Spice Wall DIY Project

While I was a cooking a bit more dishes on holidays I came up with a problem you might recognize. Small bags of spices are difficult to use when you have to go through the pile to find the right spice. When cooking you should find right spices as quickly as possible so that following a recipe and preparing food stays relaxing, fun and inspiring. Also when I went grocery shopping I didn't remember what spices I have got at home because managing this pile was challenging. I found myself in a situation where I had 3 bags of cinnamon, four bags of cardamon and I had run out of turmeric that I needed for a dish I was preparing. So frustrating! Sure it would be possible to buy bigger amounts of spices in glass bottles and have those in a shelf. I have found small bags handy as spices keep fresh. Spices that I don't use that often get ruined in big amounts. 

What if you had all these small bags organized on a wall? It would be super easy to find a spice you need in your recipe. It would also be a handy way to follow what spices are running out. You could easily take a picture from the wall and see what spices you got when you are shopping. If you are browsing blogs on your way to work and find a great recipe you want to try that evening you don't have to memorize if you got turmeric or ginger or cayenne. Just check a current picture of the spice wall. Did I get you excited about this DIY? 

As a little extra tip on how to use spice wall differently I have two ideas. How about recipe wall? You could plan menu for two weeks to this wall. Write down the week days with chalkboard pen, write / cut recipes from magazines/ blogs and hang under the days. I know some of you are keen gardeners so how about keeping seeds organized on this wall! You could keep track on what seeds need to be planted first and then keep calendar when you put the seeds to the soil. I am sure you come up with many more ways to use this organizing wall because this framed wall can be hanged in what ever space you need it. Now I show you how to make this easy DIY!

Spice Wall

You will need:

Big frame

Strong cardboard or thin plywood same size as the frame

Chalkboard paint

Wooden clothespins

Woodwork glue

Chalkboard pen

Ruler

Brush

Step 1. Paint the frame and cardboard/ plywood with chalkboard paint. Paint tree layers: horizontally, vertically, horizontally. I bought this framed print from thrift store. The print was glued to the cardboard but the cardboard was perfect to this project so I painted over which worked fine and I had no need to buy extra cardboard or plywood to this project.

Step 2. After the paint has dried properly (24 hours) divide the board to equal parts using chalkboard pen. Measure how much space one spice bag and clothespin needs and decide how much you need around to write spice's name. See how many bags you can fit to the board. I have got 58 cm * 77 cm board and I divided it to 16 parts (approx 14,5 cm *19 cm each). Then measure the place where you attach the clothespin. 

Step 3. Glue the clothespins and let dry.  Remove chalkboard pen's marks. Hang the spice wall and put in the spices. Write the names of the spices and decorate the board with chalkboard pen.

I am proud to start the weekend with organized kitchen. It is inspirational to cook in this space where everything can be found. Especially in a small space like this keeping organized is challenging. You don't need to have much extra lying on desks to have a mess. At least this solution keeps the spices organized and easy to use.

Happy and Relaxing Weekend!

Sannu

Autumn Story: Dinner with Poets

Today I let the pictures do the talking and share two great recipes with you. This Autumn Story is inspired by poets and melancholy of the season. Autumn is the season of contrasts, warm buttery pie crusts and cold winds. It is the best time of the year to gather friends together and organize a bohemian style evening party. Usually letter shaped cookie cutters are used when making sugar ornaments or other sweet treats. You can experiment with the cutters and cut sliced veggies or decorate a savory cabbage pie with pastry letters. Choose your favorite verses and surprise your friends with a creative way. Fun idea would also be to decorate each one's plate with one word and then combine the words to a poem in a group. 

I am sharing two recipes to add to the evening menu. Traditional Finnish Cabbage Pie is a must for the Autumn season when new white cabbages come to the stores. Butter and quark in the crust make this dish super tasty and fulfilling. Fresh bulgur wheat salad gets it's character from lemon and lemon pesto. Letters cut from beetroots or carrots fit in perfectly. Just let the beetroot letters rest for little while before adding to the mix. Otherwise you will have red salad instead of pretty green and yellow. All recipes are relatively easy. Cutting letters is the task that takes most time. You can begin by cutting the veggie letters you need and keep the letters moist in cold temperature before serving. Lets get cooking, baking and crafting!

Poem on the pie: 

Läpi yön käy yrttien henki 

ja kuuma huokaus maan. 

Nocturne by Kaarlo Sarkia.

Poem on the salad:

Turhaan, oi turhaan

     tartun ma hetkehen kiini;

riemua ei suo

     rattoisa seura ei viini.

