A little Thank-You note for all my voters

I just wanted to write a THANK YOU note for all you out there who voted for me! I was pretty overwhelmed when I saw how many thumbs up I have gotten after such a short time blogging!
So THANK YOU everyone!

Vegetarian Lasagne with minced Soy

I have a serious craving for bolognese style sauce based on soy at the moment. Don't ask me why (I am not pregnant again, at least I hope...). So instead of serving for the x-th time this month Spaghetti Bolognese with granulated soy, I made a Lasagne. In case you are a non-vegetarian and are wondering what it is I use instead of the minced meat (as I have been asked many times) I use this.

It is a good bit more work, than the normal pasta version. So I had to pick a night where the wee man was in a good mood giving his Mommy a chance for some cooking. I normally have him happily hopping in his bouncer...making himself tired so it will be even easier to get him to sleep, before we eat...a win-win situation for all of us. Unfortunately, this doesn't work every night.

I started with the soy: I soaked
1 cup of granulated soy in
1/2 cups of Veg stock (boiling hot) and
1 chopped onion (red looks nicer, but an ordinary one will do)
1 bay leaf
1 tblsp. of dried oregano (never overdo oregano, you can get a bitter taste)
1 heaped tblsp. of basil (there just can never be enough...)
freshly ground black pepper and
a hint of cayenne pepper
I mixed it all well and left it soaking (covered) for 20 min
In the meantime for my white sauce I melted
roughly 80 gr of butter, added
1 bay leaf
freshly ground black pepper
(if unsalted butter, a little bit of salt)
stirred in roughly 80gr of flour (for best results sieved as there wont be any lumps in your white sauce later. Also stir well, do not let it get brown, just light golden)
then I poured in
2 cups of milk
let it come to boil while constantly whisking and then I took it of the heat. (But you still have to stir the sauce until it has cooled down just enough not to get that skin on top.)
Now I fried my Soy-mix in a pan with
a little olive oil, and added
1 can of unchopped peeled tomatoes and mashed them in the sauce pan (I use a potato masher) added
a knob of butter
left it boiling for a couple of minutes and then left it on side.

Now I got an oven proof casserole for the Lasagne and greased it.
(you will now need about
half a pack of Lasagne Pasta)

First layer is a little white Sauce then pasta, and on top of that a layer of bolognese sauce. Then starting off with the white sauce and kept going until I had used up my supplies. (Last layer should be white sauce). Then topped the whole lot with
grated cheese and
a little of basil

Now I just left it in a preheated oven at 200°C/390°F for 30 minutes with a lid, and in end for another 10 minutes without a lid for the cheese to get a little crusty.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Cranberry-Oatmeal-Cookies Part 1

A few months back my Husband went on a business trip to Portland and Seattle, and he brought back those absolutely amazing cranberry-and-oatmeal cookies. Seriously, I have not tasted anything like it. Now one could argue it was, because I was pregnant at the time, but I think if I tasted them now they would be just as yummy!

Anyway I wanted to try to make some myself ever since. This is my first attempt. They tasted good, but not yet up to the high standard these portland/seattle ones set. So there will be at least one more try...

I had one for breakfast this morning when I took the dog out. I have gotten into the habit of bringing my cup and a cookie or muffin with me every morning. This often seems to be the most peaceful meal of my day, even though I am out walking. Anyone who ever stated kids where no full time job LIED (or is lucky to have one of these (boring?) babies, that do nothing but sleep and feed all day/night ;-) )


This is how I made them:
Sieve into big bowl:
2 cups of plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/3 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tbsp baking soda
and mix well and set aside

take another bowl, melt
125gr of butter
mix with
3/4 cups of brown sugar and

1/2 cup of white sugar

take a cup and whisk:

2 tsp vanilla essence,
2 tbsp milk and

2 medium eggs

mix content of cup in with content of bowls. Mix well. Add
2 cups non-crunch-choc-chip-and-oats muesli and
1 cup of cranberries

make half hand palm sized little flat balls and leave on baking sheet. Make sure you leave enough space between each one of them. I had two sheets of cookies in the end.

Preheat oven to 180°C/325°F and bake them for 12-15 min. The edges should be golden.

