happy easter

... He is risen!

copenhagen farmer's market

 

yum!

you know you are danish when...

 

 

...you eat ice cream outside at freezing temperatures.

liquorish and elderberry ice cream - yes please!

wordless wednesday

playing with julius

 

 

 

On our last day in Denmark we were able to visit Camilla and see their new house ... and of course play with Julius. He is full of energy and willing to let us play with all of his toys:)

milling mondays: whole wheat coffee cake

I have often found it confusing and misleading that typically coffee cake does not actually contain coffee (that is really too bad in my opinion). But nonetheless this type of cake is good with coffee. So really the name should have been cake you eat with coffee, but I guess that sounds weird so we will stick with the original name this type of cake was given back in the day.

This recipe is a healthier version of a sour cream coffee cake. Instead of sour cream, I use yogurt cutting down on the calories. I also use whole wheat flour (freshly milled) making it more nutrition packed. Also, this recipe calls for a nutty streusel without extra butter.

Whole Wheat Coffee Cake (cake you eat with coffee:))

Ingredients

  

 

Cake

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup canola oil

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup yogurt

2 cups whole wheat flour (1/2 hard wheat berries and 1/2 soft wheat berries)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Streusel

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 -1 cup nuts, chopped

1 tsp cinnamon

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.

Mix together the butter, oil, sugar, and eggs. I use my KitchenAid Stand Mixer on setting 2.

Blend in the yogurt.

Add the rest of the cake ingredients and mix until combined.

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

Mix together the streusel ingredients.

Pour half the streusel mixture over the cake batter.

 

Then pour the rest of the cake batter on top of the streusel .

Finally add the remaining streusel.

Bake the cake for  35-40 min.

 

When it is done, let it cool on a rack.

Enjoy!

real danishes

 

 

 

travel

 

 

meeting gry

One of the special things we got to do when we were in Denmark was meet little Gry.
My cousin had this cutie in December and we didn't think we would get to meet her this soon ... what a special treat:)

 

wordless wednesday

 

cousins

 

 

in the midst of mourning the loss of my farfar, it was nice to hang out with my cousins to reflect on what has happened and spend time eating yummy food and laughing together.

milling mondays: whole wheat chocolate cake

There are so many things I love about this cake. It is chocolate. It includes coffee. It is whole wheat. Yummy. I absolutely love chocolate (especially dark chocolate). When I was dairy free that was the hardest thing to give up. I also love coffee. I can't drink as much as I would prefer for health reasons, but I love any chance to have it even when it is in chocolate cake (don't worry, if you don't like coffee that wont affect the taste of this cake). And I try to eat whole wheat as much as I can especially when it is real whole wheat from freshly milled flour. This delicious moist yummy cake is always a wonderful treat.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (2/3 soft wheat berries and 1/3 hard wheat berries)

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup boiling water

2 eggs

1 3/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup hot coffee

Frosting

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

2 tsp milk

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted

1 tsp vanilla

 

modified recipe from aarp magazine jan/feb 2010

Directions

Preheat 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 once removing some of the bran in order to make it less dense.

Blend whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.

Next, add the chocolate and butter to boiling water over medium heat and let it melt together.

 

In a new bowl blend eggs, sugar and vanilla extract together until creamy using a hand mixer.

When the chocolate mixture is all melted, add the chocolate mixture to the bowl.

Then add the flour mixture.

Finally add the hot coffee to the mixture and stir it all together.

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

 Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes.

While the cake is baking, mix together the frosting ingredients until smooth.

When the cake is cool, frost the cake.

 

Enjoy!

saying goodbye

 My farfar's funeral was difficult, but good. It was a wonderful goodbye to a wonderful farfar. The sanctuary was packed with people who had been touched by my farfar's life and who loved him. It was a special time of remembering a wonderful man and of reflecting on the one in who he put his trust.

  

 

 

diy thurday: natural glass cleaner

 

  

Continuing in my quest to use all natural cleaners, I decided it was time to make a natural glass cleaner. In the past I have tried buying natural glass cleaners, but they leave annoying streaks and aren't cheap. I have tried a mixture of vinegar and water, which has worked better than store bought natural cleaners, but still leave some streaks. But then after some research, I learned that if you add a little cornstarch to the mixture it eliminates streaking. And it works really well!

 

 

Homemade Natural Glass Cleaner

 

 

Ingredients

1 cup distilled water

2 Tbsp distilled white vinegar

2 Tbsp rubbing alcohol

1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

 

 

Directions

 

Add all the ingredients to the spray bottle using a funnel. Shake the bottle and it is ready to use!

