Prep Week

 

We had a day of thaw yesterday, but the ground still very cold - which turned it dangerously icy again. I had intended to try a short walk - but did not get beyond the corner of my building before deciding it wasn't worth it...

The image above was zoomed in today from my windows - and edited "HDR-ish" in Picasa3 in an attempt to bring out just how icy that footpath behind the building is as well. Looks like another day to just stay in!

Weather forecasts predict it will turn colder again in the week to come; but still seem undecided about whether we're to expect more snow or not. (Or when, where or how much.)

Regardless of the weather, I have something of an ordeal of a week ahead of me, "prepping" for a colonoscopy appointment on Friday... "Just" a follow-up of a recent screening test; no symptoms I've actually noticed myself. So this far, I'm trying not to worry too much about the outcome; but focusing more on pre-preparing myself for the procedure itself - including the low-fibre diet to be kept during the week leading up to it...

Hopefully I've basically got my head round that now; but at first it seemed to me to be  completely reversed to all I've been used to eating over the past 10-11 years... The thing is, my food cupboards are normally filled with whole grain products (rice, pasta, bread, whatever); and I'm also used to consuming a lot of fresh fruits and berries and vegetables. I can't remember when I last bought (or ate) for example white toast, or white rice; and I'm not in the habit of peeling fruits with edible peel... So feels much like I've had to completely "reset" my brain and my usual routines.

Yesterday, for example, for the first time in my life, I cooked "boil in bag" white rice. Proved easy enough to do, but tastes absolutely nothing... (I'm used to boiling whole grain rice in veg. broth, and freezing that in portions.)

Today's lunch: Salmon (spiced with herb salt and cooked in the microwave, as I always do), white rice (cf above), and salad consisting of just iceberg lettuce, peeled(!) cucumber and pieces of Galia melon... (Looks very bland, but spicing the rice with the same herb salt as the fish did improve the taste.)

Back on Friday, I made an improvised soup from 1 onion, 3 potatoes, 3 carrots and ~100g celeriac, boiled in 1 liter of vegetable broth). Turned out quite okay and will see me through a couple of more meals this week, I think. (I can add meat to that as well if I like.)

"One day at a time but prepared for tomorrow as well" will probably be my motto for the week to come. (Or something along those lines...)

(PS. I tried asking Bing Image Creator for an illustration, but it obviously has NO idea what a low fibre diet involves...)

December 4–Online Fruit

This afternoon I have been unpacking a delivery of groceries.

My supermarket started their online ordering & home delivery service about a year ago. I’ve been making use of it regularly ever since (about every 2nd week); and because of my neck/shoulder problems (and not having a car), it’s literally been a huge weight off my shoulders. Still feels like Christmas Eve every time!

And not least on a day like today, with another full-blown storm (by name of Helga) raging outside (the third storm in a month to have been considered worthy of a Name)…

The two bowls in the picture both belonged to my mum. The little striped one I remember from childhood as being used for home-made Christmas candy… Fudge and toffee is a no-no for me these days, though, so I don’t make any. (I allow myself a piece of dark chocolate now and then, but otherwise I try to stick to fruit…)

Eating and Drinking in My Town (FMTSO)

It has become a tradition for my town to celebrate its birthday (29th June)* with free cake in the main square. Never mind the weather!
(Above: 2010, in sunshine. Below: 2013, in rain.)

*(As mentioned in my previous Friday My Town post, the town is considered “born” in 1621, as that’s when it received its first official town privileges.)

(If you don’t happen to be in town on the right day and time for free cake, there are of course also plenty of cafés and restaurants. I don’t go out to eat all that often though and the photos I may have of some of them aren’t tagged…)

Friday My Town Shoot Out

The Opposite of Fast Food

Every now and then I cook chickpeas (garbanzo beans)  to use in salads. On Friday I tried for the first time to roast some for snacks. They came out quite good, could perhaps have been a bit crunchier (although for my teeth probably crunchy enough!) – but as I said, it was my first attempt. There are lots of various recipes to be found on the internet so if you want to try it, I suggest googling to find one that looks good to you.

The recipe I tried was in Swedish. Put 3 dl (~1 1/4 cup) of boiled chickpeas (dry them the best you can first) in a bowl with a mix of 1 tablespoon oil (I used olive oil with lemon), ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon paprika powder and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Stir. Spread the peas evenly (single layer) on baking paper on an oven tray. Roast them at 200°C (400°F) for about 30 minutes. (Check on them a couple of times and shake/stir them a bit.)

If you do them from “scratch” as I did, they’re absolutely the opposite of fast foood, as it took me about 24 hours to make them… including putting the peas in water over night (8-12 hours) and cooking them for ~45 minutes the next morning, and then letting them cool off and dry… before roasting them in the evening!

At first when I took them out of the oven it seemed to me I was not getting very much for all my efforts (as the chickbeans shrink again when roasted!) But remember they are beans, and nutritious – one does not need lots of them to feel satisfied. They’re more like nuts than like popcorn that way!

Harvest Festival

On Saturday, the town celebrated its annual Harvest Festival. Including free apple pie served in the theatre lobby (above).

