There`s a commercial on tv where someone comes to Sweden from another country to celebrate christmas. Because of that the family in Sweden replaces some of the food they normally serve at christmas. They replace it with food that`s eaten in the guest`s country.

First I have to say that I`m not upset or anything like that by that commercial. And second, I know the family does this as an act of kindness as well as show respect for another country and the traditions there. (And I know it`s only a commercial). It got me thinking though. If I were to celebrate christmas abroad I would like to eat what they normally do. I would never expect to get swedish dishes and honestly I would prefer not to. I eat swedish christmas food every year and it would be more than great to try something else. I sometimes spend christmas in Austria where my dad lives and I like that they just serve their traditional dishes. It`s like when people travel to other countries for their vacation. Many always choose their home countries food, if it`s available, from the menue.

In Sweden we eat a lot of different food at christmas. One thing that many consider to be the most important one on the christmas table is pickled herring. I think it`s disgusting. If you`ve never heard of it, it`s raw fish in vinegar. It tastes like………raw fish and vinegar. What I mean is that I would never not serve the herring if a guest from another country would spend christmas at our place.

When it comes to cooking I`m lazy. I love to read recepies or watch cooking shows where many ingredients are involved but I`m too lazy to use more than a few things in my food. I would like to be one of those that find pleasure in cooking for hours with a lot of different ingredients but that will never happen. Often I think “today will be the day I make that time consuming dish I`ve been wanting to make” but instead I cook pasta with sausage or something.

Today I made what we call “makaronipudding”, pasta pudding. It might not sound tasty but it is. There are many ways to make this pudding but this is how I do it.

Ingredients:

Macaronis

6 eggs

5 dl milk

Bacon (I used about 250 g)

Oven 200 C

Cook pasta for four persons. Put it in an oven tin.

The amounts for the eggs and milk are not what you have to use, it`s what I think suits this dish. Anyway, whisk the eggs and milk together and add salt and pepper.

Fry the bacon.

Add the bacon to the pasta. I use a lot of butter in the pan and I put that on the pasta as well it gives the dish a nice flavour.

Pour the egg mixture over the pasta. For more flavour, add some cheese on top.

Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes in the middle of the oven.

Serve with lingonberry jam.

Delicious!

I love pancakes. I love to eat them with different kinds of jam and sometimes I even add some whipped cream with the jam. The only thing I don’t like too much is to make them. It’s easy but it takes time. You have to be by the stove the whole time to either flip the pancakes or put new batter in the pan.

That’s why I like the ovenbaked pancake! It “cooks itself” and it tastes like…….a pancake. I make my oven pancake with bacon because that makes the dish delicious.

For the pancake today I started with the bacon. I fried it in a pan until it was cooked through. -Don’t put uncooked bacon directly in the pancake batter! That just gives you soft bacon pieces that are rather bland in flavour.  I then mixed 4 eggs with flour and milk. I can’t give you any measurements (other than the eggs) because I didn’t use a recepy but the texture should be like a thicker white sauce.

I added the fried bacon to the batter and put the whole thing in an oven tin. I baked the pancake at 200 C for 30 minutes in the middle of the oven.

Serve with lingonberry jam.

I almost never eat a whole piece of beef, I prefer it minced. I think a whole beef almost tastes like blood and that`s why I have to cook it all the way through. In a restaurant I always order my beef well done otherwise I can`t eat it. And I don`t like a big steak because it`s to meaty. What I do like is a minute steak. It`s thin and easy to cook.

Today I made minute steak and potatoes. I fried the steak until it was done and after that I put it in an oven tin. I poured cream as well in the tin in order to get a sauce. On a baking paper I put potatoes, peppers and tomatoes and I cooked the whole thing in the oven. The beef came out soft after having been first fried and then slowly cooked in cream and the sauce that “made itself”was tasty.

Tasty!