How to decorate Easter Eggs using leaves and onion skins

I have been wanting to try this method of Easter eggs decoration since had I read about it in a magazine some time ago, so today I decided to give it a go.

First I covered some onion skins with water and boiled them for about 20 minutes to prepare the dye, then I removed the skins.

I hard boiled the eggs. Then I collected some leaves from the garden for making the patterns. You can substitute the leaves for lace, pieces of string, anything you like. I also took a pair of old tights and cut them into squares of about 15 x 15cm (6 x 6").

I put the leave on top of the egg and tied a piece of tights over it.

After preparing all the eggs this way, I put them all into the hot dye for about 3 hours.

When the eggs were nice dark red color I took them out to dry. I dipped a tissue in vegetable oil and polished the eggs to give them a shine.

Happy Easter everyone!

How to decorate Easter Eggs using leaves and onion skins

Healthy snack: Energy Bomb

Today I came up with an idea for a healthy snack and I called it Energy Bomb. I just had it with lemon tea and it was delicious! It is really easy to make and keeps your energy level up for much longer than a piece of cake or a banana would have done.

Here is how to make an Energy Bomb:
In a small cooking pot, mix together semi-skimmed milk, porridge oats and any seeds and nuts you have available. You can add a little honey to it. Cook the mixture for 2-3 minutes, until it becomes dense.

Smear a little olive oil in a little cup and pour the mixture in it. Let it cool down. Put the cup upside down on a little plate, it will come out of the cup easily. Decorate it with a little home made jam (I used my homemade plum jam) and a few almond flakes. Your Energy Bomb is ready:

Serve with a cup of good tea of coffee. The Energy Bomb is a very satisfying and healthy snack.

Enjoy!
Yolanta

Healthy snack: Energy Bomb

Baking Goat's Cheese, Pistachio and Prune Cake by Rachel Khoo

From the BBC website: "Croydon born cook and food writer Rachel Khoo bakes a mouth-watering savoury cake with unusual ingredients. Her Parisian kitchen may be small, but even the tiniest oven doesn’t stop Rachel from inventing remarkable recipes."

I must say I missed her programs on TV, but never mind, somehow I discovered her this week and watched some of her programs on-line. I find Rachel Khoo a very inspiring person. Her tiny kitchen is sweet and colorful. I like her shabby chic mixing bowl and tiny oven. You do not have to have a posh kitchen to be a great cook.

I decided to give one of her recipes a try. I substituted spelt flour for wheat flour. The rest of the ingredients are the same.

 Goat's Cheese, Pistachio and Prune Cake - Ingredients:

• 250g flour
• 50g baking powder
• soft goat's cheese (about 180g)
• prunes
• pistachios
• 4 eggs
• 150 ml olive oil
• 50g yogurt
• salt and pepper
• olives (optional)

Beat 4 eggs until nice and fluffy. Continue beating, while adding olive oil, milk and yogurt. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir baking powder into the flour and add to the mix.

Cut the goat's cheese into small pieces. Stir into the mix. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir well.

Pour the mixture into the baking tin. Put in the preheated oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown.

Check if the cake is baked by inserting a thin wooden stick into it. When it comes out clean, the cake is ready.

This savory cake is really delicious and quick to prepare. It makes a perfect picnic food. You can have it for lunch or dinner with a side salad.

Bon appetit!

Baking Goat's Cheese, Pistachio and Prune Cake by Rachel Khoo

How to make an easy jar opener - gripper

A few years ago, while visiting my son and daughter-in-law in Virginia, she gave me something very useful: a jar opener/gripper, made of rubber with crocheted edges. I have been using it ever since. It really makes jar opening easy-peasy. I wanted to buy similar jar openers for my mum and sister, but I could not find them anywhere in the shops.

Then one day I saw an anti-slip mat in a local home supplies shop, and it dawned on me: I can make the jar openers myself! They are easy to make and they can be a perfect Christmas stocking filler too. Here is what you need: An anti-slip mat, some yarn and a crochet hook.

Cut the square off the mat, about 14cm x 14cm (6" x 6"). Then work around the edge of the square with the crochet, using a double crochet stitch and inserting the crochet hook in the holes on the edges of the mat.

