Blackberry, Blueberry and Apple Clafoutis - OH MY!

So I was a very good girl this year and was gifted with this gorgeous recipe book for my Bday.

Thx sis!

 I am a very big fan of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and River Cottage. If you've never heard of him or River Cottage before... 
- Take a look, you will be amazed!!! 
Basically his cooking ethos can be summed up to:

"passion for food integrity and consumption of local, seasonal produce"

And thanks to him and the program, the eating habits of a nation have been changed for the better and the welfare and sustainability of animals and fish are much improved!  Told you he was great!!

If you have time - watch this video. This is what it's all about!

Anyway... back to my clafoutis... 

PenNnyLanes Blackberry, Blueberry and Apple clafoutis

Serves 6-8

4 apples (about 350 g)
25 g butter
25 g sugar (yes yes - the real deal, no artificial sweetner today!)
Zest from 1 small organic lemon
100g Blackberries
20 g (or so) Blueberries

Dough:
50 g Flour
smidge of salt (yep smidge...)
25 g sugar (yep still the real deal...)
2 medium organic eggs
2 dl whole milk 

Topping:
Double cream, Ice-cream - any kind of cream... yum yum!

How to:

Preheat oven to 190 degrees. 

Peel and core the apples and slice into 8 parts. 

Melt the butter and pour into your pietin, and butter the pietin, so nothing sticks when baking! 

Add apples, sugar and lemon zest og mix about with your hands (Always tastes better when you do it with your hands... it's the extra love you add!)

Bake the apple-sugar mixture for around 15 min. til they are tender and soft. Don't eat yet - it gets better!

Mix the dough in the mean time. 

Pour the flour through a sieve along with the salt into a big bowl. Add the sugar. 

Make a dent in the middle and pour in the already mixed eggs. Whip the mixture starting from the middle, gradually adding the flour and sugar, to create a pancake-like consistency. 

Take out your pie tin and sprinkle the blackberries and blueberries evenly over the apples. 

Pour in the dough mixture. 

Bake for 35 min, until the pie has risen and is goldenly delicious! 

Let it cool. The cake will fall again and be nice and soft, and quite dens - not airy at all! But delicious!!

Add cream and ENJOY! 

Broken pie-tin - good thing we still had some BBQ-trays!
Waste not, want not! Right?! :)
I think Hugh would approve.... 

Where did the summer go?!

This year our summer vacation was a "working" vacation, not as in going to work, but as in working our garden - and I'm very pleased with the result!

Here are some lovely pics from our summer "working" vacation:

Hubby and son working on the patio

Lots of delicious BBQ food as well... LOVE summertime!

Working in the front yard as well....
Before picture

2. before picture

Little help from my sis and her BF! (thx sis!)

Front yard after lots of work....
Fence still in progress

After pulling weeds all day!

Dug up a big old tree trunk...
any ideas to get rid of it?? 

Quite happy with alle the work done in 2 weeks, considering we still had time for a romantic B 'n' B stay for 2 days in Kolding  and a small trip to Germany.

Kolding castle lake

It's not easy to kiss prince charming AND take a picture.... ;)

How was your summer vacation??

Pennie 

Pepper-Dogs - WooF-WooF!

For some reason I'm all about breakfast - it's my favorite meal of the day ..... well except for dessert - but I guess that's not really a meal.... hehe...

When I'm on the night shift I have the whole morning to create something tasty and wonderful - I LOVE IT! And when I'm on the day shift... I have the whole evening to prepare to make something quick & easy, tasty and wonderful for breakfast next day .... ;)
See where I'm going with this?

 It's all about the breakfast!!

Bacon, 2 soft-boiled eggs and carrot and pepper sticks

Stuffed peppres and corn

Green beans with bacon and left over pork loin with home made mayo

Bacon and scrambled eggs with pineapple and blueberries

Cherries with "pepper-dogs" and an egg-muffin and blackberry/avocado smoothie

This last "recipe" is actually a new house-hold favorite! And it's the easiest recipe you'll ever learn

Peppers...... check

Cocktail sausages ...... check

Bacon..... Ooooooh yeah!

Voila.... Pepper Dogs!!!!!!! 

Even doggies like Pepper Dogs! 

Awwwwwuuuuuu! :) 

And of course they got one each.... they are so spoiled... 

5 days left on Whole 30 - I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.... 

but actually I feel incredible - sleeping better then ever - more energy and looking quite good, if I do say so myself. I haven't weighed my selv, but all my clothes af looser and I feel lighter somehow. 

I'm excited to see the numer on the scale and measure tape..... 

5 days and counting..... 

Cake!!!! (for breakfast!)

So ... 12 days ago, I made a wild decision....

I started the Whole30 challenge!!! For those of you, who don't know what that is, it basically means eating clean - no sugars of any kind (not even artificial), no dairy (ARGH! Bye cheese... see you in 30 days!), no grains, legumes or white potatoes (ok - that's not too bad!), but...but...but....I can have fruit!

Since starting to eat the LowCarb High Fat way, I really haven't eaten much fruit, except berries moderatly. So it's been a real pleasure enjoying fruit again!

