SB, last night of June 2006

Nothing much to report in this entry. I simply wanted to post a cute photo of my sweet handsome man before I wander off for a long night of sleep. I'll work on diligently posting through the weekend!

roasted shrimp

Dinner out on the balcony tonight, but not without taking some photos first.

I have great admiration for Steven for being able to pull things out of the fridge and cobble together a meal. I can do it, too, but I sometimes resent having to. Around our vacation time and the conference I was trying to use up everything in the fridge and in the cupboards. Getting down into the staples and frozen goods, I found myself craving real greens and things. A week in Sweden - not a bastion of good vegetable preparation - and New Orleans - surprisingly poor on vegetables as well - left me craving fruit and veg. I loaded up on them last night and stocked the freezer with cuts of chicken and fish.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....

It was a late workday today, but I took comfort in knowing a had a pound of nice pink shrimp in the fridge to play with. Originally I thought I would try something vaguely Mexican/fajita like. Indeed, I looked at a Rick Bayless recipe for a garlic and chipotle shrimp, but I didn't have the time to slowly produce a sauce. Swim practice meant some easy prep and some quick cooking afterwards. Well, one out of two accomplished.

I ended up going with a recipe idea out of John Bishop's book. I still want to try his restaurant in Kitsilano one day, but for now I modified his recipe for overn-roasted shrimp. He makes a clarified butter with fresh thyme and garlic to brush ont he shrimp. Lacking thyme, I went with fresh rosemary and added chili flakes. When I brushed on the butter I added more rosemary and some coarse sea salt. The effect was entirely delicious.

Conrad and I dined outside, sipping a French rose (I'm enamoured of pink wine these days - scorn me as you will, but to go with the slight heat, saltiness, and sweetness of shrimp dish, it was a good match). It all was so good that we killed the entire bottle as we talked of things. Another thing I love: a summer evening on the balcony with a bit of good food (I should use that clarified butter to make a wicked garlic loaf!) and the man I love. Some chocolate tablets given to me by my treasured colleague Carol completed the evening.

Must I really get up in the morning?

Bayona

Sometimes I am wrong.

Shocking, but true.

Bob D. (also known as RAD, pictured above) had suggested Bayona as a spot to dine while in NOLA. The Web site didn't hook me. Indian AND Mediterranean? Eesh!

I should know better. RAD was on his fourth meal there while on this trip, so that's always indicative of something. Turns out he was spot on. Almost four hours spent there, and definitely the most expensive meal I had in NOLA (but far from my most expensive meal ever, I assure you). Mary Augusta Thomas and her husband were at a nearby table, and we now all have vague plans to dine together in Seattle and/or DC next year. Given their love of food, that should be fun.

I arrived before Bob and settled in the lounge (brightly lit with daylight from the courtyard outside). A glass of sauvignon blanc in hand. Relaxing, though today was hardly trying at the conference. Bob arrived and we headed to the table. Staff came and went, all chatting with him as they had gotten to know him in the days preceding.

First up for me: asparagus salad with poached egg. I hadn't had much in the way of good vegetables here, so this was a nice treat after a handful of days in town.

The staff generously surprised us with the smoked quail salad next. We'd asked for them to give us suitable wine pairings, so while I had another glass of sauvignon blanc with the first salad (no Sauternes available by the glass), it was a half-pour each of a pinot noir rose for the unexpected course.

Dinner for me was veal sweetbreads with sherry mustard. Goodness, but that was a treat! How often does one get sweetbreads. I ate very slowly - unusual for me - because I savoured them so. Ahhhhhh. Excellent fare! A glass of a Riesling (not too floral or fruity) was a nice accompaniment.

Robbie, the waiter, recommended I not get the olive oil cake for dessert, and I will admit it was dry if light as an angel food cake. On the other hand: lavender sabayon. How lovely. A bit more of it would be enough to moisten the cake, really; the amount of blueberry compote was fine. And here's another thing: they do coffee well here. No, I'm not a conoisseur of roasts and blends, but I do like a good cafe au lait that has a good representation of milk. Bayona did it up well, even using decaf!

So, last night here. I have a somewhat early shuttle, then in the door in Chicago by mid-afternoon. I miss my SB, and I am getting sleepy. I may yet take a few days off blogging, but I'll return with a vengeance this weekend!

Back to Cochon

It does seem like a shame to go to a restaurant twice while I'm here in such a great culinary city. Call it laziness - Cochon is in Opentable, so that helps. We did have reservations for elsewhere originally, but I changed them last night. Cochon it was, and I think I'm even gladder.

I won't get into dinner last night. No, that's a lie: I simply have no photos. We dined at Redfish Grill across the street at the Chateau Sonesta Hotel. Busy place, but I had Opentabled it, so no worries. Large, cavernous, loud. If we'd been able to hear the waiter better we might have understood his accent a little more. The menu wasn't promising: any place that uses mushrooms in half or more of its entrees is hiding things through the use of those cheap bulking things.

