Friday 28 July 2017

Gluten free StrawberryCake

It is time for the fresh strawberries! Here is my on recipe for you to bake a summer cake! It is easy so called nude cake and can be done during the day or two. So you need just few minutes now and then during a busy day to make it. You need the strawberries only when filling it so you can for example bake the cake on the late evening before going to sleep, then next day coming from the work get the strawberries and fill the cake. And on the evening just before you need it you can decorate it.

StrawberryCake

4 eggs

Pour the eggs into a glass, mug or something. Don't shake. Notice the part of the glass which the eggs touch gets wet surface inside the glass. Pour gently the eggs into the baking bowl.

NOW measure as much sugar as there was eggs in the glass. Meaning that put so much sugar into the glass until its surface reaches the level the eggs reached. Got it? To that wet part of the glass only.

Mix eggs and sugar well to become foam.

How well? Until you are able to draw the monograms of the one you love by lifting up the beater up (turn it off my dear!!!) and letting the dough drain down. When the monograms stay until finished and you can still see the monograms for a tiny moment -that's enough. 💜

NOW measure as much naturally gluten free flour mix as there was sugar in the glass (I use Semper FinMix and no, they still don't sponsor me, it just is a good mix).

1½ teaspoon baking powder

Mix well flour and baking powder into the dough.

Put it all into 26 cm diameter round baking tray and cook in 175 Celsius degrees for about 45 minutes. Keep your ye on it. It is ready when you try it by wooden toothpick and nothing wet gets attached to it.

Slice the cake (when it has cooled down proper) to two parts (base & top). Moisten the cake by milk (or water). How much depends on it what you like. I used ½ dl for the base and ½ dl for the top. If it happened that it was for a bit too long in the oven build the cake upside down. Meaning; change the top part to become the base upside down. Use a bit more milk to moisten it. During the time the damage is fixed. You need just few more hours to let it be in the fridge when filled up.(If the cover is burnt you can take dark parts away.)

Whip well
4dl cream

Add and mix well
½ dl sugar


Spread half of the whipped cream over the base.

5 dl fresh strawberries
Slice one by one and spread over the cream side by side until you have enough (= not all).

Place the top over it all. Moisten also the top part. When you are just about to eat the cake spread the rest of the cream over it and place the rest whole strawberries for the taste and decoration.

Notice that I have put up GlutenFreeZone page! From there you can find general instructions for gluten free cooking and baking! It is made up especially for those who don't have coeliac disease (or have a fresh diagnose with it and are a bit confused) but sometimes want to serve gluten free.

Wednesday 26 July 2017

SummerFeelings

  
First of all I want to make an official announcement about it that we have finally had bits of summer here up in TheNorth. What a luxury it is to have your lunch on the terrace in the garden enjoying about the +22 Celsius heat wave!

I am enjoying about MyGarden and its new flowers I plant last autumn. It all survived over the winter and weird cold spring.

It seems someone else loves MyGarden too. But that's ok. They all do an important job. To be honest - the spring was so cold - we all were so afraid of what had happen to all the insects. There seem not to be many this year but the ones that survived seem so busy that they really have no time to chat when visiting. Sometimes they are so overloaded that they fly confused around seeking a place to rest. MyDog would like to eat them as candies because they taste so sweet but I do my best to let the bees and other important creatures to rest and then fly away to their homes only to come back. Their work seems out like moms' who are trying to get rid of the everlasting laundry pile!

But who cloud resist these rare moments in Finland's year when all the colors pop out instead of just being white, blue or green?

Lately MyCat has been very helpful. She is soon 10 years and has finally learnt there is no need to eat insects; they make Her only to feel sick and vomit. Finally She has found other amusement for herself over the summer days!

She has got bite of the weaving bug! She is very interested especially about the moments when we need more weft. She seems to hang around just in case I need more! I've been nagging at Her it is not very nice when She bites it and it gets wet! But She says it will dry out soon, just keep going on!

