God Jul!

We celebrated on Christmas Eve, as is the custom back home. While we missed sharing the holiday with family, it was the most relaxed Christmas we've ever had. A small Julbord with vegetarian meatballs and sausages, potatoes, beet salad, and Swedish crisp bread. Then on to the gifts!

When asked what they wanted most of all, both girls said Legos. Gayatri then specified that she wanted the Lego Kingdoms Castle.
Sarasvati: "Oh, you know you're not going to get that. It costs over $100!"
Gayatri: "Of course I know that I am not going to get it. That's okay. But if I said anything else I would be lying."

In the end Gayatri said her favorite gift was a porcelain doll that we had bought her at a thrift store for $3. Sarasvati's favorite was a 1915 edition of Heidi with a matching set of handkerchiefs. (By the way, just to be clear, Heidi is Swiss, not Swedish.)

Especially given our limited budget, I am glad our children have such an old-fashioned sense of fun.

Gift Making

Oh my, I think I have found myself a new hobby! These granny-square slippers (for my 8-year old) took just a few hours to make. A great way to use up some old wool scraps!

It's Christmas Time in the City

This weekend we went downtown to visit the Christmas Village in Love Park. It has been quite cold here, but everyone still enjoyed some outdoor time. Plus, they had a heated tent full of hand-made German ornaments ("Don't touch anything! Do you realize how much that costs!") Toasted almonds. Pretzels. The girls lingered at the table full of Russian dolls. We picked up a few gifts, and then headed over to the holiday show at the Comcast Center, just a couple of blocks away. These are both fun, free family activities (until you start buying things, of course) which are open until Christmas.

Glögg/Mulled Wine

One of my Christmas favorites: Glögg! Just pour a bottle of red wine (or non-alcoholic wine or fruit juice) in a pot, add about 1/4 cup sugar, a cinnamon stick, and say 10 or so cloves and cardamon pods. Heat slowly, then let steep for about an hour. Now it is ready to reheat (some add crazy amounts of vodka at this point...) and serve over raisins and blanched almonds.

The tray and glögg set were gifts from my sisters, and they sure are getting a lot of use!

Sankta Lucia

Today was one of those days that make it all worth it! The sleepless nights, gray hairs, chipped teeth(!), and all that. Like the first words, first steps, first day of school, the kids doing Lucia for us is one of those sweet things I have looked forward to since we first became parents. This is their first time to have done it all on their own, and I am so proud of them!

The girls set their alarm and woke up early this morning, having planned it all out the night before:

"And if I don't wake up, just pull my eyelids open, ok?"

While I was lying in bed dreaming about row-house-fires and girls tripping on long gowns in steep stairs while carrying hot beverages, they got themselves dressed and ready. They prepared our tray with saffron buns, gingerbread cookies, and hot coffee (thank you Mr Coffee with timer-function!) and woke us up with their sweet singing. It was perfect!

You can read about Lucia here, and watch this year's televised procession from Domkyrkan in my hometown Göteborg here.

We ended up with a late start to the school work today, but I love that we are able to have such flexibility!

Since we ate up our last saffron buns in the morning, we had to bake more to bring to the Swedish School party tomorrow.

And some sweets for the raffle!

Tomte Figures

Aren't they cute? Many of these tomte-figures were gifts to me from my great-aunt Vera. They each have my name and a year written at the bottom. The first one is from 1978, the year before I was born. This always intrigued me.

Perhaps it was just a gift to my parents that they later added my name to. But wouldn't it be fun if it was given to me before I was even born?

"Here, this is for your unborn child," says my great-aunt. "You know, it is never too soon to start thinking about your child's tomte-collection."

Is it possible I had one more tomte than all of my class-mates and I didn't even know it?

Simple Apple Cake

Craving apple dessert, but don't have time to make a pie? This cake is a good alternative to apple crumble.

2/3 cup milk ( I used coconut milk)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
about 2 apples, thinly sliced
1-2 oz grated almond paste/marzipan (alternatively just sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon)

Preheat oven to 350° and grease a round cake pan (8" or 9" will do). Combine the milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and let sit for a couple of minutes. Add the oil, sugar and vanilla. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt, then add to the wet ingredients. Pour into cake pan, spread out a little if necessary. Press apple slices down into the batter and sprinkle with grated almond paste. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

The Tree!

