two nephews one birthday

happy 6th birthday logan

 

happy 4th birthday jakey

 

last thursday

it stills feels incredibly surreal that i attended my farfar's funeral last thursday.
i am so grateful that we were able to travel to denmark to be part of this day and to spend time with family mourning the loss.

with this sudden death and trip to denmark i have not had time to blog. i hope to resume blogging in the week to come reflecting on the life of my farfar and the new reality of him being gone.

i miss him and i don't think i truly understand he is no longer with us.
i am so grateful for my family and this past week.

wordless wednesday

happy 2nd birthday anders

 

happy birthday anders. i can't believe you are already 2 years old!
this sweet birthday boy is full of life and energy.
i love how he lights up when he sees us on skype and how he engages us in both danish and english.
what a cutie.

anders, i am so happy that you had a chance to meet and love farfar/olde.
hopefully one day you will be able to tell your cousins all about him.

love you and happy birthday.

diy thursday: cleaning stove burner drip pans

So if you haven't figured it out by now, I don't enjoy cleaning. I do like having a clean house though. So I always seek to find new easy ways to clean things while still getting great results.
 

Cleaning the stove burner drip pans was one of those dreaded tasks. In a perfect world, every time the drip pan gets dirty, I would clean it. Well, it isn't a perfect world.

 

 

I found a great blog post on how to clean your stove burners. I figured this would probably work for drip pans as well ... and it did. In fact, this trick was super easy and I don't dread the task anymore.

 

 

What you will need 

ammonia

ziplock bags  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Directions

First, remove the drip pans from the stove. I clean the pans monthly - I must have been a messy cook in January:)

 

 

 

Pour 1/4 cup ammonia into a ziplock bag.

Place a drip pan in the bag and seal (ammonia smell is quite strong).

Repeat these steps for all of the drip pans you want to clean.

I usually then place the filled ziplock bags on a baking pan in case some should leak or something. And in case there is a leak, I prefer to leave them outside so the smell doesn't seep in our house.

I leave the drip pans in the bags overnight.

The next morning, the ziplock bags show condensation from the ammonia fumes. 

The fumes have now dissolved all the drippings.



 

All you have to do is take out the drip pans from the bag and wipe clean. The drippings come right off. No scrubbing needed!

 

 

wordless wednesday

 

a visit from allison

 

This past weekend, Allison came to town. It was great to see her again. After her initial stint in Uganda in 2008/2009 she returned in 2011 and came back to the States at the end of last year. Since she is not returning to Phoenix to live:( it was great to have a chance to catch up in person and to hear more about her experience in Uganda and to process what might be next.
Welcome home sweet friend.

milling mondays: whole wheat apple cake tart

This time of year apples are less expensive. Last week, I even bought organic apples for 88 cents a pound. So I thought it would be a good time to feature my mom's whole wheat sweet and yummy apple cake tart recipe.

 

 

 

Whole Wheat Apple Cake Tart
 

 

Ingredients

 

 

Batter

 

150g butter

 

225g sugar

 

1 tsp vanilla extract

 

3 large eggs

 

150g whole wheat flour (100g soft wheat berries and 50g hard wheat berries)

 

1 tsp baking powder

 

 

Filling

 

5 apples, peeled and cored (about 1 pound)

 

2 Tbs sugar

 

1 tsp cinnamon

 

25g almonds, blanched and finely chopped or sliced

 

 

Topping

 

9 Tbs apricot marmalade

 

2 Tbs water

 

 

 

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F.

If you mill your own flour, mill the soft and hard wheat berries. I use the pastry setting on my WonderMill.  Since this is a dessert dough, sift the flour twice removing some of the bran in order to make it less dense.

In a bowl mix together the flour and baking powder.
 

In a separate bowl, blend together butter, sugar and vanilla extract. I use my KitchenAid on setting 2.

 

Next, add in one egg at a time while continuing to mix.




 

Finally, add the flour mixture to the batter and mix until the batter is completely blended together.

 

Pour the batter into a 9x13 greased cake pan (or line the pan with parchment paper).

 

In a  new bowl mix together the sugar and cinnamon.

 

Cut the apples into slices.

 

Dip the apples in the sugar/cinnamon mixture to coat them.

 

Once the apples are coated, place them on top of the batter close together.

 

Spread the almond slices over the apples.

 

 

 

Bake the cake tart for 40-45 minutes.

 

While it is baking, it is time to make the topping.

 

Blend the apricot marmalade with the water in a pot and bring it to a boil.

 

Then pour the hot marmalade through a sift.

 

Once the cake tart is done baking spread the warm sifted marmalade over it.



 

 

Then put the cake tart back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes.

 



 

 Once the cake tart is done, let it cool on a rack and it is ready to eat.

 

 

Enjoy!

an oldie but a goodie

this picture is from 1991. my cousins were visiting and we were enjoying some VERY big ice cream cones that were melting fast on a hot summer day in roskilde, denmark.
what a fun memory (thanks joern for the picture).

happy valentine's day

happy valentine's day michael carlson.

thanks for being such an amazing husband.

i love you.