More Swedish Books

Having *a slight case* of backlog on books I'd like to write a bit about, I thought I might as well jam a few Swedish ones into one post. One of them was actually quite a huge disappointment, both story- as well as writing-wise, since it was written by one of my favourite writers. The story showed so much promise, as usual, the first chapter too. But then it just turned in to a predictable, very less than well-written and composed mismash pulpfiction novelette. I have absolutely no idea why, since both her previous books are so. very. Very. Good. Name of the book then, Kleopatras kam - "Cleopatra's Comb" by Maria Ernestam

Having now aired my literary disappointment, I'm moving on to far more pleasurable reads. First out being the third book by the multi-talented Mark Levengood - partner with Jonas Gardell, who is also a talented writer and stand-up-comedian - Sucka mitt hjärta men brist dock ej - "Sigh my heart tho burst not". These two guys have a rather different style in writing, Gardell is more blunt, crude head-on, whilst Levengood has a very appealing both gentle and shrewd sense of wistful humour running through when he talks as well when he writes.

His two previous books he co-wrote with another writer, both highly entertaining laugh-until-you-cry-kind of books jampacked with hilarious, memorable, endearing quotes from children. Perfect gifts and perfect books for all those times when you desperately need to perk yourself up - Gamla tanter lägger inte ägg ("Old ladies don't spawn") and Gud som haver barnen kär har du någon ull

This latest book of his is a collection of radioshow-scripts and newspaper/magazine columns plus lovely llustrations by Ilon Wikland, mostly known for her great illustrations of Astrid Lindgren's books. Oh yes, definitely a both laugh-out-loud as well as food-for-thought-kind of book. Do read.

Another Swedish, and awardwinning, writer who has a very distinctive, personal style to her writing - as well as a truly unusual, imaginative stories - is Barbro Lindgren. She mostly writes books for children and I remember loving her books when I read them as a child in the 70ies. And just recently I thoroughly enjoyed another one of her childrens books (first published in the late 90ies). Stunningly inventive and I must say, probably can't be completely grasped and enjoyed by a child. This is just a totally lovable childrens book for grownups, with adorable illustrations to match the words.

Vems lilla mössa flyger - "Whose little cap is flying" is the name of the book and the story revolves around Childhansels land, on the other side of the lilac hedges, and some of the main characters are a tired, old soft toydog, the Uncleteddy, the not-finished-knitted-duck, the Marble, the wistful Russian Muskrat, the rubber monkey on a bike and the crazy champagne kork who plays Hamlet's Ofelia in what can probably be concidered the best version of Hamlet ever played. Such a lovely, lovely book. And apparently this is the first in a series of three...

From A Loaf Doggie's Point Of View

Little loaf doggie met possible new friend. With matching fur. And a happy, playful, bouncy, sunny disposition. However apparently little loaf doggie is at times very grown up and responsible, a k a plain boring, when it comes to playing with other dogs.

So no matter how nicely Birk - who btw lives with the unfortunately not equally dog friendly Bamse - asked, begged and even loudly pleaded, he was put into place by one adamantly bossy loaf doggie. So instead of me trying to describe the day from a dog's point of view, I think these pictures sums the day up rather nicely. Please note those priceless expressions and poses, welcome to;

It's a dog's world -

Though suddenly, as if by magic, the wonderful, wonderful item of one squeaky toy appears! Life is good. Life is grand. Life is amazing and perfect once again.

Well, at least for the loaf doggie, others would so much have prefered other kinds of playfulness...
And finally, this is how one exhausted, all played out, loaf doggie extraordinaire looks after one busy, busy day. Things look a bit black-white and fuzzy. Do note superadorable pose though.
More pictures can as usual be found in Malte's own Flickr-album

The (In)Famous Liquorice Cousins & I

How could I resist getting these completely adorable pendants when they so very clearly are inspired by none others than my (in)famous *everywhere, anywhere, present all the time, preferably at high-velocity* liquorice cousins??

And quite obviously so very inspired by yours truly too, far too many of my quirks are depicted for things to be a coincidence... Had to have a whole bunch, even though chosing just a few was a task one can resemble only to the Nobel Prize achievements. Next task on agenda is to create something perfect and complimentary to both delightful pendants as well as high-speed, shiny black, furry models. Labour of love.

Being completely baffled, how did someone know using bicycle at odd hours was perfect pastime for miniature household panthers by the name of Waldemar?

Adorable pendants, prints and other lovely stuff can be found at primoriginals, totally enjoyable even for those not blessed with the personal irl set of depicted liquorice trolls

For Pippi Longstockingly Days

For those days when feeling quite contrary and Pippi-Longstockingly - go visit perfect horse and companion in the middle of city. Well, at least in my city we have fields and pretty horses smack middle of it all.

