My own version of Thanksgiving

We're having Thanksgiving dinner this year. Why? Good question. It's obviously not a Swedish holiday, that anyone here observes. At all. Most people have no idea that it even exists, or for that matter, what it consists of. But I *do* know, at least vaguely. I realise that it was, technically, Thanksgiving day yesterday, but a large dinner in the middle of the week didn't fit with my schedule.

So. Sunday it is. Invited: my parents, my sister Åsa and her fiance Peter (who happens to be one of the best sushi chefs in Sweden), my sister Silvi and her daughter Malin, my brother Arno and his almost-daughter Emmy. And my own darling Per of course. Ten people. That's really, really stretching my capacity. Thank goodness there's a decent pizza place just a little bit from here.

Anyway. I'm relying largely on Nigella's latest cookbook, Feast. That may be a little bit dumb, considering she's not American. But then again, neither am I, so that's ok. I'm cooking a turkey, for the first time ever. It's huge. I wonder if it'll fit in my oven? Time will tell. I'm making cornbread-orange stuffing (the original recipe included cranberries too), green bean casserole with lemon, sweet potato gratin with mini-marshmallows (this is so tacky, but I thought it'd be fun to do something that at least I feel is SO American), roast potatoes (which I realise the pilgrims certainly didn't eat), gravy, cranberry sauce (actually lingonberry sauce, close enough) and.. yeah, I think that's it. I might make some extra cornbread muffins. Possibly a simple salad, too.

For dessert, I'm making a frozen cheesecake, flavored with lingonberries and cinnamon. It's a family favorite, and from a much-loved recipe, so I don't worry about that at all. The rest? Well, we'll see how well it all turns out :)

Apple Butter

A few days ago, I made apple butter. I had one very good reason for this - a large bag full of apples, that my fiance's mother sent us. Many, many apples. And they're really not good enough to eat - I'm picky and like my apples fairly tart. (Granny Smith, yum!) These were way too soft and floury. So, I peeled the whole lot, tossed them in a pan with assorted yummies, and pretty much just forgot about it for three hours or so. Results? Excellent! This yielded a very thick, brown gooey mass, and it tastes fresh and spicy. I used this recipe, from The Domestic Goddess.

I've never had apple butter before - and it's not available in stores or anything here -so I can't say I know what it's supposed to be like.. but it's good! That's all I know. And hopefully, that's enough. I had some on oatmeal this morning - great pairing.

Actually, I had something that was called apple butter this summer in California, at a restaurant called Lucille's Smokehouse, a chain restaurant with awfully yummy food. It wasn't real apple butter though - more like butter, but with apple flavoring. Still good, very very good. I wonder if I could make that by stirring some of MY apple butter into actual butter? Hm. Must try. I had an awesome salad there, and a tiny side order of grits - that's not something I've ever tried before either. And actually, now I want some more! Getting hungry just thinking about it.. but again, grits aren't sold here. I really should have bought a box to take home - but at that point, the luggage was full to the point where it almost exploded, so... no grits for me.

Pepparkakor

Today is the day for for IMBB #10, Cookie swap! IMBB stands for Is My Blog Burning?, an international blogging event started by Alberto from Il Forno. It’s great fun – every month, someone will host a different theme, and bloggers from all over the world join in

This is my first time, and it charmingly coincided with my kitty Ywette’s upcoming birth. I made these on Wednesday night, which was a couple of days before she actually gave birth (Friday morning) but she was getting very upset every time I left her alone. She finally gave up – because baking cookies takes some time – and decided to just hang out in the kitchen with me.

Cookies is a great theme, and I thought about many different ones before I decided on a recipe. I wanted to make cut-out cookies, not so much because I like making them, but because I like having made them. There’s a fine difference there.

I finally chose Pepparkakor, or “Ginger thins” as they’re usually called in other parts of the world. Pepparkakor is a very traditional Swedish Christmas cookie, but sold all year round. It’s in fact so common that very few people bake their own anymore. There’s even ready-made dough you can buy! (And that is a big deal in Sweden, since we normally don’t have cookie dough. Definitely not like the US, where cookie dough is a delicacy of it’s own!) Anna’s is one of the most famous brands of pepparkakor, and it’s sold all over the world. (Especially at IKEA.)

