Happy Holidays

And here we are at the final countdown, and all what I want is to spend time with my family, do some fun things, bake, cook and laugh...so I will be away from this space in the next week and just wanted to stop by today to wish you the best Holidays ever.
I hope you are going to spend these days with your family also..because that is what these season is all about.
Happy Holidays!

{image by Sara Tavares}
 

Edible Presents

Last week my home looked like North Pole. I baked, cooked ,packed over and over..and I felt such a joy doing it.
I am sure that one who receive these brown bags full of homemade treats, will feel a bit of my joy.

If you are wondering what is inside, here is a list:

Masala Chai and Banana Bread Granola from My New Roots
Orange and White Chocolate Cookies
Garlic and Herb Saltfrom from Nicole Franzen
Fennel, Beetroot and Apple Chutney from Popina

Sunny Breakfast

During the week we don't have much time for our breakfast. We keep it quite simple (and fast), without imagination.
But weekends are completely different.

I am usually a one who get up first, and not long after my son is with me in the kitchen and we start our breakfast preparations, and last weekends we made scones..
When rest of my family get up, house already smell on freshly baked scones.

We take our time eating good food, planing our weekend and speaking about week behind us.
 I wish we could have breakfasts like that every day.

Spelt Scones
(adopted from Jamie Oliver 'Ministry of Food')

450g spelt flour, plus extra for dusting
2ts baking powder
120g soy margarine
salt
2 large eggs
5tbs rice milk, plus extra for brushing

Preheat the oven to 200C. Pulse the flour, baking powder and butter in a food processor just until the mixture starts to look like breadcrumbs. Transfer to a mixing bowl and make a well in the middle.
In another bowl, beat the eggs and milk with a fork.
Pour your beaten eggs and milk into the well in the flour mixture and stir well,adding a splash more milk if necessary until you have a soft dough.

Dust a clean work surface and rolling pin with flour. Roll out the dough until it's 2cm thick. Using 7cm round cutter cut out circles and place them on a non stick baking sheet. Dip a pastry brush into some milk and brush the top of each scone. Bake for 10-15 min, until risen and brow.

My weekend

A year passed so quickly and it was a time for a new visit to Quinta do Arneiro.
Lisbon was in fog that morning,but when we arrived at the farm, sun was fully shining .

I couldn't wish for nicer December day... friends around, kids running and playing, comforting winter food .. I would like to spend all my Saturdays like that.

Simple Spelt Bread

Hello you, I am thinking about asking you something this morning.
Did you ever bake your own bread?

I was making bread this morning,it takes place of my daily routine, and I though about reasons I love to do that. It is such a satisfying and stress relieve process..feeling the dough between your fingers, kneading it over and over, seeing it grow, smell of fresh bread and taste of hot bread with butter...

If you never baked your bread (and doing it in a bread machines doesn't count) this is a great recipe for starters. It is really simple, you just can't fail with it, and it is really tasty.
Please let me know if you try to make it, I want to hear about your experience.

Simple Spelt Bread

250ml water
7g dried yeast
2ts sea salt
400g spelt flour (and some extra for sprinkling)
1tbs sugar

Put water in a large mixing bowl with the yeast and whisk until it has dissolved. Add salt, flour and sugar and mix into a soft dough. Knead well on a floured surface for a couple of minutes. You should have a firm dough. Sprinkle with flour, covert with a clean tea towel and leave to prove in a warm place for 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.

Punch down the dough, sprinkle with flour and place on the prepared baking tray.Cower with the tea towel again and leave to prove in a warm place for 1 hour, or until the bread has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 240C. Dip a sharp knife in a cold water and make 1 diagonal cut on top of bread. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 min, or until golden brown.

 

Instagram November

Do you have a same feeling as I do? I feel like November passed in a blink of my eye, and we are already in December thinking about Christmas.

November is my favourite months, not just because it is a month of my birthday but also because I think it is a time where natural changes are most obvious.
Colours change completely , days are shorter , sky has amazing colour..I love November !!
This is how my November looked like:

Follow my daily inspirations on Instagram.

Red Bean Soup

 

If you ask me about typical Bosnian dishes, my list would definitely include read bean soup.

I could bet that average Bosnian family eat this soup at least once a week during the winter.

 

It's name can fool you, it may be a soup but in a same time it is a meal...eaten with cheese and bread , you don't want nothing else but that.

I remember , as a kid, I use to dive small bits of bread in the soup and I loved taste of soaked bread.

 

My mum doesn't use carrot and green leaves, but I though it would be nice to have them and I like this version.

 

Red Bean Soup

2l water
3 cups soaked red beans
1 onion, finally chopped
4 cloves garlic
1/2 chorizo, cut into small peaces
1tbs salt
1/2 tbs red paprika
1tbs olive oil
2 carrots, cut into cubes
2tbs spelt flour (or what flour)
2 handful of green leaves (spinach, rocket, chard, mizuna)

Put water, beans, onion, garlic, chorizo, salt, paprika and olive oil in the big pan and cook on a medium-high heat for around 1 hour or until you see that beans are tender and cooked.
Take garlic cloves out.
Take some liquid from the soup and mix with flour, stir into the soup. Add green leaves and cook for more 10 minutes.

Tips: If you see , during the cooking, that there is not enough liquid in the soup feel free to add some water.

