Easter Pasha (S)

Calling all Nordics! THM'fied Pasha is here! Okay, a day late -but it's here! You got like 2 days to make this, devour it and call it Easter. This is the ultimate Easter dessert! Well, at least in Finland. Here we go,

You'll need

• 1.5 sticks of butter
• 2/3C Gentle Sweet
• 1 egg
• 2 1/4C Greek Yoghurt/Qwark
• 3/4C whipping/heavy cream
• 2-4T sultanas/diced apricots (if you don't mind going over to the XO'r, then don't shy away)
• 4T almond slices or slivers
• juice of 1 lemon (I also added a few drops of doTERRA Wild Orange Essential Oil)
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1-2t vanilla extract
• fine mesh sieve or bonus points if you have the traditional "pasha mold". (I obviously didn't!)
• muslin/cheese cloth

Instructions

1. Whisk together butter and Gentle Sweet. 
2. Add egg, yoghurt and cream. Whisk for 1 or 2 more minutes. 
   
3. Pour into a pot and turn the stove to medium LOW -do not boil!
4. Heat and keep stirring until the mixture loosens up and begins to steam. Make sure you don't simmer or boil, else it will separate. This process usually takes about 5 minutes. 
   
5. Zest the lemon in and add the vanilla extract. Let the mixture cool an hour or 2.
6. Add the almonds, sultanas and lemon juice. 
   
7. Line the sieve with the cheese cloth/muslin, and pour the mixture in. Cover it gently with the cloth and rest the sieve in a large bowl. Place the bowl into the fridge over night and unravel the next day. 
   
8. Flip onto a serving plate and decorate with fresh berries or more sultanas. I used dried apricots. 
   
   
   
   

So this is my "little bit of Finland" during every Easter. I have let go of many traditions to save my sanity, but this is something I can easily keep and my family doesn't mind at all.

I brought this dish over to our friends today and within minutes this dessert was devoured and the plate licked, if I hadn't interfered. Ha!

Let me know what you think if you do decide to give it a go :) Oh, and some of you might notice the spelling differs from what you're used to or may disagree with the origin of Pasha... who cares! More power to you! It's a yummy dish, am I right or am I right?

Blessings!

Do check out my recipes on HolyTempleUnderRenovation
HERE

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Ultra Organized Kitchen Part 1

I wanna share about how I'm being frugal with our grocery bills while, keeping my sanity in the tiny, and dated kitchen that I'm working with LOL

xo

1. Only buy what you truly use. Keep it simple. I know we love to try new recipes that call for random ingredients, but don't! Like Pearl and Serene say, "what's your sweats?!" If you are craving for an exotic dish - eat out. If you make exotic dishes all of the time, well, these are your "mundane and simple" ingredients.

As a mother of a larger crowd, I need to keep things pretty basic. Basic doesn't mean bland. I've gathered our favourite meals and their ingredients and that's that!

2. Lazy Susans! Not only do they prevent you from stacking your cupboards full of random bags and boxes, they help you access the ingredients you have, too! I have one next to my stove for utensils, cooking oil and spices as well.

3. Don't label your products unless you're seriously suffering from dementia. There really is no need to. It's "visual noise", I don't care how pretty it looks like, just don't. 
By keeping your products to a limit, you can tell the difference between the ingredients, trust me. If you still want to, use labels that you can erase like chalk board stickers. I got mine long time ago, before I realized, in my case, it was a waste of time.

4. Keep spices that you use more often, closer. I got my home made seasoning mixes in previous spice tubs I've purchased, and I use them OFTEN. They are so versatile & used in many different types of recipes. I love simplifying spices by mixing them together.

Firstly, if a recipe calls for e.g garlic, onion and salt - what's the danger of adding a little bit of parsley in there too? Hence, the Ranch seasoning mix!

Secondly, do you really want to open 4 to 7 spice tubs, when you can cut the hassle in half or even more? I guess I don't...?? 😒

Thirdly, organize your spices by "themes".

