Young, wasted and happy :)

I think we should all appreciate that we are young a lot more often !! :D And yes, everyone is actually young, if you think about this note:

"You will never get any younger than you are RIGHT NOW!"

So we should totally enjoy this fact, that we will never be any younger than as of right at this moment .... !!

Today I had 2 hard exams, and a student as I am, I get stressed out and am busy studying for weeks before ! Being a nervous wreck this morning, I pulled myself through this long and difficult day, and here I am - having gone to a bar spontaneously after the exams, having spent a few hours there with 6 beers and nice company - and then coming home, facing the fact that I didn't eat any dinner yet (At 12 am) lol ! And then to boil some pasta, that I will just top with some cheese and whatever and just stuff yourself, is the best thing ever !!


Anther benefit of this whole coming home tipsy, relieved from stress, put on some loud music that makes you happy and just SPACE a little bit, then eat some "in-the-middle-of-the-night-dinner" and watch some "Expedition Robinson" online from this week :D

Then to talk a little bit with the one you love, giggle about that we are finally going to see each other the next day, when it's been 2 weeks since we had time to meet..


This is what I'm playing right now, and it totally makes me bubble with happiness from these beautiful melodies !!



To talk about the fact that we are celebrating almost 2,5 years together the coming weekend... :D Late night dinner + talking with the one you love + happy wonderful music + Chilling on couch = THE BEST !

Enjoy your youth people ! ;)

- Stef

Beany in da house :P

It was love at first sight when I spotted my little new "Beany" friend at the Albert Heijn !! I just had to buy him and give him a new home :P Hahah ! It's so funny-looking, like a maze of green beans ! :D

Just felt like sharing :P Hihi!



- Stef

Raspberry & Vanilla muffins :)

I had the most intensive study weekend ever !! A lot of hard work, but luckily it's over now :)

I made some vanilla raspberry muffins to assist us in the studying, and they disappeared in 1 day with 3 girls :P Hahah !




Recipe for those interested:
Mix 125 g margarine with 2 dl sugar. Add 2 eggs while mixing. Pre-mix 4 dl flour with 2 tablespoons of custard powder and 2 teaspoons baking powder. Add this mix to the batter together with 1,5 dl milk. Mix everything well. Fill muffin forms 2/3 with the batter. Make a slight hole in the batter with a teaspoon and fill with a little bit of raspberry jam. Bake in the oven in 200 C degrees for about 15 minutes. Voila !

Now it's time for another healthy week again ! :P


- Stef

Music = source of joy!

Another big part of my every day life is music ! :) We all like music, and I love how many different types of music there are today :)

I love listening to happy music, songs that make my body smile from the inside! It's a lovely feeling :) I used to listen to a lot of depressive music in my teens and I've experienced how sad music just makes you sad in general... And that's not nice.

So, from there I drew the conclusion that happy music must make you happy instead ! And that is so much nicer :D

Here are some of my absolute absolute favorites, that always put a big smile on my face whenever I hear them.

(I know the artists maybe sound unknown and weird to most people that I know, but I think the songs are awesome!)

The 2 first are of the "Dance-and-go-crazy-happy" kind :D

Baby Ranks - Noche de carnaval
(This song is just MADE OF HAPPINESS!!) :D
Memory: Taking sunny evening walks on the beach in 2008 in Holland, being newly in love with Theo!


Juan Luis Guerra - Como yo
This song defines me! Many people know it as my crazy, funny and very loud ringtone ! I totally love this song and my ultimate happy moment was when we were at his concert in Rotterdam, and this was the last song !! :D



The last 2 are of the "Chill-on-the-couch-happy" kind :)

Lutan Fyah - You got me
Memory: Was gonna go to a concert with this artist with Theo, however it was cancelled and we had some hot chocolate at a beach cafe, chilling under a blanket on a couch, gazing at the stars and the sea.. Just magical!



Gyptian - Butterfly
Memory: Living together with Theo, listening to this song on the way to work every day and seeing the winter turn into spring with sunshine and flowers :)


I hope you also got happy if you listened to these songs ! :D


- Stef

New member in the family ! :D

I'm going to be a godmother ! :D

My cousin in Poland just had a son with his wife and a few days ago, they asked me to be the godmother ! :D I've never held a baby, but of course I said yes ! I felt really honored and happy to be chosen for such an important role in his life :)

This is Hubert, my godson-to-be and he's a total cutie !



I say, welcome in the family Hubert ! :D


- Stef

Plum cake recipe and more cooking! :)

As per request, here is the recipe of the wonderful plum cake from yesterday's post! :)

A quarter of it "disappeared" already yesterday, but I still have some left :D I highly recommend it !

Here's the recipe, and it's made partly with the measurements we use in Sweden like Deciliters. (1 DL = 100 ML)

PLUM CAKE

Ingredients: 2 eggs
3 dl sugar
3 dl flour
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
150 g melted margarine
3 - 4 big plums

1. Mix the eggs and sugar with an electric hand mixer until it's white and fluffy.
2. Add flour, vanilla sugar and melted margarine and mix well.
3. Cut the plums into pieces and "grease" a baking tin with margarine and add some dried breadcrumbs so that a layer is formed.
4. Pour half of the batter into the baking tin, only a thin layer than covers the bottom !
5. Add the plum pieces and sprinkle a little bit of sugar on top of the plums to prevent bitterness in the cake.
6. Pour the rest of the batter over the plums, to form a covering layer.
7. Bake for 40 minutes in the lower part of the oven in 175 degrees.

