A new year

2007 was an amazing year for me. So many good things happened, I'm still at a loss for words when I think of some of it... The only problem was that it went by too fast. I haven't had time to do as much crafting, cooking, reading or blogging (!) as I would have liked to but instead I've done things I never imagined I would do...

Now it's a a new year and I look forward to this year with great anticipation. I hope you all have had a good 2007 and that 2008 will be even better!

I'll try to improve on the blogging part and doing so, I thought I should start off by sharing my new favourite recipe with you. Ii's yummy, but I like this recipe even more because it's so simple and you can make either a single portion to have for lunch or make more of it to feed a hungry crowd of friends...

4 salmon filets (approximately 120 g each)
salt & peppar
4 tablespoons pesto
4 tablespoons fetta cheese (that's been crumbled)

Preheat the oven to 220 °C
Spice the filets with salt & peppar and then put them in an ovenproof dish.
Spread pesto on the filets.
Then put the crumbled fetta cheese on top.
Bake it in the oven for about 15 - 20 minutes (depending on what sort of oven you have, mine is a very slow one & therefore I let the filets bake for 20 minutes)

Serve together with potatoes (or whatever you prefer), vegetables and perhaps a gravy that goes well with the fish.

Honey & mustard chicken

I admire people who can grab something out of the freezer and then make a delicious meal in no time at all. It's impressing! Whenever I'm asked to stay for an unplanned dinner and the hostess say (very modestly) that it's just something simple, I usually feel like asking "It this you doing something simple?". I know that there are some people who just say it's simple even though it's not & there's some people who actually has the talent to make something that good that quickly. But then there's some people who happens to have one of those recipes which tastes delicious even though it's really easy to make. I try to hang on to those recipes and I would like to share one with you.

Honey & mustard chicken

4 tbs mustard (preferably whole-grain mustard)
4 tbs liquid honey
1 tbs lemonjuice
4 chicken filet

Preheat the oven to 190 °C.
Place the chicken filets in a baking pan.
Mix mustard, honey and lemonjuice and then pour it over the chicken. Turn around each filet to make sure that both sides of each filet has been covered with the mixture.
Put the baking pan in the oven. According to the recipe it should be in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes, but I know that my oven requires at least 30 minutes so be aware of that and make sure that the chicken is ready when you take it out.

Serve it with whatever you prefer. Roasted potatoes, rice, salad... I serve whatever I'm in the mood for or whatever is easiest at the time.

Enjoy!

Magical

The first real snow came the other day. I realized that I wrote my last post in october and now suddenly it's snowing... This years has been magical but why does time have to move so quickly? I'm actually living my dream and my loved ones are all well. I feel truly blessed! I hope that you all are fine & that this fall has been as magical for you as it has for me!

Another magical time is of course Christmas. Here's some of my tips if you're looking for some online-inspiration:
Laura Ashley's Christmas booklet
Pottery Barn's Holiday Trim
Shabby chic's vintage holiday

A good book

When you're studying for an exam and reading a lot of different texts it's not easy to find the time or energy to read anything else... I miss cuddling up under a blanket with a cup of tea in my hands & reading a really good book just for the pleasure of it. And especially around this time of the year, since fall is the best season for reading in my opinion :-)
But I'll have more time to read other things as soon as this exam is over & I can't wait for Christmas. I'll probably spend a lot of time reading during the holidays, which I'm looking forward to. And that's why I'm trying to come up with some good books to buy for myself & to put on my wishlist.

Here's some of my favorite books:
- Anything from the Hanna Swensen Mysteries by Joanne Fluke
- Chocolate Beach by Julie Carobini
- Restoring Grace by Katie Fforde
- Anybody out there? by Marian Keyes
- Christmas from the heart of the home by Susan Branch
- Heart of the home - Notes from a Vineyard Kitchen by Susan Branch

These books are on my wishlist at the moment:
- Cherry Cheesecake Murder by Joanne Fluke
- Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke
- Vineyard season by Susan Branch

Do you have any favorites to share with me? And what's on your wishlist?

Brown & green earrings

I've made a new pair of earrings in brown & green, which I think is suitable for the autumn season. I've got some ideas for other jewellery that I would like to make but they all include some new stuff, which is why I'm about to order some goodies from Panduro. But I don't want to wait, I want to get started right now! :-) And I get even more inspired to do some jewellery when I visit Cluny Grey, it's so inspiring.

Lots of food

I haven't posted about food for some time now, but I'm making up by writing about lots of food in this post :-)

Yesterday I had hot chocolate & a yummy sandwich for dinner. To me, that's one of the signs that tells me that autumn is here... It's one of the coziest feelings I know to have your hand around a nice hot cup of chocolate.

I also made today's lunch yesterday. It's a recipe I got from a relative, who said that it's her favourite lunch right now and that I should try it... I altered her recipe a bit & got a simple easy lunch.

