Election Day!

It was general election day in Sweden today!  There having been campaign posters plastered on every available surface for weeks and campaign booths set up all over the city.  Yesterday, we are quite certain that we were on the same subway train as one of the major candidates.  Sweden is expecting a 90% turn out in voters today.  That is pretty darn impressive!  Here is a link if you are curious to see how voting works in Sweden.

We took Coco for a long walk today and enjoyed the sight of seeing all the Swedes heading to the polls and treating election day as a sort of holiday.

We wore Coco out and she took the afternoon "off" by taking a long nap.

We again enjoyed sitting in the sunshine on our new balcony before Josh and Max headed out for Max's track practice and I got busy in the kitchen.

Tabitha had asked me to enter our family's favorite recipe in the Tulane "Recipes from Home" recipe contest.  I needed a high resolution picture to go with my recipe, so today, I had the chance to do two of my favorite hobbies, cooking and taking pictures!

Pretzels are not the favorite dish!  They are just fun to make so we made them this afternoon as well.

Blanquette de veau is the favorite so I am posting my recipe here as well.  Delicious!

Blanquette de Veau

2 pounds of veal, cut in 1 inch cubes

10 oz of dry white wine

250 grams carrots, cut in ¼ inch rounds

120 grams diced yellow onion

500 grams of sliced mushrooms

40 grams of butter

40 grams of flour

1 egg yolk, slightly beaten

2/3 cup crème fraîche

1 bay leaf

Salt and pepper

Place the veal in the bottom of a large Dutch oven.  Cover with cold water.  Add the onions, carrots, bay leaf, white wine, 1 tablespoon of sea salt, and ½ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.  Mix well.

Bring to a boil.  Uncover and decrease heat to allow a low simmer.  Simmer for 2 hours.  In the last 10 minutes, add the sliced mushrooms to pot.

While the mushrooms cook, make a blond roux by melting the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  When butter has melted, gradually whisk in the flour.  When a thick paste is achieved, slowly add one cup of the broth from the pot, 1/3 cup increments.  When the roux is complete, slowly stir into the stew.

Simmer for another 10 minutes.

Just before serving, add the crème fraîche.

As a final step, stir in the egg yolk.

Remove from heat.  Serve over couscous, rice or noodles.

Serves 6-8.