Dinner time

I don't know about you but I find it really hard to think of what to make for dinner a lot of the times. So last weekend when my hubby was away for a few days and I had some extra time on my hands I decided to make a dinner menu for the coming week. I used the internet and tried to find as many recipes as I could that contained many of the veggies that we grow and came up with dinner menu for the two of us. It has worked out great! We spent Sunday evening at the super market and stocked up on all the groceries we needed (the only thing I didn't buy was hamburger patties. We like to try and buy most of our meat at Whole Foods where they sell organic grass fed beef so I went there today and bought some. The lady at the counter didn't know the code for the grass fed beef so I got it for the price of regular beef. Yay!). What I've liked most about this dinner plan is that I don't have to stress about what I'm going to make that night, I already have it written down and all the ingredients in my fridge or in the garden. It is also fun to mix in some new recipes to make it a little exciting. (I never make anything that will take me more than an hour to cook; most of my recipes take like 30-40 min tops.)

We have always been pretty good at going to the grocery store once a week and making dinner at home almost every  night but going this route seems more efficient. We've decided to have Sunday breakfast together with the laptop at hand and making a dinner menu for the coming week and then going to the grocery store later that night. Let's see how it goes!? 

This is one of the recipes I found for this past week's menu, it was SO delicious! 

Tortellini - Tomato Salad: 

• cheese-filled tortellini
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (this one may be hard for you in Sweden? If it doesn't exist, skip it. )
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup fresh corn kernels
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil
• Salt and pepper

 

1. Firs I boiled the corn on the cob and cut off the corn

2. Cook the tortellini

3.Put olive oil, lemon juice, Parmesan, garlic and salt in a food processor and mix (this is where the Worcestershire sauce goes if you are using it)

4. Toss the olive oil mixture with tortellini and put tomatoes, green onion, corn and fresh basil as toppings

5. Salt and pepper to taste

recipe and pic from foodnetwork.com

Try it why don't ya!

Strawberries for Alice

I know I probably should not blog about these because they are headed back home to Sweden as a gift. But I thought they were so cute that I wanted to share them with the world. I found this strawberry template in the magazine Country Living a few days ago and I've been dying to make them for my God daughter back home. I know her lovely mama will probably read this and see it before they make it over the Atlantic, but oh well. Now she has something to look forward to instead.

 

I hope your day is going great! 

Midsummer the American way

Monday morning and a new week a head. I'll be fixin' with stuff here at home today but before I get up out of the couch I thought I show you some pictures from yesterday's Midsummer celebration. It was the yearly SACC (Swedish American Chamber of Commerce) Midsummer party and it was held in a park that is located just a short walk from our house. Although we where very American and took our car there because it was SO hot!

Janson's Temtation, egg with caviar, cheese pie, hot dogs, smoked salmon and crisp bread.. Yum!

We sang this version of the schnapps song "Helan gar"

Me and hubby in front of the Maypole

our friends Jessica and Johan and all the Swedish decorations

 We also went on a "Natur stig", or Nature walk, where you walk around and answer quiz questions. We also danced around the Maypole of course. It was a fun day, nothing beats celebrating it in Sweden of course, but hey, what to do?

On Friday when the actual Midsummer's Eve was, I tried to get in the spirit of it by making the little girl I babysat a Midsummer wreath. It turned out cute and she liked it, so I thought I'd share a photo with you: 

me and Deyo

home made pesto

I don't know if I've mentioned that my husband is out of town. Again. Which means that I'll be celebrating Midsummer all by myself. Myself! Myself!? I can't believe it, this will be the first time I'll be doing absolutely nothing on one of my favorite days out of the year. buhu. Midsummer, for all of you that don't know what it is, is when all of Sweden celebrate the summer solstice. I believe it was on Tuesday, but Midsummer Eve is always on a Friday. Where I come from, we take this VERY VERY seriously. We spend the day with family and friends, eating good food, girls wear a wreath on their head made of flowers and we dance around the Maypole singing silly songs. In my town we do all that + we take our bikes later in the evening and go to the local "dance parlor", which is more like a barn with an okay band playing dance music (dansband), where tons of people in all ages gather and celebrate. Oh, how I'm going to miss this. Especially the bike ride home late at night/early in the morning when it really doesn't get dark and you can see the light from the sun on the horizon all night. You usually run into people on their way home from a long day of celebration, some walking along the dirt road and some may even be lying in the grass taking a snooze sobering up before heading home.

SO. I'm a little depressed at the moment. But oh well, life is not fair all the time.

Me and my hubby last year in Sweden

So, back to my "homemade pesto" title. One of the things I hate with being alone is making dinner. It is so hard to cook for just one. But today I made some homemade pesto out of my basil plant that turned out really good.

Ingredients:
Basil
Spinach
Walnuts
Garlic
Red pepper flakes
Salt + pepper
Parmesan
Olive oil

I mixed the first 7 ingredients in my food processor and then poured in olive oil to make a smooth paste. I then cooked some pasta and mixed with the pesto and I cut up some of our cherry tomatoes from the garden. So delicious!

Have a great night everybody!

proud mama!

Yes, after a visit to the garden this morning I fell like a proud mama! My veggies, or should I say babies, are growing and it is so much fun to show up and see all the changes from last time. This is what I was able to harvest today:

 Now I have to think of something to do with all that squash!  I already had one of the Roma tomatoes on my tacos for lunch, it was yummy!

New shelf

I'm being a bad blogger these days... Sorry about that. I have been a little busy over here though. On Friday I finished up a project for our living room. I finished those shelves I was talking about. They turned out pretty good. I took some pictures that I thought I show you guys.

