Día de los Muertos

If there is one tradition I kept within me it is the Día de los Muertos.

Ever since I moved from my hometown to Monterrey, there is one tradition that I keep it alive within me. By own decision and because it is something that I care about. And it is so because when I was a cute little child I read stories from ghosts and so.

There was one leyend about the Day of the Dead which said that all the souls came back to the underworld specifically on Nov 1st and Nov 2nd. Every soul knew the way to its home (They got GPS before it was mainstream) and 'eat' and 'drink' what was on the altar. But there were lonely or forgotten souls that had no home to go, or there was noboy who remembered them. These souls go back to their world with no food or drink at all and had to survive sad and hungry 'till the next year, and maybe they will never have something with them again.

I really got sad when I read this and asked my mom if there were really people who has been forgotten. I don't remember the answer, I just remember the anxiety of know that if it was true, that there is live after live and allthatstuff it will be so sad that the souls are more lonely that when they were humans. They will be like that for... THE ETERNITY!

So, when I moved to Monterrey I put every year an altar, with no pictures of my loved ones (also because I do not have pictures of them) and it is kinda 'oppen' for those souls who has no home to come back to. Most of all altars of the DotD are super awesome with lot of details and always trying to have ALL the elements but mine were really simple, but full of love.

Now that I remember, when I was in secondary school, I participated with my classmates in a competition to see who had the best altar that year. We made it to Cantinflas and the price was a trip to Reino Aventura. We won, of course!!! :-P (Yepp, Reino Aventura, that should tell you something about my age ;-) LOL )

So, now in Sweden I keep going with this tradition, and... TA-DAAAAAH I present you my four altars so far. If you compare mine with the expected ones, I would fail but I do not care :-D
(One change that I love is that instead of bread of the dead I put Kanelbulle, kinda Swedish, right?)

So, which one you liked more? I do not have one favorite, all of them represent also the moment where I was emotionally, so, I like them all.

2010

2011

2012

2013

IT'S ALIVE! :-D

Yes. This blog is alive. I just realised it has been like a year and a half waiting for a new post. So here it is, and yes, it's about food. I have missed to blog about too many stories but I will, someday somehow write them.

>> Kanelbullar Day <<

It was Oct. 4th 2010 when I heard about it. I remember a russian friend from our program brought us cinnamon buns. It was so kind from her. In 2011, I remember I went to a Pressbyrån and bought some, I guess I share them with some people. 

This year I choose 7/11. Actually, the store doesn't matter. It would have been nice to bake some myself and then share them with friends, but surprise! surprise! bakery is not one of my skills, at least not yet. 
During the class and on my Twitter timeline I heard/read comments about "What's the fuzz with celebrating Kanelbulle dag?". It might be just me but I think it is a way to arrange some fika (fika deserves its own post, you'll see) with friends, colleagues, family, etc. and enjoy a bun with coffe, tea, hot chocolate or whatever. Actually, a great idea to "celebrate" kanelbulle day would be to bake them, yeah, look for a receipe on the internet and do it all from scratch with friends. Maybe that would be my story on 2013 :-D.

And meanwhile another year passes by, I will update you with some other stories. Oh, there's so much to write and share...

As a final note I just wanna say that while I was writing this post, I was listening to a playlist form Songza called '90s Dance Hits. If possible, download the App, it's just amazing (no, they do not pay me to advertise them, I promise!)

Any comments? Send a tweet: @Gaby_Chamorro  ;-)

Kanelbullar för mina kompisar - Cinnamon buns for my friends

"Make it last forever, friendship never ends" 
[Wannabe - Spice Girls]

I am back.

Great!

So, the past posts have been writen in Spanish. This as a "new season" will start and be maintain in English (yay!). Hopefully for the third one it would be in another language. (BTW, Happy 2011)

Anyway, FAT TUESDAY! (or a little more fancy 'Mardi Gras')

According to Wikipedia, le Mardi Gras refers to that last night of eating fat food and so much, before the fasting and begining on ash Wednesday.

So... how to celebrate the fatty food  on Fat Tuesday? Nothing best as a delicious Semla.

Semla (yes, according to Wikipedia) is kinda traditional pastrymade of almond, cardamom and wheat bun, cut off and filled with whipped cream and dusted with powder sugar. Tasty?

Semlor

"You make me feel like dancing, I wanna dance the night away"
[Leo Sayer - You make me feel like dancing]