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Advent Calendar / 23 December

It’s the Day before Christmas Eve, and I just put my Christmas Ham in the oven before starting on this post.

The Swedish word for Christmas is “Jul” (the same word as the old English “Yule”, dating back to pre-Christian times). Christmas Eve is “julafton”. However, we also have an alternative name for that day, which would translate “Dipping Day”. This refers to a tradition of dipping bread into the broth left over from cooking the meat.

Traditionally, there is sort of a count-down going on the week (or so) before Christmas, which makes today “the day before Dipping Day”. With just one day to go, that’s not much of a challenge; but for example Monday this week would have been “the day before the day before the day before the day before Dipping Day” – etc. (The only limitation for when to start the countdown is really your own ability to keep count.)

(Picture from Wikipedia)

You may be familiar with the concept of the Scandinavian smörgåsbord (in English spelled smorgasbord) - a buffet with a wide variety of dishes. (“bord” literally means “table”) Well, the Julbord is similar; only more of everything, and extra special Christmas dishes added.

What should be included in the “julbord” varies a bit between different parts of the country, and from family to family. If you’re interested, read the Wikipedia article, because this is one subject which I’m not qualified to write about. Our family traditions were rather modest in this respect – especially in later years  - and my own even more so!

It probably says something about how strong the tradition of the ham as the centerpiece of the Julbord is, though, that this is just about the only thing that I sometimes do bother to make myself. (Christmas without ham is for us like Thanksgiving without turkey for the Americans. Or at least that’s my impression from Americans movies and sitcoms!)

In spite of the ham, Christmas food fanatics would probably feel deeply disappointed looking into my fridge. Not that it’s empty, but since I’m not much of traditional Christmas food fan myself, I’ll be quite content eating other things - and hopefully not much more of them than I usually do. 

In fact, the only other thing in my fridge that really shouts out “jul” is a couple of bottles of Julmust. This is a special soft drink made from a secret recipe. It was created by a father and son Roberts in 1910 as a non-alcoholic alternative to beer. It is still made exclusively by the same company and the original recipe is said to be locked up in a safe with only one person knowing all the ingredients. The beverage is closely associated with Christmas, is also sold at Easter but traditionally not at all in the summer. In the Christmas season however, Julmust outsells Coca-Cola  in Sweden, and not only that - the consumption of Coca-Cola drops by 50% during the same time.

One more thing that is a “must have” for me at Christmas is gingerbread cookies, but I do not bake them myself any more (too hard on my neck-shoulder-arm problems). What I did do a few days ago was bake a cake with the same spices – less hard work, but still gives the right smell ;) 

I also like a special Christmas blend of green tea which I buy at my favourite tea shop. 

So: Christmas ham, Julmust, gingerbread and Green Christmas Tea… I’m all set! ;)

As for the expected snowstorm, it has not showed up yet in the area where I live (inland south-west). It now seems it will hit the south-east coast the hardest. The snow that is already here is not going anywhere though! The outside temperature is –8°C. Just nipped outside to dispose of some garbage bags… Brrr, quite a wind blowing too… I’m staying in…!

 

The Christmas Pig

Advent Calendar / 9 December

The other day Ginny in her blog Let Your Light Shine had pictures of various strange Christmas decorations she had seen around where she lives; among them two pigs. I commented that the pigs were the least strange to me among those examples that she showed; and I promised to make a blog post including pictures.

Now after yesterday’s Advent Calendar post about the Christmas Bunny some people might think this is all a joke too; but today I’m actually into more serious research!

Pigs are quite common in Swedish Christmas traditions. As decorations they might be getting less common than they used to be, but unless you're a vegetarian, the Christmas ham is still the main course on the Christmas table. In the old days, and I think perhaps still in some restaurants, they used to decorate the pig's head with frosting, put an apple in its mouth, and have that on the table as well:

God Jul = Merry Christmas

One of the common pastry-cutters used for homemade Christmas gingerbread cookies is shaped like a pig:

There are also candle holders shaped like pigs:

           

 

and Christmas decorations with "tomtar"/gnomes riding pigs
(common on old Christmas cards I think):

No doubt the pig in the Christmas decorations goes back to pre-Christian Midwinter celebrations here in Scandinavia.

There was a boar Saerimnir in the Old Norse religion, which had sort of "eternal life". It was killed and eaten every night in Valhalla, the hall of dead warriors, where the god Odin reigned; but it was brought back to life again every morning.

