Blog Everyday in May – You Mean I am not Perfect?

Day 24, Friday: Your top 3 worst traits

At first I thought this was going to be easy and funnily enough, perhaps one of those bad traits, I had a bit of trouble. See I know things people have said about me but it is awfully easy to turn them around in your own head towards something good.

O well I guess I have to get over myself and let you know a bit about the not totally and wonderfully fabulous side of me. (in case you were not sure that was sarcasm)

1. Staring

For example just today when I went to take out the trash a woman was leaving the building ahead of me and help open the door. She was wearing a strapless dress and when she lifted her arms she had man length armpit hair. Now I am not judging her but how, honestly how do you not stare at that!!!

2. Longwinded

I am sure it is already evident in this post but I am so longwinded, I take as long as an 80 yr old to tell a story. I think of all these extra things and add them in and then lose track of what I was saying and 10 minutes later you are looking at me with dagger eyes.

3. Easily Distracted

When I was a kid my mom would say go in your room and clean it, 30 min later she would come in and I would be sitting in a pile of stuff reading a book. Now at almost 28 the same thing will still happen, I start cleaning the house and all of a sudden it is hours laters and all I have done is look at pictures I came across on the shelf. To try and conquer this I make game plans for myself like take all dishes from living room to kitchen then you can look at what is in that cupboard.

Blog Everyday in May – From the Kitchen of Life

Day 23, Thursday: Things you’ve learned that school won’t teach you

I often look at the prompt a day ahead so I can have time mulling it over and seeing where it leads me. Well with this one I guess I was being to philosophical but all my ideas were sounding so trite. So I took a step back and thought why not be practical.

So here are some things I have learned in the kitchen:

-When packing and you have sharp knives, use an empty Pringles can.

When you are unpacking you do not have to worry about getting cut by a runaway knife.

- If a recipe calls for BBQ sauce but you do not have any, you most likely have the ingredients to simulate the taste. Add some ketchup, soy sauce, worcester sauce, mustard, sugar and mix it will not be exact but it will do the job.

- It is better to give meat a little extra time to defrost and put in the fridge than having a hunk of frozen meat and be starving.

- Keeping a bag of frozen french fries on hand will always give you a quick and easy side dish.

- If time is running short sausages defrost fast and you can speed it up by simmering them in a pan with a lid and then frying them once they are soft.

- Use a food processor to shred the end bits of cheese and it will last about a week in an airtight container in the fridge.

- Always reheat pizza in the oven, it will get crispy and melty again. If you microwave it you will get horrible results.

- There is no need to own a microwave or toaster. All foods that are worth eating can be cooked and subsequently reheated on the stove or in the oven. Toaster solely make toast which can also be done on the stove or in the oven.

- When reheating leftovers on the stove do not preheat the pan, if you allow the pan and food to heat at the save time you will save from scorching the food.

- Cooking is forgiving and some cheese can usually salvage a meal.

- Baking is not forgiving and is best left to those that are not me.

What is your best kitchen tip?

Blog Everyday in May – Rude People and What They Do

Day 22, Wednesday: Rant about something. Get up on your soapbox and tell us how you really feel. (a pet peeve, a current event, a controversial topic, something your husband or roommate or neighbor or boss does that really ticks you off)

-People who complain about the quality of Forever 21 clothes-

What you are mad the shirt you paid 5 bucks for did not last till you died?!?!?!??!?!

Seriously people Forever 21 is not selling you your wedding dress they are selling you a cute shirt to go get drinks in on a Friday night. Wash it in cold, hang to dry and you will get about 6 months out of it. After 6 months it will be out of style anyways and that is why you paid 5 bucks for it for it in the first place. This really goes for all cheap clothes if you want a shirt to last years you are going to have to pay more for it and it will be a more timeless style than you are getting at the cheap places.

-People who tell me I am “so American”-

Really you mean I act the way you think people do in a country you have never visited because I am not acting like you. I only grew up there and lived there most my life but I guess I should act like what a Brazilian?!?!?!?!?!

-People who get their panties in a twist when I say I miss home-

I am not saying I do not like Sweden but it does seem that I would miss the place all my family and friends are at right?!?!?! Why don’t you go live somewhere else and see how you feel.