I have to admit that I’m actually not a huge fan, but I really enjoyed making my own. The recipe is by Jan Hedh, a famous Swedish pastry chef, and was published in a recent cooking magazine. It looked like a very classic recipe, and I ended up with a nice and flexible dough that was fun to work with, and TONS of cookies. This recipe makes a lot, so be aware! These go well with coffee, of course, but are better with Swedish Glögg, our version of spiced wine. You can make your own – I’ll post a recipe some day soon, or get thee to IKEA, I’m sure they sell it. Another way to eat it is with blue cheese. It’s a very yummy contrast between soft and creamy but sharp cheese, and crisp, sweet, spicy cookie!

Pepparkakor
(yields at least 10 dozen cookies, if using a medium sized cutter)

2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp allspice
1 tsp of salt (omit if using salted butter)
1 tbsp baking soda

300 gram unsalted butter (I used salted, like I normally do, and it was fine.)
250 gram regular white sugar
150 gram brown sugar

1 small egg
the peel of one lemon
300 ml golden syrup
300 ml heavy cream
1100 gram flour

Day one: Sift the spices and the baking soda in a bowl. Mix butter with the two sugars, add the spices and the egg. Add lemon, golden syrup, cream and finally flour. This will be fairly sticky – don’t worry! Stick it in the fridge overnight, but don’t do what I did and just put the whole mixer bowl in there. It becomes very, very, very solid. Instead, make a log or at least flat discs, wrap in plastic, and chill. (I broke my favorite wooden spoon trying to get the dough out of the bowl on day two. Not fun.)

Day two. Take out small pieces of dough at a time, and roll out on a floured workface. I don’t need to teach you how to cut out cookies. (But do use a lot of flour, you don’t want to have to scrape these off the counter top. It doesn’t impair the flavor much.)

Bake in the oven, at 180 degrees Celsius (350 F) for 7-8 minutes, depending on size. I ended up making a lot of cat shapes (how surprising!) but also a lot of smaller stars and hearts.

The kittens are here!

Besides being a foodie politician with lots of makeup, I also breed cats. Breed of choice is British Shorthair; I have three. (And a British Longhair.) Ywette is my breeding queen, and last night, she went into labor. It was a long night for both of us, but she finally gave birth to four beautiful babies early this morning. Picture to come - so far, we're thinking two boys and two girls, and all of them are brown spotted tabbies.

Very, very happy!

First shot at Israeli Couscous

So, I bought some funny-looking couscous at the food fair the other day. It’s made out of semolina, but it’s big! It’s about the size of a pea, instead of the little nubbly grains that I’m used to. Pretty cool! Here’s an article on it:
http://www.acfchefs.org/trends/couscous.html

For dinner last night, the plan was to make bacon-wrapped salmon filets with couscous. So, I decided to try it with my new couscous – the results? So-so. Not perfect. Decent, but kind of sticky-doughy. I have to try an actual recipe next time. I boiled the grains in water, per the instructions I got when I bought it, and mixed with finely sliced red onions and yellow peppers lightly sautéed in oil, added a pinch of sugar, half a lemon and some lovely, lovely haba beans that my parents brought me from Spain. (These darlings are also called fava beans, and I think broad beans are the same thing. Not easily available here, but sold frozen in Spain. It’s pretty much the one bean or lentil that I do like. And I like it a lot.)

The salmon was perfect – this really is the simplest way to fix it, always yielding perfect results. Simply wrap a slice of salmon fillet with two slices of bacon, season, put in a hot frying pan with some olive oil, and fry for a couple of minutes on each side. The bacon makes a gorgeous, crispy, smoky package for the soft, succulent fish. Mmm!

Food Fair

First some cool news – this blog is now included on the cool site “Food Porn Watch”. Nice!

This past weekend, a large food fair (culinary show, whatever..) was held in Stockholm. It’s an annual affair, and it caters mostly to ordinary people rather than chefs or people in the business. It’s not very high-brow, but rather a matter of ambling around, looking at new products, tasting a lot of good stuff, maybe buying some new fun kitchen accessories. The name of it is “The Good Kitchen” (Det goda köket) and they used to have the aim that all visitors should learn about one new ingredient, and they should have at least one more recipe that they wanted to try. Something like that. I think this is the fifth year? Or sixth? I can’t really remember. Anyway – it’s widely popular, and it’s always a huge crowd.

