Christmas Candy Cane Nails

Christmas Candle Holders - DIY

This lovely White Christmas Pillare Holder By Yankee Candle came today with the post. First christmas decoration being used this year. 

 

Strawberry cupcakes

Ingredients:

125 g butter

200 ml sugar

2 eggs

450 ml flour

1 tsp vanilla sugar

2 tsp baking soda

150 ml cream mixed with milk

500 ml strawberries

White chocolate frosting:  

60 g butter

200 g cream cheese

200-300 ml icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar

200 g white chocolate

Red food colouring

Fresh strawberries for decoration.

How you do this:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Beat the butter and sugar light and fluffy with an electric mixer. Add the eggs one at a time while you continue to whisk the mix.

Mix the flour, vanilla sugar and baking powder. Stir the flour mizture and the cream mix into the batter. Continue whisking until the batter is completely smooth and even.

Spread  2/3 of the batter into the molds. Clean the strawberries and divide them into four parts. Push a couple of parts into each form.

Bake in the center of the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until the cupcakes have a nice colour.

White chocolate frosting:

Beat the butter and cream cheese soft. Stir in the icing sugar and the vanilla sugar.

Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt it in a water bath. Let the chocolate cool a bit before you add it to the mixture.

Add the food colouring, mix to a smooth and thick frosting. Add more icing sugar if the frosting seems too loose. Pipe the mixture on the top of the cupcakes.

Decorate each with half a strawberry.

Pumpkin soup

This is a recipe that I love to do when I don't have too much time, feel for something to warm me up after a cold and rainy day. It can easily be served as a starter to a fancy dinner or just as tonight, for my on my own.

Ingredients

1 chopped onion
500 g pumpkin, chopped into small pieces
600 ml vegetable stock
200 ml double cream 
2 teaspoonfuls butter
nutmeg

How to do this:  

Melt the the butter in a large saucepan, add the chopped onion and saute over a low heat until tender.
Add the pumpkin to the pan along with the vegetable stock. Bring to boil then simmer until the pumpkin is soft.
Take of the stove to allow the soup to cool down a little, then add about 2 teaspoons of nutmeg, salt & pepper according to taste. Blend in a food processor until smooth (careful here not to burn yourself).
Reheat the soup carefully when ready to serve, make sure it doesn't start boiling. Add the cream. Stir and serve!

 

Chicken and bacon rolls

Ingredients:
900 g chicken fillets
125 g cream cheese with taste of Peppers and Chili
140 g bacon
1 kg potatoes
1 yellow onion
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 Tbsp freshly chopped rosmary
Salt and black pepper for seasoning

To do this:

Flatten out the chicken fillets. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Put a teaspoon of the cream cheese on each chicken fillet and roll it up. Wrap each chicken roll with a bacon rash.

Peal the potatoes, slice the potatoes and the onions thinly. Mix and spread them out in an ovenproof form. Add a little salt and pour the melted butter over.

Place the rolls on the potato and onion bed and sprinkle the rosmary over everything. Cook in the lower part of the oven for 30 minutes at 225. Make sure that the chicken is cooked through.

Creamy Salmon Pasta

Ingredients:

4 portions of Spagetti

400g salmon file

1/4 Leek

1 Lemon

2 1/2 dl double cream

1 1/2 dl freshly grounded parmesan cheese

Olive oil

Salt

Black Pepper

To do this:  

Cook the pasta after the instructions on the packing. Cube the salmon. Rinse and slice the leek finely. Clean the lemon in fingerwarm water. Grate 1 tsp of lemon zest and squeeze 2 tbsp of juice. 

Fry the leek in 1 tbps of oil for 2 minutes without letting it get colour. Add cream, lemon zest and the juice. Add the salmon and let it simmer under cover for 3 minutes. Season to taste with the black pepper. 

Add the freshly cooked pasta into the sauce. Serve with the parmesan.

 

Hot Chocolate - A Love Story

I love almost everything about winter. I love the colder weather, I love the snow that falls to cover the ground and tree limbs, and I love taking any chance I get to be outside and enjoy the unique time of year. There is nothing better than taking a long winter hike or spending a few hours outside building a snowman with children or friends. As much as I love being outside, sometimes the cold air gets to me and I just need a break. My favorite way to warm up after a cold afternoon is to enjoy a cup of hot chocolate.

I’m not sure what it is about hot chocolate that I love so much. It seems to me the perfect beverage: warm, creamy, milky, and filled with lots of chocolate. What is there not to love about that? I have friends who prefer a latte or a cup of tea. You will never see me being unfaithful to my favorite drink. Whether I am at home, work, or visiting with friends at a local coffee shop it is hot chocolate that I will always choose.

I guess part of why I love hot chocolate so much is because it reminds me of my childhood. I have many fond memories of mom fixing me a cup of hot chocolate after a long day of playing outside or sometimes, or, if I was lucky, after just an ordinary winter school day for no reason at all. After my mom mixed the ingredients (whatever they were) just right, I got to add marshmallows to the top. I loved this part. I could adorn my cup of hot chocolate with as many tiny mallows as I wanted. After experimenting with several amounts of mallows in my hot chocolate I remember finally settling on fourteen as the perfect number to place in my cup. Unlike most people, the number fourteen was a magic number to me, or at least it felt magical because of the way those fourteen marshmallows made my hot chocolate even better.

As an adult I have continued to love hot chocolate just as much. I love coming home from a long day of work and stopping in the kitchen to make a perfect cup. I have a special recipe that I have been using for a few years now and it just keeps tasting better. Friends and family have asked me to share it but I just cannot bring myself to do it. Maybe if they appreciated hot chocolate as much as I do then I’d let them in on the secret. Until then, I’ll keep my recipe to myself and enjoy inviting them over to share good conversation over my now famous hot chocolate. I guess I’ll even let them put in their own marshmallows and try to find their own perfect.