My friend Bob and I ordered, and barely had the wine arrived than the dinner did too. Suspiciously fast, but then, mine was a mound of dirty rice surrounded by a few pieces of seared fish (not too bad, mostly good for the salt) and some shrimp. I should say that the shrimp was mostly shrimp heads and I was feeling to polite to suck them clean with gusto. Given this meal, small wonder it arrived in probably less than ten minutes. Turning tables was their ploy. A shame we had almost a full bottle of wine to kill. We stayed on and sipped and shared a rich dessert of peanut butter chocolate pie, then waited for quite some while to attract some attention and get the bill.

The kicker? That bit cost more than the meal the night before in which I'd had three courses, shared a half bottle of wine, and had coffee. My advice? If you actually like food, then don't bother going.

You can understand, then, why I wanted some place I had tried and liked for tonight.


I met Melissa (pictured with me - and isn't that a fabulously sharp-looking shirt on me?!) and Courtney at the Hilton at a reception that had a nice complement of Big Names. The two of them told me they needed to hang out with me more, but it's really all down to the connections Martin (pictured at the top) enjoys. Nice event, though. We walked over from there and settled down to dine.


I started with the headcheese. I gather they do a bunch of their own charcuterie at the restaurant. I don't think I've ever had headcheese before, but it sounded intriguing, and it proved to be a good choice. A little mustard, some toast. Yum!


I followed that with the rabbit and dumplings. Also good. I think I liked my cochon two nights ago more, but this was tasty. Martin also had the rabbit (hence the photo at top), CG enjoyed the brisket, and Melissa went for the oyster and bacon sandwich.

We washed it all down with a decent rose - South American, I think (Courtney ordered it). Pink wine, only a very light light ruby in colour instead. Dessert followed, and CG and I chose wisely: a cornmeal pineapple upside down cake with coconut sorbet and dulce de leche. Whoa! The sort of thing I want to lick clean. So good. I craved more right away. Awesome, and I worked at getting the last drops of sauce (well, melted sorbet!) poured off the plate onto my spoon without the slightest shame!


A good meal, like a change of clothing available to me, makes a difference. Ask me on Thursday at work how the conference was, and I'll offer some good reviews. The hotel room is quite nice. Two good meals out. I've seen a number of familiar faces and met a few new ones. Some great programs - I will dig up what I can on the ACRL ANSS program on the social science of food and link it because the two speakers I saw before I had to leave were really super. Oh, and I bought 5 new pairs of khakis, each a different colour, for $14.99 each at The Gap. Fun!

So, yes: it's hot, my feet hurt from my shoes, I had a bad arrival experience, the view from the room is not as stunning as it might be. Boo-hoo! I'm having a good conference, and my feelings about the city have improved dramatically from where they were following my first, tightly-budgeted trip here.

But most of all, I just really want another go round of that cake awaiting me for breakfast tomorrow morning!

:-P

Amazing what fresh underwear will do!

Yes, I'm a much happier camper today. The luggage came overnight sometime, and this morning I set off for the convention center with fresh clothes on. YAY!

I've never really been fair in my criticism of New Orleans. I still will not at all say that the city is one I especially like. The heat is oppressive. I like to walk to and from the converntion center, but I feel a slight burn from a bit of walking today. Moreover, I like not having to sweat excessively. Ah well. There's a lot of derelict storefronts to be seen, of course. I still think that people come here to try to hard to have fun or something like that.

But I also know this: the great financial corner-cutting I had to undertake on my last conference visit in 2002 meant I experiences only a cheap hotel and lame food. The weather was not great then - drab and grey. I didn't know other people at the conference other than my colleagues. This time, despite some flight and luggage issues, things are different. Nice hotel room. I am running into people from elsewhere whom I know. I need not count my pennies so.

And I had a good meal tonight. I only wish the photos had all turned out!


My meal of Louisiana cochon (pork) with turnips, cabbage, and cracklins. Not sure where the cabbage really was, but it also had some peach chunks on it. Very very very good!

David and I met for dinner at Cochon. In fact, I was early (having come from Madeleine Albright's keynote lecture - I only wish she'd mentioned her appearance on Gilmore Girls!), so I sat down with CG, Melissa, and Terry as they finished up. It's a handsome place in the Warehouse District - clean lines, blond wood, that lofty/sort of finished feel. David and I each had three courses, split a half bottle of an Argentine Cabernet Sauvignon, and had coffee to finish. Total bill with tip: $53 each. If we'd had as much food the night before at the touristy place, it would have been a similar price and nowhere near as good.

Our meal:

"link" sausage with stone ground grits and peppers (David)
smoked ham hocks with braised greens (me)

fish special - lemonfish? I wasn't paying attention. It looked good. That was David's.
My cochon.

David's dessert was some orange creamsicle/chocolate cookie thing that looked lovely. Mine was the homelier but tasty peach buckle with creme fraiche (shown below):



I actually kind of want to change a future reservation and go back and try some of the other things like the wood-fired oyster roast or the head cheese with house -made mustard or the rabbit and dumplings.

Anyway, a decent day. One program done, lunch - unexpectedly - with a GLBTRT colleague, a meeting that was kind of weird (no quorum, a little steam blown off by others), the excellent Albright speech during which I sat next to an architect from Edmonton whom I chatted with at length before it all got underway.

Shall I actually get up at 8 tomorrow for a program?

And if the luggage doesn't arrive...

..you'll see photos of me wearing this tomorrow!



