Christmas impressions 2009

We went to Oskarshamn to celebrate Christmas with Matts' family. We arrived to a snow white and cold town, but on Christmas day it started to rain and everything was just wet wet wet. But then, the temperature crept below freezing once more and we had a thin layer of snow so it was once more beautiful (and really slippery).

Here are some pictures. First, the Christmas tree and some of the gifts. In Sweden, the tradition is that the gifts are placed under the tree and opened on Christmas eve, sometime between the big Christmas dinner, Donald Duck on TV and the dessert.

Matts and his niece were so happy it finally was Christmas eve...

This is the Christmas candy that Matts and I made a few days before Christmas. Yummy! On Christmas eve, Santa came by with some additional gifts.

Matts and I took a walk in Oskarshamn and this is the town seen from one side of the harbor. Oskarshamn is situated right by the sea and from here you can take the ferry to Gotland, the biggest island in Sweden.

4th Advent fika

Soft gingerbread cake, syltbollar and lussekatter. And to that, of course Julmust, the no 1 Christmas soda in Sweden.

Before X-mas

This is how big I am today. The question is how my size will be affected by all the good Christmas foods I will eat next week... And I have to admit that I already started... Yesterday, I ate a quarter of a big chocolate box, Paradis, all by myself. It was gooood. :-)

Paradis is one of two chocolate boxes that are sold in tremendous amounts here in Sweden, especially around this time of the year. The other one is Aladdin. Paradis contains only milk chocolate while Aladdin has mostly darker pralins. The box I started on yesterday was a gift from our local grocery store but I am almost 100% sure that we will get another one as a Christmas gift next week...

Christmas time

Now it's only a few days left to Christmas. Matts is on his way home from his last workday for a couple of weeks and then we will head to the mall for dinner and gift shopping. It is hopefully not too hectic this time on a Friday, so it should be ok. Here at home it's very cozy now anyway. We have our holiday decorations up and it really makes a difference now when it is so dark outside (but we do have some snow that lightens up).

In the living room the Angel Chimes reminds me of our first December in Switzerland. At this time I didn't have a set of my own and was struck by surprise to find one at some Swiss friends place. It was so beautiful and reminded med so much of Sweden that I burst into tears! I realized that I just had to get my own set. :-) In the window in the background we have the Advent star. They come in many different sizes and models and are very common here in Sweden. The small Christmas tree isn't decorated yet - and might not be this year - but spreads a nice light in the hallway.

For the first time ever, we have a dining table big enough to use the beautifully embroidered table cloth that we got from my mother-in-law several years ago. It is of course embroidered by herself and it adds a lot to the Christmas feeling in our kitchen. Now we just have to be careful not to spill on it while eating. :-) But things like this are made to be used and not stuffed away in a box and stains are part of life...

The Advent candlestick in the window is almost a must in every Swedish home and this time of the year it is so nice to see them in the windows of every single building. We have two, one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom, but some people have many more (or only one).

Compared to Switzerland, Swedes generally have more lamps in the windows. In Switzerland, the windows are dark and often covered by curtains and I missed the cheerful window lamps that make people's homes look cozy from the outside while living there. We couldn't even find the kind of lamps that we wanted to have in Switzerland when we were about to decorate our place there! Different countries and different cultures.

Tip: to see more details on the pictures, simply click on them.

I know

... that nothing much has happened on this blog lately. I have been extremely busy (to be me) and then, of course, very tired in between. :-)

My mother has been visiting. She baked lussekatter and pitepågar since I really haven't had time to make things like that lately. And lussekatter is a must for December 13, when we celebrate the Lucia day here in Sweden. Thank you so much, mum! She also cleaned some of our windows, something I just didn't seem to get down to.

Then my friend Andrea came for a short visit and we had a great day together. We went downtown, had a fika (of course) and just strolled around in Lund. Very nice!

And then I have worked, of course. I now have two part-time jobs, one that's about 10 hrs every week and one that's 15 hrs every week. Far from full time, but more than enough for me, at least right now. :-) But now I only have two more days to work before the holidays so I am happy!

A day "off"

Last Saturday it was time for another walk here in Skåne. We planned on going, but as the weekend approached we realized that what we really needed was a day at home, doing whatever we felt like. So we stayed home. Instead of walking in the nature (it was a lovely day so I am sure it had been great as well) we slept in, had a long nice breakfast, finally got down to put our pictures and stuff on the walls, took a walk downtown to check out a few things - including a nice fika at a café with very nice stuff - as well as going by the library to borrow a couple of movies. Then we just relaxed at home. Sweet.

