Over the weekend I reorganized our spices, a project that involved transferring our dried herbs and spices into new jars. An unexpected perk of the process was the opportunity to take in the aromas of each. The wafts of cardamom seeds stayed with me through the day on Monday, and by evening I could no longer stand it; I announced that I would like to go to The American Swedish Institute for a visit to the Kaffestuga for cardamom rolls.

Tom, the in-house baker, immediately asked, “What do we need? Let’s make them!” I pulled The Swedish Table by Helene Henderson off the shelf and opened to the index where I found “cardamom rolls” under the letter C. To make your own Kaffebröd med Kardemumma you’ll need sugar, water, yeast, milk, cream, butter, flour, salt, freshly ground cardamom, cinnamon, eggs, almonds and pearl sugar. Pearl sugar and almonds, the last items on the list, were not on hand, which is why the rolls look a bit bare.

Tom went to work while I read in the living room and had the rolls ready just before bed, warming the kitchen and filling the apartment with the smells of cinnamon and cardamom. Warmed just before breakfast, the rolls made a wonderful start to a January morgon.

With a couple of days off ahead of me, I’m getting ready to paint the bathroom (again). Our building manager has kindly repaired the walls, too, and will be priming today so I have high hopes for the finished look, especially considering the challenge of painting over orange without priming… which I had planned to do previously. The new color, already in parts of our kitchen, coordinates with our transportation shower curtain and complements our towels.

So, nothing new required. Or so I thought. After spotting these fish hooks in a local magazine this morning, I think I may need to head to Ingebretsen’s for some new svensk bathroom hardware.

The hooks, $9.50 each, are also available in black and dark blue. Find them at Ingebretsen’s locally (1601 East Lake Street), or on ingebretsens.com.

Image: Ingebretsen’s