The Two Rrr's

Kombucha

Makes 1 gallon

cold wood dark alcohol — Photo by Kübra Doğu on Pexels.com

3 quarts filtered water

1 cup sugar

1 pinch of salt

4 tea bags of organic black tea

½ cup kombucha from previous culture

1 kombucha mushroom

Some pieces of fresh ginger

ginger on gray surface — Photo by Joris Neyt on Pexels.com

Bring the water to boil. Add salt and sugar and simmer until dissolved.

Remove from heat and add tea bags. Allow to steep until completely cooled. Remove tea bags.

Pour liquid into glass bowl, add the ½ cup from previous batch and place mushroom on top.

Make a crisscross over the bowl with masking tape, cover loosely with a cloth and transfer to a warm, dark place, away from contaminants and insects. In about a week or 10 days the kombucha will be ready, depending on the temperature. It should be rather sour and possibly fizzy, with no taste of tea remaining.

Transfer to covered glass containers. Peel and finely slice ginger and put some in each bottle or jar, and store in the refrigerator. Do not wash the kombucha bowls in the dishwasher!

This is my slightly tweaked version of kombucha after a recipe by to the authors of Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon and Mary g. Enig. With the ginger in a really fizzy kombucha, you get a healthy version of Ginger Ale. Sometimes I add a thimble-full of my homemade red currant concentrate; it adds a beautiful color and a smattering of taste of summer.

For in-depth explaining, Fallon and Enig continues: When the kombucha is ready, your mushroom will have grown a second spongy pancake. This can be used to make other batches or given away to friends. Store fresh mushrooms in the refrigerator, in a glass or steel container – never plastic. A kombucha mushroom can be used dozens of times ( I have used mine for much more than that) .

If it begins to turn black, or if the resulting kombucha doesn’t sour properly, it’s a sign the the culture has become contaminated. When this happens, it’s best to throw away all your mushrooms and order a new clean one.

If you don’t have a friend who already brews kombucha, and can give you a mushroom and a ½ cup of already brewed kombucha, to get you started, you may order one on-line from https://kombucha2000.com/products.html

White sugar, rather than honey or Rapadura, and black tea, rather than flavored teas, give the highest amounts of glucuronic acid. Non-organic tea is high in fluoride so always use organic tea.

More on the glucuronic acid in another post 😊 …as in “keep on reading”!

classic photo of a woman holding a tea cup — Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

Knaprande & Knastrande 2

Med frön

1 dl pumpakärnor

1 dl sesamfrön

1 dl solrosfrön

1 dl linfrön

2 msk kokosolja

2 msk honung

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Rosta fröna i torr stekpanna. Ta bort från värmen och blanda väl med olja och honung. Hetta upp igen under omrörning i någon minut. Häll upp på bakplåt och låt svalna.

Eftersom vi numera säger Crunch på svenska, efter det engelska verbet som faktiskt betyder att knapra på, eller att knastra, så tänkte jag vara lite originell och använda de svenska motsvarigheterna till Crunch. Smakar lika gott ändå!

Different Pie

or, there’s more than one way to skin a cat

Pickled herring, aspic on smoked eel, lutefisk, meatballs, red cabbage, caramelized green cabbage, red beet salad with herring, gravlax…are you hip to what nationality people are who long for this kind of food when they live abroad?

Being an expat means sometimes missing people, or special places, but always missing the food! And dishes not readily available at the market, will be made from scratch, and sometimes the ingredients list have to be fudged a bit, but still achieve an acceptable end result making your countrymen and women salivate at the thought.

Living in Northern California as a Swede offers particular challenges. Anchovies are frowned upon and cheese pies made from a certain kind of cheese only made in the very north of Sweden are impossible to obtain.

It took me over a week to negotiate with the ladies behind the cheese counter at the Italian specialty grocer, Corti Brothers in Sacramento, on how to make a cheese pie, Swedish “Västerbotten” style.

They shook their heads, sucked on their teeth, and sought each other’s eyes in confirmation of this opinion, that a savory cheese pie was not do-able. Nope. Have never heard of such a thing. Hard to imagine. ”Pies are sweet, baked goods with sweet fillings”, they patiently explained to this very obvious foreigner without pie-knowhow. “Pies are filled with cherries or maybe rhubarb, but they are not spicy or salty. Cheese is not an alternative. At all.”

As I insisted and they applied their polite customer-is-always-right attitude, we worked our way together through Corti Brothers’ huge selection of cheeses. I tried to explain the taste and we tried a dozen or so cheeses which could be possible candidates. They apologized they did not have an original Swedish Västerbotten cheese. No apology needed, as the brand has not been marketed for export as have the Norweigan colleague, Jarlsberg.

