For more information and tickets, please see:
http://www.ticketmaster.co.nz/Robyn-tickets/artist/793727?tm_link=seo_bc_name
The Sweden-New Zealand Association 1964 - 2014
Thursday, August 23, 2012
ROBYN coming to Auckland
For more information and tickets, please see:
http://www.ticketmaster.co.nz/Robyn-tickets/artist/793727?tm_link=seo_bc_name
Meatballs, surstomming and crayfish
As I was about to remind you all that today Thursday the 23 August is the Day of the Meatball in Sweden, I realised that I forgot to tell you that the Surströmming premier was last Thursday and the Crayfish premier the week before that... August really is the time for eating and celebrating in Sweden. Maybe the Swedes are preparing for the cold winter ahead. (Which means spring is about to arrive here soon - yay!).
Anyway. Today is the day of the Meatball in Sweden and I urge you all to go home and make some yummy meatballs, with lingonberry jam and cream sauce - YUM!
Swedish meatballs must be prepared, above all, with love. This is why “Mom’s meatballs” are a widespread concept in Sweden, and there are many different favorite recipes. Swedish meatballs are traditionally served with gravy, boiled potatoes, lingonberry jam, and sometimes fresh pickled cucumber.Traditionally, they are small, measuring one inch in diameter.
Surströmming (pronounced [sʉ̌ːʂtrœmːɪŋ], Swedish "soured (Baltic) herring") is a northern Swedish dish consisting of fermented Baltic herring. Surströmming is sold in cans, which may bulge after prolonged storage, due to the continued fermentation. When opened, the contents release a strong and sometimes overwhelming odour; the dish is often eaten outdoors.
A crayfish party is a traditional summertime eating and drinking celebration in the Nordic countries. The tradition originated in Sweden, where a crayfish party is called a kräftskiva. Crayfish parties are generally held during August, a tradition that started because crayfish harvesting in Sweden was, for most of the 20th century, legally limited to late summer. Today, the "kräftpremiär" date in early August has no legal significance. Dining is traditionally outdoors, but in practice the party is often driven indoors by bad weather or aggressive mosquitoes
Enjoy!
Anyway. Today is the day of the Meatball in Sweden and I urge you all to go home and make some yummy meatballs, with lingonberry jam and cream sauce - YUM!
Swedish meatballs must be prepared, above all, with love. This is why “Mom’s meatballs” are a widespread concept in Sweden, and there are many different favorite recipes. Swedish meatballs are traditionally served with gravy, boiled potatoes, lingonberry jam, and sometimes fresh pickled cucumber.Traditionally, they are small, measuring one inch in diameter.
Surströmming (pronounced [sʉ̌ːʂtrœmːɪŋ], Swedish "soured (Baltic) herring") is a northern Swedish dish consisting of fermented Baltic herring. Surströmming is sold in cans, which may bulge after prolonged storage, due to the continued fermentation. When opened, the contents release a strong and sometimes overwhelming odour; the dish is often eaten outdoors.
A crayfish party is a traditional summertime eating and drinking celebration in the Nordic countries. The tradition originated in Sweden, where a crayfish party is called a kräftskiva. Crayfish parties are generally held during August, a tradition that started because crayfish harvesting in Sweden was, for most of the 20th century, legally limited to late summer. Today, the "kräftpremiär" date in early August has no legal significance. Dining is traditionally outdoors, but in practice the party is often driven indoors by bad weather or aggressive mosquitoes
Enjoy!
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Upcoming events...
The committee have put their heads together and planned some great event for the remainder of the year.Please pencil in the following dates (more information to come in next newsletter):
- Friday 14th September - Quiz night
- Saturday 10th November - Movie night with Pea Soup
- December - Christmas Party
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Hemvändarna - Returning Swedes
Thinking about moving back to Sweden?During 2005 slightly more than 65 000 persons came to Sweden. The largest group was made up of some 14 000 Swedes returning home. The personal portraits depicted by the journalist and author, Ludvig Rasmusson, and the photographer, Ulla Montan in a new book. Foreword by Margot Wallström, Vice President of the European Commission.
The book "Learning from Europe - Portraits of returning Swedes" (or Hemvändarna in Swedish), shows us how Sweden deals with the experiences gained in other countries. The book is an eye-opener and poses the challenge of how to make better use of the professional competence gained by Swedes who have been working in other countries.