The Christmas ham and the decorated pig’s head traditions can be traced back to sacrifices to the god Freyr for the new year.

The Christian faith is recorded to have been first introduced in Sweden by St Ansgar who founded the first congregation in Birka (near our capital Stockholm) in 829. (Links to Wikipedia.)

Sacrifices to the Old Norse gods were abolished as Christianity took over; but of course people still had to eat, and pigs were still slaughtered in time for Midwinter/Yuletide/Christmas...

Old and new traditions got mixed up in one another, as they so often do; until most people no longer know what’s what.

And so in Sweden we ended up with a strange mix of Baby Jesus in the manger, Christmas trees, candles, snow, pigs, Christmas gifts, the small gnome/brownie-like “tomte” and the Yule Buck mixed with the big jovial St Claus/Father Christmas and his reindeer... (And on top of that  since 1960 every family glued to the TV screen every Christmas Eve between 3-4 pm to watch Disney cartoons  – the link goes to an old blog post from last year.)

Oh, by the way… I mentioned in an earlier post that we also have a Christmas Calendar TV-show (a new one every year) running from 1-24 December. Guess who the “star” of this year’s Calendar is?

It’s a little pig!

None of the pictures in this post are my own;
they were all found by Google picture search.

An Ordinary Day

Above and below: Traffic pictures from the local newspaper.

Yesterday we had a snowstorm again. I did not have any plans to go out anyway, so I just stayed in, and wasn’t really much bothered. I was rather surprised to learn in the afternoon that it had been so bad that it brought a total stop to all the bus traffic in town! It did not look all that bad from my windows. I could see there was a strong wind, but the layer of snow was not very thick. But apparently the roads were really icy, and lots of road accidents were reported from all over the area. And in town, the busses were standing still, and people had to walk, or call for taxis, or stay where they were.

Today I had a lunch date planned with a friend. Doesn’t happen too often and I was looking forward to it. The storm has passed, and the snow was thawing again this morning. I was all set on going out for lunch. But it was not to be. My friend woke up with a cold and called to cancel. So I guess I’m in for a less exciting and much more ordinary lunch today: Soup from a can…

Better get used to it, I suppose. All of it: Snowstorms, colds, cancelled plans, and canned soup… It’s winter.

 

Breakfast

Ginny wanted to see the green tomato marmalade spread on something, so here it is, on my breakfast sandwich.

Covered with slices of cheese, and with a cup of tea.

Some people don’t understand the combination of marmalade and cheese. Some people do. Among those who do, there may be a sub category holding on to the firm conviction that the marmalade should be spread on top of the cheese, not under it. My answer to that is: When the marmalade turned out a bit runny, it has its practical advantages to put the cheese on top! Other than that, it does not really matter much to me in which order I put them on…

To which category do you belong?

 

Food For Thought

Even when not sitting at the computer, I often find myself thinking of my friends in the Blog World.

Today around noon I went for a walk into town, and “for once” (it does not happen very often) I decided to just buy a hamburger and fries for lunch and eat them on a park bench.

While drinking the diet coke, I found myself inevitably thinking of Rae in Texas.

Then I decided to get some ice cream on top of that. After all, who knows how many sunny summer days we have left? This led my thoughts to Jeannette in California. (The flavours in that cone, Jeannette, are chocolate and vanilla/kiwi!)

Later in the afternoon, at home, I ate a yellow kiwifruit. (I know it looks green in the picture but it is supposed to be yellow!) It made me think of GB, who has been having a rather rainy Hebridean summer, but will get another chance of a sunny one later in New Zealand…

Breakfast Contemplations

My favourite summer breakfast! 

This perhaps should not really need any more comment. But one thing in this picture may not be what you presuppose it to be. The strawberries are strawberries, and the cornflakes are cornflakes; but the milk is soy milk, since I’m lactose intolerant.

So the “contemplation” is about how, since the early 90’s, when this began for me, it has become so much easier to find alternatives for ordinary dairy products – not in every little corner shop, but at least in  bigger grocery stores and supermarkets. Soy milk, oats milk, rice milk, ordinary milk that has been made lactose free...  And ice cream too! :) There is a whole range of choices now.

Hard cheese, luckily, I can usually eat without problems (most of the lactose disappears in the cheese ripening process).

