Recipes Archives - Page 6 of 10

White Chocolate Panna Cotta With Hibiscus Raspberry Sauce

February 7, 2019

A smooth creamy white chocolate panna cotta is always a crowdpleaser especially with some hibiscus raspberry sauce on top. One of the easiest desserts that everyone will love.

I’ve been thinking about Valentine’s day recipe that would be easy and quick to make, look pretty and be super yummy. The first thing that popped into my mind was white chocolate panna cotta! I wanted to make it a little extra so I experimented with adding white chocolate to it and it turned out even more delicious than I thought it would.

Lately I’ve been drinking so much hibiscus tea. I used to hate teas that were acidic, such as hibiscus, rose hip or any fruit teas. Since we’ve been sick a lot lately we drink a lot and I really mean A LOT of tea. So we were experimenting and trying out new ones. I went for hibiscus one day and I grew to love it! It was an inspiration for the sauce I made to pour over the soft white chocolate panna cotta. I added raspberry purée to make it more fruity. I love how it adds freshness and fruityness to the whole dessert.

A few tips for making any panna cotta:

The easiest way to serve it is in jars. That way you don’t have a mold to remove.
I do like the look of panna cotta shaped in all kinds of shapes. If you are using a mold there are a few tricks that will help take the panna cotta out. You can spray a thin layer of neutral tasting oil over the inside of the mold before pouring panna cotta in. Alternatively (if the mold is not to complex) you can run a knife along the edges of the mold to release it. The method I prefer to use is soaking the mold in hot water after panna cotta has already settled. The reason why I choose this option over the others is because I seem to get the nicest shape this way without any extra oil on the surface. But that’s just my preference 😀

Looking for more Valentine’s day dessert ideas. Here’s one I love – Dried Fig and Blood Orange Tart

5 from 1 vote

Print

White Chocolate Panna Cotta With Hibiscus Raspberry Sauce

Course Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Keyword panna cotta, pudding, white chocolate panna cotta

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Resting time 3 hours

Total Time 25 minutes

Servings 4 servings

Ingredients

White Chocolate Panna Cotta

500 ml heavy cream
120 ml full-fat milk
100 g white chocolate
4 gelatine leaves
30 g caster sugar

Hibiscus raspberry sauce

1/2 cup boiling water
2 hibiscus teabags
1/4 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup raspberry purée

Instructions

White Chocolate Panna Cotta

Place heavy cream, milk and caster sugar in a pot and bring to a simmer just until the sugar melts. Don’t let it boil! Remove from the stove,
Meanwhile, soak gelatine leaves in cold water as instructed on the label.
Cut white chocolate into small chunks or grate and add to the pot. Mix well until chocolate has melted. Add gelatine and mix again until the gelatine has dissolved.
Pour into jars or molds and immediately place in the fridge to cool down. Leave to set for 2-4 hours before serving.
Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Steep hibiscus tea in boiling water for ten minutes. Discard the tea bags and add caster sugar to the tea. Cook tea over medium heat until it reduces to half it’s volume.
Add raspberry purée and mix well. The sauce will thicken when it cools.
Pour sauce over panna cotta before serving.

Roasted Orange Chicken

January 31, 2019

Tender roasted orange chicken marinated in orange juice and soy sauce served with roasted potatoes is a quick and easy dinner recipe everyone will love.

Hello guys! I have an exciting new recipe

A lot of people have told me lately that they look for quick lunch and dinner recipes that are healthy as well. I always loved anything roasted, more so lately with my son keeping me busy. Anything that can be prepared in advance and doesn’t take a lot of my time is super handy.

I made this roasted orange chicken last week and I love how it turned out. I need to make something quickly with a few ingredients I had in the fridge. You really don’t need a lot of fancy ingredients to make a fancy meal. Doesn’t this look fancy? Trust me, no fancy ingredients were added. Oranges are the not-so-secret ingredients that add such a nice color and make it looks like you worked your but for the meal 🙂

The marinade ends up making the most delicious sauce and adds so much flavor to he chicken. Wanna know the best part? I took me less than 10 minutes to prepare before tossing into the oven and relaxing!

The whole family was sick the past month and a half. It’s been only a few days since we’re actually all okay and we’re hoping it ended. There’s nothing less fun but being home with a sick kid or being sick yourself or even worst both of you sick. We weren’t able to go out for more than a few minutes a day and we were FREAKING OUT!

We were drinking lots of elderflower turmeric tea and eating a ton of soup! And finally got better… fingers crossed.

To be honest, a lot of the time I wasn’t even able to cook anything even slightly decent. Thank god for my mum, we were crashing her lunches a lot. Parents rock, right? I hope my son says that about me some day!

Print

Roasted Orange Chicken

Course Main Course

Keyword chicken, roasted chicken, roasted potatoes

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Servings 2 people

Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

500 g chicken thighs (approx. 2 chicken thighs)
400 g young potatoes
1 orange cut in slices
1 whole garlic bulb
1/2 TBSP soy sauce
2 TBSP freshely squeezed orange juice
1 tsp ground garlic
1/4 tsp crushed black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 TBSP olive oil
salt to taste
10 thyme springs

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 190 °C.
Combine together soy sauce, orange juice, ground garlic, crushed black pepper, cayenne pepper, and 1 TBSP olive oil. Pour over the chicken thighs and let sit until you prepare the potatoes.
Cut potatoes in 2 cm chunks and drizzle with 1 TBSP olive oil and add salt to taste. Mix well.
Place potatoes in a baking tray and add chicken thighs skin side up. Add orange slices and thyme springs.
Roast in the preheated oven for 50 minutes.

Orange Dutch Baby

January 10, 2019

Orange Dutch baby. Light and airy topped with orange sauce, whipped honey and fresh oranges. It’s made in no time! My favorite Winter breakfast lately because it’s naturally sweet but also fresh at the same time.

