It’s xmas! Christmas Eve is THE day for celebration in Sweden. We spend all day preparing the food, eating clementines and home made sweets, listening to children asking ‘Can we open the presents yet?’, and then at 3pm everyone (except for most mums, they have to finish the food) sits down to watch some cartoons on TV (same show every year) and then we eat. We eat and we eat and we eat. It takes at least an hour, often more and it’s the same foods every year. After dinner, children whine over and over and over about their presents, but first there has to be dessert, often a rice pudding eaten with milk and cinnamon, but as with all traditions it differs between families. Some time in the evening the entire family sits down near the xmas tree and open their gifts. If you’ve been nice (and there are children!) Santa has knocked on the door and asked ‘Are there any nice kids here?’ to which all kids of course replied ‘YES!’ so Santa comes in with his sack of presents and gives them out. But if you haven’t been nice, or if there are no kids in the family we just open presents by the tree.

This Christmas Eve I am working until 4pm and after that my mum will pick me up, we’ll rush to my flat to get the food I’ve prepared and to get the presents I’ve made and then we go to mums for our dinner. There are three vegans in the family and two omnivores (+1 extra this year as we have a visitor) so the xmas smörgåsbord always looks a little different from most families.

Happy holidays!

Most people have probably already decided what they’re having for xmas dinner. I made my final list just two days ago, and our xmas meal is going to be on Monday with friends and family invited. Xmas food in Sweden consist of a huge smörgåsbord of food, usually mostly meat and cream, and all the dishes are always the same. What you put on your table for xmas varies a little between the different parts of Sweden, but most dishes are eaten all over Sweden. I had never had cabbage at xmas before I moved down to the south for example. Now I love it, especially the purple cabbage, but cooked in glögg.

My little sister Sofie’s favourite on the smörgåsbord is a beetroot salad that I was never been particularly fond of. It’s often eaten with meatballs, and likely on bread as a sandwich. This beetroot salad is one of the things I cooked today to put in the fridge. I quite enjoy it now, as I’ve gotten older my likes and dislikes have changed a lot, and it looks beautiful with it’s colours.

Beetroot salad:

• 1 jar of sliced pickled beetroot (400 grams/14 oz without juice)
• 2 green apples
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 dl (3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) vegan mayo
• ½ dl (3 tbsp) soy yoghurt or soy creamer

In a bowl, whisk together the mustard, salt, mayo and soy yoghurt. Drain the beetroot and chop them finely. Peel and core the apples and chop finely. Add the beetroot and apples to the mayo and mix together. Let it sit in the fridge overnight and serve as a side or on bread with tofuballs as a Swedish open topped sandwich.

We’ve finally moved, unpacked all our boxes, put up xmas decorations and even celebrated lucia with almond filled saffron buns, glögg (the Swedish version of glühwein) and listening to the lucia choir on tv early in the morning.

The new flat is amazing! We have a sofa now, and an expensive teak coffee table from Denmark (which was given to me months ago). The kitchen is fairly large and has enough cupboard space for all my little gadgets. Even though I’ve been ill lately I’ve been enjoying spending time in there, cooking up soup and making bread for us to eat. The cats love the big space they have now, and the little spots they’ve found for napping and keeping an eye on the neighbourhood.

In just over a week we’re having our traditional xmas buffet here (this will be the second time, thus creating a tradition right now!) and I’m trying to plan out our food. I have a long list of possible options but won’t have the time to make ALL of it. Hopefully everyone will be happy with the food and we’ll have a good time. I’ll be doing most of the cooking on Friday and then some more after work on Saturday and Sunday. Monday the 22nd we’ll both be panicking about finishing up the last little things but I’ll enjoy it immensely. I love xmas time!

I mentioned that we’re moving soon in my previous post. Of course, this means we won’t have much money, or time. Because of this I decided that this year we’re making home made, cheap gifts for all my friends and family. I can’t tell you exactly what I’m going to make because my friends read this blog,  but seeing how I’m a foodie it’ll probably go that direction.