Fast-made Hat for Babies

I just couldn't make up my mind which one to post....


I tested a sewing machine today. One my sister handed me down, because my old 1950s model I normally use, just can't handle the material. The transport seems to fail, and then my needle brakes. It got very frustrating... But still, I just love this old Lady!


I took a well fitting hat and traced it onto an old T-shirt, having the material in 2 layers!

Cut it out adding an extra cm for the seems.

If you like the little knot on top just add a little extra strap to your pattern, as seen above.

Next, sew the 2 layers together. Don't sew the top bit under the strap as you'll have to pull them out, when turning the hat to the other side.
Finally just knot the 2 laces and your hat is finished.

I just added a little smiling spider for the wee man, so the hat wouldnt be too boring looking.

Because the T-Shirt material is so soft, this happend to be our first non-tear hat experience! Now I only need an inspiration for a non-tear winter suit and/or coat. Have you got any ideas for me?

Twix® muffins

After making these I still had seven Twix® left over. I made my Husband a choc cheese cake for valentines day, and it was a big hit around here, so I thought I could make those Twix® into something cheesy...like muffins??! There was no recipe so I came up with this one myself. I thought they turned out very yummy (had 3 for breakfast this morning, so how bad can they be?) but honestly, it depends what ratio for base to cheese you prefer. These little Babies will be about half to half.

So you take your
7 Twix® (=14 Fingers)

You have to separate the biscuit from the caramel bit with a sharp knife. Really it sounds more difficult than it is!

Then put the biscuit bits into the blender

add
1/2 cup ground almonds
3 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp white sugar
mix well, and divide into 18 muffin cases.
preheat Oven to 150°C/300°F and bake the bases for about10 minutes. Then let cool.

Now beat in a large bowl
2 Pcks (à 8 ounces/200gr) of cream cheese (softened) until fluffy. Then add
1/2 cup of white sugar. Mix well, and add
two beaten eggswith
2 tbsp of coffee liqueur. Mix well. Chop up the caramel parts of the Twix®s and add to the Cheese.

Fill on top of your cooled base in the muffin cases and put back into the oven at 175°C/350°F for roughly 30 min. The edges should be light brown.

I hope You enjoy them as much as I did :-)

Vegan roasted Rosemary and Garlic Spuds

I came across a link yesterday morning that inspired me, to prepare my potatoes  a little different last night.
All you need is a bunch of spuds, some fresh rosemary and garlic.
peel and wash
7 medium sized potatoes
then very thinly slice them

set them aside

mix in a cup:
4 tbsp freshly chopped rosemary

2 cloves of garlic mashed
4 tbsp of margarine (warm and very soft) mixed with
4 tbsp of olive oil
some salt and freshly ground black pepper

pour over spuds and mix well,

fill into casserole with lid
preheat oven to 200°C / 390°F
first for 25 min with lid then for another 10 min without.

I had mine with veggieburgers, ready made from the shop, I got a little lazy ;-) Mr. Spider had his with some real-deal meat.
Hope you enjoy! Oh and by the way, any left overs go fantastic the next day, as fried potatoes...

my night off - Mr. Spider is cooking: vegetarian stuffed peppers for dinner and apple casserole for dessert

For 4 medium sized peppers
grate
1 zucchini (courgettes for the British readers)
2 carrots

chop up
1 mozzarella
2-3 cloves of garlic
fresh basil
soak
1 cup of granulated soya
in 2 cups veg stock
and
4tbsp of tomato puree

mix all
place in oven proof dish with lid at 200°C/390°F for roughly 30 min. Serve with rice



Dessert: Apple Casserole

chop
2 large apples
sprinkle with
orange juice

mix  
3 beaten eggs yolks
with 
1 mashed banana
2 tbsp vanilla sugar 
1 1/2 cups of curd
5 tbsp plain flour
3 tbsp honey
3/4 tsp cinnamon
mix well until creamy mass (maybe add a little more flour)
then add the chopped apples

beat  
3  egg-whites until stiff
and gently add to rest
fill into oven proof bowl, and place it in preheated oven at
180°C/350°F for at least 20 min