BusyBeeFree: recipe

Posts tonen met het label recipe. Alle posts tonen

vrijdag 1 juni 2012

The presents I've got in Orvieto

One of the girls in our group gave me this beautiful, delicate bracelet. Before coming to the class in Orvieto, she made a trip from Pisa through the Italien countryside, she bought the bracelet in Luca.

And Mary also brought me presents. She was in our group last year and this year she made a trip in Italy with her Jim. It was so good to see her again. She made me a lovely pouch with fabric that she got
from Lynn, another member of the last year group.

Look at the other things she made from this fabric...

Last year Lynn was so inspired by all the poppies you see in Italy, you really see them everywhere with their bright red colors.

Back home in the U.S she created UMBRIAN FIELDS, patterns with kits in the colors that reminds her of Italy. Thereis a wall hanging, a book cover, a needle case and a market tote with this design. You can find her patterns and kits here (her site is not up to date but you can mail her if you are interested)

Mary had a present for me from Lynn, some patterns and a bundle of fabric all from her Umbrian Fields line.

woensdag 16 november 2011

Christmas gift tutorials

What do you think of this wreath made with milk cartons? Isn't it beautiful? Here is the tutorial.

If you are looking for more handmade gifts, on this blog you'll find 307!!!!! tutorials.

zaterdag 6 augustus 2011

Sugarfree carrotcake

Already some years I have 'pre-diabetes', that means that my blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.
I try to make healthy food choices and eat (almost) sugarfree.
I don't like artificial sweeteners so I was very happy with the natural sweetener STEVIA. On this site you can read more about stevia.
Some studies even have shown that stevia extract effectually regulates bloodsugar!

I often combine stevia with homemade syrup or agave syrup, because using only stevia there is often an after taste of liquorice, a kind of bitterness. To be able to measure small quantities I bought these measure spoons, the smallest is for 20 mg et the largest for 320 mg. Stevis is 300 x sweeter that sugar so you always need only a small amount.

My sugarfree carrot cake is my version of two other recipes together. ( here and here )
You need:
225 g flour wholemeat
2 tbsp bakingpowder
1 tbsp biocarbonate
2 tbsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of salt
250 g grated carrots
165 g chopped walnuts
40 g grated coconut
100 g dried figs
90 g dried apricot
60 g sunflower oil
2 eggs
50 g homemade syrup or agave syrup
250 g plain yogurt

Preheat the oven, 180 degrees.
Wisk the eggs and the oil. Put together the dry ingredients . Mix those by hand with the eggs and oil. Put in the other ingredients and mix together.
Put in the oven for about 40 minutes.
If you want the carrotcake sweeter you also could add bananas or honey.

I am so sorry that I don't have a picture, it's all eaten!!!! I made this post today because a blogfriend asked for sugarfree recipes.

You can find more sugarfree recipes here and here.
Bon appetit!!

zondag 12 juni 2011

Harvest...no much time to craft

The cherries are ready to pick and there are so many. I already made 18 pots with cherrie jam, I added some Amaretto (an Italien almond liqueur). And 16 pots with Amarene cherries, 15 pots with Kirsch/Porto cherries,they are delicious with icecream.

In the meantime I finished the shawlette , which I started in Orvieto .

I already cast on a second one!

It's such an easy and pleasant pattern to knit, the pattern is free.

I also finished this cecilefacile pouch. It's perfect to keep your threads and needles.

woensdag 8 juni 2011

My trip to Italy 7, Orvieto....the food

You cannot talk about Italy, without talking about the food. Mary and me, we started each day, rather early (7.30am) with a cappuccino at Pastericceria Scaponi.

This picture was made on thursday, marketday, we bought delicious food for the picnic in the courtyard.

I talked with this farmer about one of his vegetables, he told me the name but I cannot remember .I bought his tomatoes, and carrots;

He also had the zucchinis and their flowers.

We visited a vineyard, in the surroundings of Orvieto. Delicious wine, beautiful views an d a nice vineyard-owner.

On wednesday we had a cooking class, so much fun!!!

Janet and me worked very concentrated....

Together we made: parmiginana di melanzane , panna cotta and rotolini di zucchini e ricotta.

These rotolini were delicous!!!!

Our last groupdinner on friday gives us lots of wonderful memories. The food was 'divine' as they say in France, I heard you Americans say 'to die for'.

One of the starters, there were four different starters...., was cheese with truffles. I had never eaten truffles, they are rather expensive here , but Orvieto has summer and autumn truffles, black and white.

This is my last 'Trip to Italy' post, thanks for joining me . I hope to return in May 2012. If you want some recipes, I have some typical of Orvieto, you can send me an email.

P.S some pictures I used are made by Janet, Bill and Mary, thanks.

zaterdag 31 juli 2010

Carrot cake

Do you like carrot cake? It's one of my favorite cakes.... I am always looking for THE best recipe.
You can find recipe's here and here and here also here.
For my carrot cake I used the recipe that my blogfriend Gayle from Garden of Daisies gave me. I can recommand it to you. The cake is delicious!!!
It's the recipe of Gayle's sister, in their family it's a tradition to make this cake for birthday parties at her house.

Birthday Carrot Cake

Sift together dry ingredients
2 cups of flour
2 tsp of baking powder
1 1/2 tsp of baking soda
2 tsp of cinnamon ( I also used 1 tsp of gingembre)
1 tsp of salt

Beat together
1 1/2 cups of salad oil (I used 1 cup of oil)
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs

Add dry ingredients and mix well

Add:
2 cups of grated carrots
1 cup of crushed or chopped pineapple
1/2 cups chopped nuts (I used 1 cup of nuts)

Bake in a large rectangular cake pan
Bake for 1 hour in a glass pan at 350

Cream Cheese Icing
Beat together
2 1/3 cups of powdered sugar (I used St Moret fromage frais 8%)
1/2 stick of margarine ( 1/4 cups)
1 package of cream cheese
1/2 tsp of vanilla

zaterdag 27 maart 2010

Cheesecake recipe

This week I made a cheesecake with lemoncurd, sugarfree and without butter..... yet delicious.

Here is the recipe.

Pastry crust ingredients:

300 g bread flour ( in France T65 or T85)

40 g sunflower oil

1 egg

1/2 coffe spoon salt

3 coffee spoon backing powder.

150 g white cheese(fromage blanc 0%)

Make the pastry and divide in 3 portions, you only need 1 portions the other 2 can be frozen in.

Put the pastry in the fridge for about 1 hour. Than bake it blind for 15 minutes in a preheat oven (200 degrees).

The filling:

300 g cream cheese (I used fromage à tartiner Aldi)

150 g white cheese (fromage blanc 0%)

2 eggs (divide the yellow and white parts, beat the white).

Fresh lemon juice (1 lemon)

Grated peel from 1 1/2 lemon.
equivalent in sweetener of 100 g sugar

Beat the ingredients till you have a creamy substance. Carefully put the beaten whites in.
Put the filling in the pastry and put again in the oven for 25 minutes.

Lemon curd
This recipe is bases on a recipe in the book 'douceurs citron bio recettes de CLEA)
3 lemon
Equivalent in sweetener of 100 g sugar
3 eggs
1 table spoon of arrow-root

Press 3 lemons and prepare the grated peel of 2 lemons. Put juice and sweetener on the cooker. Mix arrow-root with 1 beaten egg , then add the other 2 eggs. Add this to the juice, while stirring. The blend will quickly become thicker. Put the blend in a pot and keep it in the fridge.

BusyBeeFree