Swedish Cravings

This week I was experiencing two things...Swedish cravings and a lack of money. Well actually I'm saving my money for the upcoming St. Patty's day festivities but it through a kink in my blog this week. Anyways so I had to think of a cheap way to get over my swedish craving and realized Ikea could solve this problem. Ikea sells some of the few key staples in any Swedish diet and is the perfect place to go when your Swedish meatball craving becomes worse than appendicitis. The best part is that Ikea's meatballs are amazing so you never leave feeling unsatisfied or you can buy a bag of frozen meatballs so your craving can be satisfied anytime.

When you order meatballs, it is served with boiled potatoes and ligonberry jam. If you've ever ordered swedish pancakes anywhere in the US then you may have been introduced to ligonberry jam or butter and i'm sure your hooked. If you haven't then RUN to ikea so that you can be introduced to the joy that is ligonberry jam. It can be eaten with meat, potatoes, pancakes, bread whatever it is just really delicious. When I lived in Sweden I would go through a jar a month because I would eat it constantly and I'm devastated that it's not widely available here. Sometimes I think to myself that I should harass my local Safeway into carrying it but I'm a little too shy for that.

After enjoying my ligonberry jam, I snacked on some pepparkakor. Translated pepparkakor means ginger cookie and they are gingersnaps. These cookies are sold all year round in the stores but they are most popular during the Christmas season. I used to eat them every thursday after I finished my pea soup and pancakes. Every thursday I would go to Stockhoms nation and eat pea soup and pancakes and for dessert have coffee and pepparkakor. The swedes eat pepparkakor with everything from butter to bleu cheese (yes bleu cheese) but it's delicious all on its own. I bought a massive tin of pepparkakor at Christmas time from cost plus and my roommates and I have been enjoying it ever since. Now the amount of pepparkakor is dwindling but never fear there are plenty of stores that sell gingersnaps such as Cost Plus, Ikea, and some Safeways.

I wouldn't say my Swedish craving is completely satisfied, my stomach is begging for pankakor so I think tomorrow morning I'll whip up swedish pancakes with ligonberry jam and maybe this week you'll get a two-for-one on the blog posts!