Felicia Fredlund

Writer. Editor. Reader.

Christmas

A Flying Santa has been Released on the World

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In other words, another story in the Shadow Courier series is out, along with a companion story set in the same world.

Santa Delivery Plus Book CoverHere is the description:

When Christmas comes to the City of Shadows, fun and love won’t be at the top of the agenda for everyone. Two stories show two different but similar faces of this city.

In Santa Delivery, Courier Kora Leon wakes up in the middle of the night because she gets a message from “Santa” to deliver some “presents” for him. Except the recipients don’t know Santa’s coming. Kora needs to break and enter Santa-style and she doesn’t know how dangerous the owners will be.

Discovery is not an option.

In Christmas and Family and Favors, Maura put together a great family Christmas dinner, but her only brother hasn’t arrived yet. When she hears from him, she learns he left home at the time he should have arrived.

With Christmas traffic to navigate he’ll be late, but how late?

You can buy it here as an ebook. But you might have read the stories a few years ago when they were available in an Advent calendar. I’m very happy to have them available again.

No Reader Report for November I’m afraid. I didn’t read much since I was so busy enjoying the fall season in Japan. I’ll pick it up again in January most likely, but before then comes rethinking and planing time, which the New Year always makes me in the mood for.

Happy Holidays!

Picture of the Month — December 2018

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Christmas advent lights all lit-2016
Taken on fourth advent, 2016. Christmas is here!

Christmas, or winter leading into the holiday season, is one of my favorite times of the year. I love Christmas music. I love how I take the time to slow down. I love baking holiday treats. I love lighting candles and all the holiday/winter/Christmas lamps/fairy lights that show up in windows and that I set up around my own home (when I have a home).

Each advent Sunday, I light another candle in my advent candle holder (see picture above). I’ll usually have a fika at the same time, which will usually be a glass of glögg (mulled wine) or tea and some gingerbread cookies.

Christmas breakfast-2016
Best Christmas breakfast evah!

If I have my advent pause with breakfast, well then, just look at the picture of the kind of breakfast I’d make myself on such a morning. One of the few food pictures I’ll ever share, haha.

Christmas tree close up-2012
Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!

Picture of the Month — December 2016

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Saffron Dessert
A Christmas favorite in my family

This is a dessert I sometimes bake for Christmas Eve, which is the day we celebrate Christmas in Sweden. The dessert in the picture was baked in November 2013. And I thought I’d give you the recipe. The recipe appeared in Swedish in the cookbook Lättlagad Julmat och Julgodis by Maud Onnermark. I translated the recipe.

The measures will be the Swedish ones since it is probably easier for you to change them to your preferred measures.
(dl = deciliter; cm = centimeters)

Saffron Dessert with an Almond Base

A frozen dessert with Christmasy flavors of saffron, cinnamon and cardamom.
Makes one dessert. Serves 10-12 people. (Or so the recipe says, my experience is that you don’t need that many people to finish it in one go)

Ingredients

Almond base
150 g sweet almonds
1 1/2 dl powdered sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 egg whites

Saffron parfait
0,5 g saffron
3 dl whip cream
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 dl powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon pounded cardamom

Garnish/topping
Lightly thawed raspberries

Instructions

  1. Put the oven on 175°C. Mix finely pounded saffron with cream.
  2. Clamp in place baking paper in a pan with removable sides (springform), 24 cm in diameter. Butter the pan.
  3. Finely chop the almonds in a food processor or with a knife, and mix with sugar and cinnamon. (You could also grind the almonds in an almond grinder.) Whip the egg whites into a hard foam and fold the almond-sugar into it. Spread out the mixture in the pan.
  4. Bake on the second slot from the bottom for ca 25 minutes.
  5. Whip egg yolks and powdered sugar fluffy. Add cardamom.
  6. Whip the saffron cream and fold into the egg mixture.
  7. Spread out the mixture evenly on the cold almond base. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the freezer for at least 3 hours.
  8. To serve, remove from freezer and garnish with lightly thawed raspberries. If the dessert was in the freezer longer than 3 hours, it might have to thaw slightly before cutting.

Enjoy!