I am sorry to break the news, but winter is coming really soon! So I started getting ready by knitting these lovely loafers.
I love loafers even if I don’t own any (I am planning to get a pair very soon). Meanwhile I will be wearing these ;)
Knit yours too! The pattern is here.
Have a lovely week!
Rasa xoxo
I love rosemary so I thought I will share my other favourite recipe with it. Rosemary bread is one of the breads that I bake quite often. I hope this bread will also become your daily bread ;).
ROSEMARY BREAD
1. Put all the ingredients together (except the egg yolk) in the bowl reserving a pinch of rosemary for later.
2. Mix the ingredients in the bowl together until well incorporated.
3. Place the dough on the slightly floured surface and start kneading it. Don’t be tempted to add more flour as it won’t help to solve the dough stickiness anyway. Just keep kneading the dough for 10min regardless how much of the dough sticks to your hands.
4. After kneading is done, scrape off as much dough as you can from your fingers and wash your hands. Take some oil in your hand and rub the dough with it. Oil will help to handle a sticky dough and therefore shaping a dough ball should be really easy!
5. Place shaped dough ball into the clean bowl and cover it with cling film. Keep the bowl in warm place, but not in the oven.
6. After 1 hour come back to the dough and see if it has risen. If it doubled in size then go to the next step. If not, then give another 30min.
7. Punch down the dough and form it into a loaf.
8. Dust the baking tin with flour and place the dough inside. Cover it with cling film again and let it rise for another 45min.
9. Once the dough is risen, gently brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle with the rosemary.
10. Bake in preheated 250C (or what ever the highest temperature available) oven for 20-25min until the top is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.
11. Let the bread cool before slicing.
This bread is great for quick lunches as it livens up any boring food!
Enjoy!
Rasa :)
I am so pleased to present Jacolien’s tutorial on how to knit bamboo stitch! It was my first time to learn this stitch and with Jacolien’s help it was soo easy! I met Jacolien in London while she was on her crazy adventurous trip here. Ever since we have become really good blogging buddies! Love it! Here is her blog :)
Have a nice midweek :)
Rasa
Today, as I was picking the vegetables from my garden, I found one courgette that has overgrown it’s regular size. I bet, you won’t find a courgette in the shop that big! So this is why I thought of making courgette crisps :).
First of all, courgette that big produces a good size chips! So this was one of the biggest reasons for my decision…
COURGETTE CRISPS
1. Slice the courgette into thin slices and lay it over lined baking tray. Brush the slices with a little bit of oil.
2. Chop fresh rosemary if using and sprinkle it over the courgette slices together with salt and pepper.
3. Bake in preheated 100C oven for about an hour. Turn and bake for another hour again.
4. Cool it and ready to serve.
Oh… and completely forgot. Happy Vegetarian Day! These courgette crisps are dedicated to you :).
Rasa xoxo
Today I have decided to share the fundamentals of sewing from pattern. Here are the two first tutorials (understanding a pattern and cutting out pattern). More tutorials are on the way once there are more sewing project to work with. For now you can practice on these lovely pieces…
I hope you will find it all useful ;)
Rasa
Since today is an International Coffee Day, I have decided to share how I recently started drinking spiced coffee! I once tried spiced coffee in the food exhibition and it tasted surprisingly AMAZING. Although I would not recommend this coffee for an everyday brew, I occasionally enjoy it on Sunday mornings :).
SPICED COFFEE
(for 2 adventurous coffee drinkers)
I like September not only because it is my birthday month, but also because it is a last warm enough month to enjoy my coffee break outdoors on my terrace. My coffee is usually accompanied with the crepes and jam…hmm. September, you will be missed and this is probably the last Sunday I am enjoying it!
Rasa xoxo
As mentioned previously, we have been knitting mini hats to contribute to Innocent Big Knit campaign. Sadly the time have came to say goodbye to our little hats as they are about to be posted to the Fruit Towers (Innocent Head-office) this afternoon :(.
On the positive note, I hope these little hats will make someone else happy, it could even be you (available from November).
Have a very happy day!
Rasa :)
Recently I have baked passionfruit cheesecake for one of the cafes I supply to and I had too many passion-fruits left. As I really hate food waste I kept thinking what else I can do with passion-fruits until I remembered this passionfruit and coconut cake that I tasted few years ago (baked by my secret competitors… ghhr). I could not get over the taste of it so it wasn’t too difficult to recreate the recipe. It is soo easy to make and you don’t have to have it as a tart: bake the filling on it’s own!
PASSIONFRUIT AND COCONUT TART
For the sweet pastry:
For the filling:
Enjoy!
Rasa :)
I have recently posted on how to start crocheting. I hope you enjoyed the tutorials. For those who want to learn more here is the challenge to crochet circles!
I find crocheting circles is quite fun as you can create many things with it. For instance I have made this crocheted collar just with the circles alone!
Have fun!
Rasa ;)
Recently I shared some preserving and pickling recipes. I hope you enjoyed trying them out! Here is the list of the veg, fruit and berries that I canned this year:
The biggest lesson I have learned is to always sterilise the jars and never wait until the preserves are cooled before canning. So always wash your jars with the soapy water and heat them for 10min in preheated 180C oven just before using them.
Here you can access free printable labels.
Happy autumn canning!
Rasa :)
I grew way too many beetroots this year! Although I am quite happy with this as I love beetroots very much, especially their colour ;) So I asked my grandma for a pickled beets recipe as I knew I would not be able to use all of them before winter. I like this recipe as it doesn’t need any vinegar that sometimes gives a harsh taste (in Lithuania we don’t use much vinegar for cooking). It is simply preserved by using apple juice. Although I must say that the apple juice we use in Lithuania is quite sour. So make sure you get sugarless, not from concentrate apple juice. Sainsbury’s organic apple juice is a good one (not promoting, just recommending ;).
