tattoo empek empek

Last Saturday I spent in the habour and later at a great rocking gig in town, but this is what a few Saturdays ago as looked trough my phone:



09:00 - I wake up and start pin-curling my hair for a gig at a wedding I will have in the evening. I thought it'd be a lot faster now that my hair is short, but I need to make the curls smaller in order for the to actually be curly and not just a little bent. Alas, my arms still get tired during the procedure...







10:00 - do about an hour of yoga out in the garden. The cats are as awlays very eager to join.







11:00 - pick some left over wineberries to put on my breakfast sour milk.I wish I'd have had the time to pick some earlier are out in the freezer. (But the freezer did break down recently so good thing in the end I did not pick those berries on time; it would've pissed me off big time to have seen them ruined!)







12:00 - We're about to head back to town and I say goodbye to the lambs. They get to stay out all summer and are re-located a bit according to how fast they eat the vegetation up. Right now the female lambs are just outside our house.







13:00 - Driving home trough summery fields.







14:00 - Change of plans! Since somebody's ex wife has a little different way of comprehending schedule and agreements than the rest of the world we have the kids arriving a few days earlier to us rather sudden and need to re-organize everything and change the dinner plans I had with my sister; we'll do take away in stead and have it at our place after our show - which means a quick tidying up and cleaning! (PS: the bottle does say NON-toxic cleaning, although the picture tells it a little different :)







15:00 - Still panic-cleaning...







16:00 - Packing for our gig! I'll be doing my old Finnish movie summer themed number and Eddi will be part of the show too.Last time we did said number was in July a year ago.







17:00 - my sister and her hubby has agreed to do some extempore babysitting during our show. Here's their little Lily dog with it's huge bone! Lily is quite the hit with the kids, serving as a never ending source of fascination...







18:00 - Arriving at the veune before all the guests and hiding away backstage as we are suprise perfomers. Sir Willy Waterlily, Mis Sandy Jungle and Lola Vanilla are also performing tonight which means quality time make-upping and hanging out.





19:00 - Stil waiting... Here's lovely miss Jungle.





And Lola Vanilla, drag queen extraordinaire.







The staff at the place is great; we've performed there often at different events. They send us up some bubbly.







Showtime! Here's me and my co-star just about to go on stage. And oh yes I do this number to some good ol' rautalanka; my favorite.





Back home; pick up children sister and boyfriend and have lots and lots of sushi. And edamame and kimchi and wine and I'm telling you; I could have this every second day, at least!





A while after this I fall asleep on the couch.

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Here's how you make a chili smoothie!



Take some fruit juice; I used mango-orange juice, strawberries (preferably frozen as I like my smoothies icy), a piece of fresh fruit, berries or vegetable and some plain yoghurt. I did this yesterday without the yoghurt and it works fine that way too. And why not add some seeds or such while you're at it.





And last but not least you'll need some fresh chili too. I have a plant out on the balcony to cut from. (I suppose you could use chili powder too but that's not really the same thing though.)





Cut about an inch of the chili, chop it in smaller pieces and save the rest for later. I gently rinse the chili to get the seeds out.





Add everything in your blender and let it do it's thing! Vroom vroom vroom!







Sprinkle some cinnamon on top and there's your morning booster!

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Haha, at some point I actually thought I was going to have a monthly Sunday-baking thing instead of once every second year... (part1. from 2009 to be found here -click!...We actually baked a banana pie that same day but that baking will most likely remain unpublished then, sigh...)


But here you have it: Dream cream candy rhubarb cake - the recipe from the cake in the cherry picking sessions - this time with cherries and apples though, obviously. Rather easy to do and should turn out great no matter what!


The thing with the cake is to use condensed milk on top of the cake; you know, the heavy sweetened one you can cook in to a thick toffee like custard; dulce de leche, which will make the cake very yumyy and candy like.

Otherwise it is a basic sponge cake, "socker kaka" batter with fruit. However, I always change half of the wheat flour to spelt flour for a richer taste and healthier cake. For this latest version I also used finely grounded almonds.


So you will need fruit and berries of your choose, preferably sour.*
I like it sweet but not too sweet, and with contrasts - I used three apples and a bowl of cherries.


I use four or more ecological eggs for my cake, depending on the size of the mold, and adjust the rest thereafter. I don't measure that a much, I just go on about. For this one I used four eggs. Then about a cup (around 2-2,5 dl) of sugar, approx. 4 dl. of flour; including 1dl of almond flour, 150g butter, vanilla sugar, baking powder and 1,5 dl of liquid. I most often use milk, but water, fruit juice something sour like youghurt or creme fraiche will also do.**


First, boil the jar of milk for about three hours, depending on how thick you want it to be.***
Set aside to cool whenever you feel you are ready to start with the rest, put the oven to 175. Celcius.


Mix the sugar end eggs sluffy. Use a electrical mixer if you so prefer. I'm old school and go without. I use raw ecological sugar, better than regular, rather expensive. I use it because I somehow believe it is more healthy than regular sugar or regular raw sugar. Well - of course ecological products are in general better in many aspects but the difference is most likely not that big when it comes to healthiness in this case. But the thing is I like to go to the grocery store in my heels and red lips and buy all these expensive ecological items and just feel like a better person in every way
Oh well, back to the cake: add a couple of table spoons of vanilla sugar.


