Carrot Cake

You guys, my husband made this cake. Homemade icing and all. It's carrot cake by the way. It was delicious. I love cream cheese icing.

We're new in marriage. It's been a year and nine months. So it's still new. And we're learning about each other and ourselves with each other. To work as a team. It's really easier said than done. But I guess, it's also not very hard. Not when it matters. And this (us) matters.
So sometimes we take each other for granted and pick stupid fights. My favorite fight to date is the one about G using the good bread. This was back when we were newly-married-poor. I was freaking out about not having a job. G was making a SANDWICH with our FANCY bread. Fancy bread (this was actually very basic bread not that fancy) costs more money. Yes, I yelled at him about it. It was a beyond stupid fight and we laugh about it all the time now.
So sometimes there's that. And other factors too. Jobs, school, friends, family. Other factors that can be both joyous and toxic. And we forgot that working as a team makes all of the joy better and all of the bad parts conquerable.

I'm just writing to say that I'm grateful for my husband. He's nice and funny. He's understanding and motivated. He has sparkly blue eyes and is always warm. And he bakes me carrot cake in the middle of the day.

Simple Soup

First, sorry I haven't written in a few days. We've been eating, just not any food I've made (except a pumpkin pie but we were ate my in-laws and I didn't have my camera on me). This darkness got the best of me and finding the motivation to cook right now is just not happening. I'll get over it, but it just takes some adjusting. The sun is starting to set at 16:00 these days and it's dark by 17:00- like pitch black. It's just, you know, hard to get used to.
Anyways, last night I finally made something. Soup. I mustered up the motivation to make soup. You see, I wasn't feeling great at all last night. We were supposed to have a friend over for dinner. I was going to make cheese enchiladas. But a few hours earlier I devoured about 500 grams of cottage cheese with Sriracha sauce. I like my cottage cheese spicy. And I don't know, something about the cottage cheese just didn't sit right with me. I usually have no problem eating a whole tub of cottage cheese, spice and all, but this time I felt awful.
So we cancelled on our friend and I miserably sprawled out on the couch.
Cheese enchiladas sounded terrible. Soup sounded good.
After I awhile I went into the kitchen, grabbed everything we had in the fridge, and made some soup. It's not the most groundbreaking recipe, but it's a reminder: that sometimes the simple things are exactly what you need.

Simple Soup (What's In Your Fridge)
3 onions
3-6 garlic cloves (boiled garlic is awesome)
3 carrots
4 potatoes
8-10 cups of water
1 cube of bouillon
Salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste

Extras:
A handful of fresh spinach for each bowl
Crumbled feta cheese
Olive oil

Fill a large pot with water and the cube of bouillon. While it's getting warm (not boiling), chop your onions into long, thin slices. And peel as many garlic cloves as you want in your soup. Leave them whole. When done, put them in the soup pot.
Then peel your carrots and chop them into medium-thick rings. Set aside. Wash and scrub your potatoes. Peel off any bad parts. Chop the potatoes into medium-small cubes. You want them to be a similar size to the carrots. Set aside.
Let the water come to a slight boil and add in your carrots. About five minutes later, add in your potatoes (unless they're chopped into larger pieces, then you want to add them at the same time).
Lower to heat and let simmer for 30 minutes or until the potatoes and carrots are soft. Not mushy. You want them to be easy to pierce with fork but still a bit firm. The onions and garlic should be soft and slightly mushy.
Add salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to your taste. I prefer a saltier soup, but that's just me.
Ladle into bowls and drizzle a tiny amount of olive oil over the soup. Garnish with handful of fresh spinach and some crumbled feta.
And enjoy. It was just what you needed, right?

