fresh new potato salad

Made this potato salad for Midsummer - recipe from Årstiderna vegan food box - and not being a fan of neither vinegar nor mustard I was a bit sceptical. But again, the flavour was amazing. And it's really a great eat in season summer dish.

new potato salad
4-6 servings

1 kg new potato
1 spring onion
3-4 tbsp vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar, I'm sure any will do)
0,5 dl rapeseed oil
1 tsp strong mustard
salt, black pepper

Boil the cleaned potato for about 10 minutes, until done. Let it cool in its water.

Chop the spring onion finely (both onion and haulms).

Whip together a dressing with vinegar, oil, mustard, salt and pepper.

Chop the cooled potatoes into 2-4 pieces, add the chopped spring onion and blend it with the dressing.

Enjoy!



It went really well with seitan sausages and a salad of white cabbage, green beans and cherry tomatoes. 

happy midsummer 2015 ~

hope your midsummer weekend

is - was - will be lovely ~

strawberry season sweden

Despite the current very non impressive Swedish summer weather - seriously, +15C and cold winds, what's up with that? And down to +4C during the night... Topsyturviness galore - it is after all strawberry season. And for that one can be grateful and delighted.



Not to mention the rekindling with one gadget favourite, whatever did I do before I met my bestest strawberry stem gem friend?



And then there was a (mandatory) strawberry Midsummer cream cake - it was pretty great. I baked it in a heart tin, but with all the whipped cream (soy of course) it just became a big white fluff with strawberries on top. But it was all heart eating a piece.

The Swedish strawberry season so far. To be continued I'm sure.

happy midsummer 2014 ~

Some of my personal favourite ingredients for the day will be of the innocent pleasures kind;
good, vegetarian food, cake, strawberries, flowers and hedgehogs. Possibly cats too.

Hope you'll have a lovely summer day,
however you chose to spend it! 

midsummer eve ~

Midsummer Eve,
however you chose to spend it I hope it will be filled with
love, summer, good food and good company
and a dreamy long, light night ~

vegetarian summer barbecue

To have fresh grilled vegetables alongside halloumi or soy-sausages plus a nice salad, that is summer dinner bliss to me. Unfortunately I think our old-ish barbecue needs replacing, but it managed to produce - or at least make the final details happen - this on Midsummer. And all the bobbaloos who weren't with us last summer enjoyed a feast too.

Yes I may loath the concept of Swedish Midsummer, but I'm a sucker for a decent vegetarian dinner. Next time the veggies need to be marinated for a longer time, all that awesome garlic needs to get down to flavour business for real. But it was still a wonderful meal, and we had lots of leftovers to make nice dinners/lunches for the rest of the week.


soy-sausages and yellow paprika

mushrooms

courgette and halloumi

new potatoes

simple salad with only lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and radish

the last bottle of fabulous sangria in a pretty pitcher
plus lovely non-alcoholic beverages

to round the meal of nicely my mum had brought a lovely rhubarb sponge cake.
which i turned into cream cake awesomeness with fresh strawberries

It was such a vegetarian feast! We really need to make more use of the barbecue possibilities this time of the year. And try to grill fresh pineapple or other fruits too.

Which are your vegetarian favourites for a good barbecue?
Marinated, flavoured in some way or just as is?
I'd love to get some good tips!

happy midsummer ~ midsommar 2012

This is the backside of the tunic that moved in a month ago, a proper Midsumer tunic. Love the embroidery on the back. Midsommar = Midsummer.

It is so my very least liked Swedish public holiday - hyped and drenched in alcoholic misery and addiction -, but the time of the Swedish year is a very pretty one.

We'll enjoy a veggie barbecue - drenched in garlic - and have an unpretentious lovely day. And cake. And strawberries.

Wishing you a lovely day,
hope you spend it wisely, kindly with
good food and company you enjoy ~

random snaps with thoughts to match

It's been far too long (2008), oh how I wish I was heading to magical York again sometime soon... Alas, such wishful thinking when limits as usual are set by time and money. And there will be Berlin. I'm grateful for and excited about that. Still, York... England... Scotland...

Little kid's dress with sausage dogs, 

oh my, why wasn't that available in grown up size too?

The unpeopled Stockholm on Midsummer Eve, almost every shop closed, befuddled tourists only. Liberating and tad eerie at the same time.

