decluttering my life

since the boy and i moved into our new place on the 1st of january, we've been trying to make an effort not to live in a big pile of mess. it doesn't work completely, but the dishwasher helps quite a bit!
it's a neverending project to live a minimalist life, and i might as well face it; i won't ever be the type of person who lives like that. i might be scandinavian all the way through, but i'm also a big fan of piles of gorgeous books, huge cozy sofas and chairs, old funiture that bears signs of a life before my apartment. i have a few pieces of furniture that i've had for years, and both of them are dressers, old and all that is left from when i lived with my mom. i threw away most of what i owned, when the boy and i moved in together; i was so much in love, and needed nothing but the company of the person i was in love with. i'm still very much in love, and though it was risky to throw away all of my possesions, it worked.

but somehow, the problem is not exactly getting nice furniture, that's the problem. it's getting the room for the furniture. and even though we have a nice, big apartment, it's just not working out. we have too much crap, and too little storage room. i own several decorating books, and all of these perfectly furnished places leave me with only one question; where's all the clutter. we all have it. we all own stuff that we don't really need, but cant bear to part with. where do these decorating gods leave theirs? i don't get it. i want to have a nice place, but i don't want to part with my beloved crap.

but i am gonna do it. i am gonna try to part with the stuff i REALLY don't need.
i am gonna try to make this place work, by decluttering it, and making it easier to clean.
i am gonna do my best to make this place a place that i am proud to live, make it reflect me and my taste.
i am gonna spend the time (and money) that it takes.

i will let you join me on the journey, and byy doing this, hoping to inspire others to make their homes a place that reflects them.

wish me good luck. i think i'm gonna need it.

Sushi

The sushi

The salad

The dips

The plate

The table

-Then I think we've got it all covered:)

well, i made three kinds of sushi - a big one, with cucumber, avokado and some red salad.

- a small one, with bobby beans and sesame seeds

-another small one, with cucumber, salad and red salad.

it was nice, simple and easy to make.

Then I made a salad from steamed bobby beans and fresh mango, with some sesame, and a salad from the leftover sushi fillings. - no need to waste all that goodness.

I served it with four different kind of dips:
-soy sauce

-sau sauce with orange juice and ginger

-wasabi

-sweet chili sauce (for the salad)

and then of course some sushi gari, which basically, is just pickled ginger.

it was an amazingly easy and healthy way to end the week, and is really easy to make.

it can be somewhat exepensive, if you have to go out and buy all of the supplys at once - the gari, the bamboo rolling mat, the chopsticks, the rice vinegar, the nori sheets and the rice. not to forget the fillings! but I had most of it here, only needed some veggies.

by the way, right now i'm knitting a scarf with some chopsticks. it's turning out really nice. will post a picture, once it's done..

"Look what I did with a spoon!" or The Tale Of The Dinner

Today, I promised Andreas to cook something really nice, so we could sit down and have a candle-light dinner, and enjoy the weekend for once, so I cooked up this:

-Sweet potato fries, only seasoned with a bit of olive oil and some salt'n'pepper.

-Baked fennel, which I first marinated in some sunflower seed oil, with pepper and star anis, and then baked for about 30 minutes in the oven.

-A salad made from braised Jerusalem artiscoke, broccoli, brussels sprouts, oyster mushrooms and some steamed bobby beans. Then i sprinkles with some lemon juice, and some salt'n'pepper.

-The "Orange Maple dressing" from theppk.com

I served it all with a big piece of mango, which was awesome.

Check out the pictures:

The salad.

The Mango.

The dressing.

The baked Fennel.

All of it together.

I also had another wild cupcake adventure today. The base of all of these cupcakes, is the plain vanilla cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, which is my absolute favourite cookbook! I'd recomment it for everyone.

I did my own frosting today as well, which of course included the mocca-one from yesterday (yummie!), and a raspberry glazing, some sprinkles and some chocolate ganache. Guess who was the popular one in this house today?

Well, go check 'em out youself:

First batch is out of the oven.

This is basically just a poser pic, but isn't it nice?

Vanilla Cupcakes with Raspberry Dream Glazing, and silver sprinkles.

The same, but a different picture.

Mocca Frosting, Raspbarry glazing, and some confectioner's sugar.. Very sophisticated combination.

Mocca Frosting, Chocolate Ganache and some more Mocca Frosting. "Look what i did with a spoon!"

The perfect foursome.

I made the Rasperry Dream Glaze, with some frozen raspberrys, a bit of boiling water and a lot of confectioners sugar. You can't go wrong with this!

The chocolate Ganache, was made with some melted chocolate and a couple of teaspoons of soymilk.

The Mocca Frosting is the same as the one I used yesterday..

My first cupcake adventure

I must admit, i'm usually too lazy, to frost my cupcakes.. But today, I did the basic chocolate cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World, with a bit of instant coffee and some chopped almonds, and I felt inspired to do one of my favorite frostings, which is a coffee frosting. I haven't got a decent recipe, but the thing I do is, I mix some margerine and some boiling water (about 1/2 of each), and a lot of instant coffee. Then I mix it with some confectioners sugar, until it has a good texture. Spread it on the cooled cupcakes, and decorate with some chopped almonds. Maaan, it's good.

The green ones, are made with some green marzipan, water and confectioners sugar, and decorated with chopped, frozen raspberrys.

The coffee ones were definately my favorites, but my boyfriend liked the green ones better. But he IS a sucker for anything green..

Very classy Tomato salad

This is my recipe for a perfect tomato salad - don't hang to much on to the ingredients, if you have something similar, use it. the important thing is that you use some delish tomatoes, and a splash of the best olive oil you have on hand.


This is what you'll need:

-about 500 g tomatoes - preferrably cherrytomatoes, and some different colored ones.

-a handful of black olives - i like the unstoned ones, they taste a lot better! - if using unstoned, stone the m****rf**kers

-a red onion

-a handful of fresh basil

-some rucolasalad (if you fancy)

-the best olive oil you can get your hands on

-salt'n'pepper


this is how you do it:

chop all those veggies up, mix 'em in a pretty looking bowl, spalsh with olive oil, and a dash of salt'n'pepper.


Not that hard, huh? serve with grilled aubergines, some fried polenta and a glass of redvine.

My first post

well, now I've created a blog, so now I just need to get myself a digitalcamera. I'm planning on this being a food-blog, where I'm gonna post hunky vegan recipes, pics, link to other vegan food blogs and all of that other stuff, you do on a blog.

This sure is gonna rock - so keep updated!