Poor Teddy

brown teddy bear on brown wooden bench outside
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They whiskey was waiting, hidden in the shoe basket in the closet. A new, unopened bottle, waiting, just in case… The bottle of nice perfume from the tax-free shop stood at the very back of the low cabinet next to the bookcase; one had to get down on one’s knees and still reach far to be able to get it.

The still unopened wrappings around the fancy shirts from the Gentleman’s shop – not made to order, but still… were piling up in the cabinet where comforters and sheets would be.

Her Rococo chairs were moved up into the attic, for further transport to some antiques dealer who could transform the value of them into sheer tax money at the state-owned liquor store. Ah, well, a small percentage did also benefit the distillery.

Now she was admitted to the South side hospital and longed for the Teddy bear. The one she was given by her daughter. The Teddy bear who already had been providing comfort in a hospital once before, a long time ago when the grief was inconsolable.

But the Teddy was stored away. At the very back of the top shelf in the bedroom closet. Where she would not be able to get it without a tall step-stool, good balance, foolish courage and free from age related ailments and fibrillation.

person s foot wearing a white shoes stepping on a wooden stool
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He was so kind and helped her take out cash from the automatic teller machine, but every time also gave himself a bonus. And a visit to the Gentleman’s store, since he was in town anyways, sort of.

The helpful pensioner; an old friend who just is really so helpful and kind. He took take to remove all the unnecessary jewels and antique furniture for free, of course. More money into the state tax fund, and a small back-up in the hall closet.

And fine perfume from her daughter was not to be squandered. Or even used. Or even enjoyed by smelling it. She remembered it’s fragrance.

And the Teddy was loved.

seashore
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Coffee break, and break, and…

flat lay photo cup of coffee
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Richard did not believe me, when I described the coffee habits of Swedes. Oh, ye of little faith, always trust the natives!

When I was Bureau Chief for a Venture Capital magazine out of Silicon Valley, one of our Board members was headed to Sweden to attend a conference on immaterial patent law. He had not previously visited my fair native country, so I thought a heads up would be in order.

Regarding coffee, I told him, ‘you will have coffee available on your hotel’s breakfast buffé.’ And Richard’s like ‘Well, naturally!’

I added ‘But beware the coffee pot with the orange handle is not Sanka, it’s just a second pot.’

That’s when I could sense the hesitance creep in, and he expressed some doubt that this was really the strange habit of the North – orange handle but no de-caf, hmmm. ‘Really???’

‘Yes, really. Swedes don’t drink de-caf. If they don’t want the caffein, they’ll drink something else, like beer, or water.’

beer filled mug on table
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I proceeded to inform him, just to be prepared, of the various coffee breaks:

You might have coffee with breakfast, but around 10 or 10.30 am there’s a mid-morning coffee break. Then there will be coffee served to top off the lunch, and then there is the mid-afternoon coffee break around 2.30 pm. And then, of course, there will be coffee served after dinner.

Richard seemed at first startled at this information, but soon a radiant smile spread and the furrowed brow smoothed out. ‘Hahaha, you can’t fool me!’ he chuckled.

‘Have a nice trip’ I said. ‘The coffee will all be Columbian.’

A week and a half later, Richard is safely back in California, no doubt all coffeed out, and calls me. Totally astonished. ‘It’s true! You were right (of course I was right, I thought, but did not out of politeness utter)! The Swedes do really drink coffee all the time, and it was strong coffee, even for breakfast! Amazing, I’d never have thought’ and on and on he went describing his cultural nice-kind of chock experience.

He might have also mentioned how the conference went, but I’m not sure.

a group of administration inside of conference room
<Please note the coffee cups! Photo by Antonio Jamal

Flying Jacob

Serves 8

man throwing game cock by cages
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4 grilled chickens

Salt

White pepper

1 teaspoon Italien salad spice

4 – 5 bananas

2 cups whipping cream

1 cup chili sauce of ketchup type

2 packets bacon

 ½ cup salted peanuts

Debone the chicken and put the pieces in a greased, oven-proof dish. Sprinkle with salt and pepper according to taste. Sprinkle the salad spice mix on top.