Elegia by Eino Leino

Traditional Finnish Cabbage Pie

To the crust

250 g butter

250 g quark

4 dl wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

Filling

one small cabbage

3 carrots

2 onions

water

0,75 dl broken barley

3 tbsp dark syrup

veg. oil

2 tsp apple vinegar

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp marjoram

salt

black pepper

Step 1. Mix together flour and baking powder. Add butter in cubes. Mix flour and butter with fingers.

Step 2. Add quark and mix properly.

Step 3. Cover the pastry with cling film and let it rest in the fridge.

Step 4. Prepare the filling. Mince onion and cabbage, grate carrots. Sweat the onion in oil on a big kettle. Add little bit of water and small part of the cabbage. When the cabbage becomes slightly softer add more cabbage and grated carrots. Cook barley in a separate kettle.

Step 5. When the veggies are soft mix together barley, syrup and spices.

Step 6. Take half of the pastry and roll it to the bottom. Spread the filling on top. Roll the other half of the pastry on top. Cut off extras and secure the seams.

Step 7. Use the extra pastry to the letters. Attach the letters with a little bit of water. Use fork or barbecue stick to make small holes to the pie's surface. Egg the surface and bake the pie in 200 Celsius degrees preheated over for about 30 minutes.

Bulgur Wheat Salad with Lemon Pesto and Letters

Bulgur Wheat

Lemon Pesto

Lemon juice

Lemon peel

Plum tomatoes

Paprika

Courgette

Veg. oil

Kalamata olives

Salad cheese

Beetroot/ Carrot

Cavolo Nero sprouts / other green salad or herb

Step 1. Peel and slice beetroot/ carrot. Cut letters with cookie cutters. 

Step 2. Cook bulgur wheat. Mince courgette and sweat in veg. oil. Mince paprika, olives and tomatoes. Wash and grate lemon peel. Wash cavolo nero.

Step 3. Mix together cooked bulgur, pesto, lemon juice, olives, minced veggies and salad cheese cubes. Decorate with lemon peel, cavolo nero and beetroot/ carrot letters.

Have a Great Last Week of September!

Sannu

Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread and Breakfast Buns

Hello and Happy Lifestyle Tuesday! Yesterday evening I had a real creative night shift. I love warm baked goods on cold and windy autumn days and yesterday evening was just like that. On weekend I searched after perfect pumpkin bread recipe and ended up making an own experiment. It turned out great and disappeared quicker than I got proper pictures. Yesterday I decided to bake another pumpkin cake because I had half of the pumpkin puree left. 

This gluten free pumpkin bread is spicy, moist and just delicious! I used home made pumpkin puree, I baked pumpkin slices in 175 Celsius degrees until soft, took off the peels and mashed with hand mixer. I used butternut squash and it made puree for two breads. Baking with pumpkin is quite new thing to me. I tried pumpkin bread first time last year. When I was a kid pumpkin was familiar mainly from pumpkin pickles. I have to say I prefer my pumpkins in bread, cake and oven veggies. Pumpkin spice mix reminds me of more familiar gingerbread spice. In Finnish gingerbread mix there is cinnamon, cloves, ginger and sour orange. So to season the bread I used these spices. Because this time of the year stores don't sell gingerbread mix I had to buy spices separately. I like the idea of a pumpkin season with all it's spices. It is still long wait until Christmas treats and one needs something fun to the middle of the autumn season.

Because the pumpkin bread is so sweet I also wanted to bake something savory. Inspired by gluten free flour options and how well they worked in pumpkin bread I decided to make experiments with traditional breakfast bun recipe. I had bought lemon pesto :P and it needs some white bread as companion. I added some minced spinach from the freezer to get beautiful color. I love the earthy look of these buns and they worked great with pesto. You could also fill these with butter, cheese and veggies. 

1/2 L Water

14 g Dry Yeast

1 1/2 tsp Salt

4 dl Oat flour (gluten free)

2 dl Teff flour

3 dl Potato Flour

75 g Minced Spinach

1 tbsp Olive oil

1. Mix together dry yeast and 2 dl oat flour. Add warm (not hot) water and salt. Mix properly.

2. Start adding flour little by little. First add 2 dl teff flour. Add minced spinach. Then 1 dl at time potato and oat flour. Mix in olive oil.

3. Let the mix rest for few minutes. 

4. Put little bit of potato flour to a bowl. Drop one bun's amount of pastry to the potato flour and roll. Take the pastry lump to your hands and mold. Put the buns to a baking tray on a baking parchment.

5. Let the buns double their size. Then bake in preheated oven in 225 Celsius degrees about ten minutes or until the buns are firm and properly baked.