-People who do not say excuse me or anything and just push you out of the way-

Just so rude.

Blog Everyday in May – From the Vault

I first want to send a huge virtual hug to all that were affected by yesterday’s storms, it was heart-wrenching to wake up to the pictures.

Day 21, Tuesday: A list of links to your favorite posts in your archivesI think most my readers here are from about the last year so I thought I would pick my top post from each month from my first year of blogging back in 2011. That turned out to be harder than I thought so some months get bonus posts!DefinedManifestoPieces of my heart are scattered in LondonMy Way or the Highway?So Many Things I WonderDid you Forget Something?Whiskey Sour PleaseHow to be Embarrassing in SubwayBut what about the Granite Countertops?In Conclusion Blame the Non-Existing DishwasherScene from our MarriageThe Last Week Via Food(this month was pretty boring)Say No to the Systembolaget(another boring month)Am I Really an Expat?Get Out Your DependsOctober Photography Challenge – Day Thirteen – 13 + Me =October Photography Challenge – Day Six – Down LowExpat Wednesday – Staying in Touch with KidsÖl Thursdays – Basic Swedish Drinking Laws and a FagerhultChristmas Time in Sweden#WEverb11 – Laugh – Day NineteenHope you like this glimpse back into my archives!

Blog Everyday in May – Remembering Crabs

I took a computer break over the weekend and so I thought I would do the Blog Everyday in May prompt from Saturday since it was a fun one.

Day 18, Saturday: Tell a story from your childhood. Dig deep and try to be descriptive about what you remember and how you felt.

Yep that is a photo of an actual polaroid picture not an effect, you can even see two holes from where I had it hanging on my bulletin board

This picture is from a birthday party I attended sometime around 1995, the girl with the blond hair with me was celebrating her birthday and I was so excited to visit her house. She had older parents per what I remember my mom saying about them and they lived in these really fancy apartment over looking the harbor. If you have every watched Arrested Development you know the apartments I am talking about since they are the ones Lucille Bluth lives in.

During the school year the birthday girl was always missing school to go on what I thought of as big adventures with her parents, I distinctly remember once they went on an African safari and I was so jealous that she was able to miss school for the trip.

So when she had this party I was so excited to see what her room would be like, I was imaging expensive artifacts like in a movie, and then one thing happened that has erased all the other memories.

We were down at the little beach they had for residents and all of a sudden this girl I was not really friends with came up to me with a mean smile on her face. As I looked up at her she pulled my bathing suit top out and dumped a handful of little crabs down it.

I jumped up screaming and trying to get them out without them biting me or flashing everyone. It was mortifying.

So mortifying that when a few months ago this same girl asked to be my friend on Facebook I denied her.

The birthday girl ended up leaving our school shortly after this since they said she was missing to much school going on the trips with her parents. I never knew where she went after that and I have always wondered where she ended up.

Blog Everyday in May – Me and My Grandparents

Day 17, Friday: A favorite photo of yourself and why

So next Friday the prompt is your three worst traits and I think I will need to have vain as one of them because I have about a million pictures I want to post for today. Ok so one is just because me hair is so shiny in it but that is a valid reason right?

I finally decided to go with this one since I like it for better reasons than how I look in it.

This is from October of 2008 when my grandparents visited me in England, my aunt also came but she is the one taking the picture.

My grandpa has a severe aversion to planes, not being scared of flying but having to be on the plane is just not his idea of a good time. When I left in May of 2008 for my big adventure it was not clear when I would be back home. I finally settled in London and was working so my grandma and aunt started planning a trip to see me and said my grandpa would join them. I wanted to believe it but until I saw him actually in England I was not sure.

Funnily enough he managed the flight and was feeling really excited about being in a new place and when they got to the luggage carousel his was missing. The airline delivered it to his hotel the next day but that striped sweater he is wearing in this picture he bought that first day so he would have something to wear until his luggage arrived. That shopping trip with just me and him was I think his favorite part of the trip and he kept saying how he now had English clothes to wear in England.

