While it might not seem like it from my blog, I really don’t like baking THAT much. Ok, maybe thats a lie, I do like baking- when I don’t its because its just so… complicated. (to me, anyway)

I mean, with cooking you can just throw stuff together in any quantity until it tastes the way you want it to… if you screw it up, you just… call it something else!

Baking is so scientific… chemical reactions, exact measurements… bah. That doesnt lend itself to freestyle, inspired cooking! Or does it?

So this morning I was having a cup of coffee (strong, with lots of sugar and lots of milk, thanks.) and I started thinking about cookies. (I know, I have bizarre trains of thought)

I was thinking about how nice it would be to have a coffee flavored cookie- I was sure someone somewhere had the same idea as me, so I decided to cruise the net and see what I could come up with. I found a chocolate-cappucino cookie recipe that looked promising- but I can never leave anything as it is, so I changed it up a little bit. What I ended up with was an intensely flavored cookie, very sharp and almost bitter from the cocoa powder and coffee. It needed the sweet creamy element for it to be perfect, in my opinion. (remember… lots of milk and sugar in my coffee.) Soooo, I whipped up a sort of coffee buttercream icing to sandwich between two of the dark delicious disks (say that 3 times fast) to tie the two together. I’m (for now) calling them Cocoa Coffee Creams- I think I’m going to revisit this recipe again. Recipe is here.

I promised when I started this blog to include a few video blogs to spice things up a bit. I grabbed Yngve, shoved the camera at him then had him act as camera-man while I cooked. The videos arent perfect, hopefully we can hone our video and editing skills in upcoming videos. I think next time I’ll think a bit more about what I’m going to say as well… there are a few long pauses where I’m searching for the right words and there are quite a few “ums” as well.

The recipes I choose were cranberry scones and lemon curd, as they are both REALLY easy and fast. The recipes themselves can be seen by clicking on the recipe tab above. Enjoy watching the videos, let me know what you think and we’ll see about doing others!

Last night I decided to make sushi for dinner! This was SO easy, I encourage you all to try it! At the top is smoked salmon with cucumber, carrots and cucumber, then smoked salmon and fish roe.  I was going to make shrimp Pad Thai for dinner as well, but I made so much sushi, we were full after eating it. Do a web search for how to make sushi, there are a number of websites with different recipes and methods. I didnt have any rice wine vinegar, so I just used white wine vinegar. Also, I didnt bother buying a sushi mat- I really dont think you HAVE to have one as long as you’re careful in rolling. Buy some interesting ingredients and get creative with sushi rolls!!!

This Is Just to Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

- William Carlos Williams

I subscribe to Real Simple magazine in America, which my friend Stacy mails to me along with my other magazine subscriptions. The August issue had several summer fruit recipes, among which was a plum upside down cake which looked absolutey beautiful and I was dying to try.

The plum cake had been on my mind for about a week, but I hadnt seen any plums which struck my fancy. Yesterday however, Yngve and I were shopping and lo and behold we came across some plums that were grown right here in Norway!

Norway has a fairly short growing season- the bulk of whats grown here are grains- wheat, oats, barley and rye. (Norwegian Agricultural  Economics Research Institute.) Though there is some fruit and vegetable production, I don’t think much of it makes its way to the commerical supermarkets. As a result, almost all fruit and veg you get here is imported from somewhere else; either elsewhere in Scandinavia, Denmark or Sweden, or as far away as the United States, Africa, or South America. The fruits and vegetables in the supermarket are always labeled with where things come from and it can sometimes be a little insane how far away things come from just to get on our plates.

Ahem. Anyway, back to the plums.

Despite grain production being the highest, it seems plum production in Norway is a decent sized industry, with “between 500-1000 tons of plums produced and marketed each year”. (See this article on the International Society for Horticultural Science website: Economics of Plum Production in Norway) According to that article, Opal Plums (thats what we picked up in the supermarket) are one of the most common cultivars here in Norway- and rightfully so.

