Happy Solstice!

Winter is going down, the Sun is going up since today! A good reason to keep a good mood and smile in these dark evenings!

Ginger jam

Autumn has really come now, so I'd like to share something sweet, warm and spicy )

This kind of jam will do very well for the season. It's not only tasty but prevents season flu and gives extra energy to live your full life on windy and rainy days. But you need to have some patience because this jam can fairly be called "slow food": the whole process of making is 5-6 days.

So you need:

fresh ginger - 1 cup

apples - 1 cup

sugar - 1 - 1 1/2 cup 

Peel and dice ginger. Place it into a bowl of water for 2-3 days and change the water every day - to remove bitterness. You may add orange skin into the bowl.

Peel and chop apples (or process in a blender), add infused ginger (and orange skins if you took them), place all ingridients in a sausepan, add sugar. Bring to a boil and keep on the simmer for few minutes untis sugar melts. Then turn off the cooker and leave the mixture till the next day. The next day boil it again and keep on the simmer for 5 minutes. Repeat for 2 more days. 

You've got an unusual dessert for your family and a good present for anyone.

Apples everywhere...

Apples rule! We have so many apples that they will soon fill the kitchen up to the ceiling. And...apple pies, apple pancakes, jams, dry apples - it's not the whole list of things you can make of them!

Here is a very easy recepie of  russian apple jam "5 minutes". In this kind of jam all nutrients and vitamins are preserved very well, so it's a healthy and quite low-sugar dessert.

You need:
apples - peeled and destoned - 1 kilo
white sugar - 200g

Dice apples, place in an enamel bowl (sausepan) and cover them with sugar. Leave for an hour (until juice appears), stirring occasionally. When the mixture is juicy enough, place the bowl on a cooker and slowly reduce to boiling - it will take about 5 min. Don't forget to stir the mixture vigorously all the time. Jam is ready! Fill some jars with it and keep in a cool place.
This jam doesn't have long shelf life, though it even needn't it - because it too tasty!))

Summer flowers

There are some flowers that are especially gorgeous there this summer.

Lilac

Garden violets

...some more of them

 

Jasmine

Though tulips have already gone, I can't but place the picture of them.

First crocus and blossoming willow

Yes, first flowrs are only appearing now - happily smiling under the really warm sun.

WILLOW

CROCUS

Spring willow

Spring is coming so slowly here in the North. But the sun is fabulous and trees and birds are waking up.

Blossoming willow

Church bell

Happy sparrow

Semolina and lemon cake

This is a veganised variant of a popular Russian recepie. I love lemon cakes, so I add lemon, but instead /or you can add raisins or some other dry or fresh fruit.

For a middle-sized cake I took:

semolina - 250g
soy flour - 2 tbs
sugar - 3 full tbs
a half of lemon
baking soda - 1 1/2 tea sp
baking powder - 1/2 tea sp
apple vinegar - a splash
vanilla sugar with natural vanilla extract - 2 tea sp
vegan margarin - 2 tbs
see salt - a pinch, to taste

Preheat an oven to 200 degrees C. Mix well semolina with margarin in a bowl. Grind lemon (rind, flesh and juice - all goes), add it to the bowl. Add sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, soy flour and baking powder and mix well. Extinguish soda with vinegar, add to the bowl. Add some water to make a thick batter, mix very well again.
Grease a middle-sized baking form, put your batter into it and level a bit. Put into the oven, bake for about 40 min.
You'll get something like this, very fragrant and tasty:

Semolina cake

 

The first signs

The daylight is becoming more and more prolonged. Birds are becoming loud and active. It's not the spring itself yet, but the first signs of it. Wish it's getting warmer soon.

Sparrow

Russian pancakes

Russian Pancake week is a week before Lent, seven weeks before Easter. The tradition of cooking pancakes which symbolise the sun is derived from the sun worship of the ancient times. Now pancakes are the symbol of passing winter and coming spring. Each hostess has her own recepie of pancakes, there are no right and wrong recepies - the main rule is your personal preferences.
Here is the simplest recepie of vegan pancakes, of so called "thin" pancakes (for "thick" you need some yeast).
Ingredients:
1-2 cups of white flour
2 tbs of soy flour
1/2 cup of sunflower oil
 water
sugar, salt to taste

1. Start with adding water to white flour little by little, to make nice batter, without flakes. The batter should be liquid but not too much - a consistence something like that of treacle. It's not easy to find this appropriate consistence, so add some flour or water in the process of cooking, looking at what is turning out..
2. Mix soy flour with water and add to the batter. Add salt and sugar.
3. Heat a frying pan with at least 3 tea spoons of oil till the oil is boiling.
4. Spoon up a good ladle of the batter and pour out onto the pan. Swing the pan from right to left to let the batter spread in a thin layer at the whole surface. Fry for about 30 seconds, then turn uside down with the help of a broad knife. Lay the ready pancake on a plate, grease the pan again and pour out a new portion of batter. And so it goes.

