torsk med äpplen & potatis / cod with apples & potatoes

vad är till middag? vad sägs om något båda söta & salta. med fisk. något helt enkelt. / what’s for dinner? how about something both sweet and savory. with fish. something completely simple.

bakat torsk med äpplen och potatis / baked torsk with apples and potatoes

nu kör vi! / let’s go!

ingredienser: torsk, äpplen, potatis, pepparrot, dill, smör / indgredients: cod, apples, potatoes, horseradish, dill, butter

(ingen specifik antal.. jag hade fyra sticken torskfiléer, två äpplen, och kanske sex små potatis / no specific amounts.. i had four cod fillets, two apples, and maybe six small potatoes) 

sätt ugnen på 200 C / preheat the oven to 400 F

skär torsk, äpplen, och potatis i tärningar. skiva pepparrot i tunna bitar. krydda med dill, salt, peppar, och lite smör. / cube the cod, apples, and potatoes. thinly slice the horseradish. season with dill, salt, peppar, and a little butter.

baka i tjugofem minuter / bake for twenty-five minutes

varsågod / enjoy

grandma’s chocolate chip cookies

my grandmother was the queen of chocolate chip cookies. #royalty

she had dozens of them at every get-together i can remember. and they were always perfect. perfectly browned. perfectly cakey. with the perfect balance of cookie and chocolate. and the chocolate chips were always chips. obviously, hence the name, but it was as if they were inserted into the cookie after the cooling process instead of melting into a plop of chocolate (the way mine always do).

as she got older, she couldn’t get out to shop for all of us, so at christmas she would give us each our own little bag of chocolate chip cookies she had made. sweet memories..

after she passed away, i asked if someone had her chocolate chip cookie recipe. my mom (totally nonchalant) was like, ‘no.. but it’s just the nestle tollhouse recipe.’

what..?..!?

i was so completely shocked.. first off, i thought she made this recipe up herself. i did. i thought it was years of experimenting perfected. second, her cookies were so unusual tasting. i loved them, but there was something particularly unusual about them. they didn’t taste like standard chocolate chip cookies. plus i’ve had those nestle break-and-bake and thosearenotsotasty.

so today, i decided to take a shot at making grandma’s cookies. or nestle’s. howeveryouprefertophrasethat.

i used their “original” recipe, so you can find it anywhere online.

granted, this isn’t exactly the recipe my grandmother used, because i know her’s contained shortening. now, shortening is obviously not healthy.. better to even say it’s unhealthy.. but that’s why it makes everything so delicious, darling.

and as you can see… my cookies turned out flat as pancakes. greasy looky messes. with gooey chocolate oozing everywhichaway.

i don’t take full responsibility for that last failing because the chocolate chip selection at the store was just.. sad.

just goes to show you that it’s not just the recipe that matters in the end. so hats of to my grandmother.

and happy mother’s day! to my grandmother who is no longer with us. my other grandmother. my own mother! my sister. and all the other mothers out there in the blogosphere! have a cookie and celebrate the day. just don’t have one of mine, for your own sake.

seafood casserole

some people hate for their foods to mix.

i’m the total opposite.

i want everything together. cover all the bases and keep it together. it’s easier to store/reheat that way. if it needs to cook separately, that’s ok. but if i can throw it all together at once, even better.

so casseroles or soup, i love. this one is seafood.

seafood: salmon filet, crawfish, muscles

i live by the sea so fresh seafood is easily obtainable… still i used frozen this round. notsoclassyiknow

vegetables: peas, mushrooms, onion

i don’t like mayonnaise. and really the main reason that i don’t like it is that it looks horrifically disgusting. but if it’s within a dish like this, i don’t mind. awhile back i found a simple recipe for mayonnaise. and i feel better making it myself and knowing what’s in it. one egg (less half of the white), quarter cup of olive oil, squeeze of lemon, salt/pepper, and whatever spice to go with your dish. immersion blender from the bottom up.

here’s the casserole recipe i followed (in spirit with substitutions): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QU4aCV7UHc

serve with iced tea.

Cooking Club

I had such a fantastic weekend!

On Saturday a few guys came over. We ate pizza & chips, drank beer, and played Rook (a card game similar to Hearts but with a specific deck). It was so much fun! I used to play that game all the time with my friends as teenagers, and I still love it completely. So it was really cool to induct some fresh blood into the cult..

“It’s only a card game, but I’m feeling an odd chill in the air” [slogan on the box]

On Sunday evening, the Cooking Club met (above). This group was started by a couple through Facebook, maybe a year ago. This time we had reps from Germany, Argentina, Iran, Sweden, Italy, Greece, and then me, US. I just think that’s too cool. It’s a really fun gang, super chill and funny.

Normally we meet up, go to the grocery store, buy some goods, then cook together. This time we did potluck.

 

I brought a vegetable pot pie and a chocolate coconut cake to share. The pie, I made Sunday morning. The scary thing about bringing pie to a potluck is that you can’t test it without tearing it up, so you just have to pray it’s edible. The cake I had made for Rook night, but I still had half left, so I brought it on (to avoid my eating the whole thing..).

I had recently bought a baking magazine called Hembakat (‘Homemade’). All the recipes look tasty, but I settled on kokoskaka. Aaand I made it through the recipe without translating anything (granted I opted for a different glaze)! That was my proud moment from the weekend. Not that it was a super complicated recipe.. but, you know.. gotta celebrate the little victories.

Meanwhile, the sun returned this weekend and the snow melted.

Hope the brightness found you during the weekend, as well!

carrot & pumpkin soup w. cinnamon scones

this morning i woke up and wanted to go for a walk to greet the day and get my blood flowing..

