Solli in Paris

Photo: Solli Kanani

It’s time to enter a new year and a new beginning in many perspectives…I hope this new year will bring you lots of love, joy and happiness!

Love, Solli

Fried bananas with coconut and caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream

Not long ago I  made this delicious banana dessert for her and would like to share the recepie with you. In fact it’s very simple to do.

Recepie for two persons:

Start with the sauce, take 2 dl coconut milk and let it boil up with 1 dl cane sugar. Let it boil until it turns into a thick texture. Fry thick slices of bananas (1 banana / person= 2 in this case) with some butter (let’s say one spoon) and some cane sugar (2 spoons) in a frying pan on low heat. When the bananas have gotten a golden burn and you can see they’re pretty soft it means they’re ready :-)

Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and pour over the delicious coconut caramel sauce over the bananas and the ice cream and enjoy!

photo taken outside my moms house in December 2010

Merry Christmas! God Jul! Joyeux Noël! Hope you all are having a beautiful Christmas with your loved ones :-)

Christmas for me symbolizes family gathering, and I wish instead of giving and opening more presents…we should be better in giving love and open our hearts. Christmas should be a magical day full of joy and happiness, to spend time with the people you love.

Love to you all!

The word happiness created by some letter biscuits...photo: Solli

“Happiness is not a destination….it’s a journey.” Ben Sweetland

Northern Women in CHANEL

When I was in Stockholm in September I went to Fotografiska and visited the exhibition “Northern Women in CHANEL”, by the photographer Peter Farago and the stylist Ingela Klemetz-Farago. The exhibition showed photographs of classic creations by CHANEL on Scandinavian models such as Freja Beha Erichsen, Helena Christensen, Caroline Winberg etc. Here are some photos I took when I visited the exhibition:

Northern Women in CHANEL

Northern Women in CHANEL

Northern Women in CHANEL

Zadig & Voltaire

A sneak peak on Zadig & Voltaire’s vitrina in Paris. My favourites are the boots to the left and the tops to the right (grey and nude).

Zadig & Voltaire

My homebaked pineapple pie (photo: Solli Kanani)

If you like pineapple you will love this pineapple pie!

My recepie:

Melt 100 g butter and mix it with 1/2 dl cane sugar, 3 dl flour and one teaspoon baking powder. Then add one egg and knead a dough out of it. Press the dough into a pie dish, nag it with a fork and put it in the oven for about 10 minutes (until it’s getting a bit colour) (the oven should be around 200 degrees).

For the filling either you take 1 fresh pineapple and slice it into small pieces or use 400 g crushed pineapple from a jar. Mix it with 2 dl crème fraîche, 1 egg, 1/2 dl cane sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar. Mix it with an electrical batter for just a couple of seconds.

Remove the pie from the oven and pour in the filling and put it back in the oven for about 20-30 minutes, until the filling is firm. (turn up the oven heat to 225 degrees).

Serve it cold with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, vanilla cream or whipped cream!

Me on a Ducati Sport 1000

One of the best ways to make your way through the streets in Paris is by a motorcycle! Preferably on a customized Ducati Sport 1000 ;-)

Me on a Ducati Sport 1000

Solli (photo taken on November 27th 2011)

So this is it, I’m turning 30 years old! Right now I’m on the island Malapascua in the Philippines. I’ve always loved exotic islands…and palm trees. When I was turning 10 years old I wished to get a big poster on palmtrees and my mom bought one as my birthday gift. Now, exactly 20 years later I’m celebrating my birthday with my sister on an island…crowded with palmtrees :-) That’s happiness!

Another nice birthday gift must be that I finally will get rid of my braces (as you can see on the photo above) I’ve had them since October 2009. When I get back from my Asia-trip my dentist told me he will take them off, wohoo!

The wall with the marble and the console with the candles gives such a warm and magical feeling at the restaurant Schmuck. It’s nice to have dinner at Schmuck once in a while, it’s like stepping in to another world when the restaurant is decorated with things where almost half of it comes from flea markets.

When these photos were taken I had fried zucchini flowers as a starter and my friend had burrata, sundried tomatoes and black olive tapenade. As a maincourse I chose skate wing with grapefruit (my FAVOURITE) while my friend had a beef tartare with French fries and salad. I’ve always picked the same dessert ever since I started to have dinner at Schmuck and it has always been their delicious brioche façon pain perdu with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream :-)

Schmuck – 1, rue de Condé, 75006 Paris

Closest metro: Odéon
Phone: +33 (0)1 43 54 18 21

Beignet de fleur de courgette//fried zucchini flowers

Burrata du Mercato, tomates séchées, tapenade d’olives noires//burrata, sundried tomatoes and black olive tapenadeAile de Raie au pamplemousse//skate wing (fish) with grapefruit

Tartare de boeuf, frites maison, salade//beef tartare, french fries and saladBrioche façon pain perdu caramel beurre salé, glace vanille//brioche with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream

Mojitos

A second Schmuck  has opened up in St Germain in Paris (summer 2011) after a great success with the first one at 43 rue de Ponthieu (next to Champs-Elysée), on the other side of the river Seine.

