Strawberries again

First day of vacation and it is wonderful! So far I have put up an IKEA CD shelf and filled it, and filled another book case with books. No cooking today, we are going to some friends for dinner. But this weekend I cooked. A lot! And ate! A friend and I visited another friend and her family on the west coast near Gothenburg. The first thing she asked us when she picked us up was "do you mind having fresh prawns for dinner?" Umm, no? "And tomorrow we are planning to grill some fish, is that OK?" Well... OK then!

We brought some gifts, all food-related of course. A bottle of rosé wine, a must in summer, some champagne tea and a Jamie Oliver flavour shaker which I haven´t tried yet but I really like the idea and thought it would suit the foodie friends. As it turned out their young son also was very very fascinated by this new kitchen gadget. He´s 15 months, very perceptive and very sweet. On Saturday I discovered quite a lot of ripe strawberries in their garden, along with some mint plants. I decided to try the shaker out making some of Anne´s mint sugar (who actually thinks she got the idea from Oliver himself). The shaker is quite handy and easy to use but you really get a lot of exercise for your arms! I put sugar and mint in it and began shaking it like mad in front of the little boy who watched me with big round eyes for a long while. He had already started calling me "Ninna" on Friday but after my mint sugar exercise in the kitchen that evening the name Ninna was accompanied by shaking his little hands frenetically. I texted with his mother yesterday and he still talks about Ninna and shakes his hands, apparently! Too sweet. They will have a hard time keeping the shaker from him, he really liked it!

The mint sugar was fantastic with sunwarm strawberries right from the garden. Next time I will try it with pineapple as Anne suggests. I will just have to buy a shaker for myself now, it was great fun to cook with it! And speaking of Anne - she and I will go to this place tomorrow for a really substantial coffee...