Far away from being perfect...

Today is one of these days when everything goes wrong. It already started when I got up in the morning and wanted to take a shower. I had just put shampoo into my hair when suddenly the water stopped to come out of the tap. No water at all, not a single drop. Fortunately I had some water left in a bottle in the kitchen but it wasn't much so I had to dry my hair with half of the shampoo still being in it. Of corse all of that completely changed my time schedule, so no breakfast, no gröt today, no look at the newspaper just rushing to work.
The next thing that happened was that I got out of the bus and stepped into a huge puddle, so that both of my shoes were completely full of water. In the office my boss was in a bad mood and didn't like my presentation, so that didn't go very well either. I can't tell how happy I am to come home and (maybe) be able to take a real shower and just go to bed.

So good night to all of you!

Kram,

Isabell

Recycled home accessories

Yogurt and mousse au chocolate with dark or white chocolate from France.... is "mumsfilibaba"! As soon as anybody goes to France, I convince him/her to bring some yogurts or other sweet things in these small cups made of glass. The design of these small glass cups is really good, so I decided to put a tea light in it:

But of course you can also use it as a small bowl and put compote in it for a dessert or use is for flowers. It is also very though glass, so you can put it into the dishwasher.

Kram,

Isabell

Flowers are a girl's best friend...

Sometimes you should do something good for yourself. Something you really like. In my case it's flowers. In summer I have white hydrangeas in my kitchen window, it is my absolute favorite flower. You can dry the flowers and also reuse them as a door wreath like in this picture:

Photo: livingathome.de

In winter it's hyacinths and amaryllis. The smell of the hyacinth is so nice, it's one of the smells of Christmas. I can't wait to got to the fragrant flower market where they sell bulbs and flowers that are ready together with my dad. It's like a tradition we always go there together and buy and plant everything for Christmas.

Photo: krusagarden blogg

But for today and this week, I bought myself these flowers. So go and get yourself something you really like!

Kram,

Isabell

Gröt - a perfect breakfast for a winter day

Yesterday it started to snow here so it's time to start my winter-breakfast and this is a perfect breakfast when it is cold outside. In summer I often eat fresh fruits with yogurt or drink smoothies for breakfast. Winter si a completely different thing, because you need more energy.
I start working at 8 am and at 10 am my tummy starts to demand for more food... but with this breakfast I'm able to convince him to wait for lunch. In Swedish it is called "gröt" which corresponds to the word "mash", in this case I prepare a porridge. But you can also prepare it with rice or semolina. The creamed rice version is the one children in Sweden put outside for Father Christmas, so if he can work with that all night, you should be able to work until lunch!

It's very easy and doesn't take long time:

For one big plate take 250 ml milk and heat it:

choose your favourite oat flakes and add  approx. 1 3/4 dl oat flakes (it depends on how viscous you like it). Be careful because the flakes will swell.

bring to a short boil while stirring (I take a coated pot to be sure not to burn it), as soon as it starts to get bubbles that explode, put it away from the oven and fill it into a soup plate:

Add apple sauce or any jam you like, in this case I chose lingonberries.

Kram,

Isabell

A simple German Apfelstrudel - apple strudel

Apple strudel is a typical South-German/Austrian dish. It is the season for apples right now so that makes it a perfect dessert for an autumn afternoon. To prepare the dough is really not easy and you need to be patient as you need to roll it out very very thin. I've tried it several times and I've turned the kitchen into a flour and dough battlefield. :)

There are not many things that I give up, I'm a little bit stubborn and I try it again and again and again... but strudel dough and "Zimtstern" (star-shaped cinnamon biscuit) dough are the ones I buy. I live in Munich, so you can buy the dough in the supermarkets, but you can also buy it in Turkish or Greek groceries, it's called "filo dough".

Here is what you need:

6 filo dough sheets per apple strudel (= 3 apple strudel for approx. 8-10 persons)
6-8 apples (depending on the size of the apple)
50 gr butter
500 gr curd cheese
2 packages of vanilla sugar
2 egg
cinnamon
(raisins)

Preheat the oven to 190 °C upper and lower heat and melt the butter:

Mix curd cheese, egg and vanilla sugar with an egg whip:

peel the apples

grate the apples:

put the curd cheese -mix on the filo dough and spread it over the entire dough

add the grated apples

and the raisins 

and finally the cinnamon

cover it with the 2nd filo dough

roll it

and put it into a greased backing form

and butter the dough

Put it into the oven and bake for approx. 35 minutes.

and enjoy :)

Have a nice evening!

Kram,

Isabell

Adam and Eve

I've bought these two wonderful coffee cups from Gustavsberg this summer, the designer is called Stig Lindberg (1916-1982). These are my favorite cups for breakfast on weekends. The blue one is from the Adam series and the red one is from the Eve series. The names are interesting too, if you have a closer look you see the Adam pattern fits into the Eve pattern.

At first I thought that it might be a good idea to have 2 identical coffee cups, but now I'm really happy that I bought two different styles. It's nicer to mix things and I can't say which one I prefer. So it's the best to have them both!