One of my all time favorite dishes are crépes. Seriously, I used to make them at least once a week. Since little J has egg allergies we had to swith to egg-free. We usually make Amerikan-style pankakes made with banana and add all kinds of flavoring in the dough or on top of the pancakes. J’s favorite – CHOCOLATE 😀

You are wondering why am I blabbing about pancakes when this is a Dutch baby recipe. Dutch baby is also called a German pancake, so here’s where my thoughts come from. Also it basically uses the same ingredients.

I only recently tried dutch baby for the first time. I saw so many amazing photos of Dutch baby but never quite got to try them. And I must say I missed out BIG TIME. And they are sooo easy to make.

One of the reasons why I never tried them was because I didn’t have a cast iron pan. What?! I know, I know… I recently bought one so now I can try some new dishes, yay!!

Okay, back to the orange dutch baby. Oranges and Winter go hand in hand in my book. I couldn’t imagine cold days without some freshly squeezed orange juice or any dessert that includes oranges (or some other citrus). So making an orange Dutch baby is a no brainer. I think I’ll have to make them every Saturday morning. And some banana pancakes for my son 🙂 There’s no way he can watch me eat the Dutch baby and be okay with not having something just as delicious.

This orange Dutch baby has very little refined sugar. Actually, since it includes whipped honey even the light sprinkle of powdered sugar in not necessary. I love a tiny bit, though. The recipe also includes a super easy orange sauce that you can use in other desserts as well. It’s awesome on brownies 🙂

Have you ever heard of whipped honey? I love it! Whipped honey is nothing but… well, honey that is whipped. Nothing fancy or difficult but totally different to regular honey. Also, if you buy non-pasteurized honey (which I suggest you do) you know it crystalizes. Whipping it makes it runny again without heating it. Let me know if you try whipped honey or my orange Dutch baby in the comments below.

5 from 1 vote

Print

Orange Dutch Baby

Orange Dutch baby. Light and airy topped with orange sauce, whipped honey and fresh oranges. It’s made in no time! My favorite Winter breakfast lately because it’s naturally sweet but also fresh at the same time.

Course Appetizer, Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Keyword dutch baby, easy recipe, german pancake

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 4 people

Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

Dutch Baby

3 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup flour mix (approx. 1/3 wholewheat flour and 2/3 plain white flour)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
3 TBSP clariffied butter
1 orange cut in slices skin removed
powdered sugar to taste

Orange Sauce

1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (approx. 3 oranges)

Whipped Honey

1 cup unpasteurized honey

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 220 °C (425 °F) placing a 25 cm (10 inch) iron pan in the oven to heat as well.

Orange Sauce

Pour freshly squeezed orange juice into a saucepan and bring it to a simmer. Let simmer until the volume is about 1/4 of the initial volume. Set aside.

Whipped Honey

Whip honey on medium-high speed for 10-15 minutes. The honey will become airy and pale white.

Dutch Baby

Mix eggs in a blender on high speed for a few seconds so they start to bubble.
Add flour mix, milk, cinnamon and salt and mix on medium-high speed for another few seconds or until the ingredients are well combined.
Take the pan out of the oven, place over high heat and add clarified butter. Wait until butter is bubbling then add the batter and return to the oven.
Bake for 13-15 minutes. Turn the oven off and leave sit in the oven for an additional 5 minutes. This will keep the Dutch baby bubbly structure.
Take out of the oven and sprinkle powdered sugar over (You can omit this step), top with orange sauce, 1 TBSP of whipped honey and fresh orange slices. Enjoy!

7-Day Healthy Eating Meal Plan

January 2, 2019

Hey guys! Happy New Year 🙂 I hope you have a nice celebration wherever you were. I was sleeping on my couch until ten to midnight with a sore throat. And went to bed half an hour later. So not the most exciting New Year’s Eve Party. Hopefully, it doesn’t get more serious than that. For that reason, I definitely need to make my meals a touch healthier than they were in December. To be honest I ate much fewer sweets this year than I used to so transitioning to the traditional healthier January food won’t be as hard. But I’ll still benefit from some healthy food.

If you are like me you revisit your eating habits every once in a while and the New Year revisit is probably the most common one. I prepared a 7-day healthy eating meal plan full of healthy recipes for breakfast, lunch dinner, and a dessert or a snack. If you are familiar with my blog you know I like colorful seasonal ingredients and that’s a part of what’s making these recipes healthy. Even if you don’t stick to this healthy eating meal plan you can include some other dishes that include a lot of fresh vegetables and fruits.

Are you ready to eat some YUMMY healthy food with me for a whole week or stretch it to the whole of January or the whole year. It’s really not that hard if you’re not too hard on yourself and enjoy an occasional cookie or cake. Noone is perfect. But trust me if you include more fresh produce in your diet you will feel so much better!

May 2019 be the best year and challenge you to do new exciting things!

Shredded Chicken Enchiladas With Homemade Enchilada Sauce

December 24, 2018

These shredded chicken enchiladas are my absolutely favorite enciladas. The recipe is super easy and it even includes a homemade enchilada sauce that’s made with little effort in only 15 minutes.

I can’t believe tomorrow’s Christmas already. Hasn’t December just begun??

I had plans to do some thorough house cleaning plus some more baking and decorating, but my son’s been home all week long with a cold and an ear infection. Although I can do some cleaning with him around and helping, there’s just no way I can do it in detail. Still, it was fun having him at home, we haven’t had the whole day to ourselves since he started kindergarten.

