Toffee Cookies

This is how I started my Saturday morning: 

It was wonderful. I got to sip coffee all morning long while having a ball browsing my cookbook stash. I decided to try these toffee cookies from IKEA's Fika cookbook (which is awesome, for the record). I've only made a few recipes from it so far, but each one has been a winner. 

They turned out wonderfully! My favorite kind of cookies - chewy, not overly sweet, and perfect dunked in a cup of coffee. We brought them to a party and Ryan has already asked me to make some more for just us...and I think I just might.

Here is the book itself - really fun pictures for each recipe. I really like how they have most of the classic Swedish fika treats in it - reminds me of the motherland. I really want to try the vanilla hearts, they were one of my absolute favorite treats when I studied there. They will definitely be one of my next baking projects!

Hope you enjoyed your weekend!

Minty Mint

 Finally, the weekend!

I'm kicking off this weekend by clipping off some fresh mint and making some infused vinegar.
I'm really living on the edge.

I got the idea from the book I've been using a lot lately, Can it, Bottle It, Smoke It. I was going to make some ginger-infused vinegar with the leftover ginger I had from the ginger beer, but alas, it went bad. So I ended up with just using mint from the garden. I've been really into mint tea these days, so mint vinegar sounded like it would be a good addition to our pantry.

If you want to make your own - simply add some fresh herbs to about 2 cups of vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar). Let sit out for about two weeks and then strain out the herbs. Voila, done!

Yay for weekends and for cheap thrills like infused vinegars. May your weekend be full of the wonderful little things that make life amusing!

Sister Crafting Project 2014

Caryn and I had our first official 2014 Sister Crafting Day meeting back in February (it's already March?!) and we've decided on our project for the year - Christmas stockings!

I received a plethora of fun crafting books for Christmas last year, and there were quite a few patterns to choose from. In the running was this Julbock stocking pattern from Swedish Handknits (also where I got the crayfish hot pad pattern I knitted recently):

[photo credit: Just Crafty Enough]

The pattern we ended up choosing is from the book, Scandinavian Needlecraft:

[photo credit: Katy Elliot blog]

I really like the heart one with the tulip border on top. Plus the snowflake one is cute too, all very Scandinavian looking, which was obviously top priority. :) I was even thinking of making the reindeer one into a Julbock instead for Ryan's stocking.

We haven't actually started making them yet, but picking out a pattern and drinking coffee counts as a craft day in my book.

In other news, our apartment is almost completely unpacked! It's a March miracle! We still need to put up some artwork to brighten it up, but it feels good to have things out of boxes and where they belong. 

Have a great week!