Kolbullar!

 And because there's such a thing as karma, today our hosts invited us over for "kolbullarna", which are cooked and eaten outdoors. Even when it's -6C / 21F. And of course, we went! Because we're experiencing what it's like to be Swedish, insofar as possible. Several neighbors came as well.

Kolbullar (literally coal-bun) are a sort of pancake with bits of pork or bacon in them. The name seems to originate from charcoal-burners, who would spend days in the woods tending a specially-stacked fire to create charcoal needed for the iron-smelting process.  The actual batter is only flour and water, which would be easy to take to your campsite.  You get a nice fire going, squirt some oil in the pan, toss in the diced meat, cook it a while, then pour the batter over. Flip a few times like an American pancake, then pour a bunch of lingon jam on top and eat it!  Preferably with "kok-kaffe"--coffee grounds boiled in the kettle over the fire.

Rickard (neighbor) and our hosts Ingegärd and Pontus

A pretty nifty setup!  Counter space and everything!

Seating carved out of the snowbank, with reindeer hides

(and a foam sheet underneath--quite comfortable!)

You use your deck chairs year-round here!

Oops!  Almost forgot to take a pic!

Time to make more coffee!

Cleaning up!  Melt some snow in the pans until it boils off the grease,

which is then poured out on the snow for birds to enjoy once it cools.

Photo Dump

 Herewith, a bunch of pics that don't seem to fit into any coherent blog post.  If that changes, we'll move them as appropriate.

Front entrance to the Jamtli museum, where we did our Christmas shopping.

Sheila's crafts corner

Sunrise @ 8:45 AM

Taken during one of our attempts to ski above the neighborhood.  Pink clouds to the east at 1 PM.

Annnnd sunset at 2:45 PM!

Lars skiing ahead, Lake Storsjön in the background

Another sunrise

Snowy day, neighbors just north of us

Home!

Staging area in the basement.  Just leave all the winter gear down there by the door we use most often.

Downtown Östersund, 2 days before Christmas

Tomteluva....a tomte hat! 

A cookie for the base, raspberry whipped cream filling, 

raspberry marzipan coating, coconut "fur".

More skiing at Rannåsen

See, Sheila DOES go skiing!

-5°C / 23°F, so the neighbors are having a cookout.  Like you do.

More Holiday Food

 This is what one has for Christmas breakfast in Sweden...on the 24th.  The 24th is the BIG DAY over here.

Saffron bun (Lussekatt), whole-grain seeded rye bread with butter and orange marmelade, homemade seed crisp (fröknäcke).  Rice cooked with milk, cinnamon, raisins and walnuts (we saved some to leave out for Tomten!), and of course coffee!

Sheila was a bit puzzled as to what to fix for Christmas dinner, and then found that one of our favorite cafés offered Jul-talrikar (Christmas plates) to take home.  You could get all cold items, or both cold and warm (to be re-heated at home).  But after asking a few more questions, we realized that the warm items were mostly ones we don't much care for---prinskorv, which are sort of like Vienna sausages, and Janssons frestelse (Jansson's Temptation), which is sort of potatoes au gratin with added anchovies.  So we went with the cold plates.  And of course a dessert!

I'll try!  Beet salad and a couple of kinds of paté, salmon, both smoked and "gravlax", with mustard and pickled onion, a couple of kinds of herring, shrimp, boiled potatoes, reindeer sausage, brie with jam, a few meatballs and a slice of ham (that had been boiled with bay leaves and peppercorns, then coated with egg, mustard and breadcrumbs), with mustard and applesauce for the ham.

Same as above, different angle.

In addition, some Zinfandel (boy, were we happy to see not only a familiar label, but one we like!), julmust (a little like root beer, but with hops), and some vörtbröd (wort is a by-product of making beer and is used as a flavoring and rising agent in the bread, which also typically has some spices, bitter-orange or orange peel and raisins).

And of course it woudn't be much of a Christmas dinner without some dessert!  Not really sure what was in it or what it was called.  There were 2 left, they looked festive, so we bought them. It was kind of like a Princess cake, except for the marzipan being pink instead of green.  So...1/2" thick layers of yellow cake with raspberry jam on one, vanilla custard between layers 2 and 3, whipped cream between layers 3 and 4,  a little more jam, and then all covered with an 1/8" thick layer of marzipan instead of frosting.

Skiing at last!

The weather has not been cooperating since we got here.  The day after we arrived, we got about 6" of lovely, fluffy white stuff....but it was -19°C (-2°F), so not very appealing to be outside.  This continued for over a week, surprising the locals.  I don't know how many times we heard that it hasn't been this cold or snowy in November for 30 years!  The big lake Storsjön froze over the first weekend in December, when it usually doesn't happen until after Christmas.

By the time it got less cold, we both had CAUGHT colds, so a few more days went by with no skiing to speak of.  Lars skiied back and forth in the driveway a few times, and Sheila did likewise once.  A "warm" day of -8°C/17°F came along, so we walked up the hill a ways and found somed rough trails made by snowmobiles and much travelled by critters.

