size I wanted to fill with the chicken salad. And since I love both parsley and lime, I loved it. My boyfriend approved of it but I think he'd secretly enjoy something with mayo and no parsley. What are these green things is a common frase he uses...
In the end extremely tasty and easy to make, and something we'll do more often, maybe with the dough spiced and something else to fill the rolls with. I felt that they're ten times tastier hot than when they get to cool down. I like bread right out of the oven, but then agian who doesn't??

Daniels Meal

2006-03-11T12:13:00.000+01:00

It's not often my boyfriend cooks, so when he called me from work yesterday to say he wanted to have the honour I was first sceptical... Chili again? Or according to him, his specialty (and fattening) egg sandwiches?
He sometimes forget I'm WeightWatching so his ideas are usually tasty but greasy... but yesterday he called and said he wanted to make me some raw fried potatoes, beef and salad. Acctually I added the salad but he never says no to it (anymore).

So I was treated to a nice meal yesterday. Unfortunetly he forgets that spices give more taste once heated and incorporated in the meal through frying or cooking, so the potatoes tasted like white peppar and nothing else, which kinda burnt your mouth. But look at how he'd arranged everything! He was especially proud of the salad!

The best doggie treat

2006-03-10T18:33:00.000+01:00

I sometimes buy my dog bagged doggie treats. But just as I try not to stuff myself with artificial shit, I think he deserves nothing but the same right as I've got, so it's dried pigs ears or pigs tails or dried anchovie pieces.
My boyfriend however loves to buy all shit they've got, to see what the dog likes the most.
In the end however, the only thing that makes the dog really guard the treat are home made liver candy. To make these treats the only thing you have to do is, is buy the cheapest liver in the store if you're broke, I bought lamb liver because it's low fat (my dog is hyper sensitive against fat) and he seems to like it the most. Cut it into small squares and then put it in the oven on an extremely low heat (I put it on 100 degrees celsius/212 F) and let it dry completely (it takes hours, so do it over night). The drier the better because it'll keep longer and the dog has to work a little to get it all digested, which for me is always success. Anything that keeps him from swallowing everything whole makes me happy.
Trust me, the appartment will smell and the dog will guard the oven with his life. But anything to make our precious babies happy, right??
Keep these treats in an airtight container when done, they'll keep for a long while but better safe than sorry...

When the cat's away...

2006-03-09T16:57:00.000+01:00

My boyfriend doesn't like the look, taste or smell of any exotic cheese, while I love cheese. I love love loooove cheese. So since we live together and I like his kisses I just don't eat my beloved cheese as often as I'd like, ofcourse the fact that they are a hell of alot of points count into the factor aswell.
But today he was eating at his grandmothers so I took the opportunity that lay before me and made a chevre and danablu salad.
I used about 70 g of cheese which was about 6 points. Yeah a hell of a lot! But worht it. Yummy!!!

Lamb ragu

2006-03-08T18:43:00.000+01:00

I was at my mums office today to fix some legal stuff, when done I sat down with some of her co-workers for some coffee. I was chatting with my mother about what to make for dinner when her boss said I should make a lamb ragu. So I just followed his steps and added a few of mine...

Lamb Ragu for 4, 6p/pers
lamb 1 kg with bone or 500g without
any vegetables and roots you have at home and/or like
some butter
herbs
one can of whole or chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp cornstarch

Rub the lamb with the the herbs (I used coriander, peppar, salt, chili, parsley) and fry them lightly in the butter. You want the taste of the lamb to come out. Add the vegetables, tomatoes and some water. Let it all simmer for 1-2 hours so the meat will release from the bone.
Remove the lamb from the mix and cut it into pieces, give the bones to your dog if you've got one, it'll love them and don't worry he/she can digest them!
Here's where I differ from my mums boss, I ran the vegetable mix through a strainer
added some cornstarch to the fluids. I let it thicken and then added the meat.

I added some broccoli afterwards, because I like vegetables in my food! I used some of the fluids for the rice I made, delicious!!!

