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Retro Easter Eggs

DIY Easter Estonian

Retro Easter Eggs

Have you ever used onion skins to dye your Easter eggs? Easter is around the corner, so I’m sharing my grandmother’s recipe of the most beautiful, cheap, easy and natural egg dye: onion skins. Growing up my vanaema (Estonian for grandmother) always dyed her Easter eggs with onion skins. As a kid, I thought the patterns were cool but found the shades of orange and brown too "old school". Like many young kids, I preferred the vibrant colours that came from food colour and store-bought egg painting kits. But by the time I was a teenager old school became retro....

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Irish Marshmallows

Irish Marshmallow Recipe

Irish Marshmallows

Have you ever made your own marshmallows? I found this recipe from Robyn at Add A Pinch a couple of years ago and have never looked back. Homemade marshmallows are so light and fluffy and delicious that you will never look at store bought marshmallows the same. For St Patrick's Day this year I decided to make these cute little Irish marshmallows. These little flags are easy to make but do require a fair bit of time. I essentially made the recipe three times to get the tricolour. If you’re not interested in layering colours then I suggest checking out...

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Kringel

Estonian Kringel Recipe

Kringel

February 24th is Estonian Independence day, known in Estonian as Vabariigi aastapäeva. Around this time of year I find myself indulging in all the Estonian foods I grew up with, one of my favourites being kringel. A kringel is a sweet yeast bread, flavoured with cardamom and raisins, it's traditionally braided and pretzel shaped and is sometimes filled with cream or marzipan. It is usually topped with sliced almonds, powdered sugar or icing. Many Scandinavian and Northern European countries have their own version of the recipe with similar names, in Danish and Norwegian kringle, Swedish and Icelandic kringla, in Latvian kliņģeris...

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New Year, New Candles & New Packaging

100% Beeswax Candles

New Year, New Candles & New Packaging

I just wanted to say thank you so much for liking my candles! It means so much to me that you like my birch candles, as this is a new adventure for me and I wasn’t sure how they would be received. But it gives me so much joy and builds my confidence that you guys think I’m making something beautiful. I realize that my candles are a little more expensive than most other candles, but I dip every candle by hand which takes more time and effort than pouring wax into a mold. But I’m getting sidetracked. What I...

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A Night for Glögg

Canadian Christmas Estonian Glogg Recipe

A Night for Glögg

Christmas Eve is the main event in many Scandinavian countries, so growing up we would always celebrate Christmas on the 24th. This is the evening we get together with family at home to have the main big dinner. After dinner "Jõuluvana" (Santa) would knock at the door and our family would sit around the christmas tree and recite poems or songs to Santa in exchange for our gift. After Santa left, we would exchange the rest of our gifts for the family.Another of my favourite Christmas memories is the fragrant smell of my parents' pot of glögg—a mulled wine made...

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