Back in the mid 90’s there was very little (if anything) to choose from in any shops if you were looking for milk-free. During the first years I used to make my own ‘milk’ from sesame seeds with the help of the food processor and a sieve! It was not so tasty to drink “raw” (a little bitter) but it worked well enough for pancakes and some other things.

By the way, did you know (I didn’t until just a few moments ago) that ‘Open sesame’, the famous phrase from One Thousand and One Nights (also called Arabian Nights), “reflects the distinguishing feature of the sesame seed pod, which bursts open when it reaches maturity.”

 
Picture found on the internet of sesame pods.

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After a week of cooler (but still sunny) weather we are having another heat wave this weekend. Over 30°C (86°F) in the shadow again yesterday. It is also the more humid kind of heat this time…

One problem with this kind of day is that I try desperately to get all kinds of things done in the morning, because I know it will be too hot later. My study, for example, will feel like an oven in the afternoon. Not to mention the balcony. But the best time to go outside for a walk is also in the morning... Not to mention shopping, and… Well, you get the picture.

So far I’ve had my breakfast, washed my dishes, and removed the now very sad-looking pansies from a flowerbox on the balcony. In a few minutes I will have finished this blog post (the first half of which I started on days ago). I think I might attempt a walk next – to a garden centre to get something new for that flowerbox. If I go now… I should get there just as they open… (Hoping they are giving the correct opening time on their website and have not made any unannounced changes for July. You really never know, in July, in Sweden…)

A White Christmas

.~. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year .~.

This year we won't have to wish for or just dream about a White Christmas - we've got it, all over Sweden. In some corners of the world you probably think that we always do, but the fact is that it varies a lot. The further North, the more likely it is. But here in the South-West, if memory serves me right, I think the last time we had a snowy Christmas was back in 2001.

Last night we had another decimeter of it fall down on us, and the temperature has gone up a bit to around zero. But the snow is likely to last for Christmas; we might even get more of it.

In spite of the snow I'm honestly having a very hard time getting into the proper Christmas spirit. The last three days I've spent partly in bed. Not flu, just a common cold, but enough to pretty much drain me of the last of my Christmas ambitions. Monday and Tuesday I did not go out at all. Today I had to go to the local small grocery shop for a few things. In the summer that took me perhaps a quarter of an hour, there and back again. On a winter morning with a head-and-chest-cold and with snow outside, it's a very different story; especially if you also count the time it takes to get properly dressed for the adventure, and then undressed again when you've finally made it home...

In the afternoon the phone rang and woke me up; which made me realise I had been asleep - again. (Lay down for a rest after the strenuous effort of microwaving myself some lunch). Well, at least it was good news, so far: My brother had arrived at dad's house (after a 300 km slushy drive) and so far had found things in working order (no apparent further examples of Murphy's Law going on at the moment). He had even managed already to set up the Christmas tree he had bought (artificial one). And will come to pick me up tomorrow (before lunchtime). (Christmas Eve is our main day of celebration here in Sweden.)

Anyone wanting to know about traditional Swedish Christmas food will have to seek out some other website for information. I was never good at it. I have managed one thing - a small baked Christmas ham. (I had bought it before the cold got the better of me, and managed to prepare it yesterday.) I also have a couple of home-made cakes in the freezer. The rest of the food will have to be bought and improvised. My brother said he'd take an inventory of the fridge and go shop later. We won't starve. There will even be presents although not a whole lot. So I guess it's going to be Christmas after all...

Defrosting

They say that when there are lots of Rowan berries, it is going to be a cold and snowy winter...

Today, however, Nature and I are defrosting. There was no frost when I looked out of my window this morning. But at noon it was still just around 7-8°C outside and cloudy, and I decided to tick one thing off my to-do-list: Defrost the freezer.

So right now, all my frozen food is packed tightly together in bags on the balcony, while I'm listening anxiously to the sounds of cracking melting ice inside my freezer. Or rather, I'm waiting for those sounds to stop. I daren't open the door to check until it's gone quiet, because I'm counting on a kind of defrosting diaper thingy to do the worst part of the job for me. I've used it (a similar one) before and it was like a miracle. So I'm hoping for a repeated miracle, and no flood on the kitchen floor.

But of course, as soon as I put my food outside, the sun decided to come out of the clouds again and shine on my balcony. Which I normally would not object to, this time of year - but right now I kind of wish it would go and hide again, just for a couple of hours longer...

Now if you'll excuse me... I think I'll have to go out into the kitchen and put my ear against that door...