The first pancake may be not as nice as you'd like it to be, but the next ones will get out better and better. You can make some filling (tofu, cooked vegetables, raisins - whatever you like) and roll it up in pancakes. Or just deep them in jam and eat. )))

Frosty winter

It's wonderful, all around has covered with hoarfrost! It's -24C outside. All is white, looks like fairytale. Sun is shining through the tiny snowflakes that fills the air. In fact, they are not snowflakes but ice dust, which the air moisture turned into. Pictures can't reproduce the beauty of nature and of the city around me, but can give some impression.

 

Dog roses are espesially wonderful:

Christmas decorations

Christmas and New year have passed, but I still have some words about this subject.
The best decorations for any holiday, I think, are handmade ones. They keep the warmth of soul and hands, and if you make them with positive thinking and wishes, they will bring good luck. They are the perfect Christmas gift also. Here are some Christmas decorations I made in 2012.
Some salt dough stuff:

Salt dough wreath

Wall decor

Cross-stitch embroidery in holografic paper frames:

Star

Sqirrell

Wreath

Merry Christmas!

Peace to the world! Peace to all living creatures!

my Christmas tree

The Cake before Christmas

This easy and delicious chocolate cake is a good match for a cup of tea in winter evenings. Now it's just the time when you'd like to chocolate yourself a bit and think about the upcoming holidays.

For the cake:
plain flour -300g
cocoa powder - 3 tbs
sugar - 100g
walnuts - 100g
baking powder - 1 tsp
baking soda - 1,5 tsp
vinegar, a splash
water - about a cup.

For the cream:
vegan margarine - 100g
cocoa powder - about 2 tsp
sugar - about 2 tbs

coconut chips for topping

Crush walnuts and fry them on a pan without oil.
Preheat an oven at 180C.
Mix well flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder and walnuts. Add a drop of vinegar into a spoon of soda and mix into the pastry. Add some water to make the pastry not firm but not fluid. Lay the pastry into the greased round baking form and top with coconut chips. Put into the oven for about 40 min.
Make some creame for layering. Mix mararine, sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl until sugar melts. Put the cream into the fridge.
Take the cake out of the oven and let it get cold. Divide the cake horizontally into 2 parts. I do it this way: cut the cake around (not deeply), take a dense thread, put it into the cut, cross the ends and pull them both ways. The halves get out plane and nice.
Take your cream out of the fridge and spread it on the bottom half. Cover with the upper half, press a little and put into the fridge. Let it settle for a day to become soft and saturated.

My cake rose very well, so it would be ok to cut it even into 3 layers. If you decide to do that, you'll need some more cream.

Winter has come

It's snowing all the time. All things around look different, and it's become lighter in the streets because of snow.

A couple of days ago there were some ducks swimming in the city channels, but today there is no one. I wonder where they could fly and whether they have stayed in city.
Here is an autumn picture of ducks at the channel. Female one is a master of diguise )

Ducks at the city channel

By the way, it's time to count down to Christmas. Let's start! To begin with, I'd offer an everyday concentration on positive thoughts and things. There are lots of them around! Look: snow, windows shining bright, smells of vegan cooking, smiles, happy family... And eating sweets and chocolates of course!

The last leaves and November reading

 Autumn is coming to an end, but some leaves are still on. Colours are incredibly beautiful...

November leaves

Colours are lasting

These leaves make me remember of O.Henry's story "The last leaf". It is is so deeply touching.

 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/213395.The_Last_Leaf

 Another seasonal book is "Moominvalley in November" by Tove Jansson. The fairy-tale, like all stories by this writer, is good for adults as well as for children. I adore all of Tove Jansson's Moominvalley stories, they are very much psychological and humane.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/79547.Moominvalley_in_November

It's raining over and over... So, it's just the time of the year for rolling up in an armchair with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate...