And yes, a TV-tower too. In other words, this lovely city really cares and has just what any slightly adverse city dweller with a soft spot for green areas, television and animals might need from time to time.

Strawberry Friends

~ Sometimes having friends in all the right places makes all the difference - and others all one needs is a strawberry ~

After-Movie Snacks Of Sorts

Time for a bit of pictorial after-movie-snack. It's been a whole lot of while since I last wrote something more tangible - as tangible as blog can be - about food made at mi casa. Admittedly I haven't felt very inclined to experimenting, digging into favourite cookbooks finding new favourite recipes (or finding new cookbooks or recipes otherwise).

I, we, have basically been relying on good ol' favourite dishes by me or M, take-out dinners or eating out. But here are some of the newish dishes tried out (and as usual, for recipes, get in touch) -

I've never been a fan of risotto, until I realized how it's meant to taste last year. Sadly it rarely does, and my own made are no exceptions. Sigh. This shitake-tequila risotto was just a disappointing hotchpotch with an overpowering shitake-flavour. Will definitely not make again. Anyone got any briliant suggestions as to what I should make with the remaining dried shitake mushrooms?

The zucchini-basil risotto was slightly better, but still far from as good as I'd like it to have been. And it won't be slowly cooking on my stove ever again.

Perhaps I have mentioned this carrot macaroni gratin before - but it's just so unbelievably good, and simple, and the more carrots the better, I'll give you a glimpse of it again *make room for serious case of tummie rumble here*

Fettuccini with bio-organic Napoletana pastasauce (incl minced quorn and heaps of grated carrots of course), with main ingredients bought at Saltå Kvarn, nothing spectacular, rather flavourless despited added seasoning. Quite disappointing actually

Something that never ever disappoints though, is my favourite whip together dish - pastasalad with halloumi, feta, grated carrots and whatever other vegetables there is in the fridge. This time it was heaps of plum tomatoes - and oh, it was lovely and summery and colourful and tasty...

Ovenbaked rootveggies with halloumi and feta - and yes, halloumi and feta goes with everything, especially well with carrots and beetroot. And sunflower seeds too

Saltå Kvarn isn't *just* one heck of a great summer outing and café, they also have a superb cookbook with gorgeous pictures. Admittedly some of the recipes is *a bit* too much fuss for my personal taste of cooking/baking, but this was one simple and great one - spelt crisp bread with avocado-cucumber-tomato-quorn-mix, touch of oil, herbs and sunflowerseeds

Another beetroot-lentils-salad version, this time with soy nuggets, basil and radish. Tasty indeed

Some weird looking as well as ho-hum tasting quorn-dinkel balls with a consistency that can be loved by someone toothless. Will. So. Never. Roll. Again.

Flippin' delicious banana bread with whole wheat flour and muscovado sugar. Though has to be devoured quickly, since they didn't freeze well

Delicious too, was this apple-peach pie with coconut topping. And easy peasy to make. What's not to adore?

The banoffee pie I made for Mother's Day. For my liking it contained too much of digestives, too much of boiled forever condensed milk and to much of bananas - but mother liked it a lot and that's what counts this time around

Rather lovely, easy to make, lemon squares

This is one tempting looking chocolate fudge cake - from favourite cookbook - I've been meaning to do forever. But talk about much ado about pretty nothing. Completely and utterly disappointing, *huge sigh*

Tosca-apple pie that one can actually have kind of seriously indecent dreams about. Yes it was that good. Really.

Movietime

Time for some movie-thoughts again I think, here are a few of the ones I've seen since last, worth mentioning, for one reason or other. And after this list I think it's more than appropriate to take a blog dive in to some home made food. Here goes -