I went deep trying to convey the taste vision, if a taste can be visualized, and I think I broke through as one of the ladies stepped out from behind the counter and took on my case as a personal challenge to complete the mission before her. Together we hunted for contenders to be included in that elusive phenomenon – a savory pie!

It is possible to obtain that very special taste. It’s a bit of a puzzle, but we succeeded.

My home-made Västerbotten pies were the life of the graduation party when my son, Gustav, graduated from High School. The locals were stunned and charmed – having never tasted anything like it. Good thing I had put a piece aside, as there were no left-overs.

The next day I returned to Corti Brothers and presented my cheese hunting heroine with a taste of the result. Alas, she was at lunch when I was there, so I did not get to hear her reaction. Maybe we started a new food trend in NorCal?

Apple Pie

Serves 12 (2 pies)

Pastry:

2½ cups multi-purpose flour

1 ¼ cups superfine sugar

1 stick butter, softened

1 egg

2/3 cup ground almonds

Filling:

3 pounds apples, sliced

Splash of Calvados

Juice of 3 lemons

Handful of raisins, golden or not

Pinch of cinnamon

close up photography of apples — Photo by Mareefe on Pexels.com

Soak the sliced apples in the Calvados and lemon juice for 2 hours. Mix all the pastry ingredients together and let rest for 1 hour.

Divide the pastry and roll out to fit into two 12 inch pie pans and fill with the apples and raisins. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake in 400F for 25 minutes.

red apples — Photo by Elizabeth Tr. Armstrong on Pexels.com

This is a recipe I made during the entire month of September, and once in October, when the apples were ripe. It is based on a recipe by Paul Hollywood.

Fåfängeindex

Platsar alltså på fåfängeindexet som nr 1,5 med fläckiga mysbyxor och hängande bukfetma, men helt utan generande hårväxt någonstans faktiskt.

I Hugo Rehnbergs krönika i Svenska Dagbladet presenterade han ett fåfänge-index (1 – 10) där ettorna, enligt Rehnberg, inte har några som helst behov av att bli bekräftade eller känna sig speciella. Trist, tyckte Rehnberg, att visa sin brist på bekräftelsebehov genom fläckiga mysbyxor, hängande bukfetma och generande hårväxt mest överallt.

Tiorna, å andra sidan, tycker Rehnberg är olidliga, som inte klarar 30 sekunder utan att någon bekräftar deras storhet.

Jag erkänner att mina pandemibyxor är ett par till o från fläckiga mysbyxor, och de mystiska extrakilona har faktiskt behagat samlas på magen. Men mina vänner i avslappnade Kalifornien häpnar när jag vill byta om till lite stilrenare kläder när jag ska gå och handla.

Har du någon gång tittat på en film av kunder på Walmart, så inser du kanske deras oförstående häpnad. Inte för att alla i Kalifornien ser ut som jag i pandemi-isolering på hemmakontoret, men att byta om för att gå och handla är ändå snäppet, eller två, över hur de bryr sig om ”attire”.

Fåfängan kan vara frånkopplad från bekräftelsebehov: bevis #1: Brukade aldrig lämna hemmet utan att bära matchande skor, handskar och scarf. Givetvis matchande örhängen, brosch, ev armband och ring. Brydde mig inte ett jota om någon lade märke till det eller inte. Det var mitt nöje, mitt godkännande och min förnöjda känsla av att ha fått godkänt av mig själv. Struntade i stort sett i vad andra tyckte.

Sen kom barnen och tiden då omatchade sockor funkade utmärkt så länge de luktade rent. Sparade 20 minuter på att leva osminkad. Sen påpekade dottern att Mayanikas mamma minsann var smal, vackert klädd och sminkad. Varje morgon vid avlämning vid skolan. Då mitt hjärta veknade för mitt stackars barns hemska uppväxt med en mamma som varken var vackert klädd, speciellt smal och definitivt inte sminkad klockan 07.30, så gav jag efter och lade till läppstift. Sådär! Nu är din mamma också sminkad och tjusig i ottan!

woman with black sunglasses using lipstick — Photo by Daria Rem on Pexels.com

Har fungerat bra sedan dess. Och som min mamma sa, vid pass 70+ och alltid med läppstift när hon klev ut över tröskeln: i händelse att man blir stoppad av en snygg polis!

selective photography of woman government officer — Photo by Serge Degtyarev on Pexels.com

Redan som ganska ung, men tyvärr inte redan i tonåren, insåg jag att allt snofsande för killarna var helt bortkastat. Snofsande tjejer gör sig söta, vackra, sminkade, tuperade och parfymerade för varandras kritiskt granskande ögon. Dyker du upp naken och med en 6-pack öl, så bryr sig inte en normalfuntad kille om ifall du har lösögonfransar eller ank-läppar. Normalfuntad kille har dock lärt sig att säga saker som ”vad fin du är”, helst flera gånger, för att snabbare komma till det väsentliga.

beer filled mug on table — Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com

Fåfängeindex

Platsar alltså på fåfängeindexet som nr 1,5 med fläckiga mysbyxor och hängande bukfetma, men helt utan generande hårväxt någonstans faktiskt.

