Welcome to my new blog.

Or I should say valkommen!

Erik the Red got his name from his fiery temper and red hair and beard. He was exiled from his homeland of Norway. He went on to a viking settlement in Iceland where he was later banished for murder. He went further than other vikings and founded Greenland in the year 985. Erik the Red was also the father of Leif Eriksson – who went on to be one of the first Europeans to land in North America.

While the vikings from Norway and Denmark pillaged Western Europe, the Swedish vikings moved eastward through what is now Russia. The Swedish vikings, or Rus, are said to have been the founders of Russia. The word “viking” is also Swedish. It comes from the Swedish work for bay, “vik”.  Their stories, or sagas as they were called, told the tales of voyages, battles, feuds.  They were passed down along with the writings left in the rune stones and further lead to the viking mythology.

This Eric the Red, me, doesn’t have red hair or beard and I don’t think I have a fiery temper.  I became “Red” from my other blog, Red Beans And Eric.  No I didn’t get banished and forced to move on and discover a new blog.  This is just a way for me to talk a little more about my other love, Sweden.  This is actually my second blog on the topic.  A few years ago I stated one called COOKING LIKE A SWEDE.  I shared a few recipes then stopped.  I had a nice following in the beginning but it’s hard to dig deep into since I cannot read or speak Swedish.  I wasn’t frustrated, I was just too involved with my New Orleans blog to handle a Swedish one.

I feel like I’m stuck between too cultures and in no place to be in either of them.  Red Beans And Eric mainly is about a New Orleans kitchen in my Detroit home.  I share Creole and Cajun recipes from the Crescent City along with ones it has inspired me to create.  I’ve been blogging there since 2011.  Along with the recipes I share, I always interview popular New Orleanians asking them, “How Do You Red Bean?”  I also do red beans and rice product reviews, cookbook reviews and more.  But I’m in Detroit.  I’ve been to NOLA a few times and love it.  However, am I a New Orleanian?  No.

Chicago has a big Swedish population.  So does Minnesota.  Detroit?  No much.  There are a few small clubs.  I always say I’m going to join one and take their language course but it’s a drive to get out there.  Like New Orleans, I like to read about Sweden.  I like to research it’s histories and stories.  But I can only do so much since I can’t read Swedish.  So, do I feel like I’m of Swedish heritage? Kinda.  I like pickled herring and use ligonberries.  My bedroom set is from IKEA!  In fact, I fit the bed, two night stands and a 12-drawer dresser in a Ford Focus.

With ERIC the RED beans and err… rice? I want to dig deeper into my Swedish heritage, share some fun recipes, and hopefully create a little community of others stuck between a couple of cultures.  My “sagas” won’t be of sharing bloody battle stories or feuds, but of a voyage into recipes I love to cook and mixing the two unique cultures together.  I’ve done it once with my Swedish Meatball Po’boy sandwich recipe that was published in the fine book by Todd-Michael St. Pierre, The Southern Po’boy Cookbook, along with a couple of others!

So if you follow me from my Creole and Cajun Red Beans and Eric blog, or you’re finding me for the first time cooking to find something Swedish, thanks for stopping by and let’s go pillage the pantry and cook something!

-ERICtheRED