Puttenesca

2006-03-07T22:00:00.000+01:00

There are few easier or tastier pasta sauces than a puttenesca.
My mum taught me this sauce at a young age and told me something about how it's the poor womans food, basically the idea originally was to use what you've got at home, but the main ingredient is anjovies.
The key ingredient is time. You have to let it simmer for quite a while to let it thicken and let all the flavours wed as my mum would say.
This is just out way of making puttenesca, I know alot of people as with meatballs, have their own idea of what is right. Just experiment and use what you've got. I hardly ever got any fresh herbs at home at this point (being broke and it being winter) but basil is excellent for this dish!

Puttenesca serves 2, 1pt/pers
1 pkg (50g/0,11 lbs) of Key sardelles/anjovies (I use sardelles rolled with capers)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
chili
peppar
2 ripe tomatoes

Start with putting a pot with water to boil. Cut cracks into the tomatoes and put them into the water for a short while. This is to peal them and not to cook them so a few minutes will do. When done, peel them under cold water. If it's a hassle just use a can of whole tomatoes, but don't use the juice and the taste is not as good as fresh tomatoes.
Put a pan on low heat, put the anjovies with it's oil in it and mash them together with a fork. Add both the onion and garlic and mix together. Fry until the onion is getting a bit softer. Add the chili, as much or as little as you prefer but remember since this is supposed to boil a while, the taste and heat hightens.
Chop the tomatoes into really small pieces and add them to the mix and let it all simmer on a really low heat but for a really long time. You want the tomatoes to be completely mushy and you want as much fluid to boil off as possible. Taste to see if you need to season it any more. Enjoy with your favorite pasta!

Swedish Meatballs

2006-03-06T19:55:00.000+01:00

Before I start I must confess that this week of absent has been because of a huge move combined with completely endulging in things I havne't let myself eat for a while. Bad Lex BAAAAD Lex. hopefully things are going back to normal starting now.

Erin made meatballs with a seasoning pack and somewhere inside I could feel my body cringe by the thought because is there anything simpler than to make extremely tasty meatballs??
Some people make them of only lean ground beef but I prefer to use 2 parts beef and one part pork. It makes the meatballs juicier and tastier. Here's the recipes for meatballs (every swede will say theirs is the standard but I guess we all have our own way of making them but when it comes down to it they are basically all the same), also for the sauce and simple mashed potatoes...
And since the stores hardly ever have small packages of meat these days, I made alot of meatballs and froze them in the freezer, so next time I wont have to do them from scratch.

Meatballs
800 g (approx 1,67 lb) ground beef
500 g (approx 1,10 lb) ground pork
3 dl (approx 1,27 cups) oat grain
3 dl cream (I used 17% fat, it's worth the points, the taste is great)
2,3 Tbsp potato starch (or cornstarch)
3 eggs
3 onions
3 cloves garlic
salt (by taste)
peppar (by taste)
soy (by taste)

Start with putting the grain in a large bowl. Mix in the starch and then soak it in the cream. Let it sit and swell for atleast 10 minutes.
While the grain swells, chop the onions and garlic and fry it gently to just soften it up, don't let it get any colour.
Mix all ingredients in the grain once it's done swelling, try not to mix too long and the best tools.. are your hands...
Once mixed choose cooking style. Either you fry eveyrhting in a pan or in the oven. the oven is easier for larger bashes but the pan gives them a better colour. If you choose the oven (like I did for this huuuuuge batch) put it on 275 degrees celcius (527 F). Roll consistant size of the balls. If you choose small ones make sure they are all small so they have the same cooking time. If you can't do that by hand, use a measurement like for instant a tablespoon.
I made 120+ meatballs from this batch which meant each ball was about 1 point. The entire dough was 114 points rounded up. Knowing that just make the amount you have the energy for.

