Breakfast in London

(One of hundreds of the red double-decker buses zipping around the city)

Let me just say, London is amazing. It is highly diverse, has tons to offer and, in general, is a huge city spread across, what feels like, a very large portion of great Britain. Even if you tried you couldn’t see all of it in a week, let alone a few days. But even so, we spent three gorgeous days trying our hardest. And succeeded somewhat. However, given the vastness of London and all of the wonder it encompasses, I will be blogging about our trip in digestible bits and I've decided to begin with what feels logical, and so happens to be my favorite: Breakfast!

I have always loved breakfast but I guess my love affair with dining out for breakfast began when I lived in Los Angeles. Back then, my favorite haunts included The Backdoor Bakery in Silverlake (Best scones and oven pancake with berries, and which I've learned has since closed and re-opened later in a new location), Figtree's Cafe at Venice Beach (Cool, healthy vibe with a clear view of the Pacific Ocean), and Millie’s Cafe on Sunset Blvd in Silverlake (Amazing pancakes and seriously the best biscuits around!).

So when I started planning our trip and asked some friends for advice on what to see, do, and eat, I was happy to hear the suggestion to skip the hotel breakfast and eat out. (Yes!) As luck would have it, our hotel was a stone's throw away from a wonderful open-air market called Borough Market, which had tons of stalls peddling fruit, vegetables, exotic imported goods, cafes, juice bars, bakeries, restaurants tucked into nooks and crannies, pubs with eclectic beers, and the list goes on and on. Needless-to-say, we had a blast exploring and our taste buds are still savoring the delectable morsels we consumed. Here is a breakdown of our London mornings:

Day 1: Roast Restaurant

("Dropped scones")

Bordering on fine dining, though lacking just slightly in service for such status, we sat down to a nicely set table overlooking the market below. We both ordered regular coffee, which arrived in individual French presses. My husband opted for "The Veggie Borough," while I selected the "Dropped scones with stewed Yorkshire rhubarb and yogurt cream". Envisioning a basket filled with mini scones, I asked our server how many scones were served. He replied, "About nine." I figured the scones must be pretty small, so I ordered the dish. Well, in case you are wondering, "dropped scones" are the English equivalent of American pancakes. They weren't exactly silver dollar-sized but they were not regular sized either. And there were in fact 9 total pancakes/scones served. The Yorkshire rhubarb was superb and the yogurt cream added that just "over-the-top" decadence. I ate everything. We would be walking everywhere that day, so... I needed my energy, right?

Day 2: Bill's

After a long first day of walking nearly twenty kilometers (!!!) we headed back down to Borough Market with breakfast at "Bill's" in mind. I'd been to their Brighton location some years back when we had a 24 hour layover in England, on our way home to Texas from Sweden. The Brighton location was open across the entire front of the restaurant/cafe and had the feel of an open air market, as we were surrounded by shelves of specialty products and food goods. A slightly different to the feel of their London bank side location, though there were specialty products on shelves here and there around us. 

We were moving somewhat slowly that morning but my cappuccino and scrambled eggs with toast hit the right spot. And aside from the portion being much bigger, it was almost like eating breakfast at home. The food was fresh and tasty, the service pleasant and prompt and we were fed and out of there in just about thirty minutes exactly. It worked out perfectly for meeting our friend at the train station nearby. And getting on with our second day of walking nearly 20 kilometers!

Day 3: Elliot's Cafe, Borough Market

Hands down this was our favorite breakfast in London. Everything was homemade and fresh and incredibly tasty. Feeling at this point like we'd eaten plenty, we thought we'd try for a "lighter" start. We ordered a side of brioche toast (with honey butter!) to share and we each got a yogurt with homemade granola and stewed rhubarb. Hello?!!! The rhubarb was To Die For. It had been "stewed" in a syrup scented wtih star anise, cardamom, cinnamon, and orange peel. Holy moly it was good! I'm going to try to replicate it for sure.

