japanese tape

When I couldn't find my tape dispenser I decided to wrap presents using these fun rolls. A local shop, Once Around, has a big glass jar of different ones and unlike some places you can buy them by the each instead of a packaged group.

Swedish smorgasbord

We always have Swedish food for Christmas Eve dinner. Here is this year's homemade picked herring. Traditionally the meal starts with a small plate of this fish eaten with knackebrod, which is a rye-crisp type of cracker. Then, using a fresh plate, help yourself to the meatballs, ham, boiled potatoes, gravlax, cheeses, pickled red cabbage and green salad. Often it takes a few visits to the table to try everything. Smorgasbord is wonderful and allows everyone to please themselves (it's OK to pass up the pickled herring but hopefully everyone will have at least a little taste).

cardamom coffee braid - vetebrod

Now's the time for this Swedish treat. We love this bread in our house, in fact I use 3 times the amount of cardamom called for in the recipe. On Christmas morning we spread slices with lots of butter and have it with hot coffee while we open presents. For the second batch I plan to shape the dough into Lucia Buns, small spirals and figure eights.

paperwhites at christmas

These will be all finished by next weekend. But I have some more at early stages of sprouting so maybe they will be flowering. It's tricky, trying to time blooms.

last leaves

Our cat Min enjoyed a sunny spot on a blanket of leaves. Soon after rain was due so I swept them away.

made in Sweden

I found the candelabra on ebay and then bought white candles from Denmark that will fit as standard tapers are too fat. I love the charming hand painted wood, so very Swedish!

Here is hoping that the paperwhites I am forcing will be in full bloom for Christmas. I scouted thrift stores for clear glass cylinders so the cool-looking roots will be visible. The local nursery has a bulbs half price so today I bought some hyacinths to force. I have been inspired by the gorgeous seasonal flowers, bulbs and wreaths at the Swedish blog liljorochtulpaner Can't read a word of it but can't get enough of the photos.

livingroom, newly painted

Weekends are when I get stuff done, so it's taken forever to paint the livingroom. But finally it's done, the ladder and dropclothes are no longer in the middle of the room. I am really happy with the result. Benjamin Moore "Pale Pewter" is the color and it is very Nordic cool and calm and I think looks good with the trim color, "White Dove" (my favorite white.) The curtain rods are up but I haven't decided what to do about curtains--I kind of don't want to cover the beautiful 1930s window trim.

#occupy wall street

There was an Occupy Wall Street demonstration today neaby and a few hundred people were there with all kinds of wonderful homemade signs. Lots of people drove by, laying on their horns, giving thumbs up, waving in support. Who knows, maybe they will be out there with signs next time. I sure hope so.

apple time

A library friend gave me a big bag of Rhode Island Greening apples from her tree. I've made apple crostata, a recipe from Barefoot Contessa. I like how you just heap the sliced apples onto the dough, toss on the crumb topping and fold up the edge. No pan to fit the dough into, no pre-baking, just easy and delicious.

Rosendals Tradgard in September

The Swedes love their gardens--a little wild, thank you--and these pictures from Rosendals in Stockholm show that a gorgeous harvest time, before the first frost. Stockholm can have snow in October!

Here in Northern California the days start out cool then get warm. The sky is cloudless, the afternoon shadows long and light that tints everything honey color.

an apple, water, flour

Those are the ingredients in the French country bread I made. It took a week from the time I chopped up the apple and added water (which after a few days began to ferment) and eventually, when flour was added, produced the yeasty basis for the bread.
I am still amazed at this process and the successful result I had! I heap credit on William Alexander's book 52 Loaves which inspired me with his year-long quest to reproduce a peasant bread he had tasted years earlier and couldn't get out of his mind. It's a wonderful, often funny journey that takes him to France and on visits to food scientists and flour producers as he develops his recipe.

The bottom photo shows the container of "levain" or starter which stays in the refrigerator, ready for making the next loaf.

end of summer at Rosendals

I know I've shown pictures from Rosendal's in Stockholm...here is what the garden is looking like now in waning summer.

getting rid of the rug

Good riddance to the old living room rug. You see what a mess lay underneath, the backing decomposed so it looked like cornmeal all over the floor. Lots of vacuuming and lemon oil and elbow grease later and you see it is looking lots better and cleaner. We need to go over it another time with the lemon oil but the condition of the 1930s floor is very nice and I'm happy to keep it bare. We went through a few xacto blades to cut the rug into strips that fit in the garbage can--one rolled up strip goes into the can each week.

inspired by Copenhagen

As I mentioned before, many Danish homes have pretty lanterns at their front door but I couldn't find any at home that I liked. Until now! Here is one I bought at a cute boutique in San Anselmo called Delectables. I love it with the ceramics from Lotus Bleu the terrific design boutique in San Francisco where my daughter works.

rescued from a dumpster

Dumpsters attract my attention when I'm out walking but usually they're filled with debris. How about this iron planter?? I went right out to buy moss and plants and in no time I've got happy flowers perched on my deck railing.

