A Swedish Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! No one actually cares about Thanksgiving here. Which makes sense, as Thanksgiving is very much an American holiday.  Yet, even though we are in Sweden, we still managed to have an American Thanksgiving but with a Swedish twist.  Since Thursday was a work day in Sweden, we celebrated on Friday instead.  Mike and Allison were our hosts for the evening and did most of the cooking.  It wasn't easy to find some of the more traditional ingredients (such as turkey, cranberries and pumpkin), but after visiting several grocery stores and a few online searches, we were able to secure all the ingredients needed. 

Mike and Allison...Our hosts for the evening

On the menu: turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potato casserole, roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, corn casserole, lingonberry cranberry sauce, french onion soup, pecan pie, pumpkin cookies, princess cake and glogg. 

Time to carve the turkey

    

                          

Belle enjoying her turkey

The meal tasted, smelled, and felt like home.  Mike and Allison did a fabulous job hosting and cooking.  This was also Sean, Emma, and Olivia's first Thanksgiving.  They loved it and believe this is a holiday that should be celebrated in England.  Thanksgiving in Sweden was officially a success!

Olivia slept through her first Thanksgiving

Emma and Olivia

Belle loved playing with Natalie

Belle and Olivia

A Swedish Christmas Dinner and Vasa Tour

As one of Cyle's birthday presents, I booked a Christmas Dinner and tour at the Vasa museum. Mike and Allison went with us.  The dinner, which was at the Vasa's restaurant, consisted of a typical Julbord.  Christmas in Sweden is all about the Julbord – think “Smörgåsbord” but with all the classic Christmas foods.

Menu

Aperitif

A glass of homemade Mulled wine with raisins and almonds.
      
                            
Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted at the bar with a glass of glogg.  We have discovered that glogg is a staple of a Swedish Christmas. 

Starter.

Cold smoked reindeer from Kangas. Served with three varieties of beets from Götland on salad leaves and yellow beetroot cream.

                           

Our first starter was the smoked reindeer.  The reindeer was good, but too gamy for my taste.  

Next starter: Vasas mustard herring and herring with horseradish, sweet pickled herring from Norröna, Vasas fried pickled herring and gravlax (cured salmon). Served with cooked potatoes from Götland, homemade crispbread and cheese from the region of Västerbotten.
  
                     

                     

The next starter was herring, which is a very Swedish dish.  While I didn't not like it, I have to say that herring is an acquired taste.  I tried all of the different varieties, but don't plan to sample the cuisine again. 

                      

Main Course

Crispy arctic char with herb broth, mini vegetables, tapioca pearls and parsnip chips.
or
Slow Cooked and home smoked shoulder of pork from Havdems farm on Gotland. Served with almond potato and artichoke puree. Calvados and apple sauce.
    
                     

For dinner, I ordered the pork and Cyle ordered the Arctic char.  Both dishes were delicious. 

Dessert

Brulé of arctic raspberries, Valrhona chocolate mousse and reversed seabuckthorn cheesecake. 

 

                   

I  think the desserts were every one's favorite part of the meal, naturally.  :) 

Overall, we had a wonderful dinner and it was fun to try some very native Swedish dishes.  After dinner, it was time to tour the Vasa museum.

Belle is ready for the tour

The guided tour gives a brief overview of the Vasa's history - the king, the ship's construction, the maiden voyage, the sinking, the salvage, and the preservation.

The ship was built at the order of the King of Sweden Gustavus Adolphus.  He was interested in securing and expanding the crown of Sweden, and as part of the military expansion he had begun a war with Poland-Lithuania. 

To portray his power and prestige, he commissioned the Vasa.  The Vasa was meant to be a technological marvel.  At the time of the ships construction, sea battles were changing as cannon power was being introduced and the goal of capturing and boarding a ship changed to sinking a ship for victory.  The king, wanting to show his power, ordered that another gun deck be added to the ship after construction had already began to allow for 64 cannons to be on board. 

As was the custom with warships at the time, Vasa was decorated with sculptures intended to glorify the authority, wisdom and martial prowess of the monarch and also to taunt and intimidate the enemy.  The sculptures represented how the King wanted the world to see both Sweden and himself.  As Vasa was built for the war against Poland, many of the sculptures were meant to belittle the enemy. The ship’s stern is a large advertisement for Sweden and Sweden’s king, a 17th-century form of war propaganda.  The ship was also painted red while the sculptures were decorated in bright colors and gold leaf.

The sculptures are replicas that were on the ship's hull.

 

 

Wheat was often depicted as it showed Sweden's power    

The lions represented the King as he was known as the Lion of the North

After two years, the Vasa was ready for her maiden voyage. On Sunday, the 10th of August, 1628, Vasa left port with 100 crew members on board. Onlookers watched as the boat caught wind and began to port. At first, the boat seemed to steady itself, but another gust a wind rocked it even further and water began to enter through the gun holes.

There, the Vasa sank in the harbor, and around fifty people lost their lives that day.  Today, efforts are being made to learn more about the people who died that day.  Using their skeletons, historians and archaeologists have been able to reconstruct what the people looked like. 

Fillip was 30 years old and was believed to be the steer man.  

So what caused the Vasa to sink?  News of the sinking didn't reach the king until two weeks after the mishap as he was in Poland awaiting the arrival of his new warship.  He issued an inquest into the sinking as someone had to be held responsible.  Surviving crew members were questioned one by one about the handling of the ship at the time of the disaster. Was it rigged properly for the wind? Was the crew sober? Was the ballast properly stowed? Were the guns properly secured? Next, shipbuilders were questioned.  However, no one was prepared to take the blame.  In the end, nobody was punished or found guilty of negligence and blame was placed on the captain, who perished with the ship.  Later. it was determined that the Vasa sank because of a lack of stability as the ship was incorrectly proportioned.  The underwater part of the hull was too small and the ballast insufficient in relation to the rig and two gun decks.  Even before the ship set sail, the ship's stability was already in question.  During a heeling test, thirty men ran back and forth across the upper deck to start the ship rolling, but the admiral stopped the test after they had made only three trips, as he feared the ship would capsize.  Yet, the Vice Admiral to the king passed the ship. 

  

In 1957, the wreckage was found and the process to bring it to the surface began.  Almost 98% of the ship is original.  Even today, efforts are being made to preserve the ship so it can be viewed for years to come.  What was an epic disaster is today one of Sweden's crowning achievements.