(I love the red steer peeking in from the roof across the way)

Then to top it off we each had a fresh pressed juice of apple, carrot, & ginger, which was a lovely refreshing boost to our "light breakfast." The host was a bit annoyed that we came in with our own coffee, understandably, but he allowed us to bring it in anyway. What can I say, we simply had to try the coffee at Monmouth Coffee Company, which was just next door and had been recommended by a friend. Overall the service at Elliot's cafe was superb. They were friendly and helpful and they even gave us a complimentary slice of their chocolate chunk brioche bread, that I saw sitting out in the bar and had inquired about out of curiosity. Which, by the way, was also to die for.

Needless to say, breakfast in London was excellent and I am very happy with our decision to forgo hotel dining in favor of exploring neighborhood haunts and favorites.

We would definitely return to all of these places, especially Elliot's Cafe. 

Ps: Borough Market, located in the London Bridges/South Bank area, is simply amazing. I highly recommend a stop, or two, here.

That's Smashing!

Kitchen tools are some of my favorite toys. When I first discovered the lemon-colored lemon press for pressing the juice out of lemons I thought I’d discovered the best tool ever invented. Aside of course from the stand mixer, the blender, the food processor, and the toaster. You could say that I love kitchen gadgets. I especially love the ones that make food prep easier. Duh. Call me lazy but I would much prefer to whip cream with an electric hand mixer than stand there with a bowl and whisk for 10 minutes. 

Discovering new ways to save time and energy in the kitchen makes me happy. So when we were on our recent trip to the US, and a friend of ours introduced me to my new favorite time saver, I was ecstatic. But let me first ask, how do you smash your avocados for guacamole, or your bananas for banana bread? Chances are most of you will answer "with a fork” or, like I used to do, “with a potato masher.” 

Little did I know the sheer joy I would get out of using a simple metal kitchen whisk to complete these tasks. There I was, in our friend's kitchen, I was about to begin mashing the avocados with a fork (since my beloved potato masher was far away in Stockholm) when our friend recommended that I use a whisk instead. A whisk?! She handed it to me and, strange as it seemed, I went to work. 

Let me just say... Amazing! It worked beautifully and it half the time it used to take me with my potato masher, which honestly wasn't that long but still. I was mostly amazed at how beautifully and evenly it smashed the avocado. So I put the whisk to the test the next time I made banana bread. Same thing. Amazing results! Net time you make banana bread or guacamole, try it. I guarantee you will not be disappointed. 

Ps. Thanks for the tip, K!!! 

Cucumber Refreshed

It never fails. Every time I make a trip home to Texas, the bathroom scale tips upward by around five pounds upon my return. Well, I guess it was no secret that I was eating as if my life depended on it. As if eating and tasting everything, especially Tex-Mex cuisine, was my job. What a cool job that would be! If only someone could figure out how to avoid gaining those pesky extra lbs. However we all know the reality. And that is too many enchiladas and stuffed jalapeños is just that. Too much. They start to gravitate toward the hips, thighs, and stomach. Ugh. 

But it couldn’t be helped! When you crave and miss a certain food and you only get an opportunity once a year to enjoy it, you have to take that opportunity. In full force. Which we did. 

So since our return I've gotten rather friendly with our juicer in an attempt to reverse the "eating too much delicious food" damage. Our old favorite stand-by combo, christened "sharknado" by my husband, has been getting some competition. A new, or rather old, favorite is apple, ginger, and lemon and a brand new combination has emerged in the experimenting - Cucumber Refreshed - a simple blend of cucumber, lime, & mint. And I'm so much in need of a cleanse that after my first sip, I felt the cucumber blend needed a bit of sugar. Is that insane or what!? 

To answer your question, no, I did not add any sugar. Though an addition of even one apple, pear, or kiwi, might make the "medicine" go down a bit better. ;-) Therefore I propose the following combination:

1 whole English cucumber

1 green apple (keeping in the green family, but any apple can be used), cored.

1/2 fresh lime, peeled (substitute lemon if you do not have lime)

A great big handful of fresh mint leaves (stems can be included)

Juice these ingredients in your juicer, stir, and enjoy. If you do not have a juicer you could try blending the ingredients in a blender but I would recommend peeling and dicing the cucumber and apple, and adding some water to help it blend. I’d start with a fourth to a half cup of water and increase as needed. 

