Mr. Prof designer home

Alvhem

It's quite impressive how the white makes the space look so much larger than it is. Alvhem has been really clever with the room layout too.

What do you think?

So that's it from me for this week, do you have any great plans for the weekend? Me, I'm off out with the girls tonight :) Oh and re-thinking a major room change in the house which requires lots of help from Pinterest of course! Have a lovely a couple of days and see you Monday!

Disclaimer - I'm a slacker. Due to Hurricane Sandy I pushed the Game Day Recipe Swap back a week, giving participants three full weeks to make their assigned recipe and I still couldn't get it together. I don't have a good defense but thankfully I have a good friend named Jaida who writes the blog Sweet Beginnings. She graciously stepped in to make my recipe when I frantically texted her and asked for help. Thanks hon!

Below is her review and photo. I really need to find some time to make these - they sound amazing and SP loves Monte Cristo sandwiches.

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It’s no secret to any of my readers that I have a possibly unhealthy love for all things sandwich, so when Sarah asked me if I could step in and make this recipe, from The Jey of Cooking, for the swap, there was no hesitation is saying yes! In fact, I went to the store and got the ingredients that very day, and had them while watching football. Very fitting, since the theme for this round of the swap was Game Day Food!

I’m not usually big on frying anything (although I will go all out on the fried foods when I’m at a bar!), but these don’t taste fried or give that heavy, I just ate a ton of fried crap, feeling that sometimes happens. Nope, it was just pure, bite-sized deliciousness, dipped in pancake batter, pan-fried, sprinkled with powdered sugar, and dipped in raspberry jam. That’s right folks...raspberry jam. But, don't let the small size fool you...these little puppies will fill you up. I ate three and I was down for the count. Until later, when I had another. Then later another. You get the picture.

I texted Sarah immediately to tell her how delicious they were, accompanied by a picture. Obviously I was excited...and thankful she asked for my help! Now, football season is in full-force so you need to add these to your menu for the next game. Trust me…you, your friends, your boyfriend/husband/significant other, will be so glad you did!!

Mini Monte Cristos
As seen on The Jey of Cooking

6 slices bread
Mustard
6 slices ham, thinly sliced
6 slices turkey, thinly sliced
6 sliced Swiss cheese, thinly sliced
1 cup buttermilk pancake mix
2 eggs
1 can evaporated milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Vegetable oil, for frying
Raspberry jam, for serving
Powdered sugar, for topping

Trim the crust off each slice of bread and flatten with a rolling pin. Spread the tops with mustard. Top with 1 slice of ham, 1 slice of turkey and 1 slice of Swiss cheese, to fit.

Roll bread tightly into a log shape (you can use plastic wrap to assist in the rolling, if desired). Wrap very tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Mix the pancake mix and eggs together until well combined, then add the evaporated mil, salt and cinnamon. Mix well.

In a deep saucepan, heat 1 1/2 inches of oil over medium heat, to 375 degrees F. Unwrap each roll and secure with 3-4 toothpicks. Slice each roll into 3-4 pieces, leaving the toothpicks intact.

Dip each piece into the prepared batter, then place into the heated oil. (To test the temperature of your oil, drop a small amount of batter into the saucepan. Adjust the temperature as necessary so that your batter drop becomes golden brown within 20-30 seconds.) Fry 3-4 at a time, so you don't overcrowd the pot and drop the temp of the oil, for 1-2 minutes per side, turning once, until golden brown.

Remove the bites to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with raspberry jam, for dipping.



Ferm Living

Such a fantastic shoot. And again, I'm so excited to welcome Ferm Living to My Scandinavian Home!

PS Wood panelling has enjoyed a bit of a revival in 2012. My parents home was built in the 1950's and I remember having a wood panel wall on one side of the dining room and exposed brick on the other which looked incredibly cool. Though, when my man and I moved into our house we found the extensive amount of wood panelling made it a little to dark, and a lick of white paint has brightened up the entire space. Hmmm. I'm torn.

What are your thoughts - wood panelling in your home, do or don't?

I love sandwiches but for some reason I rarely make them for dinner. I'm not sure why - they're generally easy to put together and, in the case of these Sweet Ham and Swiss Sliders, can be quite filling and delicious.

