Swedish cheese slicers

We packed up our apartment for moving, the boxes have been shipped, our luggage is overflowing, and we fly back to the States tomorrow. Could this be the last blog post on Swedish soil? And I titled it "Swedish cheese slicers"?!?

Yesterday consisted of hauling the remains of remains to the second-hand shop...those random purchases we made while here, stuff that was useful but we had no space for in the luggage, stuff that wasn't very useful (yup, this guy was brought back to his original home!) And after we lugged our stuff to the donation room, out of habit, I poked around the kitchen section of the second-hand shop, on the look out for a cheese slicer.

I don't know if these are typical in the States or not, since we had one at our house growing up (but my mom is Swedish). But they are the best tool! The family I nannyed for had a dozen in their kitchen drawers alone. I wanted to bring a few back, just in case they are tough to find, so for the last several weeks, I have been looking for a few cheap ones to slide into the checked baggage.

No luck. I can NEVER find these at second-hand shops, which must mean Swedes never donate cheese slicers. Often, you will find whole, beautiful sets of Rörstrand dishes, entire sets of silverware, or lovely Kosta Boda glassware in the city mission store, but I have never seen a simple plastic-handled cheese slicer, much less the nice wood-handled ones! Relatives pass on, and their heirs go through the household, deciding what to keep and what to donate: 'The Höganäs pottery goes to Myrorna, but let's hang on to Mormor's cheese slicers.' ?!?

Stu has coveted the Viking cheese slicer since we saw them in the tourist shops in Gamla Stan, but we never managed to buy one. Not to mention they cost more like $30. His little horns would probably bend trying to get through a hunk of Vermont White Cheddar anyway.

So you have to buy them new. No biggie. I picked up a generic one up for a few dollars at a Öob. Nothing special. But it is the strangest phenomenon that with all the other kitchen crap you can find there, I have never spotted the elusive Swedish cheese slicer in a second-hand shop. Let's hope US Ikea has a source!

Jordgubbar

First Swedish strawberries of the season! (for us, anyway).

They call little kids (or friends when you are older) 'gumman' or 'gubban', which is little old woman or man. Jordgubbar translates to little ol' 'earthmen' or 'dirtmen', kind of. I think it's cute. 

Lök

I have a real appetite again, not one that is based solely on white foods like pasta, potatoes, and bread (aka, things that don't smell when you cook them.) And I am over most of my food aversions that plagued the first trimester. 

I do still have a problem with dried apricots and onions. We had pyttipanna the other day, and I spent a good chunk of dinner time picking out all the tiny little diced onion remnants--pyttipanna is basically just hash, so the dish is half onions! And the suggestion of 'vidalia' could get you punched in the mouth. 

A few weeks ago, I had to hide from myself the onions we had leftover in the cabinet...just looking at them made me feel sick. 

Yesterday, I found them again. Several had sprouted long green tendrils, like little alien life forms that were trying to bust through the bag of rice I had smooshed them behind. Whoops!
Think they are still edible? Not that *I* plan on eating them (and if Stu eats them, he might get punched in the mouth...onion breath is just as bad.) But technically edible? 

3am pancakes!

I woke up ridiculously early Sunday morning to find this in the kitchen:

Note the excess flour residue ALL OVER THE COUNTER. There was also a pile of his clothes in the middle of the living room floor. Ahhhh, drunk Stu.

WTF??  After the wedding Saturday, I went home exhausted, but Stu had energy and met his friends out for beers. I didn't even hear him come home, but it was apparently about 3am.

Which is also when he decided to pre-mix pancake batter for Sunday morning pancakes. At 3am.

I had had the weirdest craving for pancakes on Saturday afternoon and made him promise to make me some (he makes really good fluffy American pancakes!) And I guess at 3am, it made more sense to prepare the batter and not have me wake him up the next morning.

Which I did anyway, but I managed to wait until 10.

Really happy Me with pancake ears.

Business trip

It has been a while since we posted!  I have an excuse...I have been generally sick while also working on my thesis and planning my graduate exhibition (got an opening date now! May 21 at Moderna!)  Not very good excuses, but nonetheless.

But this week, Stu is going on his first business trip as an intern for this big Swedish-multi-national company, to the States! He'll be in Charlotte for meetings for several days (and I selfishly hope it has potential for a job there...NC is warmer than Sweden!) Then he is taking an extra day to hang out in NYC to catch up with a few friends. I'd be more jealous if he wasn't promising to bring me lots of presents back. And I *am* totally jealous...he's going to fill up on burgers and Carolina BBQ! Can't bring those back in a suitcase too easily. Nah, aside from a list of drugstore stuff, I'm hoping for some mac & cheese of all things, some American Easter candy, and maybe even an H&H bagel or two...

In the meantime, I'm on my own for a few days. I guess he thought I'd forget to eat or something while he was gone (because I'll be so distraught?!?) so he popped by the grocery store last night and bought about $100 worth of food for me for the week. Including my very own pint of Ben & Jerrys Baked Alaska. We often fight over a pint, and the thing gets eaten in one very short sitting. But now I don't have to fight with anyone over who gets those delicious little white chocolate polar bears. He's so sweet. 

A weekend above the Arctic Circle

We were more than 150 km above the arctic circle!  We spent several days in and around Kiruna, one of the very north-most towns in Sweden. We flew up and took an 18+ train ride back, and packed the time in between with cross-country skiing, alternately roasting and freezing in the sauna & ice-cold lake water, mushing dog sleds through the forests, being completely mesmerized by the golden green northern lights, eating reindeer in a Sami teepee and running through the Ice Hotel. As my Finnish friend said, we were doing the most touristy things, but they were *so* *much* *fun*! We had a great weekend. The weather was a perfect -5c and sunny.

I posted most of our pictures in the slide show below (minus the aurora borealis pictures...our camera is crappy in low light.)

We traveled with a group of my friends--five ladies and Stu. He was a good sport, especially when we were gossiping about how cute our dog-sled guide was (a bit like a Norse Brad Pitt.)
We stayed at the lovely Camp Alta in a giant, cozy cabin. We tried out cross-country skiing over a frozen lake, where others were ice fishing. I have never ever been on skis before. Once I got the hang of it, it was super! Especially with that insane Lapland wind blowing...you could really get up some speed without doing a thing. Except when it was time to go back, and we were skiing *into* the wind. I think my eyelashes froze.

The camp had a large sauna, and we made friends with another group who liked the room super wet and super hot. Everyone (except me, of course, 'cause I'm a wimp) jumped into the trapdoor in the sauna floor into the ice cold lake water below to cool off. They all loved it, but I would have either a) drowned b) bobbed out as a popsicle, or, most likely c) gotten sick.

Friday morning, we took a dog-sledding tour...38 km of beautiful Lapland countryside. We were 2 people per sled, hitched to 5 dogs. I don't really know what else to say about it, but I absolutely recommend doing this if you head up north, because it was amazing. The dogs were fun, the sights were great, the ride was exhilarating, the lunch was delicious, and the guide was cute (as afore mentioned.)

We spent an afternoon in Jukkasjärvi, running through the Ice Hotel (literally running...it was like a playground!) The rooms are really clever, beautiful works of art, though I basically affirmed that I don't need to *sleep* there. Which is fine, because at $400+ a night, I can't really afford to sleep there. I think the Ice Hotel deserves its own post, to come later...
But in Jukkasjärvi, we visited the Sami church and had reindeer sandwiches in the teepee. Which was a little weird, since the Sami Museum it was attached to is also a reindeer preserve. But we were fortified for the walk back to the Ice Hotel, walking on top of the huge frozen, solid Torne River, enough to get a few cocktails at the Ice Bar (You pay more for the glass made of solid ice, so they get cheaper the more cocktails you have, so we had to make the price worth it!)

And we had a great trip back on the night train from Kiruna to Stockholm. We had a short lay-over in the small town of Boden, which randomly had the best American-style diner and giant burgers and steak fries. To demonstrate just how "authentic" this place was, they actually asked how they wanted the meat cooked, which is something no other Swedish restaurant does when you order a burger (they just don't get it in this country.) Boden's Suzy Qs...such a boon! The rest of the trip, we watched movies and ate junk food and drank cheap wine-in-a-bag, and I feel a little grainy today because of it.

Off to the store

We're having people over for dinner and to watch Melodifestivalen tonight. What can we say, we've adapted? But accordingly, we're making food for more than our customary two, and had to conglomerate the ingredients with stops to Lidl, ICA, Coop. You know, good value-for-money, and to get us out of the house.

We were in a looooong line in a naaaaaaaaaarrow shop (befitting city living), and so checked out the other people in line. We couldn't help but notice the poor little girl screaming cutely at the top of her lungs. Yes, somehow it's cuter when it's in Swedish instead of our native tongue.

What I found remarkable was her father's response. He calmly walked her back to where she'd found the Pink Unobtainium and made her put it back. I really admired and respected what that took, and thought I'd award him my mental: Parent of the Day. He was like a Zen monk. And she quieted a little as he picked her up.

We had just been talking about parenting at a fika this week, and how sad it is that kids are drowned in presents every Christmas. And I get it, parents get sucked in to it. So this resistant father gets my Tip Of the Hat. My description doesn't give you the sense of the master bargaining skills this little girl was employing, "det är dåligt, snälla snälla snälla...ja vill ha..." but it was impressive. I am a sentimental sort, and I couldn't help but think that although she didn't know it, that little girl had everything she needs.

I guess it's un-Swedish to notice someone else's business in public, but having seen kids get smacked around in stores before, it's nice to see an example of the other side of the spectrum.

Collect 'em all

Yesterday  almost hit 0 degrees, so I went shopping. I bought a dress and tights and a pair of pants, and a completely unnecessary wooden Sweden.

I have a weakness for household items shaped like Sweden. Thankfully, Sagaform fills my weird needs...we own their big Sweden serving bowl (bought that sucker at a second-hand shop for 100:-!) and now, we own the cheeseboard.

I have my eye out for a deal on the Dala horse. I'd love to eat candy out of that guy! And the mini-Sweden serving dish would really just be to complete the set...I'm not sure what it's function would be if I already owned a cute candy dish Dala horse. I use the big one to serve meatballs, of course.

Sagaform Spring/Summer 2011 catalog

So Swedish

Just a quick one...my French friend Anabelle has been staying with us for the week (finding housing in this city is HARD!)  For my birthday this week, she bought me a small box of lovely French macarons. I love those things, they are just amazing. Light green pistachio is my favorite. But she didn't buy them in France before she left, she bought them here in Stockholm. Can you guess which flavor the black one is?

Mmmm hmmm, salty liquorice. Swedes think it is okay to make a salty liquorice flavored macaron. It's an abomination, if you ask me.
But I'll let you know how it tastes...I'm not usually one to let baked goods go to waste, even ones that could have been concocted by Bertie Bott's Every Flavour ;)

Yum

It's Princess Torta Day!

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...

turkey day

I'm supposed to be studying Swedish right now, but instead, I'm writing a blog post about how I am supposed to be studying Swedish. Useful, huh? (We are watching Ondskan, though, which I had to read for Swedish class, so that should count for something.)

I'm really just using this blog post to complain. We are both kinda bummed about Thanksgiving this year.

The holiday is tomorrow, but since we live in a country unfamiliar with pilgrims, indians, overeating and football played with helmets & pigskins, we don't get the day off.  We aren't going home to family in the States. Our friends in Stockholm are having a big ol' American-style Thanksgiving at 3. Our friends from back home are having a big ol' Thanksgiving get-together in Amsterdam this weekend. And we are missing out on all of it! I have to work at Moderna Museet from 9-5, and then run to the university to take a Swedish exam, from 6-9. Stu has his project taking up a full-time schedule now, too. So no turkey for us on Turkey Day this year.

I know I shouldn't complain too much...we had a really lovely Thanksgiving last year, somehow fitting 14 people in our small apartment *and* finding a giant turkey (no small feat here.) But  because we won't even really be celebrating Christmas this year, either (yes, I did just squeeze in another reference to our upcoming Egypt trip) we do wish we had gotten to plan a traditional Thanksgiving.

Anyway, Glad Tacksägelsedagen to everyone! Hope it's safe and happy!

Falukorv: another major Swedish landmark down

Tonight, we made falukorv for dinner.

This giant red curved odd hot dog thing is as Swedish as apple pie is American. I hadn't eaten it (unless you count its presence in pytt i panna) much less cooked it at home, but I thought since my dad is in town, it would be appropriate to try. You know, like we had to try all those other ridiculous Swedish foodstuffs like tunnbrödrullar, salty licorice, messmör and julmust.

It had kind of an interesting story. It is a protected food in the EU, much like Parma or Buffalo mozzarella, and you can't call it "Falukorv" unless it is made like it has been traditionally in the region surrounding Falun in the middle of Sweden. Something about being made with potato flour and a certain percentage of a certain kind of meat. Anyway, the sausage recipe comes from way back in the 1500s, when the copper mines near Falun was slaughtering large numbers of oxen for their hides, to make rope to pull the ore out of the deep mining pits. The meat from the animals was too much for the miners, so they smoked it and it became well-known. And today, its a staple of Swedish school lunches and family dinners.

It wasn't so bad! I quite like sausage (I tried vegetarianism for over a year once, but it was kielbasa I dreamed about and turned me omnivore again!) It isn't exactly like sausage, but like a fat ballpark hotdog. Which would make you think you should just boil it, or bake it, or slice it up and fry it, right? Sadly, I didn't realize that you don't eat the casing until halfway through cooking it, and it would have been far easier to peel that bastard before it was super hot. Oh well. It was a success, and my dad even ate the brussel sprouts I made with it.

Tunnbrödsrulle

Finally, only having lived in Stockholm for a YEAR, we had a tunnbrödsrulle. The equivalent of Jumbo Slice in Adams Morgan, ifyouknowwhatImean.  I was too scared to order my own hot-dog-mashed-potatoes-cole-slaw-shrimp-salad wrap, so this came with 2 very tiny forks. 

Yon made us do it. And at the same place Anthony Bourdain goes to in No Reservations, too!

He is so good

This one deserved its own post (as positive reinforcement.)  I called up Stu yesterday while at work and told him I wanted meat for dinner. Nothing specific, it just had to be red meat of some sort. I must need iron or something. I really wasn't expecting much, maybe frozen Swedish meatballs or the offer of taking me out to McDonalds for a "burger."
But he made a pot roast! And a GOOD one! All by himself (with a little guidance from a recipe and some wisdom from his mama.)

I just had to share that. I like it when he makes me dinner.

Peanut butter

There are a ton of things we miss from the US. Mostly food and people. You can get American stuff here, but it's often overpriced. I've seen oreos and Dr. Pepper, both which shocked me with how much they were charging. But the case is a little different with peanut butter here. You can get it. It's just not the same. It tastes wrong or is a strange consistency. And our friends in the US who have come to visit (or sent us care packages) have been awesomely supplying us with a steady stream of good ol' American brand peanut butter. 

And now, surprisingly, I think we're good.

We were brought two new giant containers of chunky peanut butter last week, so when I took stock by pulling out what I was hiding from myself at the back of the cabinet, I realized we had two other large unopened jars. So we have four giant jars of peanut butter...I know its a bit premature, but I think we have enough peanut butter to survive the next year. 

Surprisingly, everyone brings JIF. No other brands.

To be honest, I think it's the desk job saying I don't need any more peanut butter. Only 3 weeks into being office-bound for not even 30 hours a week and my clothes are already feeling a little tighter. Or maybe it's winter insulation, a little early? It does get cold in Stockholm! Either way, as of today, I've decided A) less peanut butter and godis and B) I must walk as often as possible to Moderna this fall. The latter is just under 30 minutes, and I get free entertainment, like the live opera wafting through Kungsträdgården this afternoon. The former might be more difficult..."less" godis will be tough to measure, and really, really, really hard to stick to. 

Matpumpa

 

We bought this little guy today. What do I do with it, besides enjoy it for its "fallness." Anybody ever made a pumpkin pie the old fashioned way (you know, without canned Libby's)? Is this the pumpkin to try it for the first time?

Sweet potatoes

Back in Stockholm, but a great time was had in Paris. I got a kick out of this tabloid headline in a French tobac:

Le Scandale! Is Victoria pregnant?

Unrelated, I have had the weirdest craving for sweet potatoes since getting back. Last night, I cooked four as part of dinner, then ate 3 of them. Three whole sweet potatoes. Tonight, I stopped by the store to replenish stock and they were out, so I bought butternut squash. It did the trick...I ate 2 helpings. What's wrong with me?!?

Köttbullar

I counted myself a little teensy bit more Swedish Monday night, after having successfully made homemade Swedish meatballs (köttbullar.) 

 Stu and I eat them fairly often, but I always buy the pre-made, pop-in-a-frying-pan kind. But Patrick was visiting from the States and we had invited new friends Carrie & Brendan over for dinner, so it seemed proper to make them from scratch (and Patrick insisted.) 

(Patrick mincing onions)

And they weren't just edible, they were really good! In my humble opinion, anyway. We conflated 3 different recipes, but Swedish meatballs are so idiot-proof, you don't even need a recipe. The basic idea is to mush ground meat (any animal you like, we even added chopped bacon,) bread crumbs, garlic/onion, salt/pepper, maybe an egg. Roll them into little balls and fry the suckers in butter, then serve with creamy gravy. With lingonberry sauce and potatoes, of course. 

(Why yes, I do serve my homemade meatballs in a dish shaped like Sweden!)

(An opportunity to use the wine-chilling thingamabob is an opportunity for Stu to take artsy pictures.)

  Why don't we do this more often? I think I should start a Sunday Night Köttbullar!

Sunday is bronchitis, yeast and numb arms

The blog post title makes it sound like a party, huh?  

Nope, not a lot of partying going on here. Stu has come down with what I have been battling for nearly a month (a month!) The diagnosis for me when we went to the doctor in Germany was bronchitis and I was sent home with an antibiotics prescription.  I must have had a virus and not a bacterial infection, because the pills did nothing. So I've just had to let it take its sweet time and run its course. And now Stu has gotten it! 


Yesterday it poured torrentially and we didn't leave the house. I have a feeling today is looking the same. 


Thank god, however, because I spent 9 hours with the kids I nanny for on Thursday (yes, that's right, 4 days ago) and my arms, my shoulders, my back and my neck *still* ache from all the pushing I did of heavy little children on the swings. The smallest fell asleep while I was carrying him the 8 block walk home from the park. Man, that kid felt like I was hoisting a ton of bricks. Seriously, who needs to work out when you have children to entertain?!?

(I thought it was cute while I could still feel my arms...)

But the other part of the blog post title is "yeast." I bought a bunch of fresh yeast the other day because it cost the equivalent of 7 cents and I felt like that was reason enough to bake something with it. But I never use fresh yeast, just the dry packets of insta-poof that you mix with sugar and warm water, so I didn't even know how much to use for anything. As you know, I have bad luck getting baked goods to rise in this country.  Do they even have fresh yeast in the States?  Seems like a dumb question...I'm sure it is available, but much like pre-made frozen piecrusts, there is always something faster & easier than the real thing.  

A little seems to go a long way. Ambitiously, I made a loaf of bread, pizza dough, and a batch of kanelbullar. All from one little block of pasty, nasty-smelling yeast. Stu and I instantly ate 2 cinnamon buns a piece, so they passed the test. We'll see about the bread and pizza dough. Our friend Patrick is staying with us for a few days, and he is a baking genius, so if it pleases *his* discerning tastes, then maybe I'll switch to fresh yeast?