Saturday morning and it's not snowing! I think there is a light at the end of the tunnel called WINTER this year. We have had soooo much snow! I have shoveled out my car numerous times and I am sick and tired of it! Anyway, this morning will be interesting. Sigrid had a sleepover last night and has basketball practice at 10.30am. She will be picked up her at home around 10am. The question is -will she be home by then??? Not very exciting for anyone else but me. I am curious to see what her choice will be. Stay and hang out with her friends and feel lacy for the rest of the day or get up, go to practice and get back to friends afterwards and feel good about it? How do you teach things like that???
I have to do a bagel run to St. Lawrence Market, the best market in the world -almost at least- on Saturdays. You can get everything there! I have promised the kids to pick up veal sausages with spinach. There is a guy that comes in on Saturday who has the best sausages. I will get a few and stick them in the freezer. After that I'm going to the Bake Shop to get organized. Rose is coming in a little later and I am going home in the afternoon- FOR SURE! Just got back from a quick run and a good chat with my friend Leigh Anne so now I have to get ready and start my day!! Until next time!

What do you think about the new logo my dear friend Karin Broden has done. I love it. Just have to tell her to add the e- mail address and make the phone number in bigger font. Apparently people have a hard time reading it. We are making stickers to put on our soup containers and sandwich bags. We also have to make a menu. I should probably be doing that right now instead of writing this....
Another day at the Bake Shop has gone by and I feel very energetic about it all. Maybe because we had that long weekend..
I feel that we have to come up with some more things to make money of. Can't say I have that many ideas but I am sure I will come up with something good.
A friend of mine gave me the idea of buying fresh yeast from a bakery so today I asked at a local bakery if they by any chance would sell me some fresh yeast and they did! Now I have a big thing of fresh yeast to bake with. I am very excited!
It will be interesting to compare cinnamon rolls baked with dry yeast to cinnamon rolls baked with fresh yeast. Do I sound like a total " food nerd"?
I am enrolling students for the next session of taste- buddies right now. I am thinking of advertising that we are happy to do birthday parties as well. There could be a few different options for birthday parties. Brownie baking is always popular, I can see Baked Alaska or Banana Split being other good dishes depending on age and abilities. I have to come up with a schedule for the next session first, when that is done it's soo much easier.
I was supposed to have the last Wednesday class tomorrow afternoon but Pippi is playing a volleyball game that I don't want to miss so the kids will come next week instead. Pippi was so happy when I was able to come to her game that it's totally worth the hassle of rescheduling the cooking class. Until next time, let me know you visited and please , if you have ANY suggestions or tips let me know!!!

It's time to update my blog! It has been a crazy ride these past 2 weeks. Rose and I have now owned the bake shop just over 2 weeks and I think I still like it....We had a crazy busy first week and a bit slower this past week. That was a good thing because I was going nuts! We have had one snow storm after the other on top of that. This weekend is a long weekend. The government decided to make a new holiday in Ontario, Canada. They called it Family Day! Innovative, eh! It is very unclear who should be open and who should be closed but we decided to close Beaches Bake Shop. I think it was a good decision.
I have spent today at Mt. St. Louis Moonstone. Sigrid and Pippi are in a program there and they have been going up every Sunday for 6 weeks. It is a 8 week program so 2 more to go. Todays weather was pathetic. It was raining and and all the skiers got super soaked. I stayed in the chalet and relaxed. Listened to my Stieg Larsson's audio book Flickan som lekte med elden" It is a very good book that I think is being translatet into english as I am writing this. I definitely recommend the book!
I will post some new pics this coming week so please stop by and let me know you where here!! Bye for now!

It is not +13C tonight , that is for sure! the snow started falling last evening and it has NOT STOPPED. Last Friday was February 1st and Rose and I became cafe owners. We now own Beaches Bake Shop! It is fun but LOTS of work. It is sooo much to do. I have no time for anything else than cooking and baking all day long....I love it. Pippi and Jojo come up for lunch every day almost and that part is really awesome! I have a small catering that will be picked up on Saturday. It is great. I need to be there a few hours anyway and it is perfect to have a special order for pick up! Taste-buddies start a new session on March 17th after march brake. Some kids have already signed up again. Will be interesting to see if I can fill three classes again. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. 8 kids in each class.
We redecorated the cafe on Super Bowl Sunday. Rose's family came out in full force to help with painting, changing lights and putting together wonderful IKEA furnitures.
I am baking Swedish kanelbullar (cinnamon rolls)every day. We sell an average of 40- 50/ day. Tomorrow it will be a busy lunch, I think. I guess people might stay home if this snow keeps coming down. The great thing with our neighbourhood is that people walk everywhere. In case there is a snow day for the schools tomorrow we will be super slow but otherwise people will come, I am sure! Have to put kids to bed, it is getting late... Look at the pictures and imagine some more details and less clutter behind me in the kitchen. Have to work on that tomorrow if we are slow- hope NOT!
Bye for now!:o)