On Sunday, 1st of Advent, I went to church to sing in the Advent choir. It was really fun to sing in a choir again - it's been more than two years since last time now. Then Matts and I took a walk through town since there are markets and stuff going on all over the place (pretty much all over Sweden) on this particular Sunday. We bought some burned almonds and had yet another fika on a very classical confectionery before heading back home again.

Now it's Wednesday and I have a day off from work. Lovely. What's not so lovely is that I have like a ton of things to do at home and if I don't start soon I'll never finish. So now it's time to start cleaning, making a menu for the week to come and go grocery shopping til I drop. :-) I really should go to the gym as well, but I am too tired and have a small cold going on, so I probably won't (even if my back says I really should). But cleaning and shopping is exercise as well, isn't it?

Bigger and bigger

Now it's really hard for me to hide my belly. It's not giant yet (even though Matts keeps saying it is and laughs at it) but I really cannot wear my regular pants anymore now. Since it is hard to find nice pants in the right size in the stores here in Lund I am trying to find stuff online right now. There are a bunch of Swedish online stores with pregnancy clothes, and hopefully I'll have another pair of jeans by the end of the week.

So far I have got two predictions - from strangers - about the sex of the baby. In Munich, the lady working in the Greek restaurant said that it's a girl based on my face. My dentist on the other hand, said that my pointy belly indicates that it's a boy. Matts has decided it's a boy, but I'd like it to be a girl. Most of all we want a healthy child and in the end it really doesn't matter if it's a boy or a girl - we'll love whoever it is anyway.

A weekend in Munich

Last weekend we went to Munich. It was my birthday gift to Matts and we had some great day in south Germany. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny, and so was the company. We had lots of beer (that was Matts) and Shorle (for me), ate both typical German food (sauerkraut and schnitzel) as well as Greek stuff.

We explored the city by night and day and did lots and lots of walking. On the Friday we visited the Frauenkirche and walked past many other beautiful buildings. After a great hotel breakfast on Saturday we took a walk in the English Gardens where we also had lunch - outside by a lake in November!!!

Munich by night and day.
Frida and Lars discussing birds in Englisher Garten.

On the way from the park we walked past the Angel of freedom that looked really pretty in the sun. Then we headed for the German national museum of Science and Technology (Deutsches Museum), a very interesting museum with too much to explore for just a couple of hours...

The Sunday was devoted for the BMW museum and BMW world and then it was time for us to board our flight back to Copenhagen airport, tired but satisfied after a great time in Germany.

Not only airspeed

A small correction: it's not the airspeed itself that make my eye shadows wander around on my eyelids, but the tearing it causes. The stuff I use is good stuff, not bad make up that a little wind can displace just like that. :-)

Make up and glasses

Last week my glasses broke. It's really about time for me to get a new pair, but I'll wait until spring because pregnancy can temporarily change the eyesight. While waiting for my glasses to return from the optician I had to use my contact lenses. Since I have a lot of astigmatism and the contacts don't correct for that I spent a few days trying to read as little as possible (the letters were really indistinct) and all in all it went well. I did discover something new though: Putting on make up and then taking a bike ride did not result in my eye shadows being all displaces due to the airspeed as they usually are (especially here where it's so windy). And then, when I got my glasses back the problem came back. I guess my glasses just aren't aerodynamically compatible with make up... Today, however, it was a pretty calm day and my make up stayed put all the way to the school where I now work and back home again. I guess I just have to hope for less wind in the future. Good luck with that living in one of the windiest parts of Sweden...

Yet another walk in Skåne

Last Saturday it was time for a walk again. This time we went to Tomelilla for a nice hike on the countryside. We woke up to a gray sky, but during the day the sun came through more and more and when we came back to Lund in the afternoon the sky was clear blue - for the first time in more than a week. (Unfortunately the sky didn't stay blue and it has rained every day since Saturday.) The walk took us through small forests and over open fields. And, of course, past some sheep...



Saturday also was Matts 30th birthday and after relaxing a bit at home we went out for dinner. This time we tried an Austria inspired restaurant here in Lund, Rauhrackel. We both liked it and both realized that we probably liked it that much because of our two years in Switzerland. :-) Matts, of course, loved their beer selection that in contrast to many Swedish restaurants actually had several interesting brews on their menu. It was a nice ending on a nice day.

