superfood, the book

This is a book I'd never heard of. By a writer I'd never heard of. John Opsahl, a Norwegian lifestyle coach, is supposedly the leading expert on superfood in Scandinavia. Call yourself an expert and I'm immediately very sceptical. That said, the book (which I got from mum) "Supermat - läkande mat från naturens hjärta" (Superfood - healing food from the heart of nature) is quite interesting.

I see it more as an encyclopedia of fascinating natural ingredients jampacked with nutrition and healing qualities rather than a book I will read from beginning to end. And the tone of the book is *quite* preaching, which is *rather* off-putting imho. But it also deals with the sad fact that so many people abuse both their own bodies as well as the nature around us with the food they eat - hey, meat eaters, fast food- and sugar lovers I'm looking at you!



And it's about high time we talk about how important it is for parents to be responsible with the food they let their children eat. Especially in the Western world. The above passage is from the book, it's a very matter of fact put fact that is *rather* taboo to talk about -

"I find it very provoking that we, despite all the information about food and health today, continue to put our children in danger of lifestyle diseases, allergies, behavioral imbalances and food addiction by feeding them nutrient-poor and unhealthy food. We must stop projecting our own food addictions on our children in order to justify ourselves."

Word.

The book also contains a generous recipe section with mouthwatering food, rawfood. Unfortunately I think the recipes hold too many ingredients that are not available in well-stocked supermarkets, you have to look for them in speciality shops. And I always find that a bit tricky. I'm all for not buying super cheap stuff, but quality and organic, but I'm not keen on running around town to get the stuff only to find I really didn't enjoy it. Waste of time, money and food. Plus I'm allergic to when people companies authors try to push their own food brand (in this case it's called Supernature) with sneaking them into the recipes.

I understand that superfood en masse may not be something easy available in your local grocery store, but still I would appreciate more basic ingredients for such recipes. After all, all vegetables are good ones and good oils, nuts, herbs, seasoning and such are always within easy buy for most of us. You don't always have to complicate things you know. And sometimes common sense is a very good thing.

icecream for everyone

It's a while now since I bought this fabulous cookbook filled with deliciously quirky and kind icecream recipes which are vegan only, no dairy products, no eggs. It's a totally inspiring piece on so many levels! Love the photography (just the fact that it's a pink cover, adore) and the recipes sound mouth watering indeed.

The recipes are made by Swedish vegan food bloggers and the cookbook is published by the largest animal right's association in Sweden Djurens Rätt (The Animals' Right) thus all the surplus goes to a great cause, which of course is another reason to go get the book asap!

What a wonderful Christmas gift this would be for any icecream-lover! You can get it in the webshop and in online bookstores plus in certain shops around town. In Swedish only, but I'm sure the recipes are fairly easy to translate and - just like the IKEA bakebook - you will love the inspirational photos I'm sure.

Do you have a favourite vegan (or vegetarian) cook/bakebook?

innocent and quiet

Needless to say really I'm absolutely chuffed about these two books of different kinds.

A) Because anyone who've read this blog for some time know of my love of the brand Innocent - and this smoothies book (it's a mystery really why I haven't looked for it earlier) is just as lovely, from its matte finish and unpretentious look, to gorgeous pictures, simple and mouthwatering recipes, clever writing and and fine words of wisdom regarding our one planet.

B) Ever since I saw the TED-talk with Susan Cain and the power of introverts I've been wanting to read her book on the subject. I've fully acknowledge my own introvert since then, it's good to finally have a word for all those feelings one has had for oh so many years. And yes, I truly believe it's one of the reasons I'm more in tune and in a happy place these days. All those little pieces of the puzzle... Now I'll read the book too.

three sweet things

It's been such a long time since I baked, but inspired by the sweet cakes bakebook I've managed to throw together not only one or two but three sweet treats recently. And let me tell you, they all turned out fabulously well taste- and texturewise. And one really very pretty to look at.



First out was saffron applecake - made it because I had old apples to use up and a gang of saffron bags hanging out since Christmas. I used less butter and sugar than the recipe called for and almond milk, beautiful, moist, dense and rich, with apples and saffron in perfect harmony, neither overpowering the other.



