Messmör

I am doing it again. Procrastinating. I am in my last week of anything having to do with the philosophy of aesthetics for the foreseeable future (hooray!) But for class tomorrow, I am supposed to be read what is a surprisingly accessible article by Kendall Walton called "Transparent Pictures," which discusses how we see through photography (believe me, its not so simple!)

Anyway, because procrastination is my superpower (if only it could be used for good!) I have been shirking the reading in favor of seeing pictures, but online. It could be considered background research, right? I read a LOT of design blogs online. I love the pictures. In fact, I don't read it if it doesn't have pictures. One of my favorites for cute and clever and interesting stuff is Design*Sponge (the editor used to be a writer for Domino Magazine, if you remember that fabulousness.) And this week, there was a post about Swedish food packaging:

Pretty great, huh? Check out some of the others from the D*S page. I thought the little cut-outs posing with the grocery store items were cute.
The "Bregott" is basically margarine, the "Fiber Havregrytt" is a porridge of some sort I think, the blue tube called Kalles with the perky-looking kid is actually caviar, and the "Falksalt" is, you guessed it, a brand of salt. In the corner, you can kind of see a little yellow carton of something called "Messmör."

I took a few pictures of our carton of messmör, because its weird and deserves some explanation (the counter looks awfully dirty in this picture. I blame Stu.)

The stuff is the consistency of a soft butter, but super sweet and with an indescribable tang. Its made from whey, and is big here because its low in fat but high in calcium and iron, so its seen as pretty healthy. The Swedish kids I nanny for LOVE this stuff. When I first started, I lamented about not being able to find decent peanut butter in Stockholm, and the mom just shrugged and said they were a messmör household. I admit tasting it for the first time last August and thinking WTF!?! *This* is what these kids eat instead of peanut butter? Torture! 

But I guess it grew on me, because now its in our fridge. I prefer it schmeared on bread or wafers and sprinkled with cinnamon. I checked out the Fjällbrynt website before posting, and they actually have some interesting recipes, so maybe one day, you'll see a Messmörkaka post?