Recipe of the Month: Versatile, Two-Ingredient Banana Ice Cream

Last month, when my friend Trisha visited me (best. play-week. ever!), the whole experience gave me a new appreciation for food. Trisha has more than a few food allergies, and so it was a challenge and really interesting to cook and find food on our travels that she could eat. Luckily, it went from a matter of “boy, I have no idea what to prepare”, to then getting the hang of it and we were checking ingredients for me to translate on the items purchased in stores before I knew it. I liked learning a new way of eating!

Aside from traveling, we’ve resolved to cook something together which I could share here on my blog. And what better than desserts? Not just any kind of dessert, mind you, but: ice cream!

You can use the original recipe from Eat Clean Diet, or adapt it, like we do with ours. Trisha usually makes this ice cream with peanut butter and cocoa. But when she visited, we’ve made it with chestnut puree instead, as I don’t like peanut butter. It was heavenly! (And you’ve actually seen a sneak peek of it, here.)

Then, only two days later, I made it again, using the following:

Versatile, Two-Ingredient Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 3 bananas, peeled and sliced into coins
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup chestnut puree

As it’s so versatile, I also added:

• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 tsp honey
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp Nutella

Instructions:

1. Place bananas in a single layer on a freezer-safe baking dish or cookie sheet and freeze for several hours or overnight.
2. Remove from freezer and let soften for about 15 minutes and then place in food processor or blender. Puree the bananas while adding chestnut puree slowly as needed to keep the mixture flowing. This should take about 2 minutes.
3. Moving quickly, scrape into bowls and serve immediately with your favorite toppings.

VARIATIONS:
Try adding any combination of these:
3-4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 scoop protein powder
3-4 tbsp all-natural nut butter
2-3 tsp honey
Cinnamon

TOPPING IDEAS:
Dark chocolate (you can use a vegetable peeler to get shavings)
Shredded unsweetened coconut
Maple syrup
Honey
Nut pieces

Bon appétit!

Handmade Plant Stakes

As often is with crafters (and writers, and chefs, etc.), after reading, Rukmini’s Vintage Enameled Tag DIY tutorial gave me the inspiration to create some plant stakes. I’ve made some years ago, Recycled Leather Butterfly Plant Stakes.

And right now, to be completely honest, I didn’t want to deal with heating stuff as is Rukmini’s tutorial. So I went with the simple, yet highly effective – decoupage technique.

Handmade Plant Stakes

thin plywood
colorful napkins for background design
water based clear lacquer
paper punched shapes for extra decoration
sharpie for writing on plant stakes when done

Cut plywood to desired sizes. Mine had a white finish already, so I sanded it randomly to give it a vintage, worn look.
If your plywood is of a natural finish, you might want to first coat in a background color of your choice and when it is completely dry, sand for the same effect.

Peel napkin apart, you only need to use the first, top layer that has the design part.

Transfer napkin to plywood with clear lacquer – the parts you sanded will be visible through the layer. Wait to dry.

Cut napkin around the edges, secure with some lacquer.

Decorate with paper punched flowers, butterflies, pumpkins, snowflakes, etc. that fits your design. Add some writing with a sharpie if wanted. Secure them all in place by adding another coat of lacquer (and yet another, if needed).

Place in flower pot and admire   

Happy crafting!

Recipe of the month: Estrella’s Love Pizza

Given it’s February, the month of Love, I (while I strongly believe we need to let Love guide us every single day and moment of a year!) decided to share with you my favorite pizza recipe. I made this into a heart shape one day, when a friend of mine posted a heart-shaped pizza picture on FB.

I don’t think it was because of the shape, but this was the most deliciously love-filled pizza I ever baked!

 

Estrella’s Love Pizza

Ingredients:
2,5 dkg yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
50 dkg flour
2 eggs + 1 egg
12 dkg margarine
1 dl lukewarm water
salt to taste
toppings

Directions:
To the 1dl lukewarm water, add the yeast and three teaspoons of flour to make sourdough. Set aside to a warm spot (near the stove for example) covered with a cloth, and let it ferment for about 15 minutes.

Add the eggs, margarine, salt and sourdough to the remaining flour (and if required, another 1/2 dl lukewarm water). Knead the resulting dough, until it is smooth and stretchy. Work quickly so that the mixture doesn’t stick to your fingers – if it does get too sticky you can add a little flour to your hands. Then set aside and let it rise for 1 hour.

Dust the dough ball with flour, pat into a disk, then roll it out to even width, to form a circle. Place in a lightly greased, heart shaped tin and stretch with your fingers some more to reach all the sides of the tin.

Add your chosen toppings.

Prepare the remaining egg like you would for an omelet. Pour it on top of your pizza before baking.

– Here, I used homemade tomato sauce and red peppers paste, chopped mushrooms, corn, ham and roasted peppers (we roast them and freeze for winter months), and cheese sprinkled on top. I also like adding different fresh vegetables when they’re in season. –

Bake in preheated oven on medium heat (around 180C) for about half an hour. Check the dough with a  skewer to make sure it’s done before removing from the oven.