Voila ! :D It tastes the best when it's cold, so have some patience, let it cool down and then taste ! :D

And tonight, I had enough of eating pasta, so I threw together a "meat-pie" in lack of better terms. It's made of the meat sauce I made yesterday, but added some dough and a mix of eggs and milk to make it firm and more "pie-ish" :D

Make dough, press is out, pre-bake it, fill with meatsauce, add cheese and egg/milk/oregano/salt&pepper mixture, bake in the oven 30 mins = done! :D



That's enough cooking for now ! :D I have both food and cake for the next couple of days, so the next post will be about something else :P

Thanks for reading and have a nice evening :D

- Stef

Favorites!

Today it was time to make a lovely plum cake, a great recipe from my childhood friend's mom :D This cake just gets better for every day that it ages, so you shouldn't eat it all on the first day !

I will slowly enjoy this cake :D Here are some pics of the making:



And, since I had a lot of time on my hands today - it was also time for another old classic favorite of mine ! Namely, my own meat sauce :D Of course the recipe is in my head, but to give a hint of what my fantastic meat sauce is all about, it's made of:

Ingredients of Stefanie's Fantastic Meatsauce:
2 yellow onions
1 big apple
1 carrot
Some minced beef meat
Crushed tomatoes
Sun-dried tomato tapenade
A touch of cream
Basil & Oregano
Salt & Pepper

It's really really good, if you ask me ! :)

It's nice to make your favorite food sometimes to bring something a little extra to your day ! :)


- Stef

Mmm :) Nice improvisation !

Today I was busy with another dinner improvisation :)

Meatballs with fresh basil, mozzarella, cherry tomatoes and onion ! With some pasta and more melted mozzarella :D

My tip to all of you - improvise! Maybe you will discover something really nice !

It was delicious !! :)

And the happy moment of last night was the smoothie in front of the "TV".

(Yes, I do live without a real TV, however, these days you can watch TV online, news and series are streamed daily and I can follow all the tv-shows I want! :P )


It's kiwi, pear, pineapple, frozen raspberries and grapes :D Totally healthy and yummie !

Make sure you enjoy yourself every day ! :) Whether it is a smoothie, a movie or just a nap, it doesn't matter as long as you do something that you want yourself :)

- Stef

Today is day 2 of my healthy week :) And as you can guess, the dinner consisted of a salad ! :)

This time topped with some olive oil & garlic toasted bread and the dressing is my favorite: honey-mustard dressing that you simply make yourself (I believe it is healthier than buying a finished dressing that probably contains all kinds of chemicals and conservatives that you don't wanna eat)

Honey-mustard dressing: Mix equal parts of honey and french mustard, add some olive oil and black pepper! Simple, and it will give a very nice taste to your salad :)

What else have I been doing? As always, looking after my babies = plants :)


I quickly learnt that growing mini roses indoor is more difficult than I anticipated! At first it was beautiful with all the flower buds, but since the plant constantly needs moisture and I didn't give it water for a few days, almost all the leaves fell off and 1 part of it survived!

However, now I'm watering it twice a week -and yesterday I bought some rose nutrition to help it develop flowers again :) You can see the light green leaves that have grown out since the "critical" time period :D

Here's my totally cosy lamp that I bought at Hemtex in Sweden :) Very happy with it!

I really like the shadow effects of plants.. I think this will be something that I'll take with me to future homes as well :P


And finally, I want to show my spontaneously bought Fair Trade cinnamon candle stick :) It's made out of cinnamon and it smells really nice when you have a candle in it :)

I found it in this cool Fair Trade store in Amsterdam, where they were selling all kinds of different and interesting products ! I'm definitely going back to that one :)

Thanks for reading :P

- Stef

One of the purposes of life is enjoying ourselves :) Among other things of course! ;)

But I have been enjoying myself a little bit too much this weekend with a lot of visits to KFC, McDonalds and Burger King. If we want to live and enjoy life, then we have to make sure we live healthy so that we can live a life that's as long as possible!

So, I'm initiating my healthy week with lots of fruit and salads :D Maybe a nice soup will come?

It's sunny outside, I feel very motivated and I will take a walk later on to burn some calories :)



Unfortunately, my basil plant was a little bit too cold in the weekend when the heating was off, and looked very sad when I came back last night. Today I bought a new pot, that will keep the moisture better and I put it above the heather :D I hope it will get better and start growing again soon !

Maybe some people think that it's unnecessary to have plants, because of the risk that they will die or whatever and you have to throw them away. A waste of money.

However, if I pay a few € for some plants, and it brings me joy to take care of them, it's definitely not a waste! I've had a small number of orchids that all didn't make it, but you live and you learn !! :D

That's the beauty of it! :) So, put some plants in your home and you will notice how nice and peaceful it is to have them around !


- Stef