Same thing this year. Tons of people. But it was still a lot of fun. The major trends were cheese and chocolate – there were more exhibitors of this than of anything else, I think. (Counting out the wine importers… we had a car, so we didn’t check out the alcohol section very much at all. If we didn’t drive, it’d be a nice opportunity to try some new things though.) We did try some excellent parmesan and surprisingly good chocolate from Chocolat Weiss. I bought two bags of pellets from them, so I can look it up. Perfect for making chocolates for Christmas! I also bought a small box of Puy lentils and am currently looking for a great recipe for them. I’m not a lentil fan, at all, but I know that Puy lentils in particular are considered to be the best. This was the first time I’ve actually seen them, so no wonder I couldn’t resist. The same place sold Maftoul, also called toasted couscous, Israeli couscous or pearl couscous. I’ve tried it once – at the same food fair actually, three years ago – but I’ve never been able to find it until now. So, I got a bag. Now, what to do with it? Any suggestions?

We bought some more plastic baking sheets, excellent non-stick little wonders. I have a lot already, but they tend to wear out. And, new ones meant I could cut up a couple of my old ones and make circles for my 9-inch springform pans. I also cut up tiny circles for a muffin tin – I haven’t tried yet, but I think it will be very handy for getting the muffins out in one piece when I don’t want to use paper cups. Oh, and I bought two big jars of Cloudberry jam, yummy golden goodness. I don’t know how readily available this is in other parts of the world, but if you can get it where you live – do so, and have some warmed up with a good vanilla ice cream. Mmm. Bliss.

Cooking for dad: Indian Chicken

Sunday Nov 14 is father’s day in Sweden. My dad usually likes to celebrate by gathering all his children – three of us – Godfather-style and have a big meal. In recent years, I’ve been the cook for these and other family gatherings, and this time was no exception. Attending was my brother Arno, his fiancée Thina, my sister Silvi and her fiancé Tommy, her daughter Malin, and my parents. My own darling was home with a stomach bug and was in no mood for a family dinner. This group of people have two special requirements – no read meat, and no nuts. Generally not a problem since it leaves me with a lot of options. This year, I opted for a fairly simple meal – I made an Indian-style chicken, using ready-made sauce that I promptly forgot the name of. (It was something fairly close to that Arabian TV-channel, Al-Jazeera. Oh well.) In any case, it was a fairly spicy tomato-based sauce tasting heavily of cumin. With the chicken, I served Naan, mango chutney, small pearl tomatoes, finely diced red onions and a raita. I’m really, really pleased with the raita, so I’ll share the recipe:

Raita
300 ml of sour cream (could certainly substitute yogurt or crème fraiche)
1 cucumber, shredded (press out as much fluid as you can)
the juice of 1 lime
1 large bunch of coriander, chopped
1 tablespoon of sugar
salt, to taste

It was very yummy, and I’ll definitely be making it again. It doesn’t have a particular “Indian” flavour, so it’d go well with a variety of meals. I think I’ll try it with a baked potato, next time.

For dessert, I made Nigella’s Chocolate Pots from Nigella Bites. It was the first time I tried them, and it was incredibly simple! I doubled the recipe, omitting some of the spices, and ended up with this:

Chocolate Pots
400 grams of good dark chocolate
300 ml whipping cream
200 ml full fat milk
2 eggs
dash of vanilla extract
dash of cinnamon

You need a food processor for this. Crush the chocolate in the food processor. Heat the milk, cream and spices until just about boiling, and pour over the chocolate. Let stand for a little bit, and then blitz for half a minute. Add the eggs, through the funnel of the food processor. Blitz again, for 45 seconds or so. And that’s it! Just pour into tiny glasses – this made 10 1/2 small glasses, but Nigella specifies that her recipe (which is half of mine) makes 8 servings. (She must have really tiny cups.) We had these with coffee, and it was very appreciated. The chocolate pots are intensely chocolatey, with a smooth velvet texture. It’s much more dense and creamy than a mousse. Definitely worth a try!

