IRON MEETING

..Is a little dinner meeting my mom and myself try to have every now and then (first it actually took place once a week, but that surely failed, we're just sooo busy.. not).

At Iron Meeting night Blodpudding is served; a very traditional Swedish dish which is made by cooking swine blood, milk, rye flour, fat, sometimes beer with a filler until it's thick enough to congeal when cooled. Nowadays people buy the already made blodpudding in the supermarket and then usually serve it with bacon, cabbage and/or lingonberry jam!

"Blood food" is very rich in iron and we usually wash it down with a or two of red wine, which also contain a high level of iron. I introduced mom to my new favorite; Sunrise Carmenere.

I sautéed yellow onion, bacon and steamed carrots, and put some lingonberry on the side! Yum!

POTATOES & PLOPP

Mom was over for lunch. I sliced potatoes, carrots and chopped up yellow onion, mixed it with canola oil and dried rosemary. Shoved it in the oven for 30 minutes, 225C/435F. Served it with a side of crème fraîche that I had stirred a little wasabi paste into.
Thereafter we walked to a store a 7 minute walk away where I found this! The chocolate bar Plopp has been around for a while, but I haven't tried this new (?) liquorice version, woah; it was TOO good! A creamy caramel center with a hint of liquorice.. yumm..

BERRY GOOD

Residing 2 1/2 hrs northwest of Stockholm in the beautiful province of Dalarna has been rough this winter. According to people that has lived here for years there's been a whole lot more snow than usual. I'm - first of all - NOT a fan of winter or being cold. It gets dark in the early afternoon and it's dark when you head to work in the morning as well. It kinda SUCKS. It's not difficult to become fairly depressed here unfortunately. BUT NOW; spring is on its way! It seems like.. It's been sunny for a few days and snow is melting and yesterday I made myself a vanilla/blackberry/raspberry smoothie which I enjoyed on my terrace (I live in an apt by the way). It was easily made in my fantastic pink OBH Nordica blender by mixing a non-added sugar vanilla & blackberry yogurt and frozen raspberries! So yummy.

In the evening my gorgeous friend Linda came over for dinner. Since bikini season is upon us and also because I've made the decision to cut down on the alcohol consumption in general; we had the non-alcoholic Amé blackberry & raspberry "wine" that I purchased at a local health store, it tasted like cider; but not as sweet as the ones that are a popular party drink in Sweden, it contains herbs and was pretty refreshing. Amé info.

For dinner I boiled wholemeal pasta and made a carrot sauce like this:

Peel and chop a yellow onion and a couple of garlic cloves very finely. Peel and shred 3 carrots. Saute onion and garlic in oil, but don't let it get any color. Add carrots and stir. Add 2 cans of crushed tomatoes (a 400 g) and one tablespoon concentrated vegetable buillon.

Let it simmer for 15 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cup (2,5 dl) cream, 3 tablespoons frozen (or fresh) parsley, 1 tsp salt and a pinch of black pepper. Simmer for another 5 minutes, serve over pasta. Level: quiet freaking easy.

Though if I'd do it again I would go for a less fat cream not to get over-powered by that creamy flavor.

Being chocolate lovers - both my friend and myself - I decided to bring out a bag of chocolate I got in Stockholm last week at a chocolate store and cafe called Chokladfabriken ("The Chocolate Factory"). When I visited with a friend from Sthlm we picked up some small pastries of various kinds that were pretty delicious, for example a Cointreau ball that I really liked! Then I also bought some smaller truffles with different flavors that - I realized - weren't as much fun. There were: rosehip, liquorice, cloudberry, ginger and black currant. I think the currant was the best if I had to pick one.