• Vantage Point - this was just such a great action movie, one of the best I've seen actually. I was on pins and needles from the start, going back and forth in time, showing the course of event from different (vantage) points seemed like a fresh approach. Also the mix of wellknown and unknown actors. Okey, slight predictability concerning the conspiracy, but sightly done, 4/5
• The Happening - M. Night Shyamalan is just such an uncredibly uneven director, The Sixth Sense and Lady in the Water are on my list of favourite movies ever, Unbreakable very close to. But then it seems like making briliant movies takes its toll, Signs are really rather lousy and well, The Happening showed much promise and the plot is quite interesting but it sadly ended up being predictable, silly, gooey and lacked in characters, details not to mention overall picture. I'm split, probably because I did want it to be as good as I had hoped... 2/5
• This life +10 - I totally enjoyed the TV-series "This Life", the characters in many parts very much not me (sharing a flat, excessive amount of alcohol and rugs, sleeping around), but in others very so (lawyers, same age group, struggling with getting all the pieces of life fitting together). This movie revolves around their reuinion 10 years later. And, well, I think I would have liked that reunion to have been made in to a series instead of a scratch-the-surface-movie, +2/5
• View from the top - very uneven-had-its-moments-but-basically-silly-outdated-backlash-comedy about striving for the dream-job of all dream-jobs; flight attendant *haw-haw*, +1/5
• The Last Samurai - beautifully filmed, much better than I had expected, but still. (Glorifying) War movies just aren't my cup of cinematic tea, they either make me angry, upset, sad or even more angry. And no I completely don't understand, find it fascinating or condone the Samurai culture either, having said that, 3/5
• Morgan Pålsson - Världsreporter (Morgan Pålsson - World reporter) - this is a spin off movie from a much loved Swedish TV comedy series. The very less than talented yet very full of self-importance foreign reporter Morgan Pålsson on a mission in a warzone. I really love the TV series, but MP isn't my favourite character and even if the movie had its moments I think it was amateurish and yawn generating, -2/5
• United States of Leland - interesting plot, good actors, but still it just didn't reach even close to those glimpses of greatness one could detect from some of the lines, +2/5
• Den utvalde (The chosen) - with few exceptions Swedish thrillers have a tendency to become very less than... good. Okey, they're turkey-movies. And with the main character being played by very less than talented "actor" Andreas Wilson - from that much hyped, really lousy yet Academy Award nominee movie Ondskan - how could this fall in another category? Some usually good actors made very less than good performances, crowned by theatrical wood tick AW, +1/5
• Eulogy - good actors, nice plot in this drama-comedy about a very less than well-functioning family coming together at the grandfather's funeral. Rather entertaining, though I must say I find Zooey Deschanel being quite a lifeless, creepy actress, seemingly lacking the capacity for playing different kind of characters always with a monotonic voice and a blank stare. 3/5
• Sparta - rather entertaining action with a nice - or not so nice - twist in the plot. With Val Kilmer, another blank-looking-lifeless actor, playing the main character, +2/5
• Secretery - good actors in an unusual, rather depressing story, -3/5
• A Thousand Acres - a modern King Lear set on a farm in Iowa, really good actors, family secrets and a whole lot of dirty laundry, +3/5
• Les Choristes - Academy Award nominee 2005 - the same year as the lovely Swedish movie Såsom i himmelen (As it is in heaven) was nominated too and the amazing Mar Adentro won - this was a sweet, sad yet hopeful little French movie about a new teacher at a boys' boarding school showing how music can truly make a difference, +3/5
• Ringu 2 and 3 - the US version of The Ring is briliant, completely scary, beautifully filmed and one of my favourite movies ever. The original Japanese versions, trilogy, are however, to be honest, some of the worst pieces of **** I've ever seen. In my book of films there can be such a thing as less than -1/5 and this trilogy got it
• The Aviator - far from a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio, this was a way better, and quite interesting, movie than I had expected, -4/5
• Tjenare Kungen (Hallo there King) - entertaining Swedish comedy about pursuing one's dream of becoming a famous punkartist in the 1980ies, great scenography, 3/5
• The Cat in the Hat - the only redeeming thing about this annoying movie is the abundance of colours. The rest of it, awful, -1/5
• Man on Fire - a briliant action as well as moving drama with great actors, 4/5
• The Gathering Storm - a wonderful drama that gives a glimpse into Winston Churchill's life, love and politics, with briliant actors, 4/5
• The War of the Worlds - also this one was better that expected, neat special effects, but quite the anticlimactic ending, -3/5
• Assault on precinct 13 - decent action, remake of a movie from the 1970ies, good actors, 3/5
• Sweet November - sweet bagatelle, but I did like Charlize Theron's wardrobe, hairdo, her apartment and the cute dogs, and perhaps a wee bit of Keanu Reeves - which I've basically only very much liked in the lovely movie The Lake House - but that doesn't make up for a whole rather flat movie, 2/5
• Sunshine State - Florida is my first, and still only, real life hands-on impression of the US. And such a, in many ways, wonderful first impression it was too... Sigh. My impression of this movie isn't all that in many ways wonderful though, it had its moments, and some nice actors, and a whole lot of lovely scenery, but basically being an easily forgotten piece it gets a -3/5
• Les Triplettes de Belleville - usually, with few exceptions, I'm no fan of animated movies. But this one just grabbed me right from the start, absolutely wonderfully made, with dark humour, irony, quirkiness and silly good music, 5/5

Food With A View

It's been quite a while since I last wrote about some nice - or not - places for food eating out. And I do have a terrible backlog when it comes to that, somehow there have been a lot of other things on my blog-mind lately... But now I will write about a place, in the sothern suburbs of Stockholm, I very much recommend a visit too.

