First outdoor fika of the year

Woohoo for 4-day long weekends (for Stu from his internship, not me...there are no real holidays for the unemployed!) And it is GORGEOUS in Stockholm. So many people are out, and lots of tourists. I guess all of Europe celebrates a lengthy Easter.

We finally had a proper fika outside of a konditori in Gamla Stan. Well, not proper: who drinks light beer with their lemon meringue pie? Stu. blech.

Glad påsk!

I must have jinxed the city yesterday, blogging about all the sun and "warm" weather in Stockholm. Today it's back to that stupid gray color we suffered through all last winter. It's hovering right around freezing, but is still snowing, making the sidewalks a nasty, slushy, squishy, dirty mess.

But I didn't start this post to complain (I just happen to be good at complaining.) The last week or so, I haven't left my computer much, between writing essays for school and for the Absolut art collection and trying to start writing my thesis. And Stu has started school and work full-time, so it's unusually quite here. (I even started reading Gawker as a distraction.) I was feeling a little stir-crazy, so despite how gray and mushy it is out there, I had to at least get out of the apartment for a bit. I ended up at a second-hand shop. So strange...when I don't have a destination, I *always* end up at the second-hand shops! I guess it's the random assortment of distractions to look at and the fact that it's no big deal if I have a weak moment, because it's cheaper than any other possible shopping destination in Sweden. Anyway, I scored the coolest little Turkish coffee pot.

I had wanted to buy one in Egypt since I had stocked up on their cardamom-infused version of the coffee, but couldn't find anything ornate enough or the right price (one souk guy wanted to sell my a one-cupper plain pot for 60 egp, or $12. He chased me down the street, halving the price in the process, but still, it was too boring for the price.) However, this little guy was a whole 15sek (about $2). And yes, I am going to fika with it this afternoon! Stu is going to think I am an idiot for getting so excited about a copper pot that I blogged about it.

But that's not all! I ALSO scored the LAST bottle of glögg at the Systembolaget near our place. I am just not ready to give it up for the season! The people in line all chuckled when I explain how excited I was about buying it. Obviously, I haven't been getting out much. 

And to top off those good things, I also spotted my first semlor of the year today! The Lent/Fat Tuesday buns have become my favorite part of February (celebrating Stu's birthday is a close second, though.) I frickin' love cardamom. Oooooh, brilliant idea...a semla and a Egyptian-style Turkish coffee might be *the* combination this year. 

It says "Semlor, good people!" but I prefer to think of it as "Get your semlor, bitches!"

 

Okay, so I should go back to work now...I have to prepare a powerpoint presentation for school Monday (which also happens to be my birthday. Ugg.) But I will leave you on another good-thing note--we are gaining nearly a half hour of daylight every week now. It just keeps getting better and better...

Stockholm Guide

We didn't come up with this, but its a good one, especially for the design-inclined. The most recent DesignSponge city guide is for Stockholm!

illustration by julia rothman

It's very thorough, and I was both happy to see a lot of places we love made the list, as did some that we had never heard of (For example, this awesome-looking chocolatier just down the street from us!) And nice little Fotografiska shout-out.

Stu & I leave for DC ungodly early tomorrow (why did I book a 7am flight out of Arlanda?!?) We'll be back the first week of July for a whopping 5 days, then off to Edinburgh & surrounding Scotland for a week, followed by a week in southern Germany with Stu's mama. We'll be back for all of August (except for a short stint for me in Paris, woohoo!) so we'll have lots to discover with this D*S guide!

Seven kinds and a Cardamom Cake

When you have someone over for fika in Sweden, it is considered proper manners to have no less than 7 different kinds of cookies or cake to serve your guests. Well, that is what I am told...I think the tradition has subsided a bit (who has the time?) But any country that defines "proper" as having a smörgåsbord of sweet things is my kind of country! Even my Morfar always had sweet things and coffee-so-strong-you-could-stand-a-spoon-up-in-it when we came over. Incidentally, he was a big pecan sandies fan. 

Anyway, I hadn't posted about any major baking failures lately. I haven't had any! Not going to jinx myself and say I have overcome my baking-in-Sweden handicap, but let's just say I haven't had any flat cookies or brick-like bullar in a while. 

And today was a gray, cold day, and I sometimes bake to avoid doing things that I don't want to do (like the riveting paper due this weekend on light, space, and sound in museum exhibitions) so I decided to make kardemummakaka. Cardamom cake. I've only had it in cafes, but I just bought this lovely book:

and thought I might as well try out my Swedish reading skillz. Sju Sorters Kakor means literally Seven Kinds of Cakes, and was first published in 1945. Its a Swedish household staple and has been re-published dozens of times...they even have an English version (Swedish Cakes and Cookies.) I particularly like the old-school pictures with every recipe.

(The ingredients. I do like pictures.)

The thing turned out DELIGHTFULLY. Light and cardamom-y. I had a few friends over, and 3 ladies and Stu made more than half the cake disappear in a very, very, very short amount of time. 