Inspected and paw approved by Ztina.



Then there was the french applecake/pie - made with almond paste and tart apples. Not a huge fan of almond paste but I thought I'd give it a go (more apples needed using up). I am so glad I did. Not as pretty as the saffron applecake  but absolutely delicious, melt-in-your-moth so, not at all too sweet or rich as I had thought. Served with some vegan vanilla ice-cream it was indeed a spoonful of heaven.



Inspected, paw AND bobbaloo approved.



And last, but not least, one of my favourite treats at Café Tant Gredelin, the berry tart with white chocolate and almonds. It turned out so very, very well, sweet and sour, crispy and moist, lovely served with custard.

The pies were to hot to be thoroughly inspected by the usual inspectors, but at least the pretty portion sized pie tins were tried out and approved by colour matching bobbaloos.



Have you baked something really nice recently?

sweet cakes bakebook

Having Saturday breakfast at one of my favourite cafés - blogged about the place 4,5 years ago here - is always a treat. This time we also found that they'd published their own bakebook, "Söta kakor" = Sweet cakes/cookies, by Cafe Tant Gredelin.

I certainly don't bake as much as I used to, but getting my own signed copy was obviously a must.

To be honest it was a long long time since I felt cook- and bakebooks were inventive and inspirational, so many recipes are the same or very similar, like they desperately trying to invent the wheel all over again. Even if I mostly get them to look at pretty pictures I also find that the style of pictures continues to be oh so very similar too. We're living in a world where it gets continously harder to be truly original, be it cookbooks or crafts or fashion or anything really. 

It would have been nice if the recipes held less sugar, no gelatine (or at least pointed to the vegan options) and the cake tin measures. That said, I do overall enjoy the bakebook - mainly because there are two favourite bake goodies from Tant Gredelin in it I'd love to try making myself (custard bun and  crunchy raspberry pie with white chocolate) and other mouthwatering things too of course. It's a sweet book, in every sense, much like the cafe itself.

nordic food

i got this cook book since i thought it would be about eating in season, locally produced, foraging and compose meals mainly with seasonal vegetables. recipes with no meat but nordic fishes like salmon and herring and not a lot of dairy products.

let's just say reading it is quite disappointing, both textual and recipe-wise, the writing is dull, the content surprisingly unmodern, the completely vegetarian recipes very few, meat plays a big part and dairy too. not a word about the obvious benefits of a vegetarian or vegan diet or healthy substitutes to meat and dairy.

to be honest i'm lost for words at how they've blown a great cookbook idea and ended up with this. the best thing about it is the lovely photos, sadly the rest isn't at all what one would expect of a cookbook like this.

'nordens bästa mat' (the best nordic food)
by viola adamsson and katja palmdahl

nutty fruit cookies

I first made these past April, not really my kind of cookies but they seemed easy enough to make, crunchy and full of nut goodness. They turned out to be amazingly good, chewy, crunchy, with lots of different textures and flavours complimenting each other oh so well. Too well, addictively well. The original recipe I got from the great bake book "Eat me! The Stupendous, Self-Raising World of Cupcakes & Bakes According to Cookie Girl." by just that, Cookie Girl. Great as in every recipe I've so far tried has turned out fabulously. Fit for a loaf dog birthday do.

Not so great as in most every recipe needs tweaking for sure, the amount of sugar in the recipes is too too much, halve it and it'll be more than suffice. (High suspicions of membership in the Sugar Conspiracy Movement...) This is the way I make the cookies, and I'm not that particular with the measurements and what kind of nuts I use. I've baked about five batches so far, slightly different every time, great every time.

I brought a tin with these along to the Twitterjunta. One bite and recipe was demanded. So here it is. With all the fibres, nuts, seeds, raisins they're both filling, semi-healthy yet still addictively divine. Here's to happy baking, and even happier eating...!

Nota bene, a cookie scoop is THE thing to have here. Very handy indeed. Quite possibly one of humanity's greatest inventions.


