Voyage Magazine - Food Edition

I found Voyage Magazine on my travels around the internet - it's not a magazine about flowers, flower arranging or even vintage - but about food.

I love looking at cook books and food magazines and find the photography in them a great inspiration. So when I found this one I was so delighted that I knew I wanted to share my findings.

It is created by three women - Marte Marie Forsberg, Britt Chudleigh and Ann Whittaker. They are all food lovers, Marte is a food/lifestyle photographer and stylist and she also writes a blog, Ann is a graphic designer and a blogger and Britt is an award winning wedding photographer. 

While travelling through Norway and Italy they kept a journal documenting the local cuisine with images and words. In Norway they spent time cooking and eating with friends and in Italy they visited lots of restaurants in Rome and Milan.

In the back of the magazine you can find a mix of Norwegian and Italian recipes. There is also a guide to restaurants and cafés in the two countries.    

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

For the next few weeks I will be posting fewer posts - I am having a little break and spending time with family.

Thanks for visiting and making such lovely comments.

See you soon!

 Ingrid xx

Cooking with Flowers by Miche Bacher

It's easy to fall in love with this book - well lets get our priorities right - it's about flowers and food!

The book is called Cooking with Flowers by Miche Bacher published by Quirk Books and the photographs are by Miana Jun. 

It is also a stylist and photographers delight - it's beautifully styled, the photography is gorgeous and inspiring and every page is a treat for the eye, everything looks tasty and fresh, and I wanted to cook and eat everything in the book.

Miche Bacher is a herbalist, chef and founder of the custom confectionery studio Mali B Sweets based in Greenport, New York.

In the 'About the Author' in the back of the book we are told that Miche has worked alongside some of the world's most renowned chefs and that she continues to seek out creative uses of flowers and herbs in both savoury and sweet dishes. 

Miche has created 100 recipes using 18 different flowers as well as 8 different herbs. Some of the more unusual flowers that she has used are Daylilies, Dianthus, Hollyhocks, and Tulips. In the book she covers both sweet and savoury dishes. You'll find cakes, tarts, sorbet and breads as well as pizza, salads and tempura.

Each flower has it's own chapter and there is an introductory page introducing the plant - covering background, culinary use, seasonality and what preparations that are needed.

In the introductory page about roses under 'Culinary Use' she says: " Roses are sweet and highly aromatic. Color does not affect the flavour of roses, but scent does. The stronger the scent of the rose the stronger the taste. And if it smells good, chances are it will taste good." 

This is a cherry clafouti with hollyhocks - a French confection that is a cross between a custard, a pancake, and a puffy omelet.

Here are some little passion-fruit tartlets with candied orchids as decorations.

I had never seen this creative way of serving ice cream using tulips as edible bowls. Maybe something you could do at the weekend when you have a bit more time - but what a fun and pretty way of serving ice cream at a summer lunch in the garden. 

She covers quite a few different herbs using them in pesto, shortbread, cupcakes, ice cream, cookies and drinks as well as used as decoration on both sweet and savoury dishes.

I love this last image of a whisk full of cream and flower petals. Just for fun but so pretty - don't you think? 

I hope you have enjoyed my review of Cooking with Flowers and that it might inspire you to do your very own 'cooking with flowers'.

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Thanks for the visit and till next time.

xoxo Ingrid

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!

I would very much like to thank all of you who visited my blog this last year.

I loved all the kind, supporting, fun and encouraging comments that so many of you made.

I hope 2012 will be a creative and inspiring year for all of you!!

Many warm hugs for the new year,

xoxo Ingrid

Happy Christmas!

I would like to wish everybody a wonderful and very Happy Holidays!

Happy Christmas!

God Jul!

All the best and lots of love!

xoxo Ingrid

Autumn Picnic

Now is the time to taking advantage of warm autumn days. Pack a basket with warming soup, crusty bread, cheese and some fruit and you are set for an autumn picnic. Wrap up warm and  bring some wool blankets. What could be nicer then to enjoy a crisp autumn day in the garden or the park.

