Dec
12

Boxing Day Brunch

by Sofia   -   in Cooking  Party planning

For a few years now we have been hosting a Boxing Day brunch in our house for our family and a few close friends. We have a traditional Christmas dinner at my parents house on Christmas eve so this is a different kind of meal. I love brunch and breakfast foods but as we usually spend a whole day together it´s nice to add something a bit more substantial and lunch like in the mix. I think we will do a roast beef this year. There will also definitely be smoked and cold cured salmon with mini blinis or lovely toast and fish roe for sure. Definitely eggs in some way. Perhaps as a scramble served from the shell topped with some roe or a sprinkling of truffle salt.Or maybe I will do quail eggs as they are so pretty. I think we need to do some roasted potatoes for the roast beef? With a lovely cranberry jelly perhaps. Obviously a salad with some candied nuts on top. And cheese. Some pretty desserts too. I think cookies, perhaps something with almond and a sprinkling of powdered sugar, some mini pavlovas are always gorgeous, decorated with pretty jewel like berries and some orange rind. The girls will decorate gingerbread cookies for us that are always a cute addition. And then a panettone on a pedestal.

My new table cloth fabric arrived yesterday. I will have it sown for a long festive table cloth that I can use all year around. It´s a beautiful classic blue toile de jouy on a creamy white base. Such has been on my wish list for years and now we decided that our pretty new dining room deserves a lovely festive table cloth. One that lands all the way down and is probably impossible to iron but looks elegant. I think it will look lovely with any colour scheme from pink peonies in the summer to red velvet bows during Christmas. With yellow, pistachio and baby pink for Easter or with orange & teal for Fall. I have a very good feeling about it!

I hope to add some of our silver pieces on the table this year. An antique silver toast stand, our silver coffee and tea set etc. They should look lovely with some white pieces and I think I will add some pears, lemons & mandarins with leaves attached as edible decorations. I have seen both in the stores lately, also lemons with leaves. So pretty! I will make a tower of two or three of my white cake stands to display them at the centre of the table. Or perhaps I´ll make a centrepiece on a silver tray. I´m still contemplating if we even need flowers. Perhaps not. I´ll most likely have them around the house everywhere else.

Dec
10

Twinkle lights & powdered sugar

by Sofia   -   in Cooking

This morning I woke up early. I tiptoed to our kitchen. I lit up some candles & put my favourite Christmas playlist on in the background. I made myself a cup of coffee and got to work. I wanted to make an old-fashioned rice porridge for my family for breakfast. Not unlike risotto it takes about 40 minutes to come together so to get my girls to school in time I was up long before I could hear the pitter patter of bare feet and see sleepy eyed & messy haired little angels in their nightgowns emerge to the kitchen from the warmth of their beds.

Yesterday was one of those days when at the end of it, before bedtime stories I sneaked in to our bathroom, ran myself a relaxing lavender bubble bath and read my book for a while, soaking up the warmth and relaxation. Sometimes we just need a minute for ourselves. I have learned early on that I always feel better after a run or a bath. Even on good days it sometimes does a world of good to unwind after the hectic running around and then I can be more present for my girls. I took out all our Christmas books a few days ago. It´s so nice to get back to them again and again every year. Some of them are from my childhood and maybe one day I will read them to my grandchildren. So even though my girls read by themselves I enjoy these books together with them and want to have the right state of mind for that moment.

I have been enjoying this time of twinkle lights all around us so much. All the buildings look like gingerbread houses with the pretty lights. I make sure to turn on the lamps by our windows every morning and night when we wake up or come home to give light to those walking outside. I also put a led candle to our hallway that I keep on, flickering in the mornings and at night, when it´s dark so anyone who comes home or leaves to go out in the dark gets a warm and cozy feeling. We also put fairy lights in the girls rooms. They look so magical. 

Nov
20

Bow birthday

by Sofia   -   in Cooking  Good things for kids  Party planning

As I previously mentioned on the blog we hosted two birthdays this past weekend. One was a sleepover for the girls in Cotton Candy´s class ( I shared some snaps on my Instagram and saved them in the party highlights) and the other was joined birthday party for the girls where we invited grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, godparents and all their kids. We were a group of about 30 as everyone could not make it. I ordered a ready made cake as the sleepover was taking a part of the party planning time off our hands. And it was both delicious and pretty so a good choice. The cake was from Kakkukonditoria Tårta på tårta, recommended to us by a friend. We will definitely use their services again.

I baked some cookies myself and obviously pink cupcakes because they seem to be now expected at my parties. I made the cookies way ahead as they keep well. And baked the actual cupcakes also a week before and put them straight in to the freezer. I took them out on Friday evening, decorated them on Saturday afternoon and stuck them in the fridge in the cupcake courier overnight. Just remember to take them out atlas two hours before the party as they taste better in room temperature. I also made pink fondant bows ahead of time ( as I was making the cloud cookies from fondant for the other party) and just attatched the bows to some white chocolate ice-cream popsicles before I set them out. They turned out pretty cute even if I say so myself. The invitation was for coffee & cake so we timed the party between lunch and dinner. We did serve pink lemonade ( that I forgot to photograph with my camera but have on the insta highlights). Often we also have some food & wine but this time we went with a simpler concept ( again as we had just hosted the other party the night before and the morning of). But I made sure to write it on the invitation and even sent out a message to guests prior to the party to make sure they had noticed. It was either this or no party. I sometimes feel like we expect a little too much of ourselves or others. a simple cup of tea and a bundt cake is not a party anymore even though I think it should be. Besides we had just hosted most of the guests for another dinner only a month ago so I hope everyone understood. everyone did seem to have a good time and the kids were playing secret agents so we lost sight of them after a while, although I´m sure they had their little spy cameras on us.

Here are some pictures.