Streptococcus!

We've been hit. Will accept donations of chicken broth.

What should I feed my baby?

I'm so happy to see Ebba going global with her fantastic book, 'What Should I Feed My Baby'. I've had this book in Icelandic for a few years and it really has some lovely, super healthy recipes and good advice for parents of little babies. Check out her videos too. And she's on facebook too of course.

Edit: The book isn't available in English yet, but hopefully it will be soon - know any publishers? They can contact Ebba at ebba(at)pureebba(dot)com.

hah!

This is so cute!!!

...and I'm beginning to love Pinterest!

Travelling to Iceland?

And looking for stylish accommodation on a budget? The newly opened KEX hostel is a "trendy social hostel" in Reykjavík and makes me want to play tourist in my hometown. With various choices of rooms, from dorms to hotel style double rooms with private wc's, they cater for every preference. They have an organic café (their breakfast doesn't look like anything I've had in hostels around the world, and I've been in a few!), a gym, a hair salon, a restaurant and a music venue that recently hosted some of the events of the Reykjavík music mess.

The Kex logo  

Kex means biscuit. The building used to be a biscuit factory.

A dorm room

A hotel room 

From one of the hotel rooms

Yoghurt with fresh berries and muesli served in a vintage jam jar... Wouldn't it be perfect when you get friends over for brunch?

I'm guessing you're itching to book your room pronto, so head on over here quick! They're on facebook too.

Harvesting

I love autumn for so many great things. Autumn/winter collections. Cozy nights in. And harvesting. I've made two variations of rhubarb jam with the rhubarbs from my garden, and I have a kilo (2.2 lbs) of rhubarbs in my freezer I'm going to make rhubarb chutney out of.
I've gone berry picking twice, for some blueberries and crowberries. I think I'll just make plain blueberry jam from the blueberries, or maybe just use them in smoothies. With the crowberries I'll make crowberry jam, crowberry chutney and crowberry schnapps.

Regular rhubarb jam

1k g chopped rhubarbs (2.2 lbs) 

0.8 kg sugar (1.75 lbs)

Simmer until brown (about an hour)

Rhubarb jam deluxe

1 kg chopped rhubarbs (2.2 lbs)

2 apples

0.8 kg sugar (1.75 lbs)

4 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

Simmer until brown (about an hour), put in clean jars, close.

I'm proud to say that me and mum came up with this recipe last year!

Blueberry jam

1 kg blueberries (2.2 lbs)

0.7 kg sugar (1.65 lbs)

Simmer for 15-20 minutes, put in clean jars and close.

Crowberry jam

same as blueberry jam

Crowberry chutney

600 gr crowberries (1.3 lbs)

1 red onion, chopped

1-2 apples, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2.5 cm ginger, chopped (1 inch)

1 dl raisins (1.4 fl oz)

2.5 dl brown sugar (8.45 fl oz)

1 dl wine vinegar (1.4 fl oz)

.5 tsp salt

1 tsp mustard seeds

Simmer for 30 minutes, blend lightly with a hand blender, put in jars, close

This is heavenly with cheese!

Crowberry schnapps

Rinse the crowberries carefully.
Leave them to dry in the shadow - on paper towel.
If your berries are frozen - defrost them in the vodka.
Use a clean glass jar with tight-fitting lid.
Fill the jar with berries.
Fill up with clear, unflavoured vodka - 40% alcohol content (80 proof).
Steep for 1-3 months or longer - in a dark place at room temperature, 18-20°C (64-68°F).
Shake lightly and taste it from time to time.
Strain and filter your infusion into a clean glass bottle or jar with tight-fitting lid.

This will be perfect for Christmas!

When I was berry picking I found a lot of this wonderful herb, Mother-of-thyme. I grabbed a whole bunch and dried it and have been using it for tea. It's supposed to calm the stomach, cure colds and coughs and even hangovers... again, perfect for the holidays!

Picture credits: Rhubarb, Blueberry, Crowberry, Mother-of-thyme.

Did you know...

... that if you put a slice of bread on top of your brown sugar it won't go hard? I don't know why, but it really works. And the bread doesn't grow mold. I don't know why, but it just doesn't, even after months in the jar!

My husband took our camera on his trip back home, so I couldn't take a picture of my brown sugar jar, so I borrowed this one from the perfect pantry. Hope they don't mind...

Let them eat cake!

Today is No Diet Day, so here are a few yummies!

First up, Nigella's banana bread. I just love a slice of banana bread with a ton of butter on top. It's got to be what the Danes call 'tooth butter'... meaning that you can see teeth marks in the butter after you bite it.

I've been having a love affair lately. It's come as a total surprise to me, I never imagined this could happen to me. With peanut butter of all things! I just can't get enough. So from one of my favorite food (well, cake) websites, Bake or Break, a peanut butter pie with cookie crust!

And last but not least, Jamie. Oh Jamie what can I say? I don't find you cute like many women out there, but boy would I kill to have you wine me, dine me... and send me home with this chocolate love cake with cherries and booze... what more could a girl ask for?

Hello delicious!

Ok, I'm soooo making these... tomorrow, first thing!

P.S. I made these the other day and they were gorgeous!

Some sort of pasta bianco... with tomatoes

After all the heavy food we eat around the holidays I really find myself craving for something quick, light and easy. I don't know what goes into a real pasta bianco, but this is something I made up in my student years on one of those days at the end of the month where you just had to make do with what you had in the fridge. All it is, is spaghetti, boiled according to the instructions and drained, a generous pour of olive oil, some (in my case, a lot of) butter, some (maldon sea) salt, grated cheese and halved fresh cherry tomatos. For this one I added in roasted pine nuts as well. Super simple, super easy and I love it (and so does my two year old son which is always a huge bonus)! Not so sure about the nutritional value, but I'm sure there's no harm in eating this every now and then.

Easy peasy and proud of it!

There's a photographer coming to take pictures of my home tomorrow. It will be featured in the Homes & Design section in one of the newspapers this weekend. My friend Ingibjörg has something to do with this. Her gorgeous designs have caught the attention of the design world and everyone keeps asking her if they can put her home in their magazines, but she doesn't feel ready for that yet. So she points some of them to me... yikes! It's a great opportunity though, or rather a kick in the bum for me to finish off some projects and generally just tidy up around the place. I had planned to do exactly that tonight but when I came home from work, my gorgeous Hubby had done it all! While also cooking and entertaining our two year old son!!! How good can it get? So instead I'm going to see if I can find a few accessories hidden in my cupboards that I can place around the house, rather casually, to create some interest (obviously to show them what an interesting person I am).



Anyway, the domestic goddes that I am, I wanted to share with you this delicious pizza I made yesterday. I awlays use store bought, ready made pizzadough (the one I buy has even be rolled out and then rolled up ready on baking paper!). I also used pre shredded "mozzarella" this time (I know it's not really mozzarella, I'd rather not think about what it is), as I had some in the freezer. The sauce couldn't be easier, just chop up a few cloves of garlic, fry them a bit in olive oil, add in a can of chopped tomatoes and let it simmer uncovered until the fluid has reduced quite a lot (you don't want a soggy pizza). I do draw the line at buying ready made sauce, it just doesn't sit right with me. Pre-heat the oven (really you should have done that before you started the sauce!), slap the sauce on the dough, cheese over and whatever you like. I used Parma ham. Now that's easy, not all this "it's really easy to make your own pizza dough" nonsense! Try doing that with a two year old screaming at you, begging for attention after a looong day in nursery.