Cheese Crackers

Did you know that cheese crackers were the easiest things to make? Ever. I didn't. But I saw this recipe and I knew, I just knew, I had to make these. And I had all of the ingredients. Which was great because we were out of eggs and there aren't many things you can bake without eggs.
The recipe was so easy, even without us owning a food processor. I just used a potato masher and my hands.
And when I ate the first one, I almost died. How have I missed out on this? Cheese crackers! They tasted like Cheese-Its but one million times better.
They're buttery and spicy and cheesy. When G came home from work I ordered him straight to the kitchen to try them.  We had guests coming over and we did a bad thing. We hid the crackers. They were that good.  I knew I could make more. Eventually. But we wanted them all to ourselves. It was bad. I'm not sorry.

If you want to impress your guests or yourself, make these. Go here. Follow the easiest recipe ever with the stuff you already have in your kitchen. And then cry, hide, and covet these. Share them only if your nice and giving.

Rice Pudding with Coconut Milk, Rum, and Christmas Spices

I don't like white rice. At all. I hate the taste and the smell. I used to like rice. But three-four years ago I ate too much rice and got a stomach ache, a really bad one. Since then I've hated rice.
On Sunday, I felt courageous enough to buy black rice. Which doesn't taste like rice at all. It tastes nutty and is crunchy. I also like risotto rice because it doesn't taste like white rice either. I like black rice. I like risotto rice. White rice, not so much.
So you can be as perplexed as I was when last night I declared "I'm making rice pudding with coconut milk!" (I also don't like coconut milk due to a Thai food poisoning mishap a few years ago). But part of me, the really smart part of me, knew that this was going to be an awesome rice pudding. So awesome that I would enjoy eating rice with coconut milk.
Maybe I was inspired by the fact it's November aka Almost Christmas. And here in Sweden, they eat rice pudding around Christmastime. So maybe I was subconsciously being Swedish and craving a creamy, Christmas-spicy dessert? I become more and more assimilated everyday.

Rice Pudding with Coconut Milk, Rum, and Christmas Spices
I was inspired by Alton Brown's recipe but altered to become the best thing I've ever tasted.

1 cup of uncooked white rice (we had Jasmine rice so I used that)
1 cup of whole milk (plus more as you go, keep the carton nearby)
1 cup of coconut milk
50 grams of butter
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of cardamom
1/4-1/2 teaspoon of vanilla (I used vanilla bean)
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of rum

Place your one cup of milk and one cup of rice in a non-stick pot). Bring to a boil with the lid on.  Reduce the heat to low and let simmer, the mixture will begin to thicken so stir frequently.
Then add in your coconut milk, butter, sugar, cardamom, vanilla, cinnamon, and rum. With the heat on medium-low let the mixture simmer with the lid on. Stir occasionally so it won't stick. The mixture will begin to thicken and once it does, taste your rice. If your rice is ready to eat then you can go ahead and serve it. I like it warm.
But, if you had rice like I did and it was still crunchy but you already had a really thick mixture, add some more milk. And let it simmer. Stir and stir. Every time my mixture got really thick and goopey, I added a bit more milk, about 1-2 tablespoons. I would then stir it again and let it simmer. This lasted about 10-15 minutes.
Once your rice is soft (not mushy), remove the pot from the heat and serve into bowls.

It's an incredibly rich and creamy dessert. It's easy to make. It's cheap to make. It's satisfying and indulgent. My husband, who eats rice pudding every Christmas, said it was the best he's ever had. And me, the white rice hater, has a new love for rice. Well, rice pudding at least.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This morning my husband had to wake up earlier than me. I stayed in bed, pretending to sleep for about 30 minutes after our alarm went off. I might've actually fallen asleep if it hadn't been for the garbage trucks collecting the trash right outside of our window (we live on the ground floor). My husband came in to say goodbye and kissed me with coffee breath, it was fresh coffee breath and therefore it was romantic.
We usually eat yogurt and granola for breakfast but this morning I knew that we had pumpkin chocolate chip cookie dough sitting in our fridge. And pumpkins are really good for you and chocolate has caffeine so baking these cookies for breakfast was a no brainer. I've had four today so far.
We made these cookies yesterday to celebrate Halloween. They don't really celebrate Halloween here like they do in the States. But I wanted to make the most of it despite the lack of trick-or-treaters and the fact we wouldn't be going to any Halloween parties this year. Instead, we watched a lot of Halloween movies and made Halloween-ish food.
We first watched Edward Scissorhands while eating a black rice and purple cabbage stir fry. Then we watched Hocus Pocus and snacked on pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Later, we watched Scream while eating pumpkin gnocchi with lemon, spinach, butter, and goat cheese. And then we watched It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and drank hot apple cider with whiskey. The photo above was our decor, a lone candle in a dark room. Spoooooky.

