So, despite the sun's best effort, there is still snow and ice on the ground and every step you take is a danger to your health (or at least, your pride) and I can't help but wishing I had my "Kick" here!
The Kick has been used since the 1800's to get to school, go to the grocery store and just for a lovely afternoon out on the snowy lakes. It is basically two long ice skates with a wooden chair or crate on top and you stand on one skate while kicking the ground in between the skates to speed up!
When it's this cold, the lakes freeze and it's so nice to just skate out to one of the archipelagos with some hot chocolate and sandwiches (really, such a great way to spend the day!)
And nowadays, there's a newer (and I'll admit, perhaps a bit more sturdy) version on the market!
One of the things that baffled me in the US was the grocery stores, and more specifically; the seemingly endless variety of one single product. Take cereal for exemple, I remember walking into a grocery store in Connecticut for the first time and actually had to take a picture of the cereal aisle! Rows and rows of different cereals when at home all we had was maybe five varieties.
Today I found myself in my local grocery store and realized, Sweden might still not have as many types of cereal as America, but just look at the chocolate aisle!!!
Dark chocolate varieties in everything from chili and ginger to sea salt and almonds
Milk chocolate, the plain is actually a favorite of mine (beats Hersey's by miles!) but these bars come filled with creamy nougat, raspberry yogurt or cookies and cream as well!
One of the best winter snacks has got to be fried apples! So easy to make and a great substitute for apple pie if you don't have the patience to bake one :)
Just fry the sliced apples until they're a little soft, add some cinnamon and serve with vanilla yogurt!
On the way to spend New Years Eve with my friend in Borås about an hour from Gothenburg I snapped these pictures to show a little bit of winter Sweden.
Well, this was a bit of a long christmas break for me, unintentionally I swear!
It really has been a wonderful christmas though, as usual the entire family gathers at my grandparents' home
and it's the same every year:
December 23rd, we stay up late into the night, fretting about putting the perfect little rhymes on all of the presents
My grandpa is putting the finshing touched on the gingerbread train,
And of course, we eat eat eat!!!
In Sweden we celebrate christmas on the 24th and since 25th and 26th are holidays as well, most people just simply take time off of work starting the 23rd through Jan 2nd to spend time with their family or go abroad :)
In the early morning hours of December 13, all over Sweden and the other Nordic countries, "Lucia" brings light in the darkness of winter. Each school and each city chooses a girl to represent Lucia, the lightbringer, and she is followed by a procession of maidens carrying candles and sometimes treats such as gingerbread cookies and lussekatter for the people.
When this tradition first started out back in the late 1600's, December 13th was believed to be the longest and most dangerous night of the year and many stayed up through the night with candles burning. In the morning, they knew the darkest part of the winter was over and with only 11 day left until Christmas, it was time to celebrate!
This is my favorite Swedish tradition, in school I always loved getting up early in the morning and dressing in the gown, making sure I knew all the songs and had the candle ready. It was such a magical feeling when the school is completely dark except for the procession lit up by candle light, moving through the hallways lined with people while singing songs that have been sung for hundreds of years.
A friend of mine recently pointed out that it seems a bit strange if you haven't grown up with it, and I suppose he has a point, but here, judge for yourself :)
Today is one of those days; the wind is howling, the rain is beating hard on the windows and the sky is just grey.
In short, perfect hot chocolate weather! For some reason, I almost never made hot chocolate in LA, I always bought it, but being back in Sweden it felt perfectly natural to turn on the stove and make a cup :)
To make traditional Swedish hot chocolate, you mix cocoa and sugar with a little bit of cream in a cup and pour hot milk over and it's so yummy!
Today I decided to walk home along the water, and it was such a good feeling!
Seeing all the lights on the mainland (for those of you that don't know,
I live on an island), and feeling the beginning of winter ice under my shoes made me smile.
The harbor, and "Castle Hill" on the bottom. Can you believe it's only 5pm though?
Ok, if you saw this man on the cover of a book, who would you say he is?
If I didn't know that face, I would think he was a serial killer and that the book was called something along the lines of "Portrait of Evil". It might also have something to do with him scaring the crap out of me when we did a scene together when I was 11 years old.
Today, he is one of Sweden's most well known actors turned professional chef, who has his own cooking show! Well, he's not exactly Paula Deen, is he? Jeez, lighten up Mr. Morberg...
This week is completely dedicated to baking and making candy :)
Over the weekend we made "Lussekatter", they are sweet saffron buns, tradionally eaten for Lucia and Christmas.
And today, I decided to give Peppermint Bark a try! I had never heard of this wonderful treat until I went to America, but now I got mhy whole family hooked on it after bringing tins of it home every winter :)
I had plenty of experience with American police in LA, not because I was a bakery worker by day and druglord by night, but because we lived next to what was referred to as "the crack motel", a place frequently visited by the police.
In the beginning, it surprised me how often the police would pull their guns (not to mention tazing people for practically nothing), but I got used to seeing interviews where the police would say that they "had to shoot the suspect and unfortunately he died" and it always reminds me of an interview I saw with a Swedish police officer.
The situation was this:
A man had threatened several people in a public square and this officer was trying to talk to him, telling him to put down the baseball bat he was holding.
Reporter - So, I understand this was the first time you felt forced to fire your gun
Police - Well, the man was moving toward a group of children and he just would not listen to what I was saying, so in the end...*sigh*...I shot him in the toe.
Reporter - And then what did he do?
Police - He fell to the ground and started to cry.
No street cred there!
But before you think that the Swedish police couldn't hang in the US, check this out
Yesterday, me and my mom spent hours in the kitchen baking hundreds of cinnamon buns! I've really missed my mom so it was great having a lazy day at home, just talking and baking, and of course: Eating the result :)
In the US, I was always concious of the fact that I had, shall we say, a "different" sense of humor. At times when I'd make certain comments there would be stunned faces and horrified gasps, but as my friends got used to it, they would simply shake their head and smile (I'd like to think it was a loving smile, but it could possibly also be a oh-christ-she-should-be-locked-up type of smile, but really, that's neither here nor there...)
So when I walked around town the other day and saw this sign,
I had to show you; It's a Swedish thing, not a Mim thing!
Today I saw that winterlight for the first time since I arrived. It's a hazy, peachy light that I've never seen in LA and it makes the view almost look surreal.
Yesterday I went for a stroll through Haga, one of the oldest part of the city, where most of the houses are from the early 1600's. It's so cozy just to walk around on the cobblestone roads and when looking up some of the empty streets, it is as if no time has passed.
Haga is also the place if you want to try the best cinnamon bun in the world!
Just don't try finishing one of those cinnamon buns on your own, the're the size of a dinner plate!
