Easiest Christmas candy recipe ever and truly delicious! I made a batch while waiting for my two pound cakes (for some Trifle) to bake.

Almond brittle with gingerbread spice
(adated from a recipe that I found in a Swedish newspaper)

200 ml caster sugar
25 gram butter
1 tsp gingerbread spice
0.5 tsp cardamom
100 gram peeled shaved almonds

Put sugar and butter in a frying pan. Let melt on low-medium heat while stirring (preferably with a silicon ladle). When the mixture has become golden coloured add spices and almond. Combine carefully, the almonds will most likely cool the sugar so it will become lumpy. Just heat carefully until the mixture is runny again.
Pour the mixture over a big baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cover with another parchment paper and carfully roll with a rolling pin until spread thinly and evenly. Allow to cool, then break into pieces.

It’s only November but I’m already dreaming about summer. Despite the fact that I really look forward to our upcoming New York trip I almost regret not booking a beach vacation instead. But only almost :-)

The above photo was taken at my parents in law’s house on the west coast of Sweden. I love their terrace which is facing the sea. I can sit there for hours watching the boats go by while the sea gulls are flying around. The dish on the photo is a very tasty and easy to make mackerel. You start with frying fresh mackerel fillets, then you add cream and parsley and let it simmer. Salt and pepper, and serve with boiled summer potatoes. Swedish summer in a nutshell!

The amazing view from their balcony.

My blog was hacked yesterday (Edit 091106: and again and again) and I strongly recommend all of you with wordpress blogs to update to the latest version to avoid the stress of repairing everything if you get hacked. It took a while to restore the blog and while checking that everything was OK I found a draft post from 2007 with baguette photos. Unfortunately the recipe is long lost (I really need to learn to write a complete draft every time I cook or bake) but I’m sure that these baguettes contained sourdough.