Accidently, obviously, broke one of my favourite tea mugs the other week. I think these large Höganäs mugs (I have them in smaller size too, for not large-cuppa-inclined guests) are of the perfect shape, size and in this case colour, applegreen. No more. And it's not that I don't have plenty of other mugs to have my tea in, plus overcrowded kitchen cupboards, replacing it seems silly - and it looks like they don't even sell them in all those gorgeous colours anymore. The utter. stupidity. of that! - I will however really miss this applegreen perfectness. We've had many good times and the sharing of bad times together over the years.

The awesomeness of clover.
The scent of fresh greenery and the cuteness of pink.

dotty spectacles joy

The very best about Midsummer might have been that I got to pick up my new glasses plus prescription sunglasses. I love the new dotty glasses, cuteness. The bobbaloos still think I should have gone for the cow patterned ones, but they admit these are rather fancy too.

Jojo and Seth even tried them on, they found them tad too big but swear they gave them X-ray vision superpowers.

The sunglasses are discreetely chequered and even though I would have prefered a slightly different model for them, they are nice and oversized (bee-queen style, just the way I like 'em).

I remember writing something about an installation of old and new Pia-glasses - I couldn't find the really old ones, I have been wearing glasses on and off since late teens, some have been worn to pieces others are still packed in moving boxes in the shed. 10 years and many boxes still unpacked... - here are some.

The ones in the far back are broken, the next two pairs give me headaches since their strength are way off now. But I enjoy the model of the brown frame ones. I've kept them just for fun. Which reminds me, someone said that many Swedish pharmacies have a recycle/charity system for glasses. Will have to check that out.

The other six pairs I still wear. The middle two pairs with slightly less strength than the four front super-power ones (even if you're not a bobbaloo).

Now wouldn't it be lovely to be able to have a pair of red frame glasses (tricky to find the right red hue and model), cat eye-glasses, perhaps some funky green ones and... M thinks I might be developing an addiction deep fondness for glasses, like with certain shoes and bobbaloos. I snort at such remarks. And dream of glasses.

the bobbaloos' first midsummer

Midsummer, one of those Swedish traditional celebrations completely blown out of proportion (mainly due to the extensive, pathetic and sad alcohol consumption). Like New Year, Midsummer has long since lost its appeal (if it ever had any) to me. I read two tweets that sums up my personal feelings well;

"New Year and Midsummer - celebrations for hags and amateurs only" and "To not drink alcohol hasn't killed anyone". The grumpy part said, it is the bobbaloos first Swedish Midsummer Eve. It has been spent in garden, with flower spotting, veggie barbecueing, strawberries and pastries.

And the adorable Rodney Rose.

I hope you get to spend the Mid summer weekend
in a joyous, kind, summery way ~

the perky turquoise stool

Yes, this will mainly be a post about a once very worn but now very perky old stool, but in order to get there I'll start with something else;

With some old things there's just no options than with a sigh say goodbye, no coat of paint that will make them come back to life and put a smile on your face. Goodbye I finally and well overdue had to say to ol' computer, for a long time reasonably reliable (as reliable as a computer will ever be...) but no longer keeping up with the amount of photos, info or demands I have (which are by no means unreasonable but for oldies they apparently are).

A little netbook named Selma might be a blessing and useful on-the-go-and-travel, but for daily business (and the lack of a decent screen) it's just not very practical or ergonomic. The new one has a lot of nifty things up its imaginary sleeve (that one has to get used to), it gladly accepts a whole lot of more photos and says yes to demands. It's clean, smells nice and new, I hope it will keep out of trouble, be faithful and make the life of me much easier.

This is the first blog-post it writes. May it be a good one and may there be many more to come.

Now for the things that can come to new life with some upcycling, some stroke of paints, a bit of yarn, love and time. A stool that was, beneath the perky paint still is, an old, to say the least, shabby looking one full of drill holes (as my father used it as a work- and drill surface). But it was, still is, a sturdy and uncomplaining being. As well as of a good size and comfortable height. Beyond its rugged looks hid something worth saving and transforming. From then to now, here's the short story of the perky turquoise stool ~

Before makeover begun

After a few coats of paint (hue was tad lighter and brighter than planned, but its Caribbean bright and perky looks makes me all happy and smiley)

The transformation would not stop at a coat of paint, oh no. The happy vibey granny squares I made earlier (before I even planned the revamping the stool) would indeed make a perfect cover and the crocheted cherry on the turquoise sundae.

The stool got its cover, the granny squares their stool. And all is well in the world of paint, yarn and blessed snappy new computers.

~~ Oh, and a happy midsummer to you too! ~~