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food

Of making food and the Weekly Wrapup

I cook and bake. No, lets start that over: I'm a lazy cook and I bake in times.

By being a lazy cook I mean that usually I do make food home, but I don't like putting hours and hours and loads of work in it. I do easy and simple stuff. The reason is I'm not that fond of making food, but also I don't want to eat noodles, frozen foods and stuff like that most the time.

With baking I have the same deal. I like to bake my own bread or rolls, but I don't spend too much time on it. Basically I like to eat homemade food, I just don't like to make it. Simple as that.

I like to watch photos of homemade food too, as well as read the recipes. I love browsing food blogs, such as What Should I Eat For Breakfast Today ? or Pure Vegetarian By Lakshmi. More of my faves can be found listed at the links page, under the title I could eat a horse sized carrot.

Last week on tasselflower blog (eg. Weekly Wrapup)

Twitter Tuesday: 3 simple ways to get more followers - "Instead of taking these easy and highly not recommended ways, try working for it."
Why it's good if your blog isn't very popular? - "That good thing is you don't have to fight against as much comment spam as the more popular bloggers."
Blogs, design and advertisement - "To make advertising effective, the readers must notice it, yet it cannot be too distracting."
Size matters or Use bigger fonts - "It's the size. You won't be able to bring satisfaction with the small 'print'."
Light on the second #weekwtass - "Welcome to the second #weekwtass challenge on Instagram!"

Suomeksi (In Finnish):

Kokkaan ja leivon. Eikun, korjaan heti: Olen laiska kokki ja leipuri. Yleensä teen ruokaa ja leivon kotona. Tykkään kuitenkin helpoista ja nopeista resepteistä, sen sijaan, että tuhlaisin tuhottomasti aikaa kokkaamiseen ja leipomiseen. Tykkään kotitekoisesta ruuasta, mutta en erityisemmin tykkää tehdä sitä. Myös ruokablogien selailu on mukavaa puuhaa. Suosikkejani ovat muun muassa What Should I Eat For Breakfast Today ? ja Pure Vegetarian By Lakshmi (jonka kirjoittaja muuten yllättäen osoittautui suomalaiseksi).

0 replies | August 13, 2012 - 21:14 |

Of making tea

A common misconception is the tea should be made in boiling water. If the water is too hot it will make the tea bitter. Tea possesses flavonoids and antioxidants, to mention some of it's health benefits, and heat can destroy some of it's good qualities. Green and white teas also start to taste really grassy, if made in too hot water.

Different tea types are made in different temperatures. Black tea usually can take the highest temperature, about 80 to 95 °C (176 to 203 °F). Green and white tea should be made in 70 to 80 °C (158 to 176 °F). The steeping time varies mostly from 1 to 15 minutes, depending on the type of the tea. Most teas are made with short steeping times, in 1 to 3 minutes, but some big leaf white teas require longer, 5 to 15 minutes.

My favorites currently are white teas. They have a soft taste, sometimes almost sweet. White and green teas, should be drank as is, without sugar or honey and especially without adding milk. Black teas can be enjoyed with sugar, honey and milk. For instance masala chai is prepared of black tea with spices, sugar or honey, heated milk and water.

Suomeksi (In Finnish):

Vastoin yleistä harhaluuloa teevettä ei pidä kuumentaa kiehuvaksi. Liian kuuma vesi tekee teestä kitkerää ja tuhoaa sen terveydelle hyviä ominaisuuksia. Teessä on muun muassa flavonoideja ja antioksidantteja. Eri teelaadut vaativat eri lämpötilat ja haudutusajat. Musta tee kestää parhaiten kuumuutta ja tehdäänkin lähes kiehuvaan, noin 80-95 asteiseen veteen. Vihreä ja valkoinen tee tehdään huomattavasti viileämpään, 70-80 asteiseen veteen. Haudutusajat vaihtelevat yleensä yhdestä 15 minuuttiin, kun useimmat teet haudutetaan 1-3 minuuttia. Valkoinen ja vihreä tee nautitaan sellaisenaan, musta tee kelpuuttaa seurakseen sokerin, hunajan ja maidon. Esimerkiksi masala chai tehdään mustasta teestä mausteiden, sokerin tai hunajan ja kuumennetun maidon ja veden kanssa.

