I spent two weeks in June traveling with my mom and sister to visit distant relatives in Sweden. My great-grandfather (top left in the photo) on my mother’s side immigrated to Minnesota in the 1900s. Eventually two of his brother’s joined him but the rest of the four siblings remained in Sweden. On this trip we visited three of my grandmother’s cousins who live in Nyköping, Varnhem, and Vilhelmina. We had wonderful hosts, ate extremely well and had a great trip. I’ll post various highlights throughout the week, but first up: food. More importantly: dessert!

Lars, in Varnhem made homemade apple crisp and let us try honey from his bees! I’m pretty sure I’m now addicted to honey and can no longer drink my tea without it.

Mats and Viola in Vilhemina introduced us to cloudberries, an orange raspberry-like fruit that tastes delicious in ice cream.

Mats’ twin brother, Bo, and his wife, Ann-Catherine, in Nyköping introduced us to lingonberry jam on cooked oatmeal (practically dessert). Mats also had a really tasty oatmeal recipe that entailed mixing grains like rice and whole wheat kernels in his oatmeal.

Ann-Catherine is the queen of making wonderful desserts.

She made this amazing almond-custard cake for her son’s 30th birthday.

Ostkaka (A Swedish version of cheese cake.) You scoop the cake (texture is similar to bread pudding) and layer berries and whipped cream on top.

Morotstarta (Carrot cake).

My favorite part? Ann-Catherine didn’t have to go very far to dig out her favorite recipes. She had an artist friend design recipe tiles for her kitchen black splash. How cool!