Snowberries

Coffee creamer

This is the side that is usually facing the front when I have bought it here in Sweden.

Front side of coffee creamer

This is the only kind I have found in Sweden; it is in english on one side and Arabic I think on the other side. I find it at Coop and City Gross.

Christmas 2009

Here is my final recipe, after tweaking and changing the one I found online so much that this is an entirely different recipe! I will put the Swedish version below, some stuff had to be substituted.

Faith's Chai Latte Mix (Americans)

1 cup dry milk powder
1 cup powdered coffee creamer
1 tsp vanilla powder, or use vanilla creamer instead of plain
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 -2 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp allspice
*optional: 1/2 tsp ground cloves - I skip this because of the aftertaste
*1 cup unsweetened instant tea. If you do this, I recommend running the mixture through te coffee bean grinder to break up the tea better. If you don't use the instant tea (I can't find it in Sweden) then use a regular Lipton teabag as per instructions.

Directions:
Mix everything together, then mix it in a food processor or take about 1/2 cup at a time and run it through a coffe bean grinder.
Warm a coffee mug of milk in the microwave with one teabag in it. For a little extra luxury, use latte milk. When hot, remove and add 1-3 tsp of your powder mix. Mix well, I have a tiny electric hand mixer that works great and puts foam on top of the milk. Top with a sprinkle of cinnamon and cardamom. Enjoy!



(Swedes)
2 dl Semper mjölk pulver
2 dl Coffee Whitener, hittar vid utländskt mat sektion (bilder ovan)
2 tsk vanillin socker
1 dl socker
1 dl florsocker
2 tsk malen ingefära
2 tsk malen kanel
11/2 tsk malen kardemumma
1/2 tsk malen muskotnöt
1 -2 tsk vitpepppar
1 tsk krydpeppar
*kan tillsätta 1/2 tsk malen nejlikor, jag tycker själv inte om det p.g. av eftersmak

Instruktioner:
Blanda allt med visp, sen blanda det hela igen i en mat processor. Kan också blandas 1dl i taget i kaffebön grindern.
Varm en kaffe mugg av mjölk i micron tillsammans med 1 tepåse. För lite extra lyx, använd latte mjölk. Ta ut kaffemuggen och lägg till 1-3 tsk pulver mix. Blanda ordentligt, funkar utmärkt att använda mini el mixer. Toppa med lite kanel och kardemumma. Njut!

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2009

MFF theme on our Christmas tree this year

First Christmas in our new apartment!

Icecicles are growing

Christmas buffet

Hard to see the food here because of my stupid fuzzy camera, but it was a real spread!

Icecicles at work

Christmassy snowy berry bush

Snow in the bushes

This was at my bus stop

Fredrik cooks Creme Brule

I got a Creme Brule burner for Fredrik and he had fun making his own pudding for our guests. He especially enjoyed burning the top of it with the tiny blowtorch! It was delicious by the way.

Irina

And that's Fredrik hiding his face. He cooked a fabulous meal for us!

Christmassy table setting

Interesting sight on the way to the store

These guys were remodelling or something, there was one person at the top throwing pieces of his wall down the homemade garbage-can tube, and another guy standing at the bottom making sure the trash landed where it was supposed to

Smiling big for Melanie to see how it looks

Saint Lucia day is Sunday

They celebrate Saint Lucia in Sweden, on this day girls dress in white gowns, one special girl gets chosen as 'Lucia' and she gets to put lit candles in her hair and lead the procession. The other girls are all holding a candle and they usually sing, our celebration at work went on for about 30 minutes, they sang many songs. I though I could get the best view from the top floor. This is looking down from the lunch cafeteria on the 6th floor.

Yes they really are called that

Strange sight at Stortorget in Malmö last night, they have some sort of ceremony before they begin chopping wood. Here is the article in Swedish that appeared in the newspaper:

Kvinnor hugger i för miljön

Malmöbon Carin Dackman hugger ved för miljöns skull. Foto: David Rasmusson/SR

Stortorget i Malmö invaderades på tisdagen av vedhuggande kvinnor. Vedhuggningen är en konstinstallation, där femtio kvinnor, som alla är över femtio år, på två dagar ska förvandla 20 kubikmeter stockar till ved.

