In the beginning...

I have anticipated writing this blog since we first learned we were moving to Sweden.  But, with everything we had going on to get settled, moves in and out of hotel rooms, and moves to different hotels, and even a short trip to Italy with our daughter, Annie, it was never the right time.  Now is the time…

My original intention was to post recipes and how I assimilated into the Swedish cooking style.  But, I’m not sure how easy that will be. So far it’s been hard for me to even cook with Swedish ingredients because I cannot read the labels.  Besides that, we have had Swedish meatballs more than anything – and while I am guessing many Swedish families have their own special recipe for Swedish meatballs, when at the grocery store I see cases upon cases of different already-prepared and packaged meatballs.  So, I am guessing that most folks here use these meatballs rather than mixing up their own batch.  Of course, I will certainly share any Swedish recipes I obtain, and I will also share other recipes that I have been given over the years. There are some good ones too!  You see, while doing this blog I am also writing a cookbook to pass along to my children. Yep, I bravely pulled out all my favorite recipes and hauled them across the ocean to work on this project of love!

Many of you have followed my comments on Facebook, so some posts you read might look familiar, but here I will elaborate more.  For example, you only knew the basics of how horrible my time in Milan was, but I’ll get to that at the right time, or the right day! 

Please allow me to digress a little bit and we’ll start with our experience when looking at apartments back in October…

October  24 - 29, 2010

We left Greenville for Sweden on a house-hunting trip which was really to locate an apartment.  It had been quite a few years since I had flown internationally, but our flights were uneventful and we arrived safely.

Since certain conditions had not yet been met from a business standpoint, we were unable to commit to an apartment but just look.  We had already discovered, through the person helping us, that Karlstad does not have “furnished apartments” and the original figure given to us was way too low.  In time, this was all rectified, only it was made known to us  a day late and we lost the apartment we really wanted.  We are trusting God in this, as He knows what’s best.  And, I can honestly say, reflecting back as I write some of this blog in hindsight, we are where we should be.  It is good.

Some of our experiences during this first week are highlighted below…

We checked in at one of Karlstad’s Scandic Hotels (see pictures of a typical room).  The staff were very kind to us and spoke very good English.

Our first morning (and every morning after) we went down to the free breakfast buffet that offered quite an array of food.  They served dried fruits, assorted dry cereals, any of which could be toppings on a choice of the wonderful plain or fruited yogurts.  They also served “sour milk” which is like a yogurt but less sweet.  (I know this because I accidentally tried it the first morning.)  Three-inch thin pancakes with thick strawberry preserves were a lovely reminder of a pancake my mother used to make. They had poached eggs, scrambled eggs, bacon (bacon is big in Sweden) and sausage that is the equivalent of a tiny hot dog in the states.  They also had steamed broccoli.  Not sure what that was about, but I did try it!  They had all sorts of breads that were round, square and in loaves.  They ranged from dry crisp Ryvita to plump whole wheat and white loaves you could slice.  Alongside the bread they offered many assorted jams and marmalade as well as a choice of margarine or butter.  (Incidentally, the term smorgasbord – means smor=butter/bord=bread.  I grew up thinking a smorgasbord was like a buffet of food and I think we lazily said it like “sh-hmorgasboard.”   You could get milk (which is very good and normally I only like milk out of my own refrigerator) from a dispenser and a variety of juices.  Would you ever think apelsin is orange juice?  I didn't either.   They also had a table set up with  sliced ham, turkey, salami, different sliced cheeses, cottage cheese, sliced tomatoes, pickles, and pickled herring. That’s a European thing, and I did try it a time or two but not on a regular basis.  To me that’s lunch and by lunchtime this buffet was cleared away.

Meeting Karolina Nilsson was our first most wonderful and positive experience.  Karolina works with the City Chamber which is like our US local chamber of commerce.  She has helped many families move into the area and she was excellent from the get-go. She not only helped us find an apartment and parking garage, but she provided me with hair dressers, nail salons, numbers to the medical facility and other valuable information. Her office was located directly across the street from the first Scandic in which we stayed.

