oh, yes I am still alive and well!

Over a year since I posted anything! It's middle of summer, I am going to Sweden in a week and my kids are getting big! Sigrid is up north working at a camp all summer! I MISS HER! Pippi is going to Vancouver, BC to play rugby. She made the Ontario team and will play Nationals out there. Very exciting but scary! Rugby is not for the weak!!

Beaches Bakeshop & Cafe' is still going strong. We have endured a massive road construction this summer but I feel very hopeful for the fall! I want to bring in new items and maybe update the shop a bit. A new coat of paint would be nice for example!

When in Sweden I will keep my eyes open for exciting stuff! I love Almedahls tea towels and Ekorrens Organic Candies! Two things I would like to see on the shelves at Beaches Bakeshop & Cafe'. Another passion of mine at the moment is Bikram Yoga! hence that I have to go to bed since class starts at 06.15! Namaste! http://www.almedahls.se/web/almedahls.aspx

Family Day! Another pressure filled day added to the calendar. Everyone else have the cosiest day together with their all in sync families. They all know what and how to celebrate this day in the best of ways! My family on the other hand woke up to a beautiful sunny day in a little hotel room in a small Ontario town. The reason is that this town provide skiing opportunity to southern ontarios millions of people. I wake up ready to attack this day in a energetic way, a snow shoe hike, a brunch at a well planned establishment that we are all excited to go to or just go for a long interactive hike. On this hike we would talk to each other and nobody would punch, teas or push. So, this did not happen of course. One daughter had a sleep over, another was impossible to wake up, she was snoring together with my husband that also decided that sleeping is way more important than being energetic. Luckily there is a third daughter who like me is energetic in the morning and wants to get going! We did some errands and picked up daughter from sleepover and stopped by Starbucks for husbands needs. Finally we are all together in the car all packed and ready to go. Too late to start skiing, no chance of convincing everyone that a snow shoe hike would be great. We start our drive home. Now we are hungry. Where to eat? Let's stop in the Italian Woodbridge north of Toronto for some "easy to find, great Italian spot". Marks wonderful idea sounds ok but the closer we get the more hungry everyone gets. I am loosing faith in this whole day!! Much better to just go to school and work than to be stuck with your family and forced to interact. Suddenly we pull in to a strip mall where there is a funeral going on and it feels like we are crashing a Sopranos episode. In the middle of limos, dark sunglasses and white shoes is exactly the place we have been looking for. Very authentic, great pizza and even better espresso and suddenly my family are experiencing that bliss of family cosiness i was looking for, while eating the best pizza in a very long time. After stuffing ourselves we find a perfect little hike in Edwards Garden. I feel great again even though the day started differently than I wanted it to.
Tomorrow we are back in reality and I know I will think back on this Family Day and think it was pretty good after all. It was our Family Day 2012!!

Saturday night and home alone at the kitchen counter with my iPad. Not that I want to do this every Saturday night but once in a while it is soo relaxing and cosy. I have been listening to lots of podcasts and music.
Earlier today was big Semla Saturday at Beaches Bakeshop & Cafe. It was pretty busy and a few swedes came by.
J, P, and M are up north this weekend. P raced today and did great. Tomorrow J is racing and I wish I was there. S is babysitting so that is the reason we didn't go to Collingwood. Went to my friend G's house to pick up a cook book she got me from Sweden. She went there for 2 weeks to "find back to herself". She was in big need and had a great time. G is a very good friend of mine. I am going to spend more time with friends like her this year. Ok, that's it for now! Have to read my new cookbook- cant stop myself! Tomorrow is Superbowl Sunday, which doesn't matter much to me but I am making a chili because of that. I got inspired!!