Fatta att det har varit +13 idag och det ar 7/1. Helt otroligt. Jag haller for fullt pa att forbereda mig infor overtagandet av cafeet den 1/2. Ansokte och printade ut ett master license som man maste ha for att kunna ansoka om ett business license. Allt sant tar ju sadan tid!!!! Vet inte men jag undrar om inte Toronto eller Ontario ar extra byrakratiskt. Kanske Sverige ar likadant. Vad vet jag??? Man lar sig mycket i alla fall och sjalvfortroendet okar lite ocksa maste jag saga. Alla barnen ar hemma ikvall. Mark ar borta och resten av familjen slappar lite och ska snart packa ihop for att ga och lagga oss i nagot sanar tid. Jag maste verkligen ut och springa i morgon.
Det har oppnat en ost affar precis mitt over gatan fran cafeet och de ska ha nagot de kallar for "meet the chef" och fatta att de fragade om jag ville komma och vara med som en av kockarna....Ska prata mer om det nar ratta killen kommer tillbaka fran sin ledighet men jag tankte att kanske jag kan gora gravlax pa nagot kul satt eller ska jag gora semlor

Hello there again! Twice in one day, wow, that has never happened before.
Sweden played really well but unfortunately they lost 3-2 in overtime so the Canadians can now call themself best in the junior hockey world. Congrats!!!

Just surfed to some other blogs I like to read. Unfortunately for non- swedish readers they are in Swedish, sorry, and found a great idea at matalskaren.taffel.se
It is all about making a new years resolution regarding greener, more earth friendly food habits. I agree with Ninna at favoritmat.blogspot.com, she is among other things promising to always use her cloth shopping bags and NOT GET PLASTIC BAGS at the grocery store. I am promising that as well! I am also promising to educate people close to me what it is to be more seasonal in your food habits. In Toronto we shouldn't be eating strawberries in January for example. Lots of people are not aware of this discussion going on at all and I was reminded of that last weekend while visiting some friends that eats very traditionally and doesn't spend much time on food. They just eat because they are hungry.... Anyway, what will you promise to do this year when it comes to your eating and foodbuying habits?? Let me know! Eat more seasonal produce, locally grown, organic....you name it there are so much going on in this department that the list is endless. Toronto is great when it comes to garbage sorting. We are sorting everything. They still discuss what we should do about the landfills of course. I heard about a really stupid thing. It was bookstore owners who has to tear the cover off totally perfect books they can't sell before they discard them. The publishers are so afraid that someone will find them and sell them without the publishers knowledge, I guess. Lots of manufactures prefer to throw away totally perfect merchandise than to have it on the market for different reasons that I can't think of right now. This became a rambling post but there is so much to say about so many things that sometimes it is hard to stop yourself!

2008!!! Here it is a brand new year in front of us. It feels great, mainly exciting. First off is a big chance in my work life. I will from February 1 take over the bake shop together with my co- worker Rose. I am a little scared of course, specially when I think about how "tied down" I'll be. I mean what will happen to my 6 week stints to Europe? Will I ever be able to go to Sweden again?? I definitely hope so. I am sure it will all work out. It will be busy but fun, I am sure. I will keep doing the cooking classes for kids as well. That feels a little much at this point so I will see if I continue the same format after this 6 week session I have starting on January 7th.
Today Sweden is playing Canada in junior hockey world championship. All our friends is asking who I am cheering for, SWEDEN of course! That is sooooo obvious to me but it surprised friends. This ended up being a short little update , have to get back to blogging more often! Will post some pictures as well!

