Architecture, pepparkakor, monsters etc.

Living in Sweden in the run-up before Christmas unavoidably means buying /eating / making / smelling / using pepparkakor (litterally "pepper biscuits", but more specifically thin gingerbread biscuits made with spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg and juniper, amongst many others) at a high rate. Supermarkets and konditori sell a wide range of the stuff, from plain little ones to a blackberry flavoured variety (my favourite, not easy to find as always a "limited edition"...), heart- or flower-shaped, thin or thick, hard or...mjuk, ie soft (a speciality from Skåne, the region of Malmö).

Yesterday, once the little ones were in bed, Grandmere and I decided to attempt the baking of such biscuits, after we had seen a recipe for them in last weekend's newspaper. Mjuk pepparkakor med blårbär (ie soft gingerbread biscuits with blueberries), to be precise. Wonderful smell in the whole flat! The biscuits turned out to be a bit shapeless (they were to be soft, after all...) but they do taste good! Otto tried one for breakfast and wanted a second, so we already have a happy customer. Poppy was more reluctant.

Probably subliminally influenced by last night's culinary experiments, we decided this morning to get on bus 65 to visit the annual Pepparkakorhus exhibition organised by Arkiterkturmuseet - it's a bit of an institution here, each year a competition is organised by the museum and the best achievements are rewarded by a jury of specialists (!). This year's theme was Mönster /monsters.

Lili would have loved it, especially the wonderful houses covered with sweeties... We'll have to tell her about it and show her the pictures, after all a gingerbread house is also on the cards in our home, with Lili as chief architect, of course!

Comments

[Kaitlin]

They are some cool houses...hope Lili and Peter got back ok, was very good fun to see you and can't wait to see all of you at xmas!
K x

[Nathalie]

Un concours de maisons en pepparkakor!? J'en apprends des choses sur ton blog! En tout cas, cela ne m'étonne pas plus que cela en Suède (j'avais déjà vu de telles maisons en Allemagne et aux Etats-Unis). Otto semble avoir apprécié la visite!
Sinon, j'ai moi aussi réalisé aujourd'hui des gâteaux avec des myrtilles à l'intérieur: les fameux muffins aux myrtilles et au citron que j'avais faits au début de l'année. Malheureusement, j'avais décidé de préparer dans le même temps une soupe à la carotte et une énième compote de pommes. Du coup, j'en ai oublié mes muffins dans le four. Le résultat est donc plus cuit (et par conséquent plus sec) que d'habitude, mais le goût est malgré tout agréable. J'en apporterai demain pour nourrir nos petites cellules grises... Tu restes bien sûr libre de t'abstenir! A demain!