Birthday craft morning

This year I decided that in lieu of gifts for my birthday, I wanted to do a little something special for my friends. So, we had a crafty brunch in the middle of the week! We enjoyed good conversations, homemade bircher-muesli and cinnamon-raisin buns, frothy cappucinos, and then a bit of creative time making tags and decorating IKEA notebooks with washi tapes, scrap papers, punches and whatever else they could find in my "goodie box". It was a great morning and I can't wait to do it again! I think we need to make it a monthly or bi-monthly date...! 

Thanks, ladies!! You are the best!

J xx

Recipe: Quinoa & Vegetable Stuffed Zucchini

I love summer - sunshine, swimming in the lake, playing with the kids and loads of fresh fruits and veggies at their prime! We are blessed to have a wonderful neighbor who has helped us plant some veggies in the garden, including kale, tomatoes, fennel and various types of lettuce. It tastes so much better knowing that it has been grown with tender, loving care (and no pesticides!).  Yesterday, she gave us a huge zucchini to welcome us back from our vacation. As I say, WONDERFUL neighbor!! I stuffed it tonight with a mix of kale (also from the garden!), fresh Roma tomatoes from our trip to Tuscany, quinoa (a staple in our house) and a few other fresh ingredients. I thought I would share the recipe with you, so you, too, could enjoy the fresh bounties from the summer produce! I use a similar stuffing to make red and yellow stuffed peppers and generally just throw in whatever I have in my fridge. It is quite a versatile recipe, so feel free to get creative with whatever ingredients you have in stock!

Quinoa & veggie stuffed zucchini with fresh basil

Quinoa & Vegetable Stuffed Zucchini 
Serves 3-4 people

1 or 2 large zucchinis
2 Tbsp oil and 2 Tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 large kale leaves, finely chopped (including the white stems); you could also use spinach
3-4 Roma or similar tomatoes (we had fresh ones from Tuscanny - yummmy!)
1/2 to 1 cup cooked quinoa (depends on your taste and the size of the zucchini)
Herbed cream cheese - I used about half of a round of "Boursin" with garlic and herbs
1-2 Tbsp fresh basil, thinly sliced
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper (to taste)

Wash your zucchini(s) and then cut in half. Scoop or cut out the inside of the zucchini halves, leaving about half an inch of the flesh with the skin. Finely chop the flesh that you scooped out as this will go into the filling.

Scoop inside of zucchini, leaving 1 /4-1/2 inch of flesh 

To prepare filling:
Heat your oil and butter in a medium to large pan (again depends on amount you are making). Sauté onion and garlic and sauté approximately 5-7 minutes or until they start to soften. Add chopped zucchini and continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add kale, tomatoes and quinoa and continue cooking for about 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Finally, add herbed cream cheese, basil, sea salt and pepper (to taste) and stir until melted through (about 3-4 minutes). Remove from heat.

Zucchini with stuffing before going into the oven

Stuff zucchini halves with filling and cover with foil. Bake covered at 400 F (200 C) for about 25 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for another 15-20 minutes or until done. I like to turn on the convection (air/fan function) for the last 8-10 minutes to crisp up the top.

Serve with fresh basil on top and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. ENJOY!

Enjoy the rest of your summer! It is hard to believe that we only have 2 weeks left until school starts again...
J xx

Spring Tea Party with Orange Pound Cake

Spring flowers in Zurich

I love Spring - seeing the trees and flowers come back to life after a long, cold winter; the bright colors of purple, white and yellow from the snowbells and crocus popping up through the brown ground and knowing that even if we do get another cold spell, it won't last for long!

To celebrate the warm temps this week, we decided to have a little tea party with our neighbors. I found a recipe in one of my favorite vegetarian cookbooks by Jeanne Lemlin ("Quick, Simple and Main-Course Vegetarian Meals") for Old-Fashioned Pound Cake. We made one of the variations with orange flavoring in it and they turned out delicious (recipe below)! These cakes freeze well, too, so you can make one ahead of time and pull out when you have unexpected guests on a sunny afternoon. Don't forget to sprinkle with some citrus sugar from this post. Serve with cold sparkling water with frozen blueberries thrown in at the last minute - they add a bit of flavor to the water and help keep it cold!

Orange Pound Cake with fresh blueberries

Old-fashioned Pound Cake

1 cup (210gr) butter, softened

2 cups sugar

5 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (see Variations)

2 cups cake flour (see Note)

½ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325 F (160 C). Butter and flour a bundt cake pan or line a bread pan with baking paper (I used mini baking cups for my recipe). In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter until smooth, using electric mixer. Add the sugar and beat until light. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract and rind (if variation made).