F r u i t and n u t c o o k i e s
makes about 25-30 cookies

170 g liquid butter-oil (flytande smör/rapsolja)
170 g brown sugar (farinsocker)
30 g caster sugar (strösocker)
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 tbsp water
110 g wheat flour + pollard (vetemjöl + kruskakli eller vetekli)
(I'm not very finical with the split between flour and pollard, go with the flow)
½ tsp salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
230 g porridge oats (havregryn)
50-150 g raisins (depending on how much you enjoy raisins)
180 g mixed nuts and seeds (I usually go for sunflower seeds, almonds and hazelnuts, but walnuts and pecans are nice too)

:: Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Prepare two large baking sheets with baking paper.

:: Use electric mixer to beat butter and sugar together until pale colour and creamy. Then add egg with water and vanilla extract. Blend everything.

:: Sift flour, salt, bicarbonate, cinnamon into butter mix. Then add oats, raisins, nuts and seeds.

:: Use cookie scoop to shape cookies, put the cookies on baking sheet, flatten them slightly. Place them about 5 cm apart.

:: Bake in centre of oven for about 15 minutes. Edges should be slightly crispy, middle still soft. Remove from oven, let cool on baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack. When cool they will have become crunchier.

Will keep in a tin for some days. Freeze well.

books on the last day of summer

The desire to get new books, more books is omnipresent. Thus this is my non-guilty word-pleasure for August - five new books.

Yes, despite the evergrowing heap of books to read I do decidely refuse to feel any guilt about my book buying ways. The last books before this order I bought in May, sadly I now realise I neglected to write blog about them, forgive me please. The order before that I aptly wrote about on World Book Day.

So, now, on the last day of summer, this is the package I feel joyous about -

L'élégance du hérisson - Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery - oh I have been waiting so long for this book to come out in pocket edition. I hope it'll be such a good read as I have anticipated. Maybe the perfect book to begin my reading September with?

Rhubarbia by Mary Prior - don't know where, don't know when, but somewhere in blogland I must have read about this rhubarb-book. As I have the freezer full of rhubarb I thought it would be nice to try something new and delicious, not only rely my rhubarb on simply awesome rhubarb cream, rhubarb crumbles, the odd case of sticky rhubarb cake and strangeness off rhubarb toffee.

Schott's Original Miscellany by Ben Schott - some years ago I watched an episode of Marta Stewart and there was Ben Schott with his book of fabulous trivia (love the idea!). I promptly put it on my book-wish list and now it's finally mine. In this quirky piece one might find useful information such as; nouns of assemblage, how to tie a bow-tie, cockney rhyming slang, Miss America's hair colour from 1921-2003 (70% have been brunettes), personal ad abbreviations, a brief (alas) selection of court jesters, the Victorian timetable of family mourning, the Hampton Court maze etc etc and so forth in what must surely be considered completely captivating. I'm sure I will find it much entertaining and useful. And I will certainly want his other books and almanacs...

The lost art of gratitude by Alexander McCall Smith - the sixth book in the beloved Sunday Philosophy Club-series. Can't wait to start reading. However I am tad annoyed that the book size apparently isn't the regular pocket size as my other books in the series, but larger. It may be a silly thing in the whole scheme of life, but I do like my books in a series to be of the same size and type (preferably pocket). So perhaps this stickler will change this book for a proper pocket sized version.

I had planned and so looked forward to go see mr McCall Smith live at the annual September book fair in Gothenburg in a some weeks. Sadly that will not be. Disappointing that is.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie - another book I suspect I've read about somewhere in the blogosphere and though interesting enough to put on book-wish-list. I'm now thinking it may be something similar to "The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao" which I personally found a huge disappointment and far from my cup of literary tea. But let's hope not, let's hope for another great mind-evolving Autumn read.

The Blogger Aid Cookbook

If you want to know more about Blogger Aid and its cause to alleviate world hunger, go to the website and find out more.

Blogger Aid's current fundraiser is the planned cookbook, with recipes from all over the world, where 100% of the profit from the sales will be directed to School Meals, a program of The World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations frontline agency. Last date for submit your recipes is March 31st - that is tomorrow... - read more about details here and the recipe style format here.

In my semi-usual procrastinating style I was tad late with my submission, it being the vegetarian dish above. Of which I can't reveal any details yet. Other than it is colourful and flavourful.