the rest of the holiday
When last I left off I was enjoying Julafton Christmas Eve at the home of lord_kjar's parents. While many people I know tend to overeat at big holiday meals, I don't tend to have that problem with the traditional Swedish Christmas dinner, since it involves several varieties of fish (which I don't care for), ham (which I also don't care for), meatballs (which I used to enjoy, but since I largely quit eating meat when I figured out what was causing my digestive issues, I tend to skip these, too), and pickled things (the absolute top of the list of things I don't eat, and would prefer to never even smell!). This left a small assortment of things on the table that I do eat: plain boiled potatoes, steamed broccoli (from frozen), a fluffy baked egg/cheese souffle thing, a green salad, hard boiled egg (I skipped the caviar topping that is traditional for these), cheese (the kind made from cream, which is popular here for Christmas), and thinbread (the stuff that is kind of cracker like, but less than 1 mm thick).
However, I was totally content to eat lightly for dinner (I took only a bit of each, and didn't go for seconds. Why? Because my favourite Swedish food, ever, is risalamalta, and I knew that was coming for desert. Those of you who read my last year's holiday post in praise of this dish can just skip to the next paragraph. For those of you who haven't yet tried this little bit of heaven in a bowl, you can make your own by slow-cooking rice in way more milk than you think it should be able to absorb to make a rich yummy rice pudding. Don't add any sugar, it doesn't need it. They eat this pudding for breakfast on the morning of Julafton --they add sugar and cinnamon in the bowl, but I eat it just as it comes out of the pot. Then set the rice pudding aside to cool for some hours (in the fridge once it is cool enough to put there, or outside if you are blessed with nice cold weather). When it is nearly time for desert whip lots of cream and blend it with the cooled rice pudding. The result is wonderfully fluffy and rich. They serve it with berries. This year we had a choice between raspberry, strawberry, and hjortron (cloudberry) (all of which had been mashed while fresh and then frozen and thawed for the occasion). I, of course, tried them all, in turn, since I ate three servings in quick succession, and then, after a pause, had even more. (But not as much as lord_kjar's oldest brother did--he took as many servings as I, but each was larger than I took.)
The next morning, when I came in for breakfast, lord_kjar's mother showed me where the left over risalamalta is, so, instead of having my normal muesli for breakfast I took a small bowl of risalamalta (about half of what was left) with a sprinkle of muesli for crunch, plus some of those crushed raspberries. Yum! Then I went out and enjoyed a 5 km walk on the ice, because if one is going to start one's day with risalamalta, one should also take a walk! However, when I returned from my walk hungry for second breakfast I noticed that no one had eaten the other half of the left over risalamalta, so I ate that, too. Yum. Didn't feel guilty about it either.
Christmas Day itself lord_kjar's youngest brother, his wife and their son, left fairly early to go spend the rest of the day with her family, which meant that the rest of us all fit around one table for dinner. Dinner that day included oxfilé, which smelled really, really good, so I asked what it was, and he translated that word as "like cow, but a boy", and then specified that the meat came from an animal raised by friends of the family, not from a grocery store. Since I am fairly certain that whatever it is about meat that bothers my digestion is related to some of the profit-motivated choices the meat industry makes, I felt safe to take a small bit of the meat, which tasted as yummy as it smelled. There was also a yummy fluffy baked dish made of a variety of mashed root vegetables, and yet more broccoli (it is lord_kjar's favourite veg, and since his mother knows I am 99% vegetarian she frequently serves it when we are there). I am not certain what else there was at that meal, since that was all I took.
I am able to follow so much more Swedish this year than last year (which was more than the year before)--I can converse with his parents now. However, I still wasn't able to follow much of the conversation between the brothers--they spent much of the weekend talking about the finer points of setting up a generator system so that we wouldn't be bothered by power outages if they happen. I am not certain I would have followed those details in English, either. Luckily, I had my sewing project, a book, and a hammer dulcimer, to keep me amused when the conversation got technical.
We drove home late in the morning on the 26th, and soon after we started the drive we got a call from a friend in Luleå, who was having car troubles--temps were about -20 C, and he had some water somewhere in his system that had frozen, so he couldn't drive, and he was wondering if we could tow his car home. We said yes, but warned him we were about an hour away, and he was good with waiting. Therefore we stopped by the big box store area where his car was and towed it back to his place (which isn't far from there), and then continued on home. I don't think the diversion added more than 20 or 30 minutes to the trip.