This is our first Christmas home in a few years, and I am so excited about it! I love when the house smells like Christmas. Pine, fresh gingerbread, clementines... It is all so cozy. I always make iced gingerbread hearts for the tree (because that's what my mom did), and mark some with the kids' initials for when the tree comes down. We also dried some sliced oranges, and the kids made heart-shaped paper baskets at their Swedish school. We are still looking for a good tree-top ornament.

Sleepyheads

Our daughters have reached a much appreciated new level of independence. Like toddlers asserting their independence, they want to do everything on their own. But they are actually able to now! They do the dishes. They make up their own lunch. They have even taken up cross-stitching, and can do it without needing constant help from me. They even set their own alarm to get up in the morning!

"What would be a really early time to get up?" asks Gayatri.
"Well, I was planning on waking you up at 7:30."
Gayatri turns to her sister:
"Let's set our alarm for 7:00!"
Girly giggles galore.
"Sure, but you will have to get your clothes out tonight so you don't wake your brother in the morning."

7:30 and my alarm wakes me up with what could very well be the beginning of a cold.

And no, they didn't.

Vegan Pizza All Around!

Although we have been living in Philadelphia for several years and often have pizza without cheese, I hadn't heard about tomato pie, a Philly-area classic, until my friend Lynn wrote about it on Scissors & Spice the other day. I was of course intrigued. Imagine my surprise to then see it served at a birthday party over the weekend! Isn't it funny how that happens?

Tomato pie aside, so many pizza places now offer really good veg options, including faux meat and vegan cheese. We just got the new menu from a local pizza place, Fino's, that now has a full page dedicated to vegan food. It looks really good! I/we eat mostly vegan; cheese is really the only dairy that I have a hard time staying away from, but this should be very helpful!

Today was another unseasonably warm day here. While the girls had a school activity in Delaware County, Rasika and I ate lunch in a nearby park. We picked up a vegan stromboli at Carmen's Pizza, another great place to know about (they also have gluten-free dough). Unfortunately, we had to cut our lunch date short, as a bunch of men with rakes and leaf-blowers (seriously, about 15 of them!) arrived at the park shortly after us.

PS - I just got a new phone. I know the pictures here are blurry, but I am playing around with the camera, have patience with me!

Advent

Time sure flies, and it's been a busy couple of weeks here. We hosted Thanksgiving, with family visiting from both sides. Not too many pictures were taken, but a great time was had. Nobody seemed to mind the fake turkey, or at least everyone was polite about it. I had said I was going to make things easy and just buy frozen Tofurky, but when I realized how many we would need and how much it would cost, I gave in and made my own. There were plenty of hands to help out in the kitchen so it really wasn't a problem (and it is much tastier too!). I had a hard time finding the recipe I had used before online, but ended up finding it here on a friend's blog.

But that was then and this is now. Christmas preparations are in full effect. I think I love Christmas more and more every year. It is also the time of year that I get most homesick and sentimental. I suddenly become more Swedish than ever. (As little as hearing a Swedish Christmas song can make me cry. It is a bit ridiculous.) I want everything to be old-fashioned, because I love old-fashioned, no multicolored lights for me! (Well, we have made a compromise that we keep the multicolored lights outside the house.)

The weather has been gorgeous here lately. Today we went for a long walk up Chestnut Hill, stopping at a couple of holiday markets along the way, then came home for this cozy Advent Fika.

Raw Chocolate Chip Cookies

Our oven broke a couple of weeks ago, and it took a while before we could get it fixed. In the meantime I finally got around to trying a recipe for raw chocolate chip cookies that I had come across recently on Flickan & Kakorna. I am so glad I tried them, because they are delicious! Something in between cookie dough and marzipan... Even Dave like them, which might make this the first time I made a "raw" dessert that he actually liked! The original recipe comes from Fru Fruktsallad (in Swedish), the only changes I made was to use maple syrup instead of agave, (which I realize makes them not completely raw) and to add a little maple syrup in the chocolate as well.

Raw Chocolate Chip Cookies:
1 1/4 cup raw cashews
2 tbs melted coconut oil
2 tbs maple syrup/agave/honey
1 tsp vanilla powder
1/4 tsp sea salt

Chocolate chips:
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tbs melted coconut oil
1 tsp maple syrup

Stir the cocoa powder, coconut oil, and maple syrup. Pour it onto a plate covered with parchment paper and place it in the freezer or fridge to set. Mix the cashews to a fine powder: use a food processor or spice mill. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Chop up the chocolate and mix it in. Shape into cookies (it makes about 12) and store in the fridge or freezer. If you want these to be completely "raw," obviously use raw cocoa, etc. Otherwise feel free to just chop up some of your favorite dark chocolate instead.