I am including the recipe in this blog post, translated to the best of my abilities, because I want you out there to make it and drink really strong coffee and think of me, and Sweden, and how you shoulda baked about 6 more kinds of cake.

Kardemummakaka

pre-heat oven to 175c/350f

200 g smör / 1 c butter, super soft
2 ägg / 2 eggs
3 dl socker / 1 1/4 c sugar
8 dl vetemjöl / 3 c flour (you might need a little extra)
3 tsk bakpulver / 3 tsp baking powder
1 tsk kardemmummakärnor / 1 tsp ground cardamom (but really, as much as you want)
3 dl mjölk / 1 1/4 c milk
3 msk pärlsocker / 3 T pearl sugar

Cream together sugar, butter, eggs. Add flour, baking powder, cardamom, and milk. Mix. Toss in a greased baking dish. I have yet to buy a proper cake pan, so I'm still using the landlady's big cheesecake springform, lined with foil. But I'd suggest a 9in round or square, so its thicker than mine was. SSK suggests a 26cm round. It also said one could top it with both pearl sugar and sliced almonds. I didn't have almonds. I also didn't measure the sugar...I just poured it on.

Bake for a about an hour, or until something poked in the center comes out clean (I used a butter knife.)

Maybe we need some color

It occurred to me that we haven't been taking many pictures lately. We took so many while traveling...maybe Stockholm got boring in comparison? Its certainly more monochromatic. Nah, I know I have *seen* things that are picture-worthy, I just haven't had the camera with me. And come on, I am not really that interesting...the blog is just better when there are pictures. So I am using what we did this weekend as an excuse to steal a bunch from the web. With a little more color.

We went over to our friends' place for dinner Friday, and while they impressed us with filet mignon, and fancy salad and two different kinds of risotto, I brought chocolate glop. It was supposed to be brownie pudding, but it didn't set, and it turned out to be mostly pudding goo. It tasted like heaven, but turned out looking nothing like this:

Aaaaaaand I still suck at baking in Stockholm.

We stayed out too late Friday and slept in too late Saturday, and missed the few hours of sun in the day. Story of my life. But in the afternoon, we went out to an opening at Magasin 3, a contemporary art space in Stockholm. The curators there are huge supporters of my grad school program, so it feels a little like kissing up by going to the openings, but then again, they show some really great art! The current exhibition is "Always in a Spiral" by Maria Nepomuceno:

She creates these Dr. Seuss-like woven constructions, using rope and pearls and whatever else. They feel very organic and some look almost phallic or yonic, but since they are so super colorful and fun, you just wanted to lie on them like a hammock. We got the chance to meet the artist on Saturday (which is a privilege you get surprisingly often in Stockholm...galleries really support the artist meeting the audience!) and she was very nice. There is an interesting little video showing the installation and more pieces on the M3 website here.

Art sometimes makes me sleepy and hungry, and I think my body is now set to Swedish fika time. So when out for coffee, we also got our first semlor of the season. I feel like maybe the semla bun should have its own dedicated blog post, they are so good. Or maybe its own dedicated blog.

Because Lent is a time of self-denial, these only seem to come out in the weeks before Fat Tuesday. You can see why. Basically, its a sweet cardamom bun filled with almond paste and topped with whipped cream, and when you've finished the entire thing in 12 seconds flat, you want to order another. And then another.

Okay, so more pictures, of the non-hunger-inducing variety. We finally saw Avatar this weekend. It was pretty. It made you think. However, I liked the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus far more. Go see them both.

And Sunday, there was sun, and we actually got out to enjoy it! We walked to the Medeltidsmuseum, the medieval Stockholm museum, on the day it re-opened after a lengthy re-furb. Its built into a bridge in front of the castle, the oldest bridge in the city, in fact. The Norrbro:

I realize this is NOT in color, but what a cool image of the North Bridge from the 1840s!

They had the bridge closed while they reinforced it, so we hadn't even gotten the chance to stand on it until this past weekend. Saturday, the Crown Princess Victoria laid the final stone:

More photos of that here.

The medieval museum was packed with people, even people so hardcore they got dressed up in renaissance clothing for the opening. And I was struck that it had so much more information in English than most Stockholm museums. So we learned, too. We learned that we would never want to live in medieval Stockholm.

And I actually took this last one, a shot from the Norrbro over the river...in our most familiar color palette.

Picture post

A sunny day after a week of rain (okay, sunny for Stockholm in December is not exactly sunny for, umm, any place south of us)

 

 Kids skating at Kungsträdgården

 

A statute on the Royal Palace

 

 The NationalMuseum

 

Some nice street scene.

  Happy Holidays!

Okay, so I thought it said Happy Weekend the first time I saw it (Helg means holy/holiday AND weekend)

 

 

 Vs and Ws get a little mixed up to the Svedes.

 

And fika  at Saturnus

Kanelbullens Dag

It is October 4, 'officially' Kanelbullens Dag in Sweden, or Cinnamon Bun Day!

