The Syren family BBQ challenge

A week ago we went shopping at Whole Foods Market and saw that on their calender it said June 30th is BBQ day. James and I laughed at this, knowing it's a gimmick to get people to think BBQ and shop for supplies at Whole Foods......

Then we read about how barbecuing is better for the environment than using the stove. So... we decided to have a seven-day BBQ challenge for ourselves (anyone daring enough to join us???)

Well, you might think... what is so challenging about barbecuing for seven days? We didn't want to make it easy... it's supposed to be a challenge :-) So we challenged ourselves to barbecue "creative vegetarian for seven dinners in seven days straight. "Creative vegatarian" means we're not just throwing some veggie patties on the grill. And it's challening because we can't use the stove at all.

It's been fun and we really enjoyed it ... Here is what we came up with. If anything looks good to you, ask us for the recipe, we're happy to share -- click on the pictures to make them bigger:

Day 1: Traditional barbecue feast, but all vegetargian. Mini burgers, hot dogs and grilled vegetables kabobs marinated in an Asian marinara

Day 2: Soy kabobs, soy patties with BBQ sauce and stewed rot vegetables.

Day 3: Pizza with fire roasted tomatoe sauce, mixed roasted vegetables and feta cheese

Day 4 Tandoori marinaded tempeh with spicy tomato-spinach salad, raita and garlic naan bread

Day 5: Butternut squash raviolis with white bean balls accompanied by a grilled fig salad. We didn't buy them, we made them from scratch. We didn't boil the pasta, it was barbecued! We never have tried cooking pasta on a barbecue, a bit more work but it was delicious!

Day 6: Grilled veggi-dogs with roasted potatoes.

Day 7: Roasted Pizza with butternut squash creme puree topped with Swiss Chard and Tofu.

Midsummer Celebration in San Diego

Don't miss James 'trying' to sing the Swedish National anthem at the bottom of this posting. Warning... it might turn you blue!

Midsummer in Sweden is the most celebrated holiday, save Christmas perhaps. It's always on the summer solstice.

Even though we are 8000 miles away from Sweden, Swedish house in Balboa park hosts a Midsummer celebration each year

We proudly donned our our Swedish outfits. Isabella attracted as much attention as anyone there! With my shirt all the Swedes assumed I was Swedish so started talking to me! I got to practice a bit

The celebration included a traditional May Pole and Swedish folk dancers and a Swedish women's choir (apparently San Diego has one) followed by the Men's Swedish choir (yep... you guessed it, San Diego has one of those too!)

And if you always wondered whether there really are Swedish meatballs. Wonder no more. And you can always try them out. Every IKEA in the world sells them.









As promised at the beginning. Here are a couple of videos for you to enjoy. And if you just haven't gotten enough... here are more pictures from our day.


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Father's Day

Happy Father's day to all the dads out there.

A special happy father's day to... Adam Stein, Jim Styn, Gabe Stein... (we're not making this up)... Håkan Fallquist, David Elliston, Brian Byrne, Paul Richard, Richard Metcalf, David Somerville, Ron Alderman, Max Johnson, Lars Becker, Robert McCrea, Dirk Kessler, Putte Syren, Hasse Gustavsson and Jack Welde (boy are there a lot of great dads out there)

And a happy father's day to new grandfathers... Jim & Sven, Johan and Uncle Paul


My first Father's day was a treasure for sure. Here are some of the fun moments from the day...

Dad gets taken out for breakfast
Antique Row in Normal Heights -- a favorite of mine!

Isabella's present to me -- "The Best Father's Day Present Ever"

Isabella arrives to dad's barbecue in her shiny new sports car.

Jessica helps host my barbecue
Isabella obviously thinks her toy is tastier than our feast!

Hmmm.... what is on that spoon???

Fun self-portrait before bath time

These baths are pretty fun (it took a while for her to start enjoying them and dad singing the theme song from Rocky was the only thing that calmed her down)

Hey -- look at my new hairdo! Kind of looks like yours dad.

Housewarming Party

Our housewarming party was a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures in the 'getting ready' stage and the party itself.

Having that much fun frosting the cupcakes???
They must be licking their fingers :-)

Andrea and Greg... our fabulous chefs! Rave reviews from all...

A beautiful and creative vegetarian brunch spread

Ulf, our Sweden friend from work introduced the group to an old Swedish/Viking game called Kubb. It was a huge hit!

Kristen and Rowen

Grandma and Isabella

Small Efforts... Big Hearts... Thank you!

Thanks to everyone that came to our housewarming party. For those that w we decided on a little twist this time. Everyone brought toys and canned food.

We will be making a donation this week to Toys for Tots and to the San Diego Food Bank. We thank you for helping make a difference.