I've been surfing the web for inspiration for meals, and so far I've created som really tasty things:

Ham and egg cupcakes - easy and YUM!
Green smoothie - spinach, fruit and coconut cream in blender and voila!

Stuffed pepper and chopped veggies.

Apple Bumpkin with fresh strawberries
YES - cake for breakfast! 

"French-fry"-green beans (cause they taste just like french fries!!!)
with bacon!!

I thought this would be much more difficult - and the first 4 days were really tough, mostly getting to grips with what to eat, when I suddenly couldn't eat yoghurt, cheese or even drink my lovely coffee + milk!!!
But now the choices are simple - fresh veggies, roasted/cooked veggies and meat og and FRUIT!
O.M.G. have I missed my fruit.
I've even found a new appreciation for tea, which I actually used to drink quite a lot of, until I met coffee...

So now I'm on to day 13 today and I feel really wonderful - filled with this strange sense of energy. I have been sleeping better then ever! I fall asleep in a matter of minutes (used to take me 30 min - 1 hour) and sleep until i wake (usually before the alarm too!) - and this is the first time in years! So there must be something about it....

I'm excited to see what the next 17 days will bring - but so far so good!

Pennie :)

Cheesy almond pie

We eat a lot of pies in this home! BUT not all are fruity pies!! Although SOME are.... 
It's easy, tasty and good for you! What's not to love??!

Pennies Cheesy almond pie

Serves 4 people (with a side dish salade)

Crust:

3 dl almond meal (I make my own - just simply grind the almonds)

½ dl sesame meal (grind - grind - grind)

1 tbl.sp. Psyllium husks

40 g softened or melted butter

1 egg

1 tsp. salt

butter or coconut oil til butter the pie dish

Filling:

3 eggs
2½ dl heavy cream
1 tsp. oregano
dash of salt and pepper
250 g grated cheese ( we used a mixture of cheddar and mozzarella )
(meat/sausage/garlic/spinach/broccoli/sundried tomatoes or what you like for taste)
We went with the sundried tomates and some sausages - YUM!!

Make the crust first - mix everything and set in the pie-tin. Cool for 30 min.
Bake the pie crust at 180 degrees for 10 min. before adding the filling.
Mix the filling together, pour into the crust - bake for 25-30 min. at 200 degrees.

Serve with a nice salade or coleslaw.

Mmmmmm cheesy!!! 

Enjoy! :)

Roadtrip

My little sisters and mother are visiting from England and this weekend we took a spontaneous trip to visit my grandparents in Jutland - the western part of Denmark. My little niece was along for the trip as well and the life of the party as usual!
That sweet girl is just so precious!!

Starting our trip -
my littlest sister Nettie and my dear mumsy Connie

After lunch - time for a nap!

We've finally arrived and Annabella is serving tea for the dolls!

Visiting the neighbour's horses

They just LOVE carrots and rye bread - YUM!

My grandparents' nextdoor neighbour has a lot of chickens.
Annabella is helping with the feeding.

"Hey! - where are you going?!" 

DANCING TIME!
Where does she get the energy??!

My grandparents just put their house up for sale - they have this beautiful homestead (no aminals tho), but they want something easier to keep. Their garden is absolutely gorgeous and my grandmother is allknowing in everything green and growing - I hope to someday have just a littlebit of her garden-wisdom! Although she says it all comes with practice and trying. 

Annabella picked a lovely wildflower boquet for her mother. 

In their driveway they have a bed of beautiful roses, all different sorts
THIS is what i'm hoping to do at our house.... sometime over the next couple years....
it's good to set goals... right?! even if they are far off .... 

Icecream on the way home!!! 

So that's my weekend in pictures and words - what did you do this weekend? 

Pennie :)

Cold buttermilk soup with crunchy sweet nuts

In the summertime it's nice to have a healthy, refreshing dinner that isn't too heavy and super easy to make. We often make (or buy if there is no time to make) Cold buttermilk soup. Here in Denmark you serve it with a type of crackers called "kammerjunkere"

Small crackers about 3 cm i diameter,
not too sweet, but with a nice crunch!

The ones you can buy at the store tho, are filled with sugars and really not that healthy, so instead we like to make our own granola/nutty crunch to top the buttermilk soup!

Pennies Buttermilk Soup w/ Crunch

Serves 4

6 egg yolks (I used pasteurized - no tummy aches!)

3 tbl. sp. sweetner (for example splenda or stevia)

7,5 dl buttermilk

1,5 dl greek yoghurt 10%

1 tbl. sp. vanilla powder

the zest off 1 lemon (organic, so you dont get any nasty pesticides!)

1,5 cream

* A little extra sweetner, if you prefer it more sweet!

Whip the egg yolks with the sweetner until it's frothy. 

Whisk in the buttermilk, greek yoghurt, vanilla powder and lemon and mix well. 

Be sure and run the sweetner and rest through a siv.
Makes the soup non-lumpy!

In a separate bowl whisk the cream really hard (but not into butter!), and add to the other mixture. 

Taste and add more sweetner if you think it's needed. 

Serve in soup bowls with granola/crackers or fresh fruit.

ENJOY! :)