Cobby Salad

First of all, I just discovered that I was mentioned in one of the liberal political blogs in Sweden . Per Gudmundson expressed surprise that I, a political secretary working for the liberal party had a blog. About food. Frankly, I don’t find that strange at all. After all, it’s allowed to have more interests than one, right?

Anyway. When I was an exchange student in Long Beach, ten years ago, I discovered the wonders of Cobb Salad. Here’s the official story:

"One night in 1937, Bob Cobb, then owner of The Brown Derby, prowled hungrily in his restaurant's kitchen for a snack. Opening the huge refrigerator, he pulled out this and that: a head of lettuce, an avocado, some romaine, watercress, tomatoes, some cold breast of chicken, a hard-boiled egg, chives, cheese and some old-fashioned French dressing. He started chopping. Added some crisp bacon -- swiped from a busy chef.”

And then it made it on the menu.

I had lunch at home the other day, and I was extremely hungry. Extremely. Cobb salad was on the back of my mind, but.. not quite. I wanted blue cheese, and I had no chicken. And it kind of went from there… I decided to do my own version - and I call it Cobby Salad. I snicker as I type, I find it really amusing – not only because it’s cobb-y, cobb-ish, but also because of my cats. See, I have British Shorthairs. They’re one of the traditionally cobby breeds – cobby in this case meaning short and squat, rather than elongated. (And this is all relating to their body type.) Oh well. Without further ado then – Cobby Salad.

These measurements are very rough – I didn’t measure anything, and pretty much just tossed everything together. I know Cobb salads are often presented in pretty stripes, but I much prefer a tossed salad.

-iceberg lettuce, 4-5 large leaves, torn in pieces
-1/2 dl bulgur wheat
-1 avocado, diced
-1 egg, hard-boiled and chopped
-crispy fried, chopped bacon
-red onions, finely sliced
-blue cheese, crumbled
-cherry tomatoes, quartered
-alfalfa sprouts, a large handful
-small handful of toasted pinenuts
-a splash of balsamic vinegar
-a splash of olive oil
-a pinch of sugar
-salt and pepper

I won't bother with instructions - it's pretty much just a matter of getting it all on a plate. However, I did marinate the lettuce, the bulgur and the sprouts in the olive oil and the vinegar, and I added the sugar to that, too. That was the base, and everything else pretty much went on top. It made for a very sturdy lunch indeed. And it as very, very yummy.

Birgitta turned 60

Birgitta is one of my bosses, and she celebrated her 60th birthday yesterday. It was a casual open reception, finishing off with a party-related meeting (political party, that is) since she is the president of our local party club, and she's very involved. I thought I'd blog a tiny bit about the food, as it was totally delicious, and it was a very nice change from all the cooking I've been doing lately. (And no, I did not have any cheese at all.)

When we arrived, we were given a glass of sparkling wine - it was cold, dry and very tasty. I'm not a big fan of sweet wines, and therefor I must say that I'm dreading the next Wine Blogging Wednesday - WBW:4 which is a New World Riesling. WBW is a spinoff from the lovely phenomenon of Is My Blog Burning? - a monthly event where all the foodbloggers unite and cook on a common theme. A delightful idea, and I can't wait to take part this time! (Especially since the theme is cookie swap - a wonderful idea!) But, I'm very hesitant about the Riesling. I actually had Riesling as a part of, and indeed with, the cheese fondue this weekend. It was nothing special - frankly, a bit too sweet. As most Rieslings are. I used the leftover half of the bottle to make Nigella's champagne risotto from her latest cookbook Feast. That was a yummy recipe indeed! We had that with pork chops for Saturday night dinner, and fried up leftovers into small risotto cakes that we ate with grilled chicken thighs on Sunday.

Anyway, back to Birgitta's reception. For starters, there were various coldcut meats. I had a slice of lovely cured ham - it wasn't the usual parma ham, but something else entirely, not as dry, but juicy and succulent, and very flavorful. I also had a few slices of salami, and it was just the way I like it - dry and slightly chewy. I don't like too soft salami, not my cup of tea at all.

For the main course, there was a lot of roasted vegetables. I passed on the eggplant and zucchini, neither being my favorites, but I had a lot of roasted peppers. They were really good, indeed better than when I make them myself. I think they also included some chilis, because now and then I encountered some very very spicy bits. It was excellent at any rate, and I will try that myself. I'll note that all of these dishes used way more olive oil than I would ever have the guts for though.

