Christmas, snow and glögg

So I was supposed to make glögg again so that I had the correct quantity of spices but unfortunately mum and grandma drank what was left of the red wine.
Because of that you'll have to taste as you go but anyway here it is;

Swedish Glögg

4 servings
For about 2 dl red or white (the red is the most classic) wine you need

1 dl water
1 dl sugar
Peal from about half an orange
2 tsp ground clove or about 7 whole ones
2 small sticks of cinnamon broken into smaller pieces
1 tsp of vanilla (aroma or the real thing doesn't matter)
1 1/2 tsp of ground ginger
a little bit of mace

Put the sugar and water in a saucepan and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Ad the spices and boil until you have a relatively thick syrup.

Strain the syrup so that there isn't any bits of the spices left, pour it back into the saucepan and ad the wine, let everything come up to a boil.

Next part is optional but I think it gives the glögg an extra kick; take the glögg from the stove and ad 2 tbsp of gin (or vodka or any other strong booze you like), then you flambé it.

Serve hot with raisins and blanched almonds.

It taste best if you've been outside in the snow and are really cold, but the new trend here in Sweden is to drink it cold with an ice cube in it.

You can also replace the whine with apple juice to make an alcohol free version or just boil the wine until the alcohol has disappeared, but then you might want to make the syrup stronger or buy something called aromatic tincture (the pharmacists sell it).
The glögg can also be seasoned with saffron, lingonberries, chili, mandarin and more...

Tomorrow Herbert is coming home for the holiday and we're probably going to make some Christmas candy.
At the moment we're having trouble with the snow, we almost didn't make it outside today. There haven't been this much snow for a very long time and it's a bit daunting when the snow come halfway up the windows, I think that last night it came about 1 meter of snow.

We'll just have to wait to see what tomorrow brings...

yes i am procrastinating. it's my middle name.

ever had that "ohmygawd-i've-got-to-finish-this-rapport-i'm-suppodsed-to-hand-in-tomorrow-and-i've-been-procrastinating-for-a-month-i-need-some-serious-chocolatcake"-feeling? that's pretty much my day. so i thought i'd make some easypeasy chocolate spongecake with frosting. ha. i've got butter all over my kitchen floor, cause the pan leaked. when i took the cake out of the pan half of didn't come out, so the cake was crooked. the cream cheese fronsting tasted wierd, and daft as i am i added cocoa to it so it looked like... yeah. you know. adding sprinkles didn't help. dusted it with cocoa. didnt help. finally- choconut shavings gave the cake a sort of neat impression. but if you feel like making a chocolatcake i'd recomend using perhaps this: from annie or this from joy or if you can read swedish this one. am 100% sure they tase so much better than mine.

 

actually. it doesn't look to bad. the power of choconut. 

but it also makes me think of this site. unfortunalty it's in swedish, but oh so hilarious.

now, i'm going to continue writing and listening to this.

Teaser

Just to let you know I'm working on a new post, since it's winter and almost christmas I have developed a recipe for the swedish mulled wine called glögg that I'll post soon just a few more tweaks needed. And we're also getting a new guest-blogger, our mother, who will post a recipe on a chocolate mousse cake with pears.

And I do promise the post's will come soon.