Vegan rissoles

A very tasty dish as well as cheap and easy. I make it of different ingredients, so this is only one of many possible variants.

You need:

fine oatmeal flakes - 1 cup
1 middle-sized carrot
1/2 middle-sized onion
ketchup - 2 tb sp
soy flour - 1 tb sp
white flour - 1/2 cup
oil or sunflower oil - 1 tb sp
dry herbs, any you like - 1 tea sp
salt to taste

Finely chop carrot and onion, mix with dry oatmeal flakes and fry. Add ketchup, herbs, soy flour and mix well. Form round rissoles, coat with flour and fry at both sides.

Instead of oatmeal you can take any other flakes, porridge, or boiled rice. You can also add beet, tomatoes, aubergine or squash.
Rissoles are delicious with mased or baked potatoes as well as in a burger with ketcup.

Vegan rissoles - one with beet to the right

Delicious...))

Frugal tips

Frugal living, I think, doesn't mean stinting yourself in everything. It means just to use things wisely and get the benefits of that. Now we are all looking forward to winter celebrations, adding the cost of presents, decorations and extra food to our everyday spendings. So, maybe it's just the right moment to start thinking of how to spend less and get more.
Here are some pieces of advice I use. They really work and help me to save money. At first, let's look into a fridge, cupboards and shelves with food.

1. Use remains to the end. There may be enough pastry for one more pancake in a bowl, or one more portion of ketchup in a pack while you decided to throw it into a bin. Some expired products may also be used. For example, dry some pieces of stale bread in an oven and make breadcrumbs for coating or stuffing. Soured soya milk may be used for a cake - like this one:
http://whitebirchtree.blogspot.ru/2012/11/chocolate-and-dates-cake.html

2. Grow your own. In winter you can grow herbs indoor. Seeds of parcley or dill cost much less than a single bunch of fresh green in a supermarket but you will get much more than a bunch. For how to grow herbs on your windowsill get to http://ourohio.org/home-gardens/gardening-basics/winter/windowsill-herbs/
The information is quite complete. My shoots do their best )

4. Use empty plastic bottles as pots for plants. You may decorate them with pictures from magazins, cards, chocolate wrappings and all the stuff you like. Here's a pot I made of a plastic bottle, foil and OGGI catalog)

3. Use natural ingredients as cosmetics. E.g. coffee grounds as face scrub (the effect is amazingly soft skin!), a drop of olive oil for hands (the same). It will reduce your spendings in a cosmetics shop.

4. Cereal and tea boxes are good as gift wrapping. Decorated with coloured paper and glittering glue they are as beautiful as ones from shops. And, of course, mind homemade Christmas decorations of salt dough, paper and natural materials such as pine cones and nuts. They are not only cheap but also organic and exclusive. Children will be happy making them too.

So, be creative, use different possibilities and bless you )

November lights

The sun is rising later and later and it's getting dark more and more early. But the darker around, the brighter lights are. Not only street lamps at nights but also the hawthorn in the daytime. Its berries are burning and shining red against the background of the gloomy grey sky.

November hawthorn

Lamp in the darkness

Chocolate and dates cake

This morning I found that remains of soya milk in my fridge got soured. So I decided to make this sponge cake with them. It turned out very well. Just for gloomy autumn day.

I took:

White flour - 250g
sour soya milk - about 150ml. If you're lucky and your milk is fresh, add 1\2 tea sp. of vinegar to it )
sugar - 2,5 tb.sp.
dates, destoned and chopped - a handful
cocoa-powder - 2,5 tea sp.
baking powder - 1,5 tea sp.
salt - a pinch
water - to make your pastry a bit fluid

Preheat an oven, 180C is enough
Mix all the ingredients together, add water to dilute. Mash until smooth.
Lay out into a greased baking forrm.
Bake until a picking match is dry, around 30 min (depends on your oven, though)

You can add some more cocoa if you like - to make it darker and more chocolate.

White Halloween!

Have you ever seen snow on Halloween??
It has been snowing all night and snowdrifts emerged! Nature goes mad... Here are today's pictures.

      

It's not Christmas - it's Halloween!                                                                                                     

                     In the park

And here is a pumpkin, I made it at http://pumpkin.dollskingdom.com/

Happy Halloween.......booooooooo!!!