For the sauce (for 4 people)
2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
5 dl (2 cups) stock (room temperature or cold)
2 Tbsp cream (17%)

The stock is from after you're done frying the meatballs, add water in the pan and let it simmer for a while and then keep it for the sauce. If you don't think it tastes enough add a square of meatbouillon (I try not to because of hte artificial flavourings).
Melt the butter in a pot, mix in the flour and take the pot of the heat, add a bit of hte stock and mix until the butterflour mix is mixed in completely to the fluids. Add the rest of the stock and then put the pot back to the heat. Whisk until it starts to boil, and then let it simmer an thicken for atleast 3 minutes. If you want to add some soysauce for colouring and sealth taste yourself through it. Add the cream in the end.

Mashed potatoes for 4
about 7 big potatoes
2 Tbsp butter
½ cup milk

Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes, cook until extremely soft, pour off almost all the water, mix or press the potatoes into a mash and mix with the butter and the milk. Nutmeg is a tasty twist to it aswell.

The best Roastbeef

2006-02-26T21:04:00.000+01:00

This is the recipe for the juciest roastbeef.

Roastbeef 1kg
1 clove of garlic
salt
peppar
chilliflakes

Preheat the oven to 90 C. Poke little holes in the roastbeef and stuff little pieces of garlic in. Rub the roastbeef with salt, peppar and chilliflakes. Heat oil in a pan and brown the roastbeef in high heat. Then put a thermometer in the thickest part and out it into the oven until it reads 60 C. If you prefer the meat to be a bit more red then take out the roastbeef at 55 C. When it´s done in the oven wrap it in aluminumfoil and let it rest for a good 30 minutes. That way it will keep all of it´s natural juices inside.
The whole roastbeef is 26 points and can easily serve 6-8 people.

You can variy what you rub on the roastbeef and you don´t have to put garlic in it. I variy mine everytime i make it, the original recipe hade fennelseeds rubbed on it but i am not a fennel fan so i changed it.

Peas Doodles

2006-02-25T22:27:00.000+01:00

This time I don't have a menu to blog. I'm moving this weekend and that means alot of fast foods and low on time.
But the other day I felt like taking the time to take the dog for a long walk, and along the walk, visit all asian stores I could find (addicted). Two came along and on the first I found a snack that seemed healthy and intruiging...

I thought that it'd look like peas fried in something but after opening the package I found that it looked more like cheese doodles turned green...

But they were tasty. A gentler taste than the regular doodles, but a sweeter one. Very yummy and they are now going to be my party snacks. Only 10 SEK a bag (1 Euro, or about $1,25), dead cheap by other words, even though they have a funny look... sorry about the open bag I had opened it before I got my camera back from lending it out..
A whole bag is 7 points and worth it!!

Marthas Orange Chicken

2006-02-24T20:27:00.000+01:00

So I was surfing Martha Stewarts homepage and it had a recipe on the front page that looked appetizing, problem was that I didn't have sesame oil and I didn't like oranges in food or salad, so I tweeked it to fit my own taste...

Orange Chicken serves two, 4p each

2 chicken breasts
1 large orange
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp white-wine vinegar
freshly ground peppar
1 tbsp olive oil
salt

get the juice of the orange and some zest, mix it with dijon mustard and vinegar. Add salt and peppar by taste.
Cut the chicken breasts in halves and then pound them to make larger and thinner. Put the chicken in a plastic bag and add about half the orange marinade. Let it lie in it for about 1-2 hours in the fridge.
After that time fry it in a pan until both sides are nice and golden.

I used the rest of the marinade and mixed it with low fat creme fraishe as a sauce. The I fried some rice and onion in tumeric to get some nice yellow colour
and then let it boil. I also boiled some asparagus and broccoli to serve with. It was quite delicious, although I didn't think the mariande give much taste. Maybe I'll go by the recipe next time.

Comfort food

2006-02-23T20:21:00.000+01:00

There are some things that just is basic comfort food. This sandwich is one of them.

Grilled parmaham and mozzarella sandwich

2 ciabatta breads

1 big buffalo mozzarella (about 250grams)

200 gram parmaham thinly sliced

3-4 tomatoes

Slice the ciabattas in two. Cut the tomatoes in small pieces and place ontop of the bread. Rip the parmaham into smaller pieces and drape over the tomatoes. Slice the mozzarella and put it on top of the parmaham. Then into the oven, 225 C until the mozzarella has melted and has turned the color you prefer. Serves 2 or if you want to use as an first course it could serve 4-6. When it serves 2 like it did this day it´s 12 points.