– Det känns härligt, kraften finns kvar fast jag inte huggit på väldigt många år, säger Malmöbon Carin Dackman, en av de tillfälliga timmerhuggarna.

De huggande kvinnorna är en del av arrangemanget Grönt ljus i Malmö som ska välkomma allmänheten att ta del av klimat- och kulturhändelser i samband med att klimattoppmötet hålls i Köpenhamn.

Installationen, som leds av leds koreografen Dorte Olesen, har satts upp förr, både på Sergels torg i Stockholm och på Alexanderplatz i Berlin, men frågan till Dorte har alltid varit densamma, varför?

– Jag tror att 50-pluss kvinnor vill hugga ved, de vill hugga ved tillsammans med andra 50-pluss kvinnor. Jag tycker också om den visuella billeden av vedhuggande kvinnor i en urban miljö, säger Dorte Olesen.

Men Malmöbon Carin Dackman tycker att vedhuggandet också har en rent meditativ funktion.

– Det här att fokusera precis när man lyfter yxan och siktar där man ska träffa, det är att vara totalt närvarande i just det ögonblicket, det ser jag som meditation. Det känns jättespännande, säger hon.

Cristmas bookcase

Christmas chocolates

Living room bookcase

Christmas candle

Harley made this wreath of peppermints for me the first year we lived in Sweden. He was in the third grade. I have always hung it up over the entrance inside my hallway but this year I realized for the first time what a perfect candle-ring it makes!

Hall mirror

When the candle is lit behind the star and the box is going, it is very nice. You wind it up and there are magnets inside that make the snowmen dance around on the ice while it plays Christmas music.

Hall table

This is the table in my entrance.

Cozy christmas

A bowl of nuts, a glass of wine, candlelight and Christmas lights, it was so cozy just to curl up on the sofa! Too bad my phone pictures are so fuzzy. Santa, I need a new camera for Christmas!

Fredrik painting

Fredrik painted the wall behind his projector screen. It is a dark grey color and looks really nice. He had a little fun painting things like "Barca" (for Barcelona, where he went last week) and "Zlatan" (his favorite soccer player) on the wall before painting it over haha.

My living room window

Started decorating my house for Christmas - began in the living room, you can see a huge decorated tree outside (we are on the 6th floor so imagine how big that tree is!)

Tjej fest

Sujatha and Madeleine

It may not look like it, but Sujatha gave birth to a baby boy one week after this picture was taken! Congratulations Sujatha and Vinay!

Tjej fest

Ingela and Kathleen

Irina, Maggie, Shi-Lin, Sujatha

Wine and chocolate

For tonights party

Alison 19 and Thomas 16 years old

Soccer Gala

We were high up, and my camera takes bad pics

Card I made

Chef Fredrik

Partial view of my kitchen lol

Booze run - after the third stop

There wasn't enough room in the back of the car for it all. We put bottles under the front seats and stacked cases of beer in the back seat all the way up, and on the 'hump' in the floor of the back seat. The car was riding pretty low. We spent about 400 dollars total, not counting gas; no idea how much his parents spent but they bought lots more than we did. Now we are all set to have our moving-in party (have been living in the new place since July so it's about time for the party now!) By the way, this will be enough liquor to last us for at least a year - and as for whiskey, it will last 2-3 years probably.

Booze run - after the second stop

It was pretty full after the second stop....The big boxes are cases of wine (6 bottles each), the small boxes with the handles are wine-in-a-box

Booze run

Liquor and beer is MUCH cheaper in Germany, so we go there about once every second year to stock up on everything. This was how much we bought at the first stop (ours plus Fredrik's parents).

Pumpkin soup

It didn't impress anyone really except for me; I realized later that I left out the muscavado (brown sugar), it made a HUGE difference but nobody dared to even try it the second time around hahaha.

Concrete course

Swedbank Stadium

The rainbow ended over Swedbank Stadium when we left the food exhibition - it touched the ground on both ends, beautiful-bright-and big! It just doesn't show as nice on film as it did live.

i hate my camera

Too dark to see!

Sweden vs Denmark night

There was A LOT left over! Even after I burned half the shells

The windows in this building are slanted, it sounded horrible!
Hail!

Concrete course

Concrete course

Concrete course

We did a course in concrete, here are Johanna and Alexandra making candle-houses

Spiderweb covered with dew in the sun - beautiful

Quick card I made for Ingela's birthday