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By Per Svangren
Now Stockholm is dark and grey. No snow and the weather is more like spring than winter. It is dark when you wake up, when you go to work, and when you go home from work. We are all longing for the first of advent to arrive, when all the windows will be lit up with candles, stars and all sorts of lights. So in our darkness we have a little light.
Yesterday was the 4th Thursday in November. Maybe this doesn't mean anything to you but if you live in the States in means everything. It is Thanksgiving Day,better known in our house as the opening of feast season. Though there are traditional dishes such as Turkey on Thanksgiving, we have found ourselves making our holiday favorites from a variety of countries.
My husband is Lebanese and so we needed grape leaves,spinach pies, and Tabbouli. My family is Swedish and so we needed rolls cardamom, and plenty of desserts plus really strong coffee with cream. Before dessert though there was the making of beet salad which has now become a Thanksgiving favorite. It will show itself again during the Jul and New Year season.
Oh and let's not forget our Aunt Ruthie who makes a pie person. We eat pie for days afterwards!!!
Last year we had the Svangrens with us. We greatly missed them this year !!!!!!
After all of this food there is only one place for us and that is the sofa. For the rest of the weekend I will be horizontal after cooking for the last three days. Have a great weekend !
Did you blink? If you have you might have just missed it. What's that you ask?
Stockholm has a new record and that would be that it has only seen the sun 4 hours for the entire month of November. That was until last saturday when the sun reared it's sunny head to give Stockholm more hours of sunlight in an entire day than it had seen in the whole month of November.
I hope everyone enjoyed their few hours of needed sunshine. When it's dreary.....I suggest heading over to cinema Victoria in Söder and watching Coco before Chanel. Truly poignant and beautiful.
The Swedish football (soccer) season is over and will have a break until spring. During that time we will enjoy ice hockey and bandy. This football season has been fantastic for me as my favourite team AIK (stands for Allmänna Idrotts Klubben) won a double. That means they won both the series and the cup.
Both the cup final and the last match in the series was against Gothenburgh. 2-0 in the cup final and 2-1 in the last match in the serie.
So we (we who love AIK) has celebrated for the last couple of weeks now.
by Per Svangren
You don´t have to travel far in France to reach a wine district and when there ,you will find a lot of different wine producers. And then it is just to stop, get in and taste and discuss. Often you will leave with some bottles.
We tasted wine in Champagne, Chablis, Chateaux-Neuf-du-Pape, Bourgone, Provence and Alsace. There was a lot of fine and lovely wine found and the car was very full when we arrived home to Stockholm. So now the celler is quite full with a lot of different types of wine, red, white, rosé and sparkling. To drink now or to save for later consumtion.
by Per Svangren
When we were in a small beautiful town in Alsace, enjoying a moment at a street side cafe,all of a sudden there was a big fat pig passing our table. A man was walking his pig around, just as if he was a dog. People were stopping and watching and taking photos. And so was I, so I share the pig pictures with you now.
By Per Svangren
French food, maybe that is enough. I love French cuisine and during our travels down and home we visited a lot of good restaurants which we found in the Michelin Guide, from one star up to three stars. I will have you know that those visits are more than just eating. It is a show for the ears,eyes, and mouth.
Cheese, bread, pasteries, mussles, duck liver, oysters, The list can be long, so I'll just wet your appetite with some photos.
By Per Svangren
In La Londe ,just a few kilometers from the sea we found a lovely house, owned by a Swedish family. It has three bedrooms, a large kitchen and living room, and a marvellous view over the surroundings and the Mediterrian sea. It was my wife and I, our three children, and two of their boy/girlfriends.
The days started with a big French breakfast with new baked baguette, camember cheese, vegatables, eggs, marmelade, yogurt, juice and coffee. Eaten outside in the sun. We did have sun all seven days and a temperature just over 20 C.
Then we went away to the beach, for tourist attractions, for wine testings, shopping or whatever was on the program. A French three course lunch at 12 and then more activites. Back to house for dinner and relaxing. We are all very fond of cooking and eating good food and with an excellent chef in the family, we had wonderful dinners with wine from a vineyard we had visited during the day.
By Per Svangren
Not so common in Sweden are markets anymore. From time to time you can see markets here, but in France they are very common. Every week on Saturdays there is a market in La Londe, were we stayed. From early morning until mid day you can buy, olives, chicken, meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, cheese, clothes, records, candles, honey, glasses and so on. The market was very crowded and the lines were very long in front of the most popular sellers.
We spent a few hours at the market and bought olive oil, olives, fresh figs, cheese, bread and some wine. The fresh warm and newly picked figs tasted wonderful and were soon finished. After a small cup of coffee, we brought all our things back and had a wonderful lunch.