Chocolate fondant

Ingredients for 6 servings 3 eggs

3 egg yolks
60 g of flour
200g of fine chocolate about 70%
115g of sugar
200g of butter

How should you proceed? 
Melt chocolate and butter in a water bath.

Whisk eggs and sugar (not puffy), pour the egg mixture into chocolate butter and whisk the flour into it. Pour batter into cupcake molds and place in the fridge at least 30 minutes before baking. Bake in oven 175 degrees for 6-7 minutes, serve in the molds or turn out onto a plate. Serve with vanilla ice cream

Quick cheesecake with raspberry sauce

Ingredients:

8 oatcakes
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
200 g of cream cheese
1 cup of cream
1 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla powder
500g of fresh raspberries

To do this:

Crumble the biscuits and mix with cinnamon. Spread the crumbs into four glasses or serving bowls. Stir together cheese, cream, half a cup of sugar and the vanilla powder. Spread the mixture over the crumbs. Stir together raspberries and the other half cup of sugar, until the raspberries are juicy. Place them on top of the cheese mixture. Done!

Chocolate cupcakes with orange frosting

(about 12 large cupcakes)

Ingredients:

100 g butter

200 ml milk

150 g sugar

1 Tsp vanilla powder

2 eggs

400 ml flour

2 Tsp baking soda

2 Tbsp cocoa powder

50 g dark chocolate

50 g butter (softened)

400 ml icing sugar

100 g cream cheese

2 Tbsp orange juice of concentrate

1 drop red food colouring

1 drop yellow food colouring

Sprinkles

To do this:

Melt the butter. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla until they are fluffy. Mix the butter and milk and whisk it into the egg mixture. Mix flour, baking powder and cocoa. Fold in the flour mixture with a large spoon. Chop the chocolate coarsely.

Put some batter in the bottom of the cupcake molds. Sprinkle chocolate over it before continuing with more batter. Only fill the mold half way.

Bake 15-20 minutes at 175. Check if they are fully dry before taking them out and letting them cool off.

Mix the butter with icing sugar, cream cheese and the orange concentrate. Colour with red and yellow food colouring. Pipe the topping on the cakes and finish with sprinkles.

xD

That's so nice of her! xD

Christmas Cake

I have already been trying to perfect my christmas recipes, here is my latest creation!

Ingredients:

250 g Butter
1 Tsp Vanilla sugar
4 Eggs
200 g Sugar
200 g Flour
1 Tsp Baking soda
2 Tbsp Cocoa powder
2 Tbsp Cinnamon
100 g Hazelnuts, finely ground
2 Tsp Rum
2 Apple's


How to do it:

Mix butter, vanilla sugar, eggs and the sugar until the sugar has dissolved, add flour, baking soda, cocoa, cinnamon, ground hazelnuts and rum. Briefly work all this to a batter. Peel the apples, cut them into small pieces and mix them into the cake batter.

Bake in a preheated oven using a greased springform pan at 175 ° C (fan 150 ° C) for 50 to 60 minutes. Finish the cake as desired with chocolate or a glaze.

So cute!

This looks so tasty!

Christmas shop early this year!

If you are one of those people who gets their Christmas shopping done early every year, you probably find yourself getting a great deal of mean looks from others around the holiday season. This is especially true if you make a habit of letting others know you have already finished your Christmas shopping. This happens because the vast majority of people do not get their Christmas shopping done early and may be envious of those who manage to finish their shopping early. The fact that most Christmas shoppers wait until the last minute is evident by the crowds who flock to malls and shopping centers in the final days before Christmas.

If you are one of these people who always finishes their Christmas shopping early you may already have a method to accomplishing this goal. However, if you are like the majority of people who spend every year last minute Christmas shopping this article will provide you with some tips for getting your Christmas shopping done early this year.

One of the best ways to get your Christmas shopping done early is to try to do a great deal of Christmas shopping for the next year in the first few days after Christmas. Although the stores are usually quite crowded on these days there is not the same sense of urgency which prevails in the days just before Christmas so the atmosphere is more relaxed. Additionally, many stores are holding sales so not only can you do a large portion of your shopping but you are also likely to save a great deal of money in the process. The first few days after Christmas are an excellent time to shop because you are likely still in the Christmas spirit.

Another way to get your Christmas shopping done early is to plan on doing all of your Christmas shopping online this year. This is an excellent idea because most retailers will wrap the item for you and ship it directly to the recipient. You will pay a little more for these services but the convenience of not having to do the wrapping yourself or stand in long lines at the post office is certainly worth the extra fee. Committing to Christmas shopping online really helps you to get you shopping done early because you know you have to make your purchases early in order for them to arrive on time.

Another way to get your Christmas shopping done early is plan on purchasing two gifts for each person on your list at the time of their birthday. You can give them the first gift for their birthday and store the other item away until Christmas. This is a great idea because it helps you to get your shopping done early so you can avoid the hassle of going to overcrowded malls and shopping centers and searching for last minute Christmas gifts. If you follow this simple strategy when the Christmas season arrives, you will already have most, if not all, of your Christmas gifts purchased already and you can spend your time relaxing and enjoying the holiday season instead of running around trying to find the perfect gift for each person on your list. While this strategy is effective it is important to note you could be destined to some last minute shopping if you have people on your list who have birthdays in late December. In this case you will have to plan ahead and purchase their birthday gift and their Christmas gift early.

What a cute dog!