Downstairs there were pomologists at work, helping people to determine what kind of apples it is they have growing in their gardens.

Outdoors there were all sorts of things going on.

 

I took refuge inside the church for a while, listening to organ music.

Mosiac Monday

This could also have been for…
FMTSO – Taste Of  {Your Town}
… except the photos weren’t taken until Saturday, and I was not able to post them until today (too late).

Lazy Summer Days

I still have some more photos from our Friday outing unblogged; but to bring you up to date, since then we’ve had three consecutive lazy summer days at our House. Most of the time just sitting in the shade…
We = me, my brother, and his dog Harry:

Pfft! (spitting moss)… Did someone mention my name?

I can be alert if I want to! What’s that smell??

On a walk we found a bottle of lighter fluid lying in the middle of the road leading to/from the lake. (Someone probably dropped it off a bike.) It inspired Per to also find the barbeque grill…

As for me, in between my sittings in the garden, I also did a little more exploring inside. In a wardrobe upstairs, I unexpectedly found this hat:

From the initials inside it I conclude that it used to belong to my grandfather. I can’t recall seeing any photos of him wearing it, though.

Strawberry Tuesday

My salad and strawberry diet (mentioned in the previous post) seems to be going rather well.

Superstitiously I don’t want to say too much too soon, but at least at the moment I am back into some clothes which I came close to giving away a few months ago because they were getting too tight to be comfortable.

(And before someone gets worried: No I’m not really just eating green salad and strawberries. Only trying to eat more ‘green stuff’ and less fat, sugar and carbs, and treating myself to plenty of strawberries au naturel to make up for it!)

Green Tomato Marmalade

For Lisa’s Macro Monday and Mary’s Mosaic Monday

Sometimes I’ve made green tomato marmalade myself from tomatoes grown on my balcony. Not in the last couple of years though… So I haven’t had any in a while; and was happy to find this (made in France) in my favourite tea shop in town. It’s supposed to be all natural ingredients. Like my own recipe, it also contains lemons. It’s somewhat sweeter than I remember mine. And greener. I wonder if that has anything to do with what kind of cauldron it is cooked in…???

Melon Cutter–Just Had To Try…

Well. I guess it worked as well as any other method I’ve tried… I’ll have to work on the last part, though (making nice little cubes…)!

Touristing part I – Torpa Castle

My brother is here for a few days on his holiday. To be more exact he’s staying at our inherited house outside town, where we still have “things to do” before selling the place. However, we have decided to do a little bit of touristing as well this time and visit some places in the surrounding area where we haven’t been for a while.

So yesterday we set out to visit a medeival castle about half an hour’s drive from town (in another direction than our house). A very rainy morning yesterday first threatened to dampen our enthusiasm for the plan; but we decided to go anyway, since we would still be able to make the inside tour of the castle, and also have lunch in a café on the premises. And we were lucky - it actually stopped raining before we left town. The day remained cloudy, but we did not get wet, and we were able to walk about a bit outside too.

Torpa is a well preserved medieval castle at Lake Åsunden (in the province of Västergötland).

The first stone house was built around 1470 as fortress against the Danes. Reconstruction and remodelling took place during the 1500s and 1600s.

The castle has a well-preserved Renaissance interior. The chapel, which was decorated in the late 1600s, is in baroque style.

The castle is best known in history as the manor of the Swedish noble family of Stenbock. It was the residence of Katarina Stenbock (1535-1621) before she became the third and last consort of  King Gustav I (Gustav Vasa) of Sweden (b. 1496, elected king 1523, d. 1560).

The castle has never been sold but has been passed on through 18 generations by inheritance. As some of the heirs have been women, the family names of the owners have varied though.

When grand dinner parties were given back in medeival days, they consisted of no less than 60 (!) courses. And you had to eat them all. However, there was a break between every 10 courses, when you were allowed to go outside to throw up to make room for more…

There are steep, narrow staircases within the walls of the castle; used in the past by the servants (carrying the trays with all that food!), who were not allowed to use the main staircase.

The castle is said to have its own set of ghosts; among them a young girl who was sealed into a small room behind a wall by her father, because she was believed to have caught the plague. A few times through the centuries, attempts have been made to open that wall to check the truth behind the tale. But those who tried to open the wall all had fatal accidents. One cut himself on his tools and caught blood poisoning, another had a heart attack and so on. The last person who decided to try it some 50-60 years or so ago did not die from it – but he did fall and break his foot on the stairs before he could even get started. Since then, no new attempts have been made, and the present owners have decided to let the wall keep its secret, and its legend…

I’m not really supposed to be able to show you the interior photos included above. However, I’d already taken a few shots before the guide informed us that photography inside wasn’t allowed… And I have to confess I sneaked two or three after the tour too, on my way out. (A photographic variety of cleptomania?) I hope I made up for my transgressions by also buying some costly postcards afterwards! 

Safely outside, without having fallen down any stairs (or had my camera confiscated)!

After our tour of the castle, we strolled over to the café/restaurant in another building on the premises (the one on the right), and had a ‘royal’ lunch of venison and potato gratin. Only one plate each, though!

