ginger breads..and winter solstice.

Horses, mooses and bears, and lots of hearts..
and a couple of angels, too.
 Winter solstice is behind us now
so here's to longer brighter days! at last! i've been waiting for the turn!

a holiday date with granny.

I've decided that December is one long holiday. It's just better that way. On our date, we made toffee. Mostly because we've never done it before, they are so cute with paper on them, and remind me of Pippi. Granny was such a trooper cutting all that paper while i wrapped them. I still have to make ginger breads.... and lots of other things. Surviving winter darkness and have a good time all the time.

hello 2013. food, friends and music.

cherry pie day.

February 20th was cherry pie day. In Twin Peaks they only eat cherry pie. I got the "welcome to twin peaks" book on ebay earlier this month (oh it is the cutest little book-i love it) and thought i would make the cherry pie from the recipe in that book. My first cherry pie ever, and so i did for cherry pie day! It is a pretty simple recipe that only requires a few small preparations like keeping it in the refridgerator over night etc. I also had to translate it to swedish and therefore it's not entirely american made, and cherries are not in season right now, so overall i had to work with what i got. But cake or dinner pie, it is fun! what's your favorite pie?

december blot.. with snow!

{A}ll of november has been warm.. meaning it's been raining(!), and i've been really sick with flu half of december, so my jul spirit only kicked in this weekend. jul without snow, is simply not jul, but snow is slowly coming. even the horses are upset.

i made gingerbreads this past weekend and i've started early on the beverages, elf porridge and exotic spices. usually there is blot all of december, it's a little stressful to only have this one last week to do everything. when december is over, the blot ends!

Darkest day of the year is on thursday(!). I have so many candles lit. its just very depressing(for a little while) to go to sleep in the dark and wake up in the dark. luckily its only for a few weeks. but where there is darkness there is also light, and it's coming back now! happy winter solstice!

2 diana f+ photos from this summer..

for lunch, i made waffles with blueberries for everyone!

mom's flowers.

midsummer instax's.

Midsummer was rain and thunder, i made waffles in my mom's yellow vintage waffle iron -and ate outside even though it could rain. stina and i stayed up late baking and watched movies in the midnight sun about skiing in the alps (what else to do in the summer?!). stina did most of the baking though (see instax above). we bought lots and lots of sweet watermelons for only 2 kr/kg. i carried a 5 kg watermelon home in my arms. i have to thank lady M above for my arm muscles! I'm embracing this summer.

pepparkakor.

i made gingerbreads yesterday with no imagination at all. some years i have had no christmas spirit what so ever.. it is always so different from year to year. this year it came to me really early and i started christmas at the end of november. i've already put the tree up. glad i did all of that cuz this month is turning out to be superbusy with university/work. also i like the idea of christmas the whole month. (better pics of my dear tree will come soon!). it is snowing, and i'm attending a small christmas party this evening. it is december. *drinking cold punsch and listening to talented friends jamming on music instruments. loved it.

advent.

december! the month of candles and gingerbreads.
4 weeks left until jul! 4 weeks until the days get
longer again. the only good thing about this constant
darkness outside is that i can fika all the time.

lunch.

winter is the most beautiful season.
but oh, autumn is a darling..
i love all the earth colors.
and picking food from the ground!
gathering for the winter.
i didnt pick any blueberries or chanterelles this summer because i was busy,
but the apples make a great jam. for swedish pancakes.

food clash.

• the only true american food i've been eating i guess is at the diners. i liked the vegetarian hamburgers there. i just love diners... other times i've tried to find italian or greek restaurants (love european food).
  
  

• the candy here is so far not much. but i've only been to safeway. there is still hope. i really wish swedish candy was available here. the "swedish fish" are ok when there isn't any better around. most candy look plastic, has a suspicious strong color or tastes like.. dishwash soap. i wanted to try twinkies but they looked a little too suspicious. i did try snowballs, but.. they weren't any good... the bags are BIG SIZE. like stock up HUGE. everything comes in big pack here.
• the american food culture seems to like fries and meat more than -candy-. but drinks are sweeter than the candy, americans seem to like sugar in all kinds of things more than actual candy. sweden has the most wonderful candy i tell you.. and instead no sugar in the food. overall, i missed my swedish food. i don't shop at IKEA in sweden, but abroad i would only got to IKEA lol.

• sprite and coca cola bottles are a little wider, and both has a sweeter taste compared to the swedish. uh.

• cheese is already slized here, and it doesn't taste much cheese. and why is it orange? trying to put cheese sticks on my toast was funny in the morning. but they were good compared to peanut butter... hm.
  
  

• i'm hearing that cupcakes here are way too sweet. i hope not.

• i've had cheesecake, and it was ok, but ugh, i couldn't even finish it.

• coffee is cheaper here. around 2 dollars cheaper. i love starbucks. acutally good we don't have starbucks in sweden. i'm not supposed to drink coffee. but oh i love mochas. i could have 3 in one day. dangerous!

but there was 3 things i loved..
mtn dew
milkshakes
and starbucks cafe mocha.

mtn dew is slowly being introduced to sweden, i saw some on a shelf a few weeks ago.. now i'm waiting for the other two..!

breakfast at stina's.

last day in america.

stina made us american pancakes with maple syrup.
yesterday i had toast with peanutbutter and jelly.
interesting food experience.
she went out before breakfast today, before i had woken up, and

got me a starbucks mocha.
how sweet is that. i love her!

palo alto.

i wanted to see death on the nile, but i missed it.

i wish sweden had cinemas like the ones here. there are old black and white movies showing and all kinds of other genres. i love it.
i also loved the vegan-restaurant we ate at here in palo alto. kind of reminded of chinese yet not. don't remember its name. i must say those pizza slize places are genius. i never tried frozen yoghurt though. there is so many different things to pick from here in america!

why are all my america posts about food?!

i love diners.

san francisco, san diego & los angeles diners.

oh the joy!

Diners were the only place in america i wanted to eat at! So dangerously good and unhealthy but oh oh i love them. It wasn't that bad eating at diners because.. Sweden doesn't have them! My mom and dad used to take me to eat at Max every saturday after ballet practice when i was like 6 years old. I eat hamburgers about once a year(if at all) in Sweden so you can guess right that Burgers, Fries & Shakes were a whole lot of fun for me, as the classic dishes at the darling 1950's diners. go america!

I didn't go to "Cadillac Jacks" in LA because i totally forgot about it.. -_- The grease 2 diner scene was shot there. it is very pretty.

Homemade Zuko burger's and Pink Lady Shake's sound good now though.

san francisco, day three.

we left palo alto and went in to "the city" today where we met cecilia and affe who were visiting SF too. we ate at Mels drive in, i finally had a taste of vanilla milkshake and i loved it. we walked around market street, but there wasn't really much to see there, the stores were boring. we didn't have time to go anywhere else today. stina and i had nasty iced latte (don't try it). we finally met kajsa again and we all had dinner at a jazz restaurant which had a live jazz band playing. it was a really nice day with friends here in san francisco. tomorrow i'm going in again to hang out with Kajsa before she leaves for Boston.

fika ftw

goth-pippi and the army of dreamers, spain and swimwear.


*i had an embarrasing accident with the
polaroid.. aah i can't even tell.