In the UK most Chrysanthemums are available all year around and then I am not talking about imported flowers, mind you they are obviously grown in greenhouses.

I am grateful for the choice at the farmers market as I love to have fresh cut flowers to work with at a very reasonable price.

Fresh locally grown apples are also amazing at the moment. You know the saying - "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." It will be one of your five or nine or however many fruit and vegetables you are suppose to eat a day. I just read that there are over 2000 varieties of British apples. One of my favorites is 'Royal Gala' a sweet and juicy apple perfect for eating and juicing.

Warm apple cider is a perfect drink for this time of year. Heat gently with a cinnamon stick and serve in mugs. You can also make a more elaborate version like this one. 

This sweet little carved and painted bird has followed me from Sweden. I am not sure what kind he is though!

As much as I love colour I also love texture. This combination of textured leaf and hand knitted wool jumper is rich and warming.

I think the textural combination of a basket, a pine cone, an old handwoven blanket and an autumn coloured leaf from the vine Vitis coignetiae is magnificent.

Have a perfect autumn day!

Warm hugs,

xoxo Ingrid



Last of the Summer Wine

The heat wave and Indian summer last week brought out the summer clothes and the cool drinks in the garden.

Well, it only lasted for a few days and soon everything will be back to normal.

It will not be long now that the warm socks will come out, winter duvet on the bed and central heating on.
It actually sounds quite cosy.

In the mean time lets enjoy a few images from warmer days.

I put some gorgeous white and pink Snapdragons in an old white jar and put a pink bow around the top. The lid to the jar is missing and it has a chip on the bottom but I like it anyway.

The botanical name for snapdragon is Antirrhinum from the Greek for nose or snout in allusion that it looks like a snout of a dragon. The name Snapdragon comes from the fact that when you press the sides of the flower it opens up like a dragons mouth and when you let go it snaps shut.
Snapdragons are relatively easy to grow and lasts for for about 7-10 days as a cut flower.
Sarah Raven sells seeds.

I used a small pink quilt as table cloth and my usual peeling old door as backdrop.

The cooling drink in the glass and jug is elder flower cordial. It is one of my favorites and with added strawberries and mint, who could resist on a hot day.

The added additions of fresh strawberries and green mint leaves makes it look lovely and colourful.

Served on a pretty floral vintage plate adds some extra colour.

This is the closest I have ever gotten to owning a cat. I think he/she is rather sweet but maybe a bit too much for most people. I have to admit that I own a collection of small animals similar to this. They are all perched in a row on a brick wall in the garden.

Oh, dear what ever happened to my Scandinavian minimal roots? 

Have a joyful day!

Lots of love,

xoxo Ingrid

Macmillan Coffee Morning

Our amazing kids held a coffee morning to raise money for the charity Macmillan Cancer Support.

They raised £176 in just over three hours selling coffee, homemade cakes and jams.

Well done to them and all their supportive friends!

Xoxo Ingrid

Sweetly Scented Zinc and Enamel

It is always a pleasure to find old vintage zinc and enamelled containers at car boot sales, flee markets, Etsy, ebay or loppis.

Some people say you can't have too many! I guess your limit depends how much storage you have.

Old zinc and old enamel are two materials that age gracefully. A few little dents and even chips does not matter too much.

It is a lot of fun to have a few at hand when you want to make a flower arrangement or hide an ugly plastic pot.

Strong colours like these purple Alliums looks great against the matt grey of the zinc.

White Jasmine with delicate pink buds also shows up well against the mellow grey.

 

I put two different fragrant thyme in the zinc draw. 

The beautiful Jasmine went in a French enamel container still with its charming writing on it.

Have a sunny day where ever you are!

xoxo Ingrid

Blue Easter

Here is a very blue Easter.

From dark blue to light, light blue with some white mixed in. 

Three kinds of eggs - all very tasty.

The first one are some very pretty speckled quails eggs. 

The next two are both chocolate.

Forget-me-nots with white feathers in a cup.

