wordless wednesday

 

getting to know aksel

 

I had the privilege of meeting this cutie right after he was born. It was fun to see him now and get to know him as he is developing a little personality. I love his chill personality full of smiles. What a cutie.

 

 

 

milling mondays: whole wheat orange cake (applesin kage)

 

 

This is an old school cake that my grandmother (farmor) used to make. As I have mentioned before, my farmor was an amazing baker and always had baked good at her house. Here is one of the traditional cakes she would make over the years. She passed it on to my mom, and now my mom has passed it down to me. This is a simple cake to make. It is not too sweet and has a hint of orange.

 

 

Whole Wheat Orange Cake (Applesin Kage)

 

 

Ingredients

76 g margarine or butter (1/3 c), softened
49 g canola oil

200g sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

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

1/2 dl juice of an orange (or about 1 2/3 oz)

Zest of half an orange

 

 

Directions

 

Preheat oven to 395F.



Blend together the margarine, oil and sugar in your mixer. I use my KitchenAid mixer on setting 2.

Then mix in the eggs.

 

If you mill your own flour, grind your soft and hard wheat berries. I use my WonderMill on the pastry setting. Sift the flour twice to make the cake less dense (you may want to grind a little more flour than needed to ensure you have 150g flour after you have sifted the flour)

 

Add the flour and the rest of the ingredients to the mixture and combine.

 

 

Pour the cake batter into a baking pan

 

 

Bake the cake for about 25 min until the top is golden brown.

 

 

Let the cake cool on a rack.

 

 

When you are ready to serve, you can add some frosting to the cake. The frosting I used was made of  powdered sugar and a little water (or if you want a more orangy taste you can add orange juice instead of water).



My farmor's orange cake on one her plates she used to serve this very cake.

Enjoy!

 

where michael is?

 

 

My nephew Anders has always been a fan of Michael. Every time he sees him on FaceTime he smiles and gets excited. This was the first visit however where Anders was talking and he made it known that they were buddies. Throughout the week he would want to play and hang out with Michael and if Michael wasn't right by him, he would ask where Michael is? or cmon Michael! and wave for him to join him. The rest of us weren't as exciting as Michael to play with, but I guess that is ok; I am happy to know that he loves Michael ... because so do I. I love seeing these two buddies together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

diy thursday: getting rid of ring around the collar

After getting married, my husband introduced me to ring-around-the collar:) I learned quickly that simply laundering his shirts did not remove it. I know from other projects that Dawn dishwashing soap is great at getting rid of grease and such, so I decided to give it a try on the dirty collar.

 

I rubbed in the soap into the dirty collar before throwing the shirt into the washing machine and washing it as normal.

 

 

On voila! The ring-around-the-collar was pretty much gone. Another victory against stains and dirt!

 

 

 



*please excuse the different lighting

 

 

 

wordless wednesday

 

fun in the sun with family

Earlier this month we spent time with my parents and my brother and his family in Florida. We had a great time hanging out and catching up with everyone while enjoying the pool and beach. It was fun playing with my two nephews and getting to know them better. I cherish these times we all are together.

I will post more pictures in the days to come of our time there, but it seems that the great majority of them are of my two nephews ... I guess these cuties stole the show:)

 

 

milling mondays: whole wheat blueberry cobbler

This is such an amazing delicious blueberry delight! And it is quick and easy to make ... the kind you  can make when unexpected company comes over or when you don't feel like baking for hours .. of if you just want to eat something yummy:)

very yummy Whole Wheat Blueberry Cobbler

 

 

Ingredients

 

2 cups blueberries (I used frozen), enough to cover the bottom

100g whole wheat flour (75g soft wheat berries and 25g hard wheat berries)

100g butter

100g sugar

 

 

Directions

 

Preheat the oven to 395F.

 

If you mill your own flour, grind your soft and hard wheat berries. I use my WonderMill on the pastry setting.

 

 

 

Mix flour, butter, and sugar together to form a dough.

 

Place the blueberries on the bottom of the baking dish.

 

Add the batter on top of the blueberries using a spoon or your fingers.

 

 

 

 

Bake the cobbler for about 20-25 min until the top is golden brown.

 

 

And voila! An amazing dessert. You can eat it by itself or enjoy it with some vanilla ice cream. 

Enjoy!

diy thursday: how to clean the microwave with vinegar

We don't use our microwave very much and it usually isn't very dirty. A quick wipe down usually does the trick. But the other day our microwave was more dirty than normal so I decided to use a quick trick to easily and effortlessly clean the microwave.

Ingredients

All you need is equal parts water and white distilled vinegar. I used 1/3 cup of each.

 

Directions

Add the water and white distilled vinegar to a microwave safe bowl.

