Sproutig

Last summer I learned to sprout beans wich is great because I love beansprouts and being a little self sufficiant.  So here are my instructions.

First you put the peas in water overnight, you have to use whole peas or they wont sprout.

After the peas have soaked you drain the water and put the peas in a cheese cloth and twist the loose ends tight and put it in a light tight container twistie ends down.

Keep the container somewhere dark and water the cloth regularly (I use a spray bottle).  The cloth can´t ever get dry.  In two or three days you should have a cloth full of bean sprouts.

Remove the sprouts from the cloth and keep them in a fridge.

Here are some photos of the procedure.

Good luck with all your bean sprouting.

Tiramisu

Today I´m going to share with you a recipe of Tiramisu.  I got this recipe from my friend Daniella who is from the Pulgia area in Italy.

Before I tried hers I didn´t like Tiramisu very much I thought it was too watery and bland but I really love this recipe

Tiramisu

Ingredience

Ladyfingers
4 tbs flour or fine spelt
4 egg yolks
4 tbs sugar
Milk as needed
200 grams mascarpone
A stick of vanilla split down the middle or a peel of lemon

Pastry cream
The pastry cream is made simular to a roux.  Over a low heat wisk sugar and eggyolks together until creamy and smooth then add the flour and 1/4 th liter of milk and keep wisking.  Now split a vanilla stick down the middle and put in the pot or lemon peel.  Now for the next 30 minutes keep wisking and adding more milk when the pastry cream gets dense.  Don´t leave the stove for a minute.   I use about of liter of milk depending on how large the tiramisu will be.  Remove the vanilla or lemon peel.  When the cream is ready cool it down to room temp. or as I often do fill a zink of cold water and put the pot in it and stir til it´s cold.
Add the mascarpone to the cream and it´s ready for use.

Next make some coffie for me the stronger the better and let it cool down you can put some amaretto in it if you want.

Now you start layering the tiramisu in a casserole disk.  Start putting some of the cream in the bottom then dip ladyfingers in coffie (not too long) and layer them in the casserole, cover with the cream.  Continue doing this and end with a layer of pastry cream.  I usually siev some cacao over it or grate semisweet chocolate over it.

 

                                                                     Getting started

                                                             Making the pastry cream

                                                     First layer of pastry cream

                                                        Ladyfingers dipped in coffie

 
Unfortunatly I forgot to take pictures of the finished tiramisu wich I served at my family´s christmas potluck.

Reading, listening watching

Reading.

I just finished reading memories of my melancholy whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez wich was very good and I have started reading the golden compass by Philip Pullman and though I´m only o

Listening.

I´ve been listening to game of thrones and clash of kings on audiobook.  I really like the tv series and I should have read the books before watching the series. 

Watching.

At the moment I´m watching Ghost in the shell for the second time and I really like this stuff.  A while ago I finished watching Kung fu the tv series with David Carradine and made me want some more kung fu, maybe some Bruce Lee or those old revenging a father themed kung fu movies.

Japanese cotton cheese cake

For easter dinner with my family I made a japanese cotton cheesecake from a recipe I found on the nethttp://pencilkitchen.blogspot.com/2011/08/japanese-osaka-cotton-cheesecake.html


 
So I made it and it was reallly good, soft and moist. The only fault I could find in the recipe was too little flavor of vanilla, so if you make it I advise you to use more vanilla.
I was very glad that it turned out to be good because I hate regular cheesecake.

 
Here are some photos of my Japanese cotton cheesecake.

 

kimchi

In june I spent a day making kimchi. I had never tasted kimchi before but when one of my acquaintances posted some photos of her kimchi making on facebook I really wanted to try it. Here is the recipe http://www.foodiewithfamily.com/2013/12/02/easy-fast-kimchi-mak-kimchi/


 
And here are some photos from my endeavour.

 

What I´ve been up to lately

What I´ve been up to lately.

Lately I´ve been learning how to knit socks wich hasen´t been easy, I´ve undone them 8 times and still they are flawed but I am finishing them this time and just fix my mistakes with needle and yarn later.  They are a bit misshapened but that will have to do.

I´ve also been crocheting a bedspread wich I´m not going to continue with it until next winter because it´s to hot sitting under it while I crochet.   The bedspread is striped and I do regret now not doing a grannysquare blanket but it´s too late to change my mind.  I do tend to making a grannysquare blanket for my sofa but I will not get into that until I finish my bedspread.

I have also finished a shawl I started in march.  I was babysitting my friends son for a month and crocheted when I had the time.  I changed the recipe a little bit and I think it will come in handy next winter.

When I´ve finished the socks I´ve been knitting I am going to knit a sweater and I look forward to it although I know it will be fustrating to learn and make mistakes but that is how it will have to be. 

I have been watching Dr. Who while I knit and crochet and have started to like it though it´s not really a serious  sci fi like firefly og star trek but I kind of like it.  I have also been listening to music through spotify wich I think is a great source to find new music. 

I have been reading Memories of my melancholy whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez wich makes me want to have another go at 100 years of solitude wich I rented from the library but didn´t have enough time to read, I think I might get it on audiobook.

Well that´s enough for now I will post pictures of my projects in progress soon.

My little balcony garden

I´m very lucky that I live in apt with a good balcony that faces south. It´s a good place to grow plants and herbs.
This summer my mother gave me some plants, vegetables and herbs to put on my balcony. Unfortunately some have died like my spring onions but I bought some spring onions, cut of their roots and put in soil and they have started growing. I also got a pot of marygold wich is very pretty, koriander (silantro), parsley and basil.
I´ve also started growing cress, wich is very easy to do.
I was trying to grow some chives but I think my seeds are to old so nothing has come up.

                                                        Beautiful marigold from my mother
                                                           
                                                                  

                                              My little sitting area, it´s very colorful

                                                        Spring onions

            

                                              My cress wich I use as a herb or sometimes when I don´t have any salad at home

                                             And at last my basil.  I´ve had used it mostly for bruschetta.

My weekend plans: To bake some snickerdoodles, crocheting a Twyla cardigan pattern here and watching Don´t trust the bitch in appartment 23 (wich are hilarious)



What are you doing this weekend?