How are you all doing? Weekly plans, weather update, craft goals, (vegan) lunch

Dear users, dear authors,
how are you today?
Did you have a nice weekend? How’s the weather?
What plans and craft goals do you have for this week?
What’s for lunch? Who’s eating vegan, vegetarian, or meat and fish this week?
Let me know.

It’s the start of the month — which means I’m working all day.

Weather — the first day without sun in a long time. Very unusual. Maybe it’ll finally rain. 

Craft goals and plans: I hope I can finally get my hat online. Everything is finished except for the photos. A few unfinished projects are still lying around and want to be completed. That’s what I’ve planned for the public holiday.

And on Friday my children are coming back from vacation. They were away for three weeks — a long time. 

So I have a very nice week ahead of me.

It’s been raining here since this morning. I’m eagerly waiting for the mail carrier to bring the photo books. :-)

I did the housework and am currently trying out a new recipe for Anton: spelt breadsticks.

Meanwhile, the washing machine is running and the ironing is waiting. My mother-in-law is coming over later to keep Anton entertained, so I can do the ironing. 

I harvested 25 kg of quinces yesterday and will spend my first (and probably second) day of vacation making quince jelly. It’s going to be delicious... :)

It’s raining here, too—perfect weather for knitting...

It’s classic April weather here—it was just hailing a moment ago, and now the sun is shining again. This morning it was gray, and for the first time in days, everything wasn’t covered in frost.
Since this week is once again packed with appointments—on top of my job and the daily madness—I don’t have any ambitious crafting goals. I’d like to keep crocheting the scarf for my son and the Christmas decorations, and write a bit more on the next pattern.

Hard to believe, we turned on the heat over the weekend because it was only 18 degrees in the house. Now it’s cozy again :-)
Over the weekend we did quite a bit of celebrating (70th anniversary of my husband’s company, a friend’s birthday, and then a topping-out ceremony in the neighborhood)

Today we’re having spaghetti with Bolognese sauce and a tomato salad with it. I cook and eat (almost) everything; I don’t have any particular preferences.

My poncho is growing only slowly, about 2 - 3 rows every evening; my goal is to have it finished before Christmas.

Today we turned on the heat everywhere for the first time—with it being 10 degrees outside, we had no other choice. I only managed to knit for half an hour this morning. There are a few other things to do that take priority.

By the way, today is a special day for my husband and me. We got together exactly 30 years ago, and our love has only grown stronger. Tonight we’re having one of his favorite meals: lentil soup. I really like that, too. And this afternoon we had apple cake.

Tonight I’ll keep knitting on the vest and reknit the part I unraveled.

Sandra, you make such delicious food for Anton. :)

Luckily, he likes the spelt sticks, too. I enjoy trying new things. With homemade treats, you know exactly what’s in them. The original recipe calls for banana and apple. But since I can’t stand the smell of bananas, I made them with mango instead. They’re delicious that way, too.
They were super easy to make and didn’t take long at all. 

Today I had leftovers from yesterday:
Hokkaido pumpkin with oven-roasted potato wedges.

It’s pretty chilly outside here too and it’s raining, but inside it’s still around 18 degrees (1–2 degrees cooler in the bedroom), so we don’t need to turn on the heat yet.
Today we had gnocchi with sausage goulash. 
In a bit I want to try out my new pattern and see how it turns out.
I haven’t been able to decide on any substantial projects yet; if nothing else, I’ll just make a few more granny squares or swatches for the scrap blanket....

Sandra, that sounds more and more delicious and interesting to me.
Would you like to post the recipe here sometime?
I’d love to try that too. :-)

150g grated apple
100g pureed mango
220g spelt flour
50g canola oil
Mix everything together, shape into rolls, and bake for 25 minutes at 180 degrees.
I didn’t feel like shaping them into rolls because the dough was too sticky for me.
So I spread the dough on the baking sheet, baked it, and then cut it into small pieces. I found that easier. Very simple.

Thanks, Sandra! Great, I’ll definitely give that a try. The original recipe called for banana instead of mango, right? I think that would be really good in it, too.

Is this the kind of pastry you can nibble on? Since there’s no yeast in it...

I’m really looking forward to it!

Yes, the original recipe is made with banana. It’s easy to nibble on. But it’s more for babies. It would be too soft for me to nibble on.

Sandra, I’ll let you know how it tastes. I’ve got all the ingredients together now. :)

I’m going to bake an apple cake today that’s completely sugar-free. I’m really looking forward to it. We definitely need to use up some apples here.

I also have an apple crumble recipe with crumble topping (partly made with rolled oats). That tastes absolutely delicious, too.

It’s been raining here since yesterday, and my husband and I have had a cold hanging on since last week. It just won’t completely go away... We were invited to a 50th birthday party on Saturday, and we sat under a gazebo in the garden with patio heaters until almost 2 a.m. That probably didn’t help either. But it was really great to see people we hadn’t seen in almost 10 years!

We’d actually wanted to go to Burgers Zoo in Arnhem again tomorrow. We haven’t been there in a very long time, and the mangrove area is supposed to be really beautiful... Well, we’ll see whether we actually go or just have a lazy day and sleep in...

My goal for the week is still to update my existing patterns with a new logo and better pictures... Right now I’m reworking one of my patterns for the photos. It’s really fun; it’s almost like working from someone else’s pattern.

It’s raining nonstop here, too. Claudia, Burgers Zoo is really great! We’ve been there a few times already—since we live near the Dutch border, it’s not far.
I got through my work pretty quickly today, so I was able to treat myself to the little luxury of knitting a few more rows.
Tonight we’re having paella, and my daughter is having stir-fried vegetable rice since she’s a vegetarian. She’ll be doing her homework in a bit, and after that we’ll practice some vocabulary—then she’ll have the day off from studying tomorrow (and so will I).

As far as the weather goes, fall has arrived.

Fittingly, I’m going to bake a “sunken apple cake” later using apples we found on our walk.

Monika: A sugar-free apple cake sounds interesting—could you please post it here too?

The spelt breadsticks turned out super delicious. I tweaked the recipe a bit. Instead of 220 g of spelt flour, I used 110 g of whole-grain spelt flour and 110 g of oat flour (oats ground in the Thermomix). I replaced the canola oil with coconut oil.

Sandra, here’s the recipe for the sugar-free apple cake: It’s a yeast dough that’s easy to make and turns out great. Unfortunately, you can’t use coconut oil with yeast dough—it won’t rise as well.

Ingredients for the dough:

• 250 g whole-grain spelt flour
  
• 30 g oil (canola or sunflower oil)
• 125 ml water
• 1/2 cube of yeast or 1 packet of dry yeast
• a small pinch of salt

Topping:

• 3–4 sweet apples
• 1 lemon
• a little cinnamon (but you can leave this out if you like)
• Raisins—as many as you like (can also be omitted)
• ground almonds or nuts 

Instructions:

• Mix all the ingredients for the yeast dough, knead, and let the dough rise for 30 minutes
  
• In the meantime, you can prepare the topping:
• Cut the apples into small pieces (I use them with the skin on) 
• Squeeze the lemon, mix the juice with the apple pieces, and combine with the cinnamon and raisins 
• Roll out the dough very thinly on a baking sheet
• Spread the apple pieces on top
• Sprinkle the ground nuts or almonds on top
• Then place it in a cold oven and bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius on the convection setting.

Enjoy! 

Oh, that sounds delicious. I’ll give it a try in the next few days. But without almonds and nuts—the little ones aren’t supposed to have them yet, and I’m allergic to them. :-)
But I’m sure Anton will like the cake, too. 

Yes, Sandra, the cake tastes great even without almonds and nuts. You could also sprinkle it with shredded coconut. Or leave it out entirely—I’ve tried that too.

What I also love about this cake is the thin, crispy crust. :-)