• 09Mar

    One of my mom’s health care providers, Sayonara, thought it would be fun to give me a housewarming party for the new house in Sweden!

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    She enlisted Mom and Sally’s help and they put together a wonderful party at Mom’s house.

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    Sy decorated the entry with the Swedish colors.

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    And the Swedish theme continued with the table settings, of course!

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    Sally has the perfect blue and yellow dishes for just such an occassion!

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    And she has table linens to match.

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    I was able to provide something Swedish for the center of the tables, like fold out Dala horses and…

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    …these charming little candle holders.

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    This is our dear, dear friend Peggy.

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    She sent a bouquet of flowers in the perfect colors!

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    Luckily, there are enough Scandinavians in the Northwest that it’s easy to find special Swedish foods…

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    …like this Leksands Knäckebröd, which is produced not far from our house in Sweden!

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    Mmm. Hard bread!

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    Sally did a perfect Swedish meal–meatballs, cream sauce, lingonberries, boiled potatoes with dill and Swedish cucumber salad.

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    Melissa made the trip from Bend, which was very special.

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    The gifts were beautifully wrapped.  How perfect is this for a Swedish party?

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    There was lots of red and white to reflect the theme of the kitchen in Sweden.

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    Everyone was sooooo generous.  I’ll have the best stocked kitchen in the neighborhood.

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    And I’ll be able to entertain with the traditional seven kinds of cookies!

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    I made traditional Swedish “cooked” coffee to go with dessert.  That’s boiled coffee for the uninitiated.

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    There’s a bakery in Kirkland that specializes in Princess Cakes!

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    And Karen Rollman made this adorable (and delicious) Dala horse cake.

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    Everyone went home with a goodie bag filled with Swedish candies.

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    It was such a fun afternoon, and so sweet of my friends to honor me in this way.  Thank you, all.

     

  • 27Jul

    A few months ago, I decided it would be fun to have a garden party this summer.  We hadn’t done one in several years.  Then we went to Sweden for three and a half weeks, and when we got home, I had to scramble to get everything ready.  I always say I work best under pressure!  That, and help from family.

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    We put all the tables together, covered them with white cloths and topped them with vintage tablecloths from the forties.  In honor of our recent trip, we decided on a Swedish theme.

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    I loved the look of one long table.

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    Thanks to Melinda…

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    …and Kristine for the gorgeous flower arrangements.

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    We set up beverages and hors d’oeuvre under the pergola.

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    We had three kinds of Swedish cheese, Västerbotten, Präst (priest) and Fontina as well as a selection of hard bread.

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    We also did Toast Skagen, Västerbotten Cheese Bites and a Pickled Beet appetizer.

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    I got out my vintage ringed glasses and pitchers for the Lingon Drink.

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    Sally, super shopper that she is, found these great tubs for the wine, beer, apple and pear drink.

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    It was f fun mix of people.  There were 66 in all.

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    And while it wasn’t sunny, it was very pleasant.

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    Friends from near…

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    …and far.

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    We played the Swedish game, Kubb.  You can guess which team won!

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    We set up the Swedish smorgasbord in our garage.  Note: if you need to clean your garage but can’t get motivated, plan a party where you set the food up in there and you’ll get everything spanking clean!

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    The Swedish centerpiece.

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    Of course the featured food was Swedish Meatballs with Cream Sauce.

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    We also had Little Smokies with Lingon Sauce.

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    There were boiled potatoes with fresh dill.

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    Lingonberry Sauce and Pickled Herring.

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    This cabbage salad is called Pizza Salad in Sweden–as in it’s served in every pizza restaurant.

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    We also had a cucumber salad.

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    Mini Swedish flags adorned the Deviled Eggs with Shrimp.

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    Mom was first to the table!

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    I think everyone enjoyed their meal.

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    And we ended it with Strawberry Torte using Berit’s recipe.

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    Var så god!

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  • 14Feb
    Categories: Everything!, musings Comments Off on Valentine’s Day Luncheon

    Today I hosted my Mentor Study Group.  How fun to get to do it on Valentine’s Day!

    I love to entertain, but I’ve been gone and didn’t get a very early start on my preparation.  I was expecting 15, so needed to use both tables.  This is the dining room, with some vintage china my mom bought me a few years ago.

    In the living room, we have a drop leaf table that’s only 14″ deep when the leaves are down.  When we need more table space, we move a couple of chairs, pull up the leaves and have a 60″ round table.  Works great!  Another set of vintage china.

    I decided I wanted to make something called a Smörgåstårta–literal translation from the Swedish is sandwich cake.  It’s usually done with a whole loaf of bread, then sliced and served, but I decided to do individual ones.

    I started by cutting rounds of bread–lot’s of rounds of bread, as these are triple decker sandwiches!  Then I spread some softened cream cheese on them.

    That was followed by Swiss cheese.

    More bread and cream cheese, very thinly spread.

    Then there’s turkey.

    Finally, the last piece of bread.  I used a yummy oat bread.

    I made a mousse of shrimp, lemon and cream cheese and spread it on the sides and top.

    Then I wrapped the whole thing with a thinly sliced cucumber and topped it with a cherry tomato and some sliced radishes.

    I may have gotten carried away with slicing radishes, and I think Bob will be eating radishes with every meal for awhile!

    Here are the first eight ready to go into the refrigerator.

    All plated up.

    I served grapes and an asparagus salad with them.

    The ladies dug right in, which I always take as a compliment.  There’s my friend, Karen, helping serve.  Thank you, Karen!

    I had three no shows.  Argh!  But, we just pulled off a couple of table settings and it all worked out.

    We had a great meeting, then a little dessert.  Last night I baked a double batch of Chocolate Decadence in a sheet pan, then this morning I cut out hearts.

    I borrowed these adorable heart shaped dishes and mugs from my sister.

    A little raspberry puree and whipped cream along with the Chocolate Decadence was a perfect finish to a fun day.

    I hope your Valentine’s Day was fun, too.

  • 23Nov
    Categories: Everything! Comments Off on Wordless Wednesday