American Sweets

On my third day at my new job, a book representative was visiting at the school's teachers' lounge. He had with him all kinds of books, mainly story books though. There was one box that included books related to arts and crafts, holidays and - food. I browsed through a Christmas related book from the box, before this particular cook book caught my eye. After flipping through its pages a while, I was pretty convinced that this is the book for me! It is not a surprise to anyone who reads this blog regularly that I like American food and pastries and as the price was right too (I purchased this for 14 €) I didn't need long to decide. Besides, I told myself that as an English teacher, who is supposed to introduce the target culture as well as the language, this book is practically a must to keep up my professionalism! ;)

The book is written by Jill Parker and Joyce Parker, a mother and daughter and the photography is by Patrik Giardino, Jill's husband. The content is divided under seven sub-categories: 1) Cookies & Bars, 2) Muffins & more 3) Coffee cakes, 4) Cakes & Cheesecakes, 5) Pies & more, 6) Candy and 7) Kids, Sweets. The recipes have been adapted to the Scandinavian cooking and are in Finnish.

There are great many recipes I look forward to trying out, the Chocolate Fudge Triple Layer Cake of the cover not being the last on my list. Hopefully I'll have time very soon to try out the first ones from this book and share with you my experiences with it!

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Seasoned tea

This picture has been waiting to be published for great many weeks. I have been busier than in a long time these past couple of weeks. October 25th I was in a job interview and only a couple of hours after leaving the school, the head called me saying that I got the job. This triggered a snowball effect. The town where I started work this Monday was so far from where I have lived the past five years that it wasn't possible to work from there. I had to start apartment hunting with my hubby. Over three weeks after that phone call, I am now posting this from our new home. (I even have a bigger kitchen now!) I made this warm drink just a day or two before that interview and having a mile long "to do" list and checking them off one by one throughout the weeks, publishing this finally is the next thing to cross off from my list. (I'm glad I'm back blogwise as well to something I consider normal life, although starting my very first job after graduation still takes some adjusting and I might not be able to post as often as I'd like.)

I spotted this recipe from the website of the magazine I'm subscribing, Kotivinkki. This was named tea glögg at their site. Glögg is a Nordic equivalent to mulled wine, at least that's what Wikipedia says about it. I prefer my glögg without alcohol and that is the kind that is typically sold in Finnish grocery stores too. The most usual base for non-alcoholic glögg is grape juice, although I've seen varieties with other juices too. This recipe, then again, uses tea as the base. This isn't really glögg in the real sense of it, at least to me, a glögg lover, but I did really like this drink as well. The words that in my opinion best describe this drink is liquid gingerbread. A cup of this warms you up nicely after a cold day. It's easy too, first of all, easy to make, and moreover, you only have to make it once and after that just boil some water to enjoy it...

... because, this recipe makes a concentrate. I made it according to the original recipe, but the amount has lasted more than four servings to me. I probably drink it a little blander than meant? It's been strong enough for me. The concentrate I bottled up and keep it in the fridge: still some left!

I didn't left my concentrate to acquire taste overnight, a couple of hours seemed to do the trick. The cinnamon stick is in the glass for photogenic reasons. But remember, they are re-usable!

Seasoned tea or Tea glögg or Liquid gingerbread

500 ml / generous 2 cups water

4 bags of black tea, e.g. English Breakfast (I used vanilla seasoned black tea)

1 cinnamon stick

I tsp cloves

2 T honey

Bring the water to boil and put the teabags and spices in. Take out the teabags after 5 minutes. Let the liquid acquire taste for a couple of hours or over night. Add the honey. Bland the drink with hot water to taste.

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