PICKLED BEETS
1. Cook the beetroots, whole with the skins on for about 30-40min(If you using a ready cooked ones from the shop then skip this step).
2. Once the beetroots are cooked then rub the skin off and chop them into desired sizes.
3. Place chopped beets into the clean pot and pour apple juice just to cover it. Add salt to taste.
4. Prepare the jars for preserving. Wash them with the soapy water and heat them for 10min in preheated 180C oven.
5. Heat the beetroots with apple juice until it reaches the boiling point.
6. Spoon the beets into the jars while still hot and pour the liquid on top.
7 Seal the jars with the lids and let it cool.
Enjoy!
Rasa ;)
Hey lovelies! What are you up to this weekend? If you have nothing planned then this would be a great opportunity to learn crocheting :). Don’t worry if you don’t know how to knit as crocheting is even easer and no experience necessary. Just follow this path:
1. learn the chain stitch that is useful to form a background for many crochet projects.
2. master a slip stitch and you are almost there…
3. get to know single crochet!
4. learn a double stitch if you fall in love with crocheting already ;)
Have a lovely weekend!
Rasa xox
I am loving the Autumn! Mainly because the gardens (and the parks) are full of berries, fruit and veg! My dad keeps sending me these pics of the produce he is collecting from his big garden (he is the proud owner of many apple trees)….
While in return I send him this (even more proud owner of the rhubarb)… To be fear, my garden is a much smaller garden than my dads!
The other day I went out for a run with my neighbour Anna. While we were running we were picking some elderberries that were just waiting for us by the river (how cool is that!). On the way home me and Anna we were already plotting what we were going to do with our find (how exciting!). Anna could not wait, so she made her jam on the same afternoon. That was some tasty sugarless elderberry jam with some honey and drizzle of lemon!
Meanwhile (two days later) I have made some big jamming experiment by combining apples and my lovely rhubarb which I though was even more amazing! Had to make the basic elderberry jam first as these small little berries need sieving (all those tiny seeds etc). But you must try this out while it is still not too late!
ELDERBERRY JAM
1. Wash the elderberries under cold running water and gently pull off the berries from the stems (you can freeze the berries prior to make this job easer).
2. Cook the berries in the dry saucepan until the juice until the juice start running. Use the wooden spoon to bruise the berries slightly.
3. Add one third of sugar into the saucepan and continue cooking everything until the berries becomes thoroughly soft and pulpy.
4. Sieve the mixture trough the fine mesh (no seeds must go through).
5. Put the pulp, juice and remaining sugar back into the cleaned saucepan. Let this simmer for half an hour, stirring and skimming frequently.
6. Remove the pan from the heat and skim off any impurities from the surface using a slotted spoon. Leave to cool for 5 minutes. Pour the Elderberry Jam into heated sterilised jars and seal. Leave the jars to cool completely, then label and store in a cool, dark place.
ELDERBERRY & RHUBARB JAM
1. Put rhubarb, water and rose water into the saucepan and bring it to boil.
2. Cook the rhubarb for 10min and then add elderberry jam and sugar.
3. Boil the jam for another 15 min.
4. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes. Pour the jam into heated sterilised jars and seal. Leave the jars to cool completely, then label and store in a cool, dark place.
ELDERBERRY & APPLE JAM
1. Put apples and water into the saucepan and bring it to boil.
2. Cook the apples for 10min and then add elderberry jam, sugar and cinnamon.
3. Boil the jam for another 15 min.
4. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes. Pour the jam into heated sterilised jars and seal. Leave the jars to cool completely, then label and store in a cool, dark place.
Happy jamming!
Rasa :)
The other day me and my friend Vickie (and Nadine) went for a afternoon coffee. While at the cafe, Vicki taught me how to cover the books so they last longer. I don’t know about you, but when I use the book over and over again I tend to really destroy it. So I am really happy to be able to protect my books in this pretty way ♥ ♥ ♥
Try it out for yourself ;). The “how to” instructions are here!
Happy book loving!
Rasa ♥ ♥ ♥
I have celebrated my birthday today so I have had a good opportunity to bake a fancy cake. I generally don’t like overly decorated cake as then it can look like a statue, not a treat ;). I love cakes decorated with fruits and berries (sometimes flowers) that gives a rustic appeal. I baked honey cake this time decorated with sugared figs. Yum!
HONEY MASCARPONE CAKE
(For the frosting)
(For the decoration)
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two same size baking tins and set aside.
2. Cream butter with honey. Add yogurt, milk, eggs, flour, salt, baking powder and vanilla extract and mix to combine.
3. Divide the mixture into the prepared tins and bake for 20min each, or until a cake tester inserted into the centre comes out clean.
4. Cool the baked cakes on the wire rack
5. Meanwhile make a mascarpone frosting by whisking mascarpone cheese together with double cream, sugar and vanilla.
6. When the frosting becomes thick enough, spread the half of it on one cake.
7. Line two cakes on top of each other (plain cake goes on top of the frosted one).
8. Pipe the rest of the frosting on the top.
9. Dip the figs into the sugar and place them on a baking sheet lined with aluminium foil (I used just a baking sheet, but that burns quite easily so I don’t recommend using that). Using a kitchen torch, caramelise each fig.
10. Use these figs to decorate the cake.
Enjoy!
Rasa ;-)
