CatPoet

Try to get hold of Lussekatter, they are S shaped saffron rolls. Lovely stuff and perfect for Lucia. It might be crowded at the Alko if you go later in the day, people tend to get drunk at Friday and Saturdays, so when it opens is often the best times.

The stuffed cabbage rolls here are called Kåldolmar and yes we got them from the Turks, we had a king way way back who loved Turkey so much he imported Turks here and yes that is also where we got the meatballs. Kåldolmar are baked in the oven and then served with brown gravy OR butter depending of part of Sweden, the only thing we do agree on is the lingon jam / preserve. Swedish coffee bread, well I tell you a secret, we have one base dough for most sweet coffee breads we make, yes it contains cardamom and butter, milk, sugar and flour and we use it for a lot of stuff for example toffee rolls, cinnamon rolls, Major wreath, Butter kaka ( grumpycake), blueberry rolls, Priest bread, Pomona braid or Idun braid or apple braid ( they are all the same thing and has apples in it) , sunshine rolls, vanilla and Oden rolls.. There is a few more. My wooden tree is up at my parents home so I have to settle for the star of Bethlehem in my window instead. shining brightly until Christmas is over, well I turn it on at night and my husband has made my kitchen into a red light district, so many red lights in a tiny kitchen, he says it is warning lights..

Sylvia: that is similar to the pork sausage I make, we call that type with beef and pork for Köttkorv ( meat sausage) and the type I make has only pork and yes it still eaten. So I guess because the name has changed people don't recognize it and also people tend to buy it not make it, so they don't know what goes into it. Oh I also found out that it can be Värmlandskorv because the old name for that is potatis körv, which would be potato sausage and that is still eaten. I been asked to make 5 meters of that but I turned it down, my body wouldn't able to handle that and pork sausage.

SMithy: we live in a concrete house, that in the old days was heated up so the walls was warm and this was good system, they started early before the frost and house when warmed up could be kept warm with out blasting the radiators on full. Sadly they changed the heating system and the way they heat and we have now a problem that walls are cold and when it gets dark we get a cold draft from them, nor do they heat prevalently as they used to. So this happens for about a month or two before the walls are warm enough to hold the heat. We seam to gotten over the worse now. The loaf from last night.

Smithy: Please me the 7-layer "Goodie Bars recipe, it might be the one a friend's American wife is craving.

Crayfish festival is in August, some might have crayfish at New year but most eat them in August, while wearing silly hats and getting drunk.

Gloria: Every family has their own idea what Christmas meatballs are, some have ginger in them, some have anchovy and I even tasted with orange zest . We have all that little extra that makes them special. I never met with crushed gingerbreads but I have seen with ginger bread spice.

Alex: This my favourite chili for flavour, Aji Amarillo ( Capsicum baccatum), it has a fruit flavour when dried , still heat but it is balance.

It is 21.30 in Sweden and I just made a dough, we are out of bread and I am hoping for a nice porridge loaf. I am tired but my husband promised to take over and finish it if I fell a sleep. I haven't taken pictures of my loafs lately due to ugliness, right now before the house temperature settles for winter bread rises in a weird way and well the bread twist and turns in the oven.

Smithy; I am making half the amount I used to make for Christmas, I dont have that many to feed anymore. I used to listen to music but today it wasn't possible. Oh and I have worked rolling meatballs, one day we did 1000, yeah that was mind numbing and hard for the hands . Cats will be made on Friday and gingerbread dough will be made on Wednesday and baked on Thursday. I need to plan what I do and when I do it so I have the energy for it, I have a muscle desease and it isnt my friend some days but the only hard part left to do is the sausage. When it comes to the gingerbread, well the kid and friends do the funny shapes and I have a cookie roller so I just make masses of hearts, stars and flowers.

Today's stars are : Ground pork/ beef it is a mix of 20% pork and 80 % beef. Rinsed potatoes, fried caramelized onion puréed with cream, egg, cream, allspice, black pepper and salt. So what I am I making? A nice soft batter or what do you call meat goo? Rolling rolling rolling , such a mind numbing chore but here they are my Christmas meatballs ( julköttbullar). This is where my back, right leg and hip gave up and I had to call for my husband to fry them. But before I gave up, I grabbed my trusty washable measuring tape and laid it inch side up. The first meatball is buffet size, second Christmas and the last dinner. We don't do them big at all. Why are my cutting boards odd colour? Well black food dye and saffron leaves its mark, but after Christmas I am getting new ones. Look what my hubby did, he fried them all and now they are cooling down and then going in the freezer waiting for Christmas dinner. Now I have nothing I can cook or bake until next week when there will be gingerbread and saffron buns and maybe some pork sausage.

Suz: Well that is was my cookery lexicon and the net says is the main difference between souse and brawn. And it is the meat that is marinated in vinegar before cooking , that is what my German friend says and he is a chef, so I guess he knows. Smithy: The saffron buns are S shaped with two small raisin push in , into the curls and these are called Lucia cats, Lussekatter. Gloria: that is for August and crayfish festival, not for Christmas.

The souse has vinegar in it while brawn is just really good broth that becomes jelly with meat in it. My husband calls it Pig Jell-O. Of course there will be saffron buns for Lucia, traditional cats and also my favourite with almond paste and lots of gingerbreads .