Sallad Caprese

2006-02-22T20:14:00.000+01:00

First of, I've got to tell you about the tastiest Buffalo Mozzarella you can buy here in Sweden. You can't find it everywhere but luckily for me, my local grocery store has it. It's tastier than most and you should spend the extra pennies it'll cost you to buy it. Bonta' di Bufala is yummie. There.

INSALATA CAPRESE serves 2, 5points each
1 package (125g) of Buffalo Mozzarella
1 cup of coctail tomatoes
1 tbsp wine vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
10 basil leaves
salt and peppar

Cut all the coctail tomatoes in halves or quarters depending on your taste. Tear up all the buffalo mozzarella on top. Tear the basil leaves into pieces and spread on the tomatoes and mozzarella. Mix everything up.
Salt and peppar by taste, pour vinegar and oil over it all and serve!

Biscotti

2006-02-21T12:21:00.000+01:00

I saw this recipe on a vegansite, I just switched the ingredients back into animalistic ingredients, not because I have to, or despise vegan products, but simply to use what I had home. This was a spur of the moment idea to try to make biscottis and not only was it easy, it was very successful!

Biscotti
½ cup (1,1 dl) butter or margarine
3/4 cup (1,7 dl) sugar
1 tbsp vanillasugar
1/3 cup (0,8 dl) milk
1 ½ tsp bakingpowder
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups (5,3 dl) flour

20 pieces of chocolate
½ cup of walnuts

Put oven on 325 F or 175 C.
Cream butter, vanillasugar and sugar. Beat in milk, baking powder and salt. Add the flour and in the end add squashed chocolate and squashed nuts.
On a greased bakingsheet shape the dough to a loaf, about 3/4 inch high and 3 inches wide. Bake in the bottom of the oven for 35 minutes.
Let the loaf cool, then cut ½ inch pieces. Put the pieces laying down (one of the wide sides up) with space between them and put them back intot he oven for atleast 5 minutes, take them out and turn them over to do the same on the other side.
Store in airtight container.
I got the whole dough to be 52 points and I got 27 LARGE pieces, so each is 2p

Prawns

2006-02-20T07:21:00.000+01:00

During the weekend when you´re supposed to be all relaxed for some strange reason that is not always the case. I always want a bit more luxuerious food during the weekend since i have the time but this weekend i didn´t have the stamina for it due to an evil cold. But this recipe was easy and luxuerious!

Asian minute prawns

500 gram prawns with shells (i used about 400 gram of tiger prawns)

1 union

1 medium sized cucumber

2 tbsp cooking oil

2 cloves of garlic

100 gram of water (1dl)

100 gram of sweet chilli sauce

½ tsp salt

Peell the prawns. Peel and slice the union. Peel the cucumber. Split the cucumber into two lengthways and cut into ½ cm thick slices.

Heat the cooking oil and fry the union and pressed garlic. Add the cucumber and fry for a little while. Add the water, sweet chilli sauce and salt. Let it boil for about 2 mins. Then add the prawns and give it a quick stir.

Serve with rice although i served it with wholemeal noodles since that is what my son wanted.

serves 2 (but i think that it serves 4 and that is what i have counted the points on)

This meal contains if you have it with the wholemeal noodles 8 points per serving. Although the recepy says that it serves 2 i really think that it serves 4 since it´s alot of sauce!

Pizza madness

2006-02-18T18:36:00.000+01:00

For some reason, ever since i started WeightWatching, I've wanted a pizza more than anything, but before I never used to give them a thought. So when me and my boy finally started to overcome our bad flu we decided to make homemade pizzas.
Here's an easy and lowfat recipe for you...

