Ingegerd's Punsch Bars

Ingegerd is one of the politicians I work with. She brought in this wicked cake a few weeks ago, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. Luckily, she provided the recipe, and it's SO SIMPLE. And as a bonus, it's really versatile - she uses punsch which is a sweet Swedish liqueur that tastes of arrak, but you can use any sweet liqueur you want, or even coffee or orange juice. (I bet amaretto would be brilliant.) And it freezes perfectly well, so you can prepare it well in advance. Oh, and did I mention that it's gluten-free? No? Well, it is.

You might want to use a little more chocolate than I did - 100 g was on the skimpy side if you want a thick layer.

Ingegerd's Punsch Bars

300 g almond paste
2 eggs
50 ml punsch or other sweet liqueur
100 g dark chocolate
2 tbsp flaked almonds

Grate the almond paste coarsely, and mix with the eggs in a food processor or with a mixer. Spread into a lined pan, about 25 cm in diameter, or an 9 inch square pan. (I used an 8 inch square pan, which was maybe a little on the small side.)

Bake at 175°C for about 20 minutes, or until the cake is lightly golden. Let it cool slightly, then drizzle the liqueur over the cake.

Melt the chocolate, in a waterbath or in the microwave, and brush over the cake. Sprinkle with flaked almonds while the chocolate is still soft.

Cut into smaller pieces and serve.

Recipe in Swedish:
Ingegerds Punschkaka

Beef Fajitas

Simple and fast dinner - buy good meat, slice into strips, fry with plenty of chili, cumin and garlic, and stuff into tortillas with roasted corn, fried bellpepper and guacamole. We ate this a few days ago, and while not exactly an elaborate meal, it was a very good one.

Cookbook Watch: quick and easy but don't forget your manners!

Allt Om Mat is as I've told you many times a Swedish food mag - in fact, probably The Swedish Food Mag. I'm not a subscriber, since I started feeling stressed out about getting food mags in the mail - I never had time to read them properly, much less cook from them. However, I buy it from time to time, and I do love their compiled cookbooks. See, they have a test kitchen, and every recipe is *definitely* tested. That's particularly good for unsure cooks, and I refer to all these books as my husbands - he loves them. Their latest offering is called "Snabba & Lätta Favoriter" which translates to "Quick and light favorites", or "Quick and easy favorites". Clever, because these are both quick, light and easy. No recipe has more than 8 ingredients, 600 calories or takes more than half an hour to make. However, they do use shortcuts here and there that I personally probably wouldn't. Frozen veggie mix for a salad? Pre-cooked wheat berries from a can? Well, no. But that's not a big deal, you can always change those things. I like this book as a fast "what can we cook tonight"-alternative.



Life with kids can be very stressful, I'm sure. I don't have any, so I don't really know from experience. But I do know many parents that struggle every day to get dinner on the table, often resorting to fast food alternatives, or at least half-made frozen convenience foods. This is the book for them: Jacob's Hälsokök (Jacob's Healthy Kitchen) Jacob's last name is Wismar, and I'd never heard of him before, but apparently he's worked out his own method for feeding families. It's a little bit like building lego, perhaps. You prepare various things - sauces, starches and bases. You can freeze these, or at least keep in the fridge. When you want to cook, you start with these things, and add on small touches to make it a meal. No more than fifteen minutes, he promises. Sounds pretty good to me! What does strike me when I read the recipes however is that the quantities seem way off. They're intended for four, but... well, if two of the four are very small kids, perhaps. The portion sizes photographed are tiny, so maybe the idea is that we also should eat less?



Det Dukade Bordet av Magdalena Ribbing is not really a cookbook, but a book about proper etiquette in association with food and eating. Magdalena Ribbing is Sweden's Miss Manners, and she's been writing several books and newspaper columns for many years. This book is rather interesting to read, and it can of course be used as a quick guide as well. It has a lot of history, such as why certain glasses are used for specific drinks, and when we started eating certain things in Sweden. I like that it's so modern and updated - after all, a lot of things do change when it comes to what's good manners or not.

Comfort Food: Creamed Macaroni

I'm at home with a cold today - sniffle, sniffle. I feel utterly down, and the only thing I'm craving is comfort food of some kind. And for me, that usually involves a) pasta and b) something creamy. This is an old Swedish classic that's extremely comforting - but I'm sorry to say I don't have an exact recipe because it's one of those things that's just "in my hands".

So. What you need is milk, macaroni (the elbow kind, preferrably rather large), a little butter, salt and white pepper. Some will add nutmeg, but I never do.

Use about twice as much milk as macaroni - if one cup of macaroni, then you want two cups of milk. Melt a pat of butter in a saucepan, and add the milk. Bring to a simmer, add the macaroni and stir well. Now, keep this at a low boil, stirring every once in a while since milk is tricky - it burns easily or it might try to escape the pan when you least expexct it. Boil until the macaroni are very soft and the milk mostly absorbed. If it looks too dry, add more milk. If it's too liquid, boil for longer. (Or, if you must, add a little flour or cornstarch towards the end.) Add salt, and lots of finely ground white pepper.

Eat. It's perfect with grilled (or fried) hot dogs. I know it doesn't look like much, but it's so very tasty.

And some people do this another way - boil the macaroni in water as usual, make a thick white sauce, combine. To each their own.

Who's the cutest little kitty?

Oh, it's Klara of course! This is how we spent the weekend - me on
couch, she on lap.

A few non-food book tips!

Besides cooking, I really like crafts. Or, at least the idea of crafts. I love it in theory, but in practise, I'm not very skilled, nor do I have a lot of free time. However, knitting and crocheting is great fun, and I really want to learn a little bit more about sewing as well. (So I don't have to hand over anything needing fixing to my mom - it's getting a bit embarrassing at this point.)

So - I want to tell you about three great new books that just came out in Sweden. All three are in Swedish, but I'm sure you can find tons of books in your language as well, if you're not a Swedish-speaker. Head over to your nearest bookstore!



Two of these books are about knitting, and they're written by Nina Sagulin who's previously written a really nice introduction book to knitting called "Sticka!" (which means - "knit!") She also runs a yarn store in Stockholm, and is really friendly and helpful. Her new books are as lovely as the first one - one is focused on knitting for babies and small children, and the other one is all about accessories. I love that the instructions are easy to follow, and it's all rather manageable projects. Nothing huge!



For sewing, this lovely book by Lotta Jansdotter is called "Enkelt att sy" which means "easy to sew". And this one, as well as several other books by Lotta, IS available in English! Or at least I think this one is translated - and it's called "Simple Sewing". (Amazon.com) It looks like a lot of fun, but I haven't tried anything yet. I love the apron on front, with the cool oven-mitt shaped pocket!

Sunshine Juice

My second juice experiment went very well also. I used three oranges, one tangerine, a quarter of a lemon (peel on!) and a carrot. It turned this beautiful deep sunny orange, and the flavor was incredible. It yielded quite a lot - about three glasses. I love my juicer!