Neighborhood Pep Walk

We have been adjusting our schedule over here, trying to get some more outdoors time in in the morning, for everyone's sanity. Getting outside seems to be the only way to get the three-year-old to nap these days, and we really want him to keep doing that for a while longer. This week we did something that the girls especially enjoyed: I took them for a walk around the neighborhood, with the task to spy for positive messages. It really helped them focus and pay attention to details (while getting out of the house for some fresh air). These are some of the things we found.

Boo!

Rosemary Shortbread

This spring our girls each used some of their spending money to buy herbs. One bought thyme, the other rosemary. All summer long they tended their herbs, watering them and cutting off twigs to use for dinner. Some days they were almost to the point of fighting over which herbs we should use for our meal. Fortunately, herbs can be mixed, and this shortbread recipe would work just as well with thyme (and perhaps some lemon zest) instead.

Vegan rosemary shortbread:
1 cup earth balance
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
2 tbs chopped fresh rosemary
a few squares of dark chocolate, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°. Cream the earth balance and sugar in a large bowl. Add the flour, rosemary and chocolate and mix to combine. Wrap the dough up and place it in the fridge for 10 minutes to make it easier to handle. Roll the dough out on a floured surface and cut out cookies or use cookie cutters. Transfer to a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Preparations

It has been snowing and sleeting here all day (why did we leave Sweden again?), so we decided to have a cozy stay at home day, eating french toast, napping on the couch and catching up on some school work. While every look out the window made me look forward to the smell of pine and gingerbread, there's another holiday coming up in a couple of days, that happens to be a favorite around here.

I took advantage of the time and made some preparations for the party to come. I baked shortbread and made a batch of my friend Lynn's delicious vegan cashew pub cheese. Just to make sure there would still be some left on Monday I made a double batch. It's that good!

The kids made these lanterns out of old glass jars and tissue paper.

Chocolate Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

I have been wanting to try to make these for a while now, and finally got around to it. Whoopie pies are supposedly a Pennsylvania Dutch invention, and I believe they are usually filled with a marshmallow cream filling. But with Halloween being right around the corner, how could I resist making a pumpkin cream cheese icing instead?

Cakes:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil
1 cup sugar
4 oz silken tofu
1/4 cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Blend the rest of the ingredients (I use a stick blender), then mix with the flour into a batter. Drop with a tablespoon onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, then flatten with your hands. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until they are just dry. Cool on a wire rack.

Filling:
1/4 cup vegan cream cheese
2 tbsp earth balance (or other vegan butter)
2 tbsp pumpkin puree
peel from 1 orange
pinch of salt
2-2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Cream all ingredients together. Place 1 tbsp icing between 2 cakes and press lightly. The icing is quite sweet, so don't use too much. If it is too soft to handle, just place it in the fridge for a while. Store the pies in an air-tight container in the fridge, but place them in room temperature before eating. Makes 18.

Little Women

In an attempt to feel less like an alien, I am trying to read up on American literature. Right now I am reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. My daughter is about to read it, so I thought it would be fun if I read it, too.

I got further inspiration to read the book after we drove by Louisa May Alcott's birthplace the other week. It turns out that she was born just about a mile away from here, in Germantown (which was then a town outside of Philadelphia), though she spent most of her life in New England.

While Little Women may primarily be thought of as a book for young girls, I am really enjoying it. What the book teaches about duty, contentment and frugality would serve as good lessons for most of us in the modern age. I have read only about a quarter of the book so far, so I will save the rest of my judgement for later.

What is your favorite American classic?

An Apple A Day

You can definitely tell it is apple season here. Lately I have been taking my daughters to classes at an environmental education center. Yesterday they learned about Johnny Appleseed, and came home with a bag full of crab-apples, apples and onion-grass. (I love these classes!) While driving home, I listened to an NPR interview (above picture stolen from their website) with Amy Traverso, the author of newly released The Apple Lover's Cookbook. I immediately decided to put it on my wishlist. Later we went to our neighborhood farmer's market and bought - can you guess? - a big bag of gala apples. And a gallon of apple cider.

I really ought to know more about apples. And my taste in apples is embarrassingly unsophisticated. I am a gala-girl. My grandfather used to work as a horticulturist, specializing in apples. He would come to stay with us when the botanical gardens in my home town of Göteborg hosted their yearly apple event. How I wish I had been more interested in apples when I was a teenager!

My Cookies Won!!!

Woohoo!!! Turns out my cookies won Veganmage's vegan Ballerina contest!