Pizza dough 2 large, thin crusted pizzas. 6p each

15-18g yeast (i used a third of a swedish yeast bar and I've never tried dried yeast so do as you will)
1 dl (0,4 cups) of low fat milk
3/4 dl (0,3 cups) of water
approx 4 dl (1,7 cups) all purpose flour
a pinch of salt
1 tsp oil

Heat up the water and the milk to 37 degrees celsius (98 degrees F).
shred the yeast into a big bowl and dissolve it with a part of the liquid. mix in a pinch of salt and some of the flour. Pour in the rest of the liquid and then work in parts of the flour small parts at a time, be careful not to use to much flour, you'd rather want the dough sticky than dry. When you feel that the dough is good enough, take it out of the bowl, clean the bowl out and spread the oil on the sides of the bowl, place the dough in it (and oil the top of the dough aswell so it wont dry up). Let the dough rest under a blanket for about and hour, press it down once during that time and try to avoid any draft.
After an hour roll out two large pizzas. Add your own toppings and bake in the oven for approximetly 10 minutes.
To make sure that your pizza crust isn't all doughy underneath, heat the plate your baking it on in the oven, that way it's hot both on top and underneath. Enjoy!!!

Request for fish again

2006-02-17T22:09:00.000+01:00

My boyfriend requested fish, so fish it is.

Parmawrapped hoki with an artichokecream

400 gram Hoki
½ a pot of basil
1 tsp salt
1 pinch of peppar
8 big slices of parmaham
1 tbsp oil

The artichokecream

1 tin (400gram) of artichokehearts
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp juice of a lemon
50 grams (½dl) oliveoil (i didn´t add the oil and it was yummy)
1 tsp salt
1 pinch of cayennepeppar
½ a pot of basil

Halfthaw the fish. Cut the block of fish in two and then into four squares. Scratch the leaves from the basil. Put the basil leaves on the fish and then season with salt and peppar. Wrap two slices of parma ham around each of squares of fish. Brush some oil on the packages.

Fry the fish packages for about 5 minutes on each side.

Drain the water from the artichokes. Mix them with the garlic, lemonjuice and oliveoil with a handblender or a small foodprocessor. Taste off with salt and peppar. Shred the basil and mix into the cream.

serves 4.
Each serving with pasta is 5,5 points. The dish was VERY good and especielly the artichoke cream which surprised me since i usually don´t like artichokes and since i didn´t use any oliveoil in it it was 0 points!!. This recepy is a keeper!!

When ill, it's better to not cook at all

2006-02-16T23:13:00.000+01:00

I'm quite sick, and due to that and the fact that we had no water for several hours I just didn't cook much today. All I did was boil some pasta in some chickenstock and ate that. Which was good because I can't taste anything anyway with this cold.

Daniel surprised me after valentines with a rose that I almost killed, and on valentines we had some russian sparkling wine. Sweet.

Soup again :)

2006-02-15T09:49:00.000+01:00

Soup...yes i seem to have a thing about soup right now. Maybe it is beacause of how cold it is now and you really need something that will keep you warm and snug :)

Potato and leek soup

300 gram potato (i used about 8)
½ leek
1 chicken stock cube
½ liter water
3dl cooking cream (i used 1 minimat)
salt, peppar

Peel and slice the potatos & leek thinly. Let them boil until soft in water and the stock cube. Add the cream and boil an additonal 5-7mins.

Blitz until you get a smooth soup with a hand held blender. Taste and see if it needs more salt & peppar. If the soup is too thick just add some water.
Serves 4.

The soup was delicious! Only 2 points for this soup so you can do what i did and fry some bacon crispy and eat with the soup. 2 strips of crispy bacon is 3 points and totally worth aduldging in.

PankoLamb

2006-02-14T19:59:00.000+01:00

This recipe was made by Nigella in one of the Episodes of one of her shows. I instantly grew curious off it and wanted to try it, even though frying things isn't healthy or anything I've done, which is why I failed miserably. I think this would have been delicious if I'd only fried them long enough, but learn from my mistake, fry each lambchop for a couple of minutes, I'd suggest around five. I didn't even know they weren't done until after serving them to a boyfriend with big, amazed eyes and drooling mouth.
I should also say that Nigella used a dried pitabread and not panko but I had heard so many praises about Panko that I acctually went out and bought some just for this occation.