Tiorna, å andra sidan, tycker Rehnberg är olidliga, som inte klarar 30 sekunder utan att någon bekräftar deras storhet.

Har fungerat bra sedan dess. Och som min mamma sa, vid pass 70+ och alltid med läppstift när hon klev ut över tröskeln: i händelse att man blir stoppad av en snygg polis!

Witch time?

In the week before Easter, our Swedish witches fly on their broomsticks, usually with a coffee kettle made of copper and a black cat, to Blue Island to meet up & dance with the Devil.

So, naturally, children dress up as witches and go from house to house – Trick or Treat style – and beg for candy on Maundy Thursday.

When I was a kid we also offered a song or two for the presumptive candy giver, but that effort seems to have gone out of style. Sometimes nowadays the little buggers offer a drawing or an “Easter Letter”, i e a small piece of wrinkled paper with the words Glad Påsk (Happy Easter) written in their own hand. If they are too young to write, there may be a drawing of a stick-figure chicken or a something supposed to look like a daffodil.

When Hallmark sold us on the Halloween idea, Swedish kids instantly took to the habit in order to double their candy harvest; conveniently spread out over the year. But it’s a pretty new tradition and most people get confused when October 31 falls on a week-night (Can’t we go trick-or-treating on Saturday instead?). At least Maundy Thursday is always on a Thursday!

Photo by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA on Pexels.com

Strawberry Cake

12 pieces

½ tablespoon butter

1/3 cup coconut flakes

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

½ cup almond flour

½ cup coconut flour

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking powder

FILLING and TOPPING:

¼ cup hazelnuts

1 tablespoons honey

1 can lemoncurd (about 320 g) (unless you make your own)

2 scant cups whipping cream

2 cups strawberries, thinly sliced

2 cups strawberries, halved if large

Grease an 8 inch round cake pan with butter and “bread” with the coconut flakes.

In a large bowl, whisk eggs and sugar until fluffy.

Mix the flours with the baking powder and turn into the egg and sugar mix.

Pour batter into form and bake at 350 F for about 30 minutes.

Let cool.

FILLING and TOPPING

Dry-roast the hazelnuts in a frying pan until the skin is about to loosen. Dump them into a colander and shake off the skin, or tip them into teatowel and rub it off. Return the nuts to the pan, drizzle the honey over them and continue roasting until they are golden. Let cool, spread out on baking-paper.

Whip the cream until stiff peaks form.

Assemble by taking a long serrated knife and gently splitting the cake in half horizontally. Set aside 2 tablespoons of the lemoncurd, and spread half of the rest on one of the cut surfaces. Place bottom half on a nice cake plate. Cover with the strawberry slices. Spread some of the cream evenly over bottom layer. Place remaining half of cake on top of filling.

Mix the other half of the lemon curd with the remaining cream and smooth a layer of the lemoncurd cream over the top layer, so it covers the top and the sides.

Finish by adding the strawberries and the nuts. Melt the lemoncurd over a double boiler and drizzle over the berries.

No gluten here! But it is surely containing three of the other most common allergens instead. If you have managed not to know which ones they are – Congrats! Then just go ahead and enjoy your wonderful creation.

Twentyone Rules to Live by

…that you may live long in the land…

– Get a new toothbrush every three months

– Water the indoor plants every Thursday

– Clean house every Friday, or Party on Fridays and clean on Thursdays

– Wind up the wall clocks every Sunday

– Arrange the kitchen spices in alphabetical order

– Polish the shoes before winter or summer storage

– Write an inventory list for the freezer

– Take care of the vacuum cleaner robot

– Change towels every Saturday

– Change bed sheets every two weeks

– Thaw (packaged) frozen meat submerged in water

– Leave the violin bows out so bug won’t eat them

– Change violin strings every six months

– Air out the closet every spring and fall

– Always keep a good book on the nightstand

– Make somebody happy every day

– Stuff newspaper in wet shoes

– Celebrate all anniversaries and red-letter days

– Trust your gut feeling

– Focus on your positive goals

– Decide for yourself how you feel