6. Serve with butter and veggies or lemon pesto. 

1 1/2 dl Oat flour (gluten free)

1 dl Teff flour

1/2 dl Potato flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Ground Cloves

1/2 tsp Ground Sour Orange

1 tsp Ginger

1/2 tsp Black Pepper

2 dl Sugar

2 1/2 dl Pumpkin puree

1/2 dl Water

2 tbsp Brown Syrup

120 g Melted Butter

2 Eggs

1. Preheat oven to 175 Celsius degrees. 

2. Flour a baking mold with butter and oat flour.

3. Mix together flours, baking soda, salt and spices. Add sugar and mix properly.

4. Add pumpkin puree and water. Mix properly.

5. Mix in brown syrup and melted butter (be sure the butter isn't too hot).

6. Break the eggs to separate bowl and stir with fork so the mix is even. Mix in to the rest of ingredients.

7. Pour the dough to the baking mold. Bake in 175 Celsius degrees for about 45 minutes. Try with skewer that the middle of the cake has been baked properly.

8. Let the cake rest for a while and then take off from the mold.

There is nothing like the scent coming from the oven! Savory buns with hot chocolate or evening tea and a slice of pumpkin cake. It is cozy to be at home and cook, craft, light candles and read. Rainy and windy autumn weathers are actually as good and needed as warm summer days, don't you think?

Friday will be DIY day again, so until that Have a Great Week my Friends!

Sannu

Beetroot Rye Burger

Rye bread is essential part of Finnish food palette. When Finnish voted for national food rye bread got the first place. I tend to eat about 1-2 slices of rye bread every day and I seldom choose white bread from the store. It is just something I learned from home. One of my favorite evening snacks is rye bread with hummus, it keeps hunger and tastes great. Now that we are heading towards the colder days fulfilling foods like rye bread, roots and spices begin to feel like a good idea. Stores start to fill with colorful roots, berries and sweet apples. One eats with their eyes. I browsed Pinterest for Autumn home decor inspiration and saw quite a few pumpkin related displays, cups of tea and deep warm colors. I got hungry. I created a picture of myself sitting inside, under a blanket, reading a book, rain pouring towards the windows and some sweet pumpkin cake almost ready in the oven spreading it's rich spicy scent. Can not wait that pumpkins come to the stores! While having pumpkin orange dreams I turn to roots that offer equally as great opportunities for cooking and baking.

Sometimes we tend to see cooking too complicated when with great ingredients it is actually simple. Vegetarian patties and steaks can be made with very different methods. Today, because it is Monday, we are going to make the most simple version of vegetarian steaks. This means we just slice fresh beetroot, dip in egg and breadcrumbs, fry in oil and sprinkle little salt on top. Quite many veggies can be prepared this way to create simple and quick steaks. Sweet hummus and fennel add taste to this dish. Potatoes take care of them selves in the oven. Tasty Monday luxury in it's best. Because I think when ever there is a home cooked dinner made from healthy ingredients, it is luxury in this fast food filled world.

Beetroot steaks, paprika hummus, fried fennel, green salad, pickles and radish form a great burger between rye bread. Potato wedges make the dish complete. Actually, now I have to take a lunch break and reheat some leftovers from yesterday.. yummy!

***

Back to business. First we make the hummus because it can stay in the fridge when potatoes, steaks and fennel are prepared. 

Sweet Paprika Hummus:

230 g cooked chickpeas (one can when water is poured out))

1/2 paprika

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

salt

cayenne pepper

chili

Step 1. Mince and sweat onion and paprika in veg.oil.

Step 2. Put chickpeas, minced garlic, 1 tbsp olive oil and lemon juice to a bowl. Mash with hand mixer.

Step 3. Put in onion and paprika and stir with mixer (leave a bit rough). Mix in spices (salt, cayenne pepper and chili) according to taste. Put to fridge.

Potato Wedges:

potatoes

veg. oil

salt

Preheat oven for 200 Celsius degrees. Slice the potatoes. Massage potatoes with oil and salt. Bake in the oven until soft and a bit golden.

Fried Fennel:

fennel

veg. oil

salt

black pepper

Cut and open the fennel to get smaller pieces. Fry on a pan in veg. oil until it gets a bit color. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top.  

Beetroot Steaks

beetroot

1 egg

breadcrumbs

salt

veg. oil

Peel and slice the beetroots. Dip one at the time to egg and then to breadcrumbs. Fry on a pan in veg. oil on both sides until the surface is golden brown. Sprinkle some salt on top. Beetroot steaks are supposed to be left al dente inside.

Make the burger:

Spread some hummus to the rye bread, put in salad, radish, pickles, fennel and beetroot steaks. Serve warm with potato wedges.

***

I bought a bag of beetroots so I am already thinking about making borscht from the rest. It is also great with rye bread. Although at the moment I don't remember any dish that would not benefit from rye bread :)

Have an inspiring start for the new week!

Sannu