We’re making plans what to eat during holidays. Me and my husband are huge fans of Mexican food. So I’ve made a recipe for chicken enchiladas with a homemade enchilada sauce. The recipe is very easy! We usually end up making too many so we eat them again next day for breakfast. Okay, I admit, maybe we make too many on purpose 😛

We have a favorite Mexican restaurant and we used to only order beef enchiladas there. We’re crazy about beef! Then one evening we decided to try chicken enchiladas. I guess we always order them with chicken ever since. They use cabbage in the filling and it just goes so well with chicken and the tomato sauce. So that was the inspiration behind this recipe.

For the filling you can use leftover chicken, because we all know big Christmas dinners leave us with a ton of leftovers. I hate throwing food away and love recipes that transform those into something very delicious.

I hope you are having wonderful holidays and I wish you peaceful and loving moments with the ones you love!

Print

Shredded Chicken Enchiladas With Homemade Enchilada Sauce

The BEST chicken enchiladas, hearty but full of veggies!

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Keyword chicken enchiladas

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Chicken enchiladas

8 corn tortillas (20cm/8inch)
1 cooked and chopped chicken breast (leftovers can be used)
1/4 cabbage head
1 carrot
1 red bell pepper
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
400 g mozzarella (shredded)
1/3 cup pomegranate arils
1 lime
1 avocado (cut into thin slices)
chopped coriander

Homemade Enchilada Sauce

800 g canned tomatoes
1/2 cup pomegranate juice (or cranberry juice)
juice of half a lime
1 TBSP peanut butter
2 cloves garlic
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 fresh chilli
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Homemade Enchilada Sauce

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Place all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes or until it thickens a bit.
Use a blender to make a smooth sauce.

Chicken enchiladas

Thinly slice cabbage and onions. Cut red bell pepper in small chunks and grate carrots.
In a skillet sauté onions, cabbage, carrots, and red bell peppers. When they soften add garlic and sauté for another minute.
Place the sauteed vegetables in a big bowl and add shredded chicken breast, half of the shredded mozzarella and 1/3 of enchilada sauce (or more if the mixture seems too dry). Mix well and divide into eight parts. Use each part to fill one tortilla and roll them o keep all ingredients inside.
Add 1/3 of enchilada sauce to the bottom of the baking pan. Place rolled tortillas on top and pour the remaining 1/3 of enchilada sauce over the tortillas. Add the other half of mozzarella on top and bake for 15 minutes or until the cheese is golden.
Use pomegranate arils, avocado, lime and coriander as garnish. Serve warm.

Whiskey-Spiked Mulled Ginger Beer

December 18, 2018

It’s drinks like these mulled ginger beer with a hint of whiskey that create the Christmas atmosphere.

Hi guys! It’s been too long since I’ve written here. I’m not gonna bore you with a ton of details. If you want to see what’s been keeping me away from my blog, you can check my personal IG. You’ll see my little elf growing up, keeping me busy and on the move. He’s such a nice little boy an I love how he enjoys helping us in the kitchen or anywhere else for that matter. He loved to pick veggies from the garden in the summer. His favorite veggie for picking: green beans. Current obsession: baking cookies, dancing and playing with puzzles. One particular puzzle ALL DAY LONG. We’ve had to fix it multiple times it’s in such bad condition.

This was just a really short version of our life right now. And I’m so excited about the upcoming holidays. We’ve got the tree up, lights are on, decorations are up, we just need a drink to keep us warm. We’re all about spicy. Even the kiddo doesn’t mind a little heat.

This whiskey spiked mulled beer is not for kids, but be sure to check the recipe notes for a non-alcoholic version that’s safe for kids 🙂 I want my kid to be able to eat and drink with all the rest of the family, so I try and make dishes and drinks that he can enjoy too. We’ve almost entirely banned eggs since he’s allergic and you’ll probably see a lot more egg-free recipes in the future.

Okay, let’s head to the recipe. I’ve tried mulled beer when we stopped in Lithuania on our Eurotrip honeymoon. It blew my mind. Who’d have known cooked beer would be so good. After that, I tried bad ones too and I can tell you choice of beer matters a lot. I’m making mulled ginger beer, but you can use others as well. Just make sure the beer is not too hoppy and bitter because this will reflect in the mulled beer.

If you need more drinks to keep you warm during the cold winter you may want to try my Mulled Mandarin Juice or homemade Hot Chocolate.

5 from 1 vote

Print

Whiskey-Spiked Mulled Ginger Beer

It’s drinks like these mulled ginger beer with a hint of whiskey that create the Christmas atmosphere.

Course Cocktail, Drinks

Keyword beer cocktail, easy recipe

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Servings 6 people

Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

1 L ginger beer
juice of 2 oranges
peel of one orange
4 cinnamon sticks
6 slices ginger
4 rosemary springs
honey to taste
whiskey to taste

Instructions

Add ginger beer, orange juice cinnamon sticks, ginger slices and rosemary springs to a pot and bring to a simmer. Let simmer for 5-10 minutes then remove from heat and add honey.
Pour in mugs or heat-proof glasses and add whiskey to taste.

Notes

Non-alcoholic version: omit whiskey and use non-alcoholic ginger beer

Mango Margarita Smoothie

February 22, 2018

Who doesn’t love a simple refreshing margarita smoothie with mangos? I sure do!

Hey, it’s been a LOOOOOONG time. Way to long.

I’ve missed posting here so much. I’ve kicked myself in the rear end this week and made a plan for a few future recipes. Hopefully, I can see them through! Baby Jernej is not so little anymore. He’s standing on his own now, crawling all around the place, exploring the world and filling our hearts with all kinds of joy. If you wanna see what’s going on in our personal life head on to my personal Instagram account.

And now to the recipe. Today is National Margarita Day and I made a non-alcoholic mango margarita smoothie.

I’d say cheers, but it’s long gone.

There’s something about mangos in smoothies. Puréed mangos give such a nice smooth texture to drinks. They are one of my favorite fruits to put in smoothies, besides avocados. All due to the texture. Okay, and flavor too 😀 What are yours?