So, we've been weaving RagRug. I use old VHS tape (black), curtains (green) and old unused fabric I inherit from my grandmother (blue). I make this RagRug for our outdoor stairs. The old door mats I bought from IKEA several years ago were so worn out that I needed to throw them away already.

1,9 meters is done by now. I need for about 1 meter more before it's long enough. It is my own design.

I know (and She knows) that nothing heavy (She is not heavy She says, just 3,2 kg) should be placed over the warp because it stretches out the warp threads! (She says She stays there only to watch out MyStuff so that TheDog won't steal nor bite anything.)





Monday 24 July 2017

Rag -tutorial

If you have old unused fabrics or old used fabrics (bed linen, curtains, dresses, shirts etc.) you can reuse them again in craft making. Old clothes have always been used in patchwork but you can use them also in weaving and crocheting; why not in knitting too.

Cut the fabrics in this way. Pay attention on the turn ups. You can use the scissors but I usually use the scissors only to cut the start and then tear the rest. Depending on the fabric it may be very easy to tear it. Usually the easiest direction is according to the weft but sometimes it works better to the warp direction. I tear it up always when possible to work fast but also to get the weft straight and even.

How wide you should make the rag weft to be? It depends on it how thick the fabric is, what you are making and by which method. 1½-2 cm is max for the crocheting and knitting so that it still is easy to work with without stressing too much your hands. (Take big enough hook or needles.) For weaving you can use also thicker if you like. Notice that if you tear the rag it vanishes few millimeters by both edges.

Wind up the rag weft turn out to be a ball. If you are using flexible material be aware of not to stretch it. Wind up always over your four fingers which hold the ball, then loose the hand, change direction / point a bit and wind up again. The ball should not be too tight so that it can hold in the material without damages (stretching & getting wrinkled too much).

For rag weft you can use also old VHS and Cassette tapes. There is a lot in each so open one at a time to avoid a huge mess with them. You can use VHS and Cassette tapes straight from the reel that's inside. If you remember or happen to know 😊 Cassette Tape is much thinner than VHS tape so it suits better for smaller hooks.

Old fabrics and tapes you can ask always from friends, buy at second hand and charity shops. Make sure everything is clean before using. It is very eco-friendly craft making but also excellent method if you need to keep up the budget. Not to mention to save those old pretty / emotionally valuable pieces of clothes your heart doesn't allow you to throw away but brains keep on nagging you can only hide them in your wardrobe or attic!

What to make of rag? Rugs and baskets are good to start to try it out.


Saturday 22 July 2017

CookingConversionCharts

Now I have managed to make two more conversion charts for you. They are up to MyGlutenFreeRecipes  which I have published here on MyBlog. You can find the recipes by viewing the web version and then seeing the labels on the right when scroll down a bit. If you click "gluten free" it shows you each post up to gluten free life (also the recipes) but if you want to see only MyGlutenFreeRecipes click the label "recipes". 


You can see the conversion charts down below but they are also at the page ConversionCharts. You can find the ConversionCharts page again by viewing the web version. It is there on the right side (at top).


PS. DearJ, thanks for the idea to this blog post. XXX

Cooking conversion chart to understand deciliters
Measure
Abbreviation
Milliliter
Deciliter
1 teaspoon
tsp
5 ml
0,05 dl
1 tablespoon
tbsp
15 ml
0,15 dl
1 desiliter
dl
100 ml
1 dl
1 American cup
US cup
240 ml
2,4 dl
1 American pint
US pint
480 ml
4,8 dl
1 British cup
UK cup
280 ml
2,8 dl
1 British pint
UK pint
570 ml
5,7 dl
© TaijaS


Cooking conversion chart to understand grams
(The chart is indicative and directive only. See always the package.)
Ingredient
Form
Grams
Deciliter
Margarine
Liquid
90 g
1 dl
Margarine
Melt
90 g
1 dl
Butter
Melt
90 g
1 dl
Cooking oil
Liquid
90g
1 dl
Sugar
Caster
85 g
1 dl
Sugar
Brown
70 g
1 dl
Sugar
Icing
55g
1 dl
Syrup
Liquid
140 g
1 dl
Cheese
Grated
50 g
1 dl
Cocoa
Powder
40 g
1 d
Flour
Gluter free mix
55 g
1 dl
Flour
Buckwheat
70 g
1 dl
Flour
Wheat
70 g
1 dl
© TaijaS