The Opal has its origins right here in Scandinavia, first developed in Sweden in the 1920’s as a cross between English and French cultivars. Opals are described as being “deliciously sweet, bite-sized dessert plums with a great color range, from sunshine yellow to deep purple, often on the same fruit.”

Apparently they are an early ripener in England, ripening almost a month earlier than other varieties, which would sort of explain why they’re just now being sold here in Norway.

So anyway… sorry about geeking out over the plums, at home I was a huge advocate of buying local produce and supporting local farms, so it makes me incredibly happy to buy “local” Norwegian produce and cook with it.

The plums ARE very sweet and delicious, its really difficult to eat only one, and I created a plum upside down cake inspired by the one in Real Simple, but used my own cake recipe and added in a few additional things.

I cooked the plums first in a pan with some butter and sugar adding a splash of this plum spirits that Yngve picked up when he was in Slovakia in June. After the cake was baked, I infused it with a simple syrup doctored up with a splash of that liquor as well. I think I cooked the plums too long initially because when I turned the cake out, some of them sort of slid off the top and they didnt look nearly as pretty as they had when I arranged them in the pan, but that could very well be because I used a rounded top cake pan thats sort of shaped like a star. It wasnt as pretty as I expected it to be, but it certainly tastes really good. I’ve posted the recipe here, I’ve created a seperate page now for recipes to make them easier to find.

Ladybugs all dressed in red
Strolling through the flowerbed.
If I were tiny just like you
I’d creep among the flowers too!

-Maria Fleming

Took this at the cabin near Røros and thought it was cool. Reminds me of a far away planet.

Monday I had the wonderful opportunity to meet another American living here in Trondheim who had me to her home to play with hand-spinning and hand dyeing fiber!

I met Rhonna on ravelry, an online “knit and crochet community”- think of it as sort of a facebook for knitters, crocheters, designers, fiber artists and others who just enjoy similar crafts. You can find patterns, post photos of your completed projects, discuss projects, ask questions and learn new things. Its a really awesome website if you want to get into designing, as you can post patterns you’ve created for free or for a fee and have thousands of people exposed to your work immediately.

Anyway, I digress. Earlier this year I decided I really wanted to try spinning my own yarn because it really gives you the chance to control everything about it- from what the fiber is made of to how thick or thin it is and if you’re into dyeing as well, you can control the color. Hand-spun yarns sometimes have a unique quality that you just cant obtain from machine spun, store-bought yarn.

So, Rhonna was nice enough to have me visit her home and spend the day learning how to dye my own wool and how to use a spinning wheel. I’d spun on a drop spindle before but never a spinning wheel, it was easier than I’d expected and REALLY addictive. I want my own now!

The best part of the day was dying my wool. Rhonna mixed up just some red and blue dye which we then kettle dyed. Basically, we just put the wool into the hot water, sort of drizzled the dye on the wool in a random fashion, then put in the vinegar which sets the dye. After it “cooked” for a little while, we took it out and after a rinse and drying this is what we ended up with:

My first reaction was “well… that’s going to look interesting!” I took it home and decided to try spinning it up on my drop spindle to see how to looked. I was pleasantly surprised that it turned gorgeously purple!

Lovely!!!! Its probably somewhere around a sport weight, and I think when I finish spinning it all up its going to be something nice for my friend Stacy, who likes the color purple. What a cool gift to receive- one that’s been handmade from the beginning!- Hand dyed to hand spun then hand knitted! Its also a superwash wool so it will be easy to care for as well. I’m thinking a nice warm scarf or a knitted cowl would be a good choice!

On a side note, I’ve added a seperate page to my blog for knitting projects. I wanted a place where I could discuss in depth the patterns I was using and the issues I was having with them without subjecting the “general public” so to speak with it.

I think I may also start a seperate page for recipes- I’ll still keep photos here of what I made and maybe discuss the recipe a little, but leave the entire recipe for the recipe page so as not to clutter up the main page.