Working with Sara

Sara came with the spring.
She sent me a really cute mail introducing herself and her work and I just couldn't resist and had to meet her in person. We met, drank lemonade, spoke a bit and I knew this was a beginning of good and long lasting relation.

I had some small projects I wanted to do with her and I am so happy I did. She was really professional and I loved her style.
Here are some of the things Sara did for me and I hope to show you more in the future!!

{Photos and Video by Sara Dávila Evangelista}

Lemon and Ginger Cake

Just one more month is missing!!
There is such an excitement in our house, kids don't speak about nothing else but Christmas. They already did advent calendar, letter for Santa is almost ready (even they wake up every morning and remember to add 'just one more thing' to the list {*smile}) and I am thinking abut our dinner menu...

I know what are you going to say.. there is still a month to go, but since I want to make presents or buy some handmade once..there is a lot of preparations left.
I just want to enjoy every single Christmas detail without any rush!!!
This lemon and ginger cake is perfect for Christmas morning with coffee or tea.

Lemon and Ginger Cake 
(adopted from Sweet Paul Magazine)

225g softened butter
250g sugar
4 large eggs
zest and juice of 3 lemons
 360g flour
3/4 ts baking powder
1/2 ts salt
2ts ground ginger
100g sour cream
50g candied ginger
1tbs iced sugar

Preheat the oven to 175C. In the bowl of a standing mixer cream sugar and butter until pale. Add eggs, one at a time, Mix in lemon zest. Add sour cream. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, ground and candied ginger. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture. Pour batter into the greased pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until the toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. In the meantime make juice of 3 lemons and mix with icing sugar,heat. When you take a cake from the oven , immediately put hot lemon juice over and leave to cool.


 

Dinner to remember

As you probably know, last week I made 40.. and that my friend is a great reason to celebrate.
I wanted to have a dinner with people that make part of my daily life, once that are there when needed, with whom I can share good and bed news.
Since the beginning I knew I wanted to make it at Chef Nino, cosy and beautiful place that has a special place in my hart. Anna and Nini said yes immediately and since then they were so cool about making all my wishes come true {*smile}.
Their place is so pretty and I knew I don't need to do some extra decorations, but I wanted just some small personalised touches..and here enters Rita, with her great style and amazing work.
I just loved, loved, loved what she did (go here to see more).

These 3 ladies made my dream come true and I am so thankful for all they did. It was such a great dinner and night to remember!!!!

Autumn Inspirations

Cold days arrived finally and I just want to spend days in the house baking and cooking.
I crave for a comfort food ,are you the same?
In case you do I wanted to share few of my pinterest inspirations, some of the dishes I am planing to try in following days.
 Hope you find them interested also.

{Light veggie soup topped with goat cheese by Kwestia Smaku}

{Plum Tart by Nicole Franzen and Camille Becerra}

{Tzatziki, feta, dried tomatoes and arugula by Kwestia Smaku}

{Orange cardamom yogurt cake by Five And Spice}

{Rice Loafs by El Invitado de Invierno}

{Peach and berry gingersnap crumble by Kimberley Hasselbrink}

 

My friend Maja's Cookies

Maja is a very good friend, one of those people you know almost all the life.
She is a part of lot of my memories..happy and sad ones, a person with whom we can spend hours together without speaking a word. We though the same way, we loved a same things.

Now we live more then 3000km away, and we speak from time to time, exchange mails, see each other when I go back home, but even if we try hard, we are not there for each other, we don't exchange our daily experiences and I must admit by the time we got apart....

Some time ago she sent me a recipe for these beautiful cookies and I though they were great.I wanted to share recipe with you..but what I would like most is to share them with my friend Maja while having a long conversation about all that we could remember, important and unimportant things.

Orange and White Chocolate Cookies

80g butter
1 orange
70g sugar
300g flour
1ts baking powder
100g white chocolate
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Put the butter, sugar, juice and zest of orange and chocolate in a bowl and melt it in a bain-marie.
In the other bowl mix flour and baking powder.
When chocolate mix is ready, gently add an egg and fold in dry ingredients.
If mix is still sticky add a bit more flour.

Make small balls with your hands, place on the baking sheet and gently press them. Bake for 10-12min (they have to stay white, don't let them change the colour).
If you like , sprinkle some icing sugar over the cookies and they are ready!!


 

P.S. These cookies make a great Christmas present. Tie them with twine and place in box, put your imagination working {*smile}

My weekend

Hello there!!
After a week of celebrating {*smile} , I am back... with a bit of hangover from being center of attention .
So...after all of the excitement I just wanted a calm weekend, and what is better then visiting one of my favourite places.

Hope you had a nice one too!!!

Welcome to the circus

There is something special about our partnership with De Alma e Coração.
Besides the happiness and good mood that is always present , Rita always come to me with a challenge. And believe me, I do love challenges.

Latest challenge was a dessert table for a special wedding.. a different one, a 'circus wedding' .
I knew this included a lot of planing and work but I was so crazily happy about it.
Here you can see some of the photos with cookies I made for kids and if you are curious (and I am sure you are), you can see more HERE.
Enjoy!!!

{Party:  De Alma e Coração}
{Photos: Rodrigo Cardoso - De Alma e Coração}