There was also a pasta dish, and I do wish I had the recipe. It was penne in a very spicy but very scant meat sauce. It was made the Italian way - the sauce just added subtle flavor to the pasta, rather than the Swedish way. (Drown the pasta in sauce.) For dessert, there was a heavenly chocolate almond cake, whipped cream, fresh fruit and coffee. In all, a very nice meal, and all the nicer since I didn't have to cook NOR did I have to clean up!

More cheese. Is that all I eat?

It's not, really, but this has indeed been a very, very cheesy sort of week. Anyway. We made cheese fondue for the first time on Friday night. Fondue is SO 80's for me, but it's been long enough for a revival. (I think.) Not having my own fondue pot, I borrowed my parents that has been resting on top of a cupboard for several years. It's really a gorgeous thing, made out of copper. I've only made oil fondues before, and one noted exception of a great chocolate fondue.. but never cheese. Per was absolutely delighted - he loves melted cheese, and having a whole big pot of it - heaven. I'm less enthusiastic though, but was certainly willing to give it a try for his sake.

Once.

I followed a fairly standard recipe out of my little (actually Per's - knowing his fondness for fondue, I bought it for him) Fondue Cookbook. It called for a little bit of white wine (I used a Riesling), emmenthaler, gruyere, a little garlic, cornstarch, kirsch (which I didn't have - substituted sherry), salt, pepper, nutmeg and a little paprika. (Which again, I substituted for chili.) I also added a little bit of brie, keeping in mind a recent post from a foodblog - embarrassingly I can't remember which one. It was part of the Is My Blog Burning Cooking with Wines and Spirits, anyway - I have it bookmarked at my work computer.

It was easy enough to make, and we served it with chunks of a most excellent baguette, cucumber sticks, blanched carrots and cauliflower, and filoncini. (That last thing? It's like a grissini, but thicker. A breadstick, in other words, and in this case, flavored with rosemary. Really good!) I ended up liking the cheese on the veggies, but not so much on the bread. Per loved it on everything.

Toast with Chavroux, turkey and thyme

No blogging yesterday – frankly, I was too shocked at the election results, and spent most of the day reading online news. And sleeping – I had a massive headache and left work early. I am a firm anti-Bush supporter, and I really thought Kerry would win by a mile… but I must say that as a political scientist, I’m also very much in awe of the numbers. 57 million people voted for Bush. That’s an awful lot of people.

Enough about politics for now – others say it so much better – and back to food. I made the most amazing toast for dinner last night! Here’s the scoop:

For one very hungry person:
-4 slices of bread (I used regular pre-sliced white bread from the freezer)
-Chavroux, a gorgeous spreadable goat’s cheese
-two tablespoons of pine nuts, toasted in a dry skillet
-4 slices of smoked turkey
-a few sprigs of fresh thyme
-a drizzle of runny honey
-a little bit of Maldon salt (or sel de fleur)

Spread each slice of bread with a little Chavroux. Top two toasts with two slices each (mine were very thin) of turkey. Sprinkle with pine nuts and thyme. Drizzle honey on the remaining piece of bread with cheese, sprinkle on a tiny bit of salt, and flop that onto the toast. Grill in a contact grill, or if you don’t have one, in a toastmaker or just in the frying pan. My contact grill is one of my fave appliances though, and I heartily recommend getting one. Here’s the one we have:
http://www.obhnordica.se/Products/Product.asp?ProductNo=6974

These toasts were truly heaven. I divided each into triangles (as you’ll be able to see when I finally get the picture up) and ended up eating three triangles. Per appropriated the last one. It was a perfect blend of crunchy, gooey, salt, sweet and thyme. Tonight, it’ll be more cheese (hopefully!) – we’re aiming for a cheese fondue evening.

Looks like four more years. Oh well.

I woke up this morning to realise that it seems to be another very close election, but leaning towards Bush. I *was* invited by Democrats Abroad Sweden to an election night party, but due to a massive headache, I opted for the bed instead. As a liberal political activist, I’m a firm subscriber to the motto “Anyone but Bush”, so clearly, I’m fairly disappointed. Anyway. Liberal might confuse some of you, and I do realise that that word has some weird connotations in different parts of the world. My party is kind of like a more progressive version of the US democrats, if that helps. (Or not.)

