Closed for holidays

We are off on holidays so it will be a little quiet on the blog until I am back in Puerto Rico next weekend…

The holiday plans have been changed numerous times, first the idea was to go to the Deep South – Georgia, northern Florida, Alabama and Tennessee… then O signed up for a course in Seattle and I was so excited about going to the Pacific North-west! We were even planning to nip across the border to see Vancouver – a dream for me, as an old Bryan Adams-fan (saw him live in Copenhagen in 1992) and of course Seattle which would have reminded me of my grunge period… Oh well, then that plan was scrapped last week when O’s course was cancelled

Feeling a little demotivated and not very keen on trying to plan for another holiday destination at the last minute, we had burgers in Fuddrucker’s last Friday while discussing how shitty the week had been when O said that he probably had to go to New Jersey this week for a meeting… All of a sudden I had an idea – why don’t I go with him and we could spend the weekend in NYC! Or, even – we could make it into a week-long holiday as we had already planned for the west coast!! And when I told O that we could go to Niagara Falls, maybe even Canada he jumped at the idea and we went into holiday-planning mode again!

So, we are actually off to the north-east instead of the north-west and we are probably, as you read this, crashing a certain blog-brunch between Saltis, Sporty Spice aka Petra and Annika!! However, it is a surprise for Petra and Annika so that is why I have been keeping mum on the blog on where we were going on holidays… Fingers crossed that they are happy to see the two brunch crashers today! It will be so much fun to see the three girls again – you might remember that Petra, Saltis and I met for a long fika at the Swedish café Fika back in February, and Annika invited O and I for brunch in Virginia in August, so it will really be like meeting 3 old friends!

The plan is to spend this weekend in New York City and tomorrow (Sunday) head towards the north – i.e Niagara, and maybe even Montreal depending on the weather… It will only be my third time visiting Niagara Falls (in 1989 and 1992) but O really wanted to see the cataratas (falls in Spanish) and who am I to deny him that when I am travelling for free on his airmiles!

Something to do on a Tuesday evening in San Juan for only $3

On Tuesday I went with Swedish B and her mother to the fort of San Cristobal in the Old San Juan for the Le Lo Lai show – touristy, yes but very enjoyable! The show is on every Tuesday evening at 18.00 and the performance itself is free but you pay $3 to enter San Cristobal – and you can of course walk around the fort before the music and dancing starts. San Cristobal is a National Historic site and part of the UNESCO World Heritage. 

The atmosphere is great; the sun is setting and the fort becomes darker and darker while you listen to live music and see the dancers in their colourful costumes. Even if it might seem touristy, I have noticed that there are many Puerto Ricans in the audience – visiting from the mainland or locals who are bringing visitors. The photos are from when I saw the show in October with our Irish visitors.

Dancers with hats

Salsa dancers

I like how the walls of the fort behind the dancers look in sepia

A perfect way to end the Puerto Rican cultural evening – at our favourite restaurant Bebo’s in Santurce with my usual dish – mofongo relleno de pollo

Wednesday recipe: Grandmother’s pancakes in 2 ways

Wednesday already again and I thought that I would continue with sharing my grandmother’s recipes: this time for pancakes! I know, most of you probably have your own favourite pancake recipe but then just skip the recipe and go directly to the serving suggestions.

My grandmother’s pancake and vanilla cream bun recipe on the first page of the recipe book that she started for me in 1988! Notice how she has been making sure to write with [almost] just capital letters so that I could read her handwriting – as a child I could never read her old-fashioned cursive script!

Grandmother’s pancakes
2 eggs
3 decilitres (i.e 300 ml or 3/10th of a litre) flour
6 decilitres milk
a pinch of salt
butter

Whisk the ingredients together and start frying the pancakes in some butter. I usually use two frying pans to speed up the process, and using a measuring-cup (one decilitre) to pour the pancake batter into the pans – in that way you always get more or less the same sized pancakes!
Why not use whole wheat flour? O bought the “wrong” flour by mistake the other day and really, the pancakes tasted just as good and maybe were a little healthier?!

Serving suggestions
Serve the pancakes the normal way with jam, maple syrup, sugar and lemon juice, whipped cream, fresh fruit or maybe some Nutella (O’s favourite)… or make savoury pancakes, i.e crêpes, which fit perfectly if you have used darker flour!

Tip: Actually, the pancake recipe is just enough for two people (at least for O and I) to first have a weekend pancake brunch and then have crêpes as dinner on Monday evening!
You need the following ingredients:

a few slices of ham (smoked, cooked or dried – we actually used some Spanish jamón)

cheese in thin slices – we used a very tasty hard goat’s cheese with herbs

mushrooms – cut in quarters if small, otherwise smaller pieces

onion – chopped

fresh spinach – a handful of leaves

Start by frying the chopped onion, and mushrooms in some olive oil + some salt & pepper, and add the spinach leaves after a few minutes. When the spinach has wilted, turn down the heat but keep warm under a lid. You can add some cream / sour cream if you’d like but it is also perfect as it is (we never have cream at home). Heat some butter in 1-2 frying pans and prepare the crêpes by putting a few slices of ham and cheese on every pancake, roll up and heat for ~2 minutes in the frying pans. Serve with the mushroom & spinach mix.

Not my home-made crêpes but the ones I ate in Brussels this summer! Yummy!

Fler onsdagsrecept hos Desiree, Marianne (om hon kommer ihåg att det är onsdag idag, hi hi) och Mia…

Puerto Rican toes…

First of all, I would like to apologise to all of you who feel disgusted by toes and feet – just skip this post and yes Miri, once again I am publishing photos of my toes!! I guess you wouldn’t believe me if I said that I actually hate my toes….

So, how come my feet or rather toenails are getting their own blog post? Well, last Wednesday Swedish B had organised a surprise for me and her visiting mother… I had a suspicion about what it could be but she refused to say anything more, and just told me to bring a pair of flip-flops! B and her mother picked me up in the evening and we drove off – I quickly understood that we were heading for Arecibo where B’s family-in-law lives. At one point B received a phone call and told the person on the other side of the line that she couldn’t say anything because I would understand (conversation was in Spanish)… I just laughed because I was getting convinced that I knew what was going to happen!

We arrived to the Puerto Rican family’s house in a small village outside Arecibo and even though I have been there twice before, I still smile at the guard geese which patrol the front yard… The family has quite a few dogs as well but it is definitely the geese that announce visitors! B’s grandmother-in-law welcomed us with big hugs and dinner – arroz con camarónes (rice with shrimp). While she served us big plates of rice, she mentioned something about uñas and I laughed – aha, my guess had been right about what we were going to do after dinner!! B jokingly scolded la abuela (grandmother) and told me not to say anything to her mother…

After dinner we walked past the neighbour’s yellow school buses (the neighbour has a school bus company and at least 10 of them stand in the yard) and along the dark road until we arrived to a small building where a light was on and a sign saying Abierto (Open) was hanging from the door. B’s mother still had no idea what was going on when we stepped into the salón de uñas (or el beauty as it is also called in Puerto Rico)… a nail parlour! It was a very cosy little salon with a big sofa, bright coloured walls and a small table with paint, brushes and nailfiles where the owner created the most impressive pieces of art on our toenails!!

Notice the details… the motive is repeated on all the 10 toes, including my tiny pinky toenails!

I never paint my toenails, and hardly ever my fingernails either but this was one unforgettable experience!! Like B said, it is part of the Puerto Rican experience and something I had to do before leaving this island of manicured and pedicured nails! Fake nails, both on your fingers and feet are almost the norm – the longer the better and of course with different motives.

On the beach…

It takes a while to get used to having painted toenails – you notice your own feet much more, and I still get a little surprise every now and then when I look down on my toes! O just laughed when I came home and showed off my adorned nails – not to mention my Spanish teacher when I used my experience as an example for my homework: Si hubiera preferido, habría podido tener uñas sintéticas ayer (= “If I had preferred, I could have had fake nails”), since I had to come up with 10 sentences in the conditional tense on Wednesday evening when doing my Spanish homework. I had to take off my shoes to explain the sentence… But no, I wouldn’t do it again – it is quite a waste of money since I hardly ever wear open shoes!

Artistic foot photo

The beauty industry is huge in Puerto Rico, and you might remember that I have already mentioned the Puerto Rican men’s habit of plucking their eyebrows. On Saturday O and I went to the hairdresser for haircuts and I was asked if I wanted un blower as well but I declined*. In France and Belgium it is called un brushing and it means of course that they blowdry your hair straight. Many women both in Puerto Rico and in some countries in Europe will go to the hairdresser to get their hair washed and dried instead of washing it at home. Also, in Puerto Rico it is a common habit to wear dubi-dubis, which are metal hairclips to keep the hair straight, in public. However, this is not to everybody’s liking and there is a big facebook group devoted to the Coalición Anti Dubi-dubi y rolos en lugares públicos (Coalition Anti Dubi-dubi and rollers in public spaces).

*) Since it costs extra to get your hair blowdried. However, my hairdresser in Brussels would always blowdry my hair straight for free, and I loved having completely straight hair for 1-2 days after my haircut!

Article about Vieques…

… in a Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet – read more here, or about our February visit to the small Puerto Rican island. It is rare to read about Puerto Rico in Swedish newspapers so I was quite surprised to see the article. And it really made me want to go back – we’ll see if I can convince O to go to Culebra or Vieques for a weekend before we leave.

Horses roam more or less freely on the island but are not really wild – they all have an owner!

The Secret Beach…

Friday theme / Show & tell: Windows

Marianne’s second Friday theme in November is simply windows…

You can look out the window:

He is looking
Out the window
At somebody
Coming in

We start with my favourite window ever – from my favourite house in Switzerland! I can hear the sound from the fountain outside the window all the way to the Caribbean, and it reminds me so much of all those visits to my father’s uncle and his wife during my childhood (and last year)… The window itself is a classical Swiss wooden-framed one – maybe as old as the house?

A room with a view – we were staying in style the first time O and I went to London together – in the new Hilton hotel by Tower Bridge. As in many hotels in big cities, it was impossible to open the window so I had to take the photo through it…

I don’t know how many times I have tried to take photos of the heavy rains in Brussels (and Puerto Rico)… It is just impossible to really show off the intensity of the downpours but this is one attempt taken through my living room window – do you see the person / couple struggling with an umbrella on the pavement?

Another photo from Switzerland – the view from a train window! Vineyards along the Geneva Lake (Lac Léman) between Lausanne and Geneva. I love travelling by train – you see and experience so much more than if flying. Too bad that train travel has become so expensive in Europe, but maybe with the current crisis it will become cheaper again?! When I was a student I used to travel by train; my longest train journey was from Copenhagen to Naples in the south of Italy ~24 hours (including two changes)!

O wanted to wash the company car (that he was returning) his last evening in Brussels before moving to Puerto Rico in 2007. I sat in the car feeling sad that he was leaving while he scrubbed the car

Or you can look at the reflection that the window makes:

There’s a woman
On the outside
Looking inside
Does she see me?

No she does not
Really see me
Cause she sees
Her own reflection

This is a photo of my friend R and I with the canale della Giudecca behind us reflected in a window on a cold winter day in Venice 3½ years ago.

Another photo of a window reflection in Italy – my friend P and I checking out the Victor & Rolf shop window in Milan. The shop was closed as it was Sunday but looking in we were fascinated by the way the whole shop was built upside down!!

The lyrics are from the song Tom’s Diner by Suzanne Vega (who just happens to be standing by a window in this video):

Other participants in the Friday Show & tell: Anki, Anna, Anne, Annika, Aurorabuddha, Barbamorsan, Cecilia, Desiree, Emma, IngaBritt, Jemaya, Kicki, Lena, Leopardia, Lia, Lullun, Mais-oui, Marianne, Marie, Marina, Mia, Mia D, Millan, Nilla, Nina, Petra C, Petra H, Saltis, Simone, Strandmamman, Tätortstimotej-Anna, Ulrika, and Victoria.

Wednesday recipe: My grandmother’s sugar cream buns as requested

Since a few readers asked for my grandmother’s recipe for the sugar cream buns seen in my Friday post about sweets, here it comes! It is a classical Swedish recipe and I am sure that it can be found in lots of recipe books. However, my recipe is from the notebook where my grandmother and aunt wrote down their best recipes for me when I was 13! I use the first recipe, which is for pancakes very often but the cream bun recipe I haven’t used in many years.

I remember though once, as a teenager how my friend L and I made a full batch of these buns when home alone – and then proceeded to eat almost all of them!! We didn’t feel quite well after that binge eating.. So, if you make the buns – try not to eat them all at once

Mormors vaniljbullar

25 grams fresh yeast (or equivalent in dry yeast, usually one bag of 7-8 grams)
75 grams butter or margarine – melted
1 egg
2½ decilitres milk – to be heated together with the melted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 decilitre sugar
9-10 decilitres flour

Cream:
2 decilitres full cream
2 tablespoons flour
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar (or equivalent in vanilla extract)

Well, my grandmother didn’t write down any detailed instructions but I would let the dough rest maybe 20-30 minutes (or until the dough has increased to twice its size) before starting to make the buns. Add a spoonful of cream filling, before shaping small pieces of dough into buns. Make sure that the closure of the bun is facing downwards on the cooking sheet. Let the buns rise for another maybe 20 minutes before putting them in the oven.
Oven: 250 degrees Centigrade / 475 Fahrenheit for ~10 minutes or until golden brown. Melt a little butter and put it on top of the buns, before turning them in sugar.
UPDATED: I forgot to explain how to make the vanilla cream filling! Mix the cream, egg yolks, sugar and flour. Stir while heating it until boiling. Mix in the vanilla sugar / extract and let the filling cool in the fridge.

Good luck and hope that the result looks something like my grandmother’s buns below!

PS Fler onsdagsrecept hittar du hos Desiree, Marianne och Mia.

El Yunque – the Puerto Rican rainforest

This weekend O and I discussed what we will miss from our life in Puerto Rico, and O said that he feels that he is not enjoying the life here as much as he’d like. Don’t get him wrong (I did at first before he explained), he really likes Puerto Rico but feels that he is too stressed with work to enjoy Caribbean life to the fullest! However, after a morning walk on the beach yesterday he felt more relaxed and happy about life! And I reminded him that his team-building exercise on Friday was probably a once in a lifetime experience!

The view from El Yunque down to the ocean

You see, he took his whole team (~10 persons) to El Yunque on Friday! Nothing very organised – “just a walk in the rainforest”… But bear in mind that most Puerto Ricans are not used to walking, and the majority of the colleagues had never actually walked in El Yunque, only driven around and gone to the view tower (next to the road). However, people came to work well prepared; dressed in combat pants and sturdy shoes*, while O wore jeans and sneakers as he knows that the trails in the rainforest are paved!!

The Big Tree trail

The Yokahu Tower where you can get a great view over the rainforest and the coast

O’s idea for the excursion was to let the Puerto Ricans discover their own island, and to be proud in what they have, instead of comparing all the time to the US. I thought that it was a really nice initiative and isn’t it usually the case that you need an outsider to come and show you what you have just around the corner? According to O it was a great success and everybody really seemed to enjoy the afternoon hike! And for himself, when will he ever again be able to take his office team to a improvised walk in the rainforest? Not once we are back in Europe, that’s for sure! Just one of the many perks of living in the Caribbean…

El Yunque is safe… it is after all not the Amazonas!

La Mina waterfalls

I have visited El Yunque twice, the first time was in November last year with my second cousin E – it was a guided tour organised for hotel guests in San Juan, and since we didn’t have a car it was a good option. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour, with the very knowledgeable guide Hector who spoke non-stop during the whole day about everything ranging from history, geography, culture, nature, language etc – all with a local perspective of course. Almost all of the visitors that we have had over the last year have gone on the same tour and enjoyed it.

A rainforest flower…

Last month, O and I took our Belgian visitors to El Yunque and we spent a great afternoon walking the Big Tree Trail to the La Mina waterfalls and back. The rainforest is very well organised, with paved trails and informative signs along the trails with information about the eco-system, flora and fauna. We didn’t have time to go to the visitor’s centre but it is also very interesting if you want to learn more about the rainforest. There are no big animals in El Yunque, and even though you will hear the coquí (the tiny frog which is the national symbol of Puerto Rico) it is very difficult to actually see them**. However, we saw signs warning for mongooses (you would think it is mongeese in plural just like moose should be meese but nope!), which is the principal rabies carrier on the island – and no, they are not birds but cat-like carnivores! We didn’t see any mongooses though and I haven’t even noticed any mosquitoes, so no need to put on insect repellent like E and I did the first time! Below are some examples of wildlife that we did see:

A lizard

Another lizard

A colourful caterpillar

It was almost impossible to take a photo of this spider, since the web kept swaying in the wind… This is the best photo out of probably 30 attempts!

The snail was easier to capture in a photo

*) which in itself is impressive since most Puerto Rican women usually wear very high heels!
**) The coquí can be heard all over the island, even in built-up areas such as Condado in San Juan. We have had friends thinking that the sound is a recording / a noise to repell mosquitoes – but no, it really is the frog! It almost sounds like it says “coquí, coquí”, hence the name! I will really miss this sound, I hear it every night when falling asleep (on the 9th floor!)…

Behind the scenes: photos from the US Election day

I just came across some amazing photos on flickr* of photos of Barack Obama and his family and friends on election day. You can check them out as well on this link!

My own photo of our television on Tuesday

*) Thanks to this article on the BBC News web-site

Friday theme / Show & tell: Sweets

A new month and new Friday themes from Marianne in Cairo! The themes for November are as follows:
7th November: Godis (sweets / candy)
14th November: Fönster (Window)
21st November: Smycken (Jewellery)
28th November: Julklappsbestyr (Christmas present preparations)

Today’s theme is a dangerous one – first of all because I LOVE sweets! Eating sweets as an adult seems to be a very Swedish thing – O can’t really understand my sweet tooth, but his parents are very supportive and always give me a big bag of sweets from their tobacco shop when we visit Spain! Unfortunately I don’t like Spanish sweets except for the lollipops called Chupa chups. And secondly the theme is making me crave for some really good sweets and unfortunately I haven’t been able to find anything even close to my favourite Swedish sweets here in Puerto Rico…

I keep my sweets in a boîte à bonbons… Valérie Nylin makes these really sweet tin boxes for sweets, sugar, coffee etc

After having lived in several different countries I feel that I am in a position to say that Swedes are experts in sweets, there is nothing like it abroad! My Danish friend L always wants to buy slik (sweets in Danish) when she comes to Sweden – it is much cheaper and better than in Denmark. The price of pick ‘n’ mix sweets (lösgodis) has actually decreased since I was a child – it must be the only thing that is cheaper than before!

Unfortunately the box is full of sweets that I don’t really like… just for emergencies! Our two last female visitors, MT from Ireland and I from Belgium actually went crazy over the Jelly Beans in Marshall’s (Belgian I bought 6 or 7 bags!?), but I am not too fond of Jelly Bellies. But hey, beggars can’t be choosers and sometimes I need a sweet fix…

My family brought me a huge bag of Swedish lösgodis last Christmas, but I finished it too quickly (not sharing though with my siblings as they can eat all the sweets they want back at home). I had my hopes set very high when my parents came back in May but to my great disappointment my mother had forgotten to buy sweets!! It was hard to not behave like a spoilt kid when I realised that I was only getting some Swedish magazines (even though my favourite ones) and no sweets

Not a very good American imitation of a typical Swedish sweet

What kind of sweets you like is probably very cultural, and I will never forget the look on my Australian brother’s face when we offered him some salty liquorice! I can’t remember if it was him or maybe my English friend A who spit it out on the floor! I am not too fond of salty sweets, but I do like a Turkish pepper every now and then (very strong tasting liquorice and pepper sweets from Finland, but originally Danish). I prefer sour sweets to salty ones, and hard ones to soft sweets - to my mother’s despair, she worries that we will choke (or break a tooth) when we eat the big sweets!

Some of my favourite Belgian sweets and crisps + my favourite baby! My best friends came to visit me in Brussels 2 years ago together with little H, and they went crazy in the Carrefour supermarket! The three of us have more or less the same taste in sweets and crisps, except that L really likes salty liquorice.

However, sweets can also be of another kind – I am not much for cookies and cakes (I prefer crisps / chips) but my grandmother makes the best sugar / cream buns! She made a whole batch once when she came to visit me in Brussels – I was in heaven!

Gran’s sugar buns filled with vanilla cream…

Other sweet bloggers can be found here: Anki, Anna, Anne, Annika, Aurorabuddha, Barbamorsan, Cecilia, Desiree, Emma, IngaBritt, Jemaya, Kicki, Leopardia, Lia, Lullun, Mais-oui, Marianne, Marie, Marina, Mia, Mia D, Millan, Nilla, Nina, Petra, Saltis, Simone, Sparkling, Strandmamman, Tätortstimotej-Anna, Ulrika, Victoria and 30+ kvinna in the city.