Ok, Happy New year everyone! Can't believe it is actually going to be 2008 in a couple of days. We are at Blue Mountain, it is a little hill north of Toronto where people congregate to do some skiing. I have lucked out 2 days in a row because I have not had to strap my little feet into the monster boots and skiis!!! Well, that was a bit exagurrated but I have really enjoyed some time on my own. I finally got to book my ticket for NYC in mid- January. I am leaving on a Wednesday and wont be back home until Sunday!!!Spending a day with Sissi, the cousin and the rest of the days with girlfriends coming in from Sweden. There will be a total of 12 of us. We all met in NYC 20 years ago! Amazing, isn't it! It is going to be so much fun, I cant wait.
I am also trying to include a really cool link in this post. It is a list of the 100 special foody things one should not miss while in Toronto.
Tonight will be spent with the Peters up here in Collingwood. Hopefully there will be snow coming down tonight so I will be exited enough to go skiing tomorrow. We are spending new years with friends in Kitchener, that should be great as well. HAPPY NEW YEAR ONCE AGAIN!

A great weekend is a balanced weekend and this weekend was just that! We have been to 2 Christmas parties, kids have had down time, we got to spend some time alone and on top of that we actually got some stuff done. Sigrid played basketball for 4 hours on Saturday and today she had one of her oldest friends over and they baked up a storm while Mark took the 2 other girls to a tree farm up north to cut down a tree. Now we have a decorated home, a Christmas tree in the corner and all the laundry is almost done. It was a scary sight this morning. I don't think the laundry mountain had reach the same altitude before...I have to post this really quick now because I have to plan for taste-buddies this week. I also have a catering job on Friday that needs some attention as well. Anyway have a great week!

What to write about?? Well, lots of time right now is spent on planning a new taste-buddies session and coming up with catering menus. These two things are probably what I enjoy doing the most. I mean, I have decided to start working after being home with kids for almost 12 years so as a person working away from home I can't see myself doing anything else righ now. I feel very fortunate to be able to do what I love to do. If it could just bring in a bit more money it would be even better!!! I am also thinking about introducing a few Swedish specialties at the cafe'. Open faced sandwiches would work very well, I think. I have started baking some typical Swedish cookies and they go over very well. Gingersnaps and jam caves. Ok, a new day has started, I just got in from a morning run in newly fallen light, fluffy snow and -5*C. Great start of the day!
Driveway is even shoveled!

Oj, så mysigt det kan vara! Finns det något bättre än nybakat saffransbröd? Knappast. Jag har så otroligt starka minnen av mina barndoms jular hos mormor. Hon jobbade på EPA och var alltid helt slut när julen väl kom. Hennes saffrans bröd var det absolut vikigaste för mig. Sitta på mormors köksoffa i Årsta och doppa saffrans bröd i varm choklad kunde jag längta ihjäl mig efter. Hon bakade det bara för mig, trodde jag i alla fall. Mina barn har inte riktigt fattat tjusningen med saffrans bröd. Det stör mig lite måste jag erkänna. Om jag utesluter russinen kan det tänkas att de i alla fall smakar och säger att det är gott.
Nu är mitt te klart sa jag ska njuta av första saffrans brödet för i år. Kan inte fatta att jag faktiskt fått upp stjärnorna och advents staken i tid till första advent. Trevlig advent allihop!

Ok, I have a new "mission" in life! The mission is to get the schools around here to be good role model for our kids!!!!! Everywhere we go we see messages about healthy life style and how important it is to make those healthy food choices. Meanwhile the schools, where our kids spend most of their life promotes sports to ONLY A FEW, the ones who makes the teams. These kids are good, strong and active- great! But what about the average kid who might not priorities sports but would like to stay healthy and active??That kid have NO chance in todays school because he or she will NEVER MAKE A TEAM and because of that will totally loose inspiration to be active and healthy!
The same thing goes for the cafeterias. A school official told me "We have to sell things that we know the kids will buy" Ok, so why don't we stick to teaching our kids 1+1 since they know that?? Let's move a long and record that ok, our kids, future adults, like hot dogs, chips, french fries and pizza. What else do they like or what can we introduce them to and maybe teach them to like?? I am trying to include a great interview with Silken Laumann. If Im not successfull, please google Silken Laumann writers cafe and listen to it! In the end of the interview she talks about this problem. If you live in Toronto and want to help me in my new "mission", please let me know!!!!