The cucumber and mint combo are refreshing and cooling and the lime adds a soothing alkaline element as well. The apple is a special bonus added solely for flavor purposes. You can leave it out if you prefer a more cleansing drink. 

Do you have favorite juice combinations? I’d love to hear about them!

(* Here is the recipe for our Favorite...)

Sharknado:

1 English cucumber

1/2 fennel bulb

3-4 romaine lettuce leaves

3-4 leaves of kale

2-3 stalks of celery

3 apples

1 pear

1 big hunk of fresh ginger (about the size of your thumb)

1/2 lemon, peeled

Card Stock! Paper Cutter! Stamps! Oh My!

Having a large amount of leftover card stock lends to numerous craft ideas and projects using said card stock. Inspired by the two nearly full reams of card stock sitting unused in my craft drawers [yes craft drawers!] and my new stamps from Yellow Owl Workshop & Paper Source, I decided to spend this past rainy Saturday morning making note cards. 

Some years back my Mom "loaned" me her paper cutter to use for making our wedding invitations, which she later gifted to me (thanks Mom!). Luckily it ended up moving with us to Stockholm because I still use it quite often and my rainy day card project wouldn't have been possible without it. With my first sheet of card stock, I figured out that I could cut two 4 x 6 cards and one 5 x 7 card out of each sheet, with only a small scrap piece leftover. The perfect size scrap piece for test stamping, or making book marks. Once I had my cards cut out and stacked I was ready to start stamping. 

After a couple of trial stamps I figured out what I wanted to do. It was so much fun and I was actually amazed at how nice they turned out. Pretty adorable, don't you agree? Now I just need more stamps, additional stamp pad colors, and envelopes to complete the sets. I came across a fun tutorial recently for making your own envelopes. Maybe a near future craft project? They look like they would be fun to do and not terribly difficult, if I could find some nice inexpensive decorative paper. Otherwise I'm not quite sure if they would be worth the time and money. Especially if I can find a good price on envelopes in bulk. 

When I was in the US recently I helped my aunt find and order some simple yesterday elegant envelopes in bulk and they turned out to work pretty well with the cards that she made, providing yet another inspiration to my own card project. I just have to see if I can figure out who sells envelopes in bulk here in Sweden and for a good price. My husband is good at finding things online so maybe I'll put him to the task. 

My next card making afternoon may include some hand-carved stamps. I bought two carve-your-own-stamp pads when I purchase my stamp set and now I just have to get up the nerve to take a carving knife to them. I may have to practice on a potato first! 

Dream Butter

In the summer of 2001 I participated in a study abroad program in Paris, France. The program included studies in French and art history, the later being my major. But what the program did not include was my education in the ways of French eating. Which, if you were not aware, includes lots of cheese, lots of bread, and apparently lots of Nutella. Which isn’t actually French but somehow I came to associate my summer abroad in France with copious amounts of Nutella spread generously on French baguette, or artistically swirled and folded into a street vendor crepe. I loved Nutella. Madly.

I still love Nutella and I have been known to take the entire jar, a knife, and a package of digestive biscuits to the couch. We all know what happens there. Eventually you have to put the lid back on and walk it back into the kitchen where you hide the jar deep in the pantry so that next time you open the door, Nutella is not to be seen or even thought of, for months. Sigh. 

Who doesn’t love a good Nutella fix? So when I started seeing recipes for homemade Nutella popping up here and there I filed it away in the back of my mind for a future weekend project. Then a friend of mine mentioned that she too wanted to try making Nutella from scratch so we planned a weekend to meet up and make it together. Unfortunately, my husband came down with a cold and we had to postpone our Nutella-making date for another time, since she would be bringing over her newborn bundle of love to hang out during the process. 