We've moved a lot the past few years -- living in 3 countries in 3 years! This has caused us to re-evaluate how much we really need. Its so easy to get burdened by all your belongings. And while over-consumption may be good for the economy... there is no doubt the environment is suffering.

We are are fortunate to be surrounded by family and friends with big hearts that are a very giving bunch. This was a nice way for us to simply direct that energy at one time.

In case you have any doubt, little efforts like this do make a difference. The statistics are overwhelming on the surface... 35 million people in the US face hunger each year. Its rather shocking. But just acting locally helps. In San Diego there are 150,000 hungry people, nearly half are children.

Organizations like the San Diego Food bank are very efficient. With just one dollar they are able to obtain and distribute five pounds of food - enough for four meals.

From the bottom of our hearts... thank you... your little effort will make a big difference.

Namaste, Shanti, Peace, Light

James, Fredrica and Isabella

Someone's trash is someone elses treasure

Last weekend there was a neighborhood garage sale here. There were about 60 neighbors who brought out sun chairs and sat outside on the sidewalk displaying their spring cleaning.

We had heard that this event happens every uear in our neighbordhood, but we didn't know when... We had a lot of fun walking around meeting the neighbors and checking out the merchandise.

There were some people driving around in trucks doing some hardcore shopping but for the most part it was just people like us walking around and talking to the neighbord and making some unexpected purcahses.
We met a junior entrepreneur selling us jummy homemade lemonade. Since there are a lot of kids in our neighborhood there were a lot of toys for sale and we found this car for Isabella which we never would even considered to buy in a store but for $8 who can resist. It was a good deal because Isabella loves the car had have so much fun turning the wheel and pulling the gear shifter so it makes a lots of sounds. It even has a radio that plays a lot of fun songs.

We also bought a bread machine ($10) , a cat toy for Jessica's new addition Basil and couple of books for Isabella.

10 Things We're Doing to Save the Planet

Living green and being environmentally minded has always been important to us. There has been so much press lately about global warming which got us asking ourselves if we were doing all we could in our own life to save the planet.

We decided to commit to writing (and share with all of you) 10 things we are doing (or have stared to do) to live more green. Please... post comments with things that you're doing. We'd love new ideas.

1. We're watering smarter... rather than watering the grass in one-go, we are watering half as long, twice about 30 minutes apart. This results in much less run-off water that the grass can't absorb --as summer is here and more watering is required, I am hoping this efficiency will result in greener grass with no more water.
2. We're recycling more… for years we've made sure the trash we produce is less than the amount of recyclables we produce. Now, we're expanding what we're recycling to include batteries, light bulbs, and supermarket plastic bags... all of which our local Ikea is now collecting! (good reason to go to Ikea to recycle and reward ourself with Swedish goodies).
3. We're rinsing dishes and doing laundry in cold water... I have alway rinsed dishes with hot water before putting them in the dishwasher. Why use hot water... it uses gas unnecessarily! We're also getting our clothes plenty clean with cold water.
4. We're using environmentally friendly companies/products... 7th Generation is a great company and brand for common household items such as paper towels, tiolet paper, laundry and dishwater etc. Their items are non-bleached and low impact on the environment -- and let's face it... our toush-ies aren't that sensitive! You can find their stuff a Wholefoods and Jimbos... but cheaper on Amazon!
   
5. We're eating vegetarian (and yummy!)... we read that the water required to raise livestock is equal to one shower per day if you eat meat daily!
6. We're making baby food... so that we're buying less jars of food. It takes a little energy to make and transport those little jars of food!
   
7. We're going with cloth diapers... if seems 20% of our trash each week has been disposable diapers (anyone volunteering to wash the diapers for us?)
   
8. We're using natural products to clean the house… It's pretty simple... baking soda / lemon / vinegar for cleaning (smells better anyway)
9. We're trying to buy fewer 'new' things... Especially with the baby we're trying to think if we can borrow or buy used things, especially since Isabella's favorite toys are empty paper bags, phones, remote controls and mommy's deodorant)
   
10. Buying locally grown... without fail, every Sunday morning we go to the farmers market to buy most of our fruits and vegetables from local farmers. All these farmers are within about 50 miles of San Diego. This reduces pollution tremendously because so many things in the grocery store come from far away. We've included some pictures for the farmer's market in Hillcrest that we go to.
    

Well... we are lucky to live in CA. We get lots of beautiful fruits and vegetables within 50 miles of home

Each week we get two quarts of the most wonderful veggie drink that we enjoy for several days!

Each week there's live music

The Hillcrest farmer's market is quite big... there are two rows like this that have a lot of vendors

Swedish friends and family...

We all wish you a happy Independence Day!

Where is Isabella?

Isabella loves when we fold the laundry and she will drag cloths all around her self. Here she is hiding under them. Check out the little feet sticking out!!!