Sometimes life is too busy and there isn't enough time to do all the things I'd like to do. In other cases the tempo has been too high for a long time and there is a need for rest and recuperation, and this is what has been the case for me.

I worked 368 hours of overtime last autumn and this made me cut down on most things just to get back to normality. Now I'm slowly getting back to blogging and all the "extras."

Candy is always nice and this was in fact one of the Christmas presents given to us by the management at work. I can assure you that Thorntons taste very well. We also received cinema tickets, which we haven't had time to make use of yet. Soon!

This year's Blossa glögg has been revealed and although there aren't any descriptions of this year's flavour, except that it is a typically Swedish mulled wine with clear connotations of Dalarna/Dalecarlia (which also is the name of this year's glögg) and it does seem interesting. They open up the possibility for pre-ordering on October 1st and the price will be SEK 95.

We made our own gooseberry jam a few days ago and it has been lovely with a slice of freshly baked bread and some cheese. I have noticed that we do need some longer spoons for jam in general, however, and I have trawled the Internet to find some suitable ones. There are possibilities on Tradera, but this also means that I will have to win the auction, so let's see.

We've been on the road for a few days now, visiting T.'s sister and brother-in-law as well as his parents and it has all resulted in several days in a row with very good food.

On Thursday we had pork chops, wild rice and a mushroom and sherry sauce, on Friday there was lemon chicken with new potatoes on the menu, on Saturday we had a barbeque (for 10 people) and homemade strawberry icecream for dessert, and on Sunday we made homemade pasta (tagliatelle and pappardelle) and a tomato, sausage, bacon, and cream sauce. It was all very, very good and we really enjoy cooking and experimenting in the kitchen with them. Today, T.'s father will treat us to a baked salmon dish, which also sounds delicious. A truly tasty beginning of our holiday!

Our kind neighbour provided us with some rhubarb yesterday, and last night we were busy making lemonade. Isn't it beautiful? It tastes good too.

Yesterday evening, T. and I decided to go to Copenhagen for a few hours since a) the diesel is approximately 2,50 Swedish crowns cheaper per litre in Denmark than it is in Sweden, b) a carwash is more than half-price compared to Sweden, and c) because we wanted to buy some groceries, wine and other necessities that are either available only in Denmark or much less expensive there. The fact that we thereby also were able to spend a few hours in a city we like was a good bonus. I have a feeling we might do this again.

The wine we bought, that can be seen above, was found at Bilka and Søstrene Grene. At this point we have no idea what they might taste like.

Update 1: Villa Artes Soave DOC is a nice, summery white wine with hints of green apples. The taste is not large, but it has the potential to be very pleasant on a hot summer day.

Update 2: We had some Giacondi Vino Bianco from Søstrene Grene with chicken, pasta and a tomato, cream, and basil sauce yesterday and it was delicious. A round Chardonnay-like taste.

This week has been hectic and I've managed to get a whole load of work done today alone, which feels great. It has also made me rather tired and right now we're relaxing in front of the television munching chocolate (Marabou Premium Dark Chocolate & Mousse for me).

If the boys can choose what to watch on television, we'd most likely watch either Family Guy, The Simpson's, or Mythbusters, but right now T. has "allowed" me to watch one of the property search/home decorating shows I like (which in this case happens to be Escape to the Country). I've realised that the rest of the evening is out of my hands, however, since T. has stated that he intends to watch Star Wars from 1977. Happy weekend, everyone!

A lot of fun happenings take place in the vicinity this Easter holiday. We just came back from a visit to Lorensdal, where a number of artists, potters, silversmiths, authors and photographers have their work place. There were a lot of interesting things to see and I gathered quite a few calling cards.

What I also brought with me as we left was a book, Tjugo skånska vingårdar (Twenty Scanian Vineyards), written by sommelier, author and journalist Ann Jansson (photographs by Ulrika Vendelbo and layout by Nina Hammarberg). Having seen the signs to some of the vineyards as we were passing by, it is now possible to learn more about winemaking in Sweden and hopefully also visit some of the vineyards in due course. All in all it's a beautiful book (that has already been awarded several prizes) on a topic that really interests us. The book can be found on their website but also at Bokia.