When I first entered the restaurant I was amazed by the decoration made by Laura Gonzalez (who re-decorated Bus Palladium and the nightclub Le Régine). She is an interior designer, she manage her own architect company, Pravda Arkitect and at the age of 27 I must say her career is very impressing :-)

The walls in the restaurant are covered with different wallpapers, mirrors in different shapes and sizes are hanging on the walls next to old framed photos, antique chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, candles almost everywhere, baroque armchairs and my favourite part, the wall made by marble with a console covered with candles in different sizes. The decoration breathes very much Marie-Antoinette which is charming and puts spirit to the ambiance.

The mojito is a classic one in the bar and if you are lucky you might spot the hot actor Guillaume Canet at Schmuck or Gilles Lellouche who is one of the owners.

In my next blogpost I will introduce you to their food, stay tuned ;-)

Schmuck – 1, rue de Condé, 75006 Paris

Closest metro: Odéon
Phone: +33 (0)1 43 54 18 21

"One Day" at Rue de Condé, behind the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris

Not long ago I saw the move “One Day” (“Un Jour” in French) in Paris. I haven’t read the book (written by David Nicholls) yet, but I will during my Asia-trip. The movie was really beautiful, very touching and heartbreaking. I will write a detailed review after I’ve read the book ;-)

my home-made saffron ice cream

Saffron is one of my favourite spices and I adore saffron ice cream! I usually don’t make ice cream at home…but this one is hard to find outside so I use to make it sometimes and in fact it’s not that difficult.

Saffron ice cream, recipe for 3 persons

You need: 5dl of cream , 1dl of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ground saffron, 4 egg yolks, 1 tablespoon of  rose water, 1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar, pistachio nuts (for decoration).

Boil the cream and the sugar together, add the saffron and take the saucepan off the heat. Add the egg yolks and the rose water while you stir it all together. Heat it up at low temperature while stirring so it becomes thick. Very important that you don’t let it boil, just stir it on low temperature and let it take its time to get thick. Add the vanilla sugar.
Strain the cream and let it cool down before putting it in the freezer. Let it be in the freezer for at least 4 hours and bring it out about 15 minutes before serving).

Decorate with pistachio nuts before serving!

Dinner @ Mama Shelter

I often go to the hotel Mama Shelter here in Paris for dinner in their restaurant. Especially on Sunday’s it has become a habit. It’s often very packed and crowded so it’s always good to reserve a table earlier. For dinner I usually order the salmon with pickled radish as a starter. It’s simply outstanding! I love the combination of the smooth avacado with the marinated salmon :-) This time I also had salmon as a main course with potatoes and as dessert I had pineapple with caramel fudge sauce. The coctail I had before the dinner is called the Notorious B.I.G and contains green apple purée, freshly squeezed lemon, cane sugar, sparkling water, very fresh!

Mama Shelter, 109 Rue de Bagnolet  75020 Paris

Dinner @ Mama Shelter

Me and my Blackberry @ Mama Shelter

Dinner @ Mama Shelter

Dinner @ Mama Shelter

We’re living in a world where almost everything is changing in a fast speed. We’re living in a throwaway and high consuming society where many things are fake and the real and true things are the most sought after…and they’re rare. Remember when I wrote how I would like to decorate my home in one of my earlier blogpost? I wanted to fill my home with objects and furnitures that had a story to tell……old, broken…with beautiful patina, traces that showed they had been living. Not furnitures and objects that are newly produced with fake patina, those things looks dead to me. Many companies that are producing furnitures and decoration for homes are catching up on the trends that are inspired of vintage, industrial and colonial style. I’ve seen many products that have been newly produced with fake patina and I’ve been fairly impressed. It is so easy to see they’re newly produced and instead of bringing the charming ambiance it looks more cheap and dead.

I would rather go to flea markets and antique galleries to dig for the real things with true aging and with their own unique story to tell…

So how does my dream home looks like? Well, the way Marie Olsson Nylander, a Swedish Interior Designer, decorated her house is more or less how I would like my home to look like. White floors and walls is the optimal color to highlight and bring out the interior in a home. The colours of the furnitures and objects are given their own voices without beeing distracted by other overtaking colors in the background. When decorating a home it’s important to know how to combine colors, patterns and textures in a way that doesn’t hurt the eye, everything has to be in balance with each other and I believe Marie Olsson Nylander did a great job in that perspective. Check the photos below and create your own opinion:

I like the big planter on the table, its made by fibrated cement and it reminds me of the “elephant ears” designed by Willy Guhl. The fiberglass chairs are designed by Charles Eames.

Perfect working table in wood and the industrial factory lamp in zinc with washed patina hanging down from the ceiling.

The circular worn iron staircase is a perfect match for the interior in this home.

Beautiful worn out leather club arm chair, nice kelim floor cushion and wooden table. Very ethnic goes vintage-style!

Shutters with beautiful patina are perfect for decoration.

Giving new life to an old worn out leather gym bench.

All the photos have been taken by Sara Svenningrud and they’ve been published

in the Swedish Interior Design magazine Residence Magazine.