Good thing I didn't sign up to do the 100 days of blogging!
Life goes on and I just forget to stop and write a few sentences to save my thoughts of the day for the afterworld. I have diaries from way back when I was 8-10 years old. I wrote almost daily until I was 30. Then kids started to come along and other things took over my writing time. Now, almost 20 years later, I am trying to find that time again and use it for what it was intended for.
I have had some great moments lately with my kids. P is learning to play guitar and I am soo impressed by how dedicated she is and that she is teaching herself. J is working hard on being as good as she wants to be in all areas. She runs, studies, is the inspiration of the school's volleyball team. She loves it all. S is working hard on her school. She has high hopes and I am sure will make some great choices and will reach her goals and hopes!
I, on the other hand, don't know what my goals are at the moment, more than I have to start to get this day off the ground! So, go on, have fun and do the right thing!

Short post since it is late and my bed has been calling my name for a while now. Why is it so hard to go to bed sometimes? I feel that there is so much I want to do and keep updated on and that takes time. Now and then when I hear someone say something I agree with or maybe not but it is interesting anyway or if a person is really funny in a great way I think- that person would be great to sit around the dinner table with. I always think I should write down who these people are, who would sit around my dream dinner party table? Today I heard Mark Levengood be interviewed on Swedish TV by Skavlan. I think I would like to have both Skavlan and Mark around my dream dinner party table. I also would want some of my girlfriends around that table. I will revisit this subject and maybe figure out what I would serve as well. As for tonight this is it- have to sleep!!

Friday evening and suddenly I am in Collingwood. We drove up today because daughter 2 and 3 have races in the morning. They are both racing at the club where daughter number 1 had her ski accident last season. Don't feel really comfortable with the whole thing! It is chilly out there but it is nice to be up here again. I worked really hard to get everything ready for the shop since I am not there tomorrow. Quiches, salads and cakes. Lots of special orders. Did I mention dish crawl? We were part of that this past Wednesday and it was a blast. 20 people divided into 2 groups visits 4 places in the course of 2 hours. We served soups , salad and sweets. We got tons of compliments both during the evening but also on twitter during and after. Lots of fun!! A great thing to do all around. Both for attracting new customers and also for us as business owners to get together and work towards a common thing. I'll try to post the link to the pics later. Now I have to go goodnight !!

Yesterday was another busy day. DishCrawl.TO visited us at Beaches Bakeshop & Cafe' It is a great concept where 20 people, sometimes more, sign up to go on a guided tour through a neighborhood's restaurants. In our case we were the only restaurant on the tour. Courage Food, Close to the bone and Art of cheese were the other places We had two groups of 10 plus the photographer and "leader". On our menu we had 2 soup shots - Mexican Bean Soup with Salsa on a stick and Carrot Ginger with a splash of Roasted Beet Root Soup. They both looked and tasted, I hope, fantastic. We also served 2 salads, Puy Lentil with Green Beans and Feta plus Roasted Butternut Squash with Red Rice. We served them on these amazing bamboo dishes and ate with the cutest bamboo forks. For sweets we had an assortment of Tradtional Swedish stuff of course. We also gave a little care package consisting of a mini Swedish Cinnamon bun and a mini Semla bun. Everyone had a great time and if you ever have a chance to check out DishCrawl in the city where you live - do it!! It's a great way to find new places and meet new people!! A perfect thing to do on a date for example!!
Enjoy the day!

People are trying to blog a 100 days in a row. I have not blogged in a million years.....don't know why I suddenly kind of feel some little need to express myself here again.
I am still a cafe' owner, mother of three girls and married to Mark. We have been busy with life. Past year included knee injuries and reconstructive surgery after ski racing accident- not fun!, finished our house renovation- very nice and lots of fun, spent 2 weeks in Stockholm last spring- loved it and would love to make it a tradition. Over the recent holiday we went to Austria. Spent 4 days in Salzburg and the rest in Bad Gastein. It was the best family vacation and exactly what we needed. I realized that I actually really like my kids. You know how you sometimes wonder what planet they just arrived from or how you possibly could be more unsuccessful in raising responsible people. Anyway, we are in a good place at the moment and I really am trying to suck in these times. I know very soon we will all be in different places and I will wonder if my girls are ok and if they are doing the right thing. I know I will be ready when the day come to say goodbye and have fun but for now I feel like I want to stop time for a while.