Since becoming a mom, maintaining a healthy diet has been so hard. The biggest problem for me is forgetting to eat, which I find super weird and annoying. And that’s why recipes like this are super important… Simple, easy and done in no time. I’m planning on sharing a few other recipes suitable for mom’s with little time to prep and also for little kids to enjoy. Btw, baby J tried the mango margarita smoothie and he approves 😀

Who doesn't love a simple refreshing margarita smoothie with mangos. I sure do!

Print

Mango Margarita Smoothie

Total Time 5 minutes

Servings 2 servings

Author Anja Burgar

Ingredients

1/2 mango (chilled)
3 oranges (chilled)
2 limes (chilled)
salt for garnish

Instructions

Peel mango and juice oranges and limes and blend all until smooth.
Run a lime wedge around the outside of a glass and dip the rim in some salt for garnish and taste. Pour in the smoothie.

Double Chocolate Blackberry Ice Cream Sandwiches

August 31, 2017

Double chocolate blackberry ice cream sandwiches are a perfect ice cold refreshment for the hot late summer days!

Finally back to blogging. I took a little time of to go to the seaside and spend more quality time with the little one. He was sick a lot this past month and we’re all trying to beat a cold right now. A cold in the summer, that’s new! And awful :/

Since I’ve posted the last recipe my baby has started eating solids. I couldn’t stand looking at his big sad eyes watching us munch over whatever was on the table and the poor thing didn’t get anything. Well, turns out he’s a natural. He never once spits out food and although he doesn’t eat much, he likes everything we give him. Gotta love a good eater 🙂

I could talk baby stuff all day long. You know when people can’t shut up about what their baby has acomplished lately, what she’s eating, how she’s the best in every single way. Well, I’m one of those people right now. I get them now. My old self would hate me so much, but yeah once you’re a parent you can’t do differently 😛
I’m gonna shut up now and go to the good stuf – the blackberry ice cream sandwiches.

It was kindda hard to get some blackberries. Apparently it’s not a good season this year. But anyways I had this reciipe in my mind for a while now and I did find some, so I could try it. Actually the recipe would work with any berries for that matter. But blackberries are in season now and they are freakin’ delicious! And so are the blackberry ice cream sandwiches.

The cookies are chocolate shortbread, so they might seem too crumbly, but once they are chilled in the freezer, they absorb some moisture and they become softer. Just as I remember ice cream sandwiches from my childhood. I had them often, but they don’t seem to be very popular over here these days. Strange.

I’m gonna be quick today and finish while I still have some peace and quiet 🙂

If you want another simple ice cream recipe check out n o churn melon sorbet with basil, it’s one of my favorite summer refreshments!

Have a good one folks!

Double chocolate blackberry ice cream sandwiches are a perfect ice cold refreshment for the hot late summer days!

5 from 1 vote

Print

Double Chocolate Blackberry Ice Cream Sandwiches

Servings 20 sandwiches

Ingredients

Blackberry Ice Cream

600 g blackberries fresh or frozen
1 1/2 cup unrefined cane sugar
1 tsp vanilla seeds
2 eggs
1 cup whipping cream
pinch of salt

Chocolate Cookies

225 g unsalted butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla seeds
pinch of salt

Decoration

150 g semi-dark chocolate
bee pollen

Instructions

Blackberry Ice Cream

Heat blackberries, sugar, salt and vanilla seeds in a big sauce pan. Bring it to a gentle boil and cook until the volume has reduced to half. Pass the blackberry mixture through a fine mesh to remove the pits. Leave at room temperature to cool. Then transfer to the fridge until you do the rest of the recipe.
Place eggs in a heat proof bowl. Boil water in a sauce pan and place the bowl over it. The water should simmer and not touch the top bowl. Leave water to simmer on medium while whisking the eggs for 15-20 minutes or until it starts to thicken and get pale yellow. Place the eggs in the fridge for 15 minutes to cool.
Whip the cream to stiff peaks.
Once everything had cooled use a spatula to mix eggs into blackberry mixture. Carefully incorporate whipped cream. Place in an airtight container and freeze for about four hours or until the ice cream is firm, but not completely frozen.

Chocolate Cookies

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
Whip butter and icing sugar until fluffy and pale yellow. Add flour, cocoa powder, vanilla seeds and salt and slowly incorporate it in the whipped butter.
Roll the dough 5mm thick and cut out 5cm circles. Move them to the baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack too cool.

Assembly

Once the cookies have cooled and the ice cream is firm enough to scoop. Use an ice cream scoop to fill ice cream between two cookies. Other option is to use the cookie cutter. This way place the cookie to the bottom of the cookie cutter then fill it with icecream and cover with another cookie. Plase in the freezer while melting the chocolate.
Place chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Boil water in a sauce pan and place the bowl over it. The water should simmer and not touch the top bowl.
Dip assembled ice cream sandwiches into chocolate and sprinkle with bee pollen.
Freeze until firm.

Sparkling Basil & Blueberry Float

July 27, 2017

A perfectly refreshing and comforting non-alcoholic summer drink – sparkling basil and blueberry float.

How’s summer been treating you so far?

So far, we’ve had increadible hot weather and we finaly managed to get some vacations. We love going to the lakeside. We spent a week at the amazing lake Bohinj. I dare say it’s one of the prettiest places in Slovenia. The lake lies right under the mountains in a national park. It’s amazing to see the slopes of the mountains end at the lake shore and see the most perfect sunset behind the peaks all while swimming in the cold (but no freezing) water.

Our friends with two kids joined us there. The kids had so much fun and us adults had a lot of beer. Omg, this sounds like we were neglecting our kids, but I asure you we weren’t. Beer was necesary to beat off the heat. And the uncountable wasp attacks. Anyway, it was a great vacation, minus wasps!

