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