My Hungry Stew again, all the flavours of Hungary but none of the authenticity..... Yeah, we love this cheap and cheerful dish.

Lol. We had talk yesterday with food nerds friends and well we realised a sous vide crounut with bacon and cheese , wrapped in ramen and dipped in chocolate should be the most in thing right now, if it was ever made. Anyway, warm chocolate milk seams to be what I am doing. My daughter loves it when she is cold, but she dislike it if it is sweet so I am trying to find a balance, which she will love.

My julbock has been eaten by mice, so he met a fiery death. Yes, NO lutfisk ( Swedish doesn't have the e as Norwegians do), it has always been served on boxing day in my family and in the area my family comes from. How ever I refuse to eat it, my daughter's tummy cant handle it and my husband asked to be put down after eating a little, so no lutfisk for us. We might get smoked salmon, it depends on which fish cart is in the day before Christmas, one does this amazing warm smoked salmon and the other one does a kind that taste like wet wood. My parents will have reindeer for Christmas but they live in the north so it easy to get hold of, I think dad said they would have smoked heart and reindeer sausage at their table. The red coleslaw is simple, just slice half a head of red cabbage thinly , add sour cream and a little mustard, salt and pepper, pour in a bowl and serve. Yes it turns purple and perfect to balance all the heaviness of the meats. Normally people have braised red cabbage or Brunkål, a treacle boiled white cabbage ( or is that green in English) and some have stewed kale or kale salad., how ever none of us like the braised or boiled cabbage and well kale is out due to my brothers heart meds. Janssons frestelse, (Jansons temptation), it potato stick baked with cream and European anchovy is also a common dish on the Christmas table, yet again this doesnt work with my daughter's tummy. Thank God she can have fish in liver pate. Sweden has a bit of confusing thing, I am never sure if I am using sardines or anchovy according to English dictionary and it doesn't help if you turn the tin, if it has English it either or. Yes even Brussels sprouts are out this year due to the heart meds, so very little green stuff on our table.

I thought I would do a topic about Swedish Christmas, since they are different to an Anglo-Saxon Christmas. Also after speaking to 5 Americans and 3 Brits and an Austrian lass last weekend I realised there is much people dont know about Swedish holidays and traditions, so people feel free to ask, no question is too stupid. I will also post pictures of my progress on my cooking and baking and on the 24:th I will show the whole Christmas spread. So what is the different. well we still use the Norse word Jul ( Yule) which has nothing to do with Christ and when I was little Santa wasn't red, he was a bearded little grey man with a red pointy hat. Yes he was the gnome who takes cares of the house and this tradition I will keep. How ever since I live in an apartment I wont give the poor bloke his payment for the year service, which is a bowl of steamy porridge. Yeah talk about minimum wages. And also we celebrate at the 24 and not the 25 and Christmas ends 13 January. we have one celebration before Christmas which is Lucia 13 of Dec which is an important part of Christmas for us. I know you are dying to know the menu for Christmas so here it comes. Mustard coated ham Meatballs Pork Brawn Prins korv ( like a small cocktail sausage) Ribs Liver pate Broth 3x cold cut sausage pork sausage for boiling 3x cheese mustard herring 3x bread 3x mustard Red coleslaw beetroot salad Vegetable pate Traditional Christmas drink julmust Candy Gingerbread Saffron rolls. Time for pictures! I made liver paté last night. I missed the eggs, otherwise everything is here. Lard, lamb lever, spices, sardines, cream and flour. Now liver and lard is cooked and everything is just waiting to be mixed. Now it is mixed, strained twice and waiting for baking with no water bath. And I then fell a sleep when it was in the oven, hubby took it out and then didnt take any picture and put them in the freezer. You will get to see it at Christmas.

Oh sometimes we can get dark chocolate bonbons with lingon jelly inside, that is so good and cranberries are similar in flavour so that should work. You bite down into the chocolate shell that shatters and you have lovely fruit paté like jelly inside. Yum.. I hope she is here on the Christmas market.. I so need my bonbon fix.,

https://www.howtocookthat.net/public_html/best-homemade-icecream-recipes/ check out this icecream recipe, they are making safe cookie dough flavouring.

I cant get hold good lamb mince this year. I like meatballs with lingon jam.

Do you want with or without marzipan in the dough or both?

Meatballs! Yeah left over meatballs... yum

Parkin, you could make parkin, I know it is for November the fifth but it is so yummy so why not for Christmas? Well, British Christmas baking is christmas pudding which is dried fruit, christmas cake yet again dried fruit, cooked cloth pudding which is more dried fruit and yes everything seams to have dried fruit in it, even mincemeat pies, except soft gingerbread. I know, my dear mother in law tried hard to find something with out citrus peel and well I ended up get pavlova.

We had a friend of a friend over for dinner. So no pictures today and also my phone is broke, but when my phone works again, some other dinner pics will come. So what did we serve, this friend of a friend? Well he is American and only here for five day, so we gave him a proper Swedish meatball dinner with all the trimmings and he said when you eat meatball, sauce, lingon jam and cucumber together like a Swede, the flavours really work. He had two helpings and then he got a local dessert, curd cake with raspberry jam and whipped cream. He was smiling afterwards. We took as a good sign .

We dont do fruitcakes for Christmas, instead saffron cake, spice cake with lingon or cranberries or radio cake. Do you want the recipe?