0 replies | February 5, 2012 - 16:05 |

Hempseed rolls

6 dl flour*
1 1/2 to 2 dl soy flour
4 to 5 dl water
1/2 dl rapeseed oil
11 g dry yeast or about 30 g yeast
hempseeds (at least a fistful)

Warm the water to about 40 °C. Combine the water and the yeast. Add hempseeds. Gradually add flours and soy flours to the water-yeast-mix. If the mix feels too dry, add a little more water. When the dough starts to seem like dough (you know, something you could mold into things) add the rapeseed oil. Make sure the dough doesn't get too wet nor too dry.

Leave it to rise for 30 minutes. Take a shower, tweet, make an ass of yourself on Facebook or have a power nap.

When the dough is about twice of it's original size, divide it into small clumps. Roll the clumps to nice rolls. The shape doesn't matter that much, as long as the rolls are about the same size so they will bake evenly. I make about 14 small rolls from the dough of this size.

Bake the rolls at 225 °C for 13-15 minutes. Let them cool down a bit and enjoy.

* I tend to use a flour mix made for rolls, but you can always make a blend yourself or use just wheat.

Edit: Not 1 dl of rapeseed oil, but 1/2 dl. Sorry about the mistake.

1 reply | January 30, 2012 - 00:00 |

Ice cream

What's this deal with ice cream cones? Some of them are made so that the top of the ice cream splits and tries to fall off by every lick. Some of them are made so that the waffle chips and the whole thing tries to fall apart. Do the ice cream makers enjoy the idea of a mess?

Photo by Neil Conway.

0 replies | June 19, 2011 - 01:32 |

Blueberry soyshake

1,5 dl soy flour
4,5 dl water
200 g frozen blueberries
1-2 bananas
(sugar)

Put all the ingredients into a blender. Blend until the blueberry soyshake is smooth and slightly bubbly. Add sugar if not sweet enough. Enjoy!

0 replies | May 24, 2011 - 00:10 |

recipes,
food

The site of Tuesday #23

The site of Tuesday #23: honey & jam on tasselflower blog

Lately it has felt like all sorts of delicious recipes have been everywhere. Blogs are filled with droolable food photography to make a hungry person even hungrier. Don't you agree? One of the worst hunger creators is honey & jam, a blog filled with yummy recipes enhanced with even yummier photos. I'd love to try Zucchini Cheddar Bread. Would you care some Coconut Bars, maybe?

The layout of the site is harmonious and clear, and fits the content perfectly. The theme uses the centered text alignment, which seems to be popular on design blogs. It's not my favorite style, but it happens to work with the overall look of this site. The big photos are drawing the main attention. And they are mouthwatering. Oh great, now I'm hungry.

This post is part of The site of Tuesday series of inspirational websites.

0 replies | March 15, 2011 - 01:41 |

Vegetarian macaroni casserole

The following recipe is for vegetarian (not vegan) macaroni casserole. If you wish to make a vegan version, you'll need to substitute the milk and eggs. Conversions from metric system and Celsius degrees have been made with Google and may or may not be correct. Relay on them with caution. The casserole may not look like much, but it's really good. I take no responsibility of anyone eating too much. Bon appetit!

There's more, read all »

2 replies | December 27, 2010 - 02:18 |

Hello, my name is Mervi!

I’m a Digital Craftswoman, geek, cat person, dreamer, awesome, always right and quite boring. This is the tasselflower blog about web design, social media, life, marketing and business. Have some tea!

Mervi Emilia