I'll hold off on commenting on New Orleans so far: I've been here only a handful of hours, and it's not fair of me to judge the city on the basis of an hour and a half delay in my United flight and the failure of the airline/TSA to get my bag on the plane despite me being at the airport more than an hour and a half before the original departure time. Also an aggravatingly long ride into the city on the shuttle, stopping at a lot of hotels before mine. And I can hear Bourbon Street ww floors below my hotel room window.

Dinner, meanwhile, was pleasant for having been with CG and Melissa, but in the end it was not much more than a moderate portion of crawfish-flavoured gravy and some converted rice. Etouffe (shown here with CG), they call it (I'm too lazy to add the diacritics). Ah well....

In the end, meringues

So, meringues it is. Home early from work, I quickly put together dinner (charred some tomatoes in a hot skillet; chopped them; tossed them with red onion slices, chopped rosemary, coarse salt, and a bit of olive oil; let it sit while cooking pasta; tossed the pasta and uncooked sauce together with a bit of feta; served with a salad), then set to work on making meringue cookies while waiting for Conrad to come home.

The recipe comes from an Emily Luchetti cookbook, Stars Desserts. It's one of the bibles in my kitchen. I searched high and low for it in hardcover, and I'm using it enough to have to take it for rebinding one day, I think. The chocolate meringue cookie recipe is a simple one requiring exactly the 6 egg whites I had on hand. So, cookies it was - rather than the cake I thought I might do - and a batch of imperfect but delicious chocolatey blobs sit on my counter. I hope the humidity lately will not affect them adversely, else Conrad will be taking in to work tomorrow a collection of tasty chocolatey crumbs that resemble this:



I don't care to discuss the Valentine's Day Meringue Massacre, however. Read for yourself.

Should I pack tonight, I wonder?

cakes

Having just spent some 15 minutes on the phone with Jeph trying to figure out what to do with 6 egg whites (a cake of some sort preferred, and I don't want to use more egg whites) without hitting just the right thing on line, I'm giving up for the night. Two cakes just out of the oven: Rose Levy Beranbaum's All-Occasion Downy Yellow Butter Cake, studded with raisins I soaked for a few hours in sauternes. We'll see how they turn out. The batter tasted darn good, though, I must say!

Maybe some meringue cookies tomorrow night instead....

Recap: or, last posting on Sweden - until the next visit (maybe!)

Ruminations before I head to the pool. I opened some sauternes last night to make an asparagus risotto, and I want to use them up, so tonight I'll bake a couple of cakes with raisins soaked in the sauternes, I think.



Day one: yes, we were exhausted. But we slept well once we checked in to the hotel and otherwise occupied ourselves well as good tourists all morning and as fellow gay swimmers dining out that night. Looking back, the lunch at the National Museum was a terrific meal in a lovely, fairly quiet setting. Dinner with the Dolphins, meanwhile, was both a delicious meal and a very enjoyable one for the good company.

In the end, though, we were in Stockholm, and it's a darn gorgeous city. The shot above is from that first night on the way back to the hotel.



Day two we did some souvenir hunting after sleeping in late. Nine hours of sleep the night before, and we were all set to go. Getting a swim in was a good thing, especially in a 50m pool, but a leisurely dinner outside with Mats and Lars was a great capper. The photo above shows me in the narrowest "street" in Stockholm - it's narrower up top - on Gamla Stan, just after shopping at Duka.



Day three was another museum, the Vasamuseet, and some real heat in the city. Also, a lovely meal at an old restaurant on Gamla Stan (all recapped earlier). The Vasamuseet is the most visited in the city, from what I understand, but I think it absolutely worth it. We timed it right: the crowds were moderate, and it took us into a cool interior at the height of the sunny afternoon! The photo is a museum shot.



Day four, and it was up to Conrad's cousins by way of the hottest little railcar in history. I lie. It was only 31 degrees inside it. Ugh. I am so not a hot weather person. Snivel snivel whine whine. We made it there safe and well in time to enjoy the afternoon and evening. And we had the good company of Kersti and Ivar as well. Pictured above is Conrad in the decorated doorway of the guest house.



In honour of day five and a road trip to Hudiksvall, a pronunciation test for you readers in the shape of the photo above!



Day six was the trip to the Zoo, but it is also noteworthy for Conrad dressing in bright colours for a change. Sweden beat Paraguay, much to our delight, but given that none of the villagers dressed in home team colours, it was encouraging that Olov did so!



Our last day with the cousins took us to Dalarna on another sunny drive, but we finished with pancakes. In the photo I am holding up a dancing goat, symbol of Hälsingland and a common sight on the side of houses. We want one for home, but never found a good one, darn it!

Day eight was back to Stockholm and for the most part a moratorium on photos. We do stop sometimes, you know. Still, good food is good food, and so....



My meal of plaice with beets. Very good, and a frankly huge portion!

That's Sweden, then. You have the highs and the highs and the not quite as highs. On to New Orleans on Friday, though for Conference. Relax, there will be more food photos in the future!

Dalarna revisited

I find it odd seeing English language literature that calls Dalarna "Dalecarlia". I've only known it by its Swedish name. I'd say that, based on the day-trip this time, it's the Swedish equivalent of cottage country, or lake country, but I don't think that holds true. It's certainly an area that has captured its share of tourists, however.

