Banana Chocolate Muffins

With some very ripe bananas in the fruit bowl, it was about time to bake again...This time a recipe from Nigella Lawson's Kitchen that fellow food blogger from Avonturen in de keuken (Adventures in the kitchen) tested out before me and inspired me to bake...a recipe for Banana Chocolate Muffins! They are really easy to make, and taste really great!

Banana Chocolate Muffins
(makes 12)

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas
1,25 dl vegetable oil
2 eggs
100 gr sugar
225 gr all-purpose flour
3 tbsp dark cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda

Preparation:
1.) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius and line a muffin tin with paper cups.
2.) Peel the bananas, and mash them in a medium sized bowl.
3.) Add vegetable oil and the eggs, and mix well.
4.) Add sugar and stir.
5.) Mix the flour, cocoa powder and soda in a separate bowl, and sift it into the banana mixture. Stir well.
6.) Fill the cups twothirds up, and bake for 20 minutes on the middle rack of the oven.
7.) Let the muffins cool down for 5 minutes in the muffin tin, before transferring them onto a rack to cool down more.

Hubby rating: 4 (out of 6; would have been 5, with chocolate chips added to the dough)

Enjoy!

Sunflower Seed Bread

It's Sunday, no supermarkets are open and we're out of bread....With Monday just around the corner, and packed lunches to be prepared....it's about time to try that recipe for Sunflower Seed Bread that I found on the website of the Norwegian dairy company Tine. I'm not the best at baking with yeast, so this recipe for bread using baking powder was definitely welcome....and the best of all, it turned out great! I was afraid that it wouldn't be harty enough, as it's made mainly with all-purpose flour...but the sunflower seeds absolutely weigh up for the lack of more harty types of flour. Two to three slices of this bread will keep you going for a couple of hours!

Sunflower Seed Bread
(makes 1 loaf)

Ingredients:
7 dl all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3 dl sunflower seeds
1 tsp salt
3 dl water
0,5 dl melted butter
300 gr quark

Preparation:
1.) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2.) Butter a loaf tin and use about 1 dl of the sunflower seeds to line the loaf tin with.
3.) Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and the rest of the sunflower seeds into a medium sized bowl.
4.) Add the water, melted butter and quark and stir until turning into a dough.
5.) Transfer the dough into the loaf tin and sprinkle with some sunflower seeds.
6.) Bake the bread for approximately 1 hour on the lower rack of the oven.
7.) Let the bread cool down on a rack.

Hubby rating: 4.5

Enjoy!

Christmas Cards

Every year I have big plans for Christmas - especially plans for making my own Christmas Cards - but when it comes down to it, I always end up not sending any... So to make sure that I will stick to my good intentions this year, I dropped by one of my favorite stores in Oslo when I was there earlier this week on a business trip. The Paper Gallery at Norway Designs is like heaven on earth for anyone who loves scrapbooking, origami or any other type of paper crafts.

Norway Designs

Stortingsgate 28

Tel. (+47) 23 11 45 50

post@norwaydesigns.no

It ain't cheap - especially compared to ready made cards - but the selection is divine and as soon as you enter, you feel inspired. So 45 minutes later and 50 euro poorer, I was well prepared for making my own Christmas cards. The result :

I can't wait to send my dear family and friends all these cards to wish them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Apple Chocolate Muffins

Today is the Day of the Apple in Norway.... No, it's got nothing to do with Steve Jobs' passing away or any of those beloved iProducts... Just those ordinary old fashioned apples... To celebrate this "huge" event, I made some Apple Chocolate Muffins.

As October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I bought some pink muffin forms to support the Pink Ribbon Campaign. Would you like to support this great cause, you can buy these muffin forms online at Cacas - a Norwegian supplier of baking and cake decorating equipment.

Apple Chocolate Muffins
(makes about 18)

Ingredients:
125 gr butter, melted
4,5 dl all-purpose flour
1 dl sugar
2 tsp baking powder
300 gr vanilla quark
2 eggs
75 gr dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
2-3 apples, skinned, deseeded and chopped finely
1 dl dessicated coconut

Preparation:
1.) Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2.) Melt the butter and set aside.
3.) Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder into a medium sized bowl.
4.) Add the eggs, vanilla quark and melted butter and stir, turning the mixture into a dough.
5.) Add the dark chocolate and the pieces of apple and stir.
5.) Line a muffin tin with paper cups and fill each cup two thirds up.
6.) Sprinkle a little dessicated coconut on each muffin. (I made some without the coconut sprinkled on top, and I definitely prefered those with coconut...it made all the different tastes of vanilla, chocolate and apple come together!)
7.) Bake the muffins for 25 minutes on the middle rack of the oven.
8.) Let the muffins cool down for five minutes in the muffin tin, before removing them to a rack to cool down more.

Hubby rating: 3

Enjoy!

Knitted cushion

With the leaves changing colour and the weather getting colder, it is again time for fire crackling in the fireplace, hot cocoa on the couch, new episodes of great shows on TV, swapping to my warm winter duvet....and last but not least...lots of indoor crafts!

My sister has moved into a new appartment and needed something to pimp up her IKEA couch...so this weekend I made some cushions for her. The pattern comes from Drops Design, but I changed it a little bit to make the knitting a little bit easier. Whereas the original pattern has cables both on front and back, I knitted the backside with just garter stitches.....and instead of knitting front and back separately, I used a circular needle to knit front and back together as a tube. That gives you the following pattern:

Knitted cushion with cables

Cast on 88 sts on a circular needle size 12 mm.
Row 1: knit all stitches, putting a marker before stitch nr 1 and nr 45.
Row 2: purl all stitches.
Row 3: knit all stitches.
Row 4: purl all stitches.
Row 5: knit all stitches.
Row 6: purl all stitches.
Row 7: knit all stitches
Row 8:
- first 3 stitches: keep alternating between purling and knitting in continuance with the previous rows to keep the pattern of garter stitches.
- purl 2
- knit 2
- purl 3
- knit M.1 (see below)
- purl 3
- knit M.2 (see below)
- purl 3
- knit M.1
- purl 3
- knit 2
- purl 3
- remaining stitches: same as first 3 stitches - keep alternating between purling and knitting in continuance with the previous rows to keep the pattern of garter stitches.

Continue knitting the pattern described for row 8, taking notice of changes in M.1 and M.2, until the piece measures 46 cm, adjusting the length to M.1/M.2.
Then work 6 rows of garter stitches (alternating between knitting and purling in continuance with the previous rows, and cast off.
Turn the piece inside out, keep stitch number 1 in one corner and stitch number 45 in the other corner, and bind off on one side and sew in a zipper on the other side.



Enjoy!