Friday 21 July 2017

PictureYourPet

Already on 2011 - almost 6 years ago- I found a wonderful cross stitch book which I want to share with you. This excellent cross stitch book by Claire Crompton "Picture Your Pet in Cross Stitch" has incredible over 400 animal portraits and motifs. I still like the book and I used to have a permanent link about it on the right side of the blog page (seen on the web version). I have done some re-arrangements in my blog so it was time to create the book post with the cover pic for this great book so that it won't vanish from my blog!  This book really is worth of buying if you need animal cross stitch ideas.

Thursday 20 July 2017

ZebraCrossing

Yesterday I posted about StreetLights woollen socks. I have designed another pair for you and it's ZebraCrossing woollen socks. As you can notice I have not knit them but I need to show you the idea. The basic colour is black. The foot part is plain knit with white stripes. You can make just three stripes or fill the whole foot area by them. I am sure all the boys love both StreetLights and ZebraCrossing woollen socks and wear them volunteer. Have fun in knitting!

Wednesday 19 July 2017

StreetLights

I designed and knit StreetLight woollen socks for DearN and His coming Christmas 2017. Two years ago He got FinlandWoollenSocks. He liked them a lot but has overgrown from them now. He was happy when I promised to make a new pair for Him but didn't tell what kind of woollen socks they will be at this time. He goes to the school this year so traffic rules are very important now and He's been learning them well.

I used Bubble Stitches to create the street light effect on the dirt road. There is tutorial for Mosaic Bubble Stitching in MyPreviousBlogPost. On these StreetLight woollen socks the bubbles come one over the other, not interlocked like on the mosaic style, but the basic method to knit them is the same.

I used left over threads without labels from the box of yarns I inherit from MyGranny so I can't name which trademarks I used. The red and yellow yarns feel like acrylic. The green feels like Novita's 7 veljestä old quality. That sand brown yarn feels like wool mix but of course I can not be sure about any of them. The sand brown yarn feels like the one I used in BabyBlanketNo4 and BabyBlanketNo5 which DearN got last year. The sand brown I used for these socks was the only ball of that shade but on the other hand it was in the same box than the yarns I used for the blankets...

Connecting different kind of yarns for woollen socks is possible if you use them as a decoration. These kind of products you should wash carefully but with woollen products it is always done so if you don't want to felt them on purpose or accidentally.


Sunday 16 July 2017

StripedSocks

 
I designed and knit a pair of woollen socks for Him in May. I used Novita's Tuomas yarn (100g = 189m) (40% wool, 35% acrylic and 25% polyamide). Now I made one more pair for Him by using the same yarn. The stripes are in different order and the heels are also a bit different. He says they are too pretty to be used in hunting.

He has not used them yet. He says they wait for the chilly autumn season. When ever He starts to use them I let you know what I think about this yarn and how do they last in the boots. I told Him he needs to use them proper so that we find out is this yarn good or not.


Friday 14 July 2017

BlingBling into MyLife

 
Do you remember that I was in London visiting The Spring Stitching & Knitting Show few months ago? I bought some metallic fibers from there. All these months I have been waiting for the change to take it all out and play with it.

With the metallic fibers I included some wool.

For adding the wool I need my wool cards. Aren't they pretty? He has designed and made them especially for me. The handles of the cards are perfect size for my tiny hands. The design of the handles are designed and made in the way that I get a lot support of them to get more power when carding.

I needed to card the wool to get just a thin layer of wool to be felt with the metallic fiber. The wool forms out like a web over the metallic fiber to keep it stay better on its place. At first I used needle felting to attach the metallic fibers to the base and then needle felting to place the wool web over it all. I used my needle felting mat and it worked just fine.