The cornstarch will settle at the bottom, so you need to shake the bottle right before you use it.

 

 

 

Enjoy this natural budget friendly streak free glass cleaner.

 

wordless wednesday

 

miss you farfar

1981

2012

 

The loss of my farfar is difficult on several levels.

I don't think it has fully sunk in that he is gone. Even when I saw his body I kept thinking he would wake up. He just looked asleep. While we were in Denmark I kept thinking he was on vacation and would come back soon. Death is a weird and surreal thing. It is so final here on earth as we know it. My farfar lived a full life until the very end. Serving his Lord. Exactly how we all wish to end our life, without prolonged suffering. I am thankful that he didn't have to suffer long. I think part of the difficulty of truly understanding his passing, is that he was seemingly healthy given his age of 84 up until his death. And then all of the sudden it was the end. It is like my brain is not allowing me to understand how this healthy man didn't have more years in him. I am thankful for the years I had with him. As his oldest grandchild, he always made me feel important and made sure to show how much he loved me. Despite living so far away from him much of my life, I have great memories of our time together and am thankful for visits and Skype.

 

Another difficult aspect of his passing, is what he represented. As my last living grandparent, he served the role of grandparents. He represented that generation. As a child we have parents and grandparents (and some have great grandparents). It is weird when all of a sudden one of those layers disappears especially when that is all you have known for 33 years. It makes you more vulnerable in a way. It is like a layer of protection from this world has been ripped away. It is weird to think about my parents now representing the oldest layer. When both of my mother's parents had passed away she said that even though she was an adult with her own children she felt like an orphan in some ways. I probably don't feel exactly like that, but in some ways I believe I do.

 

No matter which difficult layer the death of my farfar touches on, I am sad. I am sad for my loss. I am comforted to know that he loved God and is now with Him. But in the meantime his loss brings tears. My heart aches. I ache for my dad and his incredible loss. I ache for our family.

Death is difficult.

I miss you farfar.

milling mondays: whole wheat sweet potato rolls

 

 

I love sweet potatoes. I include them in our meals in many different ways. We grill them, bake them, mash them etc. They are yummy! So when I needed to make some rolls, I thought adding sweet potatoes would make them taste even more yummy. And it did!

 

 

100% Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Rolls

 

modified recipe from how sweet it is

 

Ingredients

 

1 large sweet potato, peeled

4 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

4 Tbs honey

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup milk

4 Tbs butter

4 tsp salt

6 cups whole wheat flour (2/3 soft wheat berries and 1/3 hard wheat berries)

1 egg, lightly beaten.

yields about 30 rolls
 

Directions

First, cut the peeled sweet potato into pieces and add them to a pot of water.
 

Bring it to a boil and let boil until they are fork tender. It took me about 20 minutes.

 

 

Drain the potatoes when done and mash them.
 

Meanwhile, if you mill your own flour, grind about 1.5 cups hard wheat berries and 3 cups soft wheat berries (enough to yield 6 cups of flour). I use my WonderMill.
 

 

Combine water, yeast, 2 tablespoons honey and olive oil in a bowl. I use my KitchenAid stand mixer bowl. Mix with a spoon and let it sit until foamy for about 15 minutes.  

 

Once it is foamy, add the mashed sweet potatoes, the rest of the honey, yogurt, milk, butter, and salt.

 

 

Mix in the flour one cup at a time. I used the dough hook on low. Once all of the flour is incorporated, knead the dough for another 2-3 minutes on medium (I use setting 2 on my KitchenAid).
 

 

Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover it. Let it rise in a warm place for about 2 hours.

 

When it is done rising, knead the dough until silky and divide the dough in half. Each batch will make between 12-15 rolls. If you don't want to make 30 rolls then you can freeze half the dough. This dough freezes well. To avoid freezer burn, I usually wrap the dough in plastic wrap and then in foil and then lastly seal it in a freezer ziplock bag.
 

 

Roll the dough into a long rope.
 

Cut off pieces of dough and form each of them into a ball and place them onto a greased baking dish.
 

Cover the baking dish and let the rolls rise for another 30-45 minutes.
 

Preheat the oven to 375F.
 

When the rolls are done rising, brush them with the beaten egg.
 

Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes until tops are golden brown.

  

 

 

 When the rolls are done, let them cool.

 

Enjoy! These rolls are yummy warm with butter by themselves or as part of a delicious meal.