Strawberry cupcakes (клубничные капкейки)

Today I decided to make strawberry cupcakes with buttercream frosting using fresh strawberries. I love to use berries in cupcakes, and what can be better than strawberries to remind us of the spring that is almost here! The cupcakes turned out moist, flavorful and simply delicious.

Thank you Sally’s Baking Addiction for this wonderful recipe! 

Tomato Mozzarella Skewers with Pesto Sauce

This recipe is a variation of the famous Caprese salad. The tender taste of mozzarella cheese combined with delicious pesto, and fresh cherry tomatoes, results in a wonderful and mouth-watering combination. These appetizers can also be a great decoration for your dinner table. I found this recipe here. 

Pesto Sauce with Walnuts

This delicious sauce comes from Italy. I’ve read that it is over 200 years old and it is one of the most popular sauces in the world. The classic version of pesto sauce is made from olive oil, basil leaves, pine nuts, and grated hard cheese. However, nowadays there are many variations to the original recipe, and therefore, I decided to try out pesto sauce with walnuts. You can also replace, for example basil leaves with parsley, arugula, spinach, or even mint. In Sicily, they don’t even use nuts, but tomatos instead.    

Any variation of pesto sauce goes well with pasta, ravioli or rice. You can even use this sauce on a toast. 

Without further ado, let’s make pesto sauce!

Banana Muffins with Oatmeal Topping

After trying banana bread, me and my family fell in love with baking that includes bananas. This banana muffin recipe is simply amazing: it’s not complicated at all, yet your muffins will come out so delicious, tender and moist. Better yet, they will have a rich banana taste to them. This is a great recipe for those times when you have, for example unexpected guests coming over, and you happen to have some ripe bananas. Thank you Hidden Ponies for sharing this great recipe!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yesterday I got a huge cookie crave, so I just had to bake some. The cookie recipe was inspired from this recipe. Thank you Ambrosia for this wonderful recipe!

I’ve modified the recipe slightly. For example, I didn’t use distilled white vinegar, red food coloring and M&M’s. Also, I used milk chocolate chips instead of white ones and I halved the ingredients. In addition, I used baking soda instead of baking powder, as well as vanilla sugar instead of vanilla extract.

I've read (and learnt the hard way) that it is important to let the cookie dough sit in the refrigerator for some time before baking them. This way you get better tasting cookies, with a nicer texture and they won’t spread too much while baking.

Dried Apricot Candies

These healthy and yummy candies are made from dried fruits. They’re full of nutrients and vitamins, and will boost your energy levels. This recipe is very easy yet interesting, and it could be a fun project to do with your kids. This is also a great way to make them eat healthy.  

There are many variations to this recipe. For instance, instead of dark chocolate you can also use milk chocolate or white chocolate. In order to make more colorful apricot candies, just add some food colorant in the melted white chocolate before the dipping the apricots in it. 

Roasted Turkey Breast

I love turkey meat, it's light and full of protein. Still I was always scared to bake it since I thought it would turn out dry. I found this recipe, and decided to try it out, and to my surprise the meat turned out very tender and not dry at all. I recommend everyone to try this recipe out especially since it's very simple. 

Traditional Finnish Pannukakku

This traditional Finnish dessert is very simple yet delicious. Basically, the dough is the same as you use in pancakes, the only difference is that instead of cooking it in a frying pan, you bake it in the oven. This dessert is perfect to serve with some coffee. However, you can also make it into a main dish by adding some chopped vegetables, bacon, ham… Basically anything you want, just use your imagination. For example, you can use some left-over chicken and carrots from last night. Despite the variations of this recipe, it always turns out great and yummy! 

The recipe was taken from valio.fi. 

Fresh Clementine Chicken Salad

I decided to share this very easy, healthy and low-calorie salad recipe on the blog. It’s perfect for those times when you feel like something special, but you don’t have much time to spend on cooking, for example on the weekdays. I found this recipe on a Finnish website pirkka.fi

Seasonal Vegetable Cream Soup

Lately I decided to start eating healthy... Again. I thought of making myself something filling, yet healthy, and what can be better than a vegetable soup. I looked in my fridge and found only some potatoes, carrots and cauliflower. But then again in Finland at this time of the year these are seasonal vegetables. Isn't that what all nutritionists recommend, eating seasonal vegetables? So, here's the recipe. I hope you enjoy it!

Lemon Meringue Pie

Once I decided to invite some friends over and I wanted to offer them something sweet, so I found this lemon meringue pie recipe. My guests really liked it and actually asked me to share the recipe on my blog. The pie is very light and tender, with a delicate and pleasant lemon scent. The recipe was taken from pirkka.fi.

Quick and Easy Apple Oatmeal Crisp

Apple desserts are very popular. They’re delicious, quick and easy to prepare, not to mention very inexpensive. All in all apple desserts are an absolute classic. That's why I decided to share with you this apple crisp recipe. I hope you’ll like it! Bon appétit!  This recipe was inspired from joythebaker.com.

Mousse au Chocolat

Desserts play an important role in our daily diets. But what about French desserts? You will not be left unimpressed after trying some, even if you’re not a sweet tooth like me. Since my daughter lives in France, Lyon, I happen to go there a lot. Lyon has the reputation of being the gastronomic capital of France. A well-known food critic, Curnonsky, described Lyon even as the world capital of gastronomy! Here prevails the cult of gourmet cuisine and the best restaurants in Lyon are highly worshipped. The medieval streets of Old Town (Vieux Lyon) are full of restaurants and cafes, where you can try out all sorts of different foods. 

Anyways, back to desserts. Let’s make an authentic traditional French dessert, chocolate mousse (mousse au chocolat). The word mousse in French means foam and, thus the literal translation is chocolate foam. The recipe was taken from a book called 'Cuisine et Vins de France: desserts de tradition' (éditions marie claire).

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Chocolate Bowls

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and we need a sweet recipe! I suggest you surprise your loved ones and friends with this romantic dessert. I found this idea on pinterest.com (unstitchedblog.com).