Dinner 2012!

I had the gang over for the annual birthday dinner.
This year's menu:
                                                          First course
                                                         Baby Spinach salad
                                                                    with
                    bacon, dried cranberries, candied pumpkin seeds and raspberry dressing.


                                                         Main course
                                                Pork roast with garlic and ginger
                                                                    with
                                 potatoes,gravy, black currant jelly and pickled cucumber.

                                                              Dessert
                                    Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry Semifreddos
                                                                   with
                                                     mini meringues and wafers.


.....................................................................................................

A really simple but tasty salad! Baby Spinach, crispy bacon bits, dried cranberries....  the dressing in the original recipe was half ranch dressing / half crushed and strained raspberry "sauce" with a dash of balsamic vinegar but I couldn´t find any ranch dressing so I mixed dried herbs, garlic, oil, cream, raspberry sauce, balsamic vinegar and also in the original there are candied walnuts in the salad but due to a allergy, I candied sunflower seeds instead...



I season the roast with a ginger, garlic and herb mix, salt, pepper and allowed it to marinate for a few hours ... Then I had it in the oven for 4-5 hours on a low heat! YUM-YUM!



I saw a cookery program once and they had mini meringues with a dessert and I thought:Oh! How cute and fun! I just had to make them for my dinner!











I got really nice gifts! M.E, D & J gave me a cute mug, some ginger & honey tea and a tea strainer(I needed that!)...B & T gave me a nice candle with a platter and a stone with the words *Enjoy, every minute!* engraved in it...Madde & J gave me a small frying pan for making omelets and a cool binder to put recipes in...M.J gave me a tin!!But when  i opend it there was a pendant for a necklace that she had made in it! She had taken an unopend tin, opend it and emptied from the bottom and put the pendant inside!! She is soo clever,well... they all are, my friends! Thank you everyone!! <3

This weekend I intend to sit and read a good book with my cup of honey and ginger tea, with toast and an omelette;o)

xox

Elly

A new day, a new year....It´s my B-day! ( :OS )

                                              The Road Not Taken

                                Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
                                 And sorry I could not travel both
                                And be one traveler, long I stood
                                 And looked down one as far as I could
                                To where it bent in the undergrowth;
                                Then took the other, just as fair,
                                And having perhaps the better claim,
                                Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
                                Though as for that passing there
                                Had worn them really about the same,
                                And both that morning equally lay
                                In leaves no step had trodden black.
                                Oh, I kept the first for another day!
                                Yet knowing how way leads to way,
                                I doubted if I should ever come back.
                                Somewhere ages and ages hence:
                                Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
                                   I took the one less traveled by,
                                And that has made all the difference.

                                                                                  by: Robert Frost


              It´s 00.25 AM in Sweden... that means it´s the 3rd of February & I´m 29 (:0S  )...a step from 30(!!!). I hope this year brings some new paths ...maybe not as large as a freeway but a few small paths here and there....Perhaps artistic paths! or culinary..That would be nice....But as somebody says in  Shakespeare's Macbeth: Come What May! So we will just have to wait and see:)

                                                                    

First post of 2012 ... belongs to Kristian Johns.

I've been meaning to write something about his blog http://sexdrugssausagerolls.wordpress.com/, or his short story "Dying, And Other Superpowers (which I have not bought yet..But I may buy it for my b-day....that and Twizzlers!! Time will tell ..Anyway.. it´s about a guy,who gets super powers and he finds out he has HIV..and it has been made in to a short movie which looks really COOL! Think X-men with issues ..)but well..i haven´t...
 I have followed his blog for a while..Kristian is someone who says what he thinks..and through his blog he reveals some dark times .. and his fears, struggles..and life in general.  In the latest post he talks about his struggles with addiction and how 2011 started with a downwards spiral...A roller coaster of falling off the wagon and then climbing back on it again..
*2011 began as it was to continue for the next six months. I started off the new year drunk, lonely, frightened, in debt and with a hole in my soul ten times the size of that in my bedroom window.*-K.J


Kristian found a way back ... he bravely saved his own life..Now telling his story to help others struggling with an addiction...This year he spent New Year’s Eve eating ice cream and watching movies with the love of his life :) Sounds like a good New Year´s to me!!