Add flour and salt and beat until batter is very smooth. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes before removing from pan. Cool completely before serving.

Note: If you don’t have cake flour, combine ¼ cup cornstarch with 1 ¾ cups white flour.

Variations:

Lemon Pound Cake: use 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, plus grated rind from one lemon

Orange Pound Cake: use ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, plus grated rind from one orange

Almond Pound Cake: use ½ teaspoon vanilla extract and ½ teaspoon almond extract

Happy St Patrick's Day!

J xx

Birthday bliss

Happy Monday to you all!

My birthday was last week and I have to say that it truly was one of the best birthdays I have had in quite some time! I think I enjoyed it so much because at the heart of it I knew that this year would be a year for doing all the things I love to do - cooking, stamping, sewing, spending time with family and friends and taking time to enjoy life!

We celebrated with good friends by eating Wacky cake that Miss A helped me bake topped with fresh berries and freshly whipped cream (you can find the recipe below) . I love this cake recipe as it is SOOOOOO easy to make and tastes SOOOOOO good!

The next day was a coffee and cake morning with friends. I made homemade cinnamon rolls for the first time ever and they were delicious! As you can see, we made quite a dent in them, however, I did manage to save some for Miss A and Mr Z for their dessert after lunch.  Recipe came from Fraulein Klein website (unfortunately it is in German...) and was much simpler than I thought to make. Of course I had to decorate both cake and rolls with a little bunting banner made from wrapping paper and twine :-)! Tis the little things that make it all extra special!

Wacky Cake Recipe

(serves 8-9 people)

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Place dry ingredients in baking dish and mix with a fork or spoon until completely blended and uniform in color (no visible streaks of white).

Pour on water, vanilla, oil and vinegar and stir until completely blended.

Bake for 30 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Completely cool on wire rack. Top with powdered sugar, freshly whipped cream or your favorite frosting recipe!

For cupcakes – this recipe makes 12 standard cupcakes; bake for 22 minutes.

Have a terrific week and I'll be seeing you again soon!
J xx

Flavored sugars - something sweet for the new year

Happy New Year everyone! It is hard to believe that another year has passed in what seems to be the blink of an eye... I hope it has started off well for you!

With the new year comes new projects...and a lot more time!!! One of my goals (or resolutions if you want to call it that) this year is to give more handmade gifts to my friends and family. I love receiving unique little gifts that someone has handmade and think it is a great way to tell someone how special they are. I received a book last Christmas called "Selbst gemacht & mitgebracht" or "handmade & brought" if you translate directly to English. It has all kinds of tasty things you can make and give as gifts for dinner parties, housewarming parties, birthdays, etc. I've been wanting to make things from it for ages but just haven't had the time to do so - until now!

My friend had a birthday this week and she loves to bake and decorate, so I made her the vanilla and citrus sugars and put them in little jars with ribbon and a hand-stamped tag to go around it. The sugars were SO simple to make (especially the vanilla sugar) - the kids loved to help and enjoyed tasting and smelling the sugar afterwards.

Here's the finished product along with the other goodies I put in the gift bag:

Flavored sugars, patterned cupcake papers and a cupcake ornament

 Here are the recipes for the sugars if you want to try it for yourself!

Citrus Sugar

500 grams white sugar
peels from 3 oranges and 2 lemons

Peel the oranges and lemons being careful not to get too much of the white pithy part. Let air dry for a few days or if you are impatient like me, put on a baking tray and bake on low heat (50 degrees C/125 degrees F) for a couple of hours or until peel is hard to the touch. Place peel in food processor and grind until finely chopped. Stir into sugar. This makes a very pretty colored sugar and can be used to flavor teas, baked goods or sprinkled on cakes or cookies.

Vanilla Sugar

500 grams white sugar
2 vanilla pods

Cut open vanilla pods and scrape seeds into sugar. Mix thoroughly. Let pods air dry for 1-2 days and then add to sugar mixture to add more flavor. You could also process the mixture with the dry pods in a food processor so it is more of a fine powder but I left mine as is and use the pods to infuse more flavor into the sugar in a ziplock bag. Mr Z loved this sugar sprinkled on some frothy milk. You could also use it to flavor tea, coffee and baked goods.

Both sugars should last for a couple of months at room temperature.

See you again soon :-)!
Jx