hmm; tastes… different

I am going away for a bit,

to my native country of cinnamon buns and spruce trees

here:

I shall spend some time in the countryside and some in the town and some on the sea. I am going on a mini cruise to Riga in Latvia, which I am much looking forward to, as I have heard they have a market occupying old German zeppelin hangars. This intrigues me. Grocery stores and markets are usually where you find me when in a new country. Glued to the shelves with the strangest looking tins and the most suspicious looking oddities. I will be back soon, with new found energy, ideas puffing around me like little clouds of smoke and hopefully also an etsy sale!

The weather has turned to the worse (or better if you sometimes like a bit of gloom, like myself) and the sandwich family as we tend to call ourselves, for reasons many years forgotten, has retreated to their little fortress of making cookies, drinking hot drinks and rolling ourselves up into furry little balls, like such:

I made the cookies using a recipe from the Swedish cookbok Systrarna Voltaires Mat (The Food of the Voltaire Sisters) but this is a quintessential Swedish recipe and you would find it in most Swedish books involving cookies. I swapped the egg brushed on the top for soy milk and used non pareils instead of the compulsory pearl sugar (large grain sugar) of which I have currently run out.

Have a lovely day!

Since I’ve been spending a fair amount of my latter time tucked under blankets, disarmed from some of my dearest weapons; the pen and the brush, it’s good that I have a couple of old treasures up my sleeve, waiting to be read. “Looking at Nature” by Elsie Proctor is just so rich in all ways and I know I would have been the happiest girl standing if I had owned this adorable book when I was in my pre teens, as hands-on-biology/nature studies would have been one of the few things that could have possibly torn my head away from my murder mystery books(!). Oh, and then there’s “A General History of Pirates” by mystery man; Captain Charles Johnson. A big 1724 book that describes the lives of some of the most notorious pirates through the ‘golden age of piracy’ which, not the least, features female Irish villain below, named Anne Bonny.

Despite the blessings of reading-candy I have told myself I have to get well soon because in a week’s time I’m heading off to my native Scandinavia for a while, so there is just no time to rest for the wicked. Illness always seems to strike at the most inappropriate of times, don’t you think?!

Neither the weather, nor these pictures that I took earlier today when out in the garden, bear even a trace of resemblance to my current state, but I braved the sprung spring and sunshine for a few moments, before I quickly snuffled and coughed myself in again, realising that cheerfulness is just not for me this bright April Monday.

I am feeling terribly poorly but with sufficient tea, soup and lozenges I only might come through to the other side soon.

This is more how I feel:

(picture from flickr)

A little peek into what I’ve been up to. The wardrobe is another street find and I am redoing it into a cupboard for all the unsightly bits and bobs I have in my work room. I’ve painted the outside and dressed the inside with wallpaper and monsters. The plan is to make shelves out of recycled wood pallets to keep all my boxes on. Have a happy happy Friday and an ever so invigorating weekend!

Oh dear, no luck with the easter fancy baking mentioned in my last post. I used, or rather, was inspired by (I tend to make changes in recipes, not always to the better, unfortunately) Peggy Porschen‘s basic fondant fancy recipe from “Pretty Party Cakes“.

But it all went pear shaped and they didn’t even taste very good. All too sugary and nothing else for my taste. All in all; a complete disaster.

The other day I found this baby version of the china swan that I got earlier and which is currently housing some grass for my lil’ blue bloods to nibble on. But this baby swan (which, as you can see, has already been inaugurated by the duchesse) has become the perfect water holder for ink and gouache painting etc. Apart from that we’ve been getting along with some spring gardening . We’re sowing spring seeds and making a fence for our forest plot. I’ll post pictures when it’s ready. I am still work-room-less and so forth turning the whole house upside down with paper, paint and fabrics, but I’m working on that one too and sooner or later it all has to come together!

We’ve picked daffodils including my favourite actaea and its fragrance is filling the room as I am writing this.

I have already overdosed on sugary sweets and chocolate

and tomorrow we’re doing some eastery fancy baking and, very likely, some more candy eating.

HAPPY EASTER TO YOU!

I’m a bit un-settled today, volatile, over-eaten-on-fruit-pastilles-strange.

Blooms are everywhere now.

Blood red wallflowers, ballerina tulips and all coloured anemones.

The one flower that I do miss is my favourite ranunculus with its nodding, ball heads.

I was reminded of it when I saw some through a window, earlier today, when out on a long walk.

And to come, of course, the swelling buds of peonies, which must be voted the best bud around, surely.

I love them for their buds probably more than for their flowers.

So long, mesdames et messieurs, à bientôt!

Hello hello; it’s Sticky Toffee Apple Bun time! These are really nice and cinnamony, as a bun should be, but with the added lovely gooeyness of cooked apples.

These buns were inspired by last weekend’s “How to bake” column by Dan Lepard, in the Guardian above (click and zoom for ingredients). We veganised it and made some changes depending on what we happened to have at home at the moment and these were the result:

We used veg margarine instead of butter and skipped the salt, as the margarine already had salt added to it. We used soy milk instead of cow’s milk. We skipped the yoghurt as we hadn’t any at home and added the same amount of extra milk instead. The egg; we just plain skipped. We used a mix of walnuts, almonds and pistachio nuts instead of just walnuts and that actually worked really well. Last, but not least the recipe called for “dessert apples” but we used Bramley apples (cooking apple) and it worked out deliciously. Although it might have made the final bun a bit less sweet than the original, I say I like a bit of  tart bite in my apple-y bun so I think it was just perfect!

Instructions:

Put the flour, cinnamon, sugar (+salt, if using) in a bowl and rub in the margarine. Whisk the yeast into the milk then add to the bowl along with the nuts. Mix eavenly, then leave for 30 mins. Knead on a lightly oiled worktop for 10 seconds, cover and leave for an hour.

Cut the apples into 1cm cubes. Heat the caster sugar in a frying pan with a spoonful of water until it turns into a golden caramel, add the apples and another spoonful of water and cook until the caramel becomed a thick syrup. Drain, cool and save the apple syrup for later.

Roll the dough into a 30cm square, spoon the apple mix on the top and roll up tightly. Cut into nine slices and place three by three in a deep, 30cm square tin lined greased foil. Cover, leave to rise by half (1 1/2 hours) and bake at 200C/400F/gas mark 6 for 30 minutes. Spoon the syrup on top and leave in the tin till warm.

Ah! Really sticky, gooey, lovely, apple-y buns!

I went down to the plots early this sunny, chilly morning. It’s great this time of the year; smothered in bird song and greenery shooting up of every little bit of soil there is and not to forget, it’s peaceful. It’s my own little piece of heaven. There is so much inspiration to be taken from here.

Mittens and asparagus.

Froth Blossoms.

Fresh, glossy leaves.

Additionally, a whiff of fresh air has hit my house. I’ve dragged out all the furniture from my studio and painted both walls and ceilings! Now I just need to get it all in again. I foresee some new solutions will have to be invented in order to make it all work. I have opted for the colour blue this time and I will show you when it’s finished.