What's cooking or not

Since I'm way too tired to write something remotely original today, this entry will basically only be about some food experiences lately - from home made to eating out, from favourites to never ever again.

The bottle to the right was a very nice kind of sparkling alcoholic peach drink, we bought just for fun in Germany last summer. Didn't get around to try it until now. Tasty and fresh. Don't think it's available in Sweden, but I might be wrong.

Then we have grilled potatoes and root veggies with basil & thyme. So yum and so simple to make. I have no idea why we don't make that more often. Since I really don't like eating the potatoe peels - no not even on new potatoes - I'll be sure to not include them again though. They became really rubbery if you happen to have some left for the next day.

My favourite Swedish coffee shop-chain of Coffee Cup doesn't exist by itself anymore, but has merged into the very less good chain of Espresso House - remains to be seen if the coffee will stay equally good, I suppose most of the baristas will be the same, or became not really worth the money-drinkable...

This latte with veggie bagel was so-so, those bagels used to be excellent when made by Coffee Cup, I do hope this was just a temporary lapse of quality...

This crayfish tail salad with Västerbotten cheese, I had at a café in Sigtuna, looks really lovely, but was basically a hotchpotch thing with just a bit too much of everything and not enough of one thing. Not really well-seasoned, at all, and one can't get away from the fact that those crayfish tails look like tiny dead bodies. Which I suppose is just what they are...

I guess I should have been prepared for the exception to the rule of everything-tasting-great from the vegetarian cookbook, but I wasn't. Especially not expecting it when I did put quite a bit of effort into making them, these parsnip medallions. Just bland and boring. Perhaps it was just that particular root veggie that wasn't the right one though.

A simple and really flavoury salad with grilled beetroots and feta cheese. I had if for lunch at a golf club recently - not that you'd ever see me playing golf, primitive farming just isn't my thing, but they tend to have quite decent food at their restaurants, golfclubs - and I'll definitely make something similar myself one of these days!

A bit of yum we shared at Café Gateau, in the Stockholm suburb Bromma - such a lovely area, and if you don't go by car you have to take the little circuit train Nockebybanan, which makes for a very scenic train ride through charming residential areas. A nutty Tosca-cake-like thing, a cardamom twist biscuit and muffin with raspberry truffle. Rather basic in flavour, apart from that raspberry truffle bit in the middle of the muffin which was delicious.

Perhaps a note of interest; the small chain of bakeries and cafés called Gateau is owned by the father of the female baker/owner of Kringelgården. They're considered to bake and sell high class bread and cakes, myself I think the baked products are pretty average with some exceptions.

Easy to make garlic bread with fresh thyme. Will make again!

Another sad exception to the "rule". Stuffed aubergine, with all that work and spices it ought to have turned out better. I partly blame it on aubergines snotty consistency, not really my favourite veggie. I should have learnt that by now. But it sounded so good... Will never ever make that mistake again. I hope.

I saved the very best for last - these are incredibly tasty cookies called Sniff's coconut cookies. Extremely simple to make and absolutely addictive! I got the recipe from a lovely cookbook by the name Mumintrollens kokbok = Moomintroll's cookbook. The cookbook is jampacked with fun recipes, from very simple to more complex. And the perfect saying "Allt som är trevligt, är bra för magen!" (Everything nice, is good for the tummy)

The Moomintrolls are fantasy beings in storybooks by Finnish writer Tove Jansson. Very sweet books treasured by most Swedish children and translated into several languages. One friend didn't treasure those characters at all, in fact she was very afraid of them when a child, for unknown reasons. Of course this leaves room for giving her very special Moomintroll-gifts now and then...

My favourite Moomintroll-character is and have always been Lilla My/Little My. There's just something irresistible about her characteristics like fierceness, independence, determination in a brash and disrespectful personality. But she can also be a really good friend. If any likeness can be found in undersigned it's a complete coincidence.