Semla, the Creamy Story of the Perfect Bun

There are so many wonderful reasons to love Sweden and all things Swedish. But I feel that if you want to capture in a nutshell WHY you should indulge in a bit of amore Suecia it has to be in the little tradition we call fettisdagen and semla.
How many countries do you know that urges you to stuff yourself full of yummy cream buns, all in the name of tradition? And basically as often and as much as you want around this period in time?

The official fettisdagen (Fat Tuesday) is calculated according to ol’ Christian calendar tradition and this bun-eating extravaganza takes place the day before the start of a particular fast, which falls in February or March. In true hedonistic self-indulgent style, we dropped the tedious idea of the fast but kept up with the devouring of delicious cream buns. How appropriate!
So at this time of the year in Sweden there will be whipped cream-filled buns tempting you at every bakery, cafe and home. Many people bake their own, invite some friends and family for a bun-fest in the afternoon. Then the very next day you just roll into a bakery and pick another one to go with your coffee. ‘Tis the time, no questions asked, no guilt being placed upon your bun-munching self. There is no holding back, the nation is urging you, ‘keep eating these buns, you are part of living tradition’!

I have found an outlet in Sydney for my semla crave, Cafe Svensson makes some fantastic ones! But most of the time I happily bake them at home to wild delight of la familia. It’s an annual winner that put you in the good baking books for months, perhaps even years.

Here’s how you whip some up yourself.

Ingredients:
To make a dozen Swedish semlor, you will need:
• 25g of fresh yeast (or dry yeast if you can’t find fresh)
• 75g of margarine or butter
• 200ml of milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• Half a teaspoon of cardamom
• 500ml of sugar
• 700ml of plain flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
For the filling and topping, you will also need:
• Roughly grated almond paste
• Whipping cream
• Milk
• Icing sugar
How to make a semla:
• First, melt the butter or margarine in a saucepan, add the milk and heat until lukewarm.
• Crumble the yeast into a bowl, and add some of the liquid to dissolve the yeast. If you use dry yeast, follow instructions on the back of package.
• Add the remaining liquid, plus the salt, cardamom, 1 egg, sugar and 600ml of the flour.
• Work the mixture together into a dough.
• Cover with a cloth and leave the dough to rise for around 30 minutes.
• Mix together and work into a dough, a kitchen-machine makes this easy.
• Mix together the baking powder and remaining flour and work into the dough. Knead the dough until it becomes smooth.
• Separate dough into maximum 12 round balls.
• Lightly grease some baking sheets, put the buns onto the sheets and allow them to rise for 35-40 minutes.
• Beat the other egg and use a brush to glaze the tops of the buns.
• Heat the oven to 250 degrees C and bake the semlor in the middle for 10 minutes.
• Cover the buns with a cloth and allow to cool on a wire rack.
• Before eating your semlor:
• Cut a circular “lid” off the top of each bun. Use a spoon to scoop out the inside of the bun.
• Mix together the grated almond paste with the inside of the bun, add milk to make a smooth mixture and use this mixture to fill the hole.
• Whip the cream and spoon the cream on top of the bun filling.
Replace the lid of the bun and decorate with icing sugar.

Recipe courtesy of communityofsweden.com

Aim for the Stars and Land in the Tropfest

Swedes are not the only ones to have an affectionate relationship with Sweden and recognise a certain amusing aspect of homo swedus. Local Sydney filmmakers have caught the Nordic vibe and created a little black and white short film all about the quirky Swede. Check out this Tropfest finalist called Den Sista Galaxonaut, directed by Alexander George and Tyrone Lindqvist. This film follows an extremely competent and successful guy called Sven Larsson who was the first man on the moon (at least according to George and Lindqvist). Though not a winner of 2011 Tropfest, it is definitely the winner in my books. Any guy called Sven is a winner, simple as that.

Illustrated Fashion

People love fashion, people love art. Sometimes the two come together and make a perfect match. Such a happy marriage is just what funkis fashion in Australia has entered with Swedish Artist Stina Wirsen. Since graduating from Konstfack, the College of the Arts in Stockholm, in the early 90’s, Wirsen has created an interesting body of work, all ranging from stamp-designs for the Swedish Post Office, illustrating for a broad range of Swedish companies, to portraits and fashion illustrations. Wirsen now spreads her art over the boarders of Sweden and creates fashion with Funkis downunder. Check out the stylish t-shirt available through Funkis in store and on-line. Hopefully there will be more illustrated threads coming our way in Australia.

