Norwegian Endings

June 15, 2012

We awoke in the summer cabin on our last full day in Scandinavia to beautiful sunny weather. That’s our bedroom window at the top!

After breakfast, John took us for a boat ride in his wooden inboard motor boat.  It was built in 1950, and I imagine the upkeep is demanding, but it seemed a fitting vessel for our surroundings.

The water was relatively calm, and we spent about two hours puttering around several nearby islands, Norwegian flag flying.

J and I both got a chance to steer the boat for a ways, but it made me nervous, since I could just see myself getting distracted and driving into the rocks.  The steering is kind of opposite– you push to the left to go right and vice versa, which was no help, considering my extraordinarily poor spatial skills.

We saw a few fish jumping, and John put out a line with six or seven hooks on it to see if we could catch any mackerel.  We didn’t catch anything, but it was interesting to see the method John used– a long length of thick fishing line wrapped around a spool.  He let out more than half of the line and then threaded his finger through a pre-tied loop in the line.  While the line was in the water, he rhythmically dragged his finger back and forth to give the line some movement.  No rod or reel!

Back onshore, we met John’s 85-year-old neighbour who still does all his own boat maintenance.  In the shallow water near the shore we found a well-camouflaged starfish.

After returning to the cabin, we packed up our things while John mowed the lawn.  We wandered in the garden, which contains several different varieties of fruit trees, along with many wildflowers.  One tree has a small swing tied to a sturdy branch.

We left for Stavanger, about an hour’s drive away, at noon.  When we arrived at the Jørpeland ferry, there was a lot of traffic, which John and Karen commented was not normal.  After some investigation we determined that one of the two ferries was out of commission, so there was only one ferry making the 40 minute crossing.  J and I read our books while waiting to board the delayed boat.  We all enjoyed some ice cream on the boat.

John and Karen planned a barbeque with their children and grandchildren that evening, and the plan was that J and I would plan and make the food, so when we arrived in Stavanger, John dropped us off at the grocery store with Karen.  We planned to make chicken souvlaki and hamburgers, with my favourite spinach, strawberries and goat cheese salad.  It took some work to find what we needed in the grocery store, and some questions to figure out what the labels stated, but we eventually found all of the right foods and a snack or two for the trip home tomorrow.

By the time we got back to the house we had about an hour and twenty minutes to get everything organized for the barbeque, so there was no time for a shower or anything, which I sorely needed.  It was a little confusing trying to find the right kitchen tools in Karen’s kitchen, but we eventually got rolling and everything was prepared on time.

John and Karen’s youngest daughter, Anne, arrived first with her 3 children and one of her two stepchildren in tow.  Her partner was traveling for work, so he was unable to make it.  Her three kids are quite young, and don’t really know any English, so they ran around playing in the yard while we chatted with Anne.  She is getting married this summer, so before dinner, she tried on her wedding dress for me, which was nice, since I won’t be there for the wedding.

Tore arrived at the same time as his sister, Kjersten, and her partner and daughter.  Their son, who is adopted from Ethiopia, was at a party and joined us a little later in the evening.  Everyone seemed to enjoy the dinner, so J and I were relieved that our “Canadian” food was a success.  After dinner, the weather was getting chilly, so we moved indoors to chat in the living room.  I sat with Kjersten, who was soon joined by her daughter, who is almost eleven.  It turns out that her daughter speaks quite good English for a Norwegian kid her age, so I talked with her most of the evening.  It was fun to hang out with a kid again– I definitely miss that aspect of my life in my job nowadays.

Everyone left shortly after nine, and we were about to go to bed, but John turned on the TV and the Sweden-England UEFA match had just started, so we decided to stay up late and watch, despite the fact that we had to get up at 3:30 am the next day.  At the half, we packed our bags and gave John and Karen a little Canadian thank-you gift for having us.

Once the game was over, I checked my email and we both went to bed.

 

Minute Monotonous Monday

After the barrage of posts this weekend, I’ll keep this Monday’s post to a minimum.  Making Thanksgiving dinner from scratch last week apparently took a toll on me because I was sick sick sick last Monday (why does that always happen on holidays?!), so that is my excuse for last week’s absence.  Here’s what my cross-stitch looks like this week:

I’ve actually reached the bottom of this panel!  Exhilarating!!

Wasn’t that thrilling?  (if you’re looking for something a little more scintillating, check out my Man Booker Project posts.)

 

Monotonous Monday + Contrasting Cakes

Your Mondays once again contain 38% more monotony with the return of my cross-stitching updates.  Here’s what it looks like today:

I like that you can see the boat at the bottom now!  Since a few months have passed, I’ve made significant progress on my project, but the commencement of my new job has left approximately ten minutes per day of available stitching time.  Hence, I predict progress from here on out will be incremental, at best.  I am working towards finishing this panel by the end of the year and moving on to one of the side panels in the not so distant future.

On the baking front, this week is a study in cake opposites– one urbanite gourmet and one unsophisticated nostalgia.

