Fruit salad with pine nuts and honey

Cabin time means time for friends. And this week-end was no exeption. Saturday afternoon friends were coming for coffee and I spent a nice hour in the primitive kitchen preparing sweets for us. A friend of Marta spent the week-end with us, and since she is intolerant to milk, it was a special challenge to decide what to eat. Another challenge which is connected to cabin life is that we don't have electricity and we don't have an oven.

I have collected "over free" recipes over the years, but most of them contains milk, cream, yoghurt or other milk related ingredients.

I made waffles with lactose reduced milk, and as a special treat for us all I made a huge bowl of fruit salad sweetened with pine nuts fried in miele di limone/lemon honey. Easy to make, and oh so yummy.

When the guests came it didn't take long to empty the bowl.

Birds Corner

In the garden we have an old, wooden birdhouse which we fill with seeds and bread crumbs every day. The birds know about this special corner of The Blue Café and are regulars. But often when they come their corner is already occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Squirrel and one or more of their kids. The birds wait in line, some days patiently, some days making alot of noise and even starting small fights.

I want everybody to feel welcome in The Blue Café, and when I came over this ceramic house a few weeks ago, I knew it would be a perfect extention in my outdoor serving area. It is not big, and helds no more than one or two birds at a time, but it's a perfect waiting room, or may be I shall call it a bar, where the guests can have a starter while waiting for their favorite feeder to be free.

For busy days

Vacations, travels, gardening, work, writing.....it has all taken from my time in the kitchen. I do cook every day (almost), and I do bake bread and cakes. But I have used my old recipes. I have made dinner which I have made so many times I don'¨t have to thing - my steps take me to the grocery store, my arms knows exactly what to put in the shopping basket, and when I come home the work in the kitchen is done without much thinking :-)

I have started to read cookbooks in the evenings now, a good sign that creativity soon will start to bloom in the kitchen. And eventually I will start to blog about my new meals and dishes. And I will show you some new and great cookbooks. But I am not there yet. Yesterday I spent all afternoon in the garden fighting the weeds, so for my empty stomack I made a family favorite - bruschettas.

The tomatoes in the garden are not ripe yet......when they are we will feast on tomatoes :-)

Benefits from the harvest

The berries are ripe in the Blue Garden, and Terje are busy with harvesting. We make jam, marmelade and juice, and also have fresh red currants with sugar and vanilla sauce for dessert.

The vanilla sauce is easy to make in the Blue Café:

1 egg, 1 1/2 tablespoon sugar, 1 tablespoon potato flour, 5 dl milk.

Mix all and heat it to the point of boiling. Still all the time. When the sauce starts to boil, remove from heat and add vanilla sugar.