Tzatziki-styled sauce
200 g chickpeas
100 g goat cheese, chopped into small dices
½ red onion, chopped
2 - 3 dm of a cucumber, grated or sliced
1 dl creme fraiche

Mix all the ingredients until you have a tzatziki-looking sauce. If you want, you can use kidney beans instead of chickpeas & fetta cheese instead of goat cheese. The original recipe also included a a garlic wedge, but I'm not a big fan of garlic so I didn't use that.
Serve with some slices of turkey, kassler or whatever meat you want.

I'm looking forward to coming home from university and a having nice relaxed Friday-night tonight. I've catched a cold and I feel like staying home and watching a movie and eating homemade pizza. It seems like all families have their own list of must-have-toppings on a pizza. What's yours?
You know they saying "less is more"? I sure don't apply that when it comes to pizza toppings.
Toppings on my pizza:
Tomato sauce
Ham
Fresh tomatoes
White mushrooms (not the fresh ones, the ones on a tin)
Fetta or goat cheese
Onion
Oregano
Grated cheese on top

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Dublin

When we began our landing at Dublin airport, I was amazed by the view outside the windows. The green grass and the blue ocean made a perfect first impression of Ireland. This time we didn't have any problems at the airport, quite the opposite because it didn't take us long to get our luggage and get on our bus into Dublin city centre. We took a local bus (16A) which didn't cost us much at all (I realize that it sounds like I preferred the local bus just because it was the cheapest alternative but I actually like local buses more than airport buses, it feels like you're less of a tourist that way).

Once we figured out where to get off & found the hostel (which wasn't that difficult since the bus stop was right in front of it), we discovered that we were much too early. We had then been awake for almost 30 hours and we were tired!But instead of sleeping in our beds we had to wait until after lunch before we could get our room, which meant that we had to do come up with something to do while waiting for it. We had spent a long time in London looking for a cafe (a cafe that wasn't Starbucks that is) and we didn't expect to find the sort of cafe we were looking for in Dublin either. But we found Cafe Aroma, a nice place with comfy seatings and huge cups of cappuccino. We even got a biscuit with it, which totally made our day ;-)

After our stop at the cafe we decided to do some sightseeing and went to Trinity college. I have a thing for old school buildings... There's something about the atmosphere that actually gets me in the mood for studying. I just wish I could keep that feeling until I actually have to study, and not when I'm on holiday. We continued on towards Dawson street, where the wonderful three stories high bookshop Hodges & Figgis is located. It's the perfect place for anyone who loves books. Do I have to say that my luggage was filled with books on the way home?
Photo: Trinity College

We walked back to the hostel where we had to wait a bit longer since the room wasn't ready yet. When we finally got our room we went straight to bed and took a nap in the middle of the afternoon. We woke up a couple of hours later and got ready to go out.

We started off the evening with fish & chips at a pub called Madigans. After a very drunk irishman tried to convince us to sit down with him at the bar (I only figured that out because of his body language, he had a strong irish accent and was so drunk that you couldn't hear what he said) we moved on. We then found The Quays in Temple Bar & we were hooked. They played live music, the pub was full of people & the staff was funny and very serviceminded. I hate it when you have to wait ages just to order a cider, but that wasn't the case here. When the pub closed the bartenders told us to go to Q Bar, because they had cheap drinks and a dancefloor... And so we did. We were either to tired to appreciate it or the bar simply wasn't the kind we like, because we liked the pub much better!

After Q Bar we went back to the hostel for a few hours of sleep. We felt old, boring but we were so thankful for being able to go to sleep again :-)

Next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel before going out sightseeing. We went to Dublin Castle, Christchurch cathedral, St Patrick's Cathedral, the National museum & St Stephen's Green. St Stephen's Green was definitely my favourite! It's a huge beautiful park where lots of people go to take a walk, eat lunch or just sit down on a bench... It's so peaceful and I really recommend a visit to the park if you're ever in Dublin.

Photo: The first three is of Dublin Castle and then Christchurch Cathedral, St Patricks Cathedral and the last three is of St Stephen's Green.


After that we did some shopping before buying some food to take with us to our room. After a quick dinner we then went back to the Quays and then later on continued to another place where we danced for a short while before they closed too. We had a wonderful evening talking to lots of nice irish people as well as a couple of frenchmen and some americans. This is what I love most about travelling, meeting new interesting people.

We were leaving next day but before going to the airport we decided to go shopping again. I had catched a cold and didn't feel well at all but somehow managed a day of shopping anyway. I hate feeling unwell when you're not at home where you can feel as miserable as you like and just cuddle up under a blanket, sleep in front of the TV and drink tea. But I tried to enjoy this last day & it turned out to be quite a nice day despite my cold.
Later on that afternoon we had to take our things and take the bus to the airport to fly back to Sweden. It's sad to leave a place you've come to like but at the same time, there's no place like home.