When you come to the corner add three chain loops and continue with a double crochet stitch.

After crocheting around the whole square, work the second row with a double crochet stitch using yarn of a contrasting color. In the corners of the second row add 3 loops, then 1 double crochet stitch, then again 3 more loops. The finished product should look like this:

Try the jar opener on the jar, it will work perfectly well.

Happy crocheting :)

Yolanta

How to make an easy jar opener - gripper

Baking Flourless Chocolate and Apricot Cake

I made this cake for my husband's birthday a few days ago and it was really delicious. He loved it, as did his friends at work, when he shared it with them the next day. The cake has a delicate flavor of apricots, with an added bite of cinnamon and the satisfying intensity of dark chocolate.

This cake was made without any flour or butter (I just used a little to butter the cake tin), so it is a good choice for someone watching the calories or someone on a wheat-free diet, like myself. If you prefer even a lighter version, you can make it without the chocolate frosting and it will still be delicious.

The ingredients for making 1x 20cm cake:

The cake
- 225g succulent dried apricots
- 1 x 7cm stick of cinnamon
- juice and grated zest of 1 lemon
- 6 medium eggs
- 200g ground almonds
- 25g sifted cocoa
- 200g golden caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon sifted baking powder
- a little butter for the cake tin

The frosting
- 200g dark chocolate (50% or more cocoa solids)
- 200g soured cream

Place the apricots, cinnamon and lemon juice and zest in a small pan and add 200ml water. Bring to the boil, then simmer over a low heat for 15-20 minutes, until the apricots are tender and most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove the cinnamon stick and purée the apricots with a blender. Transfer the purée to the bowl and leave to cool.

Butter the 20cm cake tin. Preheat the oven to 190C/ 170C with fan/ gas 5.

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl until pale and foamy, then fold in the ground almonds, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and the apricot purée.

Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin and smooth the surface. Bake in the oven for about 40-45 minutes, until deep golden brown on top. Insert a thin stick in the center of the cake, it should come out with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Run a knife around the edge, leave the cake to cool, then ease out of the tin.

To make the frosting: Break the chocolate into pieces and melt gently in a small pan set over a bigger pan of simmering water. Remove from the heat and quickly whisk in the soured cream.

Using the long wide knife, coat the cake with the icing. Set aside in a cool place to set for a few hours.

The cake should keep in an airtight container for several days.

Happy baking :)
Yolanta

Baking Flourless Chocolate and Apricot Cake

Making Plum, Spelt & Oat crumble - Wheat Free baking

The plum frenzy continues... Taking advantage of the abundance of our plum tree, I have made a Plum, Spelt and Oat Crumble. It was really delicious so I am sharing the recipe with you. This recipe is wheat free so even if you have a wheat intolerance (like myself) you can also enjoy it. Of course you can substitute wheat flour for the spelt flour if you like.

For a serving for 6 people you will need:

Fruit part
•  700g plums halved and stoned
•  1 tablespoon lemon juice
•  1 tablespoon spelt flower
•  50g muscovado sugar

Crumble part:
•  100g spelt flour
•  half teaspoon cinnamon
•  100g muscovado sugar
•  100g butter or margarine
•  75g rolled oats

To serve:
thick Greek yogurt or vanilla ice cream

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Cut the plums in half and remove the stones. Place in the baking dish and sprinkle with 1 tbsp lemon juice.

Add 1 tbsp spelt flour and 50g muscovado sugar and toss the plums in them.

Prepare the crumble: Place the flour, cinnamon, sugar, butter and oats in a bowl and mix it with your fingers until the crumble forms. It should not be allowed to form a ball, but be quite loose.

Sprinkle the crumble on top of the plums and put in the preheated oven.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the crumble is a nice golden color.

Serve hot with a thick Greek yogurt or vanilla ice cream.

Happy baking:)
Yolanta

Making Plum, Spelt & Oat crumble - Wheat Free baking

Making plum jam

Our plum tree took us by surprise this year. After years of not producing any fruit worth mentioning, it exploded with an abundance of succulent pinky plums. I have never eaten more delicious plums in my life. And there are so many of them! Not only are we having them and the birds having them, but also our neighbors helped themselves (some invited and some not). And the tree keeps on producing. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I pruned the tree heavily in early Spring, although later I learned from TV that you are not supposed to prune the plum trees drastically as this might finish them off ... Whatever it was, it worked.

