A sunny Saturday

This weekend has been really sunny and we were afraid that all the Swedes would have decided to do as us: take the car and go in some nice place near the sea. It seems though that, for once, despite the sun shining in the sky and not clouds on the horizon, they had realized that it was not that warm yet.
So, when we reached Skanör, which is in a small peninsula on the most southern part of Sweden, we were glad we had our winter clothes on, but we were sad because the wind didn't allow us to take long walks.

We had as main target to go and eat at Skanörs Fiskrögeri, which is a nice restaurant fish-oriented with a small shop.
We noticed that, once again, the menu had been changed from the other two occasions we had come there and that was nice, because at least one doesn't need to always eat the same things, although good!

We ended up trying something new, but also taking something we knew already pretty well.

We first tried Kalixlöjrom. I think it is a special, unique caviar that can be found in just few places in the world, and I think that the fish from which the eggs come from is called vendace (lavarello in italian).

We split the portion and that was not that big, but we understood why after doing some quick research on the Iphone. Nevertheless, it was all worthy because the taste was great and the roe was like melting in one's mouth. They served it with some potato-cake which tasted great and some cream, making the combination really tempting.

The main dish was a straightforward choice for Mattias, who fell for the classical mix while I attempted to eat whiting, which however had not be caught that day. I got something else similar, closed to the family of the cod, whose name I didn't fully catch (bleke, blake, bleik...don't ask me).

Here there is what Mattias took. Some herrings and sauces on the left, potatoes and Västerbotten cheese in the middle, smoked shrimps on the bottom (I am crazy about them), smoked makerell and salmon (I think) on the right with a bit of fish cake on the extreme right and smoked blue clams on top.

I really enjoyed my dish! It had black salsify and spinaches, which tasted really great. The fish was perfectly cooked and had a nice crunchyness and saltness. Finally, the scallops were a really nice addition to the whole dish, they were fresh and vibrant (as somebody would say ;D) and not chewy at all and the click of sauce on top was not destroying the harmony of the plate. Maybe maybe, even my parents would have liked this dish since it didn't have too many sauces and the fish was definitely dominating the dish.

We decided to skip the dessert since we had heard of an ice cream place nearby (which delivers ice cream to the restaurant) and it took a while to leave the restaurant, since the payment procedure was a bit slow (zzZzZz), however, also this lunch confirmed that this place has great food!!!
We went to the fish shop just in front of the restaurant, but we were not impressed by what they had and there were too many people to consider buying anything and we decided to skip a walk near the sea since the wind was a cold pain!

We went to the ice cream place, Da Aldo, but we were a bit disappointed, probably because we had ice expectations and we had been spoiled with other ice cream places in Lund and Malmö.
The ice cream was ok, but not fantastic, it was a bit too ice and not so much taste. But the worse was how the waiter (probably a young guy working over the weekend to get some money) put the ice cream over the cone or in the cup. Pico and Romeo could have done better! (Result: I didn't even have to take the cone in my hands that some piece just fell off on the floor...great).
But at least, we enjoyed sitting outside in the sun (which was too warm for me) and observe the behaviour of the people around us (they seemed to know all each other).

Hope we can soon repeat a little trip like this again!

Spring released

The temperature has finally raised and some ray of sun has started to show up. This means that it is time to take care of the plants and see what has survived the winter (especially this long and very cold one). I was actually not very positive about certain plants, since I managed to kill my beautiful pelargonium that survived until the middle of November, but you never know what will come up!

This is what survived of my pelargonium. We will see if it will manage to come up again. The strange thing is that the plant it was coming had a different leaf type.

I don't know yet the name of this (I should investigate) but this plant has been resurrected in the past years after a Pico's operation. Now it is blooming wildly!

The St. Paulia is blooming again!!!!!! 

Kalanchoes is the plant for which I should open a shop. I don't know how many small plants I could create from mine! They grow very fast and I manage to make some blooming very much also. This is an example!

This has been a bad year for my orchids. Of five I had, 3 and half survived. This is the one that is in the best shape and I treat all of them in the same way. I think it is a lot the position and the vase type.

My hortensia has survived yet another year and it is coming up again already!

I have saved some hyacint from Christmas and plant them back and I have cleaned up the asters from last autumn and found out their roots were very fine and some small plants are coming up again!

This year I have started to plant some cat grass. I hope Romeo and Pico will like it :) I haven't yet plant herbs or new plants for us. I should buy something in these days, but the greyness of the sky is not that inviting for stay out in the balcony and freeze to death while planting.

And this is the first year one of the clivia is blooming. Really beautiful flowers!