Here again!!!
Just a few days later and I am back. Things are still going well. Lots of stuff to do. Halloween is coming up and friends around us have apparently entered some freaky competition "Who can decorate and spend the most" It is over the top, I think. I have always had a hard time with Halloween. Didn't grow up with it in Sweden and saw my first carved pumpkin about 12 years ago. Mark carved the most amazing pumpkins when I was very pregnant with daughter number 1. I was soooo impressed.
At taste-buddies I haven't done anything in the spirit of Halloween. My friend Melissa wanted a picture from taste-buddies in action so here it is. You have to agree that they are adorable!
I have a sandwich catering on thursday morning. It is swedish open faced sandwiches for 17 people. Meatballs, skagen, gravlax etc etc. But before then I have to come up with another proposal for a sandwich catering on Nov. 15. Busy busy!
Frank and Leigh opened a bar right around the corner from us today. I can actually see myself go there and have a beer after kids are in bed. It has a great atmosphere, kind of like an Irish Pub in NYC. I guess it could be dangerous but chances of me becoming addicted to anything but the computer are minimal. Ok, my costume is ready and I have to roll into bed! I am Pippi Longstocking of course!! I dare you to go to St. Lawerence Market dressed like Pippi!!
See ya and Happy Halloween!

Can't believe it is soooo incredible long since I wrote on my blog...Have been busy, I guess but I have had time to read other peoples blogs. Blogs I read often are mostly food blogs, some Swedish ones are my favourites.
Taste-buddies cooking classes are going on and I really enjoy doing the classes. Don't know where I am heading with them really. I am still in the place where I cooked in the spring. I cook there now as well just not as intense as in the spring. It is good because it gives me time to spend on planning for taste-buddies. I am starting a new session on Nov. 12. If you live in my area and have kids between 6-11 and they love to cook and bake- send them my way! We have lots of fun!
This weekend we went up north to a friends beautiful house. It was not on a lake which is the common way or setting for people to have "cottages"here. It was on top of a hill and the view was just incredible. The coulours at this time of the year north of Toronto are just plain stunning.
Unfortunately my camera decided to have a melt down last week so I could not take any pictures. Very annoying!!
Well it is not very late but I think I have to get ready for this upcoming week. Busy, busy but that's the way I like it so I am NOT complaining! I will definitely make an effort to post blogs more often. It is great to have and look back on.

A totally normal Thursday today. Middle daughter had to see the orthodontist since she lost her THIRD retainer at friends cottage last weekend. After dentist visit we went to the shopping mall. I don't last long in those places but sometimes there is just no way out of it. Pippi needed jeans and running shoes....
We came home, I parked nicely but forgot to put the gear in parking before I took my foot of the brake and YES I rolled into the car in front of me. The woman saw it of course and FREAKED right out! Ok, so there was 2 little dots in the "lack"(Swedish word for what I am trying to describe) but hardly noticeable. I went in , got my camera to take a picture of the dots. I think I got it but it's hard to say...maybe I post the picture on the blog for people to see, or actually not to see. This freaky owner of the car started to call the car "her baby". That's when I had had enough! People needs to get a life. Specially people without kids. I told her to proceed with her dinner plans, enjoy her dinner with her friend and that it could have been WAY WORSE! If she comes back to talk about how we should go from here I am tempted to tell her that having a brother committing suicide or knowing a 67 year old mother that doesn't recognizes her grand kids due to Alzheimer's is tragedy! Getting a dot on your car's bumper is NOT TRAGEDY. Mark advised me that Ontario is a no fault province, so there!

time really has flown by, can't believe it is almost 2 months since I wrote last time....Have traveled a bit since then. Left Sweden on a chilly early August morning, flew from Sturup to Marseille. Was very skeptic to the whole Ryan Air thing but we had a smooth check in and flight and suddenly the girls and I found ourselves in Southern France....rented the booked ahead car from Hertz and off we went. We had a great map and driving directions to Bandol (thanks Francois). After about 2h of driving we met Mark in a Mac Donald's parking lot. Our family vacation started......
We spent a few days in Bandol, had an authentic Bouillabaisse and got introduced to a great honey from Provence among many other good things.

After lots of more driving and crossing the border into Italy we arrived at the villa we would stay at for the next week together with 2 other families. All in all 15 people. This villa was enormous, we could easily have been 30 people and still been ok for space. It was beautifully located among Tuscany's rolling hills in Chianti area. We ate and drank very well. Cooked sometimes and went out for nice dinners a few times. Second week we stayed in a villa outside Lucca, closer to the coast. Visited Florence, Forte dei Marmi, Pisa and many other places. Again, ate and drank very well. The best meal we had was at a restaurant out in the countryside, they served the best buffalo mozzarella and pannacotta! We went to a butcher in San Gimignano, he was the 6th generation owner and only sold meat from a farm in Spain while playing loud Opera in the background all day long. I actually think it is the butcher Bill Buford writes about in his book "HEAT".