Blend the flours together with the baking powder, mix into the egg-and-sugar-fluff.


Add the liquid.


During all of this you also remembered to melt the butter; pour it in and stir smooth. The batter can be kind of loose and runny, sort of medium. Firmer than pancake batter but looser than the one for cupcakes.


Prepare a mold.
I prefer silicone molds as those are so easy, ust pour it ine and flop it out afterwards, but mine was in town so I used a teflon one with a detachable bottom (recommendable). I bread it with butter and some almond flour and cut out a circle of baking paper for the bottom; the cake will be sticky, it will be easier to get out this way.
And now of course it is time for you to pour the batter in the mold.


Add the fruit. Cut the apples thin enough so they will soften neough in the oven. Sprinkle the cherries on top.


Add the dulce de leche. The thicker you have cooked it, the harder it will be to spread it evenly. Use a spatula as help and try to get it out evenly.


Put in the over for about an hour 45 min or so. Clean up the kitchen during that time or whatever you feel like. I actually had a beer.

You might have to cover the cake with a piece of folio after about one hour for the edges not to burn, depends on you oven I guess. Try it with a cake stick every now and then. It can be a bit sticky in the middle but the edges have to leave the stick clean.


Take out and let cool. You can keep it in the refrigerator over night, it will be nice and moist the next day(s) too. We however had our cake within an hour. (my cake got a little crack when taking it out from the mold but I'm cool with that). Thanks to my sister for hand modeling btw.


Decorate it with some pieces of fruit or whatever you prefer. Or leave it as it is.


Serve with ice cream. Or vanilla sauce or whipped cream. Or nothing else, it will work fine alone.
And oh it is just so damn good!


Note:
*) As already mentioned, the cake was originally intended for rhubarb as I came up with it during that season and thought the sour rhubarb would go greet with the planned toffee like batter. I made another version with rhubarb and raspberries too, which was greet. Now the rhubarbs are gone from the garden but we had cherries instead which I thought also would do good with apples and the sweet milk. It will soon be wine berry season which I think will work excellent.

**) if a sour milk product is used as liquid then mix baking powder with baking soda.


***) The first time I did this I did not cook the milk, only poured it over the batter and rhubarbs, about half the can, which made a very juicy cake. About 45 min to one hour in the over was enough. The second time I cooked the milk for about an hour or two, but the jar was not completely covered in water which resulted in a somewhat thick yellow custard that was easily pourable over the rhubarbs and raspberries still. I used up all the milk that time and it required about half an hour longer in the oven then - the cake gets a bit more soggy in this version. All versions however highly recommendable!

Enjoy!

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Well right now I'm on kiddie holiday elsewhere but last week I was picking cherries in the garden at the farm. And oh how I love those berries! (or I think they actually are fruit? You never know when it comes to plants; bananas are berries, tomatoes are fruit (although in The States, legally vegetables...), and so on...)


Obviously, I am never going to get thin again.

Recipe coming up soon; it's my own, and it's worth getting a little bit of that more to love for.
And hey, there can never be enough love now can there?

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First things first! This little daring rascal is now safe back home after a very worrying yesterday; I woke up and Lulu was nowhere to be found. THe cats sometimes go hide in strange places and stay quiet but mostly Pekka. I searched the whole house like crazy but Lulu was nowhere to be found. The only option I had left was that she had managed to sneak out and climb down or even worse: fall out form the little gap in between our balcony windows on the third floor. (It is common with glass panels on the balconies here that slide open, so that we can enjoy sitting outside for more than those three nights per year - alright, slight exaggeration three months - when it's nice and warm). But I had to go to work and had to leave the search for later, sort of thinking she'd still show up at the door when I returned. And when I got home from work ater midnight I did see a little balck silhouette and staring eyes in the bushes at the end of our building; my little scared cat was sitting there all alone. And she was alright. Oh the relief!


Since I've gained quite the few kilos during last year (age does not come alone as we say over here) and added some bonus squish all around after my trip to the U.S. I'm relaly trying to go super healthy. Breakfast of banana, cottage cheese, strawberries and raspberries with almonds. Well, pretty much what I'd normally have too...I'm just going to drink less milkshake in the evenings now then I guess.


Although most likely downloadable already and available in snippets on youtube, I'm very much looking forward to seeing this film in the cinemas, It'll arrive here next weekend!


And last but not least, but on with the suspense music again, it is time to reveal the winner of the Tyra Therman hair origami fascinator...

...and the lucky winner this time is Kelley from California! An email is on the way to you Kelley!

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I have a lemon pie* cooling on the balcony that will soon join me and Eddi as we're heading over to K and her hubby for a Eurovision-night. Now you all go on and vote for Paradise Oscar :)


*) should even be slim depending on which school you believie in. Recipe found here (in Swedish) although I've modified it a little as I sort of always have to do; used less sugar but added some honey for the filling.

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Day off! I'm having cheese cake /curd pudding with strawberry jam on the balcony. And it's warm!


Lulu is enjoying the sunshine next to me too.


Which means she's letting the kids' Easter Grass to grow in peace for a while. (But as you can see the cats have been there a bit already...)


The doorbell rang earlier and the mailman (or, woman actually) brought me these vintage ear studs - they will be nice to match with my vintage Dior necklace.
From Novella Bleu Vintage.

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