One Outfit, Four Photos

Purple dress from COS, lace dress from Style Nanda, necklace from an Israeli designer whose name I forget, sunny g's from &Other Stories.

Silver peacock earrings from Bangladesh.  Oh, and NEW HAIR!

Silver loafers from Rachey Comey.

Best Friend Dressing

Coordination is key.

Boating in Stockholm

Boat days are the best days.

She's called Marta, and she's 70 years old.  What a beaut!

We pulled right up to the royal palace (there it is in the background) for ice cream.

 And there we ran into some baby corgis.  See, I told you it was the best day.

Filtered.

New Shoes

Some gems from Acne Studios. 

The other pair of Conscious Exclusive kickers I scored from H&M's last collection.  They are beaded and have gold metal sequins, as well as tassels.  They are so kicky and fun and everyone seems to notice them (including my fishmonger)!

Eating It

Now with links and recipes!

Besides being healthy, raw pies are just about the easiest thing ever.  You got a food processor?  You got a freezer?  You can make a raw pie!  You don't even really need a recipe... maybe just something to use as a guide and then you can make your own flavor combos.  This one is a banana-chocolate-peanut butter pie.  The crust is based on one from The Rawtarian.  You can really use any nuts you have on hand.  Mine went a little something like:  1 cup walnuts, 1 cup dried unsweetened coconut, 1/2 cup dates (soak if not so soft), 1/4 teaspoon sea salt.  (Don't skip the salt, it's so nice with a salty counter to the sweet.)

Then I did a layer of banana-peanut butter, which was something like a couple of bananas, some peanut butter, some coconut oil, and some maple syrup all blended up and poured on top of the crust.  I might have added some almond milk, too.  I dunno, just taste it and tweak it if it's not sweet enough or whatnot.  It's not like "real" baking where the cake won't rise or the pie won't set if you mess up the proportions.  The whole thing's going in the freezer so it's going to be ok as long as it tastes good.  And you can taste and tweak with abandon because there are no raw eggs or anything skeevy to eat uncooked.  Just be careful not to eat your whole filling first.  Or hell, eat your whole filling and then make another for the pie!  So yeah, I put this crust + this layer in the freezer while I did the top layer.  

And the top layer's something like another banana, some coconut oil, some raw cacao, a little vanilla, some maple syrup and... I think that was it.  I just tasted it, it was good, and then it all went on top of what was already in the freezer.  I don't think I had an avocado, otherwise that definitely would have gone in here.  This was maybe one of the best raw desserts I've ever made.  No refined sugars, no gluten, all magic!

You can get inspired with more yum yum vegan baking here.

This... THIS is a reindeer heart "kebab" on a homemade pita from Speceriet (the baby brother of Gastrologik).  It was so good.  I've been fudging here and there on my gluten-free promise, and you betcha I indulged here.

This is the fantastic banana bread from My New Roots.  It's free of refined sugar, and I used a combo of buckwheat flour and rice flour so it's gluten-free.

Our oven's been on the fritz and we've been dealing with it longer than I should admit, lest you judge me.  (Like, it goes out anywhere from 1-10 times during baking, and this involves a hassled re-light--often with accompanying bitching.  Really we're lucky that neither of us has been badly burnt in this endeavor.)  The final straw was the night I had two from-scratch gf pizza crusts ready to go and the damn thing just would not light.  Not at all.  So we made "pizza pancakes", which just means that I panfried the dough and then added the toppings and yum yum pizza night was saved!  I would actually cook pizza like this again if it wasn't so labor-intensive because it turned out really well.

I splurged on some smoked eel from Lisa Elmqvist the other day.  Here it is in a traditional Swedish way with scrambled eggs (and fresh thyme).  

And here's a super nommy kale, mushroom, pepper bowl over black rice (the "forbidden rice".... oooooh) with a miso-orange-sesame sauce.

Breakfast Buddies

Most every morning before work, we have a quick breakfast together in the kitchen.  It usually ends with a cat on a lap.

Open.

Shut.

RANGS

I have been obsessing about rings lately.  I've been really getting into jewelry (I've started a silversmithing course) and stones (more on that later) and, like with most anything, I find it's vintage jewelry that really revs my engine.  We were in Prague for Easter, where vintage garnets and amber abound.  Though I was peeved to not be on the Euro when I moved to Sweden, it turns out the krona's pretty mighty when up against many other currencies.  Put it up to the Czech crown, however, and that poor little guy doesn't stand a chance.  So not only is Prague pretty darn affordable for just about anyone, if that anyone (er, someone) is paying in SEK shit's on even bigger discount.

