glass

We have our friends from Stockholm staying us for the weekend. It's been a fun, adventurous weekend. Today we went to the ice cream store. Sofia and I got Fall/Christmas flavored ice creams. I got saffron which tasted like lussekatter and peppermint which is my favorite.
Good, good weekend.

visions of grandeur

Yesterday was no good. But also very good. Don't you hate it when days are like that? Then it's impossible to like a day or not like the day. You can't declare the day as "bad" when it's also been good.

I had one final surprise planned for G's birthday; a football game that his parents and brother would surprise him at. Except the team cancelled the game the night before and suddenly I found myself sobbing about how "nothing ever goes right." And we all went to go see the new Wall Street movie instead. But then they didn't show previews at the movie and the guy two seats behind me kept kicking his chair and I could feel it like he was right behind me. And then we went to dinner but the waiter put the five of us at a table for four even though I made reservations for five.

But I also got to spend time with family, eating great sushi, drinking sake, and laughing. Which is ultimately beats the bad parts of the day.

And in just two days I'll be back in America and hanging out with my family. I'm excited.

I also got a surge of inspiration today. Maybe it was laying around all day reading but suddenly I am excited about the future and all of the many things I have planned. Maybe too many things, but that's never a terrible thing now is it?

As promised, but a day late, here is the cake I made.

I had visions of grandeur when making this cake and it didn't come out exactly as planned. But it was still good. It's a vanilla and orange sponge cake. With a thin layer of fig jam. Covered in a vanilla and orange whip cream with roasted figs.

festival

The past few days have been awesomely great. The Malmö Festival has been in town and we've only been a few times since it's a chaotic mess of people and fried food. But a fun, chaotic mess... at least for a few minutes. We saw Miike Snow and Band of Horses perform and both were pretty cool shows.

I really enjoyed these lights they had strung up around the festival. If I had a backyard I would buy them. They look like circus lights!

There was an espresso truck in the center of town and we bought Americanos to enjoy by the canal. G has his new socks on.

Unfortunately we bought cinnamon sugar churros. They were just as bad as they were good.

And this is unrelated to the festival but I baked a double layer SQUARE chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream. And sprinkles.

another vacation

We are on vacation. Again. Well, I have been on vacation for a few months now. But G has a week off from work so we are up in the country enjoying the last few weeks of summer.
Tomorrow we leave for Germany. We will only be there one night but I'm super excited. I haven't seen much of Germany other than the airport and one border shop.
Yesterday, we were inspired by Julia Child and made hollandaise sauce with artichokes. Tonight, I made cheese enchiladas complete with chili gravy. It tasted just like a Tex Mex restaurant. Oh, Texas I heard you are really, really hot right now.
Not to make anyone jealous, but the weather here has been perfect. Almost like Spring but with less wind.

I promise to post more once we are back from Germany.

more summer

Sunday was the 4th of July and that evening we were invited to 4th of July BBQ. It is my second 4th here in Sweden and it was good to celebrate. Lately I've found myself pretty homesick for Texas. The weather has been so hot and so sunny here that super strong feelings of nostalgia keep hitting me like a tidal wave. 

So on the 4th we ate barbecue, the best chiptole sauce I've ever had, potato salad, homemade beer, and of course: watermelon.

 

We also found a secret smultron bush and G went crazy. He picked as many as he could find and strung them on a long piece of grass. He said it was in his Swedish nature.

My 4th of July fashion was an old t-shirt from the 1980s with a semi-truck on it and a pair of denim cutoffs. 

A few days after the 4th, we took a small mini-vacation up to Småland where G's cousins rented a summer cabin. You guys, I stayed in a real log cabin. I mean, it was a deluxe log cabin with a jacuzzi tub and actual floors (not dirt floors) but it was pretty legit.

Better yet, we had a great view. There was a bright blue pool, a lake (that looks faraway but was right down the hill). Off to the left was the wood fired hot tub (which we didn't use because it was too windy and bit a too cold). The landscaping was impeccable and right next to the woods.

And in the woods there were:

Blueberries! Just barely ripe and still a bit sour. But blueberries they were. And we picked as many as our hands could hold.

tuesday evening

Tonight we had a pre Cinco de Mayo party. Everyone was busy tomorrow, so it had to be today.
We made margaritas and four different Mexican themed dips to go with our oily, Swedish corn chips. We invited some friends over and spoke in French accents. It was a good evening.

We bought a bunch of cacti about a month ago. Surprisingly, they are still doing well. The sombrero decoration is from my most recent birthday.

Four dips: guacamole, black bean with roasted garlic and roasted corn, sour cream with roasted red pepper, and fresh salsa.

Oh margaritas! I thought I only liked frozen margaritas- I was wrong. We're still working on perfecting the recipe, I don't like them to be too sweet. But yes, this is what dreams are made of.