What can I say? I couldn’t resist. I was dying to try making it (read: EAT IT). I threw the pre-roasted and skinned hazelnuts into my food processor and pressed the on button. The recipe said to blend them until they became fine and powdery like a flour and then slowly add coconut oil. It was not specified as to how much oil to use so I started with two tablespoons. Magically the powdery mixture became hazelnut butter. It was amazing. I mean, it really looked like professionally made nut butter. The recipe then said to add the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth and creamy. 

Um... It. Was. Divine. I admit that I did not actually blend until it was smooth and creamy. Not like the store-bought Nutella anyway. I sort of liked it with a bit of texture and the coconut sugar kept it from tasting too terribly sweet. You could do some serious damage with a knife or spoon (or finger!) and a package of digestive biscuits. I'm thinking maybe even a baguette... I brought a spoonful to my husband to sample. Shortly afterward he was in the kitchen asking for more. Always a good sign. It was so simple to make, aside from the time-consuming task of removing the skins from the nuts, that I think I may try making my own homemade almond butter next. Perhaps it will be chocolate almond butter. I can’t see what harm adding a bit of chocolate could do. What do you think?

Meanwhile, I highly recommend testing this recipe. Not only do you get to control all of the ingredients that go into your Dream Butter, but if you find some cute little jars like the one I found, it makes an adorable little gift for that foodie friend. Heck, it makes a fun gift for any friend! I mean, just look how cute!

Witch Craft(ing)

While our goddaughter was here with her parents visiting us recently, I took them (of course) to one of my favorite stores in Stockholm, Svensk Hemslöjd. It is a small boutique shop that specializes in true artisan wares, handmade and designed arts, crafts and specialty items by Swedish artists. Nearly everyone on my shopping list has received a gift from this shop, including myself ;-). 

Well there we were, browsing around and admiring the Easter decorations, when our goddaughter spotted a small Easter witch, Påskkärring in Swedish, that she fell in love with. I mentioned that I had made my own Easter witch and that I thought I still had all of the supplies to make a couple more, and did she want to make her very own Påskkärring? Her eyes lit up and she said yes straight away (trying my hand at British expression). 

Later that evening she asked if we could take out the supplies to make our Easter witches (a girl after my own heart!) so once I had located everything we set up the dining room table as a craft room and got to work. I really loved watching her creative mind at work. She is only twelve years old but her heart and soul are much older. I showed her a secret way to knot the thread on her needle, a secret shared with me by my own mother, and after only one try, she not only could do it herself but she remembered each time she had to knot the thread again and excitedly showed her Mom and Dad her new trick. Thanks mom! 

I will see if I can create a short video to show this thread-knotting trick and post at a later date. It is a bit difficult to describe if you can’t see it being done. But anyway, below are a few photos from our Witch Craft session. Crafting is one of my favorite things and doing it together with a kindred spirit makes it all the more fun! I look forward to more crafting projects with this lovely and precious girl. She also brought us a piece of her own handmade art, which we will always treasure.

(My Påskkärring is on the left and our goddaughter's Påskkärring is on the right :-))

*All photos except the top photo and the one of my Påskkärring courtesy of Jo Winter.

** Top photo is of my mothers-in-law's Påskkärring, which was the inspiration for making our own. 

Travel Tips

I don't travel all that often but with each trip I take I discover more things to add to my “perfect list” of travel tips. It seems more and more common these days that airlines do not provide complimentary drinks or snacks. I had the lucky, or unlucky opportunity, depending on how you view it, to fly aboard three different airplanes this week, due to flight cancellations and transfers. On my first flight (SAS) I was offered complimentary tea, coffee, or water only and on the second and third flights (Air Berlin) I was offered a complimentary non-alcoholic beverage of choice and a bag of chips. So I ate (shamelessly) two bags of chips on flights number two and three, licking my fingers as I went. On the third flight I even managed to score a granola bar. Air Berlin also offered a heart-shaped chocolate as we disembarked the plane. Dinner and dessert. Well, not quite.

My point is that if you don't plan well for the possibility of cancelled flights and/or no time to stop and purchase the overpriced fare the airport shops offer, you could easily starve. Okay, I'll admit, I'm exaggerating slightly but planning ahead really helps. Even if you forgot that you planned ahead, as I did. Yes, I was sitting on plane number one, feeling very hungry when I remembered the cheese and cucumber sandwich I made, and wrapped in three paper napkins, at the hotel breakfast buffet. It was delicious. I think I wolfed it down in three bites. 