Bon love-filled appétit!

Recipe of the month: Pumpkin Spice Syrup & Latte

Most of you might know by now that I’m not a fan of coffee. Lattes and cappuccinos are okay, but they need some extra yumminess in there, like caramel syrup and a ton of sugar to make sure I drink it.

One morning before leaving for work at 6am, I drank a cup of coffee. Not because I wanted, but because there was no way my eyelids would stay open on their own. So I drank the coffee… but did not like it one bit. That was in November, and I still can’t even look at a cup of coffee!

So the other week, after I stayed up way past my bedtime the night before, I decided to have some coffee. The mere thought of it sent my mind screaming “NO way!”. But then, I started searching for and found something my friend Janel recommended.

Pumpkin Spice Latte. I gave it a go, and my gosh was it wonderful!

Pumpkin Spice Syrup & Latte

Ingredients

• 1½ cups water
• 1½ cups sugar
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 1 tsp. ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp. ground ginger
• ½ tsp. ground cloves
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 3 tsp. honey
• butter-vanilla essence

Instructions

1. Combine the water and sugar in a medium saucepan and heat over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has completely dissolved.
2. Toss in the cinnamon sticks and whisk in the remaining spices and the pumpkin puree. Continue to cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes. Remove cinnamon sticks (or strain through a fine mesh strainer).
4. Store in the refrigerator.
5. To make a pumpkin spice latte: combine 2 ounces of hot coffee or 1 shot of hot espresso with 6 ounces of steamed low-fat milk. Stir in 2 tablespoons of pumpkin spice syrup. Taste and adjust amounts accordingly. Top as desired with freshly whipped cream or a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg.

   Goes wonderfully with stroopwafles! <3

Happy latte-drinking

 

*Recipe slightly adapted from Annie’s Eats.

Recipe of the month: Apricot Tarts

Rukmini Roy’s Chocolate Tart recipe over on Trumatter, made me recall baking Apricot Tarts with my mom a while ago. They were sooo yummy! I made collages to share the recipe. Then I forgot all about it… So here it is now!

Hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I do

Apricot Tarts 

Tart shell:
25 dkg margarine (or butter)
4-5 tablespoons sour cream
1 baking powder
100-120 grams sugar
4 egg yolks
pinch of salt
flour

Combine ingredients and add as much flour as it takes to result in a light (kind of puffy) dough.

Place in tart tins and as filling add one teaspoon of apricot jam in each tart’s center. (You can actually add any kind of jam you prefer.)

Mousse:
4 egg whites
100 grams sugar
100 grams minced walnuts (optional)

Combine the mousse ingredients with a whisk, then add 1-2 teaspoons of it onto each tart (cover the jam entirely if you want to).

Bake in preheated oven, at 180 degrees, for about 10-15 minutes.

Bon appétit!

Recipe of the Month: Elder Flower Syrup

As you might have read in my travel article on Milliver’s Travels, “Romanian road trip, just for the fun of it”, we drove by a house on top of one hill where I noticed Elders in full bloom. They weren’t in bloom back in the city anymore but liked the different weather up in the mountains.

I asked for us to stop and went up to the people living there, asking nicely to let me pick some flowers to dry. (Since I’m not supposed to have medication, Elder flower/berry tea is very much a part of my war plan against the sniffles.) It turned into a lovely chat where we swapped recipes for Elder flower lemonade, and I learned a new recipe for Elder flower syrup.

By the end of our chat I had a big bag of flowers to take home to dry, plus try the following syrup recipe (which turned out lovely and very flavorful).

Who would’ve thought I’d take home a brand-new recipe I learned on the top of a mountain?

Elder Flower Syrup

about 50 elder flowers 
4 lemons, washed and cut in half
2-3 tablespoons lemon salt
5 liters water
5 kg sugar
syrup preservative

Place the Elder flowers into a five liter glass or plastic bottle. Add the lemons (cut them up more if they don’t fit through the opening), lemon salt and pour the water over it.

Place the lid on, and leave in a cool place for 48 hours.

Filter after two days into a large pot, add the sugar and syrup preservative, then mix until they’re all dissolved. You should have a smooth syrup by the time you are finished.

Pour in smaller bottles and store in a cool place. 

 

Happy drinking

Recipe of the month: Red Peppers Paste

It’s no news that I love cooking and baking. Well, one of the ingredients I love to use whenever possible is a pepper paste. Here’s how to prepare it.

 

Red Peppers Paste

Red Lipstick peppers
Pimento peppers
Salt

Wash all the ripe red peppers well, cut out the pith, seeds and stem, then ground them all together with a meat mincer. Stir well.

Measure your grounded peppers and add 20 grams of salt per 1 kg of peppers. Stir very well and fill up jars of your choice with the resulted paste.

This red pepper paste can be used throughout the year to flavor pretty much anything from different kinds of meat to pizza. Only be careful because when adding this paste, less salt will be required than you’d normally add to the recipe.

(If you’d like this spicy, you can also add some Jalapeno peppers into the mix.)