It’d be appropriate, this day, to talk about my favourite US food. I used to live in the US – I was an exchange student back in high school in Long Beach, California, and I’ve been back to visit (or to thaw, as my friend Rebecca puts it) many times. My host family was not very big on homecooking. At all. So, most of what we ate came out of boxes, cans, or the freezer. (Or the drive-through.) I’m not complaining, this was certainly different from what I was used to, and most of all, it introduced me to the food of Gods. Yes, I am talking about Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. Yum. I actually start to salivate just thinking about it’s amazing golden creamy goodness.

This is possibly my favourite thing in the world. (Along with, well, a few others. I have a major commitment problem.) I never tire of it. Not that I have much of a chance to do so – it’s not sold in Sweden. And that is plainly upsetting. Thankfully, I have some very dear friends (food fairies?) that try their best to keep my cupboards stocked. Some only send the cheese packets, which is smart – it’s cheap to send, and I can buy my own macaroni. It’s not QUITE as good though, and an actual package is a real prize for me.

So, when I got back from Prague, I had a package slip waiting, telling me that I had a package that was too big to fit into the mail slot of my door. I went down to the mail place (I would say the post office, but the sad truth is that Swedish Mail had a major reorganization a few years ago, and we don’t HAVE any post offices anymore. Or at least, we have very, very few. Instead, they use places like grocery stores or tobaccoists to handle mail. In my case, it means the local little corner store.) to get it – happily wondering who it could be from. The woman went out into the back room, and came back shaking my package. I knew immediately. Food. Glorious food. Nothing else makes that sound. And right I was – THREE big boxes of wonderful mac&cheese! The sender was a dear friend from Virginia, Carey, who I met through makeupalley.com and the joys of makeup swapping. She is a real saint – even sending me recipe clippings.

And speaking of recipes. I realise that there are plenty of recipes out there for making your own mac&cheese. (Or crack&cheese, as some aptly put it. It is addictive.) Thing is, we don’t have orange cheese. At all. Hundreds of cheese, but nothing like the US plasticky orange substance that seems to be such an important ingredient in things like this, and to go with nachos, too. However, if you have a recipe for yummy macaroni and cheese – send it my way! I’ll try anything. (Once.)

Czech shopping

Prague is a gorgeous old town, and if you go, take your most comfortable shoes. Most of the streets have tiny cobblestones, which are fairly good to walk on, and they’re also in good condition. I’m told the buses, trams and subways all work very well, but the old parts of the town are really small enough to just walk in.

Main tourist point: the Charles Bridge. This was built in the 1300:s, and had a lot of very beautiful baroque statues on it. The statues are all of religious motives, and if you’re not up to date on your saints, I’m sure a tour would be lovely. If you like architecture, this is also the city to be. There are so many beautiful buildings, including the national theatre, the national musem, the old town hall and many churches.

We opted for a different kind of museum exhibit as well – as we had crossed the Charles Bridge, we saw a sign for an exhibit of medieval torture instruments. “Weird?” “Very.” “Let’s go!” Frankly, it’s one of the most disturbing things I’ve done. But it was fun, too, in some sick way. It’s amazing to see how inventive people have always been when it comes to hurting others. Truly, the talk of war crimes now is horrific, but it really doesn’t stand a chance to what took place just a hundred years ago. All in all, a disgusting little exhibit, but it is also a part of our history.

For souvenirs, there was a lot on offer. The best thing to buy is definitely crystal – there’s a lot of it, and it’s cheap. And gorgeous! I bought a crystal plate with hearts – this will be a perfect cookie plate for Christmas – and at the airport we picked up a heavy crystal vase, for nearly nothing. However, that’s about what we did buy, as well as some foodstuffs of course.

I have a hard time going abroad without going to at least one good grocery store. In this case, it was a bit hard to find a supermarket. I did find two smaller shops near our hotel, but I’m embarrassed to report that all I managed to pick up was several kinds of pasta in fun shapes, and a packet of Laughing Cow cheese with ham flavour. Ok, that wasn’t really all of it – I also bought a bunch of candy, Czech chocolates… and some packets of instant cappuccino. And before I forget, I finally found anchovy paste! In a small gourmet store in the center of Prague, that carried import stuff, nonetheless. So, I got it, and some ceasar salads will be upcoming. (I know that you should use really anchovy, but I *never* have that in the house.)