From a disappointment, to a little success

Unfortunately, the item we purchased from internet as support for our carrycot was not what we expected. It arrived after 2 weeks and yes, we could have survived with that if the item would have been working. However, it was really instable after Mattias spent a whole evening attempting to mount it and furthermore, the carrycot didn't fit as we wished in it! That is because we were mislead by the information on the website: min and max dimensions! That was not stating which were the minimum or maximum dimensions for the carrycot that would fit there, but the size of the smallest and widest part of the carrycot. Of course, we could have been maybe do some fix to make it work, but since it was instable in itself (due to some strange way the construction was build) we have asked to get a refund from the website where we purchased the item. We are still dealing with that, since it seems that, despite the refund policy written on their website, they are trying to push us to get some replacement for the current item.

Nevertheless, we decided to not care any longer about the price of such items in Sweden and instead go to a nearby shop (Barnliv) with the carrycot and take our chances. Well, we were definitely successful this time!
When we saw the support with thought it would have been too small and we were just crazy thinking it would fit there, but then we tried and it was working like a charm.

Here the result:

Sunday brioche

Living in Sweden and being in need of a proper Italian breakfast?
Here there is a recipe that could satisfy the ones searching for a "Saccottino".

Ingredients:

• 470 gr of flour
• 100 gr of soft butter
• 120 ml of milk
• 2 eggs
• 100 gr of sugar
• 25 gr of yeast
• A bit of salt

To fill and decorate:

• Jam, marmelade, Nutella, chocolate drops or whatever you like (I used just jam and Nutella)
• Pearl sugar

Melt the yeast in a bit of lukewarm milk

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and add the yeast. 

Work the mix with a fork (or a spoon) and then work it with the hands, until one gets a smooth and homogeneous dough.

Cover it and let it yeast in a lukewarm place for about 1 hour and half. 

Then, take a little ball of dough at the time and flatten it with a rolling pin obtaining a rectangular shape about 0,5 cm high. 

Spread the jam or whatever you want to use on the surface and roll the rectangle.

Put the brioche on a baking tin covered with oven paper and then brush them with some of the milk and spread on the surface the pearl sugar.

Put it in the oven at 180° for about half an hour or when they are golden.

Compact living

I believe it is a common problem to know where to store all the clothes, blankets, and so on, when one switches from the cold season to the warmer one. Especially the blankets do take a lot of place and if one lives in an apartment, space is definitely a constraint.

So, what to do?
I have decided to invest in some sort of vacuum system called Compactor (no link available sorry). Basically an enormous plastic bag that can be closed (hopefully) tightly and all the air from it can be vacuumed away, reducing the space of the object.

Before

After

Result, a lot of space is saved and also, the blankets are kept away from bugs and whatever else!

Salt & Brygga

We have now been twice to this restaurant and both times, we have come back home extremely satisfied.
Main characteristic? Fine dining in an ecological manner. It is nice to find local ingredients, cooked in a never too elaborated way, mixed together in some interesting combination.

The portions are unfortunately not too big, but this is fine dining, we can't expect to be served as in a tavern, and the price is not exactly low, but it is justified, in my opinion, by the originality of the menu' as well as the good service.

I should also point out that the location is quite strategic, since it is in one of the most trendy areas of Malmö, Västra Hamnen, and when there are long summer days, it is possible to admire a quite breathtaking sunset.

I do not remember our first visit details (except a wonderful nettle soup), since it was some time ago. However, last Friday dinner was memorable (maybe because we were celebrating my maternity leave?).
We decided to choose a "menu" each, I took the fish one, while Mattias picked up the meat one and we added a small appetizer to share. That was fried prästost (a swedish type of cheese), that had been stored for about 5 years. A cheese that can't be found yet in any shop, since it is developed in some dairy lab, but, although fried, it had a really nice taste.
The menu details are available at their homepage. I tried Mattias' main dish and that was the best dish of them all!

Alltogether, the place is great and I warmly recommend it for special occasions and romantic dinners (especially during summer).

St. Joseph pancakes (Crespelle di San Giuseppe)

When I was a child, I remember my parents frying a massive amount of pancakes for the 19th of March. I don't remember if they did it really every year, but for sure, they are not doing that anymore these days!
Hereby, I have been taking on this tradition, even though there is not yet any father in this household (but there is a Giuseppina!).

Ingredients:

• 1 kg of flour
• 25 gr of yeast
• raisins
• water
• oil for frying

Melt the yeast with a small amount of lukewarm water, in a small bowl.

 In the meanwhile, put the flour in a big bowl and then add the yeast in the flour and start to mix.

Slowly, add the raisins and some water so that the dough keeps being soft. The amount of raisins depends on the taste!

Continue to mix and add water (and if wanted, raisins) until the dough is quite soft and the sound, when mixing it, is similar to "plok, plok".
Let it yeast for about 2 hours in a warm place.
Warm up some oil in a pan and with the help of a spoon, shape the pancakes and drop them in the oil. Turn them around so that both sides are golden.

When ready, let them rest on a plate prepared with kitchen paper and season them with sugar.

Enjoy!