A Place Like This......

2008 What a year !

It has been such an incredible year........from fulfilling my dream of going to Iceland, acquiring LearnSweden, writing Jump Into A Book, cooking, knitting, gardening,and sharing a million incredible memories with my family, this has been an abundant year.

                     

                    

                    

                                                

                      

                    

                              Great Wishes for a very happy 2009 !!

I Love Jars and my new found recipes!!!!

Aside from all the merriment, I've discovered the makings of some new and easy holiday food.

I woke up early on Dec 23rd....like really early, and couldn't get back to sleep. With my little kitten in my lap I sat on the floor thumbing through my cookbook collection.

My first great discovery of the day was that I found a recipe for creme fraich. Why is creme fraich important ? Well  we have Rebecca staying with us from Sweden. Creme fraich is used in so many Scandinavian and French recipes but not found in the foothills of Appalachia. It is so easy to make. all of this suffering for no reason.

                     

                                                     Creme Fraich

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream, preferably not ultra-pasteurized. The ultra-pasteurized does work as well but you will need to add more buttermilk.
• 3 tablespoons of cultured buttermilk. 5 tablespoons if using ultra-pasteurized creme.

1. Whisk the cream and buttermilk together in a medium bowl. Cover with a cotton tea towel and let stand in a warm spot (on top of the refrigerator or furnace) until the cream thickens, 8 to 12 hours, depending on temperature.
2. cover the creme fraich and refrigerate it for several hours to further thicken it.  It will keep in the refrigerator, tightly covered, for 1 week.

         

This was taken from 'Cooking At Home, On Rue Tatin' By Susan Herrmann Loomis. I had the pleasure of taking a cooking course with her while I was home in Portland and couple of Christmas's ago.

 

In Nigella Lawson's 'Feast, Food to Celebrate Life',I discovered Cranberry Jam.  It is so easy to do. Most jams are a labor intensive affair but not this one.  cranberries contain their own pectin so the jam sets once the cranberries have burst.  Yea!!! who knew ?

                                             Cranberry Jam

                         

• 4 cups of cranberries
• 1 3/4 cups of superfine sugar

1. Put a film 1/4' thick on the bottom of a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil turn heat down to medium.
2. Add cranberries and sugar.
3. Stir patiently over a low heat to dissolve the sugar, this will take a little while.
4. Turn up the heat and boil the pan rapidly until setting point is reach, approximately 7 minutes.
5. Pour the jam into a sterilized 1 1/2 cup jar and seal immediately.

                      

                     

  My third discovery of the day was that I could create my own pickle recipe. My family loves sour pickles instead of sweet. So I took this old Gotland recipe (gotland is an island in Sweden where my family comes from ), and made it sour.

                        

                                   Spiced Pickles

• 4 carrots
• 3 parsnips
• 1/2 a head of cauliflower
• 1 yellow onion

                                  Marinade

• 2 1/2 cups of water
• 1 cup of white wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons anise seed
• 1 tablespoon mild cinnamon
• 2 tsp sugar

1. Peel and slice the carrots and parsnips into 'coins'.
2. Separate the cauliflower into bouquets and cut the onion into wedges.
3. Place the carrots, parsnips, and onion into a saucepan covered with water, and add a generous amount of salt and pepper.
4. boil for 5 minutes and then add the cauliflower.
5. Let it cook until all the vegetables are soft. After vegetables are cooked strain from the cooking water.

                     

Marinade: Mix the ingredients for the marinade and bring them to a boil.  Pour the warm mixture over the vegetables, bring to a simmer and then let it cool. Place into a decorative jar.

                     

Recently I had been to IKEA and bought many glass jars. I found the occasion for them. My new found recipes. ~Enjoy !

                         

Happy Holidays

                    

I would like to wish all of you a very happy holiday season. Everything is ready and we are enjoying some wonderful family time. Today I've been listening to this wonderful song by Sarah Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson called Winter Songs. Here is a link to their music video of the song plus a video which highlights the making of the recording of Winter Song.

Enjoy your holiday moments and I'll be back in a couple of days~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUO0gd7cr9o

Watch this wonderful video as well

When Tomtes Party

    This was O-boys last holiday party at Fort Craig. We have been fortunate that all 3 of our children have gone to Fort Craig. A school where learning is experienced. We had a great time diving into the world of gnomes and tomtes for this very last party with these very wonderful friends.

              

Friends draw near. Come out ! Come out! Tomtes love to play games. Our first game was called,"One-der".  Each friend brought me one thing to place "der", which was a tray. After all of the items were collected they were given 30 seconds to look at the tray knowing that they must try and remember everything on it.  The tray was covered and quickly everyone started writing. The best memory in the group remembered 14 of 18 items.

                               

Hip-Hop-Hup

The game of Hip-Hop-Hup is a favorite of tomte/gnomes, and their neighbors.  Essentially a game of follow the leader, in Hip-Hop-Hup followers try to do exactly what the leader does, be it hopping, singing, eating or yodeling. When a duck is the leader, he might quack and flap four and a half times.  All other players try to repeat the action. The duck decides who produced the best copy and names that player leader for the next round.  Playing Hip-Hop-Hup with snakes poses special challenges, both for the snakes and for other players. The same goes for spiders and centipedes.

                              

            

Tomte/Gnome holiday tables buckle under fruit, fresh-baked breads,wishing cookies,and chocolate snowballs.Their vegetarian diet allows them to share all of their favorite treats with their forest friends. The holiday dinner begins with rich mushroom borth, followed by potato stew served with cheesy rolls.

           

Place a pepparkakor in the palm of your hand, make a wish, hit the center of the cookie. If it breaks into three pieces your wish will come true.

         

Our feast consisted of pepparkakor,chocolate snowballs, and Lussekatter (a saffron bread)

~A Holiday Wish

May this year be full of proud deeds and silly games, beautiful songs and hearty feasts, clever jokes, loving friends, and enough surprises to keep us on our toes.

        

Crazy Crayons

What can we give for a goodie bag at school ? The bigger question is what can we reuse to put into the holiday goodie bag at school. This left us with a morning of using our old crayons. It's easy to do and loads of fun after.

First unpeel the crayons

                               

Second cut them up into little pieces. Not shavings or chunks but pieces.

                             

                              

Next fill mini muffin tins or other shaped tins. No grease is required. Preheat oven to 170 degree F.

                              

                           

Place in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes until the crayons are melted. A few pieces maynot be melted and that's ok. Take out of oven, once melted and let cool completely. Crayons should just pop right out. If they don't put the crayons and tray in the freezer for about an hour and they pop out....no problems. ~Enjoy

                          

                          

                       

elfing

Many of you may know that I'm very proud of being Swedish American. So happy about it that I joined forces with my friends in Sweden to make an online language company called LearnSweden. You can learn more about us here www.learnsweden.com but in the meantime have a look at us goofing around. This is me, my business partner Per Svangren and his daughter, my assistant Rebecca. Enjoy and why not make and elf of you and yours?

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

a very special time.........

So I have been very deliquent in posting on the blog. Where have I been ? Having a great time with my family. Last week the Maryville High School orchestra and choir gave a stunning performance during their holiday concert. I hope you enjoy the photos. I hope to have a soundtrack up soon for you to listen to. Enjoy ~ ....And Bravo kids!!!!!

        

       

                      

                         

                         

                         

            

                             

Mimi's in the Kitchen

There is much anticipation for Thanksgiving at my house. It is one of our favorite holidays. As a mom, one of my favorite things is watching my children love and embrace our traditions. I was extremely busy this Thanksgiving and announced that I didn't have time to make the spinach pies. This is my daughter Mimi's favorite food on the Thanksgiving table. Every year she would sit and watch me make every single pie with my friend Ruth. This year Ruth was out of town on the High School band trip to Philadelphia, which left me two hands helpless. Miriam stepped in and did the job. A great job I might add. So this year I sat and watched Mimi make the pies. I just caught it all from behind the camera. I did also mix the bread dough and the spinach mix. It's putting it all together that takes the time. We spent a wonderfu evening. Thanks Mimi....we all loved your pies.