arancini

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I recently read a Swedish book called Je m’appelle Agneta. It’s about a woman my age who quits her Swedish life and moves to France to care for an older demented man. I was so inspired!

Not that I don’t love my life, and I really don’t want to move, but I loved the way her new life was described and the new values she grew into.

The love she has for cheese, wine, the tiny French village, the local products, and the villagers. And ultimately for herself. <3

It’s just the same for me. I live in a tiny village, I love the same; bread, wine and cheese, and really good food, and after a few years living here I am treated with the same warmth she was. The villagers here don’t shout ”Bon Jour Anjetta” after me, but they smile and wave, and that is a really big thing for Northern Sweden.

We have an old car, from 2002, and it keeps breaking down. We don’t have the finances to buy a new car, not even a slightly newer one, but I also have this urgent wish to NOT have a car. Where we live we need one though. But we could try to minimize using it.

There will be times when we need to go to town, and do some real shopping; groceries, wine, beer, booze, (we still have a government monopoly on alcohol) dog food, clothes etc. But in our daily life we really shouldn’t use it.

There will also be times when we want to throw our kayaks on the roof and go to different lakes and rivers around Jämtland, or fill the car with friends, dogs and backpacks, to go hiking on a mountain.

But in my day-to-day-life I really don’t want to use a car. I have a bike, but I also have a French Bulldog. Can you see her trotting next to the bike? Well, yes I can, too.

But can you see her trotting by the bike when it rains?

There is a Swedish word describing this perfectly: tvärnit. I actually had to google this one, but the closest thing I came to describing it in English is when someone slams on the breaks. Sudden immediate stop. And the look! Can you see the look she gives me for even suggesting that she walks, or runs, the 20 minutes to work, in the rain? Oh dear, if she could she would point to the bedroom door and say sternly, and slowly GO. TO. YOUR. ROOM.

Another Swedish word really hard to translate is villhöver. It’s not an actual word, it’s a combination of two; ”vill ha” and ”behöver”; villhöver. In English that is a combination of want and need. Weed? No. Wand? No. Waneed? No. The sentiment is that you want something so bad it feels like you need it.

That’s exactly how I feel about a cargo bike.

There is plenty of room for Peanut, and my work bag with computer, gadgets, camera, lunchbox. Should I stop at the grocery store I can easily fit a few grocery bags in there as well. It has a hood for rainy days.

Anyway, while saving up for this we still live as simple and cheap as we can.

We made risotto the other day and there was quite a lot left, so I went ahead and made Arancini, a Sicilian dish made with leftover risotto with cheese and jalapeños, like double breaded chili cheese rice balls. We also had half a loaf of stale sourdough bread that we made breadcrumbs of. We aim for zero waste.

So we made little balls of chopped up jalapeños and grated cheese, put these in little bigger balls of risotto and rolled them first in regular flour, whisked egg, and homemade breadcrumbs, then deep friend until golden, hot and delicious.