Birthday

Even though it was over a week ago, I thought I'd brag about my amazing birthday. Haha. Sorry, but it was really great.

It started Thursday night. I made these amazing cream cheese stuffed pumpkin cupcakes. Holy cow, people went crazy over these! Which puts a huge smile on my face! The best part is these make so much batter you can do so much with them. I made 12 cupcakes, 3 heart shaped cupcakes and a whole loaf of uh...cake bread. Perfect if you want to make one time for many occassions!

Now I usually just make stuff up as I go along, but these I followed precisely by this recipe-http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/10/pumpkin-cream-cheese-muffins.html

These are amazing! Thank you, girl who ate everything!

btw, I made regular muffins are pictured first, the other one is a heart shaped muffin. I had just enough batter left for 3 adorable heart shaped muffins for my colleagues in my classroom. They are a little bigger! ;)

Then Friday the muffins went to work and were raviously eaten. I had my early day that day, so my weekend started at 1 in the afternoon! Nice way to start!

Fred and I had a cozy Friday night, which are always my favorite way to start the week!

Saturday morning we made yummy fried egg sandwiches and he told me, pack, we are going to a spa for the day and night! WHAT?! How exciting! I'd never been to a spa! What a great surprise. We went to Tylösand, which is about an hour drive. It's a lovely spa right next to the ocean with a beach sand beach. It would be the most amazing summer vacation as well.

We got there at 3 and went to the spa right away! Wonderful view from the spa, lovely hot tub, steam room, sauna, everything! I loved it! We then went to the room showered and shared a really yummy panchetta, sun dried tomato, mozzarella and lettuce bagel sandwich. Good stuff. Then we took a walk around the beach and took some nice pictures. (I feel obliged to tell you, we drank a lot of wine that night! But hey, why not!? We weren't driving anywhere! ;)

I love this guy, a lot.

We then had an amazing wine tasting followed by a 3 course meal. Oh man. Since this is a food blog, I must describe the main course. It was a rose fried duck breast, cooked perfectly. A shot of pear cream, a spring roll stuffed with wild rice and mushrooms and a fried edamame ball in an amazing soy sauce sauce. I ate as slow as possible, because it was so delicious. I want to cook like that every night!

Then we had a great time at a piano bar, followed by champagne at the night club in the hotel at midnight!

The breakfast buffe the next morning was also amazing. I love hotel breakfast! Haha. Guess it's a childhood memory thing. Or having everything you could ask for and not worry about dishes!

After that we went back to the spa for 2 hours and then I had a massage and then we went home.

I wasn't said though because I took Monday off work! We went to Ullared! Please wikiepdia Ullared. You will be amazed. It's a huge, Swedish version of Wal mart and people flock there. Yes, flock. It was amazing crowded the day we went. But I managed to buy some really cute baby clothes for all my nieces and nephews, loads of Christmas stuff and clothes! Go me.

Then the weekend was over, but it was amazing! Thanks to my wonderful husband for making me feel so special!

Now I'm off to make my never fail lasagne. I use spinach noodles that don't need to be cooked and layer on top of them browned ground beef with spagetti sauce, cottage cheese, mozz cheese. Followed by another layer. I make it the night before, usually. It just tastes better and has a better consistancy. Great for those nights you have so much to do! Love it!

I love board walks!

I also need to share with you, dear readers, that I have decided to have a Thanksgiving party. This party went for a couple girls baking and cooking together to now, what it seems to be, at least 24 people. Holy cow! It will be so amazing because there will be men, women and children for all parts of the world. America, England, Phillipines, Sweden, Croatia, Poland, etc. It nearly brings me to tears thinking of how amazing this Thanksgiving will be. Updates coming. Plus pictures of our DECORATED apartment! That's right, my Christmas tree is UP!

pumpkin eller pumpa

Pumpkin is on my mind. It's on my mind...a lot. I went on a wild goose chase the other weekend for canned pumpkin. Yea, that ended up as a nervous breakdown thinking ''how can I celebrate fall without pumpkin!?''. But as luck would have it, I have one of the best moms in the whole world. She is my pumpkin savor. Thank you, mom!

