How Swedish!

No doubt about it.  Pete is a Swedish boy through and through. 

I have cooked a lot of different dishes since I got here.  I've made grilled chicken, shepherd's pie, curry puffs, spring rolls, pasta and even complete Asian meals with rice, stir fried vegetables and sweet and sour fish even.  Pete said that he has enjoyed all of them. 

But when I asked which is his favourite so far, he voted for the meatballs with mashed potatoes.  I would make a creamy, brown sauce to go with them and he loves it.  He would take spoonfuls of it.  The meatballs are traditionally served with the cream sauce and lingonberry jam but we didn't have any jam, so we would have them with just the sauce. 

The meatballs are quite simple to make but they are twice cooked - first browned in butter and then they finish cooking in the oven.  I guess you can just cook them on the stove if you do not want to go through the hassle of using the oven.  The brown sauce is also quite easy to make.  I don't really have a recipe to follow so I made up the recipes on my own.  Usually, when the meatballs are in the oven, I'll start on the sauce so that everything is ready when the meatballs are ready.

The recipes below are roughly the quantities I used when I cook.  I would recommend tasting as you cook since the various brands of ingredients would be different.  For example, the stock cubes could be more or less salty than the ones I get here.  The recipe here is just a rough guide. 

Meatballs

1/4 cup breadcrumbs (not the Japanese breadcrumbs)

1/4 cup cream

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 small onion, chopped and sauted till soft, cooled

500gm minced beef

1 whole egg

butter or oil to saute the meatballs

Pre-heat the oven to 200C.

In a big bowl mix the breadcrumbs with the cream.  You can add more or less cream depending on the breadcrumbs used.  The mixture should be mushy, not runny. 

Add the spices and mix well. 

Add the cooked onions, beef and egg.  Mix well. 

Shape into balls.  Heat up the butter or oil in a pan.  Use just enough to lightly cover the bottom of the pan.  Cook the balls until they are uniformly brown on the outside.  Be careful not to overcrowd the pan or the meatballs will not brown well. 

Transfer to an oven-proof pan and bake for another 30 - 40 minutes, depending on the size of the ball.  Cut one in half to test if they are done. 

Serve with the brown sauce and mashed potatoes.

Brown Sauce

3tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

1 beef stock cube

200ml water or milk

100ml cream

pepper to taste

1tsp soya sauce

Heat the butter in a pan over medium fire. 

 Once melted, add the flour and stir well using a whisk.  Cook for about 1 minute. 

Add the stock cube and whisk well until it is disolved. 

Slowly add the water and then the cream.  Cook until the sauce thickens and add pepper and soya sauce. 

If the sauce is too thick, add more milk or water or cream.  Also, taste the sauce.  If it's too salty, add more milk or cream.    

Ok so the whole dish is not exactly a low calorie one.  Cream and milk and butter in the meatballs and sauce and the mashed potatoes should already tell you how rich this meal is.  You can make it less sinful by replacing the cream with milk and butter with oil.  The sauce will be alright without the cream.  You might need to add more milk if it's too thick.  But it is a delicious dish and I love cooking and eating it.  Oh and don't forget to include some greens.  I like to serve it with peas or asparagus which are simply sauted in olive oil, salt and pepper.  There you go.  A complete meal.

Soup for the soul

After many days of sun and heat, today's weather was a bummer.  It was cold and rainy the whole day.  We went grocery shopping this morning and by the time I got home, all I wanted was a nice hot cup of tea.  I made curry puffs using pre-made puff pastry and while that was baking, Pete and I did some chores.  By the time it was ready, I had such a treat taking crunchy bites of the curry puffs and the tea warmed me up.

For such a weather, only chicken soup will do.  Also, I was hoping that the soup will be gentle on Pete's ulcer in his mouth.  It hurts him whenever he eats so I am trying to cook something that will make eating a less painful affair.

My chicken soup is a slowly and lovingly brewed soup.  First, I made a rich stock using one whole chicken, an onion, a carrot and a few celery stalks.  I let the stock boil until the chicken falls off the bone.  That would take at least two hours over slow fire.  I fished out the chicken, removed the meat and then put the bones back into the stock to boil a bit more. 

Then, I cubed potatoes, more onions, carrots and celery, chopped some cabbage and washed a whole ear of corn.  Once I'm ready to make the soup, I sauted the onions and celery and then when they were soft, I added the rest of the ingredients and the stock.  I cooked the soup until the potatoes were soft.  Just before serving, I put the chicken pieces into the soup.

It's a very hearty and rich soup.  It soothed me and warmed me up.  But alas, Pete still found it painful when he had his soup just now.  It's just past 6.30pm and although the sun is finally shining, I still feel cold.  Looks like another bowl, with a loaf of crusty garlic bread will be in order soon.  I hope Pete's ulcer will heal soon so he could enjoy the soup as much as I did.

What's normal?

The strawberries in my balcony are certainly doing well.  More and more berries are forming and some are already very ripe and red.  I love going to the balcony to look at their growth.  The pretty white flowers bloom for a few days and then wither.  Then, in their place, tiny berries would grow.  The berries would slowly grow bigger and when they have grown big enough, they would slowly start to turn red.  I love when they are red.  They really look like jewels.  I can see them even when I'm sitting on my sofa in the living room.  So pretty.

But not all of the berries look like the normal strawberries that I would usually buy from the supermarket.  The berries in my balcony are smaller and they are all of different shapes.  Some are really tiny.  They look like they are going to grow bigger but they stay tiny, like buds, and they go from green to red.  Some are a bit bigger but they are still much much smaller than a normal berry.

I am worried about such berries.  There is one plant that has a number of such berries.  I wonder why they grow like that.  In another plant, all of the berries look normal.  And in another plant, some leaves have turned brown and the buds have not grown at all.  It's strange that I get different results from the different plants even through I gave them the same amount of water and sunlight.  This is the first time I'm growing strawberries so maybe I'm a bit anxious.

Here are the weird shapes of my strawberries...

I harvested a small batch of the ripest, reddest berries today and shared them with Pete.  The reddest ones were more likely to be sweet while the ones that were not as red were sour.  But sweet or sour, they were really nice, juicy and fresh.   We only took less than a minute to finish them.   

Sweat + Shape

I met my old friends today - pain and suffering.  But I had another old pal to make it bearable - endorphins.

Since I got here, I have not really done any serious work outs.  Pete has been asking me to train him as well but we have not done any exercise apart from our daily walks.  The reasons are quite simple actually.  I wanted to enjoy the first few days of Sweden, and you know how food plays a huge part in my enjoyment.  I have been sampling the goodies here like their pastries and potato salads and I have been cooking more goodies at home for my darling Pete who has had to subsist on fish sticks and hamburgers before I got there.  Also, I am afraid that if I were to start too soon, his bum leg would not be able to handle it. 

But the daily walks have done some good to increase his fitness and also to get his legs more used to exercise.  And I am ready to ditch those fattening foods.  Ok, well, maybe not ditch., who am I kidding?  That's too drastic and frankly, impossible.   There are still lots of food I would love to eat more of but I know that I can pace myself.  Should pace myself actually.  And Pete is ready as well.

So today we decided to have our first work out.  I downloaded an awesome app called Nike Training Club or NTC a few months ago.  A friend of mine introduced me to it actually.  It's awesomeness times 10 since it is totally free.  What you get is a series of workouts designed to suit your fitness goal and level. For each goal, there are three fitness levels.  And for each level, there are quite a few workouts to choose from.

The workouts range from 30 to 45 minutes and they are all circuit training style.  Most of the workouts do not require the use of equipment and if they do, it's usually some basic exercise mat, skipping ropes, hand weights and medicine ball.  And if you don't have any equipment, you can do without.  The best part is that all exercises come with step-by-step instructions with pictures or if you're linguistically challenged or if you're a visual learner like me, there are videos too.  How awesome is that?!

The workouts consist of a number of exercises which are to be done for a specific interval such as 15sec, 30sec, 1min or 2min.  The most awesome part is that the timing is all done for you.  A mechanical voice (she is the only un-awesome part of the app) will tell you what exercise to do, how long to do it for, how much time you have left for the exercise and occasionally, will give you some encouragement.  This feature of the app is awesome, I must admit, but the way she speaks, it's a bit umm..mechanical.  But it's still good.

So, my friends who are fitness freaks, or if you are thinking of starting a fitness routine and you are not a member of any gym like us, try this out.  Oh yeah, you need to get an iPhone first.  I'm not sure if you can get it on android but those with, you can give it a try.

So for our first work out, I decided to try out a Get Lean workout for beginners.  The workout is called Sweat + Shape.  It's supposed to start out with 5 minutes of warm up with light jogging for 2 mins, back pedalling for a minute and 2 mins of straight leg kicks.  First off, we already have a problem.  We live on the 3rd floor and so we do not wish to make too much noise, lest we cause some disturbances to our neighbours below.  Imagine us, two heavyweights ´running and jumping about.  I'm so sure we'd drive our neighbours mad with our thud, thudding.

We also do not have a lot of room to maneuver.  We only had maybe 2m by 3m of space, so imagine how we had to squeeze by each other.  Between moving about to get out of each other's way and trying to tip toe so as not to make too much noise, the 4th minute of the workout got us panting much harder than I expected.

I am so sure that if we were to get our attempts at the exercises on video, it would be a hit on Comedy Central.  But we plodded on.  The exercises, though labelled as for beginners, were not too easy.  I have not been working out since my wedding back in March so I am out of shape and oh how I struggled!  I had to do those all too familiar squats, lunges, push ups and planks but it's good cause muscle memory got my breathing and form correct and soon, after the initial struggle, I was feeling good.  That was the endorphins talking.  It was tiring, very tiring, and I was sweating and my muscles are aching, but I love that feeling.

Pete did good too.  He has not been doing those exercises for a long time too, much longer than me, and coupled with his injury, he had to struggle even more to get through the workout.  The accident impaired the mobility of his left knee and he had trouble with the lunges and squats.  But he pressed on.  He wanted to quit after just half of the workout but to his credit he took just a short breather and then continued, joining me for the rest of the workout.

I could see it in his face that he was really putting in a lot of effort.  I have never seen his face getting that red nor his breathing so heavy but he really pushed himself.  I am so proud of him, prouder still when he asked, "So we're doing this every day?"

My initial plan was to do circuit training 3 or 4 times a week on top of our daily walks.  I think that would be a great start.  We can increase the intensity if it gets too easy but I think I'll be happy if we can keep to the plan.

After the workout, or 'torture' is what Pete likes to call it, we drank a bit of water and then we were out the door on our usual walk.  Our vegetable garden awaits.

Ground work

I don't understand.  Why do weeds take such a short time to grow and thrive while the seeds that I care for so tenderly and carefully take their time?

I really shouldn't use the picture of the dandelion as my blog's background.  Those pretty dandelions are just one of many weeds that invade my garden every day.  I would weed the flower and vegetable beds every day and yet they keep coming back.

Some of the weeds are easy to remove, roots and all.  I always get a sense of achievement when I managed to pull them out with the roots.  But some are so hardy, the dandelion being one of them.  Their roots go so deep and so strong that I would have to dig deep and expose as much of their roots as I could before I could remove the roots.  Even then, I suspect that most times I did not remove all their roots.  That's because a new dandelion plant would grow back at the same spot a few days later.

We still have a lot of work left to do at the garden.  For now, we've only used maybe just half of the land to grow our plants.  And these plants are still so small that it doesn't look like vegetable beds.  They still look bare with tiny seedlings.  The rest of the land which has been tilled by Pete a couple of weeks ago have been slowly taken over by weeds.

The weeds are even more abundant along the border.  They are so overgrown that we had a letter from the department that leases the land to remove them.  So for next week, our to-do list is looking pretty long.  We would need to till the land and remove as much weed as we can.  Also, we would have to construct a fence and maybe plant some nice bushes along the border.  Then we would have to lay out some tiles at a corner so that we can put some chairs and maybe a small portable BBQ grill for a picnic there.  I also have more seeds that I would like to finish planting, which means we would need to finish making our raised beds.

We are newbies at the allotment and I know that we would need a lot of work to get our plot to look as good and as neat as the others.  We do have some future plans for our garden.  Pete would like to build a wind screen around that area to make it more cosy and comfortable, sort of like a patio.  And next year, after learning from our mistakes, we would like to organise the plot better to make full use of the space.  Maybe, we could construct a better looking fence with a nice gate or something. 

But for now, there's a lot of ground work to be done.  We will start tomorrow.

The Ikea test

We passed the test.

We shopped for furniture at Ikea, got them home and assembled them with our relationship intact.  And we have not one, not two, but six pieces of Ikea furniture in our home.  And some of the furniture were not small, mind you.  The latest addition to the home is the wardrobe he bought for me to house my clothes and a chaise lounge for us to share while watching movies.

The Ikea experience for me here is totally different from back home.  My family and I have been fans of Ikea ever since they first opened in Katong, near to where Parkway Parade is now.  We love their simple yet cosy design.  Although we do get frustrated over some badly constructed pieces which made their assembly difficult, generally we do like to buy their furniture since the prices are relatively low and if you don't move them too much and if once in a while you tighten the screws, they do last.

I used to hate putting together the pieces with my father.  He would get frustrated when the pieces do not fit and would grumble as we worked.  It would get to the point where I'd rather do it myself and most of the time I would send him away and work on it alone or with my siblings.  In the end, what we'd do is to decide what we want, get them delivered and assembled for us.  We have to pay extra but, easy peasy.  No sweat, no swearing.

Here, it's totally different.  First of all, before we do anything, we have to agree on the furniture.  Luckily, Pete and I have no problems choosing something we both could agree on.  I thought that was the hardest part, actually.  Then I thought we only had to choose the pieces we want, we pay for them and then wait at home.  But no.  Here, hardly anyone have their furniture delivered.  They don't believe in it.  What they do is to rent small trailers and get them hitched to the back of their cars.  They load everything there, drive and then carry their furniture into their homes.

When his mum bought her car, we could finally get a trailer and so we went to Ikea this afternoon.  Back home, Saturdays at Ikea means long queues at the restaurant and long queues at the cashier counters.  But it was not crowded at all here.  We could shop and eat in peace.  The hard work would come later.

We bought a chaise lounge (Kivik) and a two-door wardrobe (Brimnes).  We also bought 4 pieces of wood 3.3m in length for our vegetable beds in the garden.  Once we got to the driveway near our apartment, Pete and I had to carry the heavy pieces to the main door about 100m away, open the door, get into the lift and into our home.  And boy were they heavy.  Although we have a trolley to help us, the weight of the wood meant that we still had to use a lot of strength to move them.  As we took trip after trip to get everything up, I could feel my legs getting a good work out.  I'm lucky we're in Sweden where it's nice and cool even in summer.  Even with all the effort, I didn't break a sweat.

And luckily for me, I married a strapping Viking.  He did most of the work, even carrying the planks which are too long for the elevator up the stairs.  They were very heavy.  Getting the planks inside was my job and I could only carry one plank at a time.  He also had to move the old dining table and sofa bed to his mum's while I stayed to try put something together.

I managed to push our furniture around to make space to assemble the lounge.  I took a deep breath and then started ripping the box apart.  I was ready to tackle what I thought was going to be a messy operation, but I got a pleasant surprise.  It turned out I only had to hammer the legs to the bottom and put the cushions on.  Anti-climax.

The wardrobe, though, was the complete opposite.  First of all, it came in two heavy boxes.  I had to wait for him to get home before I could start.  I had trouble even opening the boxes.  The manual that came with it was 28 pages long and there were 29 steps altogether.  We've built our dining table and metal workstation together with no problems.  But this wardrobe looks like a massive job.  As I looked at the hinges, screws and nails, I wondered, "Would we be able to do it?"

Thankfully we were.  We worked very well together, even though we took 1hr 36mins from start to finish.  We know because we timed ourselves.  Needless for me to say, Pete has put together enough Ikea furniture to be able to make sense of the directions.  I only needed to follow his instructions. Throughout, we joked and teased each other and most importantly, we used each other's strength to put the ten pieces of wood into a working wardrobe.

"Is this a test to see if I'm fit to live in Sweden?" I teased him.  "No, it's a test to see if you're fit to be with me," he teased back.

I don't think we passed the test.  We aced it.

my wedding dress was the first to go into the new wardrobe

The days are getting longer

Pete and I headed out this evening at around 7.30pm to drop by his mum's.  As I walked out the door, Pete said, "Don't forget your sunglasses."

He was right.  It was evening and yet the sun was still shining brightly.  I was thankful for the shades, for the sun was in my eyes.  We were walking towards the sun.

The days are certainly getting longer.  It's already past 9.30pm and I could still see the sun behind the building in front of our apartment.  And it won't get dark before 10pm.  Sometimes, we were asleep even before it gets dark. 

Just another Sweden thing I have to get used to.

OMG, no COE!

I was reading news online about my home and came across news that the COE prices have dipped slightly.  Back home, COE, or Certificate of Entitlement, is a highly sought after piece of paper that allows the bearer to buy a car.  Being a tiny dot of an island, the COE was devised by the government to limit car ownership and control the number of cars on the road.  Residents would have to bid for their right to buy a motor vehicle and the number of certificates are deliberately restricted.  Since first implemented in 1990, the prices of the COEs have increased, especially in the last 5 years.

As of yesterday, the price of a COE for a big car is SD$85,216, SD$58, 800 for small cars and SD$1,890 for motorcycles.  Those prices are only for the right to buy a car, so a Toyota Camry would cost SD$160,000.

It's such a coincidence for me to read the news and the discussion that ensued, which for most part consists of the citizens venting their anger and frustration at the government's handling of the situation.  It's a coincidence because just before I plonked myself down in front of the computer, I tagged along with Pete and his mum and sis to look at used cars.  His mum wanted to buy a car so we tagged along since Pete and his sister didn't want her to get ripped off or something.

She had already searched online for a car and found one that she liked.  Pete and his sister suggested going to used car dealerships to look at more cars, so that was what we did this afternoon.  And boy, coming from the land of COEs (my family car cost SD$90,000 for a Mazda 3), what an eye-opener for me.

We found Volvos, Audis, BMW, VW and Merc for just a fraction of what the COEs cost.  Yeah, they have probably been through multiple owners and some are really old but they are still serveable.  We went to three places and I found some nice ones that are hardly SD$20,000.  It's a pity I have no driver's license or I would also have bought one on the spot.

Public transport is rather good here.  The buses and trains are clean and on time.  There's more than enough buses and trains for the passengers (I only had to stand in the bus on only one occasion since I got here) and the commute is smooth and fast.  For now, I am happy just taking public transport.  But in future, maybe I could take some time to get that license and a car.  Comparing the prices here with those back home, I am really tempted to do so. 

Anyway, after looking at the cars, Pete's mum still opted to buy the car she first had her eye on.  It's '93 Mazda 626 with a detachable hitch at the back to harness a trailer to the car.  Although it is an old one, the interior was clean and looked well maintained.  As she drove us home, she said that she loves the feel of the car.  And I agree.  The maroon car suits her and the ride was smooth.  The best part, it costs just SEK7,000 or roughly SD$1,400.

Sweet n sour

The strawberry looked even better this morning.  It looked like a red jewel, glistening in the sun's rays.  It tempted me to pick it right off and taste it.  But I didn't.  Well, not right away.  I watered the plants and went to the garden and a few hours later, when I went to the balcony again, I could smell that sweet strawberry scent.

So I picked it off the stem, washed it and then took a tiny bite off the tip.  A bite out of my first strawberry plant.  I was hoping it would taste as sweet as it smelled but it was sour.

Pete took the second bite.  Sour.  But as sour as it was, the fact that I could grow and pick and eat my own strawberries makes life sweet. 

The garden is waking up

The last two weeks were cold, chilly and rainy, so we didn't go to the garden every day.  We figured the garden would have enough water from the rain and it would be too muddy to walk about.  But the last two days have been very warm and sunny and there hasn't been any rain.  I guess from now on, we would have to visit the garden every day to at least water the plants.

So, even though we were busy yesterday (I accompanied Pete to town for his meeting) we still headed to the garden afterwards.  We walked in the warm, bright sunshine but the wind cooled us down.  This is the time I am glad I live here where it's windy.

It's great going to the garden every day, there's always something new to be discovered.  Yesterday, we found the pea shoots growing taller and the leaves are starting to open.  We counted and found seven shoots growing.  I know I've planted more so hopefully the sun would give them a warm wake up call.

The beans have surprised me.  At first there was nothing growing there apart from some weeds.  There's a dandelion growing in the middle of the bed (grrr), but no beans.  The past few days, we could see them sprouting and finally yesterday, they have grown taller.  The best part is that there are now many more sprouts.  At the last visit, we counted maybe nine sprouting beans.  Yesterday, we found 25!  And all look healthy and strong.

The petunias are also recovering.  Maybe we could have lost one or two plants.  There doesn't seem to be any flowers growing there.  But on other plants, the flowers are blooming well.  The cute thing is that the flowers are much bigger than the leaves so, from afar, it looks like a row of flowers on the ground.  You can hardly see the leaves.

The squash are also beginning to grow bigger.  I hope they will survive and thrive in the summer's heat.  The potatoes are also growing well.  We burried them under soil two days ago and they have already grown above the new layer.  They are certainly growing bigger every day.

The garden is waking up.  Sadly, it also means that the weeds are also growing.  Actually, they are thriving.  The poor petunias are surrounded by tall, thin grass and there are other big plants that we could not identify growing all over the area.  That means there'll be more work for me at the garden.  More weeding, watering and tilling.  With the encouraging signs of growth, my plans for more sowing and planting looks promising.

Turning red

I was pulling up the blinds in the living room this morning when something red caught my eye.

One of the strawberries is ripening!  What a sight to greet me on a warm, summer morning!  Looking closely at my plants, I found another smaller berry also beginning to ripen.  The flowers have also withered so I'm looking forward to more berries.

Yay!  Although some of the plants already have some berries and flowers on when I bought them, I am glad that they are surviving.  Phew!  I hope more will ripen in June, just in time for Ina and my family's visit.

Fit Flop weather

I brought two Fit Flop sandals with me in my luggage, thinking that I would be able to wear them during the warmer summer months.  And I thought May would be warm enough.  But since I got here, it has been very cold and I had to put on my boots.  Even sneakers are not good enough since the wind blows the cold into the shoes. 

Yesterday was a warm day but it was still windy and I didn't dare to wear the sandals since the wind could make it too cold for me.  But today was very warm.  The sun was very very bright and a check on the weather app on the iPhone showed a nice 20C. 

I wore my boots to the garden since it could get muddy there, but as we worked on our plot, the sun beat down on us and I could feel something familiar dripping down my back and my forehead.  For the first time since I got here, I was sweating. 

As we walked home, I could see the grass dotted with not only the hardy dandelions, the only flowers that could withstand the cold, but also many white and blue flowers.  I guess summer is really here. 

Time for my flip flops.

Give peas a chance

That was what Pete said when we were discussing our plants.  Such a joker.  But he is right.  In fact, I have to give all my plants a chance to take their time to grow.  Is this the mistake of beginner gardeners?  To expect too much too soon?  It has hardly been two weeks since I planted most of my seeds and seedlings.  Also, the weather hasn't been too kind.  The last two weeks were quite cold and frosty, not exactly perfect for growing.  Maybe the plants are waiting for better weather to sprout.

I guess I have to be more patient.  Luckily the weather seems to be getting warmer and there's more sun.  And the garden is waking up.  When we visited the garden today, we found more sprouting plants!  From a far, the garden still looks sad and empty.  But, when we got closer, we saw the pea shoots continuing to grow.  We also spotted bigger shoots off the beans.  Another good news is that the carrots finally look like they are sprouting as well.  I don't really know how carrot leaves look like so I didn't dare touch the carrot bed.  I was afraid I'd mistake the carrots for weeds. 

The squash plants looked like they have stopped growing after sprouting two huge leaves.  But they have now shown more signs of growth.  They now have more leaves budding.  The petunias are starting to grow again.  Over night, more flowers have bloomed.  Although the plants are still small, there were up to five flowers per plant!  Amazing!

What was amazing as well was how the pea shoots seem to be growing during the time we were there.  I watered the peas when I first got to the garden.  Then after weeding, tilling, watering and planting a new row of lettuces, I would always inspect the plants again before I left.  I swear the peas have grown taller and started to open up their budding leaves. 

So, yes, I am glad I didn't give up on them.

Breakfast Biscuits

We have a tradition here.  It is something that Pete suggested.  We always have biscuits (or scones, I am still not sure of the difference) for breakfast on weekends.  This all started when I decided to make biscuits for breakfast for Pete on my first ever visit to Sweden.  I was so happy to be with him again after 6 months, that I decided the usual toast for breakfast would not cut it.

I couldn't make french toast since that would aggravate his heartburn and there wasn't any maple syrup to go with pancakes.  Besides, biscuits are easy to whip up and fast to cook.  At that time, his kitchen wasn't very well equipped but I had all the ingredients and I found a big enough bowl for all the flour.  Even though there wasn't any round biscuit cutter, it was easily solved.  I simply used a glass to cut out the shapes.

He loved it so much that he would ask me to make them again a couple more times.  And then, on my next visit last December, it became that weekends are the only times we could sit down and have a leisurely breakfast.  He requested for biscuits for those unhurried days and that's how it got started.

I love making biscuits here.  The recipe that I use is easy to put together.  I could have the biscuits ready to be served within half an hour.  Just when I am done with the washing up and setting the table, the biscuits will be done.

Also, the weather is nice and cool, even in the kitchen.  The ingredients are easy to find and with my work bench, there's a nice and cool counter top to knead the dough.  I am also able to stay cool so that I won't melt the butter too much.  The dough is so easy to bring together here and I hardly break a sweat when I make the dough. 

Back home, it's very difficult to make these since the temperature is too warm and I would have to work very quickly to work the butter into the dough.  I have very warm hands so I think it makes it harder for me when I make these at home.

It is important for the butter to stay as cold as possible because that is how you get biscuits that will rise well and be nice and fluffy inside.  But apart from that, it really is quite simple to make.  You simply mix the dry ingredients in a big bowl.  Then measure out the milk in a measuring jug.  Add an egg into it and then mix everything into a dough.  You don't really have to knead.  Just lightly move the dough around a bit and then press down to about 1 inch thickness.  I don't even bother to roll it out using a rolling pin.  Cut into circles and then bake in the oven.  In less than 15 minutes, you'll get golden biscuits, perfect with butter and jam.

I've tried a few recipes and tweaked them to finally settle on this one.  It is a bit buttery, very fluffy and rises very well.  The first few times I made them, I was too careful with the kneading.  I read that the dough shouldn't be kneaded too much or it would be tough and not rise well.  I was too scared too knead it at all actually.  The biscuits still didn't rise properly.  I guess it was because I didn't knead it well.  After making these for awhile, I realised that I should knead the dough a bit more, but I never went beyond one full minute.  After that, the biscuits rose very well and I get those lovely cracks in the middle.

It is important to cut out your biscuits because that will result in the cracks as the biscuits rise.  With this recipe, I get eight nice circles and some extra dough in the end.  I always shape the extra dough by hand and these will never rise as much as those that were cut out.  But they are still nice and fluffy inside.  I still have yet to buy a round cookie cutter.  I really should try and look for one when I go shopping next time.

just before I took them out of the oven

they have risen to more than twice their height

with cheese and jam, and butter and kaya, for an Asian touch

Biscuits

2 1/2 cups plain flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 cup butter, cold, cut into small cubes

3/4 cup milk, cold

1 whole egg

Preheat the oven to 220C.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Measure out the milk and then add the egg.  Beat well.

Rub the butter into the flour until you get a sandy, breadcrumb-like mixture.

Add the milk mixture, reserving a tablespoon of it to brush the tops of the biscuits with, and slowly combine to form a dough.  

Dust a clean surface with flour, dump the mixture on it and knead lightly until it is easy to handle.  Do not over-knead.

Roll out the dough to about 2cm thickness and cut into rounds using a cookie cutter.  Place on a baking tray, leaving a bit of space in between.   

Brush the top of the biscuits with the reserved milk mixture and bake for 12 - 15 minutes.

Can be served immediately.

Hope springs

On Saturday, when we were on our walk, we stopped by the garden.  We didn't bring any tools with us since we figured the rain would have watered the soil.  Also, I was feeling a bit disappointed that the garden was not flourishing.  Heck, it was hardly even alive, except for the weeds.

And sure enough, as we walked towards it, I could only see the potato plants and whatever that's left of the petunias.  I walked to the potato bed to check them out and they are doing well, really strong and hardy.  Soon, it'll be time to bury them to encourage more growth.

Then Pete called me over excitedly.  He was standing by the bed where we planted peas.  He pointed out a tiny green speck.  "Look, honey, it's growing!" he said and sure enough, I could make out what I think are baby leaves.  We counted more tiny green specks.  Nine in all!  Phew.  I guess although we couldn't see anything, underneath, those peas are fighting the chilly days and nights and clayey (is that even a word? but I don't care, it's my blog and I can use any word I want!) soil to finally sprout. 

finally, a sprouting pea

And the onion that has sprouted a few days ago is looking healthy as well.  The squash and petunias are not looking good.  The carrots and beans are still not showing anything yet.  But I'm hopeful.  It has only been a bit more than a week since I planted the seeds.  Also the weather has been a bit too chilly the last week so maybe the seeds are waiting for better weather to sprout.

I think that's what they will get soon.  More sun and gentle rain.  I am hopeful.

this onion looks like it's growing well

another onion sprouting

Weather for walking

It started out windy and cold.  We went out in the morning with his mum and sister to get some stuff for the garden.  When we got home, it even drizzled for a while.  It continued to drizzle after a short pause.  A nice day to stay indoors, and indoors was where we would be for the rest of the day, I declared.

But when it got closer to 6pm, the weather turned.  The rain stopped and the sun came out.  Looking out the window, the bushes were relatively still and the leaves of the trees, barely moving.  Well, maybe we can go out for our walk now.

Hesitantly, Pete got ready to go out.  He was mentally prepared for a day of rest, but to his credit, he walked on and boy, were we rewarded with the best weather since I arrived.  It was sunny, not too windy and not too cold.  We took our usual route and passed our garden.  I know our daily walks have done us good because we were not panting by the time we got to our patch.

As we continued on our walk, the day got even better.  It got warmer and brighter and I felt like we could walk on for miles.  And so we did.  We took a longer route home and passed beautiful trees, houses and even a church.  I even spotted a wild rabbit, scrambling into the bushes when it saw us.  If only there are more of such days.

we think these are chestnut trees

 Before I end this post, here are pictures of some of the cats in the neighbourhood.  The Swedes love dogs.  I can always find someone walking their dog when I am outdoors and there are plenty of dog parks and fields for dogs to run around in.  I didn't think they love cats as well, but I have been seeing cats in some of their homes.  And the cats here are fat and fluffy, I guess to adapt to the cold.
  

spot the cat

this was found in the same garden

a close up of one of them

the cat on the right jumped on the ledge when it saw me and got shocked by the presence of the one on the left

this beauty was 3 houses away

Would you like seeds with that?

Do you know they have a drive-thru to buy soil here? 

There a number of big stores selling gardening and DIY stuff here.  Not like the whimpy, tiny stores back home.  Here, they sell everything you need to build stuff - wood in many sizes and lengths, cement, fences, gates, even tools like electric saws and drills and many sizes of lawn mowers.  You can drive your car through the back and load up on the wood or any other heavy stuff, drive up to the cashier, pay and drive home.  The bags and bags of soil are neatly arranged in front of the building and there's a drive-thru for that too. 

Looking at the lines of cars that were waiting to pay for their purchases, I could see that the Swedes love to do home improvement projects.  And looking at the gardens that I pass when out on my walks, they take their gardening seriously too.

Well, today, we drove thro and bought 5 huge bags of soil that costs just SEK 99 (less than SD$20).  We also bought some pots to replant the tomato and strawberry plants.  Once we got home, I got to work immediately.  I put one tomato plant into each big pot since they would grow bigger.  The strawberries I could plant together in one long planter.  I could only fit 4 small plants into the planter.  I guess the rest would be planted outdoors in the garden.

the strawberries

how the balcony is looking now

We can't go to the garden today since it's been drizzling the whole afternoon.  We also have  to buy wood for the raised beds.  Since we don't have the wood and since the weather is not co-operating, we have to stay indoors instead.  Time for TV.

5 click

The weather was really good yesterday.  We spent the morning with his sister and mum.  It was still a bit chilly and windy then but once we got home, the sun shone brighter and it didn't seem so windy.  After lunch, we decided to head out for a walk. 

He took me to the opposite direction this time.  He said that we weren't going to walk past and visit our garden like we normally would.  Instead, he led me to a small bicycle store since we were thinking of getting one.  I found a very lovely Cupcake city bike.  There was a picture of a cute cupcake on the seat and there were more cute pictures on the sides of the bike.  It also came with a very lovely basket in front. Very pretty.   But it was over our budget, so we have to keep looking.

one of the many gorgeous trees I see on our walks

We turned to head back and just when I thought that the walk was going to end at the store nearby, he turned and said that we were going to visit the garden after all!  That's great because that means he is getting fitter and his leg is not bothering him that much any more.  He is really struggling to cope with the after-effects of the accident.  So I don't really dare to push him too hard when we walk.

But yesterday was great.  The weather was nice and sunny with just enough wind to keep us cool.  He also switched on his app, Runkeeper, so that we could keep track of our speed and distance.  The walk was not that easy since the ground was not flat and we had a few hills to climb.  Also, we tried to maintain a good pace, making it a bit difficult to talk because of the effort it took to keep to the speed.  I could feel myself getting fitter as well, since I could keep up with his broad steps.  I had to take two small, quick steps to his one giant one. 

When we got to the garden, however, the mood changed a bit.  The ground didn't look good at all.  The potatoes are growing very well.  The squash too.  But the rest of the garden didn't look good at all.  The flowers didn't seem like they are going to survive.  All but one cucumber plant have shrivelled up, one even to nothingness, shredded by the harsh winds.  Nothing else, apart from two sprouts from the onions have grown.

Pete said that maybe our mistake was to plant directly in the ground.  It looks like the soil gets hard after it rains.  So, maybe we should have put good soil on it first before planting.  It's back to the drawing board for now.  The next project for us is to build raised beds and fill them with good soil.  Maybe that will be better.  It's our first time growing  stuff so we're learning.

The good thing about the walk is that we completed 5km that day.  And we didn't take more than an hour to complete it.  This is a very good progression and I hope we can build on it and continue to increase the intensity.  The sky is looking cloudy as I write this, but from what I've experienced, the weather can turn instantly.  I'm hoping for another good weather today.

More goodies for the garden

Pete's sister drove us and my mum in law to a very lovely neighbourhood.  Rows of homely looking brick houses with gardens that look so lovingly cared for and maintained line the streets.  The reason we were there was that we were looking for a particular house.  The owner sells pots of baby tomato and strawberry plants from his garden.  My mother in law has been getting her plants from this nice, friendly looking man for a couple of years now and his plants have always grown well.

His garden was not very big - maybe slightly bigger than ours.  But he has a greenhouse at the back where he planted the seedlings.  He had shelves and shelves of the plants, ready to be transplanted into the ground or a bigger pot.  In the other parts of the garden, he has planted rows and rows of strawberries, potato, onions and bushes of rasberries.

But he didn't have any tomato plants growing outdoors.  He said the tomato plants that he grew last year all didn't survive the wet summer.  Hearing that, I am definitely not going to plant the tomatoes outside.  They will stay protected in my balcony.  Pete suggested planting some of the strawberries outdoors and some indoors. 

baby tomato plants

The strawberry plants that we got seem to be healthy.  Some already have flowers growing and better yet, some berries are already formed.  Hopefully, by the time my family visits in June, they will be ripe for picking.

strawberry plants

a flower that will turn into a strawberry

a baby berry

We also bought some lavender plants.  For now, all these babies are growing in our balcony.  Hopefully soon, we can transplant them outdoors.

Summer's rolls

One of the things that I had to take into consideration before moving here is the availability of halal food.  I was worried that I would have difficulty finding food that I could eat.  But my fears were banished the first time I visited Sweden.

I am so lucky that one of his sisters has married a Muslim and the best part is that her husband works in a halal supermarket.  Everything that is sold there is halal and they have fresh meat there as well.  I love going there since I can find halal sausages, meats, cheese and many other foods that I wouldn't be able to find back home.  Halal turkey or beef bacon? Yeah, they have it.  Ful medames, or kacang phool, in Malay?  You have many brands of the canned beans to choose from.

And see what I found at the frozen food section - TYJ spring roll pastry.  Yesterday I cooked the filling using cabbage, carrots and frozen vegetables, the Chinese stir fry mix.  The bag came with bamboo shoots, snow peas and other vegetables you'd use in a stir fry.   Then last night, I sat in front of the tv, rolling them out one by one.

 This afternoon, I cooked the spring rolls for lunch today to go with fried rice.  They taste so good.  So crispy, so familiar.  More tastes of home.  The only thing missing is chili sauce to go with them.  The chili sauce they have here are not the same.  I want Maggi chili sauce.  Or Del Monte's.  I need chili!

  I still have some of the popiah skins left.  The next thing I'll be making is samosas.  I have potatoes, no surprise, and frozen mixed vegetables.  But I don't have Baba's curry mix, the one my mum uses.  I will try to use the bottled curry powder that Pete has in the pantry.  Let's hope it works.

First cupcake of the season

I finally had time to take out our cake mixer to bake yesterday, since the weather didn't allow us to go out.  We bought the Moulinex Masterchef Gourmet last December.  When I tried to bake using the mixer then, I thought it was because of the colder room temperature during winter that was preventing the butter from getting soft and fluffy.  I had to stop the machine many times to scrape the sides and even then, the mixture was not getting creamed well.

Yesterday, I used the mixer again, thinking that it would give me better results.  But the same thing happened.  The butter and sugar mixture was not beaten well.  I had to stop the machine many times to scrape the sides and bottom but the mixture was still not getting fluffy.  I think it's because of the poor design of the machine.  That's because when I finally gave up and used a hand mixer, the batter was ready in minutes. 

Pete helped me to search the internet to find a solution to the problem, to see if there were any feedback about the machine.  But we didn't find any helpful info.  The general feedback was that the machine was good for it's price, powerful but not good for small quantities of batter.  I will give it another try and see if I can get better results when I use double the quantities of the batter I made yesterday.  The machine also comes with a blender and other attachments.  I still have not used them.  I will have to try it out.  Hopefully they work better as a blender.

That's the problem with cake mixers.  It's hard to get a good one if you can't try it out for yourself first.  If only they have a trial set that you can use before you buy one.  You can't really trust what they wrote on the packaging.  You have to try it or to get recommendations from others.  My recommendation is not to get the Moulinex Masterchef Gourmet.  The only good thing I discovered about it so far is the mixing bowl.  It's really nice and deep, excellent for mixing.  I will use that bowl to make my batter.  By hand.

This makes me miss my trusty Kitchen Aid back home.  Mixing cake batter and bread dough with it is such a breeze.  I don't really want to bring it over since it's for my family to use.  I have taught my sis and mum some recipes using the Kitchen Aid, so I want them to make use of the machine to bake.  I don't want my family to go without home baked goods.

But I really would love to have one here.  It's more expensive to get it here.  There is a store selling the white one, just like what I have at home.  And it is on discount.  The price is SEK3990 instead of the usual SEK5990.  But it's still too expensive for us to buy.  I can still use the hand mixer, since I'll go crazy getting the Moulinex to work.  In this cool kitchen, I really don't mind using the hand mixer since I won't work up a sweat.  It's fine for now. 

Never mind the kitchen troubles.  This was what I baked yesterday - lemon cupcake with whipped cream and strawberries.  So good on a cool, rainy afternoon with a cup of hot lemon tea.

Lemon Cupcake

1 3/4 cup plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

zest from 1 lemon, grated

3/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into a mixing bowl.

In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 5mins).

Add the eggs, one at a time.  Then add the grated zest.

Fold in the 1/3 of the flour.  Then add 1/2 the milk.  Repeat, finishing with the flour.

Scoop into cupcake tins lined with those pretty liners you can get from the stores nowadays.

Bake for 25mins.

Don't trust the sun

I am still trying to get used to the weather here.  It really is strange to see the sun shining brightly outside but know that it might be cold and windy.  Like today, for instance.  The day looks bright and so we decided to head out for our usual walk, maybe even visit our garden.  But when I opened the main door, the blast from the wind told me that we could have to cut the walk short.

Just barely ten steps from the door, it started drizzling.  The wind, I might be able to stand, but getting pelted by cold drops of rain is not something I can cope with yet.  So we definitely could not have our walk today.  We only walked to the supermarket nearby to get some stuff and then back home.

But when we reached home, it started getting very bright again with no sign of rain.  But any thought of going out again was dashed when Pete asked me to look carefully at the trees and bushes around the building.  They were getting bashed by the strong winds.  And yeah, soon enough, it rained heavily.  At least my vegetables are getting enough water.

It was great weather for something warm and comforting.  Something that tastes of home.  I filled up a saucepan with water and put in some chopped cabbage, dried noodles, egg and soup granules.  In minutes, I had our meal ready.  Ahh...nothing beats instant noodles for days like this.

Roast that spud!

I love potatoes.  I am such a potato head.  I love them in any way - mashed, roasted, fried, in begedil, in curry puffs.  I love potatoes.  And I am so glad that the Swedes love potatoes as well.  They love creamy potato salad which can be bought in huge tubs at the supermarkets.  They also love them simply boiled or mashed.  And the great thing is they are cheap.  They sell for about SD$0.80 a kg.  Needless to say, potatoes are always on our shopping list.  But I do try to cook them in healthful ways, with as little added fat and cream as possible.

The potatoes that we get here are a bit different from what I was used to.  Back home, I used to reach out for Russet potatoes for anything - soups, mash, fries, roasts.  The potatoes we have here are pale yellow with thin skins.  Some are small but you can also get big sized ones, as big or even bigger than the Russet potato.  The texture when it's cooked is also different.  The potatoes here takes a bit longer to cook.  While Russet potatoes disintegrate if you were to boil them too long, the potatoes here hold their shape.

But last week, when I tried making potato gratin, I sliced and baked them and it was a disaster.  The dish got watery and I think the water came from the potatoes.  Pete's mum also said the same thing.  She said they are much better boiled.  That's the way we should cook the potatoes that we would get from our plants, she added.

On Monday though, when we were out grocery shopping, Pete came across baking potatoes.  They were the same colour as the usual cooking potatoes but much bigger.  We bought four of them to try.  The next day, I had a craving for something called potato skins.  It's twice baked potatoes.  It took quite a while to cook but most of the time was simply waiting for the potatoes to cook through.  Depending on the size of the potato, it could take 1 to 1.5hrs to cook.  Then, after scooping out the fluffy bits inside and adding other ingredients, I spooned the mixture back into the halved potatoes and back into the oven for the top to crisp up.

It took me close to 2 hours to prepare this meal.  But it was easy.  I already roasted the chicken breast, 2 whole kilos of it the day before and kept them in the fridge to use in salads or other dishes.  The first 80 minutes was spent just waiting for the potatoes to cook.  Then, I finished up the dish and put the cold chicken breast into the oven with the potatoes.   While that was crisping up, I made a simple salsa with chopped tomatoes, cucumber, spring onions and some parsley, the only fresh herb I have in the fridge.  In 30 minutes, the dish was ready to be served.

Oh and the twice baked potatoes are yummy, crispy skins with lovely fluffy filling.  I love the potatoes here.  They are sweet and fluffy and you really don't have to add too much to make them taste good.

Here is the recipe.  This recipe is for 4 to 6 people but if they are potato heads like me, you can serve two halves per person.

Twice Baked Potato

4 large baking potatoes, Russet are good for this recipe

2 tbsp butter

1/2 cup milk

1 cup grated cheddar cheese, divided

a handful of chopped chives or spring onions or parsley

salt and pepper, about 1/2 tsp each

Set the oven to 200C. Wash the potatoes thoroughly and scrub the skin. When the oven is hot, put the potatoes on a baking tray, lightly greased, and bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until tender.  Insert a knife into the middle of the potato and if it goes through easily, then it's done.

Cut the potatoes into halves and scoop out the flesh.  Be careful when doing this so you don't break the skins.  Then put the fluffy potato into a mixing bowl and mash well.  Add the butter, milk, half of the grated cheese and the rest of the ingredients.  Mix well. 

Spoon the filling back into the potato boats.  Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top and then place the tray back into the oven for about 20 to 30 minutes until the cheese has melted and turned golden brown.  Serve immediately.

For a richer tasting filling, you can add 1/2 cup cream or sour cream  For a flufflier, more souffle type filling, you can add one whole egg into the mixture.  You can also add a sprinkling of grated nutmeg, about 1/8 tsp to the filling.  If you want a crispier top, mix the remaining cheese with breadcrumbs (not panko) to top off the potato boats.

The recipe is just a guide.  Have fun and mix in ingredients that you like or take out any that you don't.  It's nice to have a filling of just potato and butter if you like.  But get a good potato. You won't go wrong with this.