Gourmet: L and I baked the most delicious cake I have ever tasted: Red Wine Chocolate Cake.  While the preparation is easy and relatively quick, the result is completely gourmet– it is moist and rich in a sophisticated, complicated way. If you have someone you need to impress, this is the dessert.  Don’t skip the topping– while the cake itself is delicious, the topping adds a divine dimension.

Unsophisticated: Next up, gumdrop cake for a certain birthday girl.  I think this cake borders on the disgusting– it is an East Coast recipe that does not appeal to my West Coast upbringing.  How exactly do gummy candy and cake fit together?  I’d never heard of such a thing until I was served it by my mother-in-law, who grew up in the Maritimes.  This is a different recipe, but in my opinion, the textures are all weird and the flavour is altogether heavy and bland.  However, the birthday girl gets what she loves, and so this bizarre cake is next on my horizon.

 

Poor abandoned blog.

I’m still here, buried by work stress, but stitching and cooking away.  Here’s what my cross-stitch looked like last week:

And this week:

Last weekend I made mint chocolate brownies, using a divinely inspired recipe from Our Best Bites.  They were eaten before I got a picture, but I spilled flour in the process leaving this enjoyable footprint on the floor:

Spent this weekend making dumplings, which were delicious and it turns out my husband is a master dumpling maker!!

We made two fillings, one vegetarian (but not vegan), which I found on 101 Cookbooks, a great super healthy blog, if that is what you are into.  I improvised the other pork filling and wrote my own recipe, pulled from bits and pieces of other recipes.  Original recipes are not really my thing, so I am pretty impressed with myself when I manage to create a good one.  Here it is (heavily adapted from Gourmet 2004, as posted on Epicurious):

Ingredients:

1 (1-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger, finely chopped

1-2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tablespoons of light/reduced sodium soy sauce

2/3 bunch green onions, thinly sliced

1 lb ground pork

1 can of water chestnuts (drained), finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

1 tablespoon sriracha or other hot sauce

1/2 small white or yellow onion, finely chopped

1-2 packages of wonton wrappers

Preparation

Combine 1 tablespoon soy sauce with ginger and garlic in a small bowl.  Set aside while chopping and combining other ingredients.

Reserve 2 tablespoons green onions for garnish, then finely chop remainder and put in a bowl along with pork, water chestnuts, hot sauce, onion and remaining tablespoon soy sauce. Add garlic and ginger mixture.  Gently knead with your hands in bowl until just combined. Chill, covered, 10+ minutes.

Assemble wontons by laying wrappers on clean counter in a grid.  Put a scant teaspoon of filling in the centre of each wrapper.  Moisten edges with a damp finger.  Fold wrapper in half diagonally, enclosing filling, and pinch edges together to seal, ensuring no air is trapped inside.  Fold one corner into the centre and roll the dumpling into a little package.  Moisten opposite corner to seal if necessary.

Gently drop desired number of dumplings into a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling water, gently stirring once to prevent sticking, and cook 6 minutes. (Dumplings will float to top while cooking.) Transfer dumplings with a slotted spoon to a serving dish and sprinkle with reserved green onions.

Alternatively, fry dumplings in olive oil, turning once.  (Watch carefully, they cook fast!)

To freeze, line a baking sheet with wax paper.  Lay the dumplings on the sheet, ensuring they do not touch.  Freeze on baking sheet for one hour, then move to a bag or container for longer term freezing.  (This method ensures they do not stick to one another in the freezing process).

 

Squirrel Hide Crepe (also Monotonous Monday)

Only time for a quick post-yoga pre-bedtime post in this crazy busy week.  We had our friends over for a fancy grown-up dinner party last night, and I made savoury crepes with lots of fixings.. cheese sauce, veggies, fried garlic mushrooms and onions, chorizo.  It was the first time I have ever made crepes in my entire life (which was a little risky for a dinner party, but I like to live life on the edge, as you all know).

They turned out pretty well.  We had about half a crepe left of batter, so I made a creative shape with the last one– we decided it looked like a squirrel hide, especially once the other side was all golden brown, a la Oregon Trail, for those of you who grew up in the West in the age of Apple IIe.  (Just did a double take at that last sentence– I didn’t realize I had descended so far into nerddom.)  Here’ s a pic:

Amazingly I finished the top of my cross-stitch and moved on to a whole different section this week!  Here’s how the finished top looks:

Here’s how my new thrillingly varied and colourful section is shaping up (no, really, I’m finding this part fun):

 

The Breads of Good and Evil + Monotonous Monday

I enhanced my love affair with Joy the Baker this weekend and baked not one, but two of her breads.

First up, the droolworthy orgasmically delicious, extraordinarily unhealthy Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread on Saturday, which ended up replacing the planned healthy dinner.  This recipe looks hard but is totally easy.  My Tuesday book club will be benefiting from Sunday’s creation, Apple Raisin Flax Bread, which looks easy but takes a long time to put together.  I don’t feel quite so guilty about this one, but it is certainly not a veggie replacement.  I give you the breads of good and evil:

While I waited for my breads to rise/bake, I got a lot done on my cross-stitching project. See that bluish line at the top?  That is the real top of the pattern!! I’ll finish this panel this week and be officially 1/6 complete.  Exciting new stitching adventures await, my friends.

