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. :)