359 days and 10 hours to go!

Sundays seem to be able to bring out the baker in Mr. B. ... Hmm... it's either that or he just can't resist messing up a newly clean kitchen... Not that I'm complaining! (Well, in fact, I am, but just a little bit...) :-)

I took most of the afternoon trying to reply Maria's letter. This reply posed a particularly big challenge as, first, I so much prefer to handwrite my letters than to type them (and we're still out of ink in the printer, which is something I have to solve today! *mental note to self*) and with my aching wrist isn't the easiest of things; and, second, I had to pick a typically Portuguese recipe to send her and translate it to English.

The first challenge was managed on a "paragraph basis" - write a paragraph; rest; write a paragraph; rest - which definitely isn't the most efficient way to write a letter, but then again, it's better than not having it written.

As for the second challenge, well... that was a true challenge! I'm saying this mainly because, as some of you might already have experienced, trying to enter the realms of international cuisine is entering a very frustrating world! Somehow, if you pick up a foreign cuisine recipe book, you'll be ruling, at least, half of the recipes in it as "un-cookable at the current moment" just for the fact that you'll never be able to gather all the ingredients required.

For years now that we've fought that battle every time we want to make something Swedish, but it does tend to happen more on special occasions - and particularly much more so at Christmas. We really don't find here things like lutfisk (some sort of especially prepared fish that I have no idea what it could be called elsewehere) or julskinka (= Christmas ham) (unless we're lucky and the local IKEA makes the favour of selling it for quite a price!) and I think you cannot get inlagd sill (= pickled herring) in any other place than IKEA's Foodstore. On the other hand, the same goes for some other items, like (Kalles) kaviar, pepparkakor (though it's now also sold in a national chain of supermarkets for an interestingly high price), glögg and many many other articles.

Other ingredients are also something we cannot come across here, just like sirap (= syrup), kokosfett (= coconut butter?), pomeransskall (= pomeranz peel), kardemumma (= cardamom) or mandelmassa (= almond paste).

So, most of the times, we're left to improvise what to substitute these things with. Other times, we just ask someone to bring it or mail it over - and that's what happened last April with 1 Kg of mandelmassa! :-)

Almost every Sunday after that, I've been requesting a special sort of bun toward which my stomach has grown a particularly big affection - the semla! :-)

... it does have powdered sugar on top, though it has been in the refrigerator and it kind of melted... but tastes just perfect anyway! :-)

Another thing that you can usually find in IKEA's Foodstore is kanelbullar (= cinnamon buns). But they're also one of those incredibly simple recipes to make. I put my frustrating wrist pain aside and rolled those myself. Well... they do miss the pärlsocker (= pearl sugar), which seems to add another item to the ingredients you cannot find here. :-(

And, finally - bread! :-) Nothing beats a warm slice of these, just out of the oven, with butter melting all over it - hönökaka! :-)

And now I'm off to lunch... Do have a great Monday and a particularly good start of week, hopefully as sunny as here. :-)