You can download the book here:
In Swedish: http://www.paraplyprojektet.se/page.php?id=1250&categoryID=5
In English: http://www.paraplyprojektet.se/news.php?id=1526&categoryID=12
Friday, June 22, 2012
Gla Midsommar - Happy Midsummer (winter)!
It's that time of the year again when our Family and friends over in Sweden are getting ready to celebrate midsummer.
The summer solstice is the reason why we celebrate Midsummer. Ever since pagan times, Swedes have been eager to feast through the longest day of the year, on or around June 21. Since the 1950s we have, for practical reasons, celebrated Midsummer on Midsummer Eve, which is always on a Friday between June 19 and June 25.
If you want solitude on Midsummer, stay in the city. This weekend there is an exodus from the cities to the country, where revelers meet up with friends and family.
A few more or less compulsory rituals precede the midsummer meal:
Picking wild flowers — both for the wreath that you will be wearing on your head and for the maypole, or rather, midsummer pole.
Dressing the midsummer pole in leaves and flowers. Raising the midsummer pole somewhere convenient, where there is dancing space around it.
Time for lunch! Typically, a table is set outside, decorated with a nice cloth and maybe some flowers left over from the wreath and pole. Normally, the same table will have to be moved inside due to sudden rain showers. We often joke that Midsummer is cursed, because it is quite often accompanied by damp and fairly cold weather. Of course, the more experienced hostesses and hosts don’t take any chances; they set up a tent in advance, and ask their guests to wear something warm.
The food on the table is fairly basic: different varieties of pickled herring, new potatoes with dill and sour cream. Fresh strawberries with whipped cream or strawberry cake often follow. Most adults like to wash down the herring with schnapps (a shot of alcohol), usually preceded by a short, often quite silly schnapps song, of which there are plenty, passed on from generation to generation. The Swedish schnapps is distilled from grain or potato and is often flavored, but never sweet.
When people are fed and happy, the dancing can begin. Adults and children alike form a circle around the midsummer pole and dance to traditional songs. The actual dancing is more or less a matter of moving in one direction, so not too complicated. Many towns and villages arrange public midsummer dancing, where a group of folk musicians accompany the dancing crowd.
As it never really gets dark on Midsummer, the party can go on for hours on end. Eventually, the mist starts dancing across the fields, and it may, after all, be time for bed. (Source:http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Lifestyle/Traditions/Reading/Celebrating-Midsummer/)
For more info, please watch this fantastic video, Swedish Midsummer for Dummies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ZLpGOOA1Q&feature=player_embedded
If you want solitude on Midsummer, stay in the city. This weekend there is an exodus from the cities to the country, where revelers meet up with friends and family.
A few more or less compulsory rituals precede the midsummer meal:
Picking wild flowers — both for the wreath that you will be wearing on your head and for the maypole, or rather, midsummer pole.
Dressing the midsummer pole in leaves and flowers. Raising the midsummer pole somewhere convenient, where there is dancing space around it.
Time for lunch! Typically, a table is set outside, decorated with a nice cloth and maybe some flowers left over from the wreath and pole. Normally, the same table will have to be moved inside due to sudden rain showers. We often joke that Midsummer is cursed, because it is quite often accompanied by damp and fairly cold weather. Of course, the more experienced hostesses and hosts don’t take any chances; they set up a tent in advance, and ask their guests to wear something warm.
The food on the table is fairly basic: different varieties of pickled herring, new potatoes with dill and sour cream. Fresh strawberries with whipped cream or strawberry cake often follow. Most adults like to wash down the herring with schnapps (a shot of alcohol), usually preceded by a short, often quite silly schnapps song, of which there are plenty, passed on from generation to generation. The Swedish schnapps is distilled from grain or potato and is often flavored, but never sweet.
When people are fed and happy, the dancing can begin. Adults and children alike form a circle around the midsummer pole and dance to traditional songs. The actual dancing is more or less a matter of moving in one direction, so not too complicated. Many towns and villages arrange public midsummer dancing, where a group of folk musicians accompany the dancing crowd.
As it never really gets dark on Midsummer, the party can go on for hours on end. Eventually, the mist starts dancing across the fields, and it may, after all, be time for bed. (Source:http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Lifestyle/Traditions/Reading/Celebrating-Midsummer/)
For more info, please watch this fantastic video, Swedish Midsummer for Dummies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ZLpGOOA1Q&feature=player_embedded
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