Weekend trip to Oskarshamn

This weekend, Matts and I rented a car to go to Oskarshamn. Matts and his grandfather both have birthdays within a week and yesterday it was time to celebrate them both with a delicious dinner. The whole family was there and it was a very nice afternoon. I put on my new dress for the first time and showed off my growing belly for anyone interested - and it sure grew after eating all that good fish and fruit and the homemade cakes...

Surprise in the mail!

About 1½ week ago, I got a dispatch form in the mail for a Amazon parcel I just couldn't remember ordering. Ergo, it must be from someone else. How exciting! I jumped on my bike to go to the post office and pick it up as soon as I could. Then I really had to restrain myself, not to rip it open until I came back home - a really hard task I have to say. Anyhow, inside of the carton, there was a nicely wrapped gift and a small note with a greeting from a good friend in Switzerland. The gift was a book of high interest for me right now (click here to find out more about it). Thank you so much Liz!

New wallpaper

For about a week our place was a total mess. Why? Because the painter came around to put up new wallpaper in our living room, hallway and bedroom as well as to paint our bathroom and our kitchen cabinets. Clever as I am, I put the computer in the drawer in the living room table as usual the night before he came, and hence could not reach it for the following days...

However, our place is so much nicer now and when we have put the pictures on the walls again, there'll be more pictures coming.

Sourdough bread no. 2 - part four

Ok, I know it's been a long time since I last wrote anything, but here the result of the sourdough baking project finally comes. The bread was very tasty (even if it had a slight beer taste in the beginning - something Matts wasn't too happy about at breakfast time) and was perfect with cheese, tomatoes and black pepper. :-) Now it's long gone and I have a batch of breakfast rolls in the oven as I write. But that's another story. :-)

Sourdough bread no.2 - part three

After 24 h of rising, the dough was still well contained in the bowl. Phew! This morning it was time to add the final ingredients to the dough: 500 g crushed rye, 1 deciliter sunflower seeds, 100 g linseed, 1 tbsp dark brown sugar and 1 can of beer (33 cl).

I mixed the dough until everything was well blended and then poured it into two 2 liter baking tins and let them sit for eight hours. In the beginning I was sure the tins would be flooded by the rising dough, but they just managed to contain the dough inside of them. :-) Now it's time for the final step, 1 h and 15 min at 200 C in the oven and then I'll let them rest wrapped in towels until the morning when Matts and I will try them for breakfast to see if they are eatable at all. I am very skeptical when it comes to the beer part, but hopefully it will add a really nice flavor to the bread...

Sourdough bread no.2 - part two

Today I fed the sourdough with 1 liter water, 2 tbsp salt, 1½ liter whole grain rye flour and ½ liter plain white flour. Now it's supposed to stay put and preferably not grow out of the bowl until tomorrow when the final ingredients will be added.

So far it hasn't risen too much, but we'll see about that at the end of today. Our kitchen might be filled with dough sooner than we think...

Sourdough bread no. 2 - part one

It's time for me to try another recipe for a sourdough bread. This time a dark and probably heavy bread with sunflower seeds and crushed rye. Exciting. :-)

This morning I started with the sourdough consisting of half a package of fresh yeast, 2 deciliter water (cold) and 2 deciliter of plain white flour. I dissolved the yeast in the water and then mixed it with the flour to a nice sludge... After a couple of hours it started bubbling and it will hopefully continue to do so until tomorrow when it's time for the next step.

Everything is bigger in Sweden...

Everything is bigger in Sweden. Well, at least compared to Switzerland (in comparison with the gigantic country on the other side of the Atlantic things in Sweden are quite moderate). But compared to Switzerland many things are bigger here.

Firstly, the area of the country is bigger, Sweden is about eleven times bigger than Switzerland. That is as long as the Alps aren't flattened out at least...

Secondly, the people are bigger. Both taller and fatter. When we came back to Sweden this summer we were struck by how "fat" people here are compared to people in Switzerland. And how much people here eat. Downtown, people were eating ice cream like crazy (ok, it was really warm and sunny) as well as big American muffins. Then we went to Ikea and had meatballs. In Switzerland the normal portion is ten meatballs. Here it's 15! And the guy in front of me didn't think that was enough - he ordered 20!!! Generally speaking, Swedes eat more and hence are fatter than the Swiss people.