Be Cool Back at School

The school year has kicked off and there are few things more exciting than getting some new stationary to bring to school. Or if you don’t go to school, still get some new stationary just to get into the swing of things from outside the school grounds. Nothing wrong with being a student in spirit only just to be able to update the stationary stash!
Forget all the freebies you got from various sports groups, banks, insurance companies, hairdressers, politicians, dog walkers, nursing homes, fast food outlets and the likes. The logos tend to be ugly and the quality is normally rubbish. Have you ever tried to sharpen a freebie pencil? You can hang over that dustbin until you get led poisoning and dislocated discs trying to sharpen the crumbling resemblance of a pencil. And just when you put your finger on the tip to check the strength, it will break off. Again. In one word, infuriating. And you always have that sneaky feeling that some endangered rainforest has been biting the dust in the process... So take control of your stationary look this season. Head to Kikki K and make use of some of that back to school rebate the government is offering to Australian families. Who is eligible? Who knows, but worry about that later. Stock up on pens, pencils, paper, notebooks, calendar, friend book and all the other essentials for a successful and stationary rich 2011. With good well-designed stationary à la Kikki K, at least you’re off to a stylish start, ready to tackle the new year ahead.

No Age for Road Rage

The year has already clawed its way to the third week of January, a side glance and weeks are lost in that black hole called life. New year came and went with no resolutions on the horizon. Except for the reoccurring one; a resolution to have no resolutions. Still, there was one family friend who repeated a resolution that has been a standard one for him and his wife, the resolution not to have any road rage. What a healthy resolution, in my opinion. If you can remain Zen about your time on the road, life will feel so much easier. See yourself as a fellow traffic producer, who clogs up the road space as much as everyone else. Then see yourself as part of the solution, not just the problem. You can be part of both on this account. Give people the benefit of the doubt that they might have a broken indicator, don’t know the road rules, rushing to get that international flight ready for take off, visiting a dying relative in hospital, just lost their job, their girlfriend or the plot. Or in a worse case scenario, all of the above, in which case, really stay out of the way.

The solution is to feel smug about your superior road knowledge and behaviour, shake your head condescendingly, and say to yourself (very important, don’t shout out the car window or mouth any obvious nastiness) “look at these clowns, aren’t they just a funny bunch of amateur drivers, where on earth did they learn to drive”. Just let the whole thing wash over you, water off a duck’s back. Because it’s actually proven, anger doesn’t get you there any faster. It just gets you there angry. And who wants to feel angry.

So next time and the time after that and after that and after that, when you feel the urge to start abusing drivers around you, take a deep breath and just DON’T do it. Turn up the radio, play some good music, listen to an audio book or just have some time to reflect. It’s not going to cost you much, if anything. If you have to be on the road, why make it more unpleasant than it needs to be. Energy comes in limited supply; so don’t waste it on something as pointless as road rage. Open your arms and say to all around you; “welcome to the age of no road rage”.

When the going gets tough, Christmas keep coming

Here we are again, Christmas around the corner, faces in brown bags hyperventilating while trying to figure out how they will have time to fit it all in BEFORE that special time called Christmas. Breath in, breath out, it will all be fine.

The answer is, just make a little list, not the wish-list sort of list, but a tick-the-boxes-kind-of-list. I love them; they work so well for me, very satisfying, even if you don’t get past one tick. Still, one tick is one tick off a list…

So, when we stare down Christmas in the white eye, feeling like a bunch of lemmings charging for the edge with no chance to swerve that final drop off the cliff towards certain Christmas impact, my advice is, embrace it!

Back to the list, write down the five most important things about Christmas that is absolutely imperative to the whole idea of Christmas.
My guess is that presents might be on that list. That’s fine; I’m not judging anyone.
Just remember, online shopping as a wonderful thing, go out there and go crazy. Why not spend your dollars at a place where your gift keeps on giving. Head to Oxfam, great gifts, great organisation.
When it comes to presents, and when children are involved, it is easy to overcompensate. Start making a little list (another one!) in your head and figure out who else except you will give that child another item that will gather dust in the near future. All of a sudden you have a whole chain mail, a pyramid scheme in your head! You really don’t have to buy more than two. It’s true, and the chances are your child will end up with 40 gifts regardless.

