The rutabaga is a Swedish root vegetable
called kålrot in Swedish, the old Swedish name for this tasty rooty is
rotabagge which means bag of roots,
so the exotic name rutabaga is actually derived from Swedish, in England
the rutabaga is actually called swede. One of my favorite dishes is rotmos
or root mash, it is made from rutabaga, potatoes and carrots. I experimented
by replacing the carrots and potatoes with sweet potatoes and the result
was deliciously creamy and silky smooth. This dish is not only colorful
and tasty it is good for you, rutabagas are high in c-vitamins combined
with the sweet potatoes that are high in a-vitamins sprinkle a lot of parsley
on top of your mash and your dish might even lower your blood pressure.
Here is how to do it
The Swedish soccer team BK
Häcken from Gothenburg comes to
Disney
World, Orlando to play against
US and Canadian teams from February 25 through March 3.
The sixth issue of the Swedish magazine
Sven is now available online, SVEN is a magazine in Swedish for Swedes
living abroad. The current issue focus on home decoration, how to incorpare
Swedishness in your home away from Sweden. Read SVEN here http://issuu.com/tidningensven/docs/svennummer6
Tomas Tranströmer has been nominated
for the prize since 1993 and is a well known writer in Sweden, he is published
in 60 languages including English. I will be interesting to read this great
Swedish poet in English.
The sleek and neat Swedish candy store
Sockerbit
in New York is now offering some of their wonderful sweets online. Today
I ordered a big bag of the smågodis us Swedes almost cannot live without
such as green frogs, Dumle lakrits, likörpraliner and of course cola bottles.
Within a few days I will get my coveted candy bag, yum yum y'all. Hint,
if you want to give something a Swede will really appreciate, you cannot
go wrong with a bag of smågodis.
Themepark style museums and souvenir mongering,
give to the rich, take from the poor and sick, lack of communication, inefficiency
and corruption, obsolete infrastructure, the post 9/11 events depicts how
the US works today, in a nutshell. The World Trade Center has become a
big money maker for many, including the contractors, amongst them Swedish
Skanska, lawyers, non-profits, politicians and government officials have
enriched themselves from the billions of taxpayer dollars that have been
pumped into various 9/11 projects. At the same the US government claims
that more than 60 000 people that were engaged in rescue, clean-up and
rebuilding are at risk from having inhaled the toxic dust from the collapsed
towers, 28 000 of them have had their health checked and so far 18 500
get medical treatment for physical and mental conditions, for many those
conditions are permanent. Not all the sick people have health insurance
to cover treatment and medication and some have ended up in misery as the
government hasn't been able to approve compensation funds to help the people
that used to be called heroes and now are crippled and broke from their
exposure to dangerous debris from ground zero. Some Republicans have argued
that "it would put the nation's finances at risk" if Congress
gave sick 9/11 responders a permanent guaranteed program to ensure they
get health care. There were no such objections when the war against
terrorism, including the war against Afghanistan was launched. Yet, again,
when the New York police and fire department asked for a modernization
of the emergency communication, amongst that emergency radios that during
the 9/11 attack were hindered by faulty equipment and overloaded transmissions.
Many firefighters in the WTC towers didn't hear the orders to evacuate
before the building collapsed, many NYPD radio dispatchers still have nightmares
about them hearing the police officers calling for help and not being able
to answer. Today, a decade after the attack, followed by hurricanes, tornadoes,
wildfires and floodings, emergency crews from different jurisdictions still
can't talk to eachother. The technology to solve these communication problems
exists but the US Congress hasn't been able to fund a technology that would
save lives and bring the emergency technology into the 21st century. One
would suspect that most of the government resources goes to communication
technology for the US military, still fighting the ghosts from 9/11 in
countries far away. One wonders who and what they will blame when the embarrassing
multimedia documents display the desperate lack of information and lack
of coordination between the civil and military aviation authorities are
finally made available to the public . Contrary to the government officials
assurances that fighter pilots had been in pursuit of the hijackers and
ready to shoot down the airplanes by order from President George W. Bush,
of the four flights, the military had nine minutes notice on the one that
flew into the WTC and did not learn about the other three hijacked planes
until after they had crashed. Fighter pilots were sent east of Washington
in pursuit of of American Airlines flight 11 one hour after it had crashed.
There is only one factor that differs the 9/11 post 9/11 from
todays' US is that the attack actually created jobs - jobs, jobs, jobs.
The Real Housewives series created by
Bravo is addictive, at least the NY Housewives and the Hollywood Housewives.
The American housewives manifest an extraordinary nastiness combined with
a total lack of intellectualism, humanism or even sense of humor in their
way of living the plastic, fantastic American dream. I cannot stop watching
these group of women though, they are, to a Swede, fascinating in their
pure nastiness, complete lack of style and etiquette, and open greed and
jealousy. One of the most hilarious characters is the woman who titles
herself Countess LuAnn de Lesseps, just like her name, she is a bizarre
mix of US mobile park dweller with good looks that has taken a few tours
in the fine rooms of Europe and now is telling everyone at all times how
they are supposed to behave in the most rude way possible and doesn't mind
embarrassing her guests with remarks on their short comings in style and
finesse. Anyways, fun to watch and make me feel good. The Swedish copy
aired on TV3 is bleak to say the least. I watched the first episode online
and was very disappointed, being spoiled with the American Housewives the
Swedish cast is not bitchy, crazy or glamorous enough to entertain.