It was a sunny Friday, and not quite as late a start for us. Nusnäs was the first stop, or so we thought. It's a small village near Mora on the lake called Siljan and the home of the Dalahästen production: painted wooden carved horses, typically red but now in a rainbow of other colours (and shapes: we saw pigs!). It's not a short drive, but the good weather and Kersti's company made for a pleasant one.



We stopped only in one workshop - how many times can you watch the same style of horse being carved and painted? - and looked around a bit, buying some pieces. Nice to see that despite the ubiquity of the horses in every souvenir shop in Sweden, these ones are handmade after the basic shape is cut with a buzz saw! Kersti's daughter, Leana, is not a fan of the horses, but I think they look handsome, frankly. Ah well, I suppose we get sick of stereotypical souvenirs from our own countries!



Horses seen, it was on east to Rättvik where we had lunch out on a patio overlooking the lake far down the hillside. The first shot in this entry shows Conrad and me posing with Siljan in the background. Lunch was a simple affair, then it was back on the road, backtracking slightly and heading a bit north to the village of Nittsjö. Go on, try pronouncing it, I dare you!



Nittsjö is home to a ceramics factory that produces a number of things, but it was Mia's description of the Christmas ornaments that drew us there. If we're being honest, they weren't ones we ended up liking a great deal, though we found a Santa we think will look nice. Some of their other ceramics, though, were handsome enough, so we bought three vases and a couple of mugs for Kersti. Postcards went into the box nearby, and we were off home with a stop at Dalhalla to see the amphitheater in the old quarry. On learning it cost money just to see it, we left.



One more stop on the way home: the remnants of an old village, now preserved in a derelict state (if that's not a contradiction) and open for viewing. By this point, I think I was just in a happy, mellow place; I cared little about the village construction, only that it was sunny and wildflowers grew all around. Like Laura Ingalls Wilder heaven, or something.



Another stop for an ice cream bar, and it was back to Långhed with us for the community dinner of pancakes! Tasty, as noted before!

So, those are the main Sweden activites, though at this moment I fear I may not have written up the Vasamuseet adequately. Ah well. It's late (!!!), and I'm also trying to back up things to an external drive. I think one more Sweden entry after this, just odds and sods, and then it's on to blogging from ALA in New Orleans. Otherwise, time for bed!

Dalarna: teaser

I really am crashing already. 8:37 PM as I type. I am such an amateur!

So, instead of a second full posting tonight (and likely the last of the Sweden stuff for now, though I reserve the right to change my mind and bore any readers with yet more photos at a future date), a teaser of what remains: the day-trip down into Dalarna with Kersti on our last full day with Conrad's cousins. I leave you with us and a mighty big Dalahäst!

Järvzoo

Yes, I know: how many more of these bloody posts will Peter do, for goodness sake? That's what you're thinking. And you're right, it wasn't that long of a trip. So only a few more to go. Bear with me. And enjoy the photo of the totally adorable 4-week old moose.

Back in 2002 we drove up to Järvsö with Kersti to visit the town's main attraction, the Järvzoo. I love that there is something of a pun in that name, all the more so in a way when you know that "järv" is the Swedish word for "wolverine". (No, Jeph, no Hugh Jackman sightings). It was a lovely day - sunny, in fact, though quite cold. I underdressed for the jaunt and found myself at the midpoint of the walk through the zoo having to take my thin gloves off my hands and put them on my feet for a bit more warmth. It didn't work, mind you, and I then had to take off my socks and shoes in the car and sit on my feet on the drive home in hopes that my enormous butt would warm my feet up. Don't I look cold in the little shelter at the rest area near the top?



The zoo, however, is a terrific attraction. Oh, I know, I admit that I love touristy things sometimes. But this is better than that. What they've gone and done just outside Järvsö is build a zoo that highlights only Nordic animals (so no giraffes struggling with the Swedish weather) and that houses them in large pens of somewhat natural habitat on the slopes of a mountain valley. As if that weren't enough, to view the animals, you walk a 3 km boardwalk up the valley and back down again, meandering some in places. It's a wide boardwalk, handsomely designed to allow for the occasional tree that bumps up against it. The result is that even if you see no animals, you've just had a pleasant walk in the woods.



Ah, but we did see animals, such as that sweet little moose. Ahhhh, so cute. And seemingly friendly. It shared space in a children's zoo area with a calf (baby cow, that is), and some kid goats. Apparently the little moose had been found abandoned in the wild at 2 weeks of age.

We did not see the wolves, the red fox, the lynx, wolverine, or hedgehog. They can be tough to spot in amongst the summer foliage. Moreover, it was a warm day, sunny, so some animals were doubtless taking cover. But there were a number of others.


A number of handsome owls including this Arctic owl and his mate.


This molting musk ox, along with her (also utterly) adorable (little bundle of fuzz) spawn.


Reindeer! You may be happy to know that we ate no reindeer on this trip, by the way!

All in all, an enjoyable day. I should add that it started with lunch at a place across the Ljusnan river from town, affording us views of the fine old church. The day ended at the community hall in Långhed with a meal and a World Cup match to watch. Good times.

one more post-vacation post for the night and then I turn into a pumpkin...