The flowers sits in a separate little vase filled with water to keep the feathers dry. 

A few strips of speckled washi tape as decoration on a vintage jug.

Happy Easter!

Lots of hugs!

xoxo Ingrid

Lovely Yellow

I am going to stick my head out a little bit and talk about the colour yellow.

A lot of people don't like yellow. Some refuse to have any yellow flowers in their garden.

I used to be guilty of this. If I was pushed I would possibly have yellow daffodils in the early spring. After that you would not see a single yellow flower in my garden. Nor would I ever wear yellow clothes. That is still the case. My Scandinavian skin tones does not go well with yellow. You won't find a lot of yellow in my house. It is not a colour that I find easy to live with.

Still - I love yellow as a colour. I think it is an optimistic colour, it shines and exudes warmth. It represents sunshine and when the sun is out it makes us feel warm and cosy.

Yellow has a lot of different associations from bad to very good.

The painter Vincent van Gogh painted vases of yellow sunflowers. These paintings has become some of the most famous paintings in the world.

Some of my favorite yellows are more towards orange. I am thinking of amber, apricot, brandy, honey, mustard, saffron , ochre and whisky.

Lets not forget the lovely yellow of lemons and  grapefruits and how it reminds us of the taste and where they grow.

The list of wonderful yellow flowers is as long as my arm. Lovely yellow daffodils and tulips in the spring. Yellow roses during the summer. One of my favorite that I have posted about before is the mellow yellow climbing rose Rosa banksiae 'Lutea'.

Here is another post about the same rose.

So what happened?

My taste changed and I now do grow and very much enjoy a few yellow flowers in my garden.

  Sometimes people feel very strongly about a colour.

How do you feel about yellow?

Do you love it or hate it?

Have a wonderful weekend.

 Ingrid xx

Citrus Fruit

A plate full of goodness! Sounds good doesn't it?

Well, I have to admit that I am playing around with food.

On the plate is a mixture of large naval oranges, blush oranges, red grapefruit, yellow grapefruit, lemons and limes. Some of these will be very sweet and others rather tart.

I was inspired by a photograph I saw in a food magazine. In the photograph was a whole pile of different coloured citrus fruits. They were peeled and all the white membranes were cut away. 

 It looked rich, fresh and the colours were gorgeous.

I tried to do something similar. Well, to be honest - mine just looked rubbish! I had to rethink what I was doing as I did not want to waste all the cut up fruit. What I ended up with was a more traditional but still colourful photograph.

I always study the photographs in cook books and food magazines and always find them very inspiring. I also know that a lot of hard work goes into creating them. Often a whole crew of people with degrees in home economics, a food stylist, a photographer and assistants are involved.

There is nothing like trying it out for yourself to realise how much work goes into a photograph and how hard it is to create an image that is pleasing to the eye. Especially when you are dealing with food.

Yes, the oranges were delicious!

All the best!

Ingrid xx

Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year!!

I would like to give a big thank you to everybody who visited my blog this last year.
I loved all the kind, supporting, fun and encouraging comments that so many of you made.

I hope 2011 will be a creative, inventive and inspiring year for all of you!!

Many warm regards,

Ingrid xx

Happy Christmas!

I would like to wish everybody a very

Happy Holidays!

Happy Christmas!

God Jul!

Ingrid xox

The Beauty of Nature

Nature provides a lot of the beautiful things we use for Christmas.

Flowers in many different forms, forced bulbs, a variety of citrus fruits as well as many other fruits and nuts, pine trees or branches in the form of Christmas trees or wreaths, moss and pine cones.

It is a rich and varied selection to pick from and it is also very satisfying to use natural materials.

Depending on where you live you can maybe find some of it in your garden, park or nearby wood.

A lot of it you will find in your local farmers market or greengrocer. Some might be picked up in a nearby garden centre or nursery.

If used in combination with old wicker baskets, linen napkins, colourful ribbons and ornaments picked up at car boot sales of flea markets, the final result will be charming and look inviting and seasonal.