Even if I haven´t gone through the same things in my life, i can understand it. Those who know me know I'm not a big drinker..but I have been on the other side..
Kristian have gone through so much....I don´t know if I would have made it through everything he has....Would I be that strong? or that brave to tell the world my story? Would you? 
Kristian:*I’m not ashamed of who I am, and I’m not afraid to be honest. And I will carry on holding my head up and fighting on behalf of those who live in fear so that we can finally end stigma once and for all. My name is Kristian Johns, I’m HIV positive. And I refuse to hide, because I shouldn’t have to.*
Kristian also helps spread knowledge about HIV and was a part of a global WAD campaign called Be An Activist . Kristian may have HIV but that is not who he is...Kristian is a son, a brother, a friend, a writer, an activist, he´s smart, cute;)...He makes me want to start writing(Not that it will make me write any faster...Did you know a short story is about 2000 words, if not more?!?! ....and after this post i don´t know anymore!.)..... and he can sing! (or so they say!) And... he is dating Clark Kent..Just my luck!  ;o) I just wanted to say:Thank you for telling your story:) xox

The End......of 2011!
                                                         Photos from this past years....

 My nephew E on his namingday! Cute!

Grandma!

Kinky carrot!! Haha!

I have always wanted to make canneloni so when I found the right pasta i just had to make Cannelloni with Italian sausage and cheese!

And after that... I made sushi!!! The seaweed was not sooo popular but it was good!!

Helping hands....or bodys!!;o)

Thanks for the help!!! <3

E got a car for his birthday!

Mocha Cake!

Do you recognize sweater?

                                                       When I was just a little girl
                                                  I asked my mother, what will I be
                                                       Will I be pretty, will I be rich
                                                       Here's what she said to me.


                                                              Que Sera, Sera,
                                                       Whatever will be, will be
                                                  The future's not ours, to see
                                                               Que Sera, Sera
                                                     What will be, will be.-Doris Day

              Well...the year is at it´s end and...the future is to see...we will see what will be:)

New Year's Resolutions ...

1) Write a short story... 2) cook / bake more from cookbooks! 3) Take more pictures

4) Think less, do more........

And

5) Work more on the house

May You All Have A Happy New Year!

xox

Season greetings!!

*Light a candle and let it burn
Never let the hope disappear in the dark now
but it becomes brighter again
Light a candle for all you believe in
for this planet we live on
light a candle for the children of earth.......

I saw a star fall it was last night when everyone was asleep
I think I wanted you were close for a minute
then burned the for a second then it disappeared
it was just me who saw on the radio singing them about peace on earth
I wanted to believe them worn words.....

Light a candle and let it burn never let the hope disappear it is dark now
but it becomes brighter again
Light a candle for all you believe in for this planet we live on
light a candle for the children of earth ....

I received a card from Windhem
I did not know where it was
I looked on the map
You are on the other side of the world
but it is the same sky it is the same sea and the star that
I saw seemed forever that we dream seemed that we never forget...

lit a candle and let it burn
never let the hope disappear in the dark now
but it becomes brighter again
Light a candle for all you believe in for this planet we live on
light a candle for the children of earth ...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
promise to take care of yourself, a greeting for you
lit a candle and let it burn
never let the hope disappear in the dark now
but it becomes brighter again
light a candle for all you believe in
for this planet we live on

light a candle for the children of earth
Aaah lit a candle for the children of earth light a candle for the children of earth*

(That was a Swedish Christmas songs by the group Triad..) I love that song..the lyrics are beautiful and i think really meaningful..

I just wanted to tell you all

                                                Merry Christmas!

       Joyeux Noël!   С Рождеством Христовым!     

             Nollaig Shona!   ¡Feliz Navidad!   

 Nadolig Llawen!            God Jul!

        Take care of yourself and your loved ones...

 

 

Love Elly  XOX