We came back to Toronto after been away for over 6 weeks. It felt great to sleep in my own bed and the girls were very happy to be home.

Now school is in full gear and I am back the bake shop. I am still responsible for lunches and I am starting taste-buddies classes in a couple of weeks. I am really looking forward to focusing on the cooking classes more than the lunches. I just watched a video on epicurious.com with Alice Waters from the Edible Schoolyard kitchen. What a dream to have a place like that to cook with kids in. Check it out! I'll try to post a link to it later. The first cooking class is ravioli making. I want to make samosas one time and then we are baking once and the last time we will make different snack stuff. Have not pin pointet everything yet but I am doing classes 3 times/week and so far one day is full. Have post this now and the get into bed!
If you visit please let me know!

Längesedan igen......
Är just nu i Sverige, min andra vecka har just bärjat och dagarna bara springer iväg. Har varit i Malmö sedan vi kom hit men har gjort 2 utflykter till Österlen, mitt nya absoluta favorit ställe. Det känns som man är i ett annat land där. Små byar med mysiga cafeer som Olof Victors
och restauranger t ex. Friden, med härlig atmosfär och bra kvalitet och naturen är ju bara helt ljuvlig. Måste nog lägga in ett nytaget foto från tidigare idag. Har givetvis varit på Möllans Ost i Malmö också, wow, Alex Farm i Toronto kan slänga sig i väggen! Jag kommer ihåg att jag köpte min första getost på Möllans Ost för ca 20 år sedan, när jag var hemma på besök från NYC. Möllans Ost var då ett litet hål i väggen som inte så många hade en aning om. I morgon hoppar vi på tåget mot Stockholm men först ska vi in till Lund och fika med I-L. Ska bli super kul att bara träffas! Hon är hemma från NYC . Har givetvis spenderat tid med Annika, min underbara vän i Höllviken. Det är forfarande många kompisar jag inte har träffat ännu, som står på lut så att säga. Tyvärr är några bortresta så vi missar varandra den här gången. Måste nog komma hem nästa år också! Hyra hus i 3 veckor på Österlen skulle ju vara som en dröm. En dröm som inte är helt omöjlig att förverkliga.
I Simrishamn idag stötte vi på en familj som precis flyttade från Toronto och är på väg till London. De har hus i Kivik och jag tänkte att det skulle ju vara för roligt om vi sprang på dem. Helt plötsligt kom de springande över torget och jag sprang efter och sa Hej! Skoj när sånt bara händer. Mammas granne på kolonin kände jag igen och vi kom fram till att vi har en gemensam kompis i Pia. Att vi aldrig riktigt kände varandra och att det säkert är 25 år sedan vi sågs spelade ingen roll. Vi skrattade gott när vi kom fram till varför vi kände igen varandra. Sådana små händelser får mig att undra hur mitt liv hade sett ut om jag bott kvar här i Sverige.

School is out and summer is here in full force! Wow, today was hotter that ever. I started the day early this morning with a quick conversation with mamma on Skype then continued with boot camp on the beach at 5.30am, went home prepared the kids for the last school day of the year and went to the grocery store. Shopped in a rush while talking to Lotte on the phone. Came to Happaranda Kitchen and started making quiches, potato salad, see picture. Lunches was supposed to slow down considerably now when the students doesn't come anymore but I have been pretty busy this week actually.
Big news is that I have decided not to continue Happaranda Kitchen in the same format as I have done this spring. Lots of different reasons but the biggest one is that I can't see myself committing more time and stress than I have done and that is not enough in order to stay in Beaches Bake Shop. My hope is to continue taste-buddies in some form or another. I am still working on that...I know that taste-buddies is something I really want to keep going.
Sigrid is going away for 2!!! weeks on Friday and I will miss her! It fees weird that I have to work and won't be able to take her up to camp. I am sure it's good for her and Mark to bond a bit but my ego is selfish and wants to be everywhere and not miss anything!
Have retire to bed right now! Way tooo late once again.

Oops, the link I added in regards to the fabulous knife I bought yesterday is incorrect, Actually, not incorrect but it's the wrong link if you want to check out what someone else had to say about this knife. Another great food blog is Brax on Food That is where I read about the knife. Both these blogs are AWESOME! Anne's Food is as I mentioned, written in english while Brax on Food is written in Swedish. Just had to clarify all that! Enjoy the day!