Garden Man

Hubby has just said: "I am going in the garden and make some place for the new plants." That fits today's blog topic perfectly.

Hubby's vegetable garden - his new pride and joy. 

This year Hubby started out on his gardening adventure, he dug up patches (and removed the remains of my last year's attempt at gardening), put bricks around them and bought seeds and plants for potatoes, chard, zucchini, lettuce, kohlrabi and arugula. And his garden is doing fine. More often than not I hear him disappearing at night to "water his garden" or talking about how the potatoes are doing.

Word has spread about his garden, I guess. So at our birthday party we were gifted with those:

Flowers, lavender, hokkaido and zucchini plants, a pear tree and a blackcurrant bush. They really need some garden space of their own. Personally, I am still waiting for my thumb to turn green, but I suspect that I am more of an organic vegetable lover/cook/eater. But, you know, in a marriage there must be balance, one in the garden, one in the kitchen.

So I am very proud of my garden man who also deserves a break now and then (under the roses that he cut back so well).

Hubby's Cake

Hubby got his raw vegan birthday cake too.

 Chocolate Blueberry Tart

It sure was a crowd pleaser! I didn't mention the fact that the cake was raw vegan, I just let it stand there on the table along with the other cakes, and only after some guests started commenting on how delicious it was, mousse-au-chocolatey and just a perfect symphony of taste and texture I came out with the truth. They nearly couldn't believe it - no dairy?

And like my own birthday cake (blogged here) based on cashews, it was very rich. One regular piece leaves you really full and happy. Just one happy guy managed to eat two.

As the recipe is the combination of four different ones I found in books and online and some people asked for it (and I can remember it for later), here is my version:

Ingredients:

Crust:
2 cups walnuts
1/2 cup soft pitted dates
3 tsp cacao powder (or more to taste)
pinch of salt

Filling:
4 cups cashews, soaked for 6-8 hours
1 cup melted coconut oil
1 cup agave nectar
3/4 cup water
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt1 cup cacao powder
400-500g blueberries (frozen and completely thawed or fresh, or a combination of both)

Crust:
Process the walnuts until crumbly. Add dates, cacao and salt and process until well combined. Transfer to springform pan and press till firm.

Filling:
In a food processor or blender combine all the ingredients except cacao powder and blueberries until smooth and creamy. Add cacao powder and process/blend until well combined. Add blueberries carefully by hand to the mixture (leaving some fresh ones for the garnish on top). Transfer to springform pan and distribute evenly over the crust.

Freeze for at least 4 hours (better overnight) until firm all way through. When you are ready to serve, allow the cake to sit at room temperature for 1-2 hours or until soft. You can also defrost it in the fridge for a couple of hours. Before serving sprinkle fresh blueberries on top. Leftovers (which leftovers?) can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Enjoy!

Pink Moment of the Week

Where there were a couple of roses last year on our terrace, this year there a dozens (cutting them back has really worked botanical magic, we are still figuring out this garden thing...).

It smells soo sweet stepping out of the house. 

Inspired by this post here, I decided to save some of the organic edible flowery goodness for later by drying.

I am still looking for a great recipe for those dried petals.

Pink Moment of the Week

... at the Flea Market on Saturday. Great sunshine weather, great location at the Oldenburg Castle, nice people and a great opportunity to let go of old stuff (the money made is a nice by-product of the process).
Extra info: this was actually only the second flea market of my life.
What sold best: my CD collection and books.

Sweets to the Sweet

After my yummy birthday cake, I decided to give my yoga students a treat this week.

Raw vegan brownies!

I wouldn't go so far to say that they will change your life (as the recipe link suggests here), but they are really good - moist, chocolatey and chewy and everybody in my family loves them (I made them a couple of times during the last month - has my life already changed then?).

My yoga students wouldn't say no to the brownies either (just one girl with a nut allergy) and asked for the recipe. I think this post should provide you with the information to get started. Enjoy!

Raw Cake Eater

And that's 36-years-old-birthday-me being proud of my cake.

Pink Moment of the Week

 It was my birthday this week and for this special occasion I made a wonderful raw vegan raspberry cheesecake.

