Max Burger

Max Burger is a cool swedish fast food phenomenon. They work with The Natural Step (who are closely related to my school) on their sustainability initiatives. Well, they decided to put a carbon footprint on each of their products, so you can see what choices need more CO2 to be made and can choose a more environmentally friendly option if you wish. Its a very cool model: giving people the information to make their own decisions. Me like. They do have other intiatives in place, as carbon footprinting alone doesn't make a company sustainable. But its definitely a step in the right direction!

Ecological Falafel! Who knew! I had this weird falafel sandwhich and its pretty awesome.

The most environmentally friendly options get their own board. These are typically fish and veggy burgers.

If you knew that a hamburger had 4 times the carbon footprint as chicken, what would you choose?

For a fast food franchise, the interiors are pretty sweet.

food=love=food

Josh has been going out of his way to try to fatten me up while we are here. It's my one worst nightmares... after not seeing everyone for a year, to get off the plane and for them to not recognize me. I swear, this happens to people!

So you can understand why I have been trying to scale down his making of delicious baked goods, but the boy is unstoppable and I have finally relented to the sweet apple crisps and chocolate delicacies; not to mention the delicious soups and other random swedish experiments.

I am going to make him post his recipes soon, but in the mean time, here is a mean pierogi recipe.

Use this recipe for Dough (halve this) & this one for Filling

(For the dough I would add another kind of cheese and perhaps a bit more butter. Delicious.)

Festival of Diversity

The class made desserts showcasing the many countries we are from...of course I made Chocolate Chip cookies:)

Oh yes, ice cream

We just wanted to share the new ice cream flavors we have been exploring, to help future students know which is best. Here is what we have tried so far:

Chocolate: OMG so good.  Huge chocolate chunks that melt in your mouth.  We both loved it.

Lion: Crystal's favorite!  Chocolate, carmel, peanut butter?  I don't know, but it's like heaven.

Peach Raspberry:  Wow, I don't like fruit ice cream, but I certainly ate all of Josh's.  He also loved it.  Love loved.

Vanilla (soy): eh, boring compared to all the other awesomeness...but was glad to find a non dairy option.

Dumle: Crystal liked the light butterscotch flavor, Josh thought it was disappointing.

After Eight: Crystal also liked (tasted like an Andes mint!), Josh extremely did not.  

Ordering tips:  If you order a scoop, it is actually 3 scoops of one flavor.  If you order 2 flavors (also known as scoops) you get 6 scoops!  If you order 3 flavors, you get 9 scoops!  See below for the 9 scoop extravaganza.  (Kiddie cones are sold for 12 kroner, I recommend this, as it is only 1 huge scoop)

Oh yes, the waffle cones are fresh made right then and there.  

i was born with a bottle in my mouth!

please enjoy this song while reading the following post.

beer and booze in sweden.

it's an odd/expensive thing here.

the only place(other than bars/restaurants) to buy anything over 3.5% is called systembolaget, a government run liquor store with pain in the ass hours. all beer is sold as singles, and unrefrigerated. here is a sampling of my sampling.

mariestads is swedish made, pleasent to drink and was working its way towards being my fallback beer.

my first arboga, 7.3% made it quite appealing.

i bought this because of the graphics and it's also the cheapest beer at systembolaget.

(crystal mashed my cans last night in an effort to "clean up" for "recycling" purposes)

this is the beer reindeer promote, and it's also the only one i've seen tv ads for.

also the deer turn blue when it's cold, i don't know if they stole that from coors or vice-versa, but man am i glad beer technology is on that level.

crystal bought me a 5.3 version of this on my birthday but yesterday i found this 7.2 at the store. it's the same cost as mariestad and more bang for your buck. the "new" fallback.

what!? arboga 10.2!! and you can only buy it in big cans! a bit pricey but a couple of these and you're set buddy!

"sweet land of liberty"

budweiser doesn't have twist off caps in sweden. these folks know how to polish a turd.

sidenote - i am actually trying to update my other blog more regularly now as well. i just posted a mix of swedish death metal on it. enjoy.

Farmers Market lunches

Everyday (except Sunday), someone sets up tent in the square for us to buy fresh produce (cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, bread...!  We have had such luck to have fresh sandwiches every day for lunch.  As Josh would say, num-nummerz!  

Saltö Fiskhall

This was our first real meal (8/16).  It was the freshest food Josh (and I've) eaten in what seems like forever. It was instantly decided this is a top-ranking place to take the parents (granted they make it out while it's still warm).

(stuffed to the brim with fresh shrimp n crawdads, topped with a creamy dill dressing, truly mouthwatering: josh)

Conditori Favoriti

This bakery is on Amiralitetstorget, it is our (my) new favorite.  All of the delicacies are beautiful and scrumptious, the barista is very friendly, and it makes me feel exceptionally european as if we had been here 50 years earlier.

Afternoon coffee breaks here are called 'fika'.  

This was our fika on monday afternoon.

THIS is a pear pastry.  Delicious.  

In swedish its called a peron-_____ 

(the blank is a completely unpronoucable word if you are a North American).

This is a lemon custard danish like delight.

I might put on some pounds because this place is right around the corner from us, and we walk Rachel by it regularly.   

Farmers Market

The farmers market here is much like the one we left behind in Logan Square.  This is also situated in the town square with tons of plants, veggies, fruits and random objects people are selling.  Except this one doesn't have the tap dancer!  We just found an apartment right off the square and can't wait until Saturday, to walk out our door and into foodie heaven.

Coffee pot ramen

We are having creative cuisine in the cabin!  We only have a coffee pot to make any kind of hot food, so we are making gourmet ramen.  Surprisingly delicious.