Thirdly, the packages of butter, flour, sugar, yeast, baking soda, yogurt and so on are bigger here than in Switzerland. The normal size of a bag of flour or sugar is 2 kg here compared to 1 kg in Switzerland, and sometimes they even sell 5 kg bags of flour here. And the vanilla sugar as well as the baking soda comes in cans or boxes containing far more than the pathetic portion bags they sell in Switzerland. For me, who loves to bake this is a blessing. I'm not constantly running out of flour or baking soda. Pictures of the small packages in Switzerland can be found here.

Then there are things that are at least as big in Switzerland as in Sweden, like friendship and beautiful nature. And when it comes to high mountains, Switzerland has the biggest ones, without competition.

Ultrasound examination

Yesterday it was time for the ultrasound examination, that here in Sweden usually takes place around week 18. It was the coolest thing to see our little family member scratching it's eye, playing with the umbilical cord and the heart beating. I was nervous before we went, but everything looked good. Here are the two pictures we decided to buy. The little one was not very prone to show us it's best side, but it's still cool to have seen it moving around.

1. Most of the body, but not so much of the head. 2. Here it is playing with the umbilical cord. The five fingers of the hand is easy to see as well a the profile of the face. Does it resemble Matts or me?

We do not know if it's a boy or a girl and prefer to keep it a secret for everyone, including ourselves, until the baby is born. I have a friend who got pregnant in the US, and without asking if they wanted to know, they were told that they were expecting a boy. Here in Sweden you usually have to ask to be told if you want to know and sometimes, if it's not clear enough, they might not tell you anyway. Different cultures.

Lund is changing colors

In August I posted some pictures from Lund (click here to see them). Yesterday morning I brought my camera downtown once again to show you how beautiful the university library is right now. Very colorful.

I did some baking...

About once a week I bake bread (it's now been several weeks since we last bought bread in the store). Today was the baking day of this week. But I didn't just make bread (this time dark, tasty buns) but also chocolate cheesecake muffins (yummy!!!) as well as oatmeal cookies. The latter was a brand new recipe for me and they turned out to be delicious! Crispy, but not too sweet. They are extremely easy to make as well:

Frideborg's oatmeal cookies, about 30 pieces

125 g butter at room temperature
0.75 deciliter sugar
3 deciliter oatmeal
1½ deciliter flour
1 tbsp water

Mix all the ingredients well and roll them into small balls that are placed on a baking sheet. Flatten each ball with a fork and bake in the preheated oven (175 C) for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy!

The recipe comes from the book Kokbok för hjärnan (Cookbook for the brain) by Charlotte Erlandson-Albertsson that I won from a magazine a while ago.

Hike Genarp-Häckeberga

Last Saturday it was time for yet another group hike. This time, Matts and I took the bus from Lund to Genarp where we met up with four other hikers for a 2½ hour hike in the Häckeberga Nature Reserve. It was a cloudy day, but despite the dark clouds didn't we feel a single raindrop. The walk was very nice and it was great to come out in the nature and explore another small part of Skåne. Of course, there were some cows and we also walked past some buildings typical of Skåne that you don't find in the other parts of Sweden.

Lucky enough, a couple of the other hikers live in Lund as well, so on the way back we could get a ride with them instead of waiting on the bus and got home in good time for a nice bath, dinner and the movie Slumdog Millionaire that we rented on-line.

Anniversary

Last Friday I had a very busy day. First, I went to the gym, then I cleaned the apartment (those of you who know me well also know how much I hate to clean, but sometimes it has to be done), then I put on make up for the evening, then I headed off to the mall to spend lots of money on clothes that I had looked on earlier (a new winter coat, in a model that hopefully has enough space for my growing belly, a dress and some other, smaller things that I felt I needed) and then back home to leave all the shopping bags and get dressed for dinner out together with Matts to celebrate our five year anniversary. On my "to-do-list" I also had some more things, like baking muffins and applying nail polish, but I never had time to do these things. I actually hardly had time to sit down and relax on the whole day so it was nice not to have to make dinner as well.

We went to a place that serves fondue here in Lund. We had a very nice soup as a starter and then the "Stäket's fondue" (Diced pork and beef, whole mushrooms, Rhode Island sauce with garlic, BBQ-sauce, bearnaise sauce, horse radish sauce, roquefort sauce, ajvar sauce and french fries). It was good, but not as good as the fondue we had in Switzerland... But we had a very nice evening and that's the most important thing, right?

I do miss Switzerland

I just had a look at my blog from our years in Switzerland to see how we celebrated our anniversary last year since we just couldn't remember it... And I was struck by how active I was and how much I did - every week there were several things going on. Here, it feels like we don't do anything.