...and let's use it to post a few more food photos. It really wouldn't be a Conrad/Peter vacation without such photos. So:



Me with the salmon cakes mentioned in the previous post.



Conrad at the same Hudiksvall restaurant, enjoying fried herring with mashed potato. Conrad, I will add, loves the herring muchly, especially pickled. I think I should ask Yoshi to prepare it for Conrad's 50th birthday dinner!

Next up, my Toast Pelle Jansson appetizer at Prinsen in Stockholm:



Tasty. You'll notice a fish/fish egg theme in the food photos (though the red stuff on the toast plate was thin slices of raw beef). The Toast came with whitebait roe, and the salmon in the next photo also came with roe. Meanwhile, the sour cream-y sauce for the salmon cakes was dotted with more tiny eggs. Ahhhh, fish eggs. They make a fish egg paste and put it in toothpaste style tubes. It is frickin' good with boiled eggs, I swear. I had that for breakfast almost every day in Sweden!



One last shot before I work my way bedward, not the best shot, but oh well. Conrad, recall, likes his herring. This was his pickled herring appetizer at Prinsen: five types with accompaniments. The lemon herring was truly delightful!

Night!

more on Sweden: road trips

Gads, I'm really tired. It's only 7:25 as I start this, and I am forcing myself to stay up another couple of hours to try to get back on a normal body clock. We've just had a bunch of sushi we picked up over at Katachi; we would have gone to Yoshi's but feared we might suddenly nod off into our food at the bar. Since we got in the door at about 2:00 today we've accomplished laundry and groceries, unpacking, checking mail and messages. That's pretty good.

But back to the traveloguesque stuff....



The days we were out in the country with Conrad's cousins we drove around a good deal, taking in some of the countryside, the less-visited places. The trips ranged from the nearby (the bandy arena - top, Conrad posing with Kersti - in Edsbyn, or the weekend house at the lake - above) to things a little farther afield. The trip to the Järvzoo was one of the jaunts, but I think it merits its own blog entry, as does the trip into Dalarna. The other two trips were more typical of what Conrad and I do: decide on a destination or two and improvise from there.



Full day one the two of us headed up to Hudiksvall where we had lunch in a restaurant in one of the old canal houses shown behind me. The red colour, incidentally, is pretty typical of Swedish homes. My lunch of halstrad laxtartar (essentially salmon cakes) was traditional fare in a pleasant setting. We also visited the Hälsingland Museum in the town and considered it time well spent. En route home we dawdled and drove out to see what the Gulf of Bothnia might look like at Mössön. Just because. Pretty little drive:



In the end, I am sorry we didn't drive to see more because so many of the small towns offer some interesting things: lovely old buildings, clean streets and squares, a nice cafe or two, some postcards, whatever. We use guidebooks as a jumping off point and then see what our time constraints are and what catches our fancy. For all that we plan things out far far in advance of our departure, we actually like playing things by ear as well!

just before bedtime at Arlanda

I have so much more to write, and so many more photos to post, but not tonight. Tomorrow. When we get back to Chicago. While we do all the laundry. After we go for groceries. Frankly, I'm tired. We're staying out at the Radisson Sky City at Arlanda; it's a well-located hotel for the morning flight (in the airport itself), and it has air conditioning. Oh, laugh if you will - and we know that Chicago is having some heat now (and that New Orleans will be dreadfully hot and sticky next weekend) - but it's been warm here, and the first few nights we slept miserably without any AC to comfort us.



So, let's end, unsurprisingly, with some more food shots. Dinner tonight was at Restaurang Prinsen, a posh sort of tourist place. We sat inside rather than with the few smokers outside, and enjoyed a leisurely dinner with a bottle of an Alsatian white. No, sorry, no Swedish wines to bring home. Conrad's herring plate was an immense appetizer, leaving him unable to finish the Wallenbergare of fish he'd also ordered. Similarly, I helped him with the herring and enjoyed my Toast Pelle Jansson (fillet of beef in thin slices with whitebait roe). I couldn't finish my plaice, alas. I don't know why we decided we could fit in dessert at Mandus after that!

Conrad has crawled into bed, and I must head there as well. Much more to come, I promise (or is that threaten?). I haven't even covered Dalarna or the Järvzoo yet! And I am sure I've missed photos and tales of the food and of Conrad's very hospitable cousins. So, good night all from Stockholm-Arlanda, we'll see some of you soon! And I leave you with a photo of what accompanied our pickled herring feast one night at Kersti and Ivar's: Skål!

Målarting

Per, working on his blacksmithing projects.

As I understand it (and if Olov is looking at this blog entry at some point, he might want to correct me or elaborate on this), the village of Långhed has for four years now staged a set of annual courses called Målarting. It started in the 90s in the nearby village of Alfta, and moved a few years ago. A week or so before the Midsummer celebration, villagers and visitors alike take part in artistic courses. Given the surroundings and the weather, it's no surprise that these are worthwhile undertakings. The participants acquire new skills, stretch themselves creatively, and come together as a community.



Leana at the smithy.