For this try-out I used old left over felt (from my mother-in-law which she had designed, made and gave to me to be used in my projects). It all sparkles out with fascinating touch. I am not sure yet what to do with it but I do have an idea about it...

Thursday 13 July 2017

AAW Mittens No1

After our Cretan holiday my own design is back. The first think to knit from our new AAW was  a pair of extra warm mittens for someone special. I used both shades of AAW to knit the mittens and left over Novita 7 veljestä yarn for the Lappish style decoration. SantaClaus factor for Xmas 2017 is already here!

Wednesday 12 July 2017

AAW has new shade

Last March we sent again our ethic produced angora wool to the mill. At early July all those kilos of raw wool arrived back as a fine ready made yarn. Unfortunately because of the production's technical reasons the mill had to add FinnSheep wool to it. (I wish they had called us to ask about it so we could have arranged more ethic produced FinnSheep wool for the yarn!)

On these moments when you get your yarn out from the mill you see the point about fussing around the rabbits every single morning and night no matter was it +20 of -20 Celsius degrees (or even colder).

pale fog blue
50% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool
40% ethic produced FinnSheep wool
10% nylon
100g = 238m

New collection of AAW:
snag grey
40% our own ethic produced arctic angora wool
40% FinnSheep wool
(60% of FinnSheep wool is 100% sure ethic produced)
10% arctic dog wool
10% nylon
100g = 238m

I so L O V E them.

It all has natural shades, no chemicals and most of the fibers I know how they have been produced. Only for about total 16% of snag grey yarn I can not be sure about its origin but it still is natural shade without chemicals. Despite of that I am satisfied with the yarn AND have already started SantaClausFactory! 

Tuesday 11 July 2017

CreteDream (part11)

Travelling with coeliac disease is always a bit challenging, interesting, surprising and terrifying. Before going to Crete I knew coeliac disease is relatively unknown in Crete and Greece. I tried to find information about eating gluten free in there but all I found was few hotels serving also gluten free food, few mentions about local shops that sell also gluten free products and few blog posts about it how someone had made gluten free food for herself in Crete. What if I want to eat out?!

Because of gluten free demands we ended up to book a house with kitchen. I carried some basic gluten free supplies with me all the way from home to Crete. We wanted to avoid the situation I have no food and we have no idea where to buy gluten free products.

I knew from my reading, prejudices and expectations that Cretan people are a bit obsessed with their excellent food and eating well & proper. Eating out frightened me quite much. People with coeliac disease know from the experience that when you go into a restaurant and ask gluten free they often are considered as difficult clients and even rather advised go to somewhere else. Too often I am told they have nothing to me or they tell they have everything for me and then I end up only to notice they service me food with gluten. Fashion weight loosing diets -one of them is to avoid gluten- doesn't help because it makes restaurants and people start to consider it as not so serious matter. It neither is an allergy / allergic reaction you can cope with having some antihistamine meds and eat what ever.

That's why I was really surprised when I showed the translation about the issue to our waitress at the local tavern (gluten free restaurant cards you can get for example from here). It was new to her but she really took it all serious and even investigated more information about it on the internet. I really miss and respect her because of all that she did to arrange me gluten free food at the tavern. That's why I -in practical- ate only in the house we rent and at the local tavern. When I was shopping gluten free I faced similar action. All I faced was helpful staff and local people sometimes even reading the Greek text to me in English.

The local tavern in little village of Pigi is Zorbas. It is a hidden gem like the best of them usually are.

When you drive the road from Rethymno to Arkadi this is the crossing where the bus stops (Rethymno-Kyriana) and from this point you need to dive into the village to find Zorbas. (There is no much parking place and the alleys get soon very narrow.)

There is no sign for Zorbas. But right on the other side of the street are signs for the pharmacy and supermarket. They are just 20 meters far away. Go there. You find Zorbas before them. It is not that one on which fence these signs are fastened to.

Zorbas has no sign to that direction.
The sign points to the village.

You recognize it from this beautiful outdoor area under the trees on the square.

The trees lay the shadow over the tables...