Coming back home, we stepped right into the blueberry season. Not the wild ones, those are gone for a while. But they would work just as well if not better in this recipe.

Anyway, the frost completely damaged our blueberry flowers and there are barely any blueberries. My parents-in-law have a lot, though. Luckily their blueberries survived the frost 🙂

I was thinking about making another drink recipe. I haven’t done one in a while and it’s about time to have one for the summer heat. I remember seing a ton of float recipes on Pinterest. I’ve never really tried one, but I was sure vanilla ice cream and blueberries would make an awesome summer float. So I made a simple recipe, that’s both a refreshing drink and an awesome dessert. Who wouldn’t like that?!

Again my obsession with basil. I swear it’s in all my food these days. There’s just so much of it. And I like how delicious it tastes in sweet recipes. Blueberries and basil – a spot on combination. My new favorite! No really, it’s that great. You need to try the recipe ASAP.

Combine all of that with lime juice and a creamy bourbon vanilla icecream and you get the tasteiest, most delicious blueberry float. I actually saved some from the shoot in the fridge and they were just ass good the next day. Vanilla icecream turned into a creammy fluff and kept the bubbles from sparkling water right in the drink. It was just as yum the next day. Who would have thought 😀

I feel like my posts are getting shorter and shorter, but I really need to get some sleep. I’m writing this while baby is two hours in his night sleep, so I only have a few more hours to get some proper rest. He usually wakes up at half past one or around two and after that it’s a gamble. He might sleep well, or he’ll move in his bed (sleeping or not). I can’t really sleep while I hear him moving, so I’m looking forward to him getting his own room in about two or three months. He’s actaully quite a good boy as far as sleeping goes, but I wouldn’t mind a full eight our sleep. Haven’t had one in four months.

We’ll I’ve kept my babbling way too long.

Off to bed now!

Good night folks and happy Friday in a couple of hours!

A perfectly refreshing and comforting non-alcoholic summer drink - sparkling basil and blueberry float.

Print

Sparkling Basil & Blueberry Float

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Blueberry Purée

3 cups blueberries
3/4 cup cane sugar
3/4 cup water
juice of one lime
10 big basil leaves

Sparkling Basil & Blueberry Float

blueberry purée
400 ml sparkling water
juice of two limes
8 scoops bourbon vanilla ice cream
frozen blueberries or crushed ice

Instructions

Blueberry Purée

Place all ingredients into a skillet over medium heat and let simmer for 5 minutes.
Purée cooked blueberries and the liquid in a food processor and let cool at room temperature. Refrigerate before serving if preffered.

Sparkling Basil & Blueberry Float

Fill four small glasses with blueberry purée, place frozen blueberries or crushed ice over. Pour over lime juice and sparkling water and top each drink with two scoops of bourbon vanilla ice cream.

Spicy Goat Cheese Pesto Pizza

July 6, 2017

Italian flavors with a twist in one delicious spicy goat cheese pesto pizza loaded with fresh cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and black olives. I could eat this pizza every day!

Wow, the summer this year. I can’t complain. Sunny weather, nice breeze and Aperol spritz in the evenings – what else could I wish for? The baby is sleeping very well so far, during the night as well as the day and his playtimes are getting longer. Finally! I absolutely love singing to him with his curious eyes on me all the time 🙂

In a couple of days we’re heading for some much needed vacations beside a beautiful lake under the mountains. Even though we love the seaside, we’re more of a lake and river type of swimmers. We love the sunny beaches and the waves by the sea, but hate the salt. The place we’re going to is quite isolated with just a couple of vacation houses nearby. So hopefully we’ll get some peace and quiet.

Okay back to the recipe. I have a ton of basil in the garden. A couple of years ago I sowed an entire bag of seeds in one small pot and it turned out the best idea ever. Why? Because you can start picking basil as soon as it starts growing leaves. Of course it’s way too crowded and I pick the whole plants in the begining to decrowd the pot. I leave some to grow into big bushy plants.

Basil was the whole inspiration for this recipe. I love pesto esecially with basil. I tried making it with goat cheese and it is seriously delicious. Add some mozzarela, tomatoes and olives and put all of them on the best pizza dough and you’ve got a treat. I included an amazing and very easy pizza dough recipe, but you can use your own. My whole-grain spelt dough would work just as well.

This pizza dough rises slowly in the fridge for a day and it is the best pizza dough I’ve made to this date. In fact most pizza places will make the dough in advance as well. Slow rise at low temperatures makes the dough nice and elastic, so you can strech it out very thinly. I didn’t do this with this pizza, but I love making it super thin for my tomato sauce pizza only. Which reminds me… I should totally share the recipe.

Second thing with making your pizza dough perfect is high temperature. Although I sometimes bake it at 230°C only, to make it more bready. Again look at the photos, the dough turns out looking something like that. If you crank up the temperature you’ll get an even crunchier crust. One thing I always do is place the baking tray in the oven when I turn it on, so it heats uo nicely. A pizza stone would be an even better option, but I don’t have one (yet) 🙂

I’ll stop babbling and get to the recipe. Have a lovely day you guys!

Italian flavors with a twist in one delicious spicy goat cheese pesto pizza loaded with fresh cherry tomatoes, mozarella and black olives. I could eat this pizza every day!

