Happy Kitchen and Bellies Day

I spent most of yesterday crocheting on the couch (a little surprise gift for Baby H's daddy to open) and enjoying my newly completed granny stripe blanket. 

Yeah, you heard me! That one! It's done! 

Honestly, I could have kept going with it, it wasn't nearly the size I wanted it to be nor did it empty out the blue/green/brown yarn stash as I was hoping it would...but I just wasn't feeling the love for it anymore. It was becoming a kind of stone around my neck and preventing me from starting more blanket endeavors. It's perfect for the couch which is what it was intended for. Therefore, I sewed in the million ends (will never make the mistake of not sewing in as I go again!) and called it DONE! 

Now I'm just waiting for good lighting in the living room to take pictures of it on the couch. :)

But yes, the blanket was completed Thursday, Friday was spent submerged in baby crochet and today in the kitchen. My third favorite place in the house (#1 being bed with my head on a soft pillow, #2 the couch with a good project or gathering inspiration on pinterest!). 

I was inspired to make a funfetti cake thanks to the pin on pinterest which lead me here. 

Pretty, huh. 

I had only ever had funfetti cake from the box before and they obviously don't sell that here. It seemed like something fun to make for a surprise birthday party we had thought of going to (but then lazily decided not to because who could leave a sore Koda Bear behind?!). 

 ...Wait a minute, that's not Koda Bear! Manta has stolen his "recovery bed"!

 (Even she gets pillow face teeheehee)

My plan to make it according to the link's recipe failed though, as we didn't have enough eggs OR butter! So I went a-searching the interwebs and came up with this vanilla cupcake recipe from Martha's website (which I mixed sprinkles into) and this vanilla buttercream recipe (which I halved) from none other than one of my fave's, Annie's Eats.

Let me just tell you, licking the bowl of this cupcake batter...it was so delicious I could cry remembering it. The cupcakes. Delicious. Airy, fluffy, sweet...perfect! The buttercream is ridiculously sweet (as it should be, ya know, funfetti cake!) and together...it's just amazing. 

As the husband put it "you're a dangerous friend". Apparently to not only to his mental health (teehee) but his physical health, too! 

My one complaint though, is that my sprinkles melted in the cupcake so they don't stick out like in the inspiration picture. Boo! I guess I have to buy the crazy industrial strength ones from the US next time we go, because the sprinkle selection here is pitiful! 

So after this crazy sugar high, we were hungry for something salty. We had a lot of beets left over in the fridge from Christmas so we boiled a few for the Finnish Lindströmin pihvi (Lindström's "steak") and roasted the rest in the oven with a few potatoes and onions (and garlic, oil, salt and pepper) at 225C for about 45min. 

It took a while to make everything (why do beets cook sooooo slooooowly??!) but it was well worth the wait. Hubster and I agreed this is a make-again meal FOR SURE! 

Here is how you make it:

2-3 medium boiled beets tossed in vinegar (or pickled beets), diced

1 onion, diced

1 dl bread crumbs

1 dl cream (we used low fat veggie cream)

salt and pepper to taste

400 g ground beef (we used 7% fat)

splash of cream

Mix bread crumbs and cream and let them soak a bit. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix (by hand works best). Make patties or meatballs. We made 10 smallish patties/large meatballs. 

Fry in a pan with butter until cooked through. Just before serving, pour some cream into the pan and let the patties soak it up. I tossed them gently in it. (Use cream especially if you have dry low-fat beef like we did).

Serve with the roasted beets and potatoes. (Dijon mustard on the taters was deeelish!).

Now I am full and satisfied and wondering what on Earth I am going to do with all those CUPCAKES! 

Thanks for reading!