Tuesday evening and two days since we got back from one of the best vacations I have ever had. We went to Costa Rica and stayed at an All Inclusive Resort, RIU Cunacaste. If you had told me a year ago that we would do that I would have said No way. It was sooo great! Relaxing and good in every way. Super hot every day and the food was totally acceptable. Lots of fruit. Papaya, Mango, Pineapple, Bananas plus so much more and super fresh. The girls had a great time as well. We went with another family with kids the same ages.
What about my cafe' you are thinking...Our staff took good care of everything. I had prepped as much as possible of course but they really did an awesome job! Thanks guys if you read this!
The picture is taken right before we started the mandatory zip lining. It was fun. Not super scary but a bit weird to send your 9 year old daughter away flying upside down high up in the air!
Beaches Bakeshop & Cafe' is continuing selling semlabuns a couple of more weeks. We will add Hot Cross buns this weekend and have them until Easter as well. The recipe for the carrot cake I made a few weeks ago will be posted- I promise, Anne!!
Ok, have to print some recipe booklet for a cooking class!! No Rest! We are also starting to renovate!!! I will get a new kitchen!!! Long way till it's done but very exciting!! I'll keep you up to date on that progress as well!

Really time for an update. Can't believe it's 2 months since the last one...
Olympics 2010 in Vancouver, BC was a big hit and Canada got more medal, golds in particular, than anyone ever before. Congrats to Canada.
Beaches Bakeshop & Cafe' is chugging along with really busy days and some not super busy. I am now making a really good carrot cake. Never thought I'd make that but I kind of like it. Lots of carrots, crushed pineapple and pecans. I am not a big fan of walnuts. I might omit the nuts completely actually. The article I have posted here is from a magazine called Local. It is what the name says a local magazine. Very well written articles and we have had lots of customers commenting on it. A new cafe opened down the street this week. I have not been in yet but I am telling myself that competition is great. The more the merrier and so on...Welcome new neighbours!!
Well, this was just a short update this morning- have to get ready and take on today. It's going to be a great one!!
Let me know you were here!

God Morning!!
A Saturday morning in mid January and it's cold outside. For once it is even colder in Europe and Sweden than here in Toronto. It is 6.38am and a big part of the family is on their way to Collingwood skiing. Can't believe how easy it is for Mark, Sigrid and Pippi to get up superearly when skiing is on the agenda. ASk them to get up on time any day of the week and it is a like scratching nails on a blackboard- a painful process!! But this morning they were all ready and out at 6am! I am sitting here sipping tea and contemplating my day ahead with Jojo and the cafe'. First heading to the St. Lawrence Market of course.
I think it's time to make semla buns at the cafe' as well! I wonder if cafe's in Sweden has started already?? Have to call someone and ask. This past week has been a pretty slow one and as usual that makes me restless! We try to make the most odf it and take care of things that were neglected during busier times. Don't know how well i did at that do. It is so easy to slip in to a slower mode all around and I don't like that- HAVE TO STAY FOCUSED! Our regular customers are great though, they show up and brighten our days- Thanks!!
Did I mention my iphone? Yeah, I did but it's worth mentioning again- I love it! Last night I downloaded the SKYPE application! How cool is that?? Now I guess I can call my friends all over the place for free as long as they have a SKYPE account! It should be free to call iphone to iphone! I could call Sissi in NYC all the time!!
On February 2nd we have scheduled our premier "Tuesday Lunch FOOD TALK". I am really excited about it. 10 lunchguests at the cafe' chatting about a common interest- FOOD! What little tricks do you want to share?? I will show how to treat Quinoa, file' orange and grapefruit and probably some other little fun things. Show the difference in intensity of spices if you grind them as you go compared to buying already ground. Have any other suggestions? I'll keep you posted about how it went but I am sure it'll be great! We already have 5 people signed up!
Ok, have to wake up Jojo and head to the market in the freezing cold! Stay warm and in touch! Let me know you stopped by!