Conrad's cousins are all quite involved in the courses. The younger cousins, Olov, Leana, and Per (and I really hope I am spelling those names correctly!) were all doing the blacksmith course along with Leana's boyfriend Stefan. I will digress here and state that Stefan and Leana are both accomplished motorcycle racers and won races earlier this week in Gävle while we were watching the soccer (sorry FXK: football) match. Olov's girlfriend Mia was taking the watercolour course in the meantime. Kersti and Ivar operate a sort of bed and breakfast, and three guests from Gävle were staying on to also take part in the Målarting, two in oil painting, one in woodworking.



Ivar, on the right, and another villager (whom we met, but whose name I cannot recall - sorry) with the charcoal mound. Is that even the right expression for it in English?

The participants get lunch provided (and this morning Kersti was down at the community hall making up coffee and sweets and lunches), and there are one or two dinners for them as well. Conrad and I spent the day yesterday with Kersti sightseeing down in Dalarna, but we were back in time for the dinner outside the smithy. Ivar was one of the men charged with making charcoal for the Midsummer celebrations (and in past years, this, too, has been a course), and the charcoal mound was outside the smithy as well. We feasted on pancakes in which pieces of pork and pork fat were cooked, then all was topped with lingon. Tasty, and absolutely healthy! It also gave us a chance to watch the blacksmithing class in action, admire their work, and ask questions. It's all quite impressive, and I think that taking the courses would be a terrific way to pass a long weekend in Sweden!



Conrad and his cousin Kersti after dinner outside the smithy.



With Mia, who was immensely fun and very knowledgeable about football and other things Swedish! Thank goodness the whole bunch of them had the patience to explain things to us in English!



Stefan at his anvil, with Olov in the background. We did not ask them to wear the Swedish colours deliberately, I swear!

sweden: flowers

Midsummer flower.

Jeph and Steven, this is a challenge geared mostly for you two since you both have such passionate interests in gardening: some photos of the wildflowers blooming in the countryside. We enjoyed marvellous weather in Sweden, and the roadsides and fields were full of many small flowers. These are the ones that people gather for the midsummer celebrations; in fact, this morning there was a big bunch of the small yellow ones shown in this entry gracing a vase on the dining table.



We took a lot of photos of the flowers (and I can almost hear Francis roll his eyes and say, "GAY!") while over here. Why not? I recognize some from northern BC as well, mind you, though we don't call them by the Swedish names, of course. I'm not adding in the Swedish names with the photos here either - I can't even recall them, just some of the translations.

So, some flower shots with a challenge to the gardeners reading this to provide the North American names!



From our little sidetrek down a road to a village called Mössön.



On our drive to Hudiksvall, the one cloudy half day we had!



I think these escaped from a garden nearby.



Butter flowers, as they call them in Sweden.

Midnight sun (well, almost)

A photo taken two nights ago in the garden at Kersti and Ivar's. Conrad is sitting with their youngest son, Olov. What's really cool is that the photo was taken without a flash at 12:12 AM. Just after midnight. It wasn't getting fully dark the past few nights in Långhed. The village is roughly as far north as Anchorage, from what we could figure out. It was an issue for sleeping, but Conrad had wisely brought along eye-masks, and with them, we slept well. The photo is a little blurry because they couldn't sit still enough for the long exposure!

From earlier that week in Stockholm:



I believe that it was around midnight or so, and there is still a pink glow visible from our hotel room window over in the western sky. Stockholm is a few degrees of latitutde south, and it seems that makes some real difference. It was light fairly early in the morning just the same!

Incidentally, I'm posting this all from the train south from Söderhamn to Stockholm. Free wireless in this car. I really can get into this whole Sweden thing!

Vi är Svenska fans allihopa

A short posting: though we have wireless Internet out here in the country thanks to Olov, it's slow getting Blogger to take photos. Just this one for now, though, with a nod to Francis who will be amused to know that Conrad was GLUED to the entire game!

stockholm: food

A few shots before I go to bed. The first was my dinner of pike-perch that I had at Den Glyldene Freden tonight.



Conrad's appetizer of pickled herring at the same restaurant.

Smoked turkey sandwich with Swedish mustard and the cold chocolate drink at the Chokladkoppen yesterday.



We obviously have more photos: come on, it's us, after all! Conrad is abed, however, and I must join him if we must be up very early to pack. Merde! I may not have Internet access for some days. How on earth will I survive?

stockholm: tourist attractions

We are doing our part for the Swedish economy.

Gads, I'm tired. Day 2 was harder than day one. To bed last night around 1 (and the same thing tonight). Awake around five. Back to deep deep sleep for a few hours again. Ugh. We have a train at 8:00 tomorrow morning. I should be glad that there are no connections on it en route to Bollnäs, and that the train station is across the street.

So, a photo of us being total tourists on day one, about to embark on the 50-minute water tour around the Djurgården. Lovely day to be on the water. We need friends here with a sailboat.



Speaking of boats, we visited the Vasamuseet today. The Vasa was a seventeenth century warship that sank in Stockholm harbour some, oh, five minutes after launch. It was salvaged in the mid-twentieth century and turned into quite an impressive museum. Better than the Nationalmuseum, I must admit.

What was sooooo not better was the bus ride there and back. Oh yes, people laught to think we're vacationing way up north in Scandinavia, but it's warm and sunny out, and the bus was a little greenhouse on wheels, filled to bursting with all the ripe aromas of Swedish humanity in summer!