Suggestions?

Since I had those lovely porcini’s and chanterelles and since its about 2 months since I arrived in Norway, I thought I’d make up a fancy dinner for Yngve and I- including a dessert, which we rarely have.

I thought about it for a while and settled on using the mushrooms to stuff chicken breasts, along with apricots and goat cheese. The breasts were braised on the stove before being transferred to the oven to finish, then a reduction of the pan juices were made into a nice sauce.

This is basically what I did: Sauteed half a finely diced onion and 3 cloves of finely diced garlic in some olive oil and butter on a medium-low heat so they would just get translucent and not browned. When they started to soften, I added probably two cups each of the chanterelles and porcinis, diced. I then took maybe a handful of dried apricots and chopped them into small pieces, added them to the batch- when the mushrooms started to cook down, THEN I added salt and pepper- I didnt want to add the salt to soon because then the mushrooms would start giving off their juices and would just basically cook in their own juices instead of sauteing properly. When everything cooked down I transferred it to a bowl to cool and got to work pounding out the chicken breasts.

I butterflied the breasts, then placed them between two pieces of plastic wrap and pounded them with a rolling pin until they were pretty thin and of an even thickness. When the filling was cooled, I spread a couple spoonfuls of the mixture onto the chicken breasts, then topped it with a chunk of goat cheese. Instead of rolling the breasts up, I folded the ends up so the breasts made like little packages that I secured with little metal skewers. Then, I took an oven proof pan and browned the breasts on both sides (after liberally seasoning them with salt and pepper) then transferred the pan to the oven where I cooked them for about 12 minutes on 200 Celsius, which is about 400 degrees F for those of you at home. When the chicken was cooked (nice and firm all over when pressed) I put it on a warm plate and covered it with aluminum foil. I put the pan back on the burner and let the contents of the pan reduce until it was really dark and thick, then I added in about  1/2 cup of chicken stock, which I let reduce a bit more before adding a dash of cream and about a tablespoon of butter. When I served the chicken, I cut it in half so you could see the stuffing and poured some of the pan sauce over.

I served the chicken with roasted garlic parmesan mashed potatoes and asparagus tips I wrapped in bacon that I seared in the pan.

Now… the dessert. OOOOH the dessert was lovely. And simple! I made an apple pie-like dessert which I served with vanilla icecream and homemade caramel sauce. YUM!!!

Basically, this is how easy this was- while I was cooking dinner I cored and sliced 3 granny smith apples. (you can peel them too if you want… I didnt because I kind of like the sweet tart flavor the apple peels have when cooked and I like the sort of rustic appearance they have) I sauteed them until they were semi soft in a couple tablespoons of butter sprinkled with a bit of sugar and a generous sprinkling of cinnamon. Set aside. After dinner, pour the apples into a small baking dish. Add a couple small pieces of butter. Take some thawed puff pastry dough and cut it into strips. Make a pretty lattice top for the “pie.” Stick it in the oven on 190/375 until the pastry has puffed up and browned- About 15 minutes or so.

Meanwhile- make the caramel sauce. I used Ina Gardens recipe which is here. Just remember when making the sauce to follow the instructions and DO NOT STIR! When making wet caramel sauce (water and sugar as opposed to just sugar) you run the risk of causing the sugar to crystallize if you stir. Just gently swirl the pan around, thats good enough.

Anyway, when the sauce is done and the pie comes out of the oven, spoon it up into a bowl with a couple scoops of vanilla icecream and drizzle that warm, smooth, sweet, decadant caramel sauce all over it and enjoy.

Then, go pass out in a food induced coma.

Two words: Berries and Mushrooms.