Place the bowl in the microwave and cook on high for about 3 minutes.

When it is done let the bowl sit for another couple of minutes to avoid handling a hot bowl and to let the vinegar steam continue to work on the microwave grime.

After removing the bowl, just wipe down the microwave with a damp rag. You will notice how easily all the grime just wipes away.

This is such an easy and quick solution to an otherwise disagreeable task.

wordless wednesday

 

wordless wednesday

milling mondays: homemade whole wheat tortillas

After I started milling my own flour, I began considering making my own tortillas. It seemed a little intimidating though so it has taken me a year to get around to it:) One of the reasons I wanted to make my own tortillas is to be in full control of what ingredients go in them. There are no mystery ingredients that I have to be aware of, no ingredients to give them a looooooooooong shelf life etc.  Instead they consist of 5 ingredients, one of them being freshly milled whole wheat flour allowing for extra nutrition. After making them, I realized how easy they are to make (even though I will continue to perfect them) and they are also cheaper to make than buying them.  And they taste great!

 

 

 

Whole Wheat Tortillas

 recipe adapted from bakingwholegrains.com
 

Ingredients

 

2.5 cups whole wheat flour (3/4 cup soft wheat berries and 3/4 cup hard wheat berries)

1/4 baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup olive oil

3/4 cup  hot water

 

yields 8-12 tortillas

 

 

Directions

 

If you mill your own flour, grind your soft and hard wheat berries. I of course use my WonderMill.

 

 

 

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

 

Then add the olive oil to the dry mixture and mix together until crumbly.

 

Finally, add the water very slowly and mix until the dough comes together (the dough can be  a little more wet than bread dough). If you don't use all the water that is ok.



 

 

 

Cover the dough and let it rest for 15-30 minutes in the refrigerator.

 

Take it out of the fridge and divide the dough into 8-12 balls. Flatten the balls a little.

 

 

 

Roll each ball out into a " round" flat tortilla (or use a tortilla press if you have one).

 

 

Place the uncooked tortilla onto a lightly greased medium-low heated pan for 1-2 minutes on each side.

 

 

And they are ready to eat. Enjoy these yummy whole wheat tortillas with your favorite tortilla recipe.

 

diy thursday: homemade garbage disposal freshener

The garbage disposal can emit some not so lovely odors from old food scraps and residue. In the past I have sometimes bought garbage disposal fresheners/cleaners to help eliminate the smell and these can get quite expensive. I have also sometimes thrown a lemon down the disposal to help freshen the smell, but that requires that I have lemon on hand regularly, which I don't. I found the perfect inexpensive solution - vinegar and lemon ice cubes!

This homemade garbage disposal freshener is super easy to make and inexpensive and completely natural.

Homemade Garbage Disposal Freshener

 

Ingredients

 

Lemon

Distilled White Vinegar

 

 

Directions

 

All you have to do is cut up the lemon.

 

Add a piece of lemon to each ice cube mold.

 

Fill each ice cube with vinegar (don't dilute it)

 

 

 

Freeze the ice cubes.

 

And voila, you have garbage disposal fresheners.

 

When you are ready to use, just take out some ice cubs and dump a couple in the garbage disposal and turn it on.

 

 

 

This is a great non-toxic and natural solution to freshen and clean your garbage disposal. Vinegar  is a great cleaning agent as it breaks down bacteria and dirt. Lemon is a wonderful degreaser and provides a fresh smell.

wordless wednesday

 

milling mondays: whole wheat blueberry pancakes

These blueberry pancakes are absolutely AMAZING! They taste super fresh and the blueberries burst in your mouth when you take a bite. No need for syrup on this pancake which is stock full of blueberry goodness.

 

 

amazing Whole Wheat Blueberry Pancakes

recipe modified from wholefoodsmarket.com

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (soft wheat berries)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 fine sea salt

1 cup milk

1/2 cup water

2 tsp honey

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup blueberries (preferably organic)

 

yields 12-15 pancakes

 

 

Directions

 

If you mill your own flour, grind your soft wheat berries. I use my WonderMill on the pastry setting. Sift the freshly milled flour once to make it less dense (you can use the leftover bran in cereal or in my homemade muesli).

 

Mix the freshly milled flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl.

In a separate bowl mix together the wet ingredients - milk, water, honey, and vanilla extract.

 

Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and whisk together.

 

Let the thick batter rest for about 10 minutes.

 

When the batter is done resting, add in the blueberries. 

 

 

 

Heat up the greased pan and scoop the pancake batter (using 1/4 cup measurer) onto the pan, turning half way through. Repeat until all of the batter has been used up.

 

 

Enjoy this yummy goodness!