 

there’s a church atop a hill, say fifteen minutes from my apartment, so i headed there

 

 

and on the way, stumbled upon a snow family.

this dog is too cute. he’s smiling.!

   

the other week i made carrot and pumpkin soup to freeze.

aside from the carrots and pumpkins, i added probably six cups of water, one bouillon, pepper, a little nutmeg. after it boils, i used an immersion blender so that it’s thick but not totally smooth. then i add a bit of milk so it’s creamy.

yesterday morning i woke up early and made cinnamon scones. i just altered my plain biscuit recipe:

1 & 3/4 c flour + 2 tbs butter + 4 tbs baking powder + two pinches of salt[mix]

then maybe 1 tbs cinnamon (tops) + maybe 1 tsp nutmeg + maybe 1/8 c brown sugar [mix, sift]

buttermilk (1 cup?) until you get to a dough that’s a bit dry/crubmly, a bit wet..

bake nine or ten minutes @ 450F/230C

after a chilly walk in the lightly falling snow, i threw these leftovers on the stove and in the oven…

a cozy and energizing start to sunday.

little debbie oatmealkakor

when i was a kid, i loved those little debbie oatmeal crème pies. my great grandmother always had them on hand.

she passed away when i was two years old, and a family favorite story goes that shortly after, we visited my grandmother and i asked her, “where’s the oatmeal cookie lady?”

this weekend i made those little debbie’s from scratch and thought of my great grandmother.

so.. don your little debbie cowgirl hat and give ’em a go:

you’ll need a soft oatmeal cookie recipe. i haven’t been able to find molasses in sweden, so i used this recipe which was perfect:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Soft-Oatmeal-Cookies/

they’re quite tasty by their own merit, but to make little ol’ debbie proud, you’ll need a cream to sandwich in between two cookies.

i used a buttercream recipe, but you could just as well whip up a cream and call it a day:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/quick-vanilla-buttercream-frosting-recipe.html#!

if you do use that buttercream recipe, i’d say you can cut back on the powdered sugar without sacrificing the taste

enjoy..! your home will smell, well, like home.

snö glass

snö i göteborg

    

there’s no better way to enjoy a snow day than by making snow cream (or in swedish, i’m calling it snö glass)

 

what you need: snö (obviously) + mjölk (condensed preferred but i only had regular) + vanilj + socker

 

there’s no exact recipe, but combine until it’s a runnierthanicecream consistency and you like the taste..!

i’m addicted to pepparkakor cookies (which are basically thicker, less strong moravian cookies). snow cream & pepparkakor cookies are a match made in heaven. this is what i’ll be eating when i’m floating on a cloud across the roads of gold.

warning: snow cream freezes hard and it’s way better eaten fresh, but i always freeze some anyway, because it’s just amazing.

cozy snow day…

i also went into town to meet a friend for a movie. the film festival is in town. we saw a polish film called field of dogs.  i really loved the imagery in this film.

here’s the trailer:

it also forced me to get outside the house and see the blanketed city.

 

i love the trams here. it’s actually one of things i love about gothenburg (it’s always the small things). the trams are really romantic because they look so old fashioned and nostalgic – blue and white striped exterior, inside is all metal. sometimes when i’m riding around in the tram i think about how i could be having the exact same experience sixty years ago.

 

and the ride today, looking out the windows was so nice.

i hope you enjoyed the snow, if it’s snowing wherever you are. otherwise enjoy my photos!

Ärtsoppa (Swedish Pea Soup) & Crepes

The traditional meal for each Thursday in Sweden is ärtsoppa, a soup made with yellow peas and pork, served with thin pancakes..

Yellow peas? Yep, such a thing exists. Apparently..

  

I used a recipe book I was gifted called “Wonderful Sweden.” You can find a similar recipe here (basically add a carrot and it’s the same recipe): http://soupsong.com/rartsopp.html

If you took a gander at the recipe and thought whattheheckismarjoram.?!., you’re not alone. I substituted oregano, because I couldn’t find marjoram at the grocery and a careless Google search told me that the two are related.

I’m all about improvising.

 

Swedes eat their pea soup with thin pancakes, which are basically crepes. I know that sounds like a really random combination. And it is. It’s kind of  a nice combo though. The soup is heavy and the crepes are light. The soup is salty and the jam for the crepes is sweet.

If you’ve never made crepes, take a lesson from Julia:

I quite like this soup. And it’s a nice day for soup. Much like every day.

apple pie

nothing says home like apple pie

 

this recipe is courtesy of martha stewart (but it’s pretty standard and honestly, i don’t think the measurements are so important)

 

exceptttt martha puts twelve apples in one pie..!.! if you want a pie that stretches to jupiter’s farthest moon and back, go with twelve. otherwise, six’ll do.

  

i’ve only recently ventured into the world of homemade crust. i love it. and apple pie is such a traditional dish that it’s really a form of honor to take the old fashioned route.

best part – you can control the thickness. so if you’re a crust lover.. go back to basics and make it from scratch!

I made two pies: one to eat (with friends, mind you) & one to freeze.

it’s cold, dark, and snowy out this way. so if you’re fighting the winter blues, make yourself some pie and know that all will be well

paintbrunch

three friends came over this morning for a soulful sunday of brunch and painting

 

the brunch menu:

~ scratch-made buttermilk pancakes with homemade brown sugar syrup

~ scratch-made buttermilk biscuits

~ crispy bacon & scrambled eggs

 

the artists in their space

and now, the moment you’ve been waiting ten seconds for..

.. the unveiling of masterpieces one day to be found in göteborgs konstmuseet:

 

to recharge afterwards, amerikan äppelpaj (also from scratch, down to the crust)

hope you found color in your sunday, even if your skies were gothenburg grey ..