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A Slice of Home

One of the jobs of an exchange student is to share our cultures with our families and friends in our host country. Recently, one of my favorite days of the year came up. For Alaska Day, back in my hometown of Sitka, the festivities were going down as the locals celebrated the anniversary of Alaska being sold to the US from Russia. This year was extra special because it was the sesquicentennial: officially 150 years since being sold. Sitka had been preparing for long ahead of time; there were even Alaska Day events before I left Sitka in July! As everyone was clearly having an amazing time celebrating with dance shows, period themed balls, bagpipes, and parades, I started to feel a little bit homesick for my town. One little tradition that many Sitkans partake in every year is going to the Lutheran Church before the parade starts and buying a delicious slice of pie from one of the hundreds that they bake for the town. Every year, I am overwhelmed by the sheer number of flavors, from pumpkin, to pecan, to key-lime and everything in between, and every year I opt for a simple blueberry pie. You can probably guess what I was craving as Alaska Day rolled around the corner and of course it was blueberry pie. Then I realized that this would be the perfect opportunity to share a small part of me and my home with my Swedish family. I asked my host mom if I would be able to bake a pie for the family and she was of course happy to say yes. After hours of scanning Pinterest for recipes that seemed simple enough for my level of baking expertise, I found a recipe for the crust and filling that seemed easy. I don’t bake often and when I do, it is usually accompanied by someone who actually knows what they are doing, so this was different. I was totally alone and actually enjoying it! That is, until I actually tasted the crust that I had just finished rolling out. I stuck out my tongue as the overwhelming amount of salt hit me. Because I had failed to even attempt to read the Swedish on the butter package, I ended up using the “super salted butter” instead of the non-salted. There was no way I was going to be able to fix it, so I would just add an overwhelming amount of sugar to the filling and hope it evened out. A few stressful hours and many slip-ups later, I finally got the pie into the oven. All I could do now was pray for a somewhat edible dessert, and keep it from burning. I could be famous for my ability to burn every single item that I place inside an oven so after putting the pie in, I sat down in front of the glass door and waited. I guess God felt sorry for me after the butter debacle and decided to let the pie survive the oven. When it was finally came out, I was stunned to see a delicate, unburned crust and carefully set it on the counter to cool. Because it was nearly eleven o'clock, and the pie needed at least an hour to set, we decided to save it for breakfast. I didn’t actually get to try it until fika after dinner the next day, but it actually tasted good. The overwhelming amount of salt and sugar evened out and gave it a balanced flavor. I had officially made a pie, from scratch by myself. That’s just one more thing off of my bucket list! Now that I had had my pie, I could go watch videos of bagpipers filling all of sitka's schools with music and joy, and although I still missed it, I felt a little better.

First pie that Ive made from scratch.

Culture Note: In Sweden they have a day called Kanel Bullar Dag. A day to celebrate cinnamon buns. It is on the 4th of October and I had been looking forward to it ever since I had heard of it. From what I’ve seen so far, the cinnamon bun is basically one of the most popula

r treats you will find in Sweden, so Kanel Bullar Dag is a big deal. At school on that day, the school cafe’s counter was literally overflowing with cinnamon buns that would no doubt be all sold by the end of the day. I made sure to buy one, along with all of my friends and we all enjoyed ours during lunch. After school I came home to find that we would be making our own cinnamon buns as it is a tradition with my host family. We made a large batch and smothered the dough in melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon. When they were finished we all enjoyed at least four each that night and many more the next morning. Cinnamon buns are different here than the ones in the US because instead of pouring frosting glaze over them, the Swedes sprinkle pärlsocker (pearl sugar) on top. Either way, they are delicious and I plan on having many more while I am here.

Our delicious Kannelbullar

 

Word of the week: Mycket socker- Lots of sugar. Just the way I like it.

 


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