I guess it has three main reasons:

1. We are back in Sweden where we know how things work, so what we encounter every day is just the "regular stuff" for us.
   
2. We haven't got the limited time issue, we think that we have all the time in the world to explore Sweden, so we just don't (and then, making far less money than in Switzerland of course also helps).
   
3. We still don't know enough people to fill up all our spare time with activities and there is no such thing as the PSI ladies group here (how nice wasn't the cheese evening last year or the walks or the International Christmas parties?).

All together, we actually are much less active here than we were in Switzerland and the things we do are not always exciting enough to write about here.

My belly is growing

I know that this is not the best picture ever, but I did as well as I could on my own since I'm too impatient to wait for Matts to come home... :-)

This is, however, what I look like today, 17 weeks and one day into my long wished-for pregnancy. I can still, almost, hide my belly if I choose clothes wisely, but I have to use a hair band to be able to button my pants. And something tells me it will only get "worse"...


PS. Click on the picture to see it in a slightly larger size.

Yesterday's lunch

Yesterday I made graham rolls. Yummy. Especially together with a nice Minestrone soup for lunch. The soup is super easy to make. It contains one can of rinsed mixed beans, one can of pasta sauce, 10 deciliter water, one or two chicken bouillon cubes, 160 g pasta and some black pepper. Bring to a boil and let it simmer until the pasta is cooked. Serve with (home made) bread and cheese. Very nice on a crisp and lazy fall day. :-)

Apple market in Kivik

The last couple of weeks have been filled with "everyday life". In between my mother-in-law has been visiting and last week I went to Gothenburg to visit my dear friend Andrea and my sister Karin. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera, otherwise I would have posted pictures from Café Villekulla where Andrea and I both had the cake buffet or some beautiful fall pictures from the walks along the canal. I'll try to do better next time.

This Saturday, Matts and I rented a car and took off to Kivik on the east coast of Skåne to visit the yearly Apple market. Every year they have a big picture or sculpture made of apples, and this year the picture looked like this:

We had a nice day exploring Skåne (especially since we got a bit lost on the way home) and brought apples, jams and apple juice with us home.

Hiking and other stuff

This Saturday we went out on a hike. A woman from Ad Fontes arranges hikes here in Skåne once every month and this time we came along. We went to almost the same place where we hiked last time and parts of the hike was on the same path. But it was so nice to come out and do something together with other people, so where we hiked didn't really matter. :-)

Sunday morning I went to church, Pingstkyrkan, and met lots of very nice people. Then back home for lunch and then away again to the gym with Matts. Now he finally has got a card at Gerdahallen, so we might try to go to the gym together now and then.

Yesterday evening we had hot sandwiches and watched lots of "tv" on svtplay. Nice and relaxed, just as it should be. :-)

Sourdough bread - the recipe

2 loaves of bread

Day 1 (sourdough)
20-25 g fresh yeast
3 deciliter water
3 deciliter sifted rye flour mixture (60% plain white flour, 40% sifted rye flour)

Warm the water to 37 C and dissolve the yeast in it. Add the flour and mix throughly. Let the mixture sit at room temperature under a towel for one or two days. If you leave it two days, add another ½ deciliter of flour mixture after one day.

Day 2 or 3
20-25 g fresh yeast
7 deciliter water
½ deciliter vegetable oil
the sourdough from day 1
1 tbsp salt
20 deciliter sifted rye flour mixture
about 5 deciliter plain white flour

Warm the water to 37 C and dissolve the yeast in part of it. Add the sourdough and the rest of the water as well as the oil to the yeast. Add salt, the sifted rye flour mixture and most of the plain white flour and work it all together to a nice dough. Cover with a towel and let it rise for about 1 hour.

Work the dough with the rest of the plain white flour on a bench and form two round loaves. Put them on a baking sheet, either greased with butter or covered with baking paper, and make some holes in the loaves with a fork. Let the loaves rise under a towel for about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 250 C.

Place the bread in the lover part of the oven. Immediately lover the temperature to 200 C and bake for about 45 minutes.

Let the loaves cool on a rack without being covered if you want to keep the crust hard.

Sourdough bread - part five

At last, the loaves are ready! And I can finally have lunch. :-) Oatmeal porridge, an apple and a nectarine and three big slices of warm bread. Yummy! The bread has a really hard crust and it is moist and soft inside. If it is as good tomorrow as it is today, I might make the same bread again and again and again...