I was trying to think of a new craft I’d like to experiment with this week, and loyal to my true literary love, Jane Austen, I think hat making would be an ideal new hobby– fanciful yet practical, feminine; lace, feathers, bows and ribbons… yes.

Hat making is my new calling. I’m not sure there is much call for this type of apparel nowadays, and I don’t know how to make the hat part of the hat, but I’m all over the bows and ribbons.  I might try it anyways.  I’ll keep you posted!

 

Busy Monday…. welcome to Monotonous Tuesday!

Apologies for the lateness of my cross-stitching update.  I know you were all waiting with bated breath.  (Grammar interlude: “bated” not “baited” because “bated” is short for “abated,” I think.  Also, “breath” not “breathe,” people.  (I hope I didn’t really have to tell you that.)  Here’s what I learned this week: did you know that the phrase “wracked with pain” should actually be “racked with pain,” as a reference to the medieval torture device, the rack?  Hmm.) I was busy yesterday doing the take-home exam for my online course while watching the Bachelor finale.  What an educational combo!   Here’s the progress:

I am almost finished the current panel, so a few more weeks before the excitement level ramps up.  Time for more bated breath.

I made lemon bars this weekend– this is one of my all-time favourite recipes.  I think I like them as much as I like chocolate cake, maybe more.  The problem with this recipe is that I can’t stop eating them, and this actually causes me to get in trouble with my husband, who thinks he should always get at least 50% of whatever I bake.  He only gets about 15% of this recipe.  The proof?  I baked on Sunday evening and this is what is left on Tuesday morning (actually Monday night.. shhhh):

I don’t even feel guilty.

 

Monotonous Monday(s) and the Bonus Prime Minister Game

Not only are my crafts mediocre, my blogging skills are even less impressive.  Sorry about missing the last monotonous Monday, three to five blog-reading friends.  I know you were eagerly anticipating a cross-stitching update.  Missing last Monday has one definite advantage, though.  Now you get to see two Monday pics together, so you can really compare the progress!  Unfortunately, I am currently on the “clouds” portion of the pattern, meaning that I fill in empty white space with tiny white x’s.  What a thrill!  I hope you’re sitting down for this.

Feb 14:

Feb 21:

There you go!  Wasn’t that exciting!  I don’t know how you all waited a whole extra week for that.  Whew!  Better go get a glass of water.

I baked these cookies from Joy the Baker this week.  This was the first time I’ve made sugar cookies in my married life, because I just got a rolling pin this year for Christmas. (I know.. rolling pins cost like $10.  Why did I wait to get one for Christmas?  I think I probably had a spare ten dollars sometime in the last 5.5 years.) They were pretty good, but I made them a little too thin, so they were slightly overbaked, I think.  They were a bit too crispy for my liking.  I made my husband take pictures for me while I baked.  I’m pretty bossy, but he doesn’t mind too much.

I am about to write a special MID-WEEK blog post for you to read!  That is what happens when I get a three-day weekend– I get all productive-like.

BONUS: A wintry sunset picture.  (There is a vent in this picture that looks like Stephen Harper’s head.  See it?)

 

Monotonous Monday plus cookies.

Good morning, happy Monday to you!

I have temporarily scaled back my crafting due to an overwhelming and super-mandatory online course with an approaching deadline.  Boo.  I promise to create some hideous/uninspired art work for you all to enjoy as soon as that is done.

Here’s this week’s Monotonous Monday cross-stitching update:

You’ll recall that I warned you against false hope last week.  This is my I-told-you-so moment.  Incremental progress at best.  Wait till I have a long weekend.. then you will see some actual growth.

In the meantime, I did manage to make some oatmeal raisin cookies with the recipe from Annie’s Eats.  Yes, I am essentially a parasitic blog for her lovely, useful site.  I’m not even going to feign symbiosis.

Oatmeal raisin is my favourite kind of cookie and these ones are delicious.  Too bad I can only give you a picture and not pass them out through virtual land.  I know you want one.

I also spent WAAAY  too long making chicken chili verde this weekend.  While chopping peppers, I got jalapeño pepper juice in a little hangnail-type cut on my finger- ouch!  I didn’t think it would be anything terrible, but it got all hot and pulsy and took three soakings in milk (including one this morning!) to cure.  Typical me.

Anyways, that recipe in the Joy of Cooking takes 2.5 hours.  I’m so glad I doubled it and had lots to freeze because it doesn’t matter how good a dinner tastes, no single dinner is worth spending 2.5 hours of my weekend slaving over a hot stove.  Literally. I was so exhausted by the end of it, I had no appetite and didn’t even bother tasting it.  I’d show you a picture but it looked kind of icky and watery.  I’m assured by my husband that it was in fact edible…

Despite the crafting dearth around these parts, I have a simple one to tell you about later in the week.  Something to look forward to in these January-and-online-course-induced-dark days.