Later when I was on plane number two, several hours after transferring to a different terminal and going back through airport security, my stomach began grumbling. The salad I’d purchased in the airport earlier, while very tasty (arugula with mozzarella balls and cherry tomatoes), did not really sub as dinner, even with the bag of chips. I was still pretty hungry. Suddenly I remembered that I still had two veggie sausages in my bag AND a rhubarb and custard-flavored raw fruit and nut bar. All things I'd packed for my trip ahead of time, knowing that our trade fair booth would not be providing vegetarian meals.

Let me just say, in case you are wondering, that despite thinking it's okay to gorge on veggie sausages, it definitely is not. It is way not okay. I would recommend more of a variety to your travel snacks but given that it was all I had and there were no other choices, I ate the two sausages, making that a total of 6 veggie sausages in a two day period. For more variety, I would recommend for example, a ziplock bag filled with carrot and cucumber sticks. These are especially nice on long flights when you have a tendency to become dehydrated. I also like to bring ziplocks with my favorite blend of nuts for "happy hour" snacking. 

On one of the food blogs that I like to read, I have also read a tip to make your own meal to bring with you. This is especially helpful if you have special (vegetarian) dietary needs. Consider something simple and light that will travel well. On a fairly recent trip I made a cold noodle salad with peanut sauce, carrots and red cabbage. I thought it was a genius idea until I opened the sauce container and the smell of garlic nearly knocked me out, not to mention my neighbors. It is helpful to consider those around you when planning. Next time I will skip the garlic in that recipe ;-). 

Anyway, there are many more things you can do to prepare for making traveling a bit more pleasant, aside from food. Below is a list of some of things I like to bring when I travel:

Chewing gum 

Great for a quick breath freshener and it also helps with popping ears as you change altitudes.

Empty water bottle 

To fill at the airport after you’ve gone through security- this works well in Stockholm because the drinking water is great. 

Snacks 

Ziplock's with a blend of pre-cut veggies or a combo of nuts, dried fruits, and even a bit of chocolate to perk you up are great if you get too hungry before the meal service. I also find that having both sweet and salty snacks is a good idea. I personally tend to have cravings for both during really long flights.

Hand sanitizer/wipes

Great when you are stuck in a middle seat and those around you are sleeping, or if you just want to freshen up without having to venture off to the restroom.

Lotion/moisturizer 

The airplane ventilation always dries me out, so reapplying moisturizer to my face half way through a long flight feels very refreshing.

Reading material 

I love watching movies on airplanes but having a good book or magazine can also pass the time well.

Back-up sandwich 

I made a cheese sandwich at my hotel because of the limited options but from home I would have made an almond butter, or other nut butter, sandwich with honey, as it holds much longer.

Earplugs or headphones 

These are great if there are crying babies or chatty neighbors in the vicinity, or more importantly, that low rumble/hum of the airplane noise. I never realized how much more relaxing it is when you increase the level of "quiet" around you as you travel.

A travel-sized toothbrush & tube of toothpaste 

It feels like a luxury to brush your teeth if you are traveling over 5 hours, or if your flight gets delayed or cancelled. And if you are traveling through the night, it is a good way to trick your body into thinking that it is bedtime, or morning.

A change of socks and underwear

This is something I sometimes forget but it can be a wonderous miracle if your bag for some reason doesn't arrive when you do. 

A relaxed attitude 

Probably the most important thing on my list, this is helpful even if all of the above items fail or are impossible. Getting upset when there are changes to your travel does no good to anyone and only serves to make the remainder of your travels that much more miserable. Go with the flow and laugh off the mishaps.

That last one is easier said than done but practice makes perfect. And moods are contagious. Your relaxed and happy attitude will affect those around you. So smile and be happy. 

What are your tips and tricks for making travel more pleasant? I’d love to hear what you have to say!

*Photo above taken by Johanna Winter.