None of my guests guessed the main ingredient (no tofu, mascarpone or cream cheese) - it was cashews!

The recipe was inspired by this one here.

(better double or triple the batch)

In the Raw

May has seen me dabbling my culinary hands in the fresh waters of raw cuisine. So most of my creative energy went into learning the art of un-cooking - cutting and spiralizing vegetables, soaking nuts, blending smoothies and pestos. The results were diverse, from plain and filling to downright scrumptious (oh, the desserts!). But what I can say because I feel it: it gives you such a beautiful energy.

Read Knit Blog

This was a book given to me to read from a yoga student of mine. I had heard about the book (I have seen the German edition  lying around in the birthing home - of all places!-where I teach prenatal yoga classes) and had come across the regrets online. Australian songwriter and now-new mother Bronnie Ware interweaves the "regret chapters" with her personal story of breaking free. Reading the book I found it very positive and life-affirming and I think that the author's personal meditation and yoga background shines through in a lot of passages. And did I say that I love books written by vegans?

She doesn't knit or crochet in the book, but is already in the second sentence of the book "having a yarn" with a friend. And this is not the last aussie slang time in the book where she talks to a friend in this fiber-related way.

But I found one knitting grannie in the book, also right in the beginning. The first client in the book, an elderly English lady, would love her weekly routine where one appointment per day (doctor's, bingo, grocery shopping) would be enough "or it would ruin afternoon routine of rest and knitting".

I would love that afternoon routine... and sometimes manage a couple of minutes of it. So hopefully, those pink socks will come to their natural knitting end soon. No regrets. Just toes left.

Pink Moment of the Week

Last week's cherry blossom petals "raining" down.

Love Your Baby and Knit For It!

Yesterday I showed you what we discovered in front of the sports club, when Carolina and me went to her weekly playgroup. Today I show you, what we saw inside the changing room.

A retro pram/stroller.

(last time I saw one similar to this was a year ago, blogged here)

And some knitted baby cardigan inside,

usually made by grandma if I dare to ask.

Love Your Bike and Crochet For It!

Spotted this week in front of the sports club where we go for Carolina's playgroup.

Love Your Bike and Knit For It!

Living in a city that is a heaven for cyclists with 50 % of the town's population on bikes, you not only make your bike more beautiful with yarn (blogged here), you also care for its safety.

With a bike lock covered with knitting.

I saw this bike (and the owner - a woman) for the first time last week in front of an organic supermarket and again yesterday at the Farmers Market. If there will be a "next time", I'll ask her about her bike lock.

Bike Spring Yarn Graffiti

New (yarn) flowers seen around town:

At the Oldenburg Farmers Market:

Pink Moment of the Week

... cherry blossom time, reminding me that it's been a year now since we moved into our house.

Spring Yarn Graffiti

Remember this yarn graffiti here from last September?

It is still there. The colours have faded a tad, but it has little spring offshoots now on one side.

 The fence is in front of a squat.

I took the next picture on my way home, it just reminded me so much of the crochet flower graffiti.

Pink Moments of the Week

Spring style:

Magnolia:

Start sewing with the children at the crafts club:

Crochet & Rock 'n' Roll

After the rock star wife, the supergroupie, it was now time for Miss O'Dell, assistant and friend to the rock 'n' roll stars. Between jobs as an assistant working for the Beatles' Apple Corps in London and touring with the Rolling Stones across the US, while house sitting Eric Clapton's place Chris O'Dell "took up crocheting to pass the time".

A couple of months later in LA, with her new friend cocaine she would do this: "I spent hours sitting in the living room, listening to music, snorting a line, and crocheting. Crocheting! Is was an obsession - I snorted coke, crocheted, snorted more coke, crocheted a little faster. What started off as a scarf that I was making for my father for Christmas became a twin bedspead, and then a double bedspread, and finally a king-size bedspread. I just couldn't stop." That was back in 1971. But if you ask me, I know this "I just can't stop"-obsession very well, and it doesn't take any illegal substances to come this high/far.