Life is good!!
Sitting in Collingwood, Ontario a Monday morning and I have time to write a post on my blog!!! The basic reason for this is that Beaches Bakeshop & Cafe' is closed until January 4th!!! I was soooo ready for a break! Mark just took the girls to their ski programs and I am going cross country w. 2 friends today.

Christmas was ok, I have a love - hate relationship to that Holiday. I always feel incapable of giving that perfect christmas gift. This year turned out ok but I could definitely have been a better gift giver. Have to work on that skill until next year.
One thing I am good at is giving myself good presents. I received an iphone a few weeks ago and I love it. It is soo great. All in one is the way to go. Ok, now time is up for lazy'ing around. Have to clean up and get ready to cross country ski!! It's going to be a great day!
Love to all!

But get real, how can it possibly be almost 3 months since I wrote on my blog??? It is very close to Christmas and this fall has just swept by really fast. two new schools this year and so far so good. Both girls seem to enjoy where they are so no complaints in that department. Jojo is doing gymnastic 6h/ week and is enjoying that.
The cafe' is doing well. We are busy and that's what we want obviously. Don't know how to go forward and in which direction we should go but I am sure it will somehow work out. We had a big catering this past weekend. It went really well and it was for a friend in our neighbourhood so I was kind of nervous prior to the party. Everyone liked what we served and it went great so afterwards it felt awesome. Will be fun to see if more business will transpire from that. I think I want to get into catering again. I would not work the parties myself but I love the planning of menus and interacting with clients. What we really need is a website. Hello out there- Who wants to help us with a website??? We don't need a big elaborate website, just one with really good layout and all the right info about what we are.
Taste-Buddies cooking classes are still going strong. I have a class with 6 5-6 year old boys right now- note to self: Don't do that again!! It has been fun but CRAZY!! Tomorrow is the last class of this session and we are making checkerboard cookies and maybe jam caves.
I am still running and I did finish the Scotia Bank Marathon in September, 4.20 was my time and I felt great.
Speak about running, have to stop blogging and go to bed- up and out for a run at 6am tomorrow!!
Will definitely try to post more often! That's it for now!

Is it really mid September already??? Can't believe it! In just over a week I am running my 4th marathon. Also my first marathon in 15 years. I have been training, of course I should have trained more, harder and longer. But guess what I don't really care about my time. I just really want to earn the bragging rights you get for a while after you have finished a marathon- 42,6km.
Apart from running the past 6 weeks I spent 3 weeks in Europe. First a short intense visit to Malmo, Sweden. Weather was great actually so all the good karma I tried to spread about the weather worked well! We rented bikes and biked around like the rest of the average Malmo citizen. Had dinner i Vastra Hamnen, visited Annika i Ljunghusen, spent time at mormors kolonistuga, went to Osterlen and stayed at Karlaby Gard one night, had the most amazing dinner there by the way....We also spent the afternoon we left for PAris in Kopenhamn so I got a nice smorrebrod. I really enjoyed our visit and specially seeing all my friends. There are so many more friends I would have loved to catch up with but the time was NOT enough this time around. I'll be back!!!!
After Malmo we went to Paris and from there to Bordeaux- gorgeous place and so much to see. Not really a relaxing vacation but fun to see everything. We went to St. Emillion, Cap Ferre, Sarla, Arcichon, Dune du Pylat and so many more places. Before coming home we had 3 days in Paris with good friends in St-Nom-La- Breteche. Mark and I went shopping in Paris one day and I finally got the cutlery I have wanted forever.The typical french one with colourful handles. I should have a picture right here but I don't...
Since coming back to Toronto, the girls have started school-2 started new schools. Kids are now in 3 different schools. So far they really like their schools and everything is going great.