As Per pointed out, there would not have been any potato gratin on the menu back in the days of King Gustav Vasa. Potatoes weren’t introduced in Sweden until about a century after he died.

Today we’ll be off on another little tourist trip for lunch.

Definitions of Touristing from urbandictionary.com :

Driving slowly or stopping in the middle of the road while looking at the sights.

Walking and paying no attention to anyone else around you while looking at the sights.

Macro Monday: Piece of Cake!

Chocolate cake with mint chocolate icing… I baked it for Christmas/New Year +  saved part of it for my brother’s birthday last week (with whipped cream – mmm!).
Now it’s all gone… All that remains is this tempting photo!

Anonymous chocolate quotes:

Put eat chocolate at the top of your list of things to do today.
That way, at least you'll get one thing done!

Man cannot live by chocolate alone but it sure is fun trying!

I would give up chocolate but I'm no quitter.

I don't understand why so many "so called" chocolate lovers complain about the calories in chocolate, when all true chocoholics know that it is a vegetable. It comes from the cocoa bean, beans are veggies, 'nuff said.

I have this theory that chocolate slows down the aging process.... It may not be true, but do I dare take the chance?

…

Linking to Macro Monday.

Mosaic Monday: Baking

13 December we celebrate St Lucia/St Lucy’s day in Sweden.
(The link will take you to a blog post of mine from last year.)

One of my staying-in-days last week (with the storm going on outside), I got it into my head to try something I haven’t done for years: bake my own saffron buns, which are traditional here for Advent and especially Lucia/St Lucy’s day (13 December). They are made from sweet yeast dough, usually with saffron and raisins, and the most common shape (at least around here) is the reversed S-shape like above.

Over the last decade, because of my neck/arm problems, I’ve been avoiding recipes that involve manual kneading, and lifting of big heavy hot baking sheets from the oven; keeping to ‘simple’ cakes, lighter ovenware, and bread made in the bread-maker. So I only made a half a batch of dough now, which was probably a good decision. (My right arm confirmed it afterwards…) My kitchen in this flat is also rather small, so baking takes some planning from that point of view as well. But it was fun.

Back in “the good old days” I often took a day off from work this time of year and spent the whole day baking for Christmas. Used to bake my own traditional gingerbread biscuits/cookies as well. (Now I sometimes do a simpler kind with the same spices, but no use of rolling-pin and cutting into different shapes involved.)

Linking to Mosaic Monday

Summer Sunday

For Straight Out of the Camera Sunday… Please join me for a Swedish fika = our common word for a coffee or tea break, usually also including something (sweet) to eat.  Fika can be used as a verb as well as a noun, by the way. And we do use it frequently! At least this time I had sort of ‘earned’ it by quite a long walk to get to café in the open air museum park… Tea for me, please…! And, in this case, a piece of pastry that I suppose in the English-speaking world you’d call a macaroon. (If you ever get to Sweden, do not ask for makaron(er) with your fika though – or you might end up with a plate of macaroni pasta!)

ABC Wednesday – Y for Yummy

My favourite July breakfast!

ABC Wednesday

ABC Wednesday–R for Restaurant

Yesterday a friend and I had lunch at a restaurant in an upper secondary school which has an education program for that kind of business. Good food and table service at low price in their ‘training’ restaurant. I hadn’t been there before but my friend had. It’s not open every day of the week and apparently it is popular, tables are booked far in advance. The meat was a little too rare for my taste but then I had not specified how I wanted it… Otherwise everything was delicious and the raspberry ice cream we had for dessert was excellent!

~~~

ABC Wednesday

1st April Weekend Reflection: Grumbling Giant

Not a good Skywatch Friday today. Not even a really good day for Weekend Reflections. At least not if you want them all peaceful and sunny… However, since I’m in a sort of distorted kind of mood myself, this might do:

Even better upside-down, perhaps.
Doesn’t it look rather like a frowning, grumbling giant?

Another sight that fitted my mood:

 

Can’t you just feel the mood of the person who thrust the umbrella in there?
(No… It wasn’t me… honest…)

Sorry. I should be happy that the snow is gone again and the streets bare. And yet a grey pre-spring day like this can be thoroughly depressing. It is not to be trusted. It lays a shawl of heavy greyness on my shoulders, winds sharp steel wires around my collarbone, shoots pain up my neck, and numbness down my arm. It reminds of protections gone with the wind, chances lost and hopes dissolved. It unmercifully reveals every scar and wrinkle, and sends back grotesque and distorted images...

Jo Rowling describes it rather well with the Dementors in the Harry Potter series:

“… they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope and happiness out of the air around them…” ~ The Prisoner of Azkaban, Ch 10 ~

Help. I need some colour, quick!

Florist’s shop to the rescue.
And a mixed salad to save me from my own uninspired cooking.

I found they had put up a salad bar in the grocery store so you can put your own takeaway salad together just as you want it. (There’s a lot more stuff in there than what shows in the photo. Tomatoes, cucumber, kidney beans, pasta, cheese, three kinds of melon and whatnot.)