During the last days I´ve been thinking elections, revolution, patriotism and how my life would have been if Romania was a country one could go back to. As in living there. Not that I necessarily would do that, but I wish it were a viable option. I was barely able to sleep and I felt light and full of color. I felt a sense of belonging in all this story, a feeling I often miss both as a foreigner here and in my line of work. You see we, interpreters, are neutral, we don´t belong in any camps.
I simply love Cos. Simple Scandinavian lines, impeccable cuts and fair prices. This fall I´m mostly working in court, so I get to wear dresses almost every day. Yippi yey! Since I´m not disciplined enough to find an outfit the evening before, dresses are perfect, I have them all lined up, all I have to do is decide whether I need a jacket, and if so, if it´s going to be black, navy or grey. 😉 I present you with some inspiration for the grey Scandinavian fall, hope it´ll light up your day a bit! xxx, Alina
This week has gone fast and yet not fast enough. I´ve started working 9-4 with a few exceptions and it´s good to be able to come home and walk Sammy and make some food without constantly being in a rush. I managed to go to the gym once and I hope I can attend yoga tomorrow. It feels good to find some time for yourself. I spend enormous amounts of time on Netflix, but that´s because I´m too tired to do anything else. I´m bad with manicure, but I love it when I have one, so I realized I had to prioritize a bit. Breakfast or manicure? The latter!;-)
Yesterday I had a day off and it worked wonders for a tired soul.;-) I did some laundry, uncluttered my wardrobe (for the 5th time this year!) and bought some ingredients for today´s party. We had lunch in town and dinner out-of-town, all in all it was a pretty amazing day. I also had some time to sneak fall into our apartment, meaning I picked some chestnuts from the ground, bought a new blanket and some candles. This is what our living room looks like now.
Living in Norway has been good to my fall wardrobe. Since the temperature is usually somewhere between 10 and 20 degrees with the exception of a short summer and an occasionally freezing winter, wool, cashmere and silk blends are perfect to combine. This fall I have lengthier trials which call for an impeccable outfit. What better way to managed that than by investing in some classic key pieces that´ll hopefully never go out of fashion! Choose a wool jacket (black, grey or navy), a sweater dress or a chic wool dress, a couple of heels and some cosy sweaters and you´re good to go!;-)
My favorite brand of all time is Max Mara, but I can only afford stuff from them a couple of times a year- when I buy things that last like a camel hair coat, an office bag and some killer heels. Otherwise Fillipa K and Acne have a nice selection of Scandinavian wear and the prices are more in my street. I´ll show you some of my favorite fashion pieces this fall. (PS. There´s a fair chance they´ll be rather similar to last year´s since I tend to like the same type of clothes. ;-))
This weekend has been a bit overshadowed by the fact that I´m working out of town this week. Not only is it an ugly trial, but I´m living in a small town with literally nothing to do after hours. I was hoping to do a bit of reading, but taking my laptop with me was uninspired, there´s so much on the mighty internet more alluring than Shishkin. I really don´t like Shishkin, the way I don´t like many of the contemporary writers that everybody else is so crazy about! Makes me wonder if there´s something wrong with me. I just don´t buy anything beyond reason, call me sad, but I really don´t. I need people to stick to whatever normal people do and feel and books to depict just that. Surreal is no good in my book. Does it make sense?
Anyway. This weekend was uneventful, but cosy, we had lovely weather and took our mandatory trip to the woods with a happy Sam, made some good food and watched a lot of Netflix. On Sunday it was time to be urban, take Sammy to the Botanical garden and have coffee with friends in lively Grunnerløkka. He´s such a sociable soul, he loves being outside with us and our friends, even if that only means sitting beside us and barking at the passing dogs. 😉
Last night I arrived at my hotel at 11:30 pm, so there was no time for sightseeing. Today was a splendid day, the court room was spacious and had thousands of windows overlooking the sun and I literally died in my cashmere sweater in our little interpreting box! (but it was from Paris!!) No time for much sightseeing today either, although I did spot the city center walking back to the hotel. By the time I´d lunched on a nice sunny terrace, all the shops were closed. The whole town seemed to have gone to sleep, it was so depressing I went in for a nap myself. It seems I should be done here by Wednesday, so I might as well try to enjoy tomorrow as much as I can. Maybe I´ll get a haircut and a massage. Or maybe I´ll just buy a sandwich and soak up the sun. 😉
Yesterday I paid a visit to the local organic marked at Stortorvet and couldn´t resist buying some fresh corn, apples and chanterelles. I don´t know about you, but I love me some chanterelles in the fall! Although I´ve only made this stew the last 2-3 years, it´s one of my classics by now! Not only pretty and yummy, but very easy to put together, too. I usually serve it with pan-fried chicken and rice.
We´re back on track and summer is officially over. We came home from 25 degrees in Paris to 5 in Oslo and I needed to dig out my sweaters. 😉 The time in France was so amazing I wanted to share a couple of pictures from my Instagram account, too. Hope you enjoy them!
Yesterday was great. The sun was shining yet again and our friend, Hege, celebrated her birthday with a picnic trip in the woods. We took the subway and met the crew at Frognerseteren, a venerable restaurant on the top of the hill. After enjoying a coffee or a glass of wine in the sun, we started walking towards Songsvann, our final destination for the picnic. We were 6 adults, a child and a dog. Sammy was happy to explore the surroundings, he jumped up and down, drinking water from small creeks, engaging us in his silly schemes and sniffing every dog we couldn´t prevent him from meeting.;-) On the way I picked some blueberries and served them to the others from Sam´s drinking cup. 😉 They were sweet and tasted like summer. When we finally arrived to a table in a sun, everybody started unpacking the goodies. Food never tasted that good, I tell you!;-) We had bean salad, cheese and bacon pie, cheese and fig jam, chocolate cake, banana bread, chips and drops. Yummy! After filling our tummies, we tok the subway back to the city. We were tired and our feet had started aching when we realized we´d been outside for 6 hours! Now that´s what I call a Sunday trip!
These days I´ve been active on the kitchen front and I always find it up-lifting. The thing with me is that I love cooking, but I´m also very lazy. So I have to trick myself into doing it for a higher purpose, the way I sometimes manage tricking myself into working out. This being said, there´s nothing better than enjoying a glass of wine while preparing something for the man you love. Nothing can beat that, if you ask me. I was born with a little bit of a mother nature complex- I need to feed the world. In other words, if you like my food, we´ll probably be friends in no time!
Yesterday I made my anchovies pie. It´s a classic in our house, I´ve been making it for years now. I got the recipe from a friend living in England and at that time my only relationship with anchovies was that I used to pick them off the pizza. Now I think they can lift up a whole dish!
Here comes the recipe:
butter dough (buy or make your own)
1 big onion
pine kernels
chopped tomatoes
oregano
thyme
chilli pepper (cayenne pepper)
2 small boxes of anchovies
parmesan
rusk (or dried bread crumbs)
Sear the onion for a couple of minutes in a pan. Add the tomatoes and the herbs. Season with chili pepper (cayenne pepper), salt and pepper. Let is simmer for 15-20 minutes on a low temperature.
Meanwhile, form the pie dough after the pie form and save some threads to cover the pie like a blue berry pie. Stick small holes in the dough with a fork. Put it in the oven for 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.
When the tomato sauce is ready, take out the pie, spread it on top of it, cover with bread crumbs, sprinkle with pine kernels and grate some parmesan on top.
Put the anchovies on top and line up the pie dough to look pretty. 15-20 minutes in the oven. Bon apetit!
Stories and Anecdotes by Sharron Little Burnett
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