LOVE

My favorite season is finally here! AUTUMN! Oh fall how I love your smell and beautiful colors and weather and food. And love is in the air. Two weddings in two weeks. One of my cousins, and one of my best friends. AAAAAAND! A new addition to the family. Emma, my new niece!

Coconut cupcakes with lemon butter cream frosting

I really needed to bake and the weather has finally cooled down a little! yay!

The cake recipe was dense but yummy. The frosting recipe was very good. And then I just sprinkles some coconut ontop.

Twenty 2

Soooooo Life goal accomplished. My first cake with fondant. Successful considering it was the first and the plan changed on how to decorate due to some misunderstanding of what I had about 20 minutes before I decorated it. Then we went to Le Nonne to eat some delicious Italian food. Bread with bruschetta and mozzarella, Spinach and Ricotta ravioli in a butter sage sauce and a bottle of Gabbiano Pinot grigio. Mi piace moltissimo.

Fruit pizza

My Grandma gave me this recipe when I hated fruit and from the time I made it on, I have liked fruit. I have misplaced the recipe over the years, but I remember most of it. I made it for the 4th of July this year and it turned out nicely.









Recipe for Fruit Pizza:

One premade sugar cookie dough (tube)
1 8oz cream cheese
1 tub coolwhip
Fruit (whatever you want) I usually use peach, blueberry, kiwi, and strawberry

Glaze (Don't remember exactly but I shall try)
orange juice (a couple tablespoons)
cornstarch (enough to make a runny glaze)

Directions:
1. Roll or press cookie dough out into a pie pan.
2. Bake at temperature on wrapper of cookie dough until lightly golden.
3. Let cookie dough completely cool. Whip together cream cheese and cool whip. Spread on cooled cookie. Add fruit.
4. Mix orange juice and cornstarch to make a glaze. With a pastry brush, brush ontop of fruit. (makes it shiny and yummy looking).
5. Take to party and get lots of compliments for this easy but yummy dessert!

Nu jag bara hoppas jag hadde min favorit person Hulk Carlsson har så han kunde äta med mig.

Back Home

After being in Sweden for almost a year and working on an organic farm in Ireland for a month I am home. Or at least my parent's new home. So I have had a little time to do some baking. And ice cream making! Life goal, check. I used this recipe. http://www.nesting-project.com/2010/06/butter-pecan-ice-cream.html It was delicious but I would reccommend about a half cup less pecans. I was literally chewing the ice cream, which isn't for me.

Kanelbullar (Swedish Cinnamon Rolls)

My roommate here in Sweden, Daniel or as I call him, Hulk, makes the most incredible Kanelbullar, which is already my favorite Swedish food. So I asked him to teach me how to make them and he did.






Here is the Recipe: (complements of Hulk Carlsson)
For the dough:

150 grams of butter (melted)
2 cups of milk
50 grams of fresh yeast (crumbled)
.5 cup of sugar
.5 tsp. or salt
2 tsp Cardamon
850 frams of flour (about 6 cups)

The middle:

400g Almond paste/ Marzipan
.5 cup Butter
.5 cup sugar
4 tbsp cinnamon

On top:
1 egg (beaten)
Pearl Sugar or Chopped almond (pearl sugar can be found at Ikea)

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a sauce pan and then add milk. In a large bowl, crumble yeast. When the butter and milk are warm to the touch add to the bowl with the yeast. Add the sugar, salt, and cardamom.

2. Add the flour, save some for kneading the dough. Knead the dough for 10 minutes or until it feels smooth and is not super sticky.

3. Let it rise for 30 minutes under a kitchen towel.

4. Mix all of the ingredients together of the "inside," in a bowl.

5. Knead dough again until smooth.

6. Roll dough into 4 rectangles about a fourth to a half an inch thick. Spread the inside mixings all over the tops.

7. Roll it up like sushi and then cut 10 half inch to inch slices. Let rest for 40 minutes under a kitchen towel.

8. Paint the top of the rolls with the beaten egg and then sprinkle pearl sugar or almonds ontop. Put in oven at 480 degrees F for 5-8 minutes, when just golden brown.

9. The Swedes like to enjoy these with a glass of milk. And as Hulk says "these Kanelbullar are perfect for buying friends." ENJOY!

Life in Sweden

I have enjoyed my time in Sweden. It is a gorgeous country. It is a country completely emerged in nature with lakes all over and forests around every corner. The winter was long and difficult for me, since I grew up in sunny California but Sweden in the fall and spring have been beautiful.



Who could not love a country with moose?! This is the home of Pippi Longstocking, Ikea, Swedish meatballs, and Kanelbullar (super delicious cinnamon rolls). The houses here are adorable. I have made great friends and had the opportunity to travel to lots of great places such as Berlin, Prague, and Budapest. Amongst other amazing trips, I took a cruise to Estonia from Stockholm. I have seen amazing things this year and all around had the time of my life.

Shrimp Scampi and Butter Cake with Penuche Frosting

School is finished for the year. I now have 20 free days in Sweden which clearly means BAKE TIME! A goal in life was to make a cake with penuche frosting because my mom makes them and they are TO DIE FOR. I had also been craving shrimp so I tried out a shrimp scampi recipe I got from Foodnetwork.com It was a Barefoot Contessa Recipe. It was great, however I did not measure the lemon, I guessed and the lemon ended up being a little overpowering. The butter cake was a recipe I found on allrecipes.com as well as the penuche frosting. The penuche was soooo good! The butter cake was good, but I think next time I will try a different recipe (or if I am back in the US, just use handy betty crocker yellow cake mix)

A little bit of kindness goes a long way

The kindness of strangers is such an amazing thing. The other day I slipped pretty badly on some ice. I went down and my cell phone went flying and I got all muddy. A man that was about 15 feet ahead, going the opposite direction turned around and immediately asked if I was alright and came over to help me. He helped me down the ice, and walked me half way back to my apartment. Last night I again had a little issue with some ice. And a passerby reached out and held my hand until I made it safely to pavement. These are two people I have never even seen before. It was truely touching. It really makes me think twice about mankind. And it also makes me think about those who I call friends. Not only people I have met but people I consider very close who have a tendency to not be there for me when I could use a friendly hand. It really makes me think.