We arrived exactly 2 months ago in Stockholm, and today was my first experience ever baking the buns. I'm not sure that I shared my frustrations on the blog about baking cookies, but let's just say my endeavors all turned out very, very flat. I used a US recipe which called for baking soda, but all I could find was baking powder/bakpulver. I'm no chemist, but I thought they were fairly interchangeable. They were pretty tasty, but not the soft, cake-like molasses cookie deliciousness from the picture. I have since found bikarbonat, but it is sold in teeny, tiny packets, not like the giant yellow boxes of Arm & Hammer. And it still yielded very flat cookies.

So this morning I was determined to make the best buns ever. Stu said I woke up talking about baking. Actually, I even went to the store for ingredients BEFORE having coffee this morning, which is very, very unlike me. I cannot function without coffee.

I went to the ICA that has a fairly large baking section. Asked some nice Swede how to translate 'yeast' in Swedish. Jäst. Sounds about the same. But the store was out of the little packets that we are used to in the US. Instead, I found a slightly larger packet of jästmix for vetebröd, with a lovely picture of a pile of bullar on the front. So I bought it, attempted to translate it, and proceeded to make the worst kanelbullar known to man. I am a disgrace to my Swedish heritage. The mix was SO dense that Stu and I both have aching shoulders from trying to roll the dough out. They smell delicious, and they turned out to be the right shape, but they are pale & crumbly, and thicker & drier than scones. So, so wrong.

So Stu and I abandoned the endeavor and joined our friends at the NationalMuseum to see the Caspar David Friedrich show. And went to a lovely Frenchie-Swedishy cafe in our neighborhood that is known for having some of the best bullar in Stockholm, Cafe Saturnus. The place was packed, and the buns were as big as your head. They even had a take-away tent outside because there was a line out the door to find a seat. We bought 4 and ate them at home.




This behemoth was lunch and dinner. That is how you properly celebrate Kanelbullens dag...none of this amateur stuff! I don't know what I was thinking.

But I am now on a personal mission to perfect my technique...anyone have a good recipe, preferably in English? In fact, baking in Sweden has proved so tricky for me, I almost think I need a teacher. I'm going to search YouTube for some step-by-step bulle-baking tutorials...

Update:
Ah, with pictures!
http://tifty.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/bullbaket/

Maybe a little complicated for my skill-set, but its in English: http://annesfood.blogspot.com/2007/10/swedish-cinnamon-buns.html

Gotta love Smilla the Cat, making it look too easy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InCbewpd8AU

Moderna Museet Cafe

Last Sunday was gorgeous and warm. Its been really lovely weather here, sunny and about 18c (that's in the upper 60s for the Americans.) Perfect fall days, really.

But I spent most of last Sunday writing a paper (remind me why I decided to go back to grad school again?!?)

Stu & I took a break, though, to go to the big Moderna Museet in the afternoon. They had just opened a Salvador Dali show, and it was the last day of a photography show that I thought he would really enjoy. Its a great museum, situated on a little island called Skeppsholmen (which is actually really hard for me to pronounce in Swedish) with several other museums. They are doing track work on some of the subway over there, so its not the *easiest* place to get to from our apartment (I found that out when I mixed up my course time at the MM last week, and ended up being 45 minutes late for class...I took a very expensive cab ride, and it still took forever.)

Anyway, we checked out the Dali, and then took a coffee break. They have several places to grab a fika in the museum, and the restaurant is really quite good, with a large balcony sitting over the water. But we grabbed coffee in the little cafe between the Moderna and the Architecture museum.



I didn't take a picture because we ate them too fast, but holy, we had some of the best waffles with blueberries and vanilla cream.



We have done the cafe thing at several of the museums, like Liljevalchs and others on Djurgården, and many of them take full advantage of the outdoors...something DC museums don't do very well. Don't get me wrong, the cafe at the NGA is great, and the food at NMAI is fantastic, and the space is fun. I guess there is just so much more rustic green space in Stockholm, and it just feels different. More relaxed.



It was definitely the first museum cafe I had ever seen that sold farmer's vegetables! And the prices weren't too bad, either. It's less than $3 for a big bunch of carrots, $1.50 for the bunch of fresh corn. And I learned a new word from this sign: artichoke in Swedish is kronårtskocka. Hmmm...who knew?



We sat on this rock, since most of the tables were taken up. It was a prime spot...there were little kids jumping all over the place.



Anyway, we caught the end of the photography show (I had only seen Larry Clark's work in his books...its even more disturbing and fascinating when blown up on the wall!) I bought a funky plate and lamented that I couldn't buy the whole set (the museum gift shops here are pretty good, too)

And I managed to mostly finish my paper while Stu went out to an Irish bar on Söder to catch the Eagles game with several of his new American-football-watching friends. They might come here next week to see it...Stu bought the NFL package to stream online. He's dedicated.

Eat this!

Kaffe och princesstårta. Go find this (Ikea has got to have them) and eat them. So friggin good.