5 from 1 vote

Print

Spicy Goat Cheese Pesto Pizza

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

4 cups bread flour
1 1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 sachet of yeast (7g)
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt

Goat Cheese Pesto

1 cup chopped basil
30 g mild goat cheese
20 g parmesan
3 TBSP pine nuts
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp chilli flakes
3 TBSP olive oil (or more if necessary)

Spicy Goat Cheese Pesto Pizza

pizza dough
goat cheese pesto
400 g mozzarella
500 g cherry tomatoes
100 g black olives
2 tsp chilli flakes
basil for decoration

Instructions

Pizza Dough

Mix all ingredients in a stand mixer or by hand. Knead for about 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and soft, but not sticky.
Slightly oil a big bowl with at least double the volume of the dough. Leave the dough rest in the bowl covered with plastic wrap for about an hour or until double the size.
Knead again and return to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and save in the fridge for 24 hours. Be sure to use a large bowl, because the dough will continue rising in the fridge!
Remove from the fridge, divide the dough into four an knead again to for four balls. Cover with a cloth and leave at room temperature at least an hour before using the dough.

Goat Cheese Pesto

Place all ingredients except basil into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add basil and pulse for a few more seconds.

Spicy Goat Cheese Pesto Pizza

Preheat the oven to 230°C or preferably as hugh as your oven goes leaving the baking tray or pizza stone in the oven. If using pizza stone make sure you leave it in the oven long enough to be extremely hot.
Uncover the dough, but don't knead again from this point on. Use a small amount of flour to spread the dough into a desired shape. In this recipe form a 20 cm circle with a thick edge.
Spread basil pesto over the thin center of the dough and cover with sliced or pulled-appart mozzarella. Top with cherry tomatoes, black olives and chilli flakes.
Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness of the crust.
Decorate with more basil leaves before serving.

Mini Lemon Balm Rhubarb Bundt Cakes

June 22, 2017

Mini lemon balm rhubarb bundt cakes are amazing. No other words to describe them. They are delicious melt-in-your-mouth mini treats.

Folks, it’s officially summer! We’ve been having unbelievably sunny and hot weather for weeks so it feels like it’s already mid-summer. I’m keeping myself cool with loads of strawberry drinks like roasted peach and strawberry fizz and strawberry vanilla iced tea. Thank god for our garden, producing all those delicious fruits. And thank god for the mini rhubarb bundt cakes. They make these hot June days so much easier!

I’m spending so much time outside in the shade with my little baby. I love dressing him in the cute summer clothes and seing his bare feet. I could eat them up! He’s growing so fast, I can hardly keep up. He’s becoming more aware of the world and things around him, giving us the most precios smiles and giggles. I could watch those all day long.

Okay, back to the recipe.

I swear guys, these mini bundt cakes are incredibly tender and light. Rhubarb gives them such a nice sour note and the lemon balm makes them deliciously citrusy. I added a lemon drizzle to make those flavors stand out even more and make it super light and refreshing. They are my new summer crush. Sorry hubby, you’ll just have to deal 😛

The recipe is not a dense sponge recipe like for a regular bundt cake. It is more of a cupcake type of sponge. I should maybe call them cupcakes, but I love my new mini bundt cake molds which my mum gave me, that I just had to use those for the shoot. Call them cupcakes if you want 🙂

I feel like I’m being real brief these past few posts. I’m still ajusting to the fact that my free time is pretty scarce these days.

I hope you all have the best start of the summer!

Print

Mini Lemon Balm Rhubarb Bundt Cakes

Servings 12 cakes

Ingredients

Sponge

2 cups all-purpose flour (250g)
1 cup sugar (120g)
2 eggs
1/4 cup sunflour seed oil
200 ml plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla seeds
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 sachet baking powder (12g)
1/2 cup lemon balm finely chopped
150 g rhubarb finely chopped

Lemon Drizzle

1 1/2 cup icing sugar
2 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 cup lemon balm roughly chopped

Instructions

Sponge

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Lightly grease mini bundt cake molds. I used 12 80ml bundt cake molds.
In a stand mixer beat together sugar, eggs and oil.
In a bowl mix flour, vanilla seeds, ground ginger, ground cinnamon and baking powder.
Add flour mix to the egg mixture spoon by spoon.
Add yogurt, chopped lemon balm and mix until the mixture is smooth and even.
Add rhubarb and use a spatula or a big spoon to mix it in.
Use an ice cream scoop to fill the molds to about 3/4 full.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes, until the toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the molds

Lemon Drizzle

In a mortar bash the lemon balm with 1 TBSP of lemon juice to get out as much lemon balm juice as you can. Use a fine sieve or gauze to squeeze out the liquid. Discard the solids.
Add 1 TBSP lemon juice and the lemon balm liquid to the icing sugar and whisk until smooth.

Decoration

When bundt cakes are cooled to room temperature, remove them from molds and decorate with lemon drizzle.

Lime Poppy Seed Elderflower Cake Roll

June 9, 2017

This poppy seed elderflower cake roll is a delicately light spring tea-time treat.

It’s finally here and almost over – the season of elderflowers. I’m in heaven! The smell of those amazing flowers everywhere I go..uhm, so good!

I was thinking about making a cake with elderflowers, but then I changed my mind and challenged myself to make a elderflower cake roll. Weird, but I’ve never made a cake roll. My mum makes amazing cake rolls, so why even bother 🙂 She gave me her cake roll sponge recipe and I tweaked it a little and make a delicious elderflower mascarpone filling. I added lime and poppy seeds to the sponge to make the basic recipe even more yummy 😀

Thanks mom for this super simple recipe!

There are actually (at least) two ways you can scent your filling with elderflowers.

Cooking the cream: That’s a faster way, but it involves cooking. You place elderflowers in a pot and cover it with cream. It needs to cook for about 10 minutes, but the cream should not boil.
Infusing the elderflowers in cream. This method takes longer, but you infuse the eldeflowers in cream and leave it in the fridge for one day and the cream will get a nice scent of elderflowers. So no work at all.

