Icelanders, sourdough and chili pepper progress.

I've started making bread with using sourdough again and I love it. Now I just need to find a schedule for my baking so that I can fit it in on work days as well. If you'e into bread, pretty photography and men with beards, you should check out these two videos.

This weekend we had our former co-worker on Iceland and his family here for two days. We hadn't seen them since March we left Iceland in March 2011 and it was high time. This man in the middle in the picture is one of my favorite persons in the world and I was so happy to see him again. We went swimming of course.

Our chili plants are flowering and producing fruit as crazy.

Midsummer

 
Visiting a village with a lot of cat on the roads. Swimming in a lake with a narrow beach.

 We went to a village that was hosting a parade.

Then we had a BBQ with seitan and corn. 

Corn with butter and chili-lime spice, homemade sourdough bread, seitan glazed with a spicy mustard sauce, new potatoes and tzatsiki.

4 things

New potatoes with loads of carrot-yogurt-garlic sauce on the balcony on a warm summer evening.





















Tiny lavender plants.

 Johan turning 50. The pretty girl on the right is my sister.
 

Me, my mother and my sister <3.

Family Friday: Johan

My mother and Johan

Johan is my mother’s partner. They don’t live together, and I’ve never called him my stepfather, but he’s been in our family for more than 10 years, so whatever you want to call it, that’s the role he has played in my life. When he had recently met my mother and started coming over for dinner the kitchen were filled to the brim with oh’s and ah’s. His eyes were sparkling with love for my mother, and his taste buds certainly agreed. I and my sister used to ask him what he ate before he met my mother. I’m still not sure about the answer, but I do know that he’s still crazy about her and her food.

He definitely has a weakness for Italian style foods, especially creamy pasta dishes. Serve him that with a huge bowl of arugula drenched in balsamic vinegar, and he’ll be in heaven. I have not had the time to create a recipe to Johan and Johan only, but I’m sure he’d be happy with any of these three recipes already featured on the blog:

Avocado pasta

Creamy lemon pasta bake

Gnocchi

Two dinners and progress on the allottment.

 

















Baby lettuce with raspberry lime vinaigrette, steamed new potatoes, creamed corn (from Appetite for reduction) and a mushroom burger (with very local mushrooms). 

 

Pizza with more mushrooms and soy mince.




















 When it comes to the allottment, things are slowly going forward. We recently used a rotary cultivator to break up the grass and will start digging the beds tomorrow and then sew! I already got some almond potatoes in the ground and they are starting to show.

 I covered the potato patch with grass (partly, I didn't have any more) to work as a fertilizer. 

Martin, trying to get the public mower to work. No such luck.

The chili plants in our window are flowering like crazy! The plants are huge and it seems like we'll be getting lot's of chili peppers.

Tahini and almond butter.

My two favourite things in my fridge right now (next to the cold brewed coffee and mint syrup); almond butter and tahini. My love for tahini knows no bounds - it's great in and on so many foods!  While I do live the light and liquid-y stuff, it's kind of expensive here and I'll eat a big jar in less than two weeks, easy. So I got this one instead and it's great. It's actually not that expensive, although it's produced in Sweden, organic and only contains sesame seeds and a little salt. It's on the darker side and really thick. I love it on top of steamed veggies or stirred into whatever. Also, do try it in baked goods. Celine is the queen of sweets including tahini - go check out this banana cake for example!

I know I'm late on the train for almond butter, but this is the first time I've ever tried it! I found a small jar of it from the same brand as the tahini, and like that, it's also organic, produced in Sweden and only contains almonds. Oh my. It's heaven on a spoon. I eat it with sliced banana. I have a feeling almond butter is a friend who's here to stay.

(The brand is called Kung Markatta and is a Swedish organic brand)

Baby lettuce and raspberry lime vinegrette

 

I've had mixed baby lettuce slowly growing on the balcony for a while now and yesterday was the first time we harvested some of them for dinner. Very tender and delicious, I dressed them with a raspberry lime vinaigrette (recipe from Veganomicon) which turned out to be the perfect companion.

Happy 23.

Yesterday was my 23 birthday. I ate two kinds of pie (Lagusta's chocolate raspberry tart and key lime pie, both from Vegan Pie in the Sky of course), an awesome dinner (sushi rolls and TVP chunks), went out running in the early morning, got to run a rotary cultivator and have fun with Martin who has been away to Croatia for 3 weeks. It was a good day.

I just bought a pair of shorts to run in instead of tights, and it's awesome. My legs feels so... free!

My sister's graduation (Sandwich cake!)

Thursday May 31st, my sister Isabella graduated from school (I'm not even going to try to describe the school system here, but let's just say she's 19 and ready to go to university if she wants to).  This picture show's the most comon Swedish traditions when it comes to graduation. She's wearing the hat, the white dress and in her hands she has a placard with a picture of herself as a kid. Around her neck is stuffed animals and flowers that we hung on her after she had ran out from school together with her classmates, and of course, there's a big smile on her lips.

Of course we had the most festive of Swedish food on the reception, sandwich cake! Mine had 4 layers, with baba ganoush, hummus, non-dairy cream cheese and cremini mushrooms in between, and vegan mayo, seaweed caviar, lemon, olives, cherry tomatoes and dill on top. It was so good.

Seriously, this girl is so lovable, sweet, clever and funny. I couldn't be a prouder sister

Lily of the Valley's and coffee with loads of soy milk foam.

I'm going to end this post with these two pictures of my sister. On the left she's wearing her graduation outfit, with the white dress that she made herself! Mind blowing. On the right is her outfit that she wore when she went to the party in the evening.