Blog Everyday in May – Finding Myself Again

Day 16, Thursday: Something difficult about your “lot in life” and how you’re working to overcome it

When I met Mr. H in 2008 I was living in London and pursuing my dreams and finding out who I was in a post-college world. Then we met and things became about getting Mr. H to America, and then we were engaged and life was about planning the wedding, and then it was about getting back to Sweden.

In all of that planning and going and doing it seemed I had become Bailie the visa helper, and Bailie the bride, and finally Bailie the immigrant but the regular Bailie was lost in all of that shuffle.

I gained weight, I had old out of style clothes, I had scraggly hair alongside of my awesome life and marriage.

But the the thing is for the awesome life and marriage to continue I realized I needed to take back what was me.

So I did the hardest thing for me ever and admitted out loud I needed to lose some weight.

(ahhhh typing it was even harder)

I did not take any before and after shots but pants that I used to not be able to button will button, zip, and I can sit down in them!

I have been doing a mixture of walks, and we live on the top of a valley so half the walk is always up hill, and aerobics.

I have ordered a few pieces of new clothes, like colored jeans so I do not feel like the old married lady when we go out.

I dyed my hair to the color maroon red it was back in 2008.

I have also started doing embroidery which I love and really embracing my love for cooking and thinking of it as a skill I possess rather than just something I do at night.

So I guess you could say the sun is coming out of the clouds in terms of me!

Expat to Expat Q&A – #2 Food, Food, and More Food!

1. What is your favorite food tradition in your new country?

I love Swedish holiday food, for Christmas and Easter the food is pretty much the same which is fine with me.

This is from our Easter table this year which was complete with:

Deviled Eggs, smoked salmon, meatballs, ham, sausages, janssons temptation, beet salad, and herring.

2. Where have you traveled to that you thought had the best food to offer?

This is tricky but I think Brussels is the winner. Mr. H and I love cheese and meat platters which if you are a regular reader I am sure you know and this one we had at Moeder Lambic was just amazing.

3. What is the typical breakfast where you currently live and would you eat it back home?

The typical Swedish breakfast is bread with margarine and then cheese, lunch meat, or liverwurst on top. Another common thing to eat is yogurt with muesli which I have grown to love.

I would eat both of those back home but we do miss things like bacon and eggs so we usually do it once a week on Saturday.

One time my mother in law said to me she did not know how people could eat eggs for breakfast and how weird it was which made me laugh because they eat pancakes for dinner which I think is weird!

4. What type of restaurant, either style or type of food, do you think is lacking in your new home?

What I would love to see in Sundsvall is a dinner like place, where you could get tons of different things and it would be open all hours.

5. Do you think your home state/city/province has a food everyone should try?

Whenever I think of home I think of eating fish tacos, specifically ones from Bear Flag Fish Co. which if you are in the area you have to try.

6. What is your favorite dish to prepare that you would never have made back home?

That is easily jansson’s temptation, before I met Mr. H I would never have put any sort of fish in my potatoes au gratin but man is it good! That also goes for fish pie, it is now one of my favorite winter foods but back home to me  fish was always a summer food.

 

You can see the jansson’s temptation on the bottom left in the picture above.

7. What is the oddest food in your new country?

I am not sure if it is the oddest but it is one of of them for sure, the Smörgåstårta.

Side View

Top View

It is a giant sandwich cake often served at baptisms and confirmations or other various group parties. You take white bread and layer it with a creamy filling of say tuna fish then cover the top with various fruits, vegetables, fish, cheeses, and lunch meats. I can eat maybe one small piece but all the flavors melding together and how mushy it is just grosses me out.

8. If you could have a crate of one type of food sent to you from your home country, what would it be?

This is one of Belinda’s questions and extremely hard! I am lucky that my family does send me care packages and the highlights of those are always the beef jerky and a crate of it would be awesome.

9. What three foods remind you of summer?

When the weather warms up I always want guacamole with tortilla chips, popsicles, and fish tacos. A meal with all of those would actually be awesome as long as there was some ice cold beer to go with it!

10. What food from your new country are you surprised to enjoy?

When I first came to Sweden my mother in law kept serving boiled potatoes as a side dish. Not mashed, not baked and served with sour cream and butter but plain old boiled potatoes. I was like are you freaking kidding me lady you expect me to enjoy a boiled potato alongside my meal, well I thought it anyway and would hope to have had a big lunch on those nights.