Both of this methods are simple and basically give the same delicious result 🙂

I made elderflower panna cotta a while ago and used the first method, because you’re cooking cream anyway. Panna cotta was sooo good, you should definitely try it! Use a basic recipe and cook the eldeflowers in the cream for ten minutes. Together with some fresh strawberries it’s an amazing no bake dessert for the hot days 🙂

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

This poppy seed elderflower cake roll is a delicately light spring tea-time treat.

Print

Lime Poppy Seed Elderflower Cake Roll

Ingredients

Lime Poppy Seed Sponge

1/2 cup sugar (100g)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (80g)
4 TBSP ground poppy seeds (20g)
6 eggs
zest of one lime
juice of 2-3 limes

Elderflower Cream Filling

500 ml whipping cream chilled
250 g mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup honey
2 TBSP lime juice

Instructions

Lime Poppy Seed Sponge

Separate eggwhites from the yolks and beat them until they form a firm peak (When you turn the whisk upside down eggwhites should hold, but the tips should fold back.)
Add sugar and beat for a minute or two.
Add egg yolks and beat them in.
Add flour, poppy seeds and lime zest and use the lowest setting of the mixer to fold it in or use a spatula and do it manually.
Transfer the mixture to the baking tray and bake for 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven. Place a clean tablecloth on a flat surface and place the baked sponge on the tablecloth top side down, leaving the baking paper on. Roll in the cloth.

Elderflower Cream Filling

Cold method: In a big bowl cover elderflower heads with whipping cream and leave to infuse for 24 hours in the fridge. After 24 hours run the cream through a fine sieve to remove the elderflower heads.
Warm method: Place elderflower and cream into a pot and cook on low heat for ten minutes. Don't let the cream boil! Leave to cool to room temperature, then remove the elderflower heads and leave in the fridge overnight.
Both methods:
Whip the cream just befor entirely firm.
Use a fork to cream the mascarope cheese.
Add mascarpone and honey to the whipped cream and use the lowest settng to incorporate it in the whipping cream.
Add lime juice and use a spatula to mix it in.

Assembly

Once the sponge is cool unroll and carefully remove the baking paper.
Juice 2 -3 limes and use the juice to soak the sponge.
Frost with elderflower mascarpone cream and tighly roll.
Leave in the fridge for an hour for easier cutting.

Cherry Braised Beef Brisket With Creamy Mashed Potatoes

June 1, 2017

This cherry braised beef brisket is incredibly tender and comforting. When served with some creamy mashed potatoes it makes a perfect dish for the rainy spring days.

We are actually having very hot days for days now. It almost feels like summer, so I’m only wishing for rainy days. Don’t get me wrong, I love summer and sunny days, but the heat came way too quickly, I’m not prepared! Well, at least I get to wear some nice summer dresses and I get to diss the socks, which I hate 🙂

Okay, our cherry tree is again full of cherries, we can’t eat them all, they ripe so fast. We’re making juice for the winter and save some in the freezer. Besides we eat tons of them every day and I’m not complainig. Who doesn’t love fresh cherries?

Even though I L.O.V.E. cherries in desserts and drinks, I’m also loving how wonderfully they complement savory dishes. Remember the Cherry, brie and bacon grilled quesadillas? So yummy!!

Me and my husband absolutely love braised beef and when we got hold of a nice piece of brisket with ribs we couldn’t resist but adding some cherries and some lovely herbs from the garden to some classical braising veggies, like carrots, onions and celery. Result… AMAZING!

Seriously. It’s not like you can tell there are cherries in the dish besides the pieces of cherries, obviously. But they add such a nice sweet flavour. I can’t get over it, I’m doing this dish again for the whole family this weekend.

Since this recipe takes 6 to 7 hours to make, we started cooking at five in the morning. Luckily we wake up at that time anyway to feed the baby 🙂 I’m guessing we’ll be braising more now that we’re waking up at night 😉

One more thing that’s completely unrelated. I’ve been on the best treasure hunt since I’ve started shooting food. My friend is cleaning her grandma’s old apartment so she invited me to go and take a look if there’s anything I’d need for my photography. Well, I found a huuuuge bag of goodies 🙂 I’ve even used some of them in this photoshoot. I know I’m bragging, but I can’t help it 😉

Have a great day you guys!

This cherry braised beef brisket is incredibly tender and comforting. When served with some creamy mashed potatoes it makes a perfect dish for the rainy spring days.

Print

Cherry Braised Beef Brisket With Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 7 hours

Total Time 8 hours

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Cherry Braised Beef Brisket

1 kg beef brisket
400 g cherries depitted
2 big carrots
2 onions
2 celery sticks
5 cloves garlic
3 rosemary springs
a handful of basil
5 thyme springs
1 l chicken stock
salt
black pepper
cayenne pepper

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

8 medium sized potatoes
200 g butter room temperature

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 140°C.

Cherry Braised Beef Brisket

Season the brisket generously with salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper.
Sear all sides of the brisket on a hot skillet with a splash of oil for about a minute or two.
Move the brisket to a plate.
Cut carrots, onions and cellery into 1 cm chunks.
In the same skillet sweat the carrots, onions and cellery for about 10 minutes.
Move the brisket and the vegetables to a baking tray and add cherries, garlic, rosemary, basil and thyme and add the stock.
Bake in the preheated oven for 6 to 7 hour or until the meat gets very tender and almost falls apart. when sliced.
Remove from the oven and move the meat to a plate. Cover it with tin foil. Meanwhile use a hand mixer to thicken the liquid. You can mix all of the liquid with vegetables, or you can keep some vegetables to be seen in the sauce.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Cook potatoes in salted water until tender. Start with cold water! Cooking time depends on the size of potatoes.
Remove the skins and add butter. Mash with a masher until creamy.

Flourless Green Pea Fritters

May 19, 2017

These soft and fluffy flourless green pea fritters with seasonal herbs make the most delicious healthy breakfast.

