Happy new year, birds!

Pics bby johanna

It seems we have hundreds of birds here these days. And I love it! I think they all are born under our roof and thus belongs to our family. And of course they also deserve some festivities!
I have made melted fat and thrown in whatever I had in my cupord of cereals, millet, corn,sunflower seeds, etc. Then I put it into my muffin forms,with a thread in the middle. Then out in the cold for half an hour before I took them out of my muffins forms and hung them up outside.
I have used melted animal fat, but could have used coconut fat or any other fat that goes hard when cooled down.

Light in the dark...

pics by johanna

Saffron pears for the new years celebration!

Pics by johanna

These are my absolute favorite pears ! A recipe so simple to make yet so sophisticated... The combination of pear and saffron is out of this world.
I serve it with whipped cream and caramelizes slivered almonds sprinkled on top .Et voila...a dessert
worthy any grand occasion.

2 kg organic pears
2 l water
1 3/4 l  unrefined cane sugar
2 g saffron
1 lemon plus water to cover the pears .

Peel the pears (you can leave the stalk on for decoration) and put them into the lemon water to prevent discoloring.
Miz water, sugar and saffron in a casserole. Boil up and stir till the sugar has melted.
Put in the pears and let them gently cook for 15 -25 min. depending on the size and softness of the pears. If the pears all fit into the casserole, cook them in different batches.
You can leave the pears to cool and enjoy them right away, or you can pour them into clean,hot glasses and leave them till the right occasion appears.

pics by johanna

pics by Johanna

Pickled green tomatoes

The last flowers and the last tomatoes...i want to make them last as long as possible.
The flowers have a limited time, but the tomatoes I can make to last for quite some time.
This pickled tomatoes my mom used to make when I was little.
And I remember very well my mothers meatballs, potatoes, vegetables and the green tomatoes!
An unbeatable combination in my young years.
Now I make the pickles every year with the last batch of unripe tomatoes . And it goes just as well with curries as with meatballs...

1 kg green tomatoes
4 dl vinagre
4 dl water
Cook together for 10 min and let it rest over night.
Then throw away the water,skin the tomatoes and cut them in two or four, depending on size.

1,5 dl vinagre
a splash of water
750 g brown sugar
1 vanilla pod
Cook the tomatoes in the mixture for two minutes and take them out. Keep cooking
the sauce for 10 more minutes and then add the tomatoes for a final boil before pouring into
clean, sterile glasses . Put the lid on and leave the glass lid  down till cooled off.
Store in a cool place.

pics by Johanna

Still a secret garden...

The days are getting shorter very quickly here in the far north. But still the sun gets warm in the daytime and the light quality is magical . It´s still nice to sit out reading and eating(or as I prefer,to lay down under a wool blanket) .  Olaf can never get enough places to sit and write ... this being his latest addition.
 Unfortunately the nights are getting colder though, and soon the plants has to go in.
My hanging plants was a successful experiment as I obviously found the right plants to use,like this,   only covered by moss .These particular plants seems to endure quite a lot of drying up, and I only dip the plants in a  bucket of water with a little organic fertilizer when they are getting too dry.

Nasturtium

One of my favorites summer flowers, both to look at and to eat. Also to grow.
I start them in doors as a early spring ritual, and get my daily kick from seeing how much they grow every day. I love things that grows so fast that one almost can see it. And that grows lush and colorful ,climbs and best of all.. also tastes wonderful.
They have been growing wonderful leaves and flowers for my salads all summer and recently I have
been picking the seed pods and making" capers -like" little pickles.
Here is what you do: keep a little jar with vinegar in it and every time you pick  the little pods with a little bit of the stalk still on, add them to the jar.
When the jar is full, store it in the fridge for about two weeks and they are ready to be mixed in with your salads , pizzas or what ever you would put capers into.

Cranberries for christmas...and Troll-cream

Pics by Johanna

It`s cranberry time and its soon Christmas! Well kind of...because I have attended the first Christmas fair meeting, where we prepare for the big event in end of November,and today I found myself  singing
a Christmas carol .
These berries are for our special Christmas dinner, but  cranberry also makes very good jams and contain these bitters that we tend to get too little of in our diet . And they are fast and fun to pick.

I remember in my childhood ,sunday afternoons ,sitting  cleaning buckets full of cranberries that our family had picked on our sunday-berry-trip in the woods. And then after dinner, my favorite dessert:
Troll-cream. Of course this is only eaten in the land of trolls and it probably would not work to make elsewhere...But it is very simple and delicious; cranberries whipped up with a little sugar and an egg-white. And it needs to be whipped until its grown big and fluffy and stiff. Eaten with some cream mixed with milk and maybe the egg-yolk whipped up with some sugar, it makes wonderful color combinations and taste divine!

Høst

Pics by Johanna

Yoga dressed in olive oil and sundried tomatoes...

Pics by Johanna.


We stayed in a olive grove in Sardinia. A olive grove with all kind of fruit trees, grape vines ,and fig trees...a little earthly paradise. And not only a earthly paradise, it`s also used as a yoga retreat where one can spend a week doing yoga ,eat tha fresh local food and home grown foods, and of course dressed in the olive oil from the very ground you live on. It`s got to be good for you !
Ateeka is a woman of great creativity,vision and energy ,and is as the italian Vouge wrote of her..".the famous yoga teacher from United States ".
She has put up big and comfortable tents on wooden platforms so that she can house groups of 12 to 15 people at the time. The yoga ,eating ,showering,cooking is all done outside in nature so that in practice one is out the whole day and living very close to nature.
And as you can see from the photo, she makes the most wonderful sundried tomatoes ....mmmmm

Sardinia, sardinia...

Pics by Johanna.


Normally we spend the summers here in the north of Europe, because this is where we like it the best this time of the year. But because we have very good friends that very kindly invited us to join them at
Sardinia this summer, we made an exception and holed the whole family along for two weeks on this magical island in the middle of the Mediterranean ocean.
And we had a very hot and sun-filled vacation. We arrived at the time the weather Gods decided to balance up for all the rainy and cool days in the north by blasting some real southern temperatures.
So coming from the cool 12 degrees celsius, we landed in close to 40 degrees in the shade.
A shook to the system it was ,but after a week of this ,we slowly started to get used to it.
Lots of hours on the beach with big umbrellas and big water melons, and a swim in the ocean every five minutes got us through. And as the rain filled up the nordic water reservoirs , Sardinia filled up our
batteries so that we no feel ready for  some cooler times. Thank you very much Sardinia, Ateeka and Ola