Purple Rain

God, it was raining so hard Saturday morning, and it's almost June. Thank god that it did cause otherwise our neighbours impossible kids would keep on screeming all morning long (it was f#$#@ing 8:30am).
I think Israel is slowly turning tropical...

Floating on the memories of a strawberry cloud

 Nowdays it’s common knowledge that smells and tastes play a crucial role as memory stimulator, helping you remember and even sometimes re-experience past occurrences or feelings. 

Tthis "strawberry cloud", or strawberry fluff has this effect on me: the test instantly brings me back to my grandmothers back yard, its spring time, the swing squeaks and her warm, tender hands stroke my cheek and hand me over a glass bowl filled with this delightful sweet bliss. 

how wonderful that this things making is so darn easy.

Ingredients:

1 cup cut strawberries, without the leaves

Juice from one lemon

1 egg white

Method:

Mix it all together with a mixer, max speed (takes about 10 min with a stand mixer) until you get a steady foam. Mix right before serving, as the foam tends to separate to strawberry juice and foamed egg white. You can freeze up the leftovers though, and get a refreshing strawberry icecream!

A spice shelf in 2 seconds: DIY

when I installed this thing on Thursday, I though: "what an idiot! how come I didn't think of this sooner?"
well, the important thing is that I finally did.
for those of you who are not familiar with our apartment, let me just say that we have a slight storage problem: we live in 38squer meters. we have very high walls, so they somewhat compensate for the lack of cabinets floor-height. 
this is how my spice-shelf corner used to look like (there's another window above the higher one that you see, and the spices are about hip high)

and then I remembered that I had old pot hangers lying with all my plant thingies. and that I might have a white board the right size to fit the exact width of those pot hangers.

 and it all fit perfectly to my window, and now everything is roomy and easier to handle (:
I might re-paint the rusty hangers, though I kind of like the rusty look...

DIY tutorial: Recycled Orbit gum pack planters

In my weekly routine I drive a lot. Every day. 50km there and back again.

 The Orbit gum big packs are a necessity to me, and sometimes the only thing that keeps me from falling half asleep during morning traffic. As it happens, I started gathering quite a bit of empty packs- they were in such a cute little shape, they had to be good for something. And because I'm a planting person (I guess at some point a post about my plants will follow), I've decided to turn it into a nice little planter. very easy, and a perfect gift.
you will need:

• empty Orbit gum pack
• scissors
• acrylic paint (or anything else that will stay on plastic)
• a nail and a source of heat (lighter, home stove)
• some planting compost and a plant

 what you do:

1. screw off the cover of the pack. 
2. cut off the part that the cover was attached to (see picture).
3. paint the pack. I did about 4 layers to have a semi-uniform paint, you can adjust this to your liking. let dry between layers.
4. when painting finished, make hole to allow water draining: heat up a nail (don't do this in bare hands, use something!) and while hot, make holes at the bottom of the container. make at least 5 holes (or your plant will rot from the inside).
5. fill up with dirt, plant something and water. place in a place that will please the plant you just planted.

Enjoy!

Magnetized! part I: re-designing your fridge magnets, DIY reusing ideas

at my latest shopping round I went into a crafts store and apart from buying the clock mechanism previously mentioned, I also bough some magnets.
you see, our fridge's door is a big mess filled with 'happy new years' cards, bills to pay and a lot of shitty, commercialized magnets (especially pizza magnets) to hold it all together.

Ist project: re-design existing magnets
for this I used things I had lying around the house:

• magnets
• rubber glue (won't cause wrinkles when you glue paper to something, unlike plastic glue)
• scissors
• ruler
• transparent wallpaper
• old tickets, maps, pictures

 take the magnets you want to change and place them on a map, picture or whatever you want to have on your fridge from now on. cut out a piece that will cover the magnet, glue and cover with the plastic wallpaper for protection, and you're done! It's also a nice way to use old museum cards and other trip memories  (: 

Let the weekend baking begin! (homemade baguetts with poolish)

eager to try my baguette shaping pan again this weekend, I started a poolish last night, planning to follow this great recipe I did last week (without the malt, which I didn't have), but with a baking improvement powder, which I've never tried.

alas, my new scoring knife (the one I also bought last week and was ho! so excited about) turned out to be a shitty-one-timer and of course the whole think cracked in the oven. very nice crust though, and a good present for my mother-in-law for being late for Friday dinner.

Avenging the death of our IKEA clock: DIY recycled magazine clock

And so about a two weeks ago the IKEA clock we had in our kitchen decided to drop dead. Battery changes and such did nothing; the clock would appear to work and then stop again while we were sleeping (that sneaky bastard).

so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and avenge the clock's death by turning my IKEA catalog into a brand new colorful and functional clock!
I got the general idea from luckydog post in craftster, and also from a similar post in "esprit cabane".

 The paper was kindly provided by IKEA colorful catalog. It was folded and glued either with plain UHU stick glue or simple plastic glue (UHU is easier to handle). A watch mechanism was easy to find in a local crafts store, so I got one of those too. The finished clock was glued to a cardboard back that I made using an old carton box that came with a pot I bought a while ago.

  

 I won't deny that I have some issues with the distance between the mechanism and the clock itself (ther's friction that causes the hands to jam), but this is the general look. (:

Tasty (and healthy) Cooking: sweet potatos dough with leek and mushrooms

As I've recently fallen in love with "the Gourmet Cookbook for a Healthy Life" by Rani Polak, I've decided to share my version of one of the recipes presented in this wonderful book for grater good.
enjoy!


"Crispy" Yams dough filled with leek and mushrooms

this recipe will generate one roll, enough for 4 people as a starter.

Estimated preparation time:
filling preparation: ~20 min
dough mixing, shaping: ~30min
bake: ~20min

ingredients:
dough:
5 spoons medium sized well cooked yam, mashed (about 1 medium sized yam).
115g white flour
115g whole wheat flour
1tbs baking powder
1/2 tbs salt

3 spoons Orange guice
1.5 spoons Olive oil
1.5 spoons Canola oil
1 medium sized egg, for brushing
1tbs Nigella seeds, for decoration

filling:
1 pack of fresh mushrooms
1/2 a stem of leek
1 spoon olive oil
salt, pepper

Method:

1. Start with cooking the yam until it softens (I do it in the microwave)
2. Prepare the filling: slice leek and mushrooms into thin slices. 
3. In a pan, heat up olive oil and fry the leek until golden, add the mushrooms. garlic is a good addition, also thyme. once the mushrooms had softened, correct seasoning and cool.
4. In a separate bowl, mix flowers, baking powder and salt. 
5. Add oils and orange juice and mix to form a sandy texture. 
6. Add the yams and knead only until the ingredients form a consistent dough, avoid over-kneading.
7. Heat up an oven to 180C. 
8. Flatten the dough on a flowered counter to form a rectangle about 0.5cm thick. 
9. Filter the filling from access fluids, and spread across the long side of the rectangle. 
10. Roll into a cylinder, brush with the egg and bake for 15-20 min, or until golden. 
11. Cool and slice to ~2.5cm slices.

1.

I guess.. hello?

as the title suggests, this blog is about sharing with the world all the things I do instead of doing the things I should. sharing this has a few reasons:

a. avoid family & friends spamming with huge pics of my latest useless creations (passed the stage of having my terrible drawings hung on the fridge door, my mom's a grandma now)

b. share my ideas with other procrastinating-kind of people

c. get new ideas and advice

d. Procrastination!

whoever's reading this, have fun (: