it's never too early

• In the words of one of my dear friends 'Don't you dare mock me for being early or I'm liable to bite your head off'. I feel the same way. Christmas has always been a time in my family to relax, spend time together, enjoy and be jolly! So if I wait until AFTER Thanksgiving to put up my decorations, I have what...a few weeks to enjoy? I'm sorry, but I want to enjoy and feel this warm, cozy, loving, holiday feeling 2 months out of the year. Plus, I was chomping at the bit to start decorating. This is mine and Mr.Josefsson's first Christmas in our own apartment together! Decorating is not a burden to me. Mr. Josefsson is more than willing to help! So it's a wonderful time for us to spend together sharing ideas and enjoying each other's company!
  

• I know Christmas and the holidays are not about the decorations or the presents, but it feels so warm, cozy, and lovely with lights up and nice smelling candles and with a fresh look to our apartment. We love change. I guess, I love change. It's fun to redecorate, especially if you have a certain goal. So thank you, Sarah, for those words! Her blog is http://http://farthingboys.blogspot.com/ and she has some wonderful words to say about Christmas and this time of year. Plus, she has cute videos and quotes from her darling twin boys!

Here is a glimpse of my decorations....

This tree looks quite ugly, but it was our first Christmas tree we had together while we were staying at his parents house when I first moved back to Sweden. The decorations are keychains for every country we have been to together. The silly santas were made by Mr. Josefsson when he was a child. Some of the ugliest or least stylish decorations are the most important and hold the best memories. I love this silly little tree.

A special shout out to Mr. Josefsson for taking this lovely picture of me! Thanks, babe! Haha! I especially love the candy wrappers spread all over the table and the dirty clothes draped over the chair. Wonderful housekeeping! Can't be perfect all the time, right!?

Last weekend we had a really relaxing wonderful weekend together and I whipped up an amazing batch of garlic breaksticks and creamy chicken piccata. The chicken, luckily for us, was actually grilled! Mr. Josefsson was cleaning out our outside shed and found an open bag of almost useless coal. He asked if I had anything I wanted to grill and I immediately thought about this recipe! Check it out.

• Chicken

Juice of 1 lemon (3 Tbsp)
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. salt
1\4 tsp. black pepper
1\2 tsp. oregano and basil
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

• Pasta

2 cups dried penne pasta

2 Tbsp butter

Juice of 2 lemons (6 Tbsp)

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1/2 cup half and half (or heavy cream)

2 tsp dried basil

2 Tbps capers

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

• Chicken

Combine first 6 ingredients and mix well. Place chicken in a ziplock bag and pour marinade over chicken. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator. When ready, grill until done. Allow chicken to rest for a few minutes and then slice into strips to serve over pasta.

• Pasta

While chicken is grilling. Cook pasta according to directions (10-12 minutes). Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water and drain. In same sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in garlic and lemon juice. Pour in half and half and whisk until hot. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Add the parmesan cheese, basil and capers, and heat until cheese is melted. Check the consistency of the sauce and add some of the reserved pasta water to loosen the sauce if necessary. Toss in pasta.

• Garlic Bread

Turn oven onto low heat such as 50 degree. When it is preheated turn it off and close the door.

1\2 c. luke warm water

1 pkg. rapid rise yeast

1\2 c. luke warm milk

1\3 c. sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. salt

1\3 c. melted butter

4 c. flour

• Let yeast dissolve in luke warm water for 1 minute. Add milk, sugar, egg, salt, melted butter and 2 c. flour. Mix until smooth. Add the rest of the flour and knead or mix for 3-4 minutes. Scrape out of bowl into new, greased bowl. Place a towel over bowl and place in proofed oven. Let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size. Punch down and roll into long, breadstick shapes. Keep in mind they will double in size again, so don't make them too big! Let them rise another 30 minutes. Once risen, poured melted butter over them and sprinkle with garlic salt. Bake at 300 for about 10-15 minutes depending on how doughy you want them. Once you take them out pour a small amount of olive oil over them. This makes them really soft and gives that extra punch of flavor!

• I also had extra dough, since I was only baking for 2. So I used the extra to make mini monkey bread. Same recipe up until you form the dough. I rolled them into 3 smalls balls, rolled them in melted butter, then in cinnamon, brown sugar and pumpkin spice. There is also 2 chocolate chips in each ball. Just a little surprise for the mouth! These also take a little longer to bake. So give them an extra 5 or so minutes.

In other news. I am really pumping up for my Thanksgiving party! I have my menu and grocery list. Mr. Josefsson is going to take me on a huge shopping trip tomorrow and our fridge will be packed full with ingredients ready to be whipped up into a delicious meal! I took Friday off work so I can spend the whole day baking, cleaning and of course, tasting the food!

• Menu:

Turkey

Green bean casserole

Creamed corn

Stuffing

Sweet potato casserole

Mashed potatoes

Sweet yeast rolls

Cranberry sauce

Gravy

• Desserts and appetizers:

Pumpkin cheesecake (sorry, I don't get down on pumpkin pie)

Apple pie

Chocolate covered pretzels

Pumpkin popcorn

Gingersnaps with pumpkin dip

Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

• I know this seems like a ridiculously long dessert menu, but honestly, that is the part I am most looking forward to! I hoarded all the pupmkin my mom sent me just for Thanksgiving! I want to bake and bake! The food is going to be delicious, also, but the baking is what is filling my mind wiht ideas and excitement!

• I will also have hot chocolate and apple cider and for the adults some glögg, which you might know as mulled red wine. It's so delicious! That is actually what one of the pictures above is, my glögg station. It's a small jug to fill with glögg which is heated by a small candle. Here, we drink glögg with chopped up almonds and raisins and of course...ginger cookies!

• I hope everybody is enjoying the beginning of the season as much as I am! I just love this time of year! I have always been a fan of the holidays and as an adult it hasn't gone away.

• ALSO in 22 days I will be on an airplane headed home! The amount of joy and excitement I have cannot be explained. Going home is always a wondeful thing, but to go home after 2 years away during the holidays feels really wonderful. My mother is the queen of decorating and the queen of Christmas. It feels so homey and wonderful. I absolutely cannot wait to spend time with my friends and family and enjoy every second I have home!

• Hope everybody has a wonderful Thanksgiving, as I probably won't have time to post before. I will take loads of pictures and give you a huge update ASAP!

• Love to all!

Birthday

Even though it was over a week ago, I thought I'd brag about my amazing birthday. Haha. Sorry, but it was really great.

It started Thursday night. I made these amazing cream cheese stuffed pumpkin cupcakes. Holy cow, people went crazy over these! Which puts a huge smile on my face! The best part is these make so much batter you can do so much with them. I made 12 cupcakes, 3 heart shaped cupcakes and a whole loaf of uh...cake bread. Perfect if you want to make one time for many occassions!

Now I usually just make stuff up as I go along, but these I followed precisely by this recipe-http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/10/pumpkin-cream-cheese-muffins.html

These are amazing! Thank you, girl who ate everything!

btw, I made regular muffins are pictured first, the other one is a heart shaped muffin. I had just enough batter left for 3 adorable heart shaped muffins for my colleagues in my classroom. They are a little bigger! ;)

Then Friday the muffins went to work and were raviously eaten. I had my early day that day, so my weekend started at 1 in the afternoon! Nice way to start!

Fred and I had a cozy Friday night, which are always my favorite way to start the week!

Saturday morning we made yummy fried egg sandwiches and he told me, pack, we are going to a spa for the day and night! WHAT?! How exciting! I'd never been to a spa! What a great surprise. We went to Tylösand, which is about an hour drive. It's a lovely spa right next to the ocean with a beach sand beach. It would be the most amazing summer vacation as well.

We got there at 3 and went to the spa right away! Wonderful view from the spa, lovely hot tub, steam room, sauna, everything! I loved it! We then went to the room showered and shared a really yummy panchetta, sun dried tomato, mozzarella and lettuce bagel sandwich. Good stuff. Then we took a walk around the beach and took some nice pictures. (I feel obliged to tell you, we drank a lot of wine that night! But hey, why not!? We weren't driving anywhere! ;)

I love this guy, a lot.

We then had an amazing wine tasting followed by a 3 course meal. Oh man. Since this is a food blog, I must describe the main course. It was a rose fried duck breast, cooked perfectly. A shot of pear cream, a spring roll stuffed with wild rice and mushrooms and a fried edamame ball in an amazing soy sauce sauce. I ate as slow as possible, because it was so delicious. I want to cook like that every night!

Then we had a great time at a piano bar, followed by champagne at the night club in the hotel at midnight!

The breakfast buffe the next morning was also amazing. I love hotel breakfast! Haha. Guess it's a childhood memory thing. Or having everything you could ask for and not worry about dishes!

After that we went back to the spa for 2 hours and then I had a massage and then we went home.

I wasn't said though because I took Monday off work! We went to Ullared! Please wikiepdia Ullared. You will be amazed. It's a huge, Swedish version of Wal mart and people flock there. Yes, flock. It was amazing crowded the day we went. But I managed to buy some really cute baby clothes for all my nieces and nephews, loads of Christmas stuff and clothes! Go me.

Then the weekend was over, but it was amazing! Thanks to my wonderful husband for making me feel so special!

Now I'm off to make my never fail lasagne. I use spinach noodles that don't need to be cooked and layer on top of them browned ground beef with spagetti sauce, cottage cheese, mozz cheese. Followed by another layer. I make it the night before, usually. It just tastes better and has a better consistancy. Great for those nights you have so much to do! Love it!

I love board walks!

I also need to share with you, dear readers, that I have decided to have a Thanksgiving party. This party went for a couple girls baking and cooking together to now, what it seems to be, at least 24 people. Holy cow! It will be so amazing because there will be men, women and children for all parts of the world. America, England, Phillipines, Sweden, Croatia, Poland, etc. It nearly brings me to tears thinking of how amazing this Thanksgiving will be. Updates coming. Plus pictures of our DECORATED apartment! That's right, my Christmas tree is UP!

pumpkin eller pumpa

Pumpkin is on my mind. It's on my mind...a lot. I went on a wild goose chase the other weekend for canned pumpkin. Yea, that ended up as a nervous breakdown thinking ''how can I celebrate fall without pumpkin!?''. But as luck would have it, I have one of the best moms in the whole world. She is my pumpkin savor. Thank you, mom!

So I got off work early on Tuesday and decided to go all out. I boiled up some cider vinegar and plums, started on a pumpkin yeast dough, and started a pot of coffee. How did all of this end up...

Plum Pork Tenderloin

1 lb. pork tenderloin

1\2 c. apple cider vinegar

1\2 c. brown sugar

1\2 tsp. cinnamon

1\4 tsp. salt

1\4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1\8 tsp each ground cloves, cardamom and allspice

1 pork tenderloin (1 pound)

1\2 tsp. pepper

In a sauce pan bring pitted and halved plums and cider to a boil. Let simmer of medium heat for 10 minutes.

Take away from heat and let cool. Pour into a blender and pulse until smooth. Now you can either strain or leave it a bit chunky. Depends on how you like your sauce.

Place back into the pan and add brown sugar and all spices (except pepper). Bring to a boil then reduce heat and let simmer for 10 minutes occassionally stirring.

Place pork tenderloin in a crock pot or a pan and pour half of the sauce over and then sprinkle with pepper.

In a crock pot cook on low for about 2 hours occassionally basting. If in an oven bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes.

Serve over rice with saved sauce.

Tastes just like fall!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

1\3 c. milk

2 Tbsp. butter

1\2 c. canned pumpkin

2 Tbsp. sugar

1\4 tsp nutmeg

1 1\2 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

1\2 tsp. salt

1 beaten egg

1 package dry yeast

2 c. flour

1\2 c. packed brown sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 Tbsp. melted butter

In a small bowl, microwave milk and butter until luke warm.

In a large bowl combine, pumpkin, sugar, nutmet, pumpkin pie spice and salt.

Add milk mixture, then beat in egg and yeast.

Add half the flour and mix for 4-5 minutes. Add the rest of the flour.

Place sticky dough in a lightly greased bow and let rise until doubled. (What I do, because I don't have a large microwave, I pre heat the oven at about 100 degrees while I am preparing the dough, then turn it off and put the bowl in).

Once doubled, place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out in a 10x12 in. square.

Brush with melted butter and then sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on top.

Roll from the long side.

I used fishing line to cut roll into 12 equal rolls. Super easy.

Place in a prepared 11x17 in. pan. and let almost double in size.

Once doubled bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

OMG, these are good. I love the orangey color and holy moly, they smell good from beginning to end!

Pumpkin spice coffee

I started with an entire mix of ''pumpkin milk''.

1. c milk

1\4 c. canned pumpkin

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. all spice

2 tsp. pumpkin spice

3 Tbsp. sugar

1. tsp. vanilla

I brewed a very strong pot of pumpkin flavored coffee with cinnamon sprinkled ontop of the coffee grounds.

Poured into a glass and added about 3 Tbsp. pumpkin milk and topped off with whipped cream and a little sprinkle of nutmeg. Yea, I almost cried it tasted so good.

Last weekend we celebrated Fredrik's birthday and my birthday with Fred's family. What a wonderful family he has, and now, I have. They are fantastic, kind, fun, loving and just plain amazing. We received some really nice presents and had a really cozy time with them!

In Sweden it is very typical to make your own cake for your birthday. So I made my never fail vanilla cake with butter cream\cream cheese\whipped cream frosting. Yea, it's so good. Unfortunately my decorating skills aren't up to par at 7 am (when I woke up Saturday morning to decorate it). So it's a little bit pathetic, but hey, it tasted fantastic.

We also got to spend some time with Lukas and Agnes, which always make me happy!

I'm a sucker for their big blue eyes!

I also took pictures of logs. Swedish logs are everywhere right now, and they smell good!

This weekend I have no idea what Fred has planned for my birthday. But I am not allowed to make plans for Saturday night. So we will see! Turning 25 feels like a big deal and I don't know why. I guess because in Sweden it is sort of a ''big birthday''. They haven't had a ''big birthday'' since the 20th birthday (the drinking age here). So maybe that is why. But as one of my friends put it I will be ''a quarter of a century old''. Yikes!

Happy Fall Ya'll!

baby apple pies

This past Tuesday my sister-in-law, Hanna, her husband, Andreas and their adorable daughter Agnes came over for dinner. Agnes turned 6 months old last week. I cannot understand how time is going by so quickly! I felt like it was just yesterday Hanna told us she was pregnant!

I love that worried face she has!

Her cheeks are amazingly soft and adorable!

The day they came over was my 'early day'. Which means I had to be at work at 6 am, but I got to leave at 1:30 pm. I really love these days. 6 is very early but it honestly feels like I have a day off when I go home so early! So I had lots of time to make a delicious dinner! I made some cumin bread, crock pot chili, apple ginger punch and baby apple pies. Now this is another thing that is different in Sweden. They have apple pie, but it's not like the American apple pie we think of. An apple pie here has the same fillings but not the same crust. It's simply butter, flour and a bit of sugar sprinkled on top. Still delicious with a lot less work!

I got this apple pealer, slicer and corer (?) from a student at the last school I worked at. This is one of my favorite student gifts ever. What a cute and sweet idea! I use it so much, especially with the season!

Look at how beautiful that is! Takes out so much work!

Baby apple pies

4 apples, if I were in Kansas I'd be using some red delicious! Unfortunately we don't have those here!

1 Tbsp. sugar, depending on the tartness of the apples you are using. You can adjust to your liking!

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. all spice

1 tsp. nutmeg

Peal, core and slice apples according to however big your like your apples to be in a pie. I like them quite small so I cut the sliced apple in sections of 4.

Mix in sugar, cinnamon, all spice and nutmeg and distribute amongst 4 individual baking ramikins.

For the topping

4 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. flour

2 Tbsp. oats (optional)

1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Mix flour, oats, brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut butter into dry ingredients. Distribute into ramikins on to apple mixture.

Bake at 400 for about 25 minutes. The goal is for the topping to be brown, crustry, buttery deliciousness.

PS. Sorry I didn't take a picture of the end product! But I can guarantee I topped it with 2 heaping scoops of vanilla ice cream!

I also wanted to add on that...

Apple Ginger Punch

1 c. sugar

1 galon apple cider

1 tbsp. cinnamon

1 tbsp. all spice

1 can frozen orange juice concentrate

1 liter ginger ale

In a pan mix sugar, 1 cup apple cider, cinnamon and all spice. Simmer on medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Take from heat and add orange juice and remaining apple cider. Chill in the fridge over night. Add ginger ale immediately before serving.

I also think it's fun to make either some ice cubes with tiny orange bits or an ice ring with a bundt pan and a few slices of orange if you are serving in a large punch bowl!

This drink is also really good served warm!

Happy fall!

baby shower

This Saturday I put on my hostess shoes and held a baby shower here in our little apartment for my friend Sofia, who will be having a baby girl in November.

Grattis means Congratulations in Swedish.

Diaper cake. It's a bottle of shampoo and a bottle of body wash (for baby) with rolled up diapers to form the cake. Then I bought a very sweet etsy blanket and draped it over. Then adorned it with an etsy hat and etsy booties. Very easy but a cute way to present gifts!

Cupcakes, honey roasted peanuts and chocolate, cinnamon and sugar popcorn. Super easy but delicious!

I personally do not use paper plates when I have a party. This is one of my favorite things. I have a cabinet full of antique plates, all mixed and matched. For this party I got out the flowery, girly, pinkish plates. I also found the pink candle holders at our second hand store for 3 kr a piece! That's 45 cents!

This is one of my favorite things to do and it's really easy. If I'm having a themed party I always buy a package of paper that I want to use as the decorations, invites, etc. I made the invites with this cute pink themed paper, made the congrats sign, made the cupcake flags, these glass flags, and even switched out all my pictures in the living room with the paper. It's so easy and you can always save the paper and use it for other stuff later!

All I had to do was switched it out and it added a lot to the room!

These were for the lovely guests. Bought these cute 35 cent travel soaps from etsy. They made the room smell great, and added a nice decoration! The *tack* stamp was also bought from etsy! Buy handmade! It's the best!

Sofia opening all the lovely gifts every body brought her!

Now who wants the recipe to these gorgeous little cupcakes! This is my go to, never fail, always tastes delicious cupcake recipe. It's from http://www.joythebaker.com/. This is one of my favorite food blogs!

Vanilla Cake (or cupcakes)

preheat oven to 350

2 sticks softened butter

1 3\4 c. sugar

4 eggs

1 c. milk

1 Tbsp. vanilla

1 vanilla pod

2 3\4 c. flour

1 1\2 tsp. baking powder

1\2 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar for 3-5 minutes.

Add eggs one at a time beating for one minute after you add each one. This seems ridiculous but it really makes the cupcakes fluffy and light.

Whisk flour, baking powder and salt together in a separate bowl.

Combine milk, vanilla and vanilla beans in a separate bowl.

One low, start by adding 1\3 flour and incorporate. Add half the milk and incorporate. Add another 1\3 of the flour and incorporate. Add the rest of the milk and incorporate. And yup, you guess, add the rest of the flour and incorporate!

Divide into 24 cupcakes tins or into two 10 inch cake pans.

For cupcakes bake for 25-30 minutes. For cakes 35-40 and let them cool for 15 minutes in the pan before taking them out. Cupcakes can just jump right out into your mouth straight from the oven.

You can use whatever frosting you like. For the cupcakes above I used about 1\2 c. butter, 8 oz. cream cheese and uhm...some powdered sugar. I don't really measure when it comes to frostings. Just a lot of tasting!

For the cakes I think it's light, fluffy and delicious to simply use whipping cream for the middle layer and top and add fresh fruit.

This recipe is so great because you can add whatever you'd like. Chocolate, cinnamon, berries, the sky is the limit! :)

let's talk about pizza, fall and a baby.

This is an almost typical Swedish pizza. This is actually a "family size" but a completely normal pizza would look much the same. Thin, minimal cheese and sauce. Maximum grease. It doesn't look that appetizing, but oh man, it's delicious. I do miss our deep dish, super cheesey, monster pizza's, which are pre-sliced. Yes, in Sweden you have to pay extra to get your pizza sliced. What? Yea, I duno.

Swedish pizza shops have more toppings and options than any American pizza parlor. They have some weird combo's too. Kebab pizza. Lamb meat, salad, cucumbers, tomatoes and garlic sauce. Sometimes you can put french fries on it too. Yea...

My personal favorite is mozarella, parmesan ham and pesto. Yum.

Now this is a super easy pizza that I made myself. Puff pastry with spagetti sauce, cheese, oregano and basil. I usually just put whatever I find in my fridge that suits my fancy. Super easy recipe today! Try it, you won't be sad!

Onto cuter things. How adorable is this bundle of fall goodness. Spent the day with my 2 and a half month old nephew today. Lukas. I love him.

Mr. Josefsson loves him too.

And we love walks in the fall with our fancy Nikon camera.

I love updating my blog from our new fancy computer, too. So easy and goes much faster! Thanks Mr. Josefsson for letting me steal the computer for a few minutes every few days!

Also, today one of my friends from childhood is getting married! Laura and Jake have been together since high shcool, through a long army stay in Germany and now they are going to be happily married! I love them both and they deserve an absolutely perfect, beautiful wedding day!

fine and dandy mushrooms

When I first moved to Sweden I said to my husband, I don't like mushrooms. I said to my husband's family, I don't like mushrooms. Then one day I was invited to eat mushrooms. I said, I don't like mushrooms. After that dinner, I liked mushrooms. But not just any mushrooms. Kantarell or chanterelle mushrooms. These are amazing, soft, rich, woody, golden pieces of sunshine hiding in the wonderful Swedish forest. Usually in a shaded area with lots of moss and flowers around it.

This is the time of year when these mushrooms are at their prime growth. It's cold, but not too cold and it's raining (a lot). We go out into the forest for a few hours and come back with liters of gold. When I say gold, that isn't exaggerating too much. These babies sell for quite a pretty penny (or krona if you are in Sweden). They are on the same culinary list as truffles and morels.

Not only are these delicious, but they are a joy to pick. What is better than heading out into the beautiful Swedish forest with your husband, his mom and dad and any other member of the family who might go along. It's lovely.

Yes, it is quite normal to go out looking like you just woke up. This is my father-in-law, Håkan. He can actually smell chanterelle. He's really good.

Can you see Fredrik? Ann, his mom, didn't hide quite as well.

Just some of the gorgeousness we see on the walk to the mushrooms. Which reminds me, it's quite a hike, up hill, both ways, to get to the best mushrooms hunting grounds. So it's a work out too!

The end result. How happy I was to find these huge chunks of deliciousness under a tree.

The best way to eat kantarell is to clean them very well, they usually have moss, dirt and spiders on them. Yes, gross, but that's what you are cleaning them. Boil them if you are going to freeze them, above are boiled kantarell ready for the freezer. If not freezing, you fry them in a pan until all the water is evaporated. Then you add butter, salt and pepper, garlic if you please and eat on a piece of bread. So simple, yet soooo delicious.

Now for my favorite.

Kantarell sås (chanterelle sauce)

1\2 liter chanterelle's

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

2 cups heavy cream

2 table spoons soy sauce

salt and pepper to taste

Make sure mushrooms are clean and chopped to the same size. Fry in a pan with butter until water is evaportated. Over medium heat sprinkle flour over mushrooms and stir for a minute or so. This takes away the floury taste. Add cream slowly and stir. Add soy, salt and pepper and stir until slightly thickened. This doesn't take very long, but keep stirring. This helps it from sticking and you get a better feel for how fast it is thickening and how thick it actually is.

We usually eat this with pasta or in the later part of summer when the first mushrooms are popping out we eat them with grilled food such as chicken and oven potatoes. But really, it's delicious with almost everything!

If we ever come across these babies, buy them and try them out. You won't be disappointed!