Fun Memories!

We got some pictures of Mette this past weekend. I thought it would be fun to share them with you all. In her letter to Julie, she asked what foods I liked when I lived in Sweden and it got me to thinking. In Kalmar, I lived right over a bakery that made the most incredible sweet rolls I have ever eaten. I got to know the owners fairly well while I lived there and they sent me home with their recipe for the rolls, but I have never made them. I need to dig the recipe out and see if we can make them. They were basically a cinnamon roll with bits of chocolate baked inside it.

I also remember lingon berries on Swedish pancakes. When I say pancakes, I mean more like crepes than pancakes. Very, very thin with lots of eggs mixed in the batter. I put butter and Lingon berries all over them.

I also loved fruit soup. I have never liked soup both before or after my mission, but this was great. It was kind of like fruit kool-aid, but thicker and hot. I had a little old lady who lived in Karlstad that made it from scratch for us every Sunday afternoon and she would put ice cream in the bowl as well. It was wonderful.

When I lived in Hässleholm, we had a family there that would invite us about one every other week for dinner. The wife made a meatball in a brown gravy that was incredible. It was made by mixing both beef and pork with a little bit of egg and corn syrup to hold it all together. She said hers weren’t really Swedish Meatballs, she called them Not-Swedish Meatballs. I have incorporated some of this into my recipe for bar-b-qued hamburgers, those of you who have helped me make hamburgers know what I am talking about.

During my 2nd Christmas in Sweden, living in Kalmar over the bakery, the same bakery made a potato ball that was basically the size of a base ball. It was boiled potatoes mixed with flour and rolled out like bread dough with bits of beef and\or pork sprinkled in the middle and formed in the shape of a ball. They would drop the balls in boiling water and boil them until they floated to the surface. I don’t remember their name for the life of me, but they were definitely one of my favorites. I made them for a couple of years after Julie and I got married, but I totally forgot about them until last night reading Mette’s email.

Most of you know that as Mormons, we don’t drink alcohol. When I lived in Göteborg, (for my first Christmas in Sweden,) we pasted a little corner store everyday on our walk from the bus station to our apartment in Angered, (where Marabou Chocolate was made.) The owners of the market made and bottled there own Christmas drink that was great. He called it ”Glögg.” We would stop off and get a ½ liter bottle each every night. It was after about three weeks of buying this that we read the label and discovered that it had alcohol in it, not much, about 1%, but still had alcohol in it. We felt foolish, here were two Mormon Missionaries stopping off and buying a bottle of booze each night before going to bed.

Prior to my mission, I never really liked potatoes, mushrooms, onions, or garlic. I don’t know if it was the Swedish food, or my tastes changing as I was getting older, but I came home loving all of the above, especially potatoes and mushrooms.

Some of the things that I absolutely hated was Split Pea Soup. We had a little old lady in Karlstad that had us over for dinner every single Thursday (or was it Wednesday.) She said that it was customary for Swedes to eat Split Pea Soup on Thursdays. I hated it. It was all I could do keep it down and not throw it up. I hated lutefisk. There is nothing else to say about it except lutefisk is the worst thing any human can ever eat. It was never intended to be eaten by living, breathing people. The also had a rotten egg that they would eat as well. I can’t remember the name of it. It stunk horribly and tasted even worse.

This was fun remembering these things. Thank you Mette for the question and all of the thoughts and memories it has provoked in me.