Summer time in Norway means heaps of beautiful, sweet and tasty sun ripened wild strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, cloudberries, and currants (of both the tangy red and sweet black variety). Almost every weekend at Yngve’s mothers cottage we have a dessert of some sort of berry picked just outside her back door. Her entire back yard is almost nothing but blueberry bushes and in my opinion, there is almost nothing better than standing among them, picking handfuls, having a sweet snack at almost any time. Last weekend we had red currants (called rips in Norwegian- say “reeps”) and served with something called eggedosis, which is basically raw egg whipped to a froth with LOTS of sugar and some vanilla. I balked a little at the idea of eating raw eggs- especially store bought ones, but apparently salmonella is extremely rare in Norway- so, I took my chances. Think eggnog without the milk and no nutmeg, and a bit lighter since its whipped. By itself its tongue curdlingly sweet (thats probably not a word, but it is now. ), but the rips by themselves are mouth puckering tart, so the two together balance each other out nicely. Today we had vanilla icecream on top of sweet warm handpicked blueberries. It was divine. Earlier I had a little snack of raspberries and blueberries, sweet and warm from the sun!

Ok foodie friends… two more words…. chanterelle and porcini. Its had been rainy the last week so now was the time to go hunting for some mushrooms! I’ve never been mushroom hunting before as at home I was always told not to because picking the wrong one could mean dire consequences. However, it seems here, at least with the ones we were looking for, its pretty safe to pick mushrooms. The mushrooms we were hunting as mentioned above, were chanterelles and steinsopp (more commonly known as porcinis). We tugged on our rubber boots, grabbed a basket and a knife, and headed into the forrest. We gathered quite a few of both and a number of other mushrooms that looked promising but we werent sure about- so we thought we’d identify them when we got back. Norway is nice in that there are actually something like mushroom identification stations where you can take your gatherings to an expert if you’re unsure, and the person on duty can tell you if what you have is good or not.

We took the mushrooms back and picked through them… unfortunately, everything we picked besides the chanterelles and the porcinis we were really uncertain about, so we chucked them out. Better safe than sorry. I’d rather throw out mushrooms than eat something I’m not 100% certain about.

Here’s our basket after returning from the forrest:

See those pretty chanterelles and HUGE porcinis?!? So, of course, when I got home I HAD to try some of the porcinis. I cut up one of the big ones, stem and all, and sauteed it in a pan with a little olive oil and butter, a liberal amount of salt and freshly ground pepper. I tossed them around enough to coat them in the oil and butter then I just let them sit, only stirring them about every now and again- I wanted them golden and crispy. Then, I sliced a couple slices of whats left of that homemade sourdough, toasted them, and piled the mushrooms on. Some of the ones that I had sliced very thin had gone crispy, they had taken on a lovely golden color and had soaked up the butter and olive oil. Lovely meaty buttery porcinis piled on toast made a GLORIOUS snack!

I also have this container of chanterelles which I believe are going in a chanterelle risotto tomorrow… at least thats all I’ve come up with to do with them… any suggestions?

So the other day I saw this adorable little crocheted hedgehog needle holder thing someone made on ravelry that I instantly fell in love with. This morning I was looking at some odds and ends of yarn I had that werent whole skeins and thought I’d attempt my own little hedgehog! The original one I saw had no pattern associated with it, so I sort of had to wing it. I wanted mine to look a little more “realistic” so I knitted the head which I then felted and embroidered on his eyes and nose. Then I was going to knit the body but after several tries I decided I’d have to break down and do it crocheted. I hate crochet. I do not like the way it looks, I do not like doing it. However, I wanted this to be fast and easy and I wanted it to have a certain texture I didnt think I’d get unless I did seed stitch or moss stitch in knitting and I really didnt want to put that much effort into it.  Plus I figured the increases and decreases I’d need to do to get the right shape would be fiddly. So, crochet it was. It had been a while since I crocheted anything, so we will refer to my crocheting in this project as “freestyle, creative crochet.” I used three different colors held together for the body to make it go faster, to use up some of the yarn, and to create sort of an interesting color combo that looked a bit more realistic so to speak.

After I finished, I sewed him all up and he now graces my work room desk. I think I’ll call him Francis.