We made nine of these cookies yesterday and ate them all. And I made more today and devoured four of them faster than I should've- it must be the beta carotene.
They taste like pumpkin pie cakes with chocolate chips. They are soft, like feather pillows. They are spiced like pumpkin pie but they have that distinct chocolate chip cookie taste too. They're cakey-cookies. They're good. They're addictive. The soak up milk better than Bounty Paper Towels.
I made them using this recipe. It was easy to follow. The hardest part was finding pumpkin puree in Sweden. Instead we found half a pumpkin, roasted it and then pureed it.
This is not just a Halloween recipe. You should make them for Thanksgiving, you could sandwich them between whip cream like real pumpkin pie. Or you could just eat them all in less than 24 hours which we will be very guilty of very soon.

Raw Red Cabbage Salad

It's Halloween weekend. Friday night we were invited to a dinner party by my Dutch friend. Being a foreigner myself, I've gotten to know a lot of other foreigners. I was put in charge of a starter. I knew I was going to do a pumpkin and goat cheese dish but I wanted to do something else as well. So I made a red cabbage salad with fennel, dried cranberries, a red pepper, and mustard vinaigrette. Originally there was going to be edamame in the salad, for color, you know? But finding "exotic" foods like edamame in Sweden is usually pretty hit and miss. This time it was a miss.

This is a picture of me with my husband acting as antlers. He's creative sometimes. Our friends, the Dutch girl and her sambo (the Swedish word for two people who live together but are not married) fed us extremely well and never allowed for an empty glass. Also at the party was my South African friend, his Swedish sambo, and their friend also from South Africa- who (get this!) lives in England now and is Jamie Olivier's nanny. Yes, that is right. Jamie Olivier's nanny was at dinner and ate my red cabbage salad.
We had a great time at the dinner party. We had so much fun that we didn't once look at our clocks and suddenly it was 2:30 in the morning. We got home around 3:30 and I made early morning spaghetti while we watched The Office. We fell asleep after 4:00.

I started chopping cabbage late Friday afternoon while listening to "The Rocky Horror Picture" show and dancing to the Time Warp. I'm totally fascinated with red cabbage and a bit angry with myself for never using it before. I mean, it's purple! And looks like a brain. It's awesome.

Red Cabbage Salad
1/2 of a large red cabbage, sliced into thin bite sized pieces
1-2 fennel bulb, diced
1 red pepper, seeded and diced
1 package of dried cranberries (about 1/2 cup)

Dressing
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/4 cup of red wine vinegar
2-3 tablespoons of dijon mustard
1 teaspoon of honey
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of chili flakes
1-2 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon of lemon juice

I started with a whole cabbage and peeled off the outer layers. Instead of chopping it in half, I sliced off sections which made it easier to deal with. I then cut each section in small, thin ribbons and cut those into "easy" bite sized pieces. Once you have pieces that are easy to eat put them in large bowl.
Next, chop up your fennel. I had only one bulb but I think two would work even better. You'll want to discard any bad spots on the fennel. You can save the fronds if you have fennel with fronds and put those in the salad as well. Place your diced fennel in the bowl. Since we were eating raw fennel, I didn't use the very middle of the bulb which I always find a bit tough the eat. Same with the cabbage.
Next, dice your red pepper. Toss it in. And then add in your cranberries. Mix everything together well.