Peel and cut the bananas lengthwise and across to get four pieces of each. Place on top of the chicken.

Whip the cream and mix in the chili sauce. Spread the mix on top of the chicken and the banana.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 437 degrees.

In the meantime, cut the bacon into small pieces and fry until crisp.

Sprinkle peanuts and bacon bits over the finished dish.

This is a dish from the 1980’s, that was very popular in Sweden. It is a translation of a classic recipe and I’m still curious why it was necessary to mention that the chicken should be baked ‘in the oven’.

It is not a recipe entirely in my tradition of cooking as it uses already grilled chickens. But if you don’t want to feel totally lazy, and a tad more genuine, you can of course behead, pluck, and grill the chickens yourself.

Stackars Nallen

brown bear plush toy on bed
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Whiskeyn låg i sko-korgen i hallgarderoben. En ny, oöppnad; i väntan, utifallatt. Den fina parfymen från tax-free shopen stod längst bak i skåpet bredvid bokhyllan; man måste stå på knä och ändå sträcka sig för att nå den.

De ännu ouppackade skjortorna från Ströms, inte måttbeställda , men ändå…låg travade i skåpet där täcken och lakan skulle vara.

Hennes rokoko-stolar var uppflyttade på vinden, för vidare befordran till någon antikhandlare som kunde omvandla värdet till rena skattepengar på Systembolaget. Nåja, en liten del av priset gick väl ändå till destilleriet.

Nu låg hon på Södersjukhuset och längtade efter nallen. Den hon fått av sin dotter. Nallen som redan varit tröst på sjukhus en gång tidigare, för länge sedan då sorgen var otröstlig.

Men nallen hade han stoppat undan. Längst bak på högsta hyllan i sovrumsgarderoben. Dit hon inte når utan hög pall, bra balans, dumdristigt mod och befriad från ålderskrämpor och hjärtflimmer.

Han var så snäll och hjälpte till med att ta ut kontanter, och gav samtidigt sig själv en bonus vid varje uttag i bankomaten. Och en liten vända förbi Ströms, när han ändå var i stan, liksom.

photo of man wearing dress shirt while standing in front of mirror
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Den hjälpsamme pensionären; en gammal god vän som bara är så hjälpsam och snäll. Han tog bort de onödiga smyckena och möblerna alldeles gratis, förstås. Ännu mer till statskassan, och en liten reserv i hallgarderoben.

Och fin parfym från dottern skulle det nog inte slösas med. Eller ens användas. Eller ens kunna luktas på. Hon mindes hur den doftade.

Och nallen var älskad.

pink bear plush toy with heart draw lighting photography effect
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A beer in Alger

brown sand under blue sky
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It’s the summer of 1973. After a long, hot day in a black Peugeot 403 from 1957, a cold beer felt earned. The main road from Ceuta to Alger meandered along stretches edging the Sahara, and sometimes disappeared under the wind-drifted sand. The scalding air in the car was not air-conditioned and we had already been on the road for a couple of weeks. In the last two days we had covered almost 700 miles, subsisting on watermelon, bread and Evian bottled water. Conveniently, there was a rust hole in the floor on the front passenger’s side, through which one could spit the watermelon seeds. In the back seat were our back-packs and a tent.

Before we found the town square with many outdoor restaurants and cafés, we had driven around lost in Alger, capital of Algeria. Night was falling, but we had finally reached our day’s goal, and tomorrow we would cross the border to Tunisia. We bloody well deserved a cold beer!

beer filled mug on table
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A shaggy looking young man with long, red, hair – this was in the 1970’s, remember? – and an uncovered girl in tight jeans and a spaghetti-strapped pink top and a blond mane down to her waist, made huge eyes around the square. Some struggled not to stare, other patrons didn’t bother to hide their curiosity as we walked from the car and plunked down at an empty table, rather beat from the journey.

The server was so obviously happy to have us land at his restaurant, courteous and polite and how nice to have you here and all smiles, fully well knowing how hundreds of eyes were watching him from the tables at his and nearby restaurants.

My French was good enough to discuss the menu, and then, finally: ‘may we please have two beers, very cold, thank you?’