So I got off work early on Tuesday and decided to go all out. I boiled up some cider vinegar and plums, started on a pumpkin yeast dough, and started a pot of coffee. How did all of this end up...

Plum Pork Tenderloin

1 lb. pork tenderloin

1\2 c. apple cider vinegar

1\2 c. brown sugar

1\2 tsp. cinnamon

1\4 tsp. salt

1\4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1\8 tsp each ground cloves, cardamom and allspice

1 pork tenderloin (1 pound)

1\2 tsp. pepper

In a sauce pan bring pitted and halved plums and cider to a boil. Let simmer of medium heat for 10 minutes.

Take away from heat and let cool. Pour into a blender and pulse until smooth. Now you can either strain or leave it a bit chunky. Depends on how you like your sauce.

Place back into the pan and add brown sugar and all spices (except pepper). Bring to a boil then reduce heat and let simmer for 10 minutes occassionally stirring.

Place pork tenderloin in a crock pot or a pan and pour half of the sauce over and then sprinkle with pepper.

In a crock pot cook on low for about 2 hours occassionally basting. If in an oven bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes.

Serve over rice with saved sauce.

Tastes just like fall!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

1\3 c. milk

2 Tbsp. butter

1\2 c. canned pumpkin

2 Tbsp. sugar

1\4 tsp nutmeg

1 1\2 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

1\2 tsp. salt

1 beaten egg

1 package dry yeast

2 c. flour

1\2 c. packed brown sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 Tbsp. melted butter

In a small bowl, microwave milk and butter until luke warm.

In a large bowl combine, pumpkin, sugar, nutmet, pumpkin pie spice and salt.

Add milk mixture, then beat in egg and yeast.

Add half the flour and mix for 4-5 minutes. Add the rest of the flour.

Place sticky dough in a lightly greased bow and let rise until doubled. (What I do, because I don't have a large microwave, I pre heat the oven at about 100 degrees while I am preparing the dough, then turn it off and put the bowl in).

Once doubled, place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out in a 10x12 in. square.

Brush with melted butter and then sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on top.

Roll from the long side.

I used fishing line to cut roll into 12 equal rolls. Super easy.

Place in a prepared 11x17 in. pan. and let almost double in size.

Once doubled bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

OMG, these are good. I love the orangey color and holy moly, they smell good from beginning to end!

Pumpkin spice coffee

I started with an entire mix of ''pumpkin milk''.

1. c milk

1\4 c. canned pumpkin

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. all spice

2 tsp. pumpkin spice

3 Tbsp. sugar

1. tsp. vanilla

I brewed a very strong pot of pumpkin flavored coffee with cinnamon sprinkled ontop of the coffee grounds.

Poured into a glass and added about 3 Tbsp. pumpkin milk and topped off with whipped cream and a little sprinkle of nutmeg. Yea, I almost cried it tasted so good.

Last weekend we celebrated Fredrik's birthday and my birthday with Fred's family. What a wonderful family he has, and now, I have. They are fantastic, kind, fun, loving and just plain amazing. We received some really nice presents and had a really cozy time with them!

In Sweden it is very typical to make your own cake for your birthday. So I made my never fail vanilla cake with butter cream\cream cheese\whipped cream frosting. Yea, it's so good. Unfortunately my decorating skills aren't up to par at 7 am (when I woke up Saturday morning to decorate it). So it's a little bit pathetic, but hey, it tasted fantastic.

We also got to spend some time with Lukas and Agnes, which always make me happy!

I'm a sucker for their big blue eyes!

I also took pictures of logs. Swedish logs are everywhere right now, and they smell good!

This weekend I have no idea what Fred has planned for my birthday. But I am not allowed to make plans for Saturday night. So we will see! Turning 25 feels like a big deal and I don't know why. I guess because in Sweden it is sort of a ''big birthday''. They haven't had a ''big birthday'' since the 20th birthday (the drinking age here). So maybe that is why. But as one of my friends put it I will be ''a quarter of a century old''. Yikes!

Happy Fall Ya'll!