Happy Waffle Day!

We love waffles!

Happy Waffle Day everyone!  This is one of these silly traditions you've gotta love - March 25th is "Waffle Day" in Sweden simply because they lazily began to mispronounce "Vårfrudagen" ('Lady Day' or 'The Feast of the Annunciation of Our Most Holy Lady', yeah, that's a mouthful) with "Våffeldagen" or waffle day!  And that's a nice mouthful too.  Yum, nice crispy waffles with whipped cream and berries.  Delish!  They are so good, and easy to make.  My mother used to make these for the kids once a week in Sweden and now I am trying to pick up the slack. Here's a nice site I found for Swedish food.  Check out, Swedish waffles recipe!

This recipe is best to use with a traditional heart-shaped or Belgian waffle iron but they give a substitution if you don't have one - like me.  Here's an idea of what real Swedish waffles look like: 

And a look at a typical Swedish waffle iron below.  Even if you have to buy store bought today is a good excuse to eat waffles for breakfast or dinner.  Mums!

- Info on Våffledagen from Nordstjernan.

a Swedish daydream

join me....

the front door is open

have a bite to eat,

a stroll outside...

now fika

and off to bed.  Sov gott!

Welcome to Sweden

So, this Swedish series called "Welcome to Sweden" starts on Friday, and I am both happy and a little nervous.  Greg Poehler, Amy Poehler's brother, is bound to be funny and entertaining but I'm nervous he'll lampoon Swedes a little too much or share one of my personal "smultronställen" (favorite special spots).  He actually did leave the states for his girlfriend and headed for Sweden where he was immediately welcomed into a Swedish crayfish party, made to sing "Helan går" and sit naked in the sauna.  So he thought it would make a funny movie and there are quite a few famous actors in the series including Will Ferrell (himself married to a Swede), Amy Poehler, Gene Simmons of Kiss, Patrick Duffy (who played Bobby Ewing in Dallas) and Lena Olin.  Hope that TV4 will allow us to see it in the States!

Hello Kiddo

by stylist Charlotte Love for Goodhomes

So many beautiful children's rooms with life and fun come from Scandinavia.  Today I was drolling over this one which is light and fresh - just what I need this bleak, seemingly never ending winters day.  I was scrolling through Hus och Hem's blog "Hello Kiddo" and also found this beaut by Ferm Living.  Just fun little knobs to brighten your day, and not too hard for the handy.

Check out this fun wallpaper "Into the Wild" (found at Monument Interiors).  They have so many great looks for kids rooms in Sweden.  If you like wallpaper check out this link, Kids wallpapers at Scandinavian Design Center, they import them.

So expensive, but look at these lovelies for children's rooms from famous Scandinavian brands like Ferm Living, Sandberg Tyg & Tapet, ISAK and others.  Wishing you a magical day full of owls, colorful clouds and forests and...

Owls

TinyTrain

Claudia with matching border

... from Hus och Hem again, a little spot for your dreaming and reading.  Wanna curl up there? I do!

The Swedish Chef is Back!

Only one way to settle this... food truck fight!  Gordon Ramsay vs. Swedish Chef with his Swedish meat balls of course.  Tee, hee. But for a good meat ball recipe check out my favorite Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson's recipe here: Marcus-Samuelsson-Swedish-Meatballs.  They really are delicious!

ingredients

SWEDISH MEATBALLS

• For the Meatballs:
• 1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium red onion (finely chopped)
• 1/2 pound ground chuck or sirloin
• 1/2 pound ground veal
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 large egg
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 unsalted butter
• For the Sauce:
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup lingonberry preserves
• 2 tablespoons juice from Quick Pickled Cucumbers
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• For Serving:
• Garlic mashed potatoes (get the recipe here)
• Lingonberry preserves
• Quick Pickled Cucumbers

Melodifestival and more

Hej! This was my weekend -- sleeping, lounging, eating, laughing... ahh... heaven. I think it was the first time in maybe 10 years that I slept in and then read in bed for a couple of hours. The kids just played, ate bagels and did stuff with daddy. Isn't that amazing? I thought so. I holed up with "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert (you know that book that everyone else read eons ago) and polished it off by Sunday night. I loved it, but being a bit of a book snob I didn't read it when it was all the rave. Just goes to show I'm not so different from anyone else. So now that we are being totally honest some other "low brow" entertainment I must profess to liking is "Melodifestival", the schlacky singing competition held in Sweden and other European countries every March.  See my blog post about last year, 2013

It leads up to our choosing a song  for the Eurovision Song Contest to be held this year in Copenhagen in May. This year's Swedish winner is the beautiful and talented ....Sanna Nielsen with "Undo"! Here's the song.  It's a sweet ballad with a nice little hook, sounds kind of tame and sweet to me. And some more info here, sanna_nielsen_wins_melodifestivalen. But I have to say that in my opinion Alcazar's "Blame it on the Disco" would have gotten my vote!  It's got everything that a winner should have -- glittery tight costumes, a good beat with strong ABBA influence, and bad dance moves.

Actually the really fun thing about Melodifestival are the parties in Sweden where you watch the show, gossip about the contestants, vote and diss other people's favs.  So party on Swedes!  Eurovision style in May. 

VASA Order of America

“ Man must be arched and buttressed from within, else the temple will crumble to dust. ”

— Marcus Aurelius Antoninius

Hello everyone, hope you are enjoying the weekend.  No idea what this quote really means but I think he was trying to say you have to have fun too.  (Either that or colonics.) Who knows, but I'm going to have with the first interpretation.  In the spirit of "living la vida lagom" (lagom means just right in Swedish) I decided to go back to work, and pull my own yoke for a while in addition to being mom, artist and all that.  That meant the difficult decision of blogging less and putting my art and some other fun projects aside for a while.  I hope you understand, part-time marketing projects don't exactly grow on trees but I'm still going to find time to bring the Swedish culture to light, blog and have fun doing it!  So to that end I joined the "Birka Lodge" which is part of the ...

Sounds pretty fancy huh?  Well it is, and it isn't.  Let's just say it has high origins - the King and Queen of Sweden are members - but it our neck of the woods it is pretty down to earth, and a way for me and the kids to stay connected to the Swedish culture and others who are interested in Scandinavia.  At least that's why I joined for not realizing that there would be a whole "induction ceremony" with ceremonial candlesticks, music, procession, food etc.  Urk!  Not really my cup of tea.  I think I smirked my way through the whole thing from the hiding in the antechamber to the procession and the Grand Pooh-Bah asking us to take our vows. Honestly I am not opposed at all to this kind of thing, I just never thought I'd be a member of one of these groups.  I felt like Fred Flintstone with his hat heading off the the lodge.  Sorry Birka gang! You all are very nice and I look forward to our get-togethers.  Anybody else want to join?  Check out  http://birka732.com/about.html  It's a great group and we're going to have fun.  I hope.