The prize is the book All Amercian Vegan, which looks very awesome. I can't wait to read it!

More good news: In some ways, this contest was a win for everyone, as it seems there is now a good possibility Göteborgs Kex may develop a vegan/laktose free version of their popular cookies.

Thank you so much Veganmage, and thanks to those who voted too! :)

You can see all the lovely cookie entries here.

Weekend

The weather was beautiful this weekend! We went on a walk along the Wissahickon, baked cinnamon buns, and watched The Two Towers with the girls. That reminds me I have to get started on their costumes for Halloween. How in the world do you make a Frodo costume?
We also made pizza and went out for the Fall For The Arts Festival in Chestnut Hill. I didn't buy anything, but left with my head full of crafty ideas. I may not get around to doing them any time soon, but that's ok.

Lemon Ginger Granola Bars

These bars are somewhere in between oatmeal cookies and a granola bars. I used white chocolate chips, but they would be just as good with chocolate or dark chocolate instead.

4 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup flour (whole wheat works well)
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup oil
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla
Grated zest of 1-2 organic lemons
1/2 to 1 cup (depending on your liking) candied ginger, chopped
1 cup chopped walnuts or almonds
1/2 to 1 cup chocolate or white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 F, and line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper. Mix the rolled oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a medium size bowl. In a large bowl, mix the oil, brown sugar, soy milk, vanilla and lemon zest. Add the oat mixture and your mix-ins and combine. Press down into the pan and bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool before cutting with a sharp knife.

Cinnamon Craters

This is a super easy recipe that I learned a long time ago in a home economics class. Probably around 5th grade. I love that it is easy enough for my kids to actually make on their own.

When baking with kids, it really helps to set everything up beforehand: ingredients, bowls, measuring cups, etc. It will not only save time, but also help keep them focused, and most important: keep the mess limited to one place. :)

Cinnamon Craters
1 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
4 tbsp vegan butter
1/2 cup soy milk

filling
2 tbsp vegan butter
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425ºF. Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. Add vegan butter and mix until crumbly. Add soy milk and combine. The dough will be sticky. Try not to add too much flour, but rather add some flour to your hands while handling it. Divide into 12 balls, place on baking sheet, and press down the center with finger.

Cream together all the ingredients for the filling, and add a small amount into each "crater."

Bake for 6-8 minutes.

Weekend

Late morning tofu scramble...

...a revolutionary war reenactment in our neighborhood (the Americans lost)...

...and some baking with the kids!

And look! It's cool enough to wear a sweater!

Alone Time

Once a week we usually meet up with some other home-schoolers at a local playground so the kids can play together.

I know sometimes people are concerned that home-schooled kids may not get enough social interaction with other children. But the truth is that our kids tend to be just as busy as any kids, minus the morning rush to get out the door. Most of the home-schooling families I know seem to have the same problem of over-scheduling their kids with activities that other families have these day.

So when my six-year-old wants to spend her afternoon playgroup time making grass-people and playing on her own instead of with the other kids, I don't mind. I know how much I need my own alone time, and I am sure kids need theirs too!

Ballerina Cookies

A few days ago, I came across this contest that involves making vegan Ballerina cookies, and taking pictures of them. Since I already had a half batch of hazelnut frosting left over from the cupcakes I made this weekend, I could not pass this one up.

Ballerina is one of the most popular cookies in Sweden, and the factory is just outside of my home town Göteborg. They have a chocolate cookie bottom and a vanilla cookie top, with a creamy hazelnut nougat filling in between. IKEA sells them here in the US.

The point of the contest is to show the makers that Ballerina could very easily be made vegan and try to get them to change the recipe. Either way, it was a fun little project.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for our little party yesterday. The recipe is the same one I always use, the Basic Chocolate Cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. For the frosting I made a vegan chocolate buttercream with about 1/2 cup of toasted and ground up hazelnuts. A little bit like Nutella, but fluffier!

Birthday Bowling

Someone is turning 3 tomorrow, and today we had a one-guest party with aunt Suzy visiting from New York City. The original plan was to go apple-picking, but the weather didn't look too promising so we went bowling instead. Great idea!

We did a lot of bowling over the summer, through the Kids Bowl Free program, which lets kids go bowling for free all summer long! Sarasvati just started bowling without bumpers, and Dave asked me to mention his new personal best of 177, including his first ever turkey (triple strike)!

And the birthday boy? He had a blast bowling, but spent most of the time sitting on a chair, looking through a toy magnifying glass.