In a split second, the smile was gone, his posture changed, his napkin-covered forearm retracted and very slowly he sort of spitted out, with obvious disgust that ‘alcohol is served at that restaurant’, pointing a long ways away down the avenue.

We were too tired, and too nervous to leave our car out of our sight. Ah, well, a cold Coke ain’t nothing to sneeze at, either!

a close up shot of a coca cola bottle on ice
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view on a plane

airplane silhouette on air during sunset
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And those people on the plane! The odd couple next to me. He looked like an ex army fellow, tattooed and with that short haircut, now greying. She, a very young slim figure with shiny, wavy, jet black hair and showing hip skin every time she budged. She wore a tiny single stone on a thin ring on her left ring finger.

He did not keep his hand still for more than half a minute, the entire trip! Kept picking, touching her thigh, patting her thigh. Up and down that thigh.

‘Just ignore me, sir, pretend I’m not in the seat next over, and just keep on going up that thigh!’

Thank God, they ordered some drinks and a snack. Kept his hands busy for about 4.5 minutes. Then back to patting the young woman’s thigh.

Maybe she liked it, as acknowledgement that she would continue to be supported as long as ‘daddy dearest’ showed his appreciation for her?

Maybe one day she will rise from her chair and scream.

He seemed at the beginning of the flight to be drunk, and later, not so especially good-humored.

crunchy pretzel with grains of salt in hand
Saved by the snacks

Flygande Jacob

8 portioner

black airplane in the sky
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4 färdiggrillade kycklingar

Salt

vitpeppar

1 tsk italiensk salladskrydda

4 – 5 bananer

4½ dl vispgrädde

2 – 2½ dl chilisås av ketchuptyp

2 pkt bacon

1 dl salta jordnötter

copy space photo of yellow bananas
Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric on Pexels.com

Bena ur kycklingarna och lägg bitarna i en smord ugnssäker form. Krydda med salt och peppar efter smak. Strö över salladskryddan.

Skala och dela bananerna på längden och tvären till fyra bitar. Lägg ovanpå kycklingen.

Vispa grädden och blanda i chilisåsen. Bred blandningen över kyckling och banan.

Grädda i ugnen i 20 minuter på 225 grader.

Skär under tiden bacon i småbitar och knaperstek.

Strö jordnötter och baconbitar över den färdiggratinerade rätten.

selective focus of shelled peanuts
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Det här är en gammal klassiker från 1980-talet och inte helt i min tradition med färdiggrillade kycklingar. Men vill inte man känna sig så bekväm, och lite mer genuin, går det givetvis bra att nacka, plocka och grilla kycklingarna själv.

Nettle Soup

8 servings

nature plant leaf green
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2 quarts nettle leaves

4 shallots

2 cloves of garlic

1 head of fennel

1 – 2 lemons

3 cups chicken bouillon

1 ¼ cup whipping cream

¾ cup whole milk

2.5 oounces spinach, fresh or frozen

Olive oil

Salt

wooden signage with a word spinach
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Rinse the nettle leaves. Bring to a quick boil in water, then squeeze out the water.

Chop the onion, garlic, and fennel. Save the fennel greens. Juice the lemon and zest the rind.

Sauté the onion, garlic, fennel, and lemon rind in oil in a pot on medium heat. Add the bouillon and reduce to about half.

Add the cream and the milk and simmer for 10 minutes. Mix the soup until smooth. Add salt and lemon juice to taste.

Serve warm with hard boiled egg halves or poached eggs and garnish with the fennel greens.

eggs and flowers
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Smarrig firre

(jättegod torskrygg)

4 portioner

70 g färsk spenat

4 torskryggfiléer

2 nypor salt

1 näve dill

2 dl grädde

2-3 vitlöksklyftor, pressade

¼ dl citronjuice

sprigs of fresh dill weed on cutting board
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Lägg spenaten i en eldfast form, och torskfiléerna ovanpå. Salta och klipp dillen ovanpå fisken.

I en liten skål, blanda grädden med pressad vitlök och citronsaft.

Häll gräddblandningen över fisken och baka i ungen på 200 grader i 20 minuter.

Det här är min älskling Åkes älsklingsfiskrätt

Smarrig betyder väldigt smaklig och god.

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