This is my haul of rings from a weekend in Prague.  All interesting, most vintage, and all at great prices.  It became the quest of the trip--finding rings, more rings, what about the rings???  In and out of vintage stores--maybe there's some down this street?  Did we already do this shop?  So. Many. Rings.

RINGS!

First up is an Edwardian stunner in 9k gold with violet sapphires most unusually set.  I like how the bottoms of the stones are exposed and look like jagged teeth.  I think it's remarkably modern for the time.  And the color of the stones is so unusual.  I'm not entirely sure they're not some kind of color-change sapphire, because I swear sometimes they are more purple-y, sometimes more grey, sometimes more pink.  Or maybe it's just my crazy rainbow vision.

Next up in another unusual setting.  This time it's a garnet set in silver, probably '60s era.  It's a good stacker.

Speaking of stackers, this is a vintage garnet 14k jam.  The man at the antique store explained that many of the garnets now come from other places, but Bohemia used to be the spot for these stones.  It's hard to see from the photo, but the stones are set with the pointy side up.  

(Corpse hand...)

This is a little gem from the 1920's in 14k.  I love the elongated hand.  The woman told me it's not a diamond but perhaps a white sapphire, but who knows?  I love it either way.

I forgot to photograph this guy on his own, but I couldn't leave without getting a little amber number, too.  This one's a rounded square, set in sterling.

One Outfit, Two Photos

Wore this a while back.  Sheer overdress from Style Nanda store in Seoul, vintage poly polka dot dress that I've had forever and that has survived all closet cuts heretofore, kukui nuts from Hawaii.

And my favorite favorite shoes of the last year (oh, the comfort!  oh, the heels!) from COS.  I'll be honest, I'm a little bummed that COS is coming to the US--and with online sales to boot!  But, oh well.  I can't horde all of the good stuff.  The world deserves COS.

Shoe Love Lately

I have been hard at thought about what to stomp around in this Spring.

I love love love these Comeys, but the idea of twisting an ankle (much less eating shit completely) put me off.

These (also from the inimitable Rachel Comey) could be slightly better due to back strapage and OH THOSE STRIPES.  But I already have a pair from her that are strappy, brown, and clogged.  Also:  potential neck breakage due to wooden platform + cobblestone.

But then... THEN I was able to score a pair of THESE beauts from H&M's Conscious Exclusive collection, which came and went last week and if you weren't around for those few hours that it was actually in store or online you would have had no idea it ever existed because now there is nary a trace.   (CSI: Fashion Exclusives Unit?) So those of us lucky to score a snippet of it had better appreciate.

These mules are made from leather tanned with vegetal dyes from cows raised for their organic meat here in Sweden.  How beautiful is that?  Oh, and they're comfortable and cute as ever.

I also scored the heavily embellished sandals (comfy as all getout, made in Portugal thankyouverymuch) and the leather skirt.  As for the matador jacket, just FYI it took 15 days to produce ONE of them in India and sold for less than it cost (that part I won't tell you).  Pretty incredible.  I love my company.

Har Har

Kitty cleavage.

Hey, you goats!  Cut it out!  

Foodstuffs

These little guys are called nors in Swedish.  My friendly fishmonger told me they're related to salmon, but I think they're actually a type of smelt.  (Is smelt related to salmon?  Hmm.)  We battered them in a spicy potato flour mix, then fried 'em up whole.  You eat the whole thing--heads and all.  They were a crispy fishy delight!

Not to be outdone by my fish guy, my cheese guy also hooks me up with what's fresh and local.  Check out this beautiful buffalo mozzarella from right here in Sweden!  There's a farm full of happy buffalo outside of Uppsala and this is their expensive, er... delicious cheese.  I ain't mad at the buffalo, everything's expensive here in Sweden.  But it was totally worth it.

This here's some carrot cake baked oatmeal.  What a breakfast treat!

And this is a chocolate-almond vegan pie.

I took this shot to quickly answer Byron's text of what's for dinner.  It was sauteed kale, a millet-mushroom-spinach salad, and some tofu.  Yums!

Cochino Should Be Better at Swedish

With her cat ass on the page while I'm trying to study.

Wedging herself into my online lessons.

Making Up

Yellow eyes from NARS, red lips from & Other Stories.

Minty blue eyes from NARS.

Shimmery lime eyes from & Other Stories.

Glutinous Rice

This is what a glutinous rice doughnut looks like after a 15 hours transit from Seoul to Stockholm.

It still tasted delicious.  Thanks to B for bringing one back for me!