This got us home on time to put everything away, relax over a bowl of left over soup, and whip up a batch of blueberry cake from my cousin Arja's recipe. I don't think I have remembered to type that recipe up here, so I will share it in Finnish, as I got it from her (with translation and English instructions annotated by her daughter).
************************************************
Arja's Blueberry Cake
Stir:
250 g voita (butter)
4 dl sokeria (sugar)
4 kpl munia (eggs)
Add:
6 dl vehnäjauho (flour)
2 tl leivinjauhe (baking powder)
2 tl vaniljasokeri (vanilla sugar)
Add last:
2 dl kermaviiliä (sour cream)
Add berries. Bake in a 50 x 40 cm pan 200 C 20-30 minutes
******************************************************************
For those of you reading in the States, 250 grams of butter is 1.1 cups, a dl is slightly smaller than half a cup (about 0.42 of a cup), a tl is a teaspoon, and kpl just means you use that many eggs. Note that she doesn't specify how many berries. She makes it with a berry density such that one can see cake between the blueberries, but not a lot. I used more. Like in the middle of the cake it was totally purple on top when it came out of the oven. However, I just spread the berries on top of the batter, I didn't stir it in, so there is lovely yellow cake under the purple layer. I have also made this cake with other berries, but I keep going back to the blueberry version (which is how she introduced it to me), because it is so good.
This batch was no exception. lord_kjar's oldest brother and his wife arrived at our place (after doing a bit of shopping in town (the kids were off at an adventure swimming place with the grandparents) just as the cake was going into the oven, and it was done about the time we finished the inside tour and were ready to do the outside tour. Then we settled down to coffee (them) and herbal tea (us) and cake. lord_kjar served the first round of cake: two slices (each about 4 or 5 cm square) to each of us. Then he got us seconds--the same two slices for the other three, and only one slice for me. I didn't take thirds, but the boys got two more slices each, and she took only one. Yes, the boys took fourths, too. I can't remember if they took fifths after a pause, or if the fourths occurred after said pause. I had expected that we would be able to freeze half the cake (since we normally do when I bake one), but there was less than 1/4 of the cake left by the time they finally gave up. If one more of the brothers had been there it would have totally vanished. However, I can't really mind when my baking is met with such enthusiastic response. Most of the time when I bake I just toss stuff in a bowl and it comes out fine. This recipe I actually follow (other than usually substituting yogurt or filmjölk for the sour cream, since we tend to have one of those in the house, and we don't tend to buy sour cream). Ok, this time I used less sugar, since we were nearly out and had only about 3.5 dl left.
However, I was totally content to eat lightly for dinner (I took only a bit of each, and didn't go for seconds. Why? Because my favourite Swedish food, ever, is risalamalta, and I knew that was coming for desert. Those of you who read my last year's holiday post in praise of this dish can just skip to the next paragraph. For those of you who haven't yet tried this little bit of heaven in a bowl, you can make your own by slow-cooking rice in way more milk than you think it should be able to absorb to make a rich yummy rice pudding. Don't add any sugar, it doesn't need it. They eat this pudding for breakfast on the morning of Julafton --they add sugar and cinnamon in the bowl, but I eat it just as it comes out of the pot. Then set the rice pudding aside to cool for some hours (in the fridge once it is cool enough to put there, or outside if you are blessed with nice cold weather). When it is nearly time for desert whip lots of cream and blend it with the cooled rice pudding. The result is wonderfully fluffy and rich. They serve it with berries. This year we had a choice between raspberry, strawberry, and hjortron (cloudberry) (all of which had been mashed while fresh and then frozen and thawed for the occasion). I, of course, tried them all, in turn, since I ate three servings in quick succession, and then, after a pause, had even more. (But not as much as lord_kjar's oldest brother did--he took as many servings as I, but each was larger than I took.)
The next morning, when I came in for breakfast, lord_kjar's mother showed me where the left over risalamalta is, so, instead of having my normal muesli for breakfast I took a small bowl of risalamalta (about half of what was left) with a sprinkle of muesli for crunch, plus some of those crushed raspberries. Yum! Then I went out and enjoyed a 5 km walk on the ice, because if one is going to start one's day with risalamalta, one should also take a walk! However, when I returned from my walk hungry for second breakfast I noticed that no one had eaten the other half of the left over risalamalta, so I ate that, too. Yum. Didn't feel guilty about it either.