Not only does this save you money!! But it keep your life a bit less chaotic. Especially your kitchen.

Anyone else on instagram sharing their journey???

Home Chapel part 1

Say what??

A HOME CHAPEL?

Yes.

So, this is something that I have wanted to do for a while now. Our downstairs is one of the messiest parts of our home and I hate going down there. Why?

Well, our rec (recreation) room is always chaotic, thanks to the numerous bits of toys and books which we try so hard to keep organized and stored away in our "toy library" (something I have to post about later). From the rec room to the laundry room is a narrow hallway that is so narrow, that even a hair band on the floor is, trip'able on. It also stores our deep freeze, so I have no choice but to brave this area of the house. Ugh!

Our laundry room, which has the best system in the world (also something I will post about on a later date), collects shreds of random paper crafts, among other annoying stick-to-the-sock bits, how on earth... I don't know?? I need to figure something out as soon as possible! Needless to say, the downstairs is a cold, unwelcoming place which I will tackle soon.

I have thought through and tried numerous ways to make the rec room more inviting, practical, spacious, soothing and restful. I have always failed. Whatever we try, fails. It ends up being "trashed" by the kids and we have to face the agonizing task of cleaning it up every Thursday, to welcome our children's piano teacher on the Friday. Gah!

No thanks!

But, ahha! Then it dawned on me, Simon has daily devotions with our children at least once or twice a day! Usually we have morning Bible study around the breakfast table and prayer time in our living room. What if, we had a room purposely designated for something great. I mean REAALLY great? What else could be greater than coming together in worship, learn about and pray to our God?! Jesus in the midst of us!

Could I really contemplate turning our messy TV room into a "chapel" with couches and lounge chairs for future Bible studies (women's breakfast or our church's youth gatherings) , our morning and post dinner devotionals? Would this room hold our precious prayer box and hymn books? Could we Youtube our favourite worship songs with lyrics on the TV and actually have a gathering in the middle of the week? Why, yes we can!

Why was I second guessing myself? What would people think?

Who cares! This will be amazing, I just know it.

So then I asked myself, what does a church outside of church look like? Does it need an altar of some kind, a cross, seating (preferably comfy), access to Bibles and prayer boxes. How, where? We already have our piano and guitars downstairs, so music will be sorted!

Where will I get the cross from?

Obviously I won't be buying it since I've already made a commitment with Simon to be frugal,  and a cross is not in the budget. So.....

You guessed it (or did you??), I made it!

This post is part 1 because I have not transformed the rec room into our "chapel" yet. Keep posted by subscribing and you'll see what the finished product will look like in part 2, -the BIG reveal!

Simon was so kind to cut out the cross for me from a sheet of Styrofoam which we had several pieces left over from my previous craft session (will blog later, too).

I found some gold adhesive to cover the Styrofoam with. Not easy, that's what duct tape is for. In Finnish we call duct-tape "Jesus tape" because it can do miracles. How fitting!

Next, I added burlap to dim down the shining gold. After all, we didn't want it to resemble the "golden calf". Just kidding. The glue gun was my best friend.

Now the fun begins.

Gluing the flowers. This was tricky. I didn't want to cover the cross completely with flowers, but I had so much I wanted to use!

I stuck with white flowers to resemble His righteousness. Purity. Holy. The red resembles the blood he shed for us, giving us new life. 

The gold that shimmers through the burlap, resembles the "golden city" and crown that awaits for us. The burlap resembles the humility and meekness that we need to put on, and let the gold (Jesus' light) shine through. 

Finished product, but not at it's final destination.

Click on the photo to view larger.

In part 2, I will show you the before and after pictures of our renewed and re purposed room.

Stay tuned!!!

Don't forget to visit my YouTube channel to see my vlog on this project (up soon!)

I've Started Vlogging!

And I'm a novice! So please be patient with me,  as I'm navigating through the big world of creative editing!

www.youtube.com/c/HolyTempleUnderRenovation

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