That is, if you don't mind walking a steep, ramshackle stairway of 78 steps to get to what can almost be described as heaven. Since this café comes with the most magnificent view and a lovely sundeck to make the most of it. Though admittedly, the stairs faintly reminded me of those very less than heavenly stairs at Möns Klint in Denmark...

The name of the place is Kaffetoppen (The Coffeetop) and can be found just behind the rather shabby shopping mall of Slagsta Strand. At their website (only in Swedish) you'll find useful information with a road description (the most convenient way, if you're not living or staying in the vicinity, is by car) and menu (which is actually more extensive than the one shown at the website). The place can also be booked for private functions and conferences.

I found the sundeck to be the best place to enjoy a bit of food on - well, food on plate, on table, me in sunchair, table and chair on sundeck - but the smallish indoor area looked cute too. If the sundeck is full and the weather is good one can also enjoy the food sitting on the flat and extensive montaintop. Overlooking the lake Mälaren, dwelling areas, vast forrest areas and a bit of industrial estate.

The food we had was really rather good, and good value for money as well, tuna sandwich on lovely ciabatta bread plus a nice, simple chocolate cake. Plus friendly staff. And that view and the perfect weather - sunny, hazy, a bit windy - relaxing in those lovely large sunchairs made for a perfect, unpretentious little outing.

The café has obviously not only a rather ingenious name but also a matching location, though quite unexpected and perhaps a bit difficult to find. But if you come by car from Stockholm city (highway E4/E20) you'll easily spot the huge flagpost behind that ugly looking office building/shopping mall and then it's well displayed to Slagsta Strand, and the café Kaffetoppen, Fågelviksvägen 5, Norsborg.

Prize Winning Photo Upon Request

Okey, remember that first prize hullabaloo? It took forever, or at least nearly forever, until the much awaited painting arrived. Yesterday. And well, what can I say, IMHO... it's definitely not something I'm going to hang on my walls. If I'm kind I'd say it looks like daub and blotch on canvas that's in desperate need of work to be presentable. A very pale imitation of that beautiful courtyard of the Tessin Palace, if you ask me.

Tastes differ, so maybe some of you out there find it to be a rather accomplished work of art. I know I'm most certainly not going to fight my mother about this shared price though. Go figure, for once in a blue moon I actually win something and end up with this..., well very less than pleasant wall-hanging. I guess I have to just relish the concept of the glory of winning.

On Stage - Carl Johan Vallgren & The Midnight Orchestra

As I've mentioned a bit here a bit there, Swedish author Carl Johan Vallgren is one of my definite favourite word equlibrists. Ah, he has such a wonderful imagination and has a skillful, amazing way with words. If you haven't read the truly remarkable novel Den vidunderliga kärlekens historia or as it's translated to in English The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-reading Monster Hercules Barefoot, His Wonderful Love and Terrible Hatred - I implore you to! Now.

As far as I'm concerned Vallgren falls in to the snazzy dresser, cool dandy dude category - and very obviously he has the gift of verbiage to match. And not only that, he plays music too. Singer/songwriter style. Admittedly I have been concentrating on his words in books and not when teamed up with music. And for reason this and that I haven't been to any of his concerts.

That is, until yesterday. Up on the rooftop of Kulturhuset - The Cultural House, once home to the Swedish government, now a melting pot of various exhibitions, cultural events, theatre, concerts, workshops, restaurants, reading rooms and so forth - with a smashing view over Stockholm city on a hot sunny evening, it was a really very enjoyable event. Indeed.

I love those kind of unpretentious, homely, like-meeting-an-old-friend kind of concerts - as opposed to the gigantic-arena-lazer-show-extravaganza events, which rarely give me as much pleasure as the smaller dos.

First out was guest-artist Ola Sahlén, sporting yellow pants and shiny red shoes. A bit of singing and playing the piano, but I got the distinct impression, most of all melting away in the sun. Taking the worst heat off CJV and his Midnight Orchestra, one might say.

Music, words, humour, wisdom, wittiness and food for thought under a benevolent summer evening sky in the heart of Stockholm. Somehow one can't wish for much more than that.

For some more pictures from that evening, have a peek at Flickr