LearnSweden Blog

Glad Första Advent

Hejsan everyone. Sunday saw the first of advent come which means the holiday spirit is upon us. At the top of each window we've placed a wooden starlight.

 

Along with illuminating the house, we have started baking in earnest , getting ready for all of the family and friends who will stop by. In two weeks it will be St. Lucia and we are expecting many this year. So, it's time to make our favorite saffron buns, lussekatter, in great supply. More on that later.

 

At this darkest time of year we are always looking for light. Today, I leave you with an excerpt of a beautiful advent poem by Nancy Foster which she wrote for her advent garden.

Deep Mid-winter drawing near,

Darkness in our Garden here ----

One small flame yet bravely burns

To show a path which ever turns.

 
 

Earth, please bear us as we go,

Seeking Light to send-a-glow,

Branches green and moss and fern,

Mark our path to trace each turn.

 

Snowland=Snowcream

 Photos by Per and recipe by Valarie

 

 

 

 

It's time to make ice cream out of snow. I know that many may think this is unsanitary but truth of the matter is that Sweden has so many pristine places that if you are going to make snow cream anywhere, Sweden would be one of the places to do so. It takes a couple of hours of snow fall to clean the air of pollutants, after this you have good clean snow.Honestly, if you have snow why not give it a try. Kids love to make this and honestly, it tastes so good.

Snow Cream

Basic Recipe

1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
scant 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
large bowl of snow (about 3 quarts)

Blend milk, sugar and vanilla. Stir in enough snow to make snow cream to an ice cream consistency.

 

You can substitue the milk with condensed milk. Some welcome additions are that of cocoa, almonds, cinnamon, chocolate sauce and anything else you love to eat with ice cream. Enjoy!

 

Wanderings on a Rainy Afternoon

It really had a been a very rainy day.

 
 

We had tried to do the laundry and then we did it again via the storm.

 

We didn't really want to spend a day in the house. So there was only one option and that was to get in the car and head South. We knew we were heading towards När but we wanted to stop somewhere before we got to my aunt's house but where? 
Not really sure where we were headed we just kept winding down a variety of roads until we found ourselves at Jan Sandblom's keramik in Burs Flora, Gotland.

 

 
As the rumbling of thunder was heard over head, we entered a designer's studio just filled with works in progress. Upstairs was the most wonderful shop and gallery.

 

 

 
As boy waited for his mother, he had a little fun with candle play. Why is it that children love to try and blow out the candles or try not to blow out the candles in this case?

 
 Each piece is either hand turned or crafted in a mold. On our way out we saw a huge stack of items ready for the wood-fired kiln.

 
This is such a fabulous place which is open everyday in the summer. The drive is beautiful and there are some nice little places to stop and fika as well. You can find the Jan Sandblom keramik in the direction of Burs on route 144. It sits between Hemsa and Stånga.

 Today's Swedish words:

Rainy: regnig    phrase: en regnig sommar- a rainy summer

Laundry: tvätt   Laundromat: tvättstuga

Storm: oväder, storm

House: bostad, hem, hus

winding: buktig

road,route: väg

potter : keramiker

place one makes pottery: krukmakare or keramik

mold: forma

fika: to take a break and have coffee and some sweets.

Martin Goose/ Mårtin Gås

The harvest has been put away and the days of darkness have arrived. We light our handmade lanterns and slowly walk around the garden. Although it is dark outside our lanterns remind us to bring the light and warmth inside during the darkest time of the year.

 

The sunlight fast is dwindling,

My little lamp needs kindling.

Its beam shines far in darkest night,

Dear Lantern, guard me with your light
~ from Autumn, Wynstones Press

Martin Goose is celebrated in Sweden. Though all of Sweden remembers this celebration, it is truly a celebration in Southern Sweden in the province of Skåne. Who is this Martin we are feasting ourselves over?

The Martin we are celebrating is the Bishop Martin of Tour,who before he became bishop was a heathen in the year 300 A.D.  Many countries in Europe as well as the Waldorf School tradition celebrate this holiday as Martimas.

 

The reason we associate geese with Martin is that when the church was trying to elect him as a Bishop he ran away and hid in a goose pen. The startled geese started honking and gave away his where abouts. Martin was so angry that he had all of the geese slaughtered. He couldn't let all of these good geese go to waste, so he held a feast and they ate them. Martin did become Bishop and the patron saint of Tours. 

In southern Sweden they celebrate by cooking a goose and eating the very famous black soup.

Because I was raised by a Swedish family living in the United States, Martin Goose was celebrated with a favorite dessert. It didn't make sense to have two large fowl meals within two weeks, Martin Goose and Thanksgiving,  so we were treated with stuffed apples after our lantern tour.

Stuffed Apples

 

• 6 firm apples
• 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 2 tbsp butter
• lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degree F
2. Peel and scoop out the core of the apples. Be sure to soak the apples in cold water with a tbsp or so of lemon juice. This prevents them from turning brown.
3.       Mix together the chopped nuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
4. Melt the butter and add to the nut mixture, stirring well.
5. Drain the apples of water and stuff with the nut mixture.
6. Place in a well greased or pam oven dish.
7. Place in the oven for 1 hour. At the half hour mark, cover the dish with tin foil and bake for a half hour more.

This taste so great with whipped cream on top as well. Enjoy!!

Many Points of Light

The weather has turned cold and we are quickly finishing up the outdoor work of Autumn. The first saturday in November signifies the end of the Autumn period and the beginning of Winter and for some the beginning of the Alpine Ski season.

 It is also a day where we recognize the family members that have passed on by cleaning their graves and leaving a lit white candle or lantern. The entire cemetery glimmers with light and the beautiful colors and fragrance of heather wafts in the air.

 
All Saints Day phot by KurtQ/flickr

Last summer I was explaining this tradition to my youngest son "O" . While we were in När, I took  him to the cemetery to wash the graves of his ancestors. He was completely thrilled to find his great great grandparents as well as many other family members.

 

 

 
All clean.

När Parish church was built in the 12th century so it didn't surprise me when "O" asked,"so what happened to all of the other tombstones?" If one goes down the road a little bit away from the church there are three buildings which hold past tombstones of the church. On the island of Gotland there are 92 gothic cathedrals. Many of them built in the 12th century. It's so amazing to see their spires standing in the distance as you drive along the countryside.

Swedish Words:

Alla helgons Dag : All Saints Day

Kyrkogård: cemetary or graveyard.

Tvätta: to wash

Gravsten: gravestone

 

 

 

Pumpkin Vegetable Soup

 

Yesterday found me outside placing many leaves in beds before the rains came. I almost got done, but the rain started sooner than I had hoped. Along with the rain the weather turned cold and so the day called for not only a cup of tea, a fire in the fireplace, but a bowl of hot soup to warm my belly.

 

 

It's time for a great harvest soup with pumpkin, ....don't you think? Here's one of my favorites.Rebecca, this one's for you. Rebecca stayed with us a couple of years ago and this was one of her favorite soups too. Know that you can substitute the chicken stock with vegetable stock for a complete vegetarian meal.

 

 

 Don't forget to have a look at the end of the post for today's Swedish words.

Pumpkin Vegetable Soup

 

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 2 tbsp of butter
• 1 onion
• 2 to 3 garlic cloves
• 2 carrots peeled and chopped
• 1 celery stick peeled and chopped
• 4 cups of chicken broth
• 1 container of mushrooms
• 1 large leek or two small ones
• 3 cups of pumpkin puree fresh or canned
• 16 oz of half and half
• ½ teaspoon of red pepper flakes
• 1 ½ salt
• 1 tsp of pepper
• 1 tsp of lemon juice
• 1 to 2 tsp of chopped thyme

 

Preparation:

1. In a large stockpot, melt 1 tbsp of olive oil and butter over medium heat.
2. Once melted, add the onion, garlic, carrots, and celery, and cook for about 10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
3. Add 2 cups of chicken broth and let simmer for about 3 to 5 minutes.
4. Remove the stockpot from the heat and let cool for 15 minutes.
5. Pour the broth mixture into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Set this aside.
6. In the stockpot you were just using, melt the remaining olive oil and butter.
7. Add the mushrooms and leeks, cooking them for about 6 minutes or until the mushrooms start to brown.
8. Mix the puree, pumpkin, remaining broth, half and half, pepper, red pepper flakes. Let simmer for 15 minutes.
9. Stir in the lemon juice, salt and thyme and let simmer for another 10 minutes.

Today's Swedish Words:

To rake up: rive upp

Leaves: Löv

Autumn: Höst

Pumpkin soup: pumpa soppa

vegetable: grönsak ;lural grönsaker.

Rain: regn. Det har regnat hela hösten. It's been raining the whole autumn.

butter: smör

onion: Lök

garlic: vitlök

Carrots: Morot plural morötter

celery: Selleri

Chicken broth: kycklings buljong 

 Mushrooms: Svamp, plural svampar, Plocka svamp to pick mushrooms. verb.

Leeks: pujolök

Salt: Salt, verb rimma ( to salt lightly)

Lemon juice: citron juice

Thyme: timjan

A New Import to Sweden

It's not a car,....or a cell phone but the famous vegetable of October, the pumpkin, known as pumpa in Swedish.

All over Sweden you can find stands with pumpkins and other members of the squash family, ready to be carved just like in the US.

 

We made a visit to the pumpkin patch ourselves. My children usually want to get many many pumkins, with the idea of making jack-o-lanterns which we can line up and down the stairs and driveway. Due to the very labor intensive activity of carving a pumpkin we just get one pumpkin for each kid. I must confess though, that I get a few extra pie pumpkins to can pumpkin pie filling for the November season.

So here's how you carve a pumpkin.

 

With a very sharp knife, cut off the top of the pumpkin. Put it aside for later because this will be your lid.

Here's the close up on that.

 

Next scoop out all of the gunk in the middle of the pumpkin. Put everything is a bowl because there are great pumpkin seeds mixed in with this gunk which are great for roasting. (More on that another day.)

 
Of course pumpkin carving always works a lot better when the family cat is checking up on things and helping out.

 

After the gunk is out of the pumpkin, draw a face or whatever image you want on the front of your pumpkin. With the same sharp knife cut it out. Here's a look at our afternoon's work.

 

Don't forget the giveaway over at A Place Like This. It ends today at 6 pm EST. Enjoy. Back on Thursday.

Today's Words:

Pumpa: Pumpkin

Pumpor: Pumpkins

Skär: To carve with a knife.

Vi skära pumporna: We carve the pumpkins.

Giveaway

I wanted to let everyone know that I'm having a giveaway on my other blog "A Place Like This." It's my anniversary and you can find out more about it right here. Giveaway ends tomorrow so be sure you get your entry in.