My dad just turned seventy — Happy Birthday, dad! — and my parents and my brother came here to celebrate. We had dinner at a really good restaurant, which we all enjoyed, but before that my mum and I had made this cake, which topped it all off. It was truly delicious, even the children loved it, and I'm sure we will make it again.

I just thought I'd share an image from this morning when I treated myself to a late, but very nice breakfast. The kiwis tasted so good!

I like candy. A lot. Probably far too much for my own good. But when I found this organic candy from Sjölunda gård at Coop Forum, made from pure fruit juice and eco-friendly unrefined sugar, I felt that in this case it was perhaps not so bad. Okay. Yeah, yeah... I guess I'm trying to kid myself.

But don't they look nice? They taste really good as well.

Today's lunch: Fish, rice and vegetables. Simple, but tasty. It feels as if I could eat this over and over again.

In Caroline Hofberg's cook book Marocko på ett fat I found a recipe for lemon preserve containing lemon, salt, bay leaves and cinnamon. I've never tasted anything like it before, but it sounds interesting and I decided to try it out. It's supposed to be kept at room temperature for at least four weeks before opening the huge glass jar. Right now I'm curious and can't wait to taste it. I'll keep you posted.

I work from home about 80% of my time and I usually don't have time to make lunch every day, but I often take something ready-made from the freezer to heat quickly in the microwave oven. It has always been made by me or my partner, though, so it is proper home-made cooking, but we usually get left-overs and this time it was pasta and my own version of the carbonara sauce. Together with a large glass of milk (which I love) and a wonderful orange it turned out to be the perfect lunch.

In the middle of laundry, shopping and a bunch other things I decided to try out a vegetarian dish that tasted really good: Fried beetroot and potato with feta cheese.

They were quite easy to make even though my hands turned all red. :) I found the recipe at Allt om Mat. I think it could actually work really well together with fish, and Allt om Mat suggest a spicy sausage or grilled chicken to make it a whole dinner.

I admit that T. was right on one point at least (which does not mean that I'm admitting to any of the other things he called me), I was indeed mixing spice.

I really love Moroccan food and one of the most famous spice mixes is the ras-el-hanout with between ten and a hundred different ingredients, and for which each family has their own favourite recipe. Right now I'm making a chicken casserole flavoured with ras-el-hanout which we will eat with rice. (It could as easily have been couscous, but rice it is this time.)

The recipe for the ras-el-hanout was taken from Caroline Hofberg's beautiful Marocko på ett fat (Morocco on a plate).

I just felt like baking a cake the other day and since I first saw the recipe of this peach and almond cake I have wanted to try it out. Even my oldest son, who usually hates almonds, loved it (please notice the verb in past tense). Yes, it's already gone. And yes, it was really nice. I think I will have to make a new one. Soon.

The children were happy about our choice of dinner today: tortillas and tacos. It's something about being able to put together whatever you want that seems to appeal to them. Well, yes... and to us adults too, I suppose. :)

The dinner had a wonderful ending as well. Our dessert was ice cream... Häagen Dazs Strawberry Cream. Mmmmmm!

Before the traditional fasting period of the old days, you were supposed to eat really fattening food and the thing you ate right before was a "semla," a wheat bun filled with marzipan and whipped cream.

I didn't get hold of a beauty like the one above today, but I did eat this year's first semla. A bit too much usually, since they tend to be a bit too big for me, but it's still nice and now I don't think I want one for yet another year.

Image from Brödhuset.com.

Of course we had a dinner for grandma as well: green cabbage mash, two versions of potatoes, both boiled and fried meat, and very meaty sausages. To top it all off we had lemon fromage for dessert. It goes without saying that we didn't exactly go to bed hungry that evening. Everything was exellently prepared by my father-in-law.

The other day we decide to drive around a bit. The weather wasn't that good. It was extremely foggy and quite cold, but the subdued colours outside the car window were beautiful and I took lots of pictures. We took the opportunity to check out some small countryside shops we haven't had the opportunity to explore before and, I have to say, the cheese shop was amazing. We tasted — and bought — three types of local Gouda — a chili, a nettles and a sundried tomato and garlic version — and a Blualp, a German mild, very creamy blue cheese, all of which we intended to share with the rest of my partner's family when we arrived at his parent's house yesterday. Together with red wine and crackers, these cheeses provided the perfect ending to a wonderful minced meat beef, potatoes and parsley sauce dinner cooked by my father-in-law last night.

After a more substantial lunch, we wanted something lighter and decided to have a delicious, golden chanterelle soup as the main course and pancakes with cloudberries and icecream for dessert. The children were happy to leave the soup to us adults and focus on the pancakes completely, but I have to say that I think they made a mistake. The soup both looked and tasted really good and warmed us to the core. A perfect winter meal...

The first time I encountered this type of candy was at the annual marketplace every June in the small town where I grew up. I always begged my parents to buy "at least a little." As an adult I found the recipe and now my children are begging me to make "homemade fudge," especially for Christmas. Funny how things turn out.

They are actually pretty simple to make. Here is the recipe:

6,5 dl wheat flour
4 dl icing sugar
1 dl cocoa powder
6 dl sugar
125 g coconut oil
1,5 dl water

Mix flour, icing sugar and cocoa powder in a big bowl. Boil water, coconut oil and sugar until the sugar has melted. Mix it slowly (while stirring) with the rest of the ingredients and then spread it out in an approximately 30x20 cm pan. Let it cool and then cut it into pieces (approximately 250 of them). Store in a cool place.

I'm not entirely sure what the difference is between clementines, satsumas, mandarines or whatever, but I do know that I absolutely love these from Maroc. I suppose it's partly due to the fact that they arrive in the stores at the same time as we all begin to prepare for Christmas, and partly because they indeed taste — and smell — so good.

I've been working pretty hard for the last few days and since I'm done with most of the things I need to do, I decided to take a break and have a cup of tea.

I found my favourite tea in one of the major department stores in town the other day, and now I'm enjoying every second of drinking it.

The other day we had lasagne (to my youngest's immense delight... ok... we weren't actually unhappy either) and we decided to put on a table cloth and use real napkins and Swirl napkin rings. It all turned out... gray... but I kind of liked the subdued colour scheme, especially when it was accentuated by the vivid yellow of the hawthorne juice (to the right, elderflower juice to the left).