Now though almost five years after meeting Mr. H and I am adding boiled potatoes to our meals!

Sure there is a gravy boat with yummy brown gravy to pour on top but I now really enjoy the flavor and texture of boiled potatoes.

 Bonus:  Where was your favorite place you ever took a summer vacation to?

Ok so to help me decided I told myself it had to be a place I have only been in summer, and that it was ok to be obvious. That left me with Greece, specifically Mykonos.

 

I was there for a few days on a tour of Greek islands and it was just the best to me. I really want to go back one day with Mr. H and eat tons of food and lounge at the beach for weeks.

Do not forget you can submit questions here for further link ups and head over to Found Love, Now What? to add your link!

Blog Everyday in May – If You’re Happy and You Know It…

Day 14, Tuesday: Ten things that make you really happy

I love this prompt just so you know1. Mr. H

Here he is looking very GQ on our wedding day.I could write about three hundred posts about why he makes me happy so suffice it say each day with him is a gift and I feel so lucky.2. Dachshunds

Here is Mr. H and my parents dachshund Girlie. Most dogs I walk by without a thought but something about dachshunds just turns me to mush, their cute little faces and short legs. Ahhh it is too much and one day I will have my own!3. Cheese

This was a small wheel of cheese Mr. H surprised me with one day and I ate so much I got a stomach ache but it was so worth it. You might think it is odd but cheese is such a comfort food and tasty so yep it makes me happy!4. Playing Games

I grew up playing cards and board games every weekend at my grandparents and on rainy days at home. I was so happy when I found out Mr. H loves playing games too and we have a small but growing collection of games we are addicted to playing.5. Rain

I am one of those weird people that love rain, it is actually raining right now as I type this. 6. Crafts

Getting out all of my various craft stuff and completing a project is so much fun and I am also happy I love crafting since the winter is so long up here it kept me occupied.7. Grocery Shopping

Ok I realize this one is even weirder than the rain but I love finding good deals and having all those fresh ingredients to cook with. 8. Holiday Decorations

Even when we knew no one up here I decorated our house for the holidays and decorate for holidays that are not celebrated in Sweden because it makes me happy.9. Giant Mugs

Filling up a giant mug with tea or coffee and getting cozy is just the perfect cure for the blues.10. Music

Unless we are asleep or watching a TV show our house is filled with music. We own three pairs of headphones so we can listen to music on the go or different music when we are home together along with records, cd’s and mp3′s enough for library!

So what makes you happy?

Blog Everyday in May – Sorry About My Awesome Pizza

Day 13, Monday: Issue a public apology. This can be as funny or as serious or as creative as you want it to be.

I am not so much a person for sorries. If I hurt you in some way I will apologize but just going along through my life I am not sorry for what I do and how I do it!

I did realize though that makes a rather boring post so I thought I would show you some pictures of our amazing date night on Saturday and feel sorry since the only way you can get this pizza is if you are in Sundsvall!

Ever since we moved here in August we have been seeing things for this pizza placed called Biteline. They claimed to have American pan pizza, we were doubtful but kept saying we had to try it and found out if the claim was true.

Well after 8 months we finally went, which is crazy since we can walk to one of their three locations, and it was amazing!

When we got there I had to remind Mr. H that it said pan pizza so it would be different than the pizza we normally would get in California but thicker than normal Swedish pizza.

They had three sizes and we decided to order our own small which was the perfect size. That is the one I ordered called Little Italy which had mozzarella (not all pizzas come standard with this in Sweden), parma ham, pesto, ruccola, sun dried tomato, and red onion. I have not been able to stop thinking about it since Saturday!

Mr. H decided to stay with his favorite and ordered pepperoni. I would say it was good because he gave me one little half bite to taste it and then was done when I still had one slice left.

What really made us smile though was their beer of the month for 39 kr you got a 500 ml beer. This is a Swedish beer that was perfect with our pizza and we had never had before.

So I am sorry for showing you awesome pizza on Monday morning!

****all opinions and what not are my own and Biteline has no idea I am writing this***