Some pictures from Nami-Nami garden, 2012

To contact us Click HERE
I'm off to my high-school reunion today (20 years?!?!? How did that happen??), so instead of writing about food I quickly share some photos of our beautiful garden taken during the last few weeks.
Whereas I'm bossing around the kitchen these days, my dear K. is in charge of the garden. We have a very young garden - only established in 2009-2010. Last year K. submitted the garden to a major gardening competition, organised by the biggest selling monthly, Kodu & Aed. And we won the coveted main title :) Mind you, K. submitted the garden to the "Young Garden" competition category - most of the planting was done just a year or two earlier, so it's nowhere near the fully established garden. However, the jury liked the design and the ideas, the neat vegetable garden and the cool Coolaroo sun-shade and the chicken in an urban backyard and the fact that everything was designed to be enjoyed by the family (especially the children) and/or used for cooking purposes. And decided to give us the main price :)

Anyway, here are some pictures from May 2012, starting with the most recent ones:

 
Decorative apple "Liset" (31 May 2012)

 
Lilac "Catherine Havemeyer" (31 May 2012)

 
A gorgeous flowering quince that bears wonderful edible fruits (see here and here; do not confuse with "regular" quince, which also grows in our garden; 31 May 2012).


Spiraea cinerea (31 May 2012)

 
(20 May 2012)

 
Cushion Spurge (20 May 2012)

 
(20 May 2012)

 
Umbrella plant aka Indian rhubarb (20 May 2012)

 
 
Bergenias (20 May 2012)

 
(14 May 2012)

 
 Forsythia (14 May 2012)

 
(2 May 2012)

Swedish afternoon

To contact us Click HERE
Have you been to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden? I have, many times, most recently during the first weekend of June. The weekend trip was organised by The Flavours of Estonia, and we were 10 Estonian foodbloggers and food journalists in total. We had plenty of good food and met some very nice people, but in general I don't have much to write about the trip, as I didn't bring my camera and the horrid weather conditions (a meagre 5 degrees Celsius, heavy non-stop rain and strong Nordic winds) kind of kept me from really enjoying that beautiful Athens of the North this time.

But Stockholm - and Swedish food - are lovely, so we invited some K's friends and colleagues over this Sunday afternoon for a Swedish summer party. We were 17 adults and 6 kids (and 4 chickens and a beautiful Alaskan Malamute), all gathered around our brand new patio table. We spent the first part of the afternoon party outside - it was beautiful and sunny, but then some threatening clouds overcast the sun, so we moved the food inside after a while. Luckily, we were saved the downpour, and most of us ventured outside again soon. Good time was had by all, if I can say so as a hostess :)

I thought you might want to see what we served at this Swedish party, no? Here are the photos with links to recipes, where appropriate.Our daughter has seated herself smartly next to the trio of Swedish cheese and helped herself very generously:


The cheeseboard showcased Präst, Greve and Svecia, as recommended by a charming Swedish food writer Jens Linder whom I met in Stockholm. Of course, there as also Västerbotten (not pictured). We had some top-notch Swedish crispbread to go with the cheese, a gift from Ami Hofstadius of Visit Sweden. My gorgeous new serviettes were sewn by Arteljee. On the top left corner you can see a whole hot-smoked trout and the creamy caviar dressing that I wrote about just a few weeks ago here: 
 

Here's a better close-up of the table. You can see some new season's Estonian potatoes, a box of strawberries (imported, unfortunately, as the local ones are still few and prohibitively expensive), small round canapes with smoked Baltic herring and pickle cream (böcklingröra), dark rye bread triangles with salted herring and egg salad (gubbröra), Västerbottens cheese pie, a big bowl of tomato salad:
 

Gubbröra or herring and egg spread on crispy rye bread triangles:
Böcklingröra on roasted bread:
 
Västerbottens cheese pie. We actually had two - one baked by yours truly, the other by Tallinn-based Swede Lars-Olof (pictured, the pie, not the guy):
 

Again, that tomato salad that tasted already like a summer tomato salad should taste:

A very nice räksallad or shrimp/prawn salad that I'll be definitely making again soon:

For dessert, I baked two cakes - a large kärleksmums or Swedish cocoa cake, and a simple spiced rhubarb cake (very Estonian, not Swedish at all). The guests brought along lots of strawberries, which were all eaten very quickly as well.

Rocky Road Brownies

To contact us Click HERE


   My son brought home a sheet of paper that told me he had volunteered to bring a dessert in for the last day of school.  I knew, without even asking him, that he wanted brownies. 

  He decided he wanted me to try a new brownie recipe, instead of the usual Mint-filled Brownies (from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes) that I make for his birthday every year.  We looked at a couple recipes on the internet and as soon as he saw this one for Rocky Road Brownies, we didn't have to look any further.
The brownie batter comes together quickly and the chocolate chips, marshmallows and nuts are layered on top after they have almost completely baked through.   I made them the night before and the melted chocolate chips hardened into a nice, almost solid chocolate layer that could've passed for a frosting of some sort.  My self control was in high gear the night I made these and I didn't try even a nibble.  My family each tried a small bite and declared them delicious.  My son said they disappeared at school before he could even take one! 

