Traditional Swedish Odds and Ends

Here are a few Swedish traditions that we've tried out during the past few months. 

In case you don't follow Swedish royalty and missed it, Princess Estelle was born in February.  She is second in line to the throne behind her mother, Crown Princess Victoria.  The country celebrated the birth by eating lots of Princess cake.  We bought some from the corner grocery store and thought it was pretty yummy-- whipped cream and jam between the layers.

Princess Cake

Another traditional food we've tried are Semlor.  They were originally Sweden's Fat Tuesday food, but now are sold from January through Easter.  It is basically a roll spread with an almond flavored jam and a bunch of whipped cream.  It's a bit surprising because the roll is really just a regular roll-- not a doughnut, pastry, or sweet roll like you might expect looking at it.  Semlors got mixed reviews from our family.

Semlor

Another food we've tried and liked-- chocolate bars with black licorice in them.  It sounds like a bad idea, but it tastes really good.




It's funny how some things are just done differently-- In the US a sandwich involves two pieces of bread with stuff in between.  Here people usually eat makas (I may or may not have spelled that right).  One piece of bread (or half a hard roll) topped with ham, cheese, jam, etc.  Orange marmalade and jam is very popular.  You don't put a top on it. And peanut butter? Never.

Our Påskris

And just to prove my mind isn't only on food....

At my friend's house the other day, I saw my first Påskris--a Swedish Easter tree.  It was good I did because it helped me understand all the twigs and feathers for sale at the store. You put a bundle of branches with buds (usually birch) in a vase and decorate it with bright colored feathers.  You can also hang other Easter decorations like eggs, chicks, etc. from the branches.  At the store, you could buy a bundle of plain branches or buy branches with feathers already attached.  I just bought the feathers and a few other decorations and cut some branches out of the overgrown hedge in my yard.  Attaching the feathers was even easier than we expected. Turns out they came with wire already attached for hooking them to the branches.  I'm enjoying having this crazy patch of color in my living room.  I tried to look up the source of the tradition and found a number of ideas-- from brooms for spring cleaning to witches-- so who knows.  I'm also told that on Easter the kids dress up like grandpas and grandmas and go from house to house for treats.  Hopefully some kids will come by our house.