"B" is for Blue of course

My "Höganäs" candle holder, a gift from farmor, in front of one of my favorite books

I don't know if I'm that talented in the carpentry area, but it works!

Rhubarb - strawberry pie goodness!

I searched and I searched and I finally found my usb cord for my camera. So here is the recipe for the pie I made the other day. Of course it's Sweden's own Leila who was kind enough to share her fabulous recipe, thank you Leila! :)

A few rhubarb stalks
Some strawberries

250 gr butter
150 ml sugar
150 ml coconut flakes (this must be the secret, it made it very yummy!)
250 ml flour
150 ml oat meal (havregryn)

I mixed the strawberries and rhubarb with some sugar and flour and put it in a glass pie form and then covered them with the dough. In the oven for about 25 minutes on about 350 degrees (200 Celsius).

we had ours with some freshly whipped cream and it is delicious! 

I urge YOU to make it for dessert this weekend, you wont regret it. Especially you guys in Sweden where the rhubarb grows so nicely and you don't have to buy it at expensive Whole Foods. :)

computer strike

I'm still not liking the way my computer is acting at times. Like uploading pictures with my memory card. I use to be able to just put my memory card in my computer and upload my pictures that way, but I guess not anymore? Instead I have to use my usb cord which has gone missing. Oh well, more searching tomorrow. (But that means that I can't show off my strawberry rhubarb pie tonight. Buhu).

I'm working on something though. I feel like I have to start doing something on my days off. I went to the local lumber yard and bought a plain wood board and I'm making some shelves for our living room. If I can upload my pictures in the near future I'll show you guys how it turns out.

Other than that? I am missing Sweden and all the people back home so so much right now. Maybe because I'm off of work so much and have time to miss everyone. Everything reminds me of Sweden. Maybe I should not have made that rhubarb pie yesterday when it reminds me of the rhubarb bush we have back home. I just cut the board in half for my shelves and the saw dust reminded me of my dad for some reason and I think I felt a tear in my eye....

this is me last summer on the first day of coming home for a visit and before going to bed in my room back home...So happy!

I am alive!

Yes, for anyone who was worried I am alive, but my computer was not. I just got it back from the computer store so now I have got my life back! It is crazy how much you use your computer every day.

Not much happening here, I'm off all week but I'm not doing much. We spent the night at the in-laws when we had the carpets cleaned in our house. We had some really bad storms last night, lightning and thunder all through the evening and late at night. So I did not sleep very well and feel tired.

I did make a delicious strawberry-rhubarb pie last night and brought it over to the in-laws and it was so good! I'll share the recipe later today.

Have a great day!

From "farm" to table

Yesterday afternoon we went to our garden to check on it after being gone the whole weekend and wow! Things are happening! It is so exciting to get to pick your own veggies and then go home to your kitchen and cook them.

We have so many cherry tomatoes! I can't wait for them to turn red.

The cherry tomato plant is taking over our whole garden, it's taller than me!

One cucumber on the way!

Some of the cherry tomatoes has turned red and they are so sweet and delicious!

Our okra plants are taking off, we have been watching them for awhile when we my hubby can't wait to make some pickled okra!

So pretty!

Then we steamed (my favorite way to cook veggies when it is a good way to lock in all the nutrient goodness that they possess) the squash and it was absolutely delicious! 

Now, time for work, I hope you are having a wonderful day!

Sweet Tea

I'm being so so lazy over here, doing absolutely nothing...  I have been sitting in the couch all day. Shame on me. I felt I had do to something so I did some laundry and put on the dish washer and got the idea to do some Sweet tea. Sweet tea is a staple here in the south, every single restaurant has it. They do have iced tea  in most part of the States, but nothing beat the sweetness that you can find in the tea here in the south. I love it, the sweeter the better. It's basically like any black tea that you sweeten with A LOT of sugar and then you serve it with A LOT of ice and maybe a lemon slice. Delicious on a warm summer day.

SO refreshing!

Now, I'm going to go over to the garden and see about my babies..
Miss everyone back home so much right now. Wish I was there.

Cape San Blas

We visited this beach right before we left Florida for Georgia. The other guests that stayed at the Inn with us told us that this beach is in the top 10 when it comes to most beautiful beaches in the US. It was really nice although a lot more crowded (still not bad) than where we were staying. I thought I'd show you some pictures from our short visit:

Back to real life and I need to get back to being crafty!
See you back here soon!

No words needed:

Almost there..

Yes, we're almost there. In about 12 hours if everything works out the way we planned we will be heading out for Florida. We are leaving bright and early in the morning and I can't wait. There is nothing better than leaving town before the sun gets up with some tea in a to-go-top.

So what have I done on my to do list you may ask? Well, everything but the cleaning of my car. I'm thinking we'll have to go to the in-laws this evening to water our garden and pick up one of our bikes that is over there so I'll vacuum there. I love having a clean car, it's one of those times when I feel so great about myself, when I drive around in a clean car. Weird. But oh so fantastic.
Besides from the cleaning of my car I have to pack pack pack. 

I just went to have my nails done. I got a french manicure on my finger nails and a coral color on my toes. It looks great. They have started this new thing with gel nails. No fake nails, I don;t like that but it's just this thicker gel nail polish that last much much longer. So hopefully I'll still be sporting this french manicure in three weeks.

AND. It's my mothers name day today in Sweden. Happy name day mother! I new about it when I saw it in the calendar a few days ago and I remembered it yesterday but totally forgot to mention in this morning when I was on the phone with her. Shame on me.

this will probably be me in a few hours..