There are so many talented people out there, making gorgeous things. I thought I’d put together a short list of nice and simple things you can make as gifts and give away.

I love xmas and gift giving. I can’t wait to get started!

• Anni and Heikki at Tofu for Two made a type of cookie mix last year
• .. and the latest number of Elle Mat och Vin had a suggestion for a cookie mix that you just mix with melted margarine and golden syrup packaged in a lovely jar.
• Make a box of truffles! Maybe these? My favourite is chocolate and orange, like these. (I use soycreamer or coconut milk/cream) Or raspberry (these are extra fancy).
• Make some nice crisp bread and give away. These recipes with sunflower seeds or caraway that I found over at Anne’s Food might be nice. Use half a sachet of dry yeast instead of fresh if you can’t find it.
• A jar of marmalade is never wrong. And seeing how Christmas season is also citrus season you should definitely use your favourite citrus marmalade recipe and make a bunch of jars.
• .. or you could make cheezy crackers and give away. Make a triple batch because it’s very likely you’ll eat a lot of them. Celine at Have Cake Will Travel made these!
• Not food related, but easy and awesome are these tissue holders. Make a bunch!
• Or  make your own pretty hairsticks to give away to those long haired ladies (and guys!).
• You could make these cute little accordion books and fill them with poetry, or recipes, or leave them blank.
• Or if you’re a baker, make a loaf of nice sourdough bread, wrap it in a tea towel and tie a nice ribbon around it.

What are some of your suggestions? Give me links, or just a nice comment.

It’s now two weeks until the big move. I have great plans for out future! I have however pretty much stopped eating cooked food. It’s been an endless period of french fries, sandwiches, burgers, mac and cheese… the list goes on. It’s soup season damnit, what’s wrong with me?

I have been eating some soup, mostly at work while cooking for the woman I care for and her guests. Tonight I’m cooking some Ezo Gelin Corbasi, a turkish lentil soup with rice and bulgur, seasoned with mint and with that some bread. I’ve eaten this soup before but hadn’t a clue what it’s called. A few weeks ago I found a recipe at Binnur’s Turkish Cookbook tried it, and it was THAT soup. The glorious delicious soup I’d had before when I was much younger and visited Turkey on holiday. You should go over to her blog and check the recipe out, and her other creations too. People don’t eat enough Turkish food in my opinion, it’s very delectable.

To fit the soup theme, look at these gorgeous soup mugs I bought at a flea market this summer.

This baby that I’m posting now has been sitting on my flickr for ages waiting to get posted and loved. It truly deserves some love, it’s so good it should be restaurant food. And not one of those cheap restaurants you go to when you’re really hungry and you need something right now. No, it’s like that restaurant you go to on your first date when you want to impress your date with good food, nice wine and show them that you’re a sophisticated person, really. Never mind the fact that in a few hours you’ll be trying to go for third base when you didn’t even cover first and second yet. Anyway, it’s a good recipe!

This is not a healthy recipe, but it’s tasty and great with a salad. The butter sauce tastes light and isn’t at all heavy. Yum!

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Lemon and Herb Butter Sauce:
Serves 4

• 200 gram (7 oz) sweet potato
• 200 gram (7 oz) potato
• about 3 dl ( 1 & 1/4 cup) (bread) flour

Microwave the sweet potato for about 6 minutes until it softens, or bake it in a 200C (390F) oven for 40-60 minutes. Boil about 250 grams (9 oz) of potatoes until they are soft. Cut the sweet potato in half and press it in a potato ricer into a large bowl. You don’t have to peel it, the peel stays in the ricer. Take the peel out of the ricer and discard. Peel the potatoes and press through the potato ricer. Add most of the flour and mix together. Put dough on a floured surface and knead. You might have to add more flour. You want a smooth dough that doesn’t stick, but be careful not to add too much flour. Roll the dough into rolls about the thickness of your finger (if you’re a fatty like me, they’re a bit thicker, if you’re skinny, use your thumb as a guide). Cut off little ‘pillows’ from the rolls, about 2 cm (or 1 inch) long. Using the back of a fork, press the gnocchi against it to create ridges for the sauce to gather in. Put the ready made pieces on a floured piece of parchment paper and stick them in the fridge until you’re ready to use them. Boil the gnocchi in well salted water for about three minutes, until they float to the surface. Only cook as much gnocchi as you need for every meal.