For everyone else above the age of 18, buy tickets to a show and make an outing of it, together! And if you really can’t stand each other that much, buy tickets to separate shows and avoid any further family feather ruffling. Hot tips, Sydney Festival, theatre or concerts. We all love them.

Socialising, family and food will probably also be on that list. At least I hope so. Family, do what you need to do and don’t whinge about it. Once a year, it can’t be that bad (surely?!). If it is, don’t bother, make changes that works for you, as well as the consequences of those changes. Friends, remember, the world as we know it won’t stop after the 25th, there is always time to catch up after Christmas. Food, very important. As the years goes by, my Christmas foods get more and more creative, and sometimes have absolutely no relevance to Christmas at all, if I remember right, Christmas Eve dinner last year was lamb roast and potato gratin with sparklers in a rice pudding. But guess what, it was a great night, lots of laughter and dancing and happy children, and there was no pressure to judge if I had got it right, because I was so wrong. So for this year, I’ve got open slate for what to dish up on that smorgasbord. It might be a tad more traditional, I feel. But as my husband fondly says, festive Swedish food is almost all the same; it’s potato, fish and meatballs, in different creative variations.

My top 5 list goes as follows:
1. Presents
2. Christmas tree
3. Lussebullar
4. Christmas food to some extent (think, ham, or herring, or salmon in some constellation together with other foods)
5. Family and friends – the number one out of the five

Wishing all and everyone a Merry and Happy Christmas, and just remember, there is more than one way that’s the right way,
just do it your way!

It’s in the Bag

Having spent the last three months traveling and packing/unpacking, squeezing, throwing out, smuggling extra weight into the unsuspecting children’s bags, walking onboard with two pairs of pants, jumper, jacket and scarves just to relieve the bags of some weighty overweight, I feel that bags have been given too much space in my current traveling situation. I keep on fantasising about the trip I’ll make with nothing more than a passport, credit card, a book and a notebook… maybe some clean underwear, 1 change of clothes, a brush, a little wash bag….. a pair of bed socks, another change of clothes, make that three… some high heels (for some special occasion that might arrive out of the blue), a pair of good walking shoes, presents for the family, a cardigan (it might get cold), that summer dress I never wear but I might wear more often somewhere else, a second handbag, a hairdryer and a pair of clogs, sunhat…., correction: sunhats to be safe, nine pairs of jeans…..

Let’s face it, that walk on, walk off trip will never happen. Another utopian dream that has no actual relevance to the way I lead my life, but that’s ok, what’s wrong with arms that drag on the floor and a back that looks like a silhouette of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. So would it be true to say that one’s handbag is a reflection of how we travel in a suitcase? To some degrees I think this might be the case, and this is completely based on hard evidence – my own handbag. In it you will find the usual paraphernalia of diary, wallet, keys etc, but next to that will be a teaspoon-in-waiting for that yoghurt I might buy, or not, an article I feel I will have time to read, sometime, 40 different napkins from 40 different cafes, they will come in use, a pair of lost kids socks (oh, there they are… still!), 1 shoe, just to know the right size should I come across a shoe store with those special shoes my son keeps telling me to look out for, a really funny comic strip I once read and thought is the perfect cheer-me-upperer that might be needed at a crucial moment, and the list goes on and on.

So for this kind of living I need a sturdy handbag that can deal with a lot. I usually lean more towards the ones that are made out of safety belts and carry a stamp of approval from NASA. A handbag is not just a bag; it’s a vital vessel in your life. I don’t change handbags the way some people do, I normally settle on one that I like and then I love it to death. I will use it well beyond what is hygienically appropriate in most Western countries as well as esthetically pleasing to the eye. But they say that love is blind, and in my handbag case, this is definitely true. I keep the image of that first moment of having my new handbag and that impression will stay with me for a long time, perhaps too long, according to some less handbag love struck people. But hey, it’s my bag and I can wear it for as long as I want.

So my newest love is a Finnish beauty by the name of Marimekko Olkalaukku Messenger Bag. It ticks every box. But then again, you can always trust Marimekko to get it right. The amount of stuff I can fit into it is fantastic, and still, it looks in great shape and wears its weight lightly. Deep pockets and a trusted design classic from the 70’s, what more can one ask for. Over the shoulder or across the chest, it’s your choice. And if the Messenger bag isn’t your bag, there is plenty more to choose from, check out funkis for more goodie bags!