Frisian Dúmkes Recipe - "Thumb" Cookies with Anise

Anise is a pretty rare spice in baking. It's not your staple spice like cinnamon or ginger. But I think it's one of those spices that is actually pretty amazing once you get to know it. And why not get acquainted through these yummy Frisian cookies? 

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Swedish Semlor Recipe - Cardamom Sweet Rolls filled with Almond Paste

The days are getting longer and I don't have to take pictures in the near-dark anymore! Longer days also means we're getting closer to Fat Tuesday. This day right before Lent is often used to "fatten up" in Christian cultures, and it is no different in Sweden. There it is celebrated by eating the delicious "semla"(plural semlor), a sweet roll made of enriched dough spiced with cardamom, which is filled with almond paste, milk and a good dollop of whipped cream. Sounds good, no? By eating one of these, you'll definitely be living up to the name Fat Tuesday. But really, Christmas fattens us up plenty before Lent these days(we should call Christmas "Fat Two Days" instead), but there you have it. Traditions are not to be messed with and so we'll have to break our newly vowed diets - at least with a fantastic excuse.

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Healthy Gluten-Free Buckwheat Pancakes

Here is another one of my confessions: I had never tried buckwheat flour until today. I eat quite healthily most of the time, and I knew about buckwheat flour but never really felt the need to try it. My curiosity was sparked by my friend Nadine of Nadine Bakes (who also made the cartoon version of myself). She always experiments with different types of flour such as buckwheat and spelt, so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I cooked up these pancakes and was pleasantly surprised. Up until a year ago, I was still on the fence about whole-wheat pasta but I've learnt to appreciate the white flour alternatives since. Buckwheat is definitely going into my "flour rotation" from now on! 

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Easy Cheese and Onion Bread Recipe (Foodblogswap)

Working on university papers can be pretty boring and stressful. That's just the way it is. Deadlines are no fun, except the sound they make as they whoosh by as Douglas Adams famously said. While I've been enjoying the whooshing sound for a couple of times the past year, I couldn't get around the foodblogswap deadline. And so here you have this super easy recipe for delicious cheese and onion bread, just in time for the Super Bowl (of Soup). 

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