2013 - I am not experiencing this obsession lately while (still) knitting those socks...

Pink Moment of the Week

... Carolina wearing her birthday hat inside out.

'Tis early practice only makes the master

Clara's school had an open house afternoon this week, and they kindly asked me whether I could also be there to show off some stuff the children make at my craft club. We don't have that much yet, some friendship bracelets and some crochet thingies. For good measure, I threw in some books and balls of yarn on my exhibit table and it wasn't before long that some girls wanted to start stitching too. And especially one very young girl wouldn't want to give her crochet hook back.

Yarn Graffiti Revisited

They have been up for a while, those two pieces of yarn graffiti that hang and great me where I teach my Tuesday night Kundalini yoga class. But either I had no camera or it was still too dark for taking pictures. Yesterday both conditions were met.

Made my a yoga student of mine.

Little Liselotte Strick spring flowers (remember those?)

Crunchy Sunday

Last week those yummy, crunchy, not-too-sweet, double-baked, sophisticated biscotti entered our lives. They made a great Italien-style breakfast together with a cup of coffee, a birthday present for a friend who likes exactly this kind of breakfast, a welcome after-dinner-treat, a just-so-pick-me-up and Sunday-afternoon-with-the-grandparents-snack. I even had to hide them from Hubby late at night when he came back from watching a basketball game (so we could offer something to the grandparents...). The girls liked them too (anise? yes!)

You can find the recipes here: Almond-Anise and Chocolate-Hazelnut from my favourite vegan cookbook Veganomicon. I substituted wheat with spelt, canola with sunflower oil and used whole cane sugar. But be warned: they are addictive!

Pink Moment of the Week

... Carolina's hair long enough for a little ponytail.

A Green Sweater

They've been coming from Clara's room lately, these murmurs and indignant shouts: "Everything I have is pink! I want to wear something else." So last Saturday, when all she wanted was a green sweater, we went shopping. Or we "rode" shopping. The four of us, on bikes, downtown.

 We found some clothes.

And a green hoodie.

Clara's act of emancipation from pink didn't affect me in the slightest. My newest dress looks likes this:

Pink Moments of the Week

... still with the groupies. Supergroupie Pamela Des Barres this week. I am especially interested in her chapters on motherhood, where I also found the occasional "weensy booties knitted like a pair of cowboy boots" at the baby shower and her "embroidering Tinker Bell on a tooth-fairy pillowcase" when she was pregnant. Motherhood changes everything, a lot at least. Like buying home magazines.

Speaking of baby booties:

A good friend from school has just had her third baby, a girl, and a pair of baby booties went via mail to them. Those purple-pink ones in the middle, they were actually the last survivors of the baby bootie party.

Current knitting involved picking up the pink 2-at-once-socks again, just to realize that I had to rip back a couple of holiday-made rounds. Never mind. And quite a challenge when you work with two long circular needles at 11pm. Frog 'n' Roll.

Knitting and Rock 'n' Roll

Not much knitting recently, but reading. Like Pattie Boyd's autobiography. The sixties model and former wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton tells the story of her life and in-between all those exciting and heartbreaking tales, I also found two little passages about knitting:

"... and George gave me a knitting machine so I took knitting lessons. I had been inspired by Twiggy, who had also had one and could run off wonderful sweaters. I found it terribly difficult. I knitted George a Fair Isle one and that was it."

"Then Eric decreed that wives and girlfriends were banned from touring. We used private planes most of the time, and Jamie, the drummer's wife, got on one day and started knitting. Eric flipped. Knitting didn't go with rock 'n' roll..."

When Hubby saw the book lying on the couch the other day, he asked me: "Are you a groupie now?" Sure enough - but I am a fan of the yarnharlot, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Her blog and books are music to my ears. Or like Interweave Magazine (The Rolling Stone of Knitters) put it: "She has become something of an unwitting rock star in the world of knitting." Times have changed.

Turkish Speciality

... as seen every morning at the breakfast buffet.

Easter Light

... eventually...

 the temperatures rose, the snow melted and the sun came out

Aggregate States of Water

Last day of vacation:

First day back at home: