Mölle Krukmakeri and a Simple, Lazy-Day, 30-Minute Pasta

A mere 500 meters from the town of Mölle. Beautiful scenery all around!

Approximately three hours drive south of our summer house on Tjörn, lies a quaint peninsula in the Höganäs region of Skåne. Tucked into the southwestern coast of Sweden, the beautiful, lush nature reserve of Kullaberg rises above the charming, seaside town of Mölle. I'd heard talk of how beautiful Kullaberg’s nature reserve is. What I didn't hear however, is how breath-taking the views are, even in and around the lazy, country roads that curve around the peninsula, taking you by farms with free-roving pigs, chickens, cows, and horses, along with rows and rows of ready-to-harvest "rödbetor" (beets) and "potatis" (potatoes). It is no wonder that the ceramic studio, which inspired our trip down, was filled with such beautiful bowls, platters, mugs, plates and other assorted vessels for purchase. The beautiful nature is certainly inspirational!

Just one angle of Mölle Krukmakeri's shop & beautiful wares.

Mölle Krukmakeri is a small slice of heaven for clay-influenced folk like myself. Part ceramics studio, part cafe, Mölle Krukmakeri is my dream come true. I could easily see myself running a similar establishment at some point in my life. That is, once I've mastered being able to reproduce a bowl, cup, or other shape more than once, or by chance ;-). In other words, when I've managed to master the clay. (Wink, wink). So far I am a great master of the "unique" bowl/cup/plate. I’m getting there slowly but surely. 

("Hey, my name is Viktor, I bite sometimes") :-D

I’m not entirely sure if it was out of a desire to hold on to the inspiration or merely a love for her work, but we left with two large “pasta” bowls, a beautiful planter, and thoughts of replacing our dishes at home with her gorgeous plates and bowls. Every time we have used these amazing bowls I think of those dishes we left behind and my mind starts rearranging our cupboards to fit them into our lives. One day they will be ours. 

Just the other day we decided to make our “simple, lazy-day, 30-minute pasta” for dinner and my husband claimed that it was the best one yet. I proposed that maybe it was because of the bowls that our simple pasta dish tasted so much better. He concurred. ;-) I think pretty much anything would taste better in one of these bowls. Ice cream? yes. Salad? definitely. Pasta? of course, silly.

Infinity circle love.

Simple, Lazy-Day, 30-minute Pasta:

Ingredients:

- Spaghetti for two, cooked al dente & drained, reserving approximately 1/4 C of cooking liquid

- A larger than probably desired lump of butter

- 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed

- 1/8 - 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

- Freshly ground black pepper

- Pinch of salt

- Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

- Chiffonade of fresh basil leaves

- Two beautiful, oversized, handmade ceramic bowls & a healthy appetite

After you have cooked & drained your pasta and set aside some of the cooking liquid, quickly rinse your pot and place it back on the burner on low to medium heat. Melt your butter and once it has started to bubble up, add your garlic and sauté for 2-3 minutes or until fragrant. Add half of your crushed red pepper flakes and continue to stir for just under a minute. Quickly add your pasta and toss, adding more crushed red pepper, ground black pepper, the reserved cooking liquid, and finally a pinch of salt. 

Place a small amount of pasta in the bottom of each bowl, sprinkle with parmesan cheese, layer with more pasta and cheese until you run out of each, making sure to finish with a light dusting of cheese. Sprinkle your fresh basil on top and complete with a turn of the pepper mill. Enjoy! 

Don't you agree that just about anything would taste delicious in one of these?!

Ceramic Love

(Overview)

I don’t know if I mentioned this before but I‘ve been taking ceramics classes for the past five or six months. I took my first ceramics class way back in my LA days. Back when the weather was warm enough and dry enough that I could throw a bowl, plate, or mug at the beginning of class, set it outside to start drying, and by the later part of class it had reached what is called the “leather hard” stage and I could trim the bases, or attach handles etc. This also meant that we had ceramic pieces at various stages of completion, as our teacher was constantly bisque firing* and glaze firing** through out the class. 

(Kitty curiosity)

For me this was a wonderful thing. I love surprises and every time I arrived for class there was always the excitement of not knowing if I would have a completed piece ready to make its journey home with me. The excitement and anticipation was half of the fun. My class here in Stockholm is operated somewhat differently but no less exciting. Due to the small space of the studio however, we make all of our ceramic pieces during the first seven sessions and glaze everything on the eight and final class day, when the studio is transformed from a ceramic “verkstad” into a “glaze studio.”  

("Fågelbo" - birdhouse)

Buckets of glaze are placed in nearly every nook and cranny and my classmates and I carefully “ursäkta,” or excuse ourselves, as we tiptoe around the studio, gently holding our pots and bowls with metal tongs, dipping our pieces in what hopefully will turn out to be a beautifully, glazed finish. On “glaze day” of my most recent ceramics class, which was just a couple of weeks ago, our teacher mentioned that we could expect to get our finished, glazed pieces back in a month’s time. She would be taking a lovely vacation to Italy and, well, it just takes that long to fire up the kiln*** repeatedly to accommodate the literally hundreds of pieces that are made during eight weeks of day, evening and weekend classes. 

(A kanelbulle plate??!)

So imagine the surprise and delight when I arrived for the first day of my third class term (last night) to discover my cupboard filled with all of my completed glazed pieces. It is like Christmas day. One never know how a piece will turn out in the end and it is always exciting to see if the glaze took well and/or if the piece managed to keep from exploding. There could also be cracks, which there were a couple, and there could be areas where the glaze for some reason didn’t reduce well, which, though not completely obvious, there were a few also. Or there could even be unexplained defects, such as a small, hard, sharp brown bump on the inside of one of my biggest pieces to date (sad face). 

(Tea for two... or two for tea)

But not to worry, one comes to love and expect such defects and imperfections with this wonderful and extraordinary, organic craft. All in all I was very happy with the outcome and I happily packed up as much as I could carry, and still run to catch the bus, and made my way home to let my husband open them up and revel in the surprise and excitement all over again.

(Fika ready tray)

*The first firing that removes all traces of dampness from the piece.

** The final firing after the piece has been dipped in a glaze that hardens into a glass outer-shell and becomes a beautiful shiny or matt finish, depending on the type of glaze selected.

***The oven where ceramics are baked on their final journey to completion.

A Little Lady

There is this great little ceramic gallery and boutique in Gothenburg, on a small side street near the Gustavi Domkyrka (cathedral), called Lerverk. And I actually have a pretty funny story about the name of this boutique from way back before I knew how to [badly] pronounce Swedish. Before we moved to Sweden, we traveled here during our summer vacations. On one of the first trips here, while riding the bus back to his parent's home, I said to my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, " I want to go back to that store called "Lurvurk." He looked at me like I was crazy. Eventually we figured out that I meant "Learvurk" (sounds like). What can I say, it looked like "Lurvurk" to me. 

So anyway, my husband and I have exchanged quite a lot of our money for works of art at Lerverk. My husband's parents have also parted with a great deal of their money in exchange for works of art there, and some of those purchases have been contributed, in the form of Christmas and birthday gifts, to our "Lerverk collection." Sometimes when we are in Gothenburg we visit the gallery and boutique and discover many pieces that we'd love to buy, while other times we merely file ideas away, future gift ideas or purchases to long for. Nearly every summer we select something from Lerverk to add to our ceramic collection. One year we bought a beautiful ceramic rose that was combined with wire, a rubber tube, and cement, which made up the flower's stem and the sculpture's base. Another year we bought a sail boat sculpture with the boat made of raku-fired clay and its mast made of iron. 

There is nearly always something fabulous that we find to covet at Lerverk. On one of our more recent visits I came across the lovely little lady sculpture below. My husband actually has two other figurines made by the very same artist. Two cute little men, one in a black suit and one in a fancy overcoat, that are part of our Christmas decorations. Unfortunately they are packed away until next year but you can view them here on my Finding Happy Day 352 post. I haven't decided yet but I may keep my little lady, in her green evening gown, medallion necklace, rosy cheeks and top bun, around all year long. She just makes me smile. I love the way she looks as if she is either startled or singing. What do you think?

Ps. We still call Lerverk, "Lurvurk," sometimes. Just for fun. :-)