Beaches Bake Shop & Cafe' is doing great. We closed for 3 weeks and the first couple of days back were a bit scary. Now we are back to normal and have had 2 crazy lunches these past 2 days- I LOVE IT when it is busy. I also think I have an incredible "flyt" sometimes. Today a customer walked in and sat down with his 2 little girls for lunch. He starts talking about fresh produce in the car and vips I am out the looking at his heirloom tomatoes, macintosh apples that were picked this morning and zucchini galore.....I asked him how much?? He says - I like trading for favours! Ok, I said lunch is on us! So he and his 2 girls walked away happy and full and Beaches Bakeshop & Cafe' is making apple crumbles tomorrow like you have never seen before!!!
On October 3rd we will celebrate Kanelbullens Dag again. It was a huge success last year so we are planning for that again this year!

On a sad note I have 2 girlfriends who have been diagnosed with breast cancer recently and I don't like it one bit!!!! I am running Run for the Cure in a few weeks and suddenly that race will mean so much more.

Sitting on our deck this Sunday morning. It has been a non stop week. It started with dropping Sigrid and Pippi at camp up north. They were very excited to go to this amazing camp where they have everything you can imagine. Challenges in many different ways, lots of kids wanting to have fun and so many new friends to be made. The cafe' has been slow and that is draining in it self. I start questioning what we are doing and HOW WE CAN DO IT BETTER! I am starting to learn to understand the cycles of running a small business. When it is slow you have to take advantage of the time to organize yourself and the store. My head is always spinning with new ideas and things we can do. Rose and I have a good relationship in these situations. I bounce off my ideas with her and she executes in the front. A small instant idea is that the last couple of days we have offered samples of the salad to anyone that walks in the door. That way the salad was gone in 3 hours on Thursday. People love to get free things and we love to introduce as many people as possible.
I am also working on organizing all our recipes. Printing and laminating is the plan. I am converting all recipes we are using to use the same "language". There are so many languages you can use in recipe writing. I obviously use many swedish recipes that need translation but also when it comes to units and wording- it has to be consistent. Many years ago, when we first moved to Portland I signed up to take a cookbook writing course. I did it just for fun of course but today I find myself digging out old information from that course. Never underestimate the value of ANYTHING you do. There is nothing that's not worth learning- you never know when it could come in handy.
I am reading a "fun" book right now called "Ratio" by Michael Ruhlman. It's not really a cookbook but the science behind cooking and if you know the ratio of ingredients you can cook almost anything based on that. Custards, cookies, vinaigrettes, sauces, breads and lots more.

On to another subject in my life- I am running a marathon in just over a month!! My running partner is up north and it is hard for me to stay focused on the running when she is not around. I am going this afternoon when Mark returns from his business trip. Planning to do 20 km or maybe a bit longer. My other worry is that it will be hard to run when we go to Sweden and France in 10 days. I really have to force myself.......
Writing all this down makes me even more stressed! I have to go and print some of those recipes and get ORGANIZED!!! That is my mantra it seems like. Organized at home, at work, the kids, myself and my training, food at home, the kids clothes, my kitchen, my clothes- it goes on and on!!! I wonder if other people feel this way or if I am lacking some "enzyme" that should make the organizing of my life soooooooo much easier!

Ok, just a quick note on a Tuesday evening in the midsmack of summer. So far Toronto has not experienced the muggy, hot and sticky weather I kind of love hate. It has been very average and a bit cool even. The kids have been busy, Sigrid came back from camp, Pippi is playing tennis and Jojo went to a day camp last week and dances this week. I am in the middle of Cooking Camp and it is going really well. I think I am ready to move on to older kids. This week I don't have any small children and it is a lot of fun! What about the pictures?? Jojo is helping out at the cafe' one day, could not resist taking a picture. The other ones are from our backyard with granpa' and nana. The one on the dock is from Lake Ontario, just down the street from our house. French friends visiting and enjoying the summer!
Have to sleep now. The plan is to run 13 km tomorrow morning so I need my beauty sleep!!! Bye for now!