If you belong to Pinterest or read food blogs I'm sure you've seen various iterations of these floating around. I picked this recipe after seeing it on my friend Melissa's blog, I Was Born to Cook. I liked the idea of using regular dinner rolls (mine were actually potato rolls) instead of Hawaiian rolls, which I've never seen in my supermarket. I also liked the addition of the brown sugar for a mild sweetness to offset the tang from the Dijon.


Like Melissa said in her post, these would be perfect to serve while watching any type of sporting event. Their small size are perfect for parties and even though Baby Girl wasn't a fan (she's not really into sandwiches yet, we'll have to work on that), I think these would be a big hit with kids due to the sweetness. You could also sub turkey (like Melissa did) for the ham with equally delicious results. I can't wait to make these again. Easy and delicious is a win in my book.

I served these with crispy potato wedges made using this recipe for oven fries. Yum!

Sweet Ham and Swiss Sliders
From Heather Likes Food

12 dinner rolls, cut in half
24 slices Honey Ham
16 slices Swiss cheese
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400°

In a 9x13 glass baking dish, place bottom half of dinner rolls and top with 2 slices of ham and 1 slice of Swiss cheese. Spread about 1 teaspoon of mayonnaise on each top-half of roll and place on top of ham and cheese. You want the rolls to be snug together.

In a small bowl combine the mustard, melted butter, onion powder, Worcestershire sauce, poppy seeds, and brown sugar. Mix until combined and evenly pour over the assembled rolls. You will not need all the sauce. Cover with foil and refrigerate for up to 20 minutes.

Bake covered with foil for 10 minutes, remove the foil and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes or until the tops are browned, and cheese is melted. Serve hot or warm.

It's been ages since I've shown a beautiful Finnish home. I always think the folks in Finland have got such a distinct, incredible sense of contemporary style. My latest find is the home of Sanni and Joona from The Rag Rug in Turku, Finland photographed by Suvi from lovely blog Lily. The black and white home is crammed with Scandinavian design classics, vintage finds and personal design work.

Photography Suvi Viitanen via Feel Inspired

It's funny how one thing stands out and sticks in the mind when I see a home. In this case it was the 'Rethink' print. It's so clever! Did anything stand out for you?

Hope you all have a lovely day!

Hi everyone – well it has been quiet here recently and that’s perfectly fine with me from all that has been going on since the middle of October – a nice welcome.

Saturday and Sunday we went to craft shows…I really needed to take a bit of a break from sewing on orders all week so there was a Round Robin in Elkhorn and the vendors were located at 5 different locations.  Very nice but soooo much of the SAME THINGS at each location.  I honestly didn’t find a single thing to buy. Now if I was in the need of jewelry or knitted things or fleece then I would have been in heaven…but I didn’t.

Then Sunday we went to Brookfield (in Milwaukee area) at the high school – now this was a great show…it went throughout the halls and into the gym. Again lots of the same things as the last show…not many Primitives or home decor – lots of greens all decked out with glitter and glitz but not much of what we all like around here in blogland.  I would loved to have seen some nice Snowmen or Santa’s done plain but they were all gopped up!

I did manage to buy a little trinket dish with some jewels on it for a gift for one of my granddaughters but that was the extent of it there.  BUT….I did see someone some of you might know from the blogs…LEANNE from Harvest Moon By The Lake:  http://harvestmoonbythelake.blogspot.com/
Doug took the picture with his phone so it’s not too clear.

I had forgotten to take pictures of the wool I purchased when we were in PA…I don’t know if I’m going to use it on Penny Rugs or cut it in strips for rug hooking.  I bought it in Bird In Hand, PA but the label says Yankee Lane Primitives…I looked it up but they only have over dyed and solids…not plaids.  I’m so looking for LARGER pieces of plaids and checks – not little pieces.

I got a special order for six chair backers with a sheep and a year…I worked with her through e-mail with pictures as I went along to get her approval…this is the end result.
 