PankoLamb

8 Lambchops
3/4 cups of Panko
2 eggs
1 tbsp parmesan

Mix parmesan and Panko together on a flat plate. Whisk the egg. Then dip the chops one at the time in the eggs and then Pankomix, before frying them in oil. Don't use olive oil, I used rapsolja (maiseoil? cornoil? couldn't find any translation for it).
Without the oil this whole combination comes to a total of 14 points, and no one would tell me what it'd would give to fry something so I doubled the points after drying out all the chops on a piece of paper.
I then served it with salad and tzaziki.

Fish

2006-02-13T11:01:00.000+01:00

Hoki is one of my favorite fishes, since cod is fished too much and i´ve heard contains evil stuff from us humans, hoki is my new fish of choice. Also since i don´t always have alot of time to make dinner it´s nice to have hoki in the freezer.

Hoki with a Bulgur salad

4 bits of hoki (i used a frozen block of hoki which is 400grams)
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp oliveoil
salt and peppar
300 grams (3dl) Bulgur
½ stockcube
1 lemon

For the salad:

1 peppar of your choice
1 red union
200 grams (2dl) of kidney beans, cooked
150 grams of suger snap peas
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp oliveoil
salt and peppar
2 tbsp parsley, chopped

Cook the bulgur according to the package. Cut the peppar and union into chunks. Mix the bulgur with the kidneybeans, the vegetables, the parsley, the lemon juice and the oliveoil. Taste off with salt and peppar.

Fry the fish goldenbrown on both sides. Season with salt and peppar. Serve the Bulgur salad with fish and a wedge of lemon.
Serves 4.

Each portion of meal is 7 points. It was very good, fresh tasting dinner and the best of all: very easy to make.

Chicken in Pita

2006-02-12T11:32:00.000+01:00

I don't usually tend to lean on food in bread. I don't like bread, but I have a boyfriend who's mad about it. So I decided to give him a nice surprise, while it was not so fattening to me.

Chicken in Pita / Chicken Kebab serves 2
2 chickenbreasts
chilipowder
salt and peppar
1 tsp oil
6 tbsp yogurt (max 8% fat
2 garlic clove
ginger
coriander
2 pitas (á 65 g)
lettuce
tomato

fefferoni

Cut the chicken into smaller pieces and season with chili, salt and peppar. Fry it in a pan with the oil.
Mix yogurt, salt, peppar, pressed garlic and ginger to a cold sauce.Cut the pita open and spread the sauce on both insides, spread the cut lettuce on the bottom, top with some tomato slices and coriander. Put the warm chicken on top and choose weather you want the fefferoni inside or on the side.

This meal is 8 weightwatchers points and it's mighty tasty enjoy!

Soup

2006-02-11T20:55:00.000+01:00

I love soup but ever since my son came into the picture about 2½ years ago i haven´t made that much soup. This morning when watching my beloved BBCfood some chef made a soup which made me decide that i would to.

Nigella´s Noodle Soup

500ml chicken stock (good quality instant or canned fine) (i used a stock cube)
1 chicken breast 150g cut into strips across
1 tablespoon soy sauce
30g baby corn, cut into 2.5cm pieces
250g fresh or ready-cooked udon noodles
50g sugar snap peas
50g Fine beans

Heat the chicken stock in a saucepan.

In a frying pan, cook the strips of chicken without any oil until they have lost their rawness, and then add the soy sauce to the hot pan of chicken letting it bubble down a little before tipping into the hot stock.

Bring the pan to the boil and add the baby corn, noodles, sugar snaps and fine beans cut in half.

Let the pan come back up to boiling point and let it cook for a minute or so, so that the noodles are warmed through and the vegetables tender.
Serves 2

I doubled the recepy since we are 3 people eating at home. According to my calculations one portion of the soup is 3,5 points or if you want more noodles 5 points. Sorry for the bad lighting in the picture, new to the world of digital cameras :)