What's a great way to spend a weekend?

Why, in Prague, of course! I was lucky enough to be invited to go on a short weekend getaway with my fiance’s department. They’re five people working there, and since I tagged along, as well as another significant other, we were seven in total. It was my first trip to Prague (for some reason, I keep wanting to write “The Prague” just because, I assume, it rhymes with “The Hague”, but… I’ll try to control myself.) and it was glorious. Prague is a very beautiful city, and very old. We spent most of our free time out walking, and in some instances, shopping. I surprisingly didn’t lug home too much stuff, but certainly, some.

Foodwise, it’s not *that* exciting. Czech food is good, and very rustic – but there also wasn’t that much to choose from. The menus typically had a few very bohemian dishes, and the rest was standard fare. For dinner the first night (arriving late at the hotel, having only eaten a less-than-great sandwich on the plane) I opted for an easy solution and ordered pasta. It was quite good – penne in a cream sauce with chicken, peas and parmesan. Nothing special, but it certainly hit the spot right then and there. The highlight of that evening was the bread basket. They had a gorgeous little breadstick, made of some kind of rye dough, rolled in at least six different seeds and grains. (From memory, there was at least oats, sunflower seeds, sesame, poppy, linseed… um, and something else.) I did take pictures, so I’ll add one here later. I immediately went for one of those – and it was as delicious as it looked.

Next morning, at the breakfast buffet, I was delighted to see the same breadsticks featuring here too. So, I had one for breakfast every day. Breakfast was fairly standard – they had different flavours of one of my favourite little things: The Laughing Cow cheese. Not very gourmet, obviously, but oh so good. They also had a lot of different little salads – not what I want in the morning, but Per enjoyed a salami salad every day.

Lunch the second day was, and I am embarrassed to tell you this, at Kentucky Fried Chicken. I know it’s almost a crime to go to a US chain fastfood place when you’re abroad, but.. I had missed it so. We don’t have it in Sweden, and it really is one of my favourites. So… I had two pieces of chicken, fries and cole slaw. Great, great stuff.

Dinner was at a very touristy place just off the old town square. We had been out looking for a restaurant for a while, so we were quite hungry. Nothing extremely special about this meal – I had fillet of beef garnished with asparagus and parmesan, and served with some very good sliced fried potatoes. And a big, big, big glass of beer. Not normally much of a beer drinker, but when in Prague, it’s really a requisite.

Now, the best part – dinner on Saturday night. We went to a very fun restaurant that had live music entertainment (in the form of two guys in soldier costumes, one playing the accordion, and one playing a huge brass instrument of some sort) and great food. We started with a shot of traditional Czech liquor, called Becherovka. The waiter said it was herbal – tasted just like gingerbread to me. Very very Christmassy (which led us to buy three bottles – one for us, one for our neighbors and one for my mom, as a thank you for cat-sitting) and very yummy. They also had bowls of salted almonds on the table, which led me to order goat’s cheese for a starter. Nothing special about it – just a fairly regular slice of chevre, but OH so good. And it went great with the almonds. I had ordered a glass of red wine, and although it was a rather standard wine, it really added to the experience in this case.

For my main course, I really wanted something Czech, so I ordered the fried duck, which was served with two kinds of dumplings (bread and potato) and two kinds of sauerkraut. Everything was absolutely delicious – the duck was extremely flavourful and juicy, the kraut was about a million times better than I would have expected – packed with wine and butter, and the dumplings… were an acquired taste. I liked them well enough with the rest of the food, but I don’t know that I would cook them with a lot of other things. Anyway, it was great to have tried a more traditional dish.

For dessert, Per ordered apfelstrudel which was very good (and something I’ll definitely try to recreate at home) while I stuck to an Irish coffee. Bad, bad move. For some reason, they didn’t use regular cream in the coffee (and they HAD regular cream – since that’s what they used to garnish the strudel) but instead some kind of lemon flavoured goo. It was disgusting –especially as it separated from the coffee and was just nasty. Other than that, a perfect night…