For the dressing. I never measure dressings, I go by taste and by what I think would be good. I started by pouring a bit olive oil over the cabbage. You don't need a ton. I then added about the equivalent of 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar. I like really vinegar-ey dressings so I added more in towards the end. I used three huge spoonfuls of dijon mustard. And about about 1 teaspoon of honey. I then mixed it all together in the salad bowl. After that I sprinkled a bit of sugar on top, about 1 teaspoon. (You already get a lot of sweetness from the dried cranberries). And then I added the salt, the lemon juice, and finally the chili flakes. After that, I adjusted the dressing to my taste accordingly. The recipe above is a good base and I know there are better and more professional ways to make a dressing- but remember I was dancing the Time Warp at the time.

After you've dressed your salad keep it covered and in the fridge until ready to serve. It was great several hours later and still great the next day.

Notes
This is one of those salad that so easy to make and you can be really creative with. I mentioned before I wanted to add edamame and I also think raw apples would be good, as well as walnuts or oranges. I love this salad because it's raw, fresh, sweet, sour, and very seasonal. Please make it and dance while you do.

corn cakes with chili and feta. oh, and easy black beans

Tuesday night I was laying in bed thinking and I realized I've only posted one recipe that features jalapeño or any type of chili pepper. And the truth is that I eat something spicy almost everyday. And much to my husband's dismay, I cover most of my food in cayenne pepper or Cholula sauce. I figure it's because most of the food here lacks spice and my body is used to spice so I have to keep up. Imagine being in Texan in Texas and not eating something because it's "too hot." That just not Texan. I'd have my statesmanship revoked (is there such a thing?). So I have to keep up. And I do.
Another thing I miss here is corn tortillas. I haven't been able to find masa harina in the stores so I can't even attempt to make my own. I make due with flour tortillas most of the time. But sometimes I crave that corn flavor.
Back in Fort Worth there was a famous diner called Ole' South. It was opened 24 hours and was famous for their dutch babies which are really good at 2:00 am. They also served belgian waffles in the shape of Texas and hoecakes which are pancakes made with corn meal.
So Tuesday night I was laying there thinking about chili peppers and Ole' South and hoecakes. I decided I wanted to make a savory hoecake. And I did.

Corn Cakes adapted from Epicurious
1 cup of stone ground yellow corn meal (Swedes, you can find this at ICA easily)
1/2 cup of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
3/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
2 teaspoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of butter, melted, and cooled- plus more butter for the griddle
1 large egg
1 cup of buttermilk (or filmjölk)
1 cup of canned corn
1 fresh chili pepper, seeded and minced
1/2 a yellow onion, diced
1/2 cup of shredded cheese
1/2 cup of cubed feta cheese


In one bowl mix together the cornmeal, the flour, the salt, baking soda, pepper, and sugar.
In another bowl mix together the butter, the egg, and the buttermilk. Mix in the corn, onion, chili pepper, cheese, and feta cheese. Add the flour mixture and then mix all until just combined.
Heat your griddle on medium high heat with a small dab of butter. Drop about 1/4 cup of batter to the griddle and cook each side for about 2-3 minutes or until golden
I am terrible at the cooking part and had G took over. He's great at making pancakes and can even do the flipthing.
Read further for another (quick) recipe.

I also made black beans to go with the pancakes. It's hard to photograph black beans.
I make these easy ones when I'm in a hurry but you can make them fancier if you want.


Easy Tex Mex Black Beans
1 can of black beans
1 seeded and minced chili pepper*
1/2 a yellow onion, diced
A few dashes of lime juice
Salt to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste


Throw the beans with their juices into a sauce pot. Let simmer on low heat while you dice your onion and mince your chili pepper. Throw those in the pot too. Bring to a boil for just a few minutes, keep an eye on it. Bring back down to a simmer and then get out your potato masher. Or a wooden spoon. And start mashing the beans. Let it simmer and mash every few minutes. Just until the beans fall apart a bit. 
I keep my pot on a low simmer while I'm cooking other things but if you can always speed up the process. 
Reduce the heat even more and add in your lime, salt, and cayenne until you're happy with the taste.


Notes
*If I have salsa on hand I usually just use about 1/4 a cup (or a bit more) of that in lieu of the chili peppers, unless I'm feeling extra spicy.