Illums Bolighus

There are other department stores in Copenhagen but the house/home store of Illums Bolighus is fantastic. We were told we would likely find a particular souffle dish there--we needed to replace one we'd broken in our exchange apartment. If that dish hadn't crashed to the floor, we wouldn't have discovered this gorgeous store, filled with all the top Nordic and European brands of homewares, marimekko, iittala, Design House Stockholm to name a few. The displays were stunning--check out the rainbow of colors of Peugeot pepper mills, the glorious KitchenAid mixers and racks of pretty Marimekko paper napkins. In the big glass tubs are cool looking clothespins (the Danes like to dry clothes outside in summer, these pins would make the job more fun).

You see the lanterns? Many houses in our neighborhood in Copenhagen had lanterns such as these at the front door; I've been looking here at home for cute ones like these, without any luck so far.

more Copenhagen favorites

If you go to Copenhagen (yes, do!) make sure to eat at Restaurant Sankt Annae You will find all the Danish specialties on the menu, which means it takes a long time to make up your mind. The salmon I had for lunch was perfection (served on Royal Copenhagen). The Danes love to party, so the waitress was kept busy filling up the bottles of acquavit for the tables where there seemed to be a toast every five minutes. The world's happiest people? Well I believe it.

La Glace

Delectable works of art, that's what is to be found at La Glace in the heart of Copenhagen. It's one of the oldest pastry shops in the city. The ambience is so refined and elegant that while savoring this sliver of cake I wouldn't have been at all surprised to see the Queen of Denmark come in for an afternoon sweet.

Royal Copenhagen

No way could you get a view of the Royal Copenhagen pattern in yesterday's post so here's a picture that's a little better.. They have not just the classic blue but also orange, plus the motif is larger. How pretty it is! There was a Royal Copenhagen outlet near our apartment but I passed right on by, not wanting to be tempted. I'm sure even outlet prices were beyond me...So, here again, the Royal Cafe

cafes in Copenhagen

Visiting and sampling the bakeries, cafes, restaurants and food shops when I'm traveling is at least as important to me as going to museums and other tourist attractions. The list I made of "musts" for foody Copenhagen was way more than we could do in the two weeks we had there but here are some highlights.

The Royal Cafe and Bakery, is off the main pedestrian street, the Stroget, along a little passageway between the iconic stores of Georg Jensen and Royal Copenhagen. Walking into the bakery is to enter a fantasy of Mad Hatter-painted walls, silver tea servers and of course work-of-art pastries. This danish pastry was one of the best I had...and it was such a pretty presentation, maybe you can just make out the Royal Copenhagen motif of the plate?

back from Copenhagen!

Here are a few pictures of some of what I loved about this city: bikes/biking everywhere--look at the sea of bikes at the Central Station; and the pretty streets and buildings. (We DID bike everyplace, everyday, except when we were heading out of the city and took the train oh and when we caught the train to go over the bridge to Sweden for lunch!)

cheesy rolls

A mixed-up weather day, rain then sun then rain again, perfect to stay in and make a yummy snack. That's Parmesan cheese on top.

Thursday we leave for 2+ weeks in Copenhagen! We're doing a home exchange and are so very excited! I've xeroxed lots of guide book suggestions of places to visit and of course places to eat...the Rough Guide has a section on the best bakeries in the city, bring them on! It will be fantastic to live like a local in our city apartment, riding bikes everywhere (or where we don't ride, using the excellent Danish transit system). Next to Amsterdam, Copenhagen is Mecca for cyclists. Check out the site copenhagencyclechic and you will see one of the big reasons we decided this is a city were crazy about before we even packed out bags. Oh and the fabulous Danish design that awaits...Thursday, roll on!

the seat of power gets cushier...

...while the workers take cuts. What am I talking about? Well the recently-hired City Manager where I work (the City of Larkspur), has been impressing on all employees that the City budget is in a state of "structural deficit." We know what that means -- that in the near future we worker bees are going to be hit with cuts. But the infuriating thing is that while talking about being compelled to dip into reserves to balance this year's budget, the City Manager went and bought himself a new $900 leather chair! I know there are stories like this in the news every day, and each time I say "shame on you" to the mighty for thinking that the boss is entitled to spend money to make things, well, cushier (never mind the hefty salary) while the folks at the lower level fall further behind.

bike to work day/bike everyday!

Yesterday was the 17th annual Bay Area Bike to Work Day. There were "energizer stations" along most routes that bike commuters use. This one was at Breaking Away Bicycles in Ross, where I was handed a musette bag containing nifty little gifts. My favorite is the handout from our library system, "Ride To Your Library: Selected Titles About Bicycling". I put in a request for a fun-sounding book, "Eat, Sleep, Ride: How I Braved Bears, Badlands and Big Breakfasts in My Quest to Cycle the Tour Divide." And the Cliffbar was thoughtful. Three cheers for Bike to Work Day!

going after grunge

When you look at the patio furniture on our back patio you can tell we had a very wet winter and spring. My little power washer was great at blasting off the algae. Now we can once again enjoy sitting out there (although there is a chance of rain again tomorrow, Mothers Day).

flea marketing

The Alameda Flea Market has been around for decades and it's the biggest one in Northern California. Yesterday my daughter and I went--not super early like people who are on serious missions--but by mid-morning we were there, poking among the stuff of about 800 sellers. We thought things were pretty pricey but here's what we purchased for 5 bucks, a terrific bold tiny tray, definitely often used by its previous owner. My kind of beautiful.