Things I Learned in Baking so Far…

• Follow the recipe. Don’t be stingy.
• Especially not with fat, it doesn’t work.
• Don’t believe what the recipe says, believe what your eyes say in amount of flour.
• Halving the recipe never works (see point 3). Learn to live with ending up with 25 buns that need to be eaten :)
• Call it a success if you can at least eat your mistakes.

Happy birthday to me :) *innocently plugs her JList wishlist*

Sorry for the dearth in bentos recently. Since the BF started working at my place, he’s been bugging me to go out for every lunch. I’ll try to put my foot down and bring bentos anyway again soon (after that deadline and Italy assignment…) :(

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Bento #106

I know I know, I’m lazy with updating. Here’s a bento from Tuesday, when the bloodbus finally came. I swear, our vampires are the laziest around…

Wholemeal tortellini with pesto and a huge basil leaf, carrot sticks and hummus to dip, pieces of a mooncake, a frozen strawberry and blueberries, banana chunks with chocolate sauce. I forgot to put my last minimuffin in… must’ve been tired.

It’s been a stressy few weeks. I might update with a sukiyaki recipe (how I like my salmon and tofu, really, since I am not really an expert on sukiyaki) later, I have the pictures, but not the nerves to type anything up lately.

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Help?

I’m getting really weird pingbacks on my latest post. They look like spamblogs, or really random link collections. Anybody know what they are and if they are a danger? (If so, how do I get rid of them?)

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Saturday shopping in Stockholm

After a long week of hard work I do what every geek girl likes to do: relaxing with a shopping tour through the nearest big town!
Well, first I start by having a looong, nice sleep-in. Then I go on tour. And since by “then”, I mean “well into lunch time”, the first stop is defined by the question: “Where shall we have brunch today?”

Today we decided to have Japanese food. There are several great Japanese restaurants around Stockholm, but for ease of parking coming from our direction and general hungriness we chose one called “Sandai-me Kato”. This one gets a pretty good review by “real” Japanese people, though apparently not as good as the place called “Ki-Mama” (which is also the only place in town to serve broiled eel, but that is a culinary adventure for another day).
On the other hand, it goes away from the fastfood atmosphere of sushi bars (including Ki-Mama) with its lovely interior. You can see the almost LARP-ish atmosphere of it on the picture above. Lovely, isn’t it?

On the menu are, alongside the mandatory sushi, several other Japanese dishes you don’t usually get in Japanese places in Sweden. I choose one that I already had last time – I am eager to try out all their menu but this one just had me drooling for more last time! It’s Hiyashi Ramen – advertised as “typical Japanese summer food” on the menu, it is a huge bowl of chilled ramen in a fruity sweet and sour marinade topped with freshly-woked seafood and vegetables. It’s so good I almost forgot to take a picture!

I apologize again for the bad picture quality. I need to remember to bring my pocket camera next time, as I’m about to give up on my cellphone cam and not about to bring the SLR.

Filled with yummy Japanese foody goodness, we go on over to the Japan Food & Kitchen (JFK) Shop to get some supplies. (And candy.)
Since it’s right around the corner, we also go pay The English Shop a visit (For candy.) and nip into another Asian supermarket on the way (Mooncakes are candy too, right?).

To save our bellies from total destruction by multicultural candy, I’ll stay away from foodshops after this. I hope nobody reading this minds as I geek on!
The next stop on the list is Gamla Stan. Even without tourists, it’s still full of people, but this time Stockholmers out on shopping trips to the neatest little shops that are scattered right throughout the most touristy district.
Since I have never managed to get to the store when it was open before, Sound Pollution is worth a visit. It’s a music store that specialises in anything metal, punk, goth, industrial, death, doom… you name it, they probably have it (or at least can order it). I get a VnV Nation CD as I haven’t been able to find it anywhere but online before and like to have some stuff on CD. I don’t feel like asking for testlistening though, so nothing nice and new for me. The main attraction, SF Bokhandeln is still waiting and our parking time is limited…
SF (yes, that’s for Science fiction) Bokhandeln is a fascinating bookstore. It specializes in SF/F books, though it has comics, RPs, and general geek paraphernalia as well, and is doing so good business it can afford a big store on the biggest tourist street in town. And it’s always full, no matter when I come there! It’s fuller than any other bookstore I’ve ever seen outside signings and special events.
The haul: The 4 Earthsea books, Lord of Light by Zelazny, Wintersmith (finally out in pocket) and the BF got another book he got recommended. Success!

Sushi Bar Sandai-Me Kato
Adress:
S:t paulsgatan 22
118 48 STOCKHOLM

Japan Food & Kitchen (JFK)
Swedenborgsgatan 28
118 27 Stockholm

The English Shop
Söderhallarna (upstairs)
Medborgarplatsen
118 26 Stockholm

SOUND POLLUTION AB
Stora Nygatan 18 (Gamla Stan)
103 14 STOCKHOLM

SF-Bokhandeln
Västerlånggatan 48, Gamla Stan
Stockholm

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Oct 4 – Kanelbullens dag!

October 4th is Kanelbullens (Cinnamon rolls) day in Sweden!
Have you had yours yet?

I didn’t bake any though because my company and a consultant company both invited me to one already. Mmm, freshly-baked, aromatic cinnamon rolls…
I’d have taken a picture of the tray but they were gone faster than you could say “plague of locusts”. But I managed to save one for pictures at my desk! (Excuse the bad quality. My phone cam sucks *cough* not that I’d be allowed to take any photographic device to work anyway…)

But I am planning to make some in my new food processor soon, and post a recipe for “real Swedish” cinnamon rolls!

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Also quite ultimate stuffed zucchini

The other two zucchini were halved and made into 4 lovely cups, then stuffed with balls of couscous mixed with a fried mixture of leek, zucchini meat, feta, spinach, mint and raisins, then covered in feta crumbles and again baked in the oven.

Lovely!

As sides there is chinese cabbage and carrot salad with thyme and sundried tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes melted in the oven next to the zucchini.

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Bentos # 104 and 105 – breakfast boxes

Now that’s more like it. Same ingredients as this box, but much more bento-like!
One big box for me and one small for the bf, who isn’t a big breakfaster either.

Breakfast for today. The theme was “red” since I was planning to give blood. And they moved the bloodbus date under my nose again! Hrmph. Oh well, at least I have a reason to make smoothies and breakfast next week as well!
Big box: Rye bread with baba ghanoush and carrots, corn “flowers” (I do feel rather flattered by the practice of cutting cornflowers becoming so common on Bentolunch these days, seeing as I started it there), grape tomatoes and pear slices.
Small box: Mini banana muffins (thriftily made in fastfood condiment containers!), chocolate covered coffee beans, more pear, grapes and a frozen strawberry.

The BF has been experimenting with the blender ever since we bought the food processor and is pampering me with fresh fruit smoothies. Wow! I call that service! Mmm, icy delicious orange and strawberry smoothie for breakfast before going to work, and bento when my stomach is able to take solid food at work!

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