Ceramic breakfast found Fabrikanterne

 

During a present visit to the design shop Fabrikanterne here in Vejle I found this breakfast set of bowl & cup in green coloured ceramic. As it fitted perfect colourwise in my ceramic collection, I brought it as an addition, so I now have a new bowl to eat yogurt from in the morning :-)

Pickled green tomato a la Gasto Fun

 

For my portion of pickled green tomatoes I decided to test out this recipe by Gastro Fun as one of the options using my last tomato harvest.

I decided to use a vanilla pod without any vanilla corns inside. I also keep the left over vanilla pods, when I have been using the vanilla corns from other baking activities in my kitchen.

I am looking to try these pickled tomatoes after the required two weeks storage time.

Pickled green tomato a la Gasto Fun:- 2 glasses

• 500 g green tomatoes
• 300 g sugar
• 1½ dl vingear
• 1½ dl water
• 1 vanilla pod - without vanilla corns inside
• 1 cinnamon stick
• potassium sorbate - optional

1. Start by adding the boiling water to the pickling glasses.
2. Clean the picked tomatoes.
3. Prepare the tomatoes by pinching the small tomatoes with fork, so the pickling liquid can get into the tomato.
4. Add water, vinegar, sugar, vanilla pod and cinnamon stick into a medium sized cooking pod. Bring the liquid to the boil.
5. Add the pinched tomatoes into the pickling liquid, which should simmer gently. Let the tomato cook gentle for 5-10 minutes.
6. Empty the pickling glasses for the hot water.
7. Removed the cooked green tomatoes and place them in the pickling glasses.
8. Add the potassium sorbate into the pickling liquid - optional.
9. Pour the pickling liquid over the green tomatoes in the storage glasses.
10. Close the pickling glasses.
11. Let the green tomatoes store for two weeks, before you start using them.

Yarn shopping in Nykøbing Mors

 

At my Summer vacation in August I located a yarn shopping in Nykøbing Mors, where you can buy hand-dyed yarn with some amazing names like "Tiger animal", "royal blue", "dark pesto green" & "dusty green pea".

So last week, when the schools had Autumn vacation, I took an afternoon off from work to visit a friend of mine back from high school living in Skive. And together we drove to Nykøbing Mors to visit this specific yarn shop.

During my Summer vacation I noticed a knitted sweater called so faded by Andrea Mowry, which was knitted in 5 different colours of Single Merino by itsyarn in the colour dark green, light green & blue to dark blue.

I also found Single Merino in the colour called "Tiger Animal", which I together with Sandness tynd silk mohair in yellow, which I use for Sunday mohair edition by PetiteKnit. 

Together with all my yarn shopping I got some small knitting gift in form of stich markers & yarn wires. 

At another yarn in Nykøbing Mors I found some fur looking yarn on discount, 5 DKK per yarn wrench. My plant is to use this yarn for a new knit hat.

Finally I also brought a bottle of Danish strawberry liqueur together with two bags of asparagus risotto. It is good to have some risotto mixture available in kitchen for those days, when you have no clue, what to cook for dinner.

Strawberry-rhubarb gin tonic

 

Let's celebrate the week-end with a drink :-) this time with mixture of rhubarb gin, strawberry liqueur and rhubarb tonic taking inspiration from the typical Danish strawberry-rhubarb jam. I located the strawberry liqueur during a yarn shopping expedition to Nykøbing Mors.

The taste is a mixture of sweet and bitterness.

Strawberry-rhubarb gin tonic: - 1 cocktail

• 4½ cl rhubarb gin
• 41 cl strawberry liqueur
• 20 cl rhubarb tonic
• ice cubes
• freeze-dried strawberry - optional

1. Add in the ice cubes into a high-ball glass
2. Pour in the strawberry liqueur & rhubarb gin.
3. Fill up with rhubarb tonic.
4. Top up with some freeze-dried strawberries - optional.
5. Cheers :-)

Pickling green tomatoes

 

As Autumn has arrived for real here in Denmark, it is time to get the garden ready for the Winter. This means for my little garden, that I have removed the two outdoor tomato plants. However, before dumping the tomato plant into the garden compost container, that I picked all the remaining green tomatoes.

I ended up with 2 kg small green tomatoes, which I decided, that I would turn into pickled green tomatoes on form of:

• 
  Pickled green tomato a la Gasto Fun
  
• pickled green tomatoes a la Isabella's
• pickled green tomatoes a la Spis Bedre

Besides from removing the green tomatoes I have digged up my Dahlia tubers, so they do not become destroyed by the frost. Again, the flowers have been placed in my some of my green ceramic vases by Janni Godtliebsen & Potteriet. The Dahlia tubers are being dried, before they are placed cold for Winter storage.

Carrot - sunflower seed buns with whole grain

I have been modifying these carrot buns with whole grain flour by adding in some sunflower seeds as well. 

Carrot-sunflower seed bun: - 12 buns

• 600 g wheat flour
• 100 g whole grain flour
• 50 g sugar
• 100 g rape seed oil
• 30-50 g fresh yeast
• 1 egg
• 8 g salt
• 200 g water 
• 200 g carrot - large grated
• 125 g sunflower seeds
• 1 egg - whipped for glazing

1. Weigh all the ingredients (not the sunflower seeds) directly into the mixing bowl of the stand alone mixer. Keep salt & sugar away from the yeast.
2. Place the bowl on the stand-alone mixer.
3. Start knead the dough at speed 1 for 8 minutes.
4. After the kneading at the low speed, add in the sunflower seeds.
5. Afterwards increase the speed to 4, knead for 2 minutes. Check the consistency of the dough. If it is not OK, when knead it at speed 4 for another 2 minutes. Again check the consistency. If needed, knead again for 1 minute and when check consistency of the dough.
6. Let the dough raise in the mixing bowl under  a damp tea towel.
7. Let the entire dough raise for approx. 40-60 minutes under a damp cloth.
8. When you evaluate, that the dough has raise enough, divide the dough into smaller pieces with a weight of 100 g each. Smaller size of 75-80 g is also possible.
9. Shape the dough pieces into bun shapes. Place the bun pieces on the baking tray covered with baking parchment. 
10. Let the bun raise for second time for approx 40 minutes under a damp tea towel.
11. Heat up the oven to 200'C.
12. Glaze the buns with whipped egg
13. Bake the bun at 200'C for 18-20 minutes.
14. Cold down the buns, before eating them.

Progress on poncho blouse

Great progress on my poncho blouse by "Hendes Verden". I have now learned, that I need to start with making a knitting test to see, what size of knitting needles, which I need for that specific yarn to get the required firmness of the knit pattern. 

The knitting started with the arm, which I did struggled a bit with to get the size right, so it actually fits with the circumference of my under arm. Now I have knitted more than half of the entire poncho blouse. The knitting starts with one arm, followed by the body, when the part around the neck (the middle part) and when ends with the arm.

The majority of the knit pattern is stockinette knit, while at around the neck part the front part of the blouse is knitted with garter knit. After having seen the impact of the this dark olive green, I am wondering, if I should have picked a lighter green yarn colour instead of, so the difference in knit pattern is more visible ?