Warning for icicles

Even when there are long and very cold winter seasons that gives thick layers of snow for weeks, you know that snow's not going to stay on forever. At one point, when the temperature just gets a few degrees warmer – even though it's still minus zero – the snow slowly, slowly, slowly melts in the sun.


Icicles. They form under the eaves, slowly growing by the day as the dripping water freezes in the air. The picture above was taken from our kitchen window.

Below, on ground level, this is the result:


That poor plant, carrying the weight of all that frozen water on its thin branches!

The kitchen window icicles were quite huge. Not surprising that the landlords put a warning by our door to watch out for falling icicles (istapp – a handy Swedish word if you want to know what to look out for!).

Not too long after I took those pictures, the landlords hired someone to chop the icicles away. Thicker than fingers, and surely longer than a forearm!


The istapp warnings are not to be taken lightly... I've got more pictures to convince you.

What do say about these giant icicles on a building of Marcus' old high school? That one he's looking at can almost be as long as Marcus is tall.


Here's another warning for icicles:


You see these a lot in this weather, especially on the south sides of buildings where the sun shines the longest...

... Not that the warnings can save you from the icicle you see when you look up:


That.

That would be a terrible way to die.


Same building, on the west side. Ouch.

If you ask my humble opinion, they should chip that away, man!

Yet, as I found out when I looked out the kitchen window today, merely chipping the icicles away is not a guarantee that they won't grow back again. Slowly, but oh so surely, icicles grow back.


There's only one sure way to stop the icicles from forming, and that's to shovel the snow from the eaves.


Just make sure to watch out for those ice blocks.

Frost

Haven't been able to upload these frosty pictures from last week. In the meantime, Norrköping is back to 1-digit degrees below zero, and there's sun. Watch out, it might be icicle pictures here next, if I manage to catch those in photo before they fall to the ground!

Frosty grass. Looks like seaweed.

Frosty plants. Looks like tempura.

Frosty Rowan (rönnbär), or at least that's what I think it is. Looks blurry.


Frosty bikes. Looks cool.

That bump, my nemesis

That small bump on the border of Mats and Margareta's yard, between their wood shed and the field where we ski, is my enemy!

2007:

2008:

2010:


... At least I'm learning how to get up faster!

Counting 2006, and maybe even 2009 skiing with Jeline, the scoreboard seems to be:

The evil bump: 5
Joy: 0

I have no smart ideas how to beat the undefeated champion, at least not right now. But one day...!


Those white things on my hair? They're not signs of age. It's my own frozen breath on my hair.

The bump aside , on flatter ground, the skiing was all good. This year's winter has been long, cold, and snow-covered. Instead of the usual winters where the snow melts to slush within in a week, we have had snow that stayed on the ground for a month or more (and it's still there).

If anything, the snow makes good winter photos... if your feet and hands can stand the cold.


With skis you float on the upper part of the 20-centimeter thick snow. It's much better and faster than walking on – or rather trudging in – the deep snow cover (Trivia I heard from the radio: the crunching sound you hear when walking on newly fallen snow are actually snow crystals rubbing against each other!)


With better skiing technique, you can even go on "third gear" when the landscape goes even slightly downhill.

The long and constant coldness have led to a bit of strange animal behavior. At the countryside, we spotted a deer sleeping by the outer wall of the house, probably seeking shelter from the cold winds (cold + wind = more cold!). Margareta thought of giving food to the poor thing, but just the sound of the door opening was enough to scare the animal away. So, not all things are fun with a cold, long winter.

I have more winter pictures to share, but I can wait with that until the weekend. For now, have fun wherever you are!

Food journal number 59: Taco pizza

This year's New Year resolution is to eat more and varied greens and fruit, and to eat well but in moderation.

So, where does this Taco pizza fit in this picture?

Nowhere. Or possibly, if you stretch it, it fits the criteria thanks to the addition of (for me) newly discovered and tested dinkel flour (a.k.a. spelt, an ancient species of wheat), which I added to the dough to give it some, uh, let's say, health points. Dinkel is my new savior against too-unhealthy food! :-)

Besides that, taco pizza is exactly as the name proclaims. A strange Scandinavian cross between the taco and the pizza - two import foods the Swedes love. I'm pretty sure that this bastard son of a dish would be disowned by Mexicans and Italians alike. In Sweden though, strange pizza toppings like bananas, curry, eggs, as well as sauces as garlic sauce and Bearnaise find their way to the regular pizza restaurant (I wrote about this in my first pizza entry here). There may not be another place in the world where they have kebab pizza. Or taco pizza, for that matter.

Really, you should really open your minds to this thing called "fusion food". ;-)

Here's the recipe for the dinkel (spelt) pizza dough and the tomato sauce. The toppings were ground meat with taco spice, jalapeño peppers, tomatoes, onions and cheddar and served with sour cream with garlic.

You don't need to make a taco pizza out of the recipes below of course. Learn from the Swedes: the topping possibilities are more or less endless! To bake the pizza, just pop in the oven at 250 C for 15 minutes.

Pizza dough with dinkel flour (spelt)
(for 4-6 pizza bottoms)

25 g yeast
5 dl water
2 t salt
2 T oil
ca 15 dl flour
of which I used:
6 dl dinkel (spelt) flour
8 dl wheat flour + 1 dl for kneading

Crumble the yeast in a bowl and add some of the finger-warm water. When the yeast is dissolved, add the rest of the water, salt and oil. Add the flour in batches while stirring. Knead until you have a supple dough that doesn't stick to the edges of the bowl, about a couple of minutes. Cover and let rise for 1-2 hours. After it has risen, knead a bit before rolling into circles, squares, or whatever shape of your choice. The dough can be made thin or thick depending on your preference. (Dinkel makes the dough very pliable so I didn't need a lot of flour for further kneading / rolling when I was at the rolling stage).

While the dough rises, you can prepare the sauce so it has time to cool before you lay it on:

Tomato sauce for pizzas
(from Mat för liv och lust, which is a cookbook I won at a contest!)

1 finely hacked yellow onion
1-2 finely hacked garlic cloves (I used 3)
1 T oil
1 can crushed tomatoes
2 T tomato paste
1 vegetable broth cube (I used half)
salt and pepper
oregano

Warm the oil in a pot and sautee the garlic and onion. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, broth cube and spices. Let boil and simmer for ca. 30 minutes. When done, purée the sauce with an immersion blender if desired. Alternatively, you can pass the sauce through a sieve.

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