Blog Posts - Amy Jo Ehman

Finding my Scandinavia

9/22/2020

I only know one Swedish word but it's a good one. Fika. Fika is a cultural institution. A coffee break. A pause in the day. A time to slow down, enjoy good company (including your own) and (usually) a sweet bite to eat.

I first had fika (fee-ka) while visiting a friend in Stockholm three years ago. At the time, I did not know I had Swedish heritage. I have since discovered that I have Swedish genes through my paternal grandmother's grandmother. In other words, through the female line.

Foreseeing a long cooped up covid winter ahead, I have decided to embrace my inner Swede. Warm quilts, flickering candles, winter walks and, of course, fika.

Today I made a fika favourite ~ kannelbullar ~ Swedish cinnamon buns. Since they are best on the day made, I gave most of them away. Fika is for sharing, even in pandemic times. I feel more Swedish already. Note to self ~ October 4 is National Kanelbullar Day ☕️☕️

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Happy Birthday to Us

9/4/2020

It's Saskatchewan's birthday. It officially became a province with a legislative ceremony on September 4, 1905. Doing the math 🤔 that makes Saskatchewan 115 years young. In honour of the day, here's a photograph of its biggest city, Saskatoon, as it looked in 1905.

I love this old photograph. Would you have guessed this little three-elevator-town is Saskatoon?

At the time, Saskatoon was not yet a city ~ it was three little towns of Saskatoon, Riversdale and Nutana. They amalgamated as a city on July 1, 1906, with a population of 4,500. Since Saskatoon was the largest of the three, they took that name.

Can you place this view? The photographer is standing on the east side of the river looking west over downtown. The three elevators stand on ground that is now the Midtown Plaza. Beyond the elevators, well, the entire west side of the city is so much farmland.

The Bessborough Hotel was not built yet, but it now stands on the river at the bottom right, but that's another photo for another day...

Saskatoon Pubic Library Archive LH-2881

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"How do I get back to that?"

8/27/2020

Somedays you wake up and find yourself smiling back at you...

Thank you Julia Peterson and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix for publishing this feature article on my local food passion as a writer, eater and advocate. Julia touched on my two previous books Prairie Feast: A Writer's Journey Home for Dinner & Out of Old Saskatchewan Kitchens, as well as my current writing project on the history of wheat. Tap the picture 👇 to read the article. And eat local!

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Easy as Pie

8/23/2020

I've been making pies and thinking about the saying "Easy as pie." Why do we say that when so many people find pies difficult to make?

In pioneer times, pie was the go-to feed-a-crowd dessert. Pastry requires just a few simple ingredients and can be filled with almost anything. It's as easy as... pie!

The fact is, there's more to pie than the recipe itself. Pastry is technique pure and simple, and practice makes perfect. The trick is to keep all ingredients chilled and to work the dough as little as possible. Never knead pie pastry.

I got apples this week from my brother's farm at Craik (where I grew up). Today we made three apple pies ~ my husband cutting apples, me rolling and assembling. They are now in the freezer waiting for a special occasion.

I also made a rustic berry galette for dinner tonight with a mix of blueberries, saskatoons, haskap, raspberries and a bit of rhubarb. Proof it's always easy to fill a pie, no matter what the season.

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Field Stones

8/17/2020

So you're driving down a country highway and see this. Do you pull a u turn to take a look? Of course you do, because this is a vestige of our pioneering past and testament to the hard work and perseverance of those first farmers.

What is it, you ask? These are millstones which were used to grind wheat into flour. They stand on Highway 5 at the town of Buchanan. The plaque gives the early town history but provides no insight into who made or used these millstones. You can see by its shape that the one on the right was never completed.

As a farm girl, bread maker and fan of all things wheat, I had to get my picture taken with this relic of days gone by when prairie living required self sufficiency in all things, including our daily bread.

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What's in a Cover

8/10/2020

Whew. After a marathon four days of page proofing, "Thelma" is off to the printers. Now the wait for an honest to goodness book to emerge...

For several months, I've been sending the publisher possible images for the cover of the book. But in the end, he picked a photo I had not considered in my own little pea brain. But it's brilliant!! Don't you agree?

This is Thelma as a little girl, captured by her father's lens, doing what she has loved for all of her 100 years ~ reading a good book.

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The Best Birthday Gift

7/28/2020

Today is Thelma's 100th birthday and what a birthday present!! Saskatoon's new art gallery Remai Modern announced it will stage a major retrospective of Thelma's photographs in the new year, from February to August 2021.

The Remai illustrated the announcement with this image of Thelma's called Evangeline's Mother, 1993. Click here to see the full announcement on the Remai Modern website.

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Pandemic Picnics

6/8/2020

Restaurants are re-opening from pandemic lockdown, but still, when I eat "out" I prefer a picnic. As I always say, anything that tastes good inside tastes even better outside.

(Well, I'm saying it here anyway.)

I first learned of the cookie called jodekager while researching recipes for my historical cookbook Out of Old Saskatchewan Kitchens. It was mentioned by Danish settler Julie Feilberg, who homesteaded with her husband Ditlev and their children near Nokomis, Sask.

Julie wrote many letters home to Denmark, in one describing a picnic outing in 1915. This picnic included egg sandwiches, bread and butter, citron marmalade, rhubarb pudding with cream and jodekager cookies. It gives a pretty good idea of what foods were readily available to settlers on the prairie at that time.

I researched the jodekager cookie and learned it's still very popular in Scandinavia, especially at Christmas time, but it's also quite at home in a summer picnic basket.

Jødekager
1 cup soft butter
1 cup sugar, separated
1 egg
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg white, lightly beaten

1. Cream the butter with 3/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg.

2. In another bowl sift together flour, baking powder and cardamom. Gradually mix flour into the butter mixture until well blended. Form into two balls, wrap in plastic and rest in the fridge for one hour.

3. On a well floured counter, roll one ball of dough to a scant 1/4 inch thick. Cut with a cookie cutter. Place cookies on a baking sheet. Repeat with the second ball of dough, then gather up and roll the scraps.

4. Mix the cinnamon and remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Brush the cookies with egg white and sprinkle with the sugar-cinnamon mixture.

5. Bake at 375F until the edges are just starting to brown, about 10 minutes.

Flat Out Delicious

5/25/2020

We've known for a long loooong time that Saskatchewan is flat out delicious ~ and now we have it in writing with this fabulous new Saskatchewan food guide by my friend (and fellow Craik-ite) Jenn Sharp. It's part road trip, part arm chair traveller, part celebration, part salivation, of all things good to eat and the folks who grow, raise, collect, cook and market it on this land.

I snapped this pic today of Jenn celebrating the launch of Flat Out Delicious with moi and another food writing (and cooking) pal Dee Hobsbawn-Smith. I brought a bottle of bubbly and Dee brought these pretty teacups so we could celebrate in style while social distancing al fresco in a city park. So proud of you Jenn ♥

Buy this book!! Buy it here!!

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Comfort Food in Pandemic Times

5/6/2020

I don't know about you, but I found myself cooking the same things over and over during this time of home-bound isolation. Partly because I had the ingredients on hand when the lockdown began, and partly because these recipes became a source of comfort and familiarity during troubled times.

Here are 6 recipes that brought me joy and nourishment during the pandemic spring. They are pretty hearty fare, since winter seemed to last forever here on the prairies, and rely heavily on the bounty of my homeland in Saskatchewan.

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