But now she hasn’t replied back for over 2 weeks…I’m afraid she was in the path of the storm Sandy (she never gave me her address)…I’m not worried about my sale because I will hold on to these if and when she’s ready to buy…I’m just praying she’s okay and that it’s just a matter of power and that she didn’t loose her home to the fires that destroyed so many lives.

Got new pictures of Miranda…4 months old now - she has gotten so big!

 

Okay, I said I would put pictures of ROOTS MARKET on so here they are
There are 20 of them so I left them in album form…just click on the picture box and you will see them all.

(these will open up in SkyDrive…just click on one of the pictures when it opens up to vies)

While sitting here sewing all last week I had Christmas music going and then I thought…hey QVC is showing their gourmet foods at 3:00 so I turned it on…well I haven’t watched QVC in YEARS!!!  But like most I got hooked…I ordered a JUNIORS CHEESE CAKE for Christmas delivery – it has a picture of Santa on it that is edible.  Most of us like cheesecake so it’s one dessert I don’t need to fuss with.
And I bought some Mrs. Prindable’s Chocolate & Sea Salt apples, and it’s all dipped in Caramel! YUMMMM.
They are to be delivered next week early so they will be here in time for Thanksgiving.

I guess that’s all I have to share this week – my brother Gene SIL Gail are coming over today and we’re going out to Dan DiPaolo’s farm because they can’t make it for his Open House on Friday and Dan is always so wonderful to let us come early and being they will be here today he said come on out!!!  Hopefully I will be able to shoot a few photos…if he’s totally set up that is…sometimes we have to worm our way through the boxes.

On my website I posted that the deadline has been met for all Christmas orders…I need time to finish what is here and then to get ready for my holiday here.

I most likely will be back one more time before Thanksgiving but if not have a wonderful Thanksgiving to all.

Karen

Oisoioi

When will you start decorating this year? Will you go all out or a few light touches here and there?

PS Thank you all for your lovely comments on my dining area yesterday you put a big smile on my face! Many of you commented on the sheepskin rugs and the good news is the two white ones are the LUDDE sheepskin from IKEA! :)

I've attempted homemade Chinese food many times and while the dishes are generally pretty tasty they always seem to be lacking something. The photo that accompanied Sally's Beef and Broccoli post had me hooked. Beef and Broccoli was my go-to dish at Chinese restaurants when I was a kid. I would go to a local spot with my grandmother once a week and I always ordered it, usually with extra sauce. It was thick and rich and so, so good I can almost taste it as I'm typing this post.

My sauce wasn't as thick and richly dark as the dish from my childhood, but this was spot-on in terms of flavor. I doubled the sauce recipe below since I love extra sauce and I wish I'd done it when I made the dish - the sauce really made it perfect. I also needed more sauce for the marinade - the original recipe didn't coat all the beef. This is a real winner.

Beef and Broccoli
As seen on Bewitching Kitchen, adapted from Simply Recipes

1 pound flank steak or sirloin, sliced thinly across the grain
1 pound broccoli florets
2 tablespoons grape seed oil
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded, cut in slices
1 clove garlic, very finely minced
1 tablespoon cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

For the beef marinade
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Freshly ground black pepper

For the sauce
4 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine (or dry sherry)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth (or water)

Start by marinating the beef: mix all ingredients in a bowl, add the pieces of beef and stir to coat the slices. Let it stand for 10 minutes, while you prepare the sauce and blanch the broccoli.

Make the sauce by mixing the oyster sauce, rice wine (or sherry), soy sauce, and chicken stock (or water) in a small bowl. Reserve. Place the broccoli in boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Drain very well and reserve.

Heat a large frying pan or wok over high heat until a bead of water sizzles and instantly evaporates upon contact. Add the cooking oil and swirl to coat. Add the yellow bell pepper and cook it for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly, until it begins to soften. Remove and reserve. Make sure the pan is again very hot, and add the slices of beef, spreading them out all over the surface of the wok or pan in a single layer (preferably not touching). Let the beef fry undisturbed for 1 minute. Flip the beef slices over, add the garlic and reserved bell pepper to the pan and fry for an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute until the beef is cooked through.

Pour in the sauce, add the blanched broccoli and bring to a boil. Pour in the dissolved cornstarch and cook, stirring, until the sauce boils and thickens, 30 seconds. Serve over rice.