We've done a bunch of walking today, taking in the National Library (no big deal, or not from what we saw) where we stopped for a truly awful couple of cups of coffee across the street. Don't be fooled by the photo - we took three sips and decided to leave.



Great shirt, though. Which reminds me: yes, we have H&M in Chicago, but the clothes there never fit. I bought two pairs of shorts and a shirt at a store today, though. We also took in a couple of food halls and choked at the ultra high prices in the NK department store.



Conrad outside the Vasamuseet.

A terrific day all around, though. I'll post a few food photos and get to bed. Points for correctly pronouncing the words in the last photo!

stockholm: people

Meet Lars. Well, meet Lars and what looks like a big jug of hooch but is a generations old jug filled with one of his recipes for punch. And not the fruity party kind either.

One terrific thing about the Internet is that you get to connect with people. So, there are friends of mine far away, whom I have met but do not see often: Greer and Jeph have recently commented on this blog. And there are those whom I've not met but now hear from regularly and happily: Steven, for example. And then there are those you make contact with and do meet. So it is with the Stockholm Dolphins swimmers.

Conrad and I like to eat, as you may be aware. A lot. And good food (but that's another blog entry). So when we travel, we try to get some swimming in. In advance of this trip we contacted the Dolphins. Could we swim with them while in Stockholm, and please forgive our lack of Swedish.

Mats responded.



Mats is sort of the coach/coordinator for the small Stockholm team. All told, there are fewer than 20 members, no women, one straight man. Lars and Mats have been married ten years, by the way.

Anyway, yes, we were welcome to swim. Did we also want to come for dinner with the team on Saturday night. We told Mats we'd be glad to, if we weren't meeting up with Conrad's cousin Kersti who was in town for a seminar. Kersti, however, was busy, and we'll see her later in the week anyway. Off to Gamla Stan it was last night, then, meeting some unknown gay men for dinner at a place called Mandus.



Not a very big group, but a pleasant one - utterly - and a good meal. Lars and Mats are next tome, then on the other side it's Cristen (I hope I have that right), Timo, and Kevin. Kevin was a swimmer visiting from Belgium; I was delighted to learn that though he lives there, he's reallyl from Victoria. We talked Canadian a bunch.



Also there was Fredrik. He got missed in the previous shot.

After dinner, we went to a bar called Torget, had a drink with them, then made it home by midnight. And let me tell you, we slept well last night: 9 hours!

Mats and Lars also invited us to come dine with them tonight at their home in the lovely suburb of Alvik. Why are Swedish suburbs so nice and non-suburban? It seemed like a handsome neighbourhood. We rode out there after swimming and enjoyed a dinner of chicken and broccoli pie, a spice cake and ice cream for dessert, and plenty of wine. Very good company, and we'd be glad to meet up again. Their three Airedales are magnificent, spirited dogs as well.



We stayed about 4 hours or so and had a terrific evening of food, drink, and conversation. Much nicer than finding any old restaurant in town, really. Any of the Dolphins we met are utterly welcome to come visit us in Chicago; we rather hope they might!

stockholm: buildings

It's surprisingly suultry here tonight. 11:37, the sky is a deep indigo, and I'm thinking of lying totally unclothes atop the bed because of the warmth. Ah well, it has been a beautiful day. And the dark chocolate flavoured with black currant kicks butt!

Lots to say and show in these entries, but I'm not sure how long Conrad will put up with me being up tonight doing them. Let me toss a few photos out there at least, though.

So, from yesterday, a photo as we crossed a bridge to go over to Gamla Stan. We've walked on and off that island - the Old Town - a few times now.



A shot from about 11:15 or so last night in Stortorget, also on Gamla Stan. We have seen other parts of the city, I promise. We made our way back there early this afternoon, both to shop on Gamla Stan, and to have a drink at Chokladkoppen. That turned into a small lunch and was yummy, indeed.

We took a boat tour around a bit of the harbour. Lovely trip, past some parks and good neighbourhoods, seeing a lot from the water, which is a good perspective. Stockholm has a working port, 14 islands, I can't remember how many bridges, and loads of pleasure craft. A shot from the water of some cityscape:



Finally, just to show how good the weather is, a shot from the aquatic complex where we swam with the Stockholm Dolphins today. Incidentally, Conrad and I each bought a team suit from them, so now we can parade in a vivid blue with yellow printing across the ass!

:-P

We swam inside, in fact. A massive complex with several pools. The outside shot here shows the throngs around the outdoor 50m pool. We took the quiet, indoor 50m pool and managed a good workout!



And just for Jeph and Steven (well, for anyone, but given their gardening activities...): a lot is in bloom here. The lilacs are at their prime, in fact. Their scent is on the air, and it's delightful. It's a very green city! A shot of Conrad with the lilacs by the Nationalmuseum (no, that's not a typo):

quick food porn shot

It was the Sweden trip in 2002 that got us started on this, and we're certainly not stopping now. I have limited battery power on the laptop until we buy an adapter, so only a quick food shot for a teaser and more reporting at a later time. I will say that hotels with free wireless rock!

Lunch yesterday at the National Museum:

Bin 36... again

Yes, we were just there last Friday. I think it was better this time, though that may be due to the food I ate. I stuck with the fluke sashimi, but this time went with halibut instead of rabbit. A lovely meal.