Ooops, now it is suddenly July! Oh, well, June was jampacked with graduations, work and I don't really know what else. It went fast though.
We are going to Sweden in August. Just for 8 days but I am planning to fill those days with the essentials and I think I will feel satisfied when leaving. After Sweden we are heading to Bordeux so how bad can it get?
Sigrid has left for 2 weeks of camp and Pippi and Jojo are doing daycamps while I am working. So far everything goes smooth. Not to busy at the Cafe' but we are full for our camps starting next week. Kids will come at 12.15 and start with eating a light lunch. We then proceed with a regular cooking class and they will be picked up at 2.15pm. It might be weird if we have a really busy lunch and have all the kids as well but I think it will all work out.
Today is Canada Day and we are going to a friends house for a BBQ. I just made a sockerkaka with fresh fruit and Ice cream and a Clafouti. Clafouti is among the best thing I know. It looks and smells absolutely awesome!!!
I just bought a great cookbook called "Family Meals, creating Traditions in The Kitchen". Can't remember the authors name right now but she is a women, chef and mom. Oh, I looked it up, her name is Maria helm Sinsley. Check this book out if you have kids in your life and like to pass some cooking abilities on to them. It is actually William Sonoma that published the book. They usually know what they are doing.
The pictures I have added are from NYC- funny with all the different eggs at Union Square Farmers Market, instead of an ice cream truck I saw this cup cake truck, and the last picture is from outside BEACHES BAKE SHOP & CAFE'. Our new storefront that I promised to show off a long time ago!
Off to get ready for Canada Day BBQ!

June already!!!
Can't believe it. At least it is warm enough tonight to sit outside on our deck at 8pm. This week started with the worst summer weather you can imagine. The worst thing with that weather was that it was supernice weather in Sweden. When it's nice weather in Sweden and bad where I am, I get very depressed. Don't really know why but maybe it is because there is not many places I really want to be more than a SUNNY Stockholm or Malmo. We are going for a short visit in august so if you are planning a Sweden trip- don't go 12-20 of August- the weather will for sure be crap! It always is when I am in Sweden. Please, the only thing I really want is nice, warm weather for 8, PLEASE 8 DAYS!!! That can't be too much to ask for. Enough about my swedish weather hang ups.
I am doing a Marathon in September! Yes, that is right, I am running a marathon on September 27. Scotia Bank Waterfront Marathon. It will go through The Beaches where we live. I am counting on all my friends to come out to cheer for Leigh-Anne, my running partner and I. Tomorrow I will take pictures of the new store front at the cafe'. Beaches Bake Shop & Cafe' looks great these days- I am sooo happy with how the paint job and sign came out.
Now it is time to shut down. I am tired and ready for bed!
Bye Bye

May 24 was mormor's birthday. She would have been 98 today if she was still alive. Incredible! I wish she was still with us! Sometimes I think I should call her but the I remember that I can't.
In 3 days my mom is turning 70. That is another totally unreal thing. I feel like she should be 58 for some reason. That is 12 years ago, when I was 33- yes, time could have stopped there when it comes to aging. THen again. Sigrid would have been 2 for ever and Pippi just a few months and Jojo would not be born...
Have to include a picture of my very north american daughter. She is graduating from 8th grade and is entering High School in the fall. I am very proud of her. She is going in to the IB programme and is nervous but also super excited!
Have to get some sleep- tomorrow is the bug track meet- Jojo is doing relay and Pippi is stand in for Kate, who fractured her foot, in triple jump! Fingers crossed, please!!

Will return shortly to show pic's from our new store front at Beaches Bake Shop & Cafe!!

Mothers Day, I am always kind off lukewarm in regards to how I feel about this day. It is definitely a Hallmark holiday but it's obviously nice to get some extra attention. Anyway, I am going to get myself a nice pair of expensive denim jeans. I wonder if expensive jeans have always been the way to go or if the need comes with age?
Did a big catering yesterday and feel a bit wiped today. It was really fun and went great.
We have booked tickets to Europe this summer. Landing in Paris and on a plane to CPH right away. In Sweden for 8 days and then back to Paris for villa vacation with Patti and Francois. Hopefully we will have time for a mini trip to Praque and Vienna as well.
OK, short post today- going for a run and then tackle the day!!!