I’m ending this wonderful week with these fluffy green pea fritters. It’s really been a great week. The baby gave us his first real smile. He’s smiled to everyone in the family at one point during the week. I couldn’t imagine how exciting that milestone was before it happened. The most wonderful thing 🙂 Now I’m looking forward for more and more of these cute teethless smiles and the sparks in his eyes.

He’s been letting us sleep during the night enough not to feel tired during the day, although I do take at least one short nap with him during th day. It’s just so cozy lying next to him and feeling him next to me while I’m sleeping 🙂

Okay, let’s head to the recipe. I’m very excited to share it with you. I’m a huge fan of pancakes, I make them at least once a week for breakfast, but they are usually sweet. I wanted to make a savoury recipe for easy and quick pancakes, that I’ll be able to prepare while taking care of a newborn. And it really is that simple.

The batter is made in a food processor or a blender and the pancakes take only a few minutes to cook. So perfect! There’s a little cottage cheese for extra creamines and flavor and rolled oats to bring it all together. Since so many herbs have started to grow, I’ve also added some from the garden and the forest. I used wild garlic and chives, but you can add whatever you can find in the garden, like mint, basil, thyme, oregano… So many yummy variations 🙂

And I realised that they are also super delicious cold, so they’re perfect for picnics 🙂 Hoping for lots of those these summer. ‘Cuz who doesn’t love picnics, right? We’re going on one today. Yay!!

I’ve been working on this recipe before the baby, when we’ve had a new roof window installed. I had to test the new light source for photography. I like it so far. A bit different than the straight side light, but just as interesting. What do you think?

Have a great weekend you guys!

These soft and fluffy flourless green pea fritters with seasonal herbs make the most delicious healthy breakfast.

5 from 1 vote

Print

Flourless Green Pea Fritters

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Servings 15 fritters

Ingredients

Green Pea Fritters

1 cup peas (if using frozen, thaw and drain before making the fritters)
1/2 cup roled oats
1 cup parmesan cheese grated
1/2 cup cottage cheese
2 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
a handful seasonal herbs (wild garlic, chives, basil, thyme...), coarsely chopped
salt
black pepper

Sauce

1/2 cup sour cream
2 TBSP lemon juice
zest of 1/2 lemon

Instructions

Green Pea Fritters

Place all ingredients in a food processor or a blender and mix until the batter is uniform.
Fry spoonfulls of the mixture on preheated frying pan with a little oil for 2 minutes on each side or until golden.

Sauce

Place all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk.
Serve with warm or cold fritters.

Welcome Baby Chocolate Buckwheat Cookies

May 4, 2017

The most delicious chocolate buckwheat cookies with wholegrain spelt and buckwheat flour and a tropical twist.

Hi guys!

I’ve been away for a month occupied by he hardest but the most rewarding job. On April 5th a little baby boy Jernej came to this world and turned our lives upside down. I never knew I could ever love someone as much as I love my baby. Kissing his forehead, massaging his super tiny feet, loving every unconscious smile when he’s sleeping and caressing his soft cheeks…

Although I’m loving every moment spent with him, I never imagined how exhausing and rewarding caring for a newborn is. After a month, I can easily say it was the toughest month of my life, although full of tears of happines and love, it was also filled with frustrations and self-distrust. Total respect to all the moms that have survived this introduction period keeping a clear mind! Saying that, my baby is sleeping well and is not fussy at all, I can’t imagine that being different…

When I came home from the hospital I was missing moving and doing whatever around the house. Lying in bed all day is totally not my MO, so I baked some cookies while Jernej was sleeping and took some photos. I named them Welcome baby chocolate buckwheat cookies 🙂 To welcome the cutest baby boy to this world <3

I love having a batch of cookies ready for the sweettooth moments of mine and my husband’s. We LOVE cookies! I’m surprised I don’t have more cookie recipes on the blog. I’ll have to change that, right?

What I love about butter cookies is, that they are super simple and you can make them in a food processor. They take no time whatsoever, but they taste sooo good! And if you make them with wholegrain flours you add so much nutritional value. In this recipe I used wholegrain spelt and wholegrain buckwheat flour, but you can easily use plain flours.

Lately I became a huge fan of unrefined cane sugar. It’s not a sugar we usually use in baking, so when I first tried it I became obsessed immediately. If you want caramelly taste without making caramel, cane sugar is the solution. I’m telling you, it makes a big difference.

Although plain buckwheat cookies are incredible, they are even tastier with some chocolate and coconut. Plus they look so pretty, don’t they?

I’m out of these cookies and now I’m waiting for elderflowers to bloom to make some Elderflower Cookie Bites with Raspberries.

Having a lot of work and being exhausted by the continuous feeding and diaper chaninging, I can’t promise I’ll be posting as often as I did before the baby, so bare with me. I’ll get the hang of it and will start posting weekly as soon as I can.

The most delicious chocolate buckwheat cookies with wholegrain spelt and buckwheat flour and a tropical twist.

Print

Welcome Baby Chocolate Buckwheat Cookies

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 32 cookies

Ingredients

2/3 cup wholegrain spelt flour
2/3 cup wholegrain buckwheat flour
50 g unrefined cane sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla seeds
1/4 tsp baking soda
80 g butter
4 TBSP water
dark chocolate
coconut flakes

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
Add all ingredients into a food processor and pulse until they form a ball.
Divide the dough in half, half it again and so on, until you get 32 identical pieces. Form bals with your palms.
Place on a baking paper lined baking tray and bake for 15 minutes or until golden. Move them to a wire rack and leave to cool down for at least 10 minutes.
Melt chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water. Dip the bottom half of the cookies in the chocolate and coconut and place on a pre-cooled tray lined with baking paper. Leave in the fridge to set.