We couldn't eat the plums fast enough so I decided to make a plum jam. The recipe I used is a simple and quick one. I used:
•  4 kg of plums
•  two lemons (they help to keep the jam color lighter)
•  3.5 kg of jam sugar (this is sugar with added pectin which helps to set the jam so it can be prepared quickly and the fruit remains fresher)
•  and a bit of butter.
I also prepared a big size stainless steel cooking pot and a small plate which I later used for testing if the jam is ready.

I washed the recycled jars and sterilized them by putting them in the oven, set to 100 degrees Celsius (only the jars, not the jar tops) for about 30 minutes. I sterilized the jar tops by putting them in a bowl and pouring boiling water over them to cover them completely and I left them there for about 10 minutes, then I dried them. You can also use the hot jars straight from the dishwasher, but they have to be really hot.

I put the little plate in the fridge to cool. After washing the plums I removed the stones and cut the plums into little pieces. I put them in the pot together with the juice of two lemons and cooked them slowly until they became quite liquid. Do not allow it to boil at this stage.

I added the jam sugar and stirred until the sugar was dissolved, being careful not to boil the mixture. I added two knobs of butter, then increased the heat to the maximum and boiled the jam for about 10 minutes. You can stir to help the water to evaporate.

Now it was time to make a test. I took the plate from the fridge and poured a little jam on it. I left it for a minute, then tried to push the jam sample with a spoon. If the surface wrinkles the jam is ready. If it doesn't wrinkle, cook the jam for a few more minutes and do the test again.

It is very important to pour the hot jam into hot jars, the hotter the better. I wore thick rubber gloves while handling the hot jars. I used the funnel to fill the jars with jam and wiped the edges clean before closing the jars firmly.

As the jars with jam cool down, they close even more tightly.

We are going to eat this jam not only with scones and pancakes but I will also add it to apples when I make a crumble desert.

I must say jam making was very satisfying. Not only did it give me a nice feeling of creating something delicious that will be enjoyed for months to come by us and our friends, but it was also very inexpensive, as I took what was available and made something yummy with it.

Happy jam making
Yolanta :)

Making plum jam

How to make a Five Elements Drink: Natural Remedy for Colds

Many years ago, while visiting my friends in Bristol, I went down with the flu and my dear friend Debunia introduced me to the Five Elements Drink. She prepared it for me and when I was drinking it, it actually felt like a life elixir. With every sip I had a feeling of my poor body being soothed and brought back to health. Next day I felt much stronger and within 4 days the flu disappeared. I had been advocating this natural remedy ever since.

Spring is a funny time of year. Of course, I love it (I was born in the Spring), but it often happens that after winter, when our biological batteries are low and we miss the Sun desperately, we catch a cold.
So this year, just after our wedding (over 2 weeks ago now), I had a flu. I applied Five Elements Drink for 5 days and I was cured. Then, my husband got it. So I am back to making Five Elements Drink, this time for him. I want to share it with you, try this and let me know what you think about the results.

The five elements you need are: Garlic, Ginger, Cloves, Lemons and Honey:

First fill a small (about 1.5 litres) cooking pot with fresh cold water, throw about 20 cloves into it and put it on the fire. Take a piece of ginger (about 2-3cm piece), peel it, cut it into small pieces and add to the water. Next peel about half a head of garlic, cut all the cloves of garlic into small pieces and add them to the water. This amount should be sufficient for about 4 servings, enough for 1 day.

Bring it to the boil, decrease the heat and simmer for about 4 minutes. Pour the mixture into the mug (up to 3/4 full) using the strainer. Wash the lemon, cut it in half and squeeze the juice into the mug. If the lemon is very big, use only half of it.

Add a tablespoon of honey to the mixture.

Drink it 3 to 4 times a day, until the symptoms of cold disappear. If you need to be away from home during the day, prepare the mixture in the morning, pour it into the thermos, adding the juice of 3 lemons and 3 tablespoons of honey. Sip it often throughout the day.

Enjoy!

How to make a Five Elements Drink: Natural Remedy for Colds