There is another style which I really like, it's called "Ribb":

Photo: Lillemor Åkerman

and of course the most famous one "Berså":

Photo: husohem.se

The last style has inspired some artists as well, like the prints from Handz : 

Photo: Handz

I also like the jewellery made from Stig Lindbergs porcelain:

Photo: Scandinavian Objects Berlin

Kram,

Isabell

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

I just woke up and couldn't believe it, it has started to snow! It's something special with the first snow. It tells me that it's not long time until Christmas, my favourite season of the year. I can't wait to get all my decorations down from our attic: old things that are from my grandparent's parents, new old things that I found while visiting Swedish flea markets (I find a lot there!) and of course my self-made decorations and new decorations. Have to be patient for 1 month ...
As we have always celebrated Swedish Christmas in my family, most of the decorations I have and the Christmas traditions we celebrate are Swedish, but of course I also mix it with German traditions like St. Nicholas' Day. Why not celebrating as much as you can if you have 2 cultures to pick from?

Photo:dpa

From my window the world looks like this:

Kram,

Isabell

Fake Fireplace

Always wanted to have a fireplace. It's cozy and nice and warm and I can sit there for hours just watching the fire burn. It somehow calms me down and gets me relaxed. As we don't have a real fireplace in our apartment, we decided to buy a bioethanol fireplace. Of course it's not the same as a real one, but I think it comes close to it. The wood billets you see in the fireplace are made of ceramics so they never burn but make it more realistic:

For the perfect fake fireplace I've put some real wood billets as decoration below my books:

And if you respect certain rules like not refilling it with bioethanol while it is still burning /the tins which you refill are still warm, it's a good alternative for a real fireplace.

Kram,

Isabell

Friday.... finally

This week has been a long week as I have been working a lot and got ill. But finally it's friday. I love fridays, leaving the office and knowing that you have 2 days off is a wonderful feeling. Time for yourself and the ones you love. On my way home I'm always passing a little bookshop with an old man selling his books with such a passion, that I couldn't resist and bought an audio book from François Lelord : Hector finds time. Especially in autumn and winter I like to hear audio books or Swedish radio while preparing food or just to relax after a long day.

Photo: amazon.com

So have a nice friday evening!

Kram,

Isabell

Christmas at H&M Home 2012

Today I read some Swedish bloggs and found the first pictures for the Christmas Collections at H&M Home. So let's have look what they're going to have :

H & M

Photo: Sofiasglossip blogg

Personally for me this is a little bit too much with the golden sequins on the table, but I like the stars and of course Christmas is always a little bit too much.

Photo: Sofiasglossip blogg

This is a nice alternative, if you don't like the traditional red, green and white colours.

Photo: Sofiasglossip blogg

I really like the knitted pillow cover on the left .

It's going to be nice to see what Ikea and the other companies will have for Christmas. I'll check that and let you know.

Kram,

Isabell

Turn the lights on.

Light makes everything look different and gives situations a special mood. I can close my eyes and see my Swedish grandmother lighting just a single candle on the wooden table in her little kitchen and see the flickering warm light on her face while she is praying her evening prayer, her part of the day that meant meditation for her.

I've always preferred small light spots or candles rather than a ceiling light that might be helpful if you are desperately looking for your keys, but otherwise reminds me of administrative offices. At work I refuse to turn on the Halogen bulb, which for me is the worst light you can turn on. Instead I turn on my desk lamp and another small lamp on the window board. When it starts to get darker I'm always trying to bring warm light into my daily life.

One of my best friends in Denmark has chains of small white paper lantern lights around her door when it starts to get darker, which I really like. Maybe I should get one myself. I also found a nice one at www.impressionen.de :

Photo: www.impressionen.de

or that one:

Photo: www.mirabeau.de

Kram,

Isabell

Carl Larsson

Today I would like to introduce a famous Swedish painter who got popular all over the world: Carl Larsson (1853 - 1919)

I really like his pictures showing Swedish life at that time and his own house and family. His wife Karin had a very modern and personal way of furnishing the house. It still looks the same as it did when Carl and Karin lived there and can be visited ( Carl Larsson )

The bedroom as a painting:

Picture: thedecorologist.com

The bedroom today:

Picture: thedecorologist.com

The diningroom as a painting:

Picture: thedecorologist.com

The dining room today:

Picture: thedecorologist.com

When visiting ahlens.se 's website I found these pillows which I really like and which remind me of the furniture Karin Larsson used in their home. This is something I'm going to buy in Sweden in December, for sure :)

Pics: Åhlens

Kram,

Isabell

David Rio vs me

David Rio? Who is that?

David Rio is a company from San Francisco producing Chai tea mixtures. Add warm/cold water/milk to the Chai powder and it is ready. I really like it, but sometimes it's a little bit too sweet as it also contains a lot of sugar.

That's why I started to make my own Chai Tea with milk.

You will need:

approx. 700 ml milk (you can also mix 2/3 milk and 1/3 water)
7-8 black peppercorns
5-6 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
6 cardamom capsules
3-4 star anise
2-3 table spoons Earl Grey tea
2 table spoons honey or 1-2 table spoons sugar
pinch of nutmeg

Choose the spices you like and take my recipe as a basic recipe, which can be altered. Add more/less milk or spices, just the way you like it!

Add sugar or honey and boil

Remove the pot from the hot plat and let it brew for a couple of minutes.

and I got to use the new teapot ;)

Kram,

Isabell