Lemon Herb Butter Sauce:

• 50 grams (3 tbsp/2 oz) vegan margarine
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 tsp grated lemon zest
• 3 tbsp finely chopped parsley
• a bunch of garlic (about 20 leaves or so), julienned

Melt the margarine in a pot. Finely mince the garlic and add it to the pot so it heats up with the butter to release all the lovely flavour. Add grated lemon zest and the lemon juice. Add the chopped parsley and the basil, salt and pepper to taste. Take the sauce off the heat.

Put the gnocchi in a bowl, pour the butter sauce over it and mix well. Serve immidiately with some extra basil as garnish and enjoy!

Things of importance:

• May 15th, my wedding! Alex and I have decided on a date and now were trying to save up a little bit of money so we can have good food, in addition to nice guests.
• December 1st, moving! We’re moving flats! We’ll be moving to a tiny rented house in Dalby outside of Lund. A garden! A real kitchen! I see a bright future for the two of us!
• This month, VeganMofo! I know I’m late and all, but it’s VeganMoFo y’all!
• Bike! I finally have one and I’ve been biking to work for about a week now. I see even stronger leg muscles in the foreseeable future.
• November 13th, Wotlk! Eh I know I’m a dork, but the new expansion for World of Warcraft is coming out soon and I’ve taken 3 days off of work to play! There’ll be lots of fingerfood, sandwiches, sweets and snacks going on here. Yay! I’ve been playing this game for I think 3 years now, I’m not ready to grow up yet!

Just a quick post to say that I proposed to Alex today and that he said YES! We were in Bath, England in a lovely park outside the Royal Crescent and I decided to pop the question. Afterwards we had some lovely vegan food in a pub nearby and bought some kitchen gadgets. A lovely day!

We’re off to England in an hour. It’s vegan paradise compared to Sweden and I’m going to eat lots and lots of fresh lovely food. Alex’s mum has a lovely garden and we’ll be getting most of our food straight from there.

We’ll be visiting some markets, going to lots of car boot sales, looking at second hand shops and I’ll also be working on my accent. I want to move to south west England in a couple of years and it’s vital to be able to talk to the locals! Hopefully when we come back on the 20th I will have picked up a little bit of the accent.

This is what I looked like last year before we went. I was really excited and nervous then, this time I’m more nervous about our cats and less nervous about meeting Alex’s mum. See you all later!

Some great things going on here lately:

• Ice cream maker!

The freezer block is in the freezer, my ice cream mixture is in the fridge and when I come home from work tonight I’m making choclate orange ice cream. Wooo! (using the Vegetarian Times recipe and subbing orange extract for the vanilla)

What are your favourite recipes for ice cream? I know there are plenty of them around! And does anyone have a good recipe for lemon icecream/sorbet/sherbet? I am craving lemon like crazy.

A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise is going to be my favourite blog from now on. I’ve read it before but without an ice cream maker it’s seemed a bit pointless for me.

• Organic box of vegetables!

A little while ago now Alex and I started ordering an organic box of vegetables every week. This week we got some amazing things.

Two heads of lettuce, two cucumber, many tomatoes, a bunch of red onion, a big bunch of mixed carrots, a bunch of polka beets and a some parsley. The tomatoes are SO good and the carrots are lovely, crunchy and sweet. Yum!
• Breakfast!

My breakfasts have been really great lately.

Yogurt, musesli with fruits and nuts, blueberries and nectarine. A big bowl of watermelon on the side and some tea. I love summer!