semiswede

When the rhubarb (rabarber in Swedish, ruh-BAR-bur) comes up in Sweden, you know spring is here. This past week the warm weather and sunshine made a welcome return to what seemed to be a very cold spring, and the rhubarb in my mother-in-law’s garden is just big enough to make use of.

I am just going to squeak this post in before Waffle Day 2013 is over! Last year I wrote a post about the history of how Waffles + The Annunciation = Waffle Day. It all seems to be a bit of a word mix-up that Waffle Day ended up being on 25 March, but so […]

Things have been a bit quiet on Semiswede lately, and they become especially quiet in February as I gear up for my oldest daughter’s birthday. This year she turned six. I don’t know what it is about six years old that feels like a milestone. Perhaps it is because she will start school in the […]

I seem to be late with everything these days. Life is quite busy with working full-time, two kids under the age of 6, and all of the other tasks that eat away at your day until there isn’t a moment left to spare. There is no space in my life for things that are too […]

Sweden was one of the last countries to adopt a national day. Nationaldagen is the 6th of June and only became a red day (a day off from work) in 2005. There aren’t a lot of food associations with this particular holiday and many people in Sweden are surprised to learn there is actually a […]

I’m a huge fan of toasted marshmallows. When I was a kid my impatience to eat them meant a perfectly molten middle surrounded by an evenly golden, crisp exterior always escaped me. I usually ended up scorching my marshmallow on at least one side trying to speed up the process by getting it too close […]

March 25th is Waffle Day in Sweden and it coincides with Marie bebådelsedag, or the day of The Annunciation. Why? Largely because of variations in the Swedish dialect.

Blood oranges were on special in my local market the other day and I got a great deal on some of the particularly colorful Moro variety. The vibrant juice makes a stunning vermillion-colored sorbet. In thinking about what to pair with the blood oranges I remembered the lavender that has been burning a hole in […]

I still have a mother lode of golden Lucia buns burning a hole in my freezer and the holiday season in Sweden officially ends on the 20th day after Christmas or tjugondagknut (which happens to be Friday the 13th this year…how cheery). In my efforts to come up with creative ways to use all of […]

Ostkaka, literally cheese cake in Swedish, is a specialty of the Småland region. Historically its earliest mention is in the 1520s in a list of foods served on New Year’s Day in the household of Bishop Hans Brask in Linköping. Today you can buy it ready-made in any supermarket making it an easy and popular […]