Our new beautiful nontoxic bed.

 
A couple of years ago we bought an all natural mattress from Soaring Heart and I have been wanting to get also a nontoxic wooden platform bed to go with it. I searched different options online but always drifted back in the end to the Sachi Organics website. Their simple beautiful, nontoxic and handcrafted (Ramblin Wood in New Mexico) beds appealed to my Scandinavian simple taste and the prices were reasonable too. I ended up purchasing a maple wood Edo bed, two underbed drawers and night stands.

We have been using the bed now for a few weeks and couldn't be happier. It looks beautiful, feels beautiful and I love the smell of it, or actually the lack of smell - nothing like the furniture finished with toxic varnishes etc. This is finished with linseed oil. You can also get them unfinished and with different wood, also ecofriendly bamboo! I would have gotten bamboo otherwise but it was out of my price range and I wanted really light wood to go with our birch furniture.

The only problem we have with one of the night stands is that during last week's humidity caused by heavy rains here in Southern California the wood swell so I can't open or close the drawer now. Have to see if we can do something about it ourselves after the humidity goes down. There is usually no humidity so this shouldn't be a problem and it doesn't seem to be a problem with the other one.

Coconut ginger bread (gluten free and vegan)

Gluten free Vegan (Dairy and Egg Free) Ginger bread
Modified and developed from different modern American and traditional Finnish recipes

1 3/4 cup rice flour (a coarse flour like Bob's Red Mill or Frontier rice flour, I noticed when I did this later with superfine rice flour that the amount of flour had to be significantly less.)
1 1/4 cup potato starch
1 cup light sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup molasses
4 tablespoons coconut milk


Preheat oven to 390 degrees.

Mix molasses, sugar, coconut oil and spices in a pot. Bring to boil and let cool down.

In the meanwhile combine dry ingredients - flours, baking soda, xanthan gum and salt.

When the molasses mixture has cooled a bit, mix in coconut milk and flour mixture. It is easiest to mix with an electric hand mixer. Mix well and let sit overnight or several hours in the fridge.

Use a rolling pin and roll the dough pretty thin. Use flour if it sticks to the table or rolling pin. Use cookie cutters and move the cookies on a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Bake in the oven for 5-7 minutes or longer if you made thick cookies.

Happy Independence Day Finland! Gluten free cake and yet another pie.

Today it is Finland's 93rd Independence Day. We celebrated it yesterday along with my husband's 35th birthday. We had friends over and served Karelian pastries, Strawberry cream cake and blueberry pie.

In Finland you can't get fresh strawberries in December (a benefit you have in California, although the strawberries might have been Mexican) so it felt slightly absurd to have the cake topped with fresh strawberries this time of the year. But the strawberries looked almost like little elf hats so it turned out to be very appropriate for December. We made the cake gluten free since my son has wheat allergy. Here is the recipe.

Gluten Free Traditional Finnish Birthday Cake

1 cup (we used a coffee mug as a measurement for all ingredients) eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour (we used gluten free potato starch)

To moisture the baked cake:
apple juice or pineapple juice

Filling:
whipped cream, quark (rahka), strawberries, bananas...

My filling:
whipped cream (whipped yourself of course, not from a spray bottle :))
quark (can be bought from Wholefoods or make yourself, see the blueberry recipe below for a link)
frozen thawed mashed strawberries
mashed bananas
stevia to sweeten
vanilla extract

Topping:
whipped cream (again, whip it yourself for best results)
fresh strawberries

Whisk the sugar and eggs to white hard foam with an electric mixer (might take 15 minutes with so many eggs), gently mix in the potato starch through a strainer to avoid lumps. Pour in a round cake pan you previously buttered (we put also some gluten free bread crumbs to avoid sticking) and bake in 390 F for 30 minutes of until the cake is golden brown.

Let the cake cool down, cut in half horizontally to make two layers. Moisture the bottom part with a 1/4 cup or so unsweetened apple/pineapple etc. juice, spread the juice with a spoon evenly. Add filling that could be anything like whipped cream and mashed/sliced bananas or strawberries (I mixed together the ingredients above in the ingredient list's filling part), add top layer of the cake and moisture it like the bottom part.

Top with whipped cream and strawberries.


Gluten Free Blueberry Pie

A stick of butter
8 oz of quark (can be bought from wholefoods 4.49 a jar... or make yourself follow this link, I have also substituted it sometimes with thick greek yoghurt or ricotta cheese)
A generous cup of flours (I used gluten free all-purpose flour)

Topping I used:
About half a liter frozen wild blueberries (Trader Joes, half a package or a bit more)
2-3 tbsp potato or corn starch
Half a cup of sugar or other sweetener
Mix the topping ingredients together in a separate bowl.

Dough: Mix everything together (first quark and butter, then flour), put it in a baking dish, top with the topping - use also for other kinds of pies, salty or sweet and bake in 390 F for 30 minutes or until it looks ready.