 Here is the recipe for Rocky Road Brownies from Martha Stewart

Sweet Potato Quinoa Cakes with Blackberry Salsa

To contact us Click HERE

 Ever since I discovered the fact that I like sweet potatoes last fall, I have been buying a couple every few weeks and cooking them in the microwave to use throughout the week.  I even planted some sweet potato plants in my garden.  I happened to have some sweet potato chunks in the fridge when I saw this recipe and I decided to make it for dinner.

I have made the quinoa patties that this recipe is adapted from (and they are superb!), so I knew these would be delicious.  They were easy to make and the salsa was the perfect topping.

Other people in my family are not fans of sweet potatoes, but I didn't mention that these quinoa cakes contained sweet potatoes and no one really noticed too much.  My youngest daughter had a little bit of trouble finishing hers, but the rest of us liked them.  I liked them a lot.

Here is the recipe for Sweet Potato Cakes with Blackberry Salsa

Strawberry Pie

To contact us Click HERE
Would you like some pie to go with that whipped cream?
Andy's birthday was Saturday and I was totally shocked when he told me what he wanted for his birthday "cake". Strawberry Pie. Not Buttermilk Pie, which is his all-time favorite, but Strawberry Pie. What started it all was when Blair came home telling us about how good the strawberry pie was that she had eaten at work. She brought the recipe in and Andy was all about wanting one. The shocker about this is he normally won't even touch strawberries. He went on about how good it was and we all agreed. It was easy to make and the "filling" had just the right sweetness.


Our camper at the river has this tiny little propane oven that I've used to fix biscuits and cornbread in. If I fix anything sweet, normally it's ahead of time. Because of the rush the week before vacation and everything going wrong that could go wrong, I didn't have time. I had never fixed a dessert while at the river, so I was concerned about how well it would turn out.  It ended up working out perfect...with the exception the crust had thawed a little while in the cooler, and part of the crust was messed up. That obviously wasn't an issue as it disappeared pretty quickly.


INGREDIENTS:
1 deep dish crust
1 quart berries sliced as needed
1 cup sugar
1 box strawberry jello
4 tbsp. flour
1 cup water


DIRECTIONS:
MIX ALL THE DRY INGREDIENTS FIRST! If you don't your flour will lump up! Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the mixed dry ingredients. Stir until all are dissolved. As it cools, prepare crust.


Lightly brown the crust according to the directions on the package. Pour a little of the glaze on the baked crust. Fill with berries and pour the rest of the mixture on top. Place in refrigerator to set. Top with whipped cream.

Pin It

Spinach Dip

To contact us Click HERE
Everyone has eaten the version they can get from the soup package at least one time in their life. When I changed the frozen spinach to fresh, it made it so much better!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 bag of spinach chopped
• 1 bunch green onions
• 1 can water chestnuts
• 1 pkg. Knorrs vegetable soup mix
• 1 pint sour cream
• 1 cup mayonnaise (not salad dressing!)
• 1 round loaf Hawaiian bread, tortilla chips or Frito Scoops

DIRECTIONS

• 1Dice green onions and water chestnuts.
• 2Mix sour cream, mayo, Knorrs vegetable soup mix. Add green onions and water chestnuts and mix really well. Add spinach and mix well.
• 3Refrigerate at least 5 hours. The longer it chills, the better it is!
• 4Serve with Hawaiian bread. If you want to be creative, cut the center out of the bread and fill with the salad mixture. Cut center bread into chunks. (Don’t do this until you’re ready to serve).

Pin It

Baked Potato Salad

To contact us Click HERE
The potatoes in this potato salad are not baked. The name comes from all the goodies you would load on a baked stuffed potato. Any time this is made, Blake goes nuts. He will literally eat the whole bowl by himself if I left him alone in the kitchen for 30 minutes. In the event he hasn't scarfed it all down; he brings the leftovers home because he swears it's good for breakfast too!

INGREDIENTS

• 5 lb. Bag of Red Potatoes
• 1 pint sour cream (you can add more if you like)
• 1-2 cups mayonnaise (not salad dressing!)
• 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
• 1 lb. Bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1 bunch green onions chopped
• Salt & pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

• 1Boil scrubbed and unpeeled whole red potatoes until you can run a knife through them easily. Immediately pour off hot water and cover with cold water (several times as needed) to cool quickly.
• 2In a large bowl, dump half of the sour cream and mayonnaise, cheese, bacon, green onions and salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.
• 3Once you can handle the potatoes, chop into 3/4” pieces. If any of the skins come off, throw them into the bowl, too. Mix well.
• 4Add the remaining sour cream and mayonnaise until you reach a creamy consistency. Taste and add additional salt and pepper if necessary.
• 5**The above measurements are approximate. I add until it “looks right”. The rule of thumb is to make sure the potato salad is creamy, so add the sour cream/mayonnaise until you’re satisfied.

Pin It