Two nights ago, my husband was sick with food poisoning or some vile intestinal virus.  Though our medicine cabinet is chock-full of bottles and boxes, we had no digestive meds.  So, around midnight, eyes heavy and ready for sleep hours earlier (don't judge! remember, I'm 26 weeks pregnant!), off to CVS I went.  We were up until 1 or 2...

Then last night, while hanging out with my brother and sister-in-law and their family (who we rarely get to see), Moses spewed all over my lap, then all over himself.  Two baths and two new outfits later, we headed home in the car and about 3 minutes into our 14 minute drive, he spewed again, all over his new outfit and carseat, and not into the bag we gave him to throw up in (of course).  No, that bag was smooshed down in his anguished projectile-vomit-style hurls.

And you know what horrific thing I saw each night?  No, I don't mean the physical sights... YUCK.

I saw my own ugliness of heart.  I saw my own selfishness, desire for sleep despite the needs of people I love.  I saw my own impatience as I grumped at Doug last night.  I saw a demanding of my own rights, even if internally, though Jesus "was in the form of God and did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant."

Discipline.  God is disciplining me.  Showing me my weak spots and training me.  Giving me opportunities to do right or do poorly, and then shining light into ugly corners of my heart.

This passage in Hebrews is among my favorites.  Don't glaze over it because it's long, or because it's familiar... really read each word.  Take them in:

"6  My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him.  For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives.  7  It is for discipline that you have to endure.  God is treating you as sons.  For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  8  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.  9  Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them.  Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?   10  For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness.  11  For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."  ~Hebrews 12: 6-11


In that passage, I bolded the parts that particularly encourage me as a believer, and I underlined the parts that encourage me as a parent.  Here's a quick bulleted list of what some take aways are from this wonderful passage about discipline:

GOD'S FATHERLY DISCIPLINE:

• We may be likely to minimize, and/or grow weary of the discipline of the Lord... but we should not do this. (v. 6)
• God's motive for discipline is His love for us. (v. 6)
• If we do not receive the Father's discipline, we are not truly his children. (vv. 6-8)
• We should do more than just respect it as a human respects his father for having disciplined/trained him rightly... we should willingly subject ourselves to His discipline so that we will truly live.  (v. 9)
• God disciplines us for our good. (v. 10)
• God's discipline has the purpose/end of us sharing in His holiness (His purity & set-apartness). (v. 10)
• His discipline will seem painful rather than pleasant. (v. 11)
• His discipline will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness in our lives, if we submit to His training. (v. 11)

HUMAN PARENTAL DISCIPLINE:

• Human fathers disciplining their children is assumed to be a universal truth for all parents/children. (v. 7)
• Those children who are not disciplined are being treated like illegitimate children, not sons and daughters. (v. 8)
• When earthly fathers discipline, earthly children respect them. (v. 9)
• Discipline in the life of a child happens in a "short" window of time. (v. 10)
• Human discipline differs according to "what seems best" to the parent. (v. 10)
• All true discipline will seem painful rather than pleasant. (v. 11)
• True discipline will yield a peaceful fruit of righteousness in the lives of those who have been trained by it. (v. 11)

All pictures: My Scandinavian Home

What do you think? (best just to say you like them...hahaha). When the lamps are on they let of a beautiful warm glow like in the picture of me blogging in the early hours here:





Oh and in case you're about to do the same here is my two pence worth:

3 tips on hanging pendant lamps over a dining table:

How high should pendant lights hang over a dining table?
If there's more than one and they're relatively small you can hang them quite low. They should be low enough to avoid glare from the bulbs yet high enough to be able to see the other people around the table. Ours are 57cm above the table.

How far apart should the pendant lights hang?
If you have three pendant lights, divide the table into four equal parts and hang the lamps at equal intervals along this line.

How do I get power to all the lights?
We used CableCup ceiling roses for suspension lamps with a splitter so that we could feed the cable in from one end and then through the next two lamps. They seem to work so far...:)


Hope you all had a great weekend and happy Pappa's day to all your wonderful daddys out there! x