Christmas Day itself lord_kjar's youngest brother, his wife and their son, left fairly early to go spend the rest of the day with her family, which meant that the rest of us all fit around one table for dinner. Dinner that day included oxfilé, which smelled really, really good, so I asked what it was, and he translated that word as "like cow, but a boy", and then specified that the meat came from an animal raised by friends of the family, not from a grocery store. Since I am fairly certain that whatever it is about meat that bothers my digestion is related to some of the profit-motivated choices the meat industry makes, I felt safe to take a small bit of the meat, which tasted as yummy as it smelled. There was also a yummy fluffy baked dish made of a variety of mashed root vegetables, and yet more broccoli (it is lord_kjar's favourite veg, and since his mother knows I am 99% vegetarian she frequently serves it when we are there). I am not certain what else there was at that meal, since that was all I took.
I am able to follow so much more Swedish this year than last year (which was more than the year before)--I can converse with his parents now. However, I still wasn't able to follow much of the conversation between the brothers--they spent much of the weekend talking about the finer points of setting up a generator system so that we wouldn't be bothered by power outages if they happen. I am not certain I would have followed those details in English, either. Luckily, I had my sewing project, a book, and a hammer dulcimer, to keep me amused when the conversation got technical.
We drove home late in the morning on the 26th, and soon after we started the drive we got a call from a friend in Luleå, who was having car troubles--temps were about -20 C, and he had some water somewhere in his system that had frozen, so he couldn't drive, and he was wondering if we could tow his car home. We said yes, but warned him we were about an hour away, and he was good with waiting. Therefore we stopped by the big box store area where his car was and towed it back to his place (which isn't far from there), and then continued on home. I don't think the diversion added more than 20 or 30 minutes to the trip.
This got us home on time to put everything away, relax over a bowl of left over soup, and whip up a batch of blueberry cake from my cousin Arja's recipe. I don't think I have remembered to type that recipe up here, so I will share it in Finnish, as I got it from her (with translation and English instructions annotated by her daughter).
************************************************
Arja's Blueberry Cake
Stir:
250 g voita (butter)
4 dl sokeria (sugar)
4 kpl munia (eggs)
Add:
6 dl vehnäjauho (flour)
2 tl leivinjauhe (baking powder)
2 tl vaniljasokeri (vanilla sugar)
Add last:
2 dl kermaviiliä (sour cream)
Add berries. Bake in a 50 x 40 cm pan 200 C 20-30 minutes
******************************************************************
For those of you reading in the States, 250 grams of butter is 1.1 cups, a dl is slightly smaller than half a cup (about 0.42 of a cup), a tl is a teaspoon, and kpl just means you use that many eggs. Note that she doesn't specify how many berries. She makes it with a berry density such that one can see cake between the blueberries, but not a lot. I used more. Like in the middle of the cake it was totally purple on top when it came out of the oven. However, I just spread the berries on top of the batter, I didn't stir it in, so there is lovely yellow cake under the purple layer. I have also made this cake with other berries, but I keep going back to the blueberry version (which is how she introduced it to me), because it is so good.
This batch was no exception. lord_kjar's oldest brother and his wife arrived at our place (after doing a bit of shopping in town (the kids were off at an adventure swimming place with the grandparents) just as the cake was going into the oven, and it was done about the time we finished the inside tour and were ready to do the outside tour. Then we settled down to coffee (them) and herbal tea (us) and cake. lord_kjar served the first round of cake: two slices (each about 4 or 5 cm square) to each of us. Then he got us seconds--the same two slices for the other three, and only one slice for me. I didn't take thirds, but the boys got two more slices each, and she took only one. Yes, the boys took fourths, too. I can't remember if they took fifths after a pause, or if the fourths occurred after said pause. I had expected that we would be able to freeze half the cake (since we normally do when I bake one), but there was less than 1/4 of the cake left by the time they finally gave up. If one more of the brothers had been there it would have totally vanished. However, I can't really mind when my baking is met with such enthusiastic response. Most of the time when I bake I just toss stuff in a bowl and it comes out fine. This recipe I actually follow (other than usually substituting yogurt or filmjölk for the sour cream, since we tend to have one of those in the house, and we don't tend to buy sour cream). Ok, this time I used less sugar, since we were nearly out and had only about 3.5 dl left.