What life is all about

I always come to a point in life where I look back and I think 'how did I get here?' And it makes me think how crazy life really is. And I look at the things that make me happy and I look at the things that I worry about. It is really important for me to remember that in life, the things I worry about like money, and school, and graduating, and homework..... that's all just stuff I have to do to live. It is not the important stuff. At the time it is never easy to see it that way. When there is a paper due the same week as two exams, and I don't have a job and bla bla, it can be stressful. But I am not alive to worry about these things. I am alive to see what I can do with the time I have. I'm here to meet people to have adventures with, to spend time with my family, to bake, to lay in the sun, to travel, to act like I am five, and to taste everything I can get my hands on. These are what I need to focus on. The other things get the back burner. Life to me is about the people you love and the things you do that make you happy. They are the reasons I get up every morning, so why not make those priority?

Feste delle Donne (Women's Day)

Women's Day is celebrated in Italy on March 8th. They celebrate it to commemorate the women who were killed in the Triangle Shirtwaiste fire that happened in 1911 in New York. During this time, recent immigrants from Europe who had come to have better lives were struggling when they arrived to the U.S. They worked in factories that had unreasonable demands such as working harsh hours and not being allowed to use the rest room. In this particular factory, the women were woking on the ninth floor and the owner would lock them in the room if he left. The day the fire happened, March 25th, a fire broke out and because they were locked in they had no way of getting to safety. Some of the women chose to jump out the windows to their deaths. 146 people died. Many Americans have no idea what this even is. They celebrate it by giving all the women yellow flowers. All day long you see yellow flowers, men hand them out in the streets.www.italiadonna.it/societa/soc12.htm http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/narrative3.html

GIRLS DAY/NIGHT

Nothing better than taking a day trip, just the girls and then going out for girl's night. So much fun. Trip to Malmo, shopping, eating, wine time, and then back to University for some dance time! :)

Valentine's Day

Chocolate chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate frosting and strawberry sprinkles.

Sugar cookies with butter frosting.

Bruschetta.

Nom nom noooooom.......

Things to LOVE about life

Life's Treasures:

1.Hot Chocolate with extra whipped cream
2. Fall- the leaves, the comfy sweaters and scarves, the smell, the treats (pumpkin bread, spice lattes, apple cider, pumpkin pie, etc), Halloween, and Thanksgiving.
3. Getting off an airplane and having someone there that can't wait to see your face.
4. Old couples having sweet moments.
5. The smell of the dishwasher running (for Caitlin)
6. The smell of garlic cooking.
7. Mom's cooking
8. Grandma's cookies
9. The sound that those erasers make when you pop them off the pencil.
10. Watching a sappy movie with your best friend and crying like a baby.
11. Finding a song that describes exactly what you are feeling.
12. Taking a long drive nowhere.
13. Rocking out in the car like no one else is on the road.
14. Getting an A on the exam you worked really hard for.
15. Your softest sweatshirt fresh from the dryer.
16. Chocolate. In all forms. Hot, cold, milk, white, cake, etc.
17. Bear hugs.
18. Your family dog that you refer to as your 'buddy' or 'sister' etc, we all do it dont lie.
19. Getting mail (that doesn't tell you how much you owe)
20. Getting lost and laughing about it
21. well..... for Americans, turning 21
22. Hot shower
23. sleeping in late just because you can
24. skipping class to do something fun
25. sunflowers
26. cookies right out of the oven
27. box brownie and cake mix, so quick you can have it in the oven during one commercial break
28. finding out class is canceled
29. snuggling
30. surprises (flowers on your car, a note stashed somewhere, etc)
31. when your baseball team wins
32. having a beer at a baseball game
33. drinking games
24. finding money in the street
25. massages when your back is mad at you
26. Pizza when you are drunk and hungry
27. Fat free frozen yogurt, if its fat free it totally doesnt count
28. Someone taking care of you when you are pathetic and sick
29. The smell of fabric softener
30. peanut butter!
31. Bright orange and pink sunsets
32. Standing at the end of the pier at night time
33. red wine
34. playing in the rain and then going inside and taking a hot shower
35. sun bathing on the beach with your best friends
36. road trips
37. sweatshirts when you first buy them because they are SO soft on the inside
38. laughing at tourists because you hate them but you walk away from your restaurant job with 100 dollars in tips, just for bussing
39. taking a test you didn't study for and getting an A
40. Being able to walk around in a t-shirt and shorts at night time in the summer
41. Really pretty snowflakes.

Healthy Berry Cobbler

I have decided that I will start blogging about... Nom Nom time. So lately I have been baking lots of berry things. I figure when in Rome.... or in Sweden in my case. So they are all about their berry desserts. So I tried out some blueberry raspberry crumbles. I think they turned out pretty nom nom.

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•                                                       Recipe for Healthy Berry Cobbler:
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• Ingredients:

• 4 cups frozen blueberry and raspberry mix

• 1/2 cup butter (cold)

• 1 cup flour

• 3/4 cup white sugar

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350 (175 C).

- Pour frozen berries into 9 x 13 inch baking pan. 

-In bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and cinnamon. 

-Cut the butter into the dry mixture and stir until it is crumbly and mixed. 

-Sprinkle the mix over the berries. 

-Put in the oven for about 45 minutes (or until crumb topping is golden brown). 

    Enjoy!