During our time with Karolina while we juggled the appointments to see apartments, she took us to lunch at two different restaurants (both within a city block of our present apartment).  At the first place we were taken to the upstairs dining room  that had windows on all sides and afforded us a small view of part of the city’s storefronts.  The food was a buffet of these giant meatballs (of course), salmon, and mashed potatoes.  There was a salad and rolls served too.  It was delicious.  After lunch it is customary to have coffee which we did – of course I paid for it that night as I didn’t sleep very well.  In the last couple of years I have learned that I do not do caffeine of any kind so well past noon.

During our lunch, we shared discussion of our experiences and Karolina asked if my expectations of what it would be like were met thus far.  I had to admit that they were not because I expected everyone I saw, including the women, would be 6 feet tall and blonde, but that was not the case.  I saw a variety of people all shapes and sizes and all different hair colors, although I suspect maybe some blondes dye their hair to rid themselves of being seen as the Swedish stereo-type.  Karolina, who by the way, happens to be tall and blonde, also asked me if I had specific concerns she could address and I said that one of my biggest was how certain US foods translate to Sweden such as cream cheese.  She smiled and said, “Philadelphia cream cheese?” Astonished, I said, “You have Kraft products?”  She stated that Swedes like to think that in many ways they are Americanized.  I told her I had previously been concerned about the beef – specifically ground meat, because Gary teased me about Sweden only having ground moose meat.  But, just prior to traveling there, I had already learned that  the grocery stores sell  ground meat with all the different fat (fett) contents.

A custom we had not yet heard of that Karolina shared with us was that of fika (pronounced fee-ka meaning “snack”).  This is a time at least twice a day (morning and afternoon) when people come together and enjoy coffee and sometimes something sweet – a muffin, pastry or dessert and either socialize or discuss business.  Gary realized when he had been in Karlstad weeks before that he noticed people in the office disappeared and he didn’t know where they were until one day someone popped their head into his office and invited him to join them in having fika.  Karolina explained to us that it was important to partake when invited so you don’t offend the person. 

On our second day with Karolina, we went to another restaurant and had these large meatballs (kottbullar) with some type of light-colored meat gravy and boiled potatoes.  Lingenberries (something close to our cranberries in the states but a tad sweeter) were served on the side and it was all quite tasty.  This time I decided to forego the coffee.  Incidentally, this restaurant  is along the city square (the government building is at the head of the square) and in the summertime there is an open produce market of local venders, along with live music.  The restaurants spread their service outdoors in the evenings.

After we parted company with Karolina on the second day, as we entered the hotel , a sweet waitress invited us into the dining room for fika.  The only problem was that we both needed to run up and use the restroom (sorry if that’s TMI) and had just agreed on who got it first.  So, when this invitation came and remembering what Karolina had said, we panicked thinking we were going to offend this kind waitress.  We assured her we were going up to our room and would be right back down and looked forward to fika. 

And what a treat that was…  The dining area where we had enjoyed breakfast earlier in the day presented a variety of different almond and spice cookies, and cakes – many were bite-sized so you didn’t feel guilty (as if I would) trying different ones.  There was a sponge cake of thin layers each spread with raspberry preserves, a chocolate mousse-type cake and also this rich, dark mocha-chocolate sweet that was coated in what looked like sesame seeds.  It was yummy.  Also, they serve fresh fruits with various toppings ...and, of course, coffee.  It was all quite delicious, but I shouldn’t have had the coffee… I paid for it that night lying sleepless in Karlstad.

If you haven’t guessed it yet, coffee is big in Sweden (just read any of Stieg Larsson’s books and you’ll find this is true).  Something we also learned from Karolina about Karlstad is that it is the home of Lofberg Lila coffee roasting company which was founded in 1906.  They are the biggest coffee roasters of the Nordic region.