foodie

Snowy weather

These days have been slow and good for the soul. I´ve been cooking, decluttering and selling a few items on the internet, walking Sammy and dreaming of sunny holidays.

Friday I only worked for a few hours and it proved to be a lot of fun, we were several interpreters waiting for an hour or two in the Court House lobby and had a blast discussing beginner´s errors and such.  Later on I had some drinks with a friend at Café Amsterdam, discussing professional pitfalls (how you can avoid laughing when the situation is soooo comic), Norwegian-born husbands and Romanian inhibitions. I wrapped up the day with Mr Selfridge on Netflix. I love that series! 😉

Saturday we went for a never-ending hike (6km) in the snow with Sam, part of it on the ski-lane (no fun), but it was so beautiful it almost hurt my eyes! Istagram doesn´t do it justice, I´ll give it a try anyway. We walked and walked and it felt we´d never get there. In the end it was so foggy we couldn´t see more than a meter in front of us, so we had to ask hundreds of times for Frognerseteren, where we had dinner and a beer. 😉  Tired and beat, we took a nap before some friends came over and we had some laughs over take-away pizza and Prosecco.

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Foccacia

I´ve been making focaccia for a while with the occasional tapas, but it was never the real deal until I checked out this recipe. For my Norwegian followers I recommend this blog: www.frumaela.no

1084151_10151526253081711_102203333_oFor my English-speaking readers here it goes:

1kg flour
1 small bag of dried yeast
2 spoons of honey
1-2 spoons of sugar
1-2 spoons of salt
7-9 dl finger-warm water

It´s important to sift the flour and the yeast twice, so the dough gets more fluffy.
Assuming that you´ve baked before, I go straight ahead. You make the dough, you put it on the washing machine and wash some clothes while you´re at it, close the door so the cat doesn´t get curious and then leave it for an hour to rise.

Meanwhile mix some olive oil with rosemary, oregano, thyme and basil. You can also chop some sun-dried tomatoes, feta cheese or olives if you´d like the focaccia to be more consistent. Have a glass of Prosecco for the best result!;-)

Before putting it in the oven, make some pits with your fingers and pour in the olive oil and herbs. If you add some tomatoes, olives or cheese, be sure to stick them into the dough. Cut the foccacia then into square chunks. Use a sheet of baking paper under and let the dough rest a while. Bake at 220 degrees C for 15 minutes, then take it out and let it rest for 15 min again. Voilà!

Sugar-coated almonds

One of my classic take-to gifts in December is home-made sugar-coated almonds. I also make them for ourselves,of course, as well as to spoil whoever visits us during the holidays. The recipe is easy, the secret lies in stirring. And we usually do it together, so that my husband can take over when my arm starts hurting. 😉

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Entertaining light

One of my most favorite activities is entertaining! And what better way to do it than by serving the goodies you´ve just brought home from your holiday? This evening was a bit spontaneous, it happened the day after we came home from Paris. We invited our neighbors and friends Annette and Ryan and their dog, Emi over for a chat. Emi is Sammy´s girlfriend, so she had to be present, too!;-) Over a glass of wine and some vivid impressions from our trip, we devoured saucison (the half dried French sausage), macarons, French cheese, Norwegian jams from the Farmers´Maket, rillette de canard (duck meat spread) and fresh baguette. It was informal and delightful! We should do that more often, we concluded! What do you serve from your trips abroad?;-)

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Chanterelle stew

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.

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Regular scones

Today we´re invited to lunch at our old neighbor in Grønland and I thought I should be taking something more with me besides the lemon curd. And what would be more suitable than scones? Besides, it only takes 20 minutes to make, including the baking time!

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Lemon Curd

I started making lemon curd a few years back, curious to see what it was, since the recipe´s owner said she´d been living in England and could´t live without it! I´ve made it for Christmas ever since. I usually find some pretty jars around and give most of it away as go to-gifts or small Christmas presents. The rest we eat for breakfast with scones or on top of some Pavlova cake.

This Easter we´re lucky to have 5 days off and I´m enjoying my first one today. I made the lemon curd and baked the meringue cake, tomorrow I´ll just be reading a book and eat out if the weather allows it.

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France

I´m having a really difficult time adjusting to this uncertain weather, is it spring, is it still winter, which coat do I wear, do I still need gloves and how come it´s so windy!? At least it´s been sunny, it made it so much easier to spend time outside with my Sammy, without needing to force my own hand.

I´ve only just returned from my trip to Romania and I´m going to Lisbon for a few days in May and still the only thing I can think of is travel. And since France is one of my favorite places, thought I´d share some of my travel pictures with you.

Although I adore France, I haven´t seen nearly as much of it as I should have. Paris is the place I always long for and find a reason to return to, both for its magic and its food. In fact those two are quite interconnected since food is one of the main ingredients of magic! And you´ve got to love French food! Oh, my God! The snails, the cheese, the macarons, the rabbit, the onion marmalade, the Tarte Tatin. Yum! I´ve been to Normandy, Corsica and Cote D’Azur and besides beauty, divine food was the second thing they had in common. I need to explore more, I need to see Provence, the Loire Valley and Bretagne. In the mean time, enjoy a trip on my memory lane!

Restaurant in Corsica, France

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Apple muffins

One of my New Year´s resolutions was to eat healthier. More fresh fruit and vegetables, more organic products, what better way to do it than order them right to your door through Kolonihagen? Last week was their first delivery and we got lots of goodies, including 7 yellow apples. Since neither of us is so fond of apples, let alone yellow, I had to find a way to use them. And voilà, apple muffins it is!

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New Year´s Eve

I´m a sucker for a nice dress and high heels! Any excuse for that! And I love a good dinner party. This year it was our turn to be hosting the New Year´s Eve party and it was lots of fun. Everybody had a good time, or so I like to think, including Sam, our fearless samoyed who lay down to sleep on the ´dance floor´ while one could still hear the fireworks. We had three courses- cheese platter with lemon curd and chutney, tomato bruschetta and Romanian ´salade de boeuf´, turkey and rosemary potatoes with carrot salad for mains and Swiss cake and truffles for dessert. Everybody contributed with a dish since I was a bit fed up with cooking after Christmas. A bit too much to drink, laughs and dancing, in the end we were three girls left gossiping until 4 am. In between all this fun, we sat down and summed up 2013, as well as disclosed our New Year´s resolutions. For my part, I want to give myself some love. I´ll start swimming and doing yoga, since that´s the only work-out I remotely like. We´re planning a trip to Vietnam and New York, so I need to spend less money on clothes and shoes. 2014 won´t only be about career and nothing else like 2013 was, I´ll make sure to be more approachable for my friends and a better wife, sister and daughter. What about you? What are your resolutions? Let 2014 be awesome!
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