Friday Fiddle Tune #4

Today’s fiddle tune is a polska I wrote as part of my final project in a music theory and composition course last spring. I wrote the melody on the piano, so it’s a little tricky on fiddle in the B part.

Bockens Återkomst (The Return of the Goat)

Yes, the Gävlebock is back, and he’s started posting on his blog.

Workers installed the goat at the Castle Square (Slottstorget) in Gävle today in preparation for the big opening-day ceremony on Sunday.

I’ve linked to the English version of the blog, but if you can you read Swedish, you might want to check out the Swedish version as well since there are some details that go missing in the translation — like the fact that the goats horns were a little mussed after his summer storage — or are contain amusing misspellings — such as the goat being “tiered” instead of “tired” after today’s intensive activities.

This May Be the Ultimate Food

What could be better than chocolate or bacon? How about chocolate AND bacon?

Vosges Chocolate has introduced Mo’s Bacon Bar — deep milk chocolate with applewood-smoked bacon and alder-smoked salt. They’d already sold me on the glories of chocolate, salt and smoke with their Barcelona Bar (deep milk chocolate, sea salt, hickory-smoked almonds), so there’s no question that I’ll have to try the new addition to their line.

A local gourmet shop sells Vosges products, so guess where I’m going after work tomorrow.

Fler Jättedjur (More Giant Animals)

What is it with Sweden and giant animals these days?

Not to be outdone by the goat-builders of Gävle, Swedes in Norsjö in Västerbotten province have decided to build world’s largest moose. (Yes, I know the article headline says “elk.” That’s “moose” to those of us who don’t speak British.)

You can read more about the plans for the moose at the project Web site. (I love the scale drawing that lets you compare a “real moose” and a “BIG moose!”)

Or, even better, check out the virtual video tour of the inside of the moose, which will feature a 350-seat concert hall, a restaurant and a state-of-the-art conference center. The best line from the video has to be, “Inside the mouth, between the teeth and the tonsils, you’ll find the reception and gift-shop.”

[Honestly, I swear I’ll stop posting about Sweden one of these days, but I just can’t help myself when I keep encountering stories like this.]

I’m Not the Only One

Evidently I’m not alone in loving library smell. CB I Hate Perfume has come out with a fragrance called “In the Library,” which the Web site describes as “Russian & Moroccan leather bindings, worn cloth and a hint of wood polish.”

In case you’re a fan of other unusual scents they also sell fragrances called “Burning Leaves,” “In the Summer Kitchen,” and “I Am a Dandelion.” I might just have to order “Memory of Kindness,” though, since it features one of my absolute favorite smells: tomato vine.

Via: Salon.com’s holiday gift guide.

Kasha with Mushroom Paprikash

I’ve been having a kasha craving for a week or so now. It must be the change of season. Toasty, fluffy buckwheat is one of the best things I know to eat when the weather gets damp and cold.

I resurrected a dish I used to eat all the time when I lived in Washington, DC five years ago. This is the way my cravings work. I get hooked on a particular meal and then cook it until I’m tired of it. After a few years, I can start eating it again.

• 1 cup stock, broth or water
• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 egg white, whisked until just frothy
• 1/2 cup kasha
• 1 10-ounce box of button mushrooms (or a combination of various types of cultivated and wild mushrooms), washed, stemmed and sliced
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1/4 cup sour cream (low-fat is fine)
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring stock and 1 tablespoon of the butter to a boil in a small sauce pan.
2. While the liquid is heating, stir egg white into dry kasha.
3. Spread the grain in a medium non-stick skillet over medium high heat.
4. Add kasha and toast until grains are dry and fragrant. Stir constantly to break up any clumps that form.
5. Add boiling stock to skillet. Reduce heat to low. Cover and steam until liquid is absorbed and kasha is fluffy — about 7 – 10 minutes.
6. While kasha steams, heat butter until foamy in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add mushrooms and sauté.
7. When the mushrooms are almost cooked, stir in paprika and sauté a minute more. Stir in sour cream and reduce heat to low. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. When kasha is steamed fluff with a fork and serve topped with the mushrooms.

Serves: 2 (or 1 with leftovers for the next day)

Bee Movie in My Bonnet

Am I the only one who’s bothered by the fact that Jerry Seinfeld voices the lead in Bee Movie?

It’s not that I have objections to Seinfeld, but aren’t worker bees female?

Friday Fiddle Tune 3

Here’s a hambo tune I dedicated to my friend Carolyn when she had surgery. It’s called “Krya på dig” — “Get Well Soon” in Swedish.

If you’ve never seen hambo, here’s a video clip of the dance:

Talking Turkey about Thanksgiving Rituals

On Salon.com yesterday, Adam Roberts interviewed chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill restaurant in New York City. I appreciated his more laid-back attitude to sustainability, but was a little more skeptical about some of his comments about Thanksgiving and tradition.

Are there any traditional dishes you refuse to cook because they’re beneath your standards?

What’s a traditional one — like jellied beets from a can?

Or marshmallows on sweet potatoes.

Well that’s a ’70s tradition. I don’t consider that part of our heritage.

But a lot of people do it.

A lot of people are misguided. That’s a 1975 sort of invention — or ’65.

It makes me wonder what dishes Barber does consider traditional. Turkey, obviously, since he gives advice on buying heirloom breed turkeys for your Thanksgiving dinner. Pumpkin pie? Green beans? Just how old must a tradition be to be legitimate?

The Thanksgiving holiday as we know it dates from the Civil War era, and it’s likely that the inclusion of turkey in the holiday meal dates from about the same time. Accounts of Puritan feasts describe meals that don’t anything like today’s Thanksgiving dinners: fish, roasted meats, cauliflower, syllabub, sugared almonds and chocolate.

So, go ahead and object to marshmallows on sweet potatoes because you don’t like marshmallows, or because you think they’re full of unhealthy ingredients. The argument that they’re too new an innovation to be legitimately traditional seems specious to me.

Closing Time

I’ve never been at the big library on campus at closing time before tonight. When the bell rings, squinting scholars skitter out of the stacks like termites when you pick up a piece of rotting wood. Some of them even have the same pallor as termites. They look like they haven’t seen sunlight in weeks.

Does that sound like I have an aversion to libraries? Nothing could be further from the truth. I still remember the first time I walked into the campus library at the folkhögskola I attended in Sweden. What a relief it was to find that it smelled exactly the same as every other library in my life. All I need is to get a whiff of the drying glue and crumbling paper, and I know I’m home.