...and they have been decorated in a beautiful way.

Actually the whole place is decorated in
 a beautiful and talent way!

There are couches and chairs around different sized tables.

They have also tables inside.

You would not mind about rain
if you could eat in this kind of place.

It all is very inspiring...

...with surprising details...

...in surprising places.

It calls you in and out;
as you like and prefer.

It is warm and welcoming place...

...which service is excellent also for coeliacs. Just let them know what you can have and what not. Let them serve you, they really can do it.

What I learnt in Crete was that their obsession to their excellent Mediterranean food and diet is not selfish nor pride you may face elsewhere. The point of the obsession is to E A T well and proper. When they heard you can not they did all that you could experience the joy of eating well and proper. My prejudice was right but so wrong. I could not even dream abut it what kind of warmth, kindness and friendliness is connected to Cretan food. Eating has always been a problem to me but for the 1st time in my life I experienced a whisper of it what *E A T I N G   W E L L* could possibly mean in happy psychological way around a big table surrounded by old and new friends in a strange place far away from home. There I felt safe despite it was not cooked in MyVeryOwnKitchen. I nether got any problems despite I ate there almost every night in June 2017.

I don't say Zorbas is the only place who can do this but I really encourage coeliacs to go Crete and seek their own LovelyLittleTavern where they can find caring and loving staff for your special food diets. They don't advertise it. Perhaps because good service comes naturally, they don't need to write it up on the wall what they do and don't. They do it all. Service is a part of their eating out culture. Best of Cretan food obsession is that they really need to have something for you!

Once again: Thank you MyDearTavernZorbas about it all! Miss you!

Monday 10 July 2017

CreteDream (part10)

If you are interested about history & culture and want to see a lot in a short time and easy way, you should go to Heraklion. Smartest thing to do is to buy a coach trip. You  do can get there by public transportation, taxi, car bike or hike. I do recommend coach trip because of the experienced guides. You get so much more off the targets and see it through different eyes when someone is guiding you through it all. Our tour guide was a professor of history so it really was worth of paying!

Palace of Knossos is one of those "must see" places. You should understand it is under the construction but it all is mainly broken like all ancient ruins. All the treasures you can see at Archaeological Museum.

At the museum is very illustrative and instructive scale model of the palace. The tickets to the palace are 15€ and to the museum 10€. If you buy a special ticket package which is a combination ticket including both places you pay just 16€ (valid for 3 days) (children under 18 years free) (June 2017).

Michael advised us to go to see also Museum of Ancient Eleutherna. We didn't know it is there despite we've read many guidebooks and articles when planning our holiday on Crete. The museum is accessible also by wheelchair and offers great views around. It is a very modern place to visit despite you'd have some limitations or disabilities. The tickets are 4-2€ (children under 18 years free) (June 2017).

The Ancient Eleutherna is more than the museum. There is still the real Ancient Eleutherna with all the ruins. The museum just holds the treasures.

The area around to the ruins is wide and not accessible by wheel chair (but still worth of driving around by a car to see the old village of Eleutherna where people still live, there you can also wind-up a bit). It includes great walking routes from sight to another. You should not try to bite it all by one visit. It is place where you can go hiking for many times and always to see something new.

We went to see the cisterns.

We didn't have the flashlight with us but it was not necessary. When you stand there by the mouth of the cisterns staring into the darkness for a while your eyes get use to it and adapt pretty soon.

Then you notice you can see more and more and go deeper in despite you have no flash light. Your eyes adapt faster into the darkness than light. It happens even faster if you keep your eyes closed when waiting it to happen. :)

We also drove around a bit and went to see the wider region. Visits to The Monastery of Arkadi and village of Margarites (known from its pottery) are easily connected to Eleutherna trip. In Margarites is a great tavern Mantalos with stunning view.

PS. Tomorrow I will tell you one more story about our CretanHoliday considering gluten free food and eating out as a coeliac in Greece/Crete where coeliac disease is pretty unknown. After that we'll be back to normal craft blogging with few interesting designs and materials I am on at the moment.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...