Natural, fair and delicious – that is what my favourite tea is from the brand Clipper! I discovered this tea brand (from UK) at work, and ever since my first cup I totally fell in love. I haven’t found this tea brand in Sweden yet and the ones you can see in the photos I bought in a store in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Their fruit infusion teas are a pure delight, beautiful deep red color and intoxicating perfume…and not to talk about the taste…utterly delicious!

Since I’m not surrounded with Michelin awarded restaurants or my Italian favourite restaurant Oenosteria in Paris and I’m tired of the store-bought pesto jars (that are more or less containing potatoes, cashew nuts and other substitutes…. ) I decided that it was time for a change. With other words, I would do my very own homemade pesto. What a delight! It turned out to be the most delicious pesto I’ve ever tasted! My pesto was four times more expensive than a store-bought, but it was worth every cent, I will never buy store-bought pesto ever again!

For a jar filled with pesto I used the following ingredients: 1 pot eco basil, 1 pot eco persil, 130 g grated parmesan cheese, 2 cloves of minced garlic, 70 g pine nuts, 2 dl extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of love! Mix altogether in a food processor et voilà! Pesto love it is!

Pasta loves pesto! But so do vegetables, bruschettas…even fish and chicken…only your imagination puts the limit ;-)

FR: Moi, je préfère le pesto fait maison que celui qu’on achète dans le commerce…voici, ma recette pour faire un bon pesto! Il vous faut: 1 bouquet de basilic, 1 bouquet de persil, 130 g de parmesan râpé, 2 gousses d’ail hachées, 70 g de pignons de pin, 2 dl d’huile d’olive extra vierge et d’une pincée d’amour et c’est fait! Mélanger le tout dans un bol d’un mixeur et voilà, le pesto fait maison!

Artichoke

The ones I prepeared yesterday and that you can see in the photos are straight from France (still not the season in Sweden…) and I boiled them for about 1 hour with one lemon (straight from Italy!) and with some salt, sugar and love from Sweden ;-).

The joy of eating an artichoke: First I remove the fuzzy choke guarding the heart in the middle and I put one to two tablespoons of salty butter on the heart so it can melt. Then I pull of one of the outermost petals and dip it in the melted butter…I pull the petal through my slightly clenched teeth to remove the soft flesh at the bottom of the petal..and I go on like that until all the petals has been removed and that is when I have arrived to one of the culinary rewards, the heart!  Now the heart is soaked with the melted butter and it is heavenly delicious!

But with Spring comes asparagus and I love that! I use to boil them for a couple of minutes…then I fry them in a frying pan for a couple for 1-2 minutes with some salty butter…then I serve them with some parmesan cheese on top…delicious appetizer!

Did you know that asparagus is a good source of vitamin B₆, calcium, magnesium and zinc, dietary fiber, protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, thiamin, riboflavin, rutin, niacin, folic acid, iron, phosphorus, potassium, copper, manganese and selenium as well as chromium?

FR: Moi et le roi Louis XIV de France partageons la même amour pour les asperges. En fait, il avait des serres spéciales construites pour les profites pendant toute de l’année. Malheureusement je ne peux pas faire la même chose…

When I buy eggs I always make sure the eggs comes from organic certified farms where the chickens can roam freely and have access to a natural environment. Organic hens and chickens are fed organic feed and it is prohibited to feed animal byproducts or GMO and no antibiotics is allowed except in emergencies. I believe that eggs coming from hens and chickens that has been grown up with animal welfare standards improves the quality of both the eggs and the meat, low stress levels lead to superior quality of animal products…with other words…happy chicken and hens = good quality eggs = good quality nutrition!

So it’s not enough when farmers label their eggs “free-range” because that only means the chicken are not in a cage, but usually still confined in barns at high population densitites…

Asparagus

I love aspargus! I bought some yesterday…boiled them for a couple of minutes and then topped them with grated lemon peel, grated parmesan cheese..and served them with egg, salmon and mashed avocado with red onion…. The asparagus were delicious but still not comparable to the ones I was served at my favourite Italian restaurant in Paris, Oenosteria, or Mama shelter in Paris.

Asparagus

My homemade applecake with crème fraîche

Homemade apple cake served with crème fraîche is a total irresistable combination…..I made this mouthwatering apple cake yesterday and today there is pretty much nothing left of it. It was a total success with other words :-)

FR: Gâteau aux pommes fait maison servi avec crème fraîche est une combinaison irrésistable ….. J’ai fait ce gâteau aux pommes hier et aujourd’hui, il reste à peu près rien. En d’autres mots, un succès total :-)

My homemade applecake with crème fraîche

It’s very easy to do, this is my recipe: Mix 125g sugar with 125g butter, then add 2 eggs (one at a time) and mix throughly. Add 200g flour, 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar and 1 teaspoon bakingpowder and mix. Pour the batter into a mould, slice 5 apples and stick them into the batter, sprinkle 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and 3 teaspoons with brown sugar and 2 tablespoons with chopped hazelnuts over the cake and then put in the oven (170 degrees) for almost an hour. Mix 4 dl crème fraîche with 0,5dl sugar, 4 teaspoons vanilla powder and 1/2 teaspoon cardemome powder…mix throughly. Serve the apple cake with the crème fraîche…bonne dégustation!

My homemade applecake with crème fraîche

My homemade spaghetti bolognese with some grated parmesan cheese on top

Last evening I made a typical Italian dish, Spaghetti Bolognese was on the menu at home :-) I usually add 2-3 carrots and ¼  of celeriac….it makes it more tastier.