The house you see at the right is next door to ours.

We have also had a lot of trouble finding places to ski.  There's a farm 5 kilometers away that grooms their forest occasionally (when they feel like it), but finding the correct road proved to be a challenge.  We tried a couple of other, more formal areas, but 5 days above freezing, with hard freezes overnight, left everything too icy for our old bones to risk falling.

Then we got a nice snowfall of about 7cm/3", and decided maybe it would be a good idea to PAY to ski somewhere with consistent grooming, so we went over to Skistadion and bought day passes....which is a much more reasonable proposition here than at home!  55 SEK / $5.50 each.  This also gave us a chance to ask about trail markings, which are a totally different system here than at home.  In the US, trails are color-coded by difficulty--green is easiest, blue harder, black difficult.  There's no hard and fast standard, but each ski area ranks its own trails, based on the terrain they have.  So Sheila sticks to Green at Eldora, but is fine with Blue at Snow Mountain Ranch, which has a lot of very flat terrain not found at Eldora.

Here, however, as in more of Europe, trails are color-coded by LENGTH.  Yellow = 5K, Green = 10K, Black = 15K, more or less.  Some signs show more than one color, and when you come to a split, you follow the color you want.  BUT!! Don't assume that the Yellow trail at one ski area is equivilant difficulty to a Yellow trail elsewhere!  They may both be 5K, but one is flat, going around a marsh, and the other is entirely on the side of a mountain.  Research is needed!

Elljusspår = Lighted trail

Övriga spår = Other trails

Motionspår = Exercise trail

Dogs allowed on trail.  Dogs must be leashed at all times.

Torråsenslingan = Loop trail at Torråsen

Spikbodarna = Another ski area

Partial trail map

Anyway, enough of that.  We had a lovely day on the easiest possible trail, 5K around the marsh at Rannåsen.  We were surprised by the number of people doing skijoring, or skiing while being pulled by one or more dogs! They go very fast, so we didn't get any pics.

            Absolutely perfect conditions!

                    Trail signage in use                                            Small stream crossing under trail

                    Rannåsenträsk (marsh)                                    It got a bit breezy passing the marsh!

                Lars in the lead, as often happens                             The trails split here

                        Can it be???                                                            YES!  A downhill section!

We definitely need to get our act together earlier, though.  By the time we'd sorted out where EXACTLY the trailhead was and gotten our skis on, it was after noon.  We were finishing up around 2PM, and the light was distinctly fading by that point.  Not dark, but tending that way.  We either need to start sooner, or start skiing on the lighted trails!

Julbord!

                        

Jul-lunch (Yule Lunch) at Arctura...a restaurant 55 meters up (9 floors via elevator) , on top of Östersund's hot water supply. Info from website:

The accumulator tank Arctura was built in 2003 at the ski stadium in Östersund. It acts as an important component for the energy supply in the region. We also welcome guests to a top floor with magnificent views.

Arctura contains 26 million liters of hot water. A heat reserve that allows us to maximize the benefit of our valuable electricity generation. In addition, we can secure district heating supplies and reduce the need for oil.

The brilliant facade and top floor with restaurant 55 meters up has made Arctura a landmark and an attractive meeting place.

View over Östersund and Storsjön. 

Zoom into the center to see the bridge that takes us "home".

View of Östersund and Frösö, which has a small downhill ski area. 

Behind the hill is the regional airport, Åre-Östersund.

View over the Skistadion (Ski Stadium). 

They held some World Cup events here a couple of weeks ago.

And suddenly--forest!

Östersund. Stora Kyrkan (Big Church) on the left, 

Rådhuset (City Hall) on the right.

Lunch, Round 1! 

Clockwise from the top: Crazy good rye bread, 

herring in Västerbotten cheese sauce, 

herring with beet salad, 

herring with mustard-dill sauce, 

beet salad, 

reindeer sausage, 

moose sausage, 

liverwurst (the last 3 on flatbread), 

a pickle, 

smoked salmon, 

herring in garlic sauce.

Lunch, Round 2, 

clockwise from top: 

Julkorv (Christmas sausage, cooked with cloves) & red cabbage,

 Jansson's frestelse (Jansson's Temptation: potatoes, cheese and....anchovies???), 

boiled potatoes with dill, 

meatballs, 

prinskorv (Prince sausage), 

pork riblet. 

Somehow, I managed not to get ANY ham--which is probably THE most-traditional dish!

Lars' Round 2....no comment!

(Actually, he was being pre-emptive while waiting for the line to die down--

he came back with meatballs and pork ribs)

Round 3: 

Glögg, 

lingon drink, 

assorted candies, 

pepperkakor (ginger cookies), 

saffron sticks with and without pearl sugar, 

chocolate ball, 

ris a la Malta (rice pudding made with whipped cream and topped with fruit sauce), 

cloudberry jam.