Above, fluke sashimi. Below, halibut.



More about the meal at the other blog....

Yes, I know I have to choose one or the other. It's getting to be a nuisance toggling between the two blogs. Hmmmm. We'll see when I get back from Sweden.



Karin with her Italian versus Spanish whites flight.

Much packing and the like to do, but being the social creature I am, I'm mostly hankering to add comments to others' blogs....

:-P

Oh, for Steven's interest (in case he reads this): the other two wines not noted in my Yahoo! blog were the 2003 Merlot, Michael Sullberg (California) and the 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, Cycles "Gladiator" (also California, Central Coast). The Merlot promised much on the nose but fell a bit short. The Cab was lovely, and we bought a bottle of it and of the Zin to bring to the cousins in Sweden. Meanwhile, the pink wine I sipped while reading Anansi Boys and waiting for the others was the NV Brut, Cava Rose, Cristalino, Penedes, Spain.

Below: Conrad gives the well-known signal.

43 hours

Less than two full days until we leave. One more work day to go. Not that I'm counting.

May was exhausting. Work has been getting to me, and increasing the swimming to a total of some 53 miles last month alone was wearing me down physically. In other words, I don't know when last I've needed such a break.

Lots to do here at home. I'd post up to date things, but frankly, this week has been all about getting through it, not doing anything special or fun in a tiny way. Dinner out tomorrow night, but that's tomorrow.

And I'm neglecting the Yahoo! blog, I know....

A couple more Sweden photos for you. The second one is the dish of reindeer that was my meal on the flight home on SAS. We had used miles to travel business class, and it was this trip that really got us photographing food with wild and silly abandon. The next photos to come should be of sunnier, spring/summer scenes!



I should add (though it's a little hard to spot): the butter pat has been stamped with the Swedish (or perhaps it's Danish - we were on a flight out of Copenhagen [further digression: I love how the Swedes pronounce that city name, like "shoopen ham"] after connecting from Stockholm) word for butter: smör.

Not love either...

... but it seems I'm getting lots of practice in with my swim team mates on faking it. When in doubt, go with the image of me and the handsome man with a little less hair, wearing glasses and a striped shirt!

By demand

I'm a little miffed. First I go looking for a particular recipe that Jeph and his NGBF Steven have been nagging me for, and I can't find it. My recipes are pretty organized, so no telling where it's gone to. Merde. Call my Mum. Get her to recite it to me over the phone.

Then I go browsing through the thousands of photos on the hard drive and nope, no photos of these particular cookies. Bugger. So, like it or lump it, this post will be otherwise embellished. The top shot is me and our friend Bradley doing our annual Christmas baking, this year at home here (Conrad samples but otherwise gets out of our way). The bottom shot is the result of some of the baking: jam tartlets and butter tarts.



The recipe follows:

Mum’s ginger cookies

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp clove


Cream the shortening and sugar. Add egg and molasses. Sift dry ingredients together. Add to wet mixture. Shape into 1” balls. Roll each in sugar. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Don’t overbake. Cookies should be slightly soft when you remove from oven. Makes about 40 cookies.

Notes: I never have shortening on hand, so I just use unsalted butter. It makes for a crispier cookie, but still a good one! The recipe is easily scaled up.

What does love look like?

Here's a quiz for you. Assume you didn't know me, had never read my profile or other entries. You just saw the photos below. Which would you think was what love really looked like?

Is it this?



Or is it this?



This is not a trick question, nor is there a correct answer. Just tell me what you think the camera shows....

More photos from a June morning wedding

(The Smelts in attendance at the wedding this morning (well, most of them!))

In my Yahoo! blog I posted about the wedding this morning. We missed practice, but so did a number of our teammates, so no matter. I did 53 miles last month anyway: don't I deserve a few days off?



(Rudy and Conrad, both taken - one by me! - sorry....)

We'll soon be off to the reception, but first, some more photos from this morning. I wish we'd enjoyed the sunny afternoon some, but duty calls, and our home is a little cleaner now, happily!



(Conrad, Channing, and Deborah)

Ah, and there was the guilty pleasure of a cupcake for Conrad and a caramel-filled brownie for me from Sensational Bites!



(Zane gets a ride in the air from his Dad, Adrian. Yes, Zane does have a head.)

can I go yet?

It has not been an entirely fun week of work. Heck, it's had some moments that were firmly, deeply in the merde.

But this is not a work blog, no.

An enjoyable evening at Bin 36 tonight makes up for a lot, I will say. Better still is the knowledge that 7 days from this very minute, we'll be somewhere over the Atlantic en route to Sweden. 3 nights in Stockholm, 4 nights in Alfta with Conrad's cousin, and a last night in Stockholm.

I do not know how I will get through next week at work. My eyes are on that prize of overseas travel and a break from quotidian reality. I'll do what I can, with nice things like a wedding tomorrow and another Bin 36 dinner with friends next Thursday.

So I don't mean this as gloating (though goodness knows the NBF has had to put up with hearing me moan on about the trip for weeks and weeks now). I'm simply, totally, cravenly keen to board that plane and get there....

Photos from the quick visit to Alfta in 2002 to celebrate Conrad's birthday.