We decided to make homemade pizzas yesterday and this was the result. It's not exactly food that has anything to do with Easter, but it tasted delicious. These are fairly basic with tomato, ham, salami, and mozzarella.

As I mentioned previously, I've been on the outlook for various green dessert bowls, since I like mixing and matching. They were especially nice as an accent on the Christmas table against a primarily red and white backdrop.

Today I managed to get hold of four more as I won an auction at Tradera. These four are very different from the ones we already have, but, because of their colour, I think they will work very well. I'm very much looking forward to recieving them. They will probably go straight into a box, however, since we've already begun to pack things for the move in mid February.

It's that time of year again. Autumn. Time to order this year's glögg, and the flavour this year seems quite exotic. It is a mix of ginger and Japanese yuzu (a taste described as a mix of tangerines and grapefruits). Let's see how many bottles I should order? (A shoutout directed to my in-laws!)

More information can be found here.

It's time to plan this year's Christmas culinary treats — cookies, candy, and other yummy things. Every year we make knäck, some type of fudge, various marzipan pralines (T. especially loves his homemade whisky pralines), and perhaps marknadsgodis (which can be translated as "market place candy"). I'm not sure what we'll make this year, but I'm certain it will taste good. Images from IKEA, Inspiration, Lagerhaus, and FixaJulen.

The last few days have been wonderfully warm and sunny. It's the time of year when we usually prefer lighter dishes and the Danish speciality koldskål is perfect. Since it's not available from the stores here in Sweden, we usually make our own. For approximately four people we use 1 litre of "filmjölk," 4 (pasteurized) egg yolks, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar, and a few tablespoons (to taste) of lemon juice. We usually serve it with small, sweet rusks called "kammerjunkere," and some fruit, in this case blueberries. It tastes great!

Whenever my mother made dauphinoise potatoes when I was a child, she used a Mouli Julienne to slice the potatoes really thinly, and I do love her dauphinoise potatoes recipe. Her Mouli Julienne still works very well, and as an adult I tried to find one of my own, but those I saw had plastic parts and when I bought one of those I quickly realised that they were not sturdy enough for my needs.

Since then I've been on the lookout for the old, more traditional, metal version and yesterday I became so happy when I found one on the Swedish version of eBay, Tradera. This morning I also managed to win the auction and the seller has promised to send it to me today. Hopefully it will reach us in time for preparing the big dinner on Friday. I do want my dauphinoise...

Upon request I made scones this morning. It was great!

Well, macadamia nuts is what it was supposed to be, but I simply could not get hold of any in the stores around here, so I decided to use para nuts instead when I baked these giant cookies yesterday. (All in all this has been a rather creative weekend.) The cookies are really tasty — both children, T., myself and the family we visited yesterday evening thought so — so I'd say that the alteration of the recipe works. And there is more left still...

We don't really celebrate Valentine's day, but I couldn't resist making some blueberry pies in the heartshaped pie dishes I got hold of a while ago, and we actually just ate almost a whole one of them disregarding the fact that Valentine's day is two days away. I can assure you that it tasted really good!

I thought I'd show you some of the treats we made on our weekend candy spree. The rather strange-looking chocolate thingies are candied orange peel with dark chocolate, the biscotti are made with saffron and white chocolate, and the traditional "knäck" is just the ordinary one (equal amounts of cream, sirup, and sugar). Some more will be made now when we have bought the right type of marzipan, but that's probably a project for next weekend.

Otherwise I'm working away in an extremely concentrated manner in the wish to meet my "before Christmas" deadline. We have also managed to buy quite a few of the Christmas presents and I'm really looking forward to seeing people's faces as they open their presents. I hope they will all like it.

Finally! My favourites... still a bit sour, but the smell promises wonderful months ahead. I think I'll make a batch of my citrus-walnut-chocolate salad.

This is T.'s favourite chocolate. I do enjoy nibbling on it as well, so I can't complain. The marzipan is really soft and the plums and the dark chocolate taste amazing. A really good combination, which has been our treat after a wonderful chicken, rice and mushroom sauce dinner this Saturday evening. The chocolate works very well with some white wine...