October

I have no idea, what month is this... Everything seems to go other direction of my plans. For starters, we had "nice" fall storm here what hit us in the middle of the night. Luckily nothing terrible happened here with us, but some other parts of Estonia got pretty bad damages. Many roofs were gone from schools, stores, houses and so on. Off course electricity were gone as usual. Luckily we got our back within matter of hours but some people still don't have theirs... Electricity company promises that they will get it maybe on Sunday... I been that several years ago, when we did not had electricity over 2 weeks in winter... And our water, heating system, everything even making food depended on it. So it is not pretty thing at all.

Well coming back to the swap. I swaped with Amy from Cavemom Lifestile and I sent her

Sea Buckthorn mustard. It is nice and really strong mustard what is made by local little farm. I love it and I hope that Amy can figure out what to do with it. 

I got from her nice little parcel today 31st of October... I have no idea why it took so long and I still wait one parcel from US what was posted in 4th of October with DHL. I pray that I will receive it and that it is not lost. 

So as my little parcel came too late I am a bit late with this post as well. I got nice coffee chocolate and nice bear bottle honey. First I did not know what to do with it so quick. Normally I have few days to think of it. But now I needed to act fast. So I decided to make "šokokaadi kisselli" well I try to translate it into English as well Chocolate kissel. 

When I was young it was our schooldays sweets. Actually I did not take measurements how much of what I put in as it is just by feeling and taste...

I took photos as well, but now my camera do not communicate with PC, so I have no idea what is wrong as it did few days ago and after that it just stopped communication. So as soon as I will get them contacted again I will add photos as well. But meantime:

Chocolate kissel

I got PC and camera to talk again so here it is my result.

• almond or coconut milk
• coffee chocolate
• cocoa powder (unsweetened)
  
• arrowroot starch
• honey

Pour milk into pot, add chocolate in and stir in honey and let the milk to boiling point. If you will reach the sweetness stop adding honey. Melt the chocolate in milk, if you reach darkness you like do not add any cocoa powder, I like it more dark and bitter so I added 2 TS cocoa powder into cup and added few tablespoons of hot milk to dissolve it and then pored it into pot. Then dissolved the arrowroot starch in cold milk and added it into mixture. Put it as much you like, if you like it thinner then less, if thicker then more. I like it quite thick and I run out arrowroot starch (3 TS) I had to add 2 TS potato starch as well. Heat it up to the thickness you like and set aside. Serve it with sour jam - I used cowberry jam - just love it.

I love the result and so do kids. Hope that I will get the photos up as soon.

September swap

This time I got very interesting offer from Rachel. As she gould not find anyone from EU to swap with me beside Techla, she decided to swap with us.

It was total surprise and off course I agreed with this, otherwise I was left out this time.

To Rachel I sent some Sea Buckthorn Muesli and some hawthorn berry flour. I think and really hope that there are not any in USA. I love them both. I use both of them in my teas or in baking goods. They are very rich in taste.

Yesterday evening I had note in my postbox and I could not read whom it was. It was just 3 letters ARX. So I was really puzzled as I order some stuff only from Iherb and if you are interested in ordering feel free to use my discount code MMQ155 on your first order and get off 5 or 10 $ depends on your order. 

So back to that note. So today afternoon I had some time visiting the Post Office and I was so inpatient to see what was in that mystery parcel, so I opened it directly after I received it in my car. Oooh, that smell what rushed to my face - it was just wonderful and so rich. It was Nutiva´s Coconut manna - and that word manna really puzzled me as "manna" in my language means semolina... 

But coconut semolina - wow it would be really wonderful  - kids will love it. But it does not look like semolina at all. So I do  not think that I can make them berry juice manna whipping (mannavaht / mannaroosa) to them what they use to like when we ate manna over year ago.

So nothing to do, I needet to dive into internet and see what it is and is there any use for it beside just eating it right from the jar. Read from jar that this is a possibility to put into brownies - it would be great, but where is the recipe...? Doing more searching I found out that it is quite good idea to use it by making your own coconut milk. I use to do it out of coconut flakes, but hey, this is easier. Do not to soak or wait so long time, before I can do something out of it. So then I decided that it should become a pumpkin sweet potato cream soup.

Pumpkin sweet potato cream soup with coconut manna

• ca´ 1,5 kg butternut pumpkin (peeled, seeds removed and cut into cubes)
• ca´ 500 g sweet potatoes (peeled and cut into cubes)
• 1 2/3 cup coconut manna
• 6 cups hot water
• himalayan pink salt
• 1-1,5 ts allspice
• 1-1,5 ts Chinese 5 spice
• 150-200 g butter or coconut oil
• pepitas
• 300 g full smoked dear sausage

First make your coconut manna milk, put the jar into hot water and wait when manna turns nice and soft, then measure 1 2/3 cup manna into blender and add 6 cups rather hot (but your hands can tolerate it) not cold or boiling water and blend few seconds and let it sit. 

Put soup pot onto stove on medium heat, pour in your oil or butter, heat it up. Wash, peel and cut your sweet potatoes and add them to butter or oil. Let them glaze, but do not let them get browned as you do not want brown soup, but nice and orange. Then wash, peel and remove seeds from your pumpkin, cut into cubes and add them to your potatoes. Add some salt and spices, it depends how spicy soup you like. Let them glaze there but do not let them get burnt, stir all the time. Let them glaze there about 8 more minutes, then add your coconut manna milk and let it simmer in low heat about 10-15 minutes. When sweet potatoes and pumpkin cubes are almost mashed then turn off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes. Take your full smoked dear sausage and heat it up in oven for 8-10 minutes. Now you are ready to take your hand blender and smash your soup into nice